"One and a half kilometers underground… these guys really don't believe in doing things halfway," Shin muttered as he opened his eyes from his sensory trance. His tone was a mix of irritation and grudging admiration.
"If I didn't have Observation Haki, I'd have never found these rats. They've hidden themselves like earthworms in the planet's veins."
He crouched, feeling the vibration of the ground beneath his boots. The faint hum of machinery pulsed from far below, a heartbeat of steel and electricity. Without wasting another moment, he pressed his palms to the soil and invoked his Earth Escape Technique.
To him, the dense layers of rock and packed earth were no more obstructive than water to a fish. Chakra flowed effortlessly through his body, wrapping him in a cocoon of earthen energy. At his current level, fueled by an immense reservoir of power, the Five Elements Escape Techniques required no seals, no complex gestures, just a thought. In seconds, he was diving through the ground like a shadowy spear, cutting through strata that would have crushed any normal tunneler.
The descent was silent except for the muffled grind of displaced soil. Soon, his foot struck something unyielding. A dull metallic thunk reverberated through the underground.
Shin grinned faintly. "Bingo."
He brushed away the surrounding dirt to reveal a curved wall of alloy, cold and unwelcoming, the armored hide of the hidden base. Without ceremony, he shifted his stance and drove his foot down in a measured stomp. The reinforced plating, built to withstand explosives, buckled under the force, tearing open like paper to reveal a jagged hole.
He dropped through, landing lightly on a steel floor.
Instantly, alarms shrieked to life, a chorus of mechanical wails echoing down sterile corridors. Red emergency lights began to strobe, painting the metallic walls in violent flashes. Shin didn't bother to hide, instead, he stood still for a heartbeat, letting his Observation Haki bloom outward like ripples across still water. His vision sharpened unnaturally, his Super Vision mapping every passage, every chamber, every heartbeat within the facility.
What he found made his eyes widen.
"You've got to be kidding me," he breathed. "Doomsday? Here?"
His focus swept deeper. There, in a containment room under constant bombardment by simulated red sunlight, was an emaciated Superman, his body almost skeletal from prolonged exposure. And in another chamber, lying unnervingly still, was the unmistakable form of Doomsday.
Calling it a corpse was wrong. Shin could sense the dormant thrum of life, faint but undeniable. Doomsday wasn't dead, he was sleeping, his regenerative systems crawling along at a glacial pace. From the sluggish energy signature, it might take decades for him to recover fully.
Even so, Shin's mind raced. What in the hell is this place? And how did they get him here?
"This is dangerous…" His thoughts sharpened with the realization. "This isn't some watered-down movie universe. This is still the main DC continuity underneath, even warped by the Flashpoint timeline. The heroes here are stronger, the monsters… worse."
He exhaled slowly. Had Doomsday been awake, he wouldn't have stood a chance. This was the real Doomsday, the comic book incarnation who never truly died, whose power adapted endlessly until nothing could kill him. A walking apocalypse.
But luck, for now, was on his side.
With a burst of speed, Shin transformed into a streak of light, cutting across the base to Doomsday's chamber. The containment unit loomed before him, thick walls, reinforced restraints, and a strange green armored suit covering Doomsday's body. A peculiar helmet sat atop the monster's head, faintly glowing.
Shin's eyes narrowed. "They're suppressing him… maybe even controlling him with that thing?"
Before he could investigate further, Doomsday's eyes snapped open, burning, feral, aware.
"Who are you?" the creature snarled. The words were almost human, but the voice carried the weight of something ancient and wrathful. Without warning, a massive fist swung forward.
The impact was a thunderclap. Shin was hurled across the chamber like a rag doll, smashing through a support pillar before skidding to a halt. Blood filled his mouth, and he spat a crimson arc onto the floor.
Shaking off the haze, he focused. Doomsday was advancing slow for him, but still monstrously fast to anyone else. His movements lacked the blistering precision Shin expected, the strikes almost… clumsy.
"Ah," Shin muttered, wiping his mouth. "The puppet master's reflexes aren't keeping up with the puppet's body."
He adjusted his stance, chakra and Haki coiling through him. "Your bad luck," he growled, and charged.
The two collided in a brutal exchange, fists crashing with the sound of collapsing mountains. But before Doomsday could unleash another devastating blow, Shin's ability activated. In the blink of an eye, the towering juggernaut was no longer a nightmare of muscle and bone but a toy.
A grinning, plastic caricature of the beast stood where the real Doomsday had been, its expression frozen in harmless mockery.
Shin exhaled sharply, his lips curling into a thin smile. "Good thing I picked up some 'broken' Devil Fruits during my last One Piece run. Without this one, dealing with you would've been a nightmare."
The doll's head swiveled toward him at his command. "Obey me," Shin ordered simply. It froze, waiting for further instruction.
Even in toy form, Doomsday's essence remained his durability, his power only now bound and stripped of will.
"Alright," Shin muttered. "Next stop... Superman's cell."
He flexed his fingers, bones knitting back together under the crackle of healing energy, damaged organs sealing as if time itself was rewinding. The memory of that punch lingered; if this had been the real, unbound Doomsday, he would have been nothing more than a smear on the floor.
Meanwhile, in the control center deep within the base, General Adam, better known in another timeline as Captain Atom, tore off the same glowing helmet that had been linked to Doomsday. His face was a mask of rage and disbelief.
"That bastard…" he hissed. "Activate the base's self-destruct. Now. And kill Subject One before they reach him!"
A subordinate hesitated. "Sir, we don't have a self-destruct sequence… and Metropolis is right above us!"
Adam slammed his fist into the console. "Then this base is worthless! At least terminate Subject One before he's taken!"
The order rang out through the intercom. Automated defenses whirred to life, compartments sealing, laser arrays priming.
Shin moved like a storm through the corridors, smashing through bulkheads and barriers, though the base's layered security cost him precious seconds. He could feel Superman's life force ahead weak and fragile.
But when he finally broke through to the containment chamber, the sight stopped him cold.
Inside the glass-walled cell, bathed in the oppressive glow of simulated red sunlight, lay the broken remains of the Man of Steel. Lasers had carved through him with surgical precision, dozens of wounds spilling blood that darkened the sterile floor.
Some beams had torn his body into pieces... seven, maybe eight, but one wound was far worse. A diagonal slice had nearly bisected his skull, vaporizing half his brain. The air still reeked of scorched flesh and ozone.
Shin stood there, silent for a moment. Even with all the power and abilities at his disposal, there was no coming back from this.
"…Too late," he whispered.
The alarms continued to howl, indifferent to the death in the room.
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