The bay doors opened.
Bruce heard the footsteps before he saw anything. Heavy. Deliberate. Like a god walking.
The Imperium Leader descended.
Thirty meters tall. White armor that gleamed like bone. Eyes that burned red. It moved through the containment cells slowly, examining each hero like a scientist studying insects.
Superman threw himself at the barrier. "Let them go!"
The Leader didn't even look at him.
Diana was silent. But Bruce could feel her rage vibrating through the metal walls.
Flash was breathing hard. Young lungs. Scared lungs. The sound of someone realizing that speed meant nothing here.
Then the Leader reached J'onn's cell.
It stopped.
[Recognition.]
Bruce felt it. The shift in the air. The way the Leader's entire body went rigid.
"You," the Leader said. Its voice didn't need to shout. It was just there. Heavy as gravity. "I remember you, Martian. You were there. On Mars. When we took your world."
J'onn tried to retreat. Tried to use telepathy. Tried anything.
The Leader broke the cell open with one hand.
It grabbed J'onn like grabbing smoke. The Martian tried to phase. To escape. But the Leader's grip was something else. Something that held across dimensions.
"You thought you could hide," the Leader said. It wasn't angry. That was the worst part. It was just stating facts. "You thought you could save this world. You thought you could stop us."
It lifted J'onn higher.
And it began.
Not physical torture. Not at first.
The Leader just held J'onn and spoke. Slowly. Methodically.
"Your civilization fell in three days. Your strongest warriors died in hours. Your greatest minds begged for mercy." The Leader's voice was calm. Clinical. "And now you think you can stop us with these... insects?"
J'onn screamed telepathically.
Every hero felt it. The pain. But worse—the realization. The understanding that he'd already lost once. And he was losing again.
Superman slammed his fists against the barrier. Blood ran down his knuckles. He hit harder. Harder. The barrier didn't break. It just made him bleed more.
"Stop!" Superman shouted. "Take me instead! Leave him alone!"
The Leader didn't even acknowledge him.
It began to break J'onn physically.
One arm. Twisted slowly. Not quickly. Slowly. So J'onn could feel every bone shifting. Every tendon tearing. The pain magnified by the slowness of it.
J'onn's telepathic screams got louder.
Diana drew her sword. It blazed against the energy barrier. Nothing happened. The barrier didn't flicker. She just stood there, sword raised, watching helplessly as the Martian was destroyed.
"We have your world now," the Leader said. It wasn't boasting. Just stating outcome. "The sun is blocked. Your weapons are useless. Your strongest is here, imprisoned, and worthless. In twelve hours, we will have consolidated power. In twelve days, your species will be extinct."
J'onn's other arm was twisted now.
Bruce watched.
Not with anger. With observation. With the part of his mind that didn't feel. That just calculated.
[The Leader is focused on J'onn. Two guards at the entrance. Three orbital defense systems. Eight soldiers in the observation deck above. The power source is two levels down. Flint has been moving for forty-seven seconds.]
Flash was crying. Silent tears. The young speedster understood: There was nowhere to run fast enough to escape this.
Green Lantern's ring was dead. Completely dead. He just sat in the corner of his cell, staring at his useless hand.
Hawkgirl was still fighting her restraints. Bleeding. But still fighting. Because she didn't know how to stop.
The torture continued.
J'onn's legs broke. His ribs cracked. His green skin turned darker where blood pooled underneath.
But the worst part wasn't the physical damage.
It was the words.
"Your world will fall like Mars fell. Your people will scream like your people screamed. And you will watch it happen knowing you caused it. Knowing that you led them here. Knowing that you failed."
J'onn's telepathic screams became incoherent. Pure pain. Pure despair.
Superman stopped hitting the barrier.
He just stood there. Staring at J'onn. Understanding: He couldn't save him. He couldn't save anyone. Not here. Not now.
This was the moment. The absolute bottom.
The moment where hope died.
The Leader held J'onn up by what remained of one arm. "Shall I kill you now? Or shall I make you watch your world burn first?"
J'onn couldn't answer. Could only hang there. Breaking. Broken.
And then—
The power went out.
Not gradually. All at once. The entire bay went dark. The lights. The barriers. The restraint fields. Everything.
Alarms screamed.
The Leader dropped J'onn and spun around. "What is happening?"
The ship started to burn as if ship was itself livin' organism and started to burn, everything started crumble.
Superman hit the barrier. It didn't hold. It was just metal now. He broke through.
Diana was already moving. Her sword found the nearest guard's neck. One strike. The guard fell.
Flash was out of his cell, vibrating. The darkness didn't matter anymore. He could move by instinct.
Green Lantern stood up. His ring was glowing again. Faint. But glowing.
And Bruce—
Bruce stepped out of his cell.
The Leader swung.
Its arm was massive. The kind of swing that should have erased Bruce from existence.
Bruce was already moving. Spider-sense screaming. Webbing shot from his wrists—golden, viscous, strong. It wrapped around the Leader's arm, caught it mid-swing, held it for just a moment.
Just long enough for Superman to punch through from the side.
The Kryptonian's fist connected with the Leader's armor. For the first time, the armor dented. Real damage.
Diana was there next. Her sword found a gap in the armor. Cut deep.
Flash moved faster than the Leader could follow. Hit it from four angles simultaneously.
Green Lantern's ring blazed. A construct—a giant fist—slammed the Leader backward.
And through it all, Bruce was moving. Not fighting. Coordinating.
"Diana—left side! Flash—upper right! Superman—keep the pressure!"
The Leader was losing.
For the first time, it felt fear.
It tried to retreat. But Superman was in the way. Diana blocked the other direction. The Flash sealed the exit.
And Bruce—
On above the sunlight started to appear, it was making all other alien retreat to side where sunlight doesn't reach one by one , heros dragging them under sunlight.