With the plan finalized, the team moved quickly to execute it.
Although Brainiac, developed by Luthor, was likely inferior to Grid in raw computational ability and far outclassed in hardware access, it was still a genuine artificial intelligence. Grid, having fused with Brother Eye and now occupying more than half of the world's digital infrastructure, was a colossal threat. But without Brainiac, there was virtually no feasible way to defeat Grid short of destroying every computer on the planet.
Brainiac's presence gave them a fighting chance. Even now, it uses its capabilities to mask their movements and deceive Grid temporarily. This buffer allowed Luthor time to locate his raw material caches and retrieve the prototype armor he had built to battle Superman.
Without that cover, stepping out of the underground base would have immediately triggered a swarm of Brother Eye robots.
Meanwhile, Brainiac had already calculated the coordinates of every satellite in Earth's orbit. Armed with that data and the Ancient One's portal magic, disabling the satellite network became far more achievable.
The moment the coordinates were finalized, Ancient One closed his eyes briefly, his fingers weaving a smooth circular motion through the air. Dozens of glowing orange portals lit up throughout the base, their edges crackling with heat and dimensional energy. They opened like eyes to the vacuum of space, a howling wind instantly pulling at the oxygen and air pressure inside the base.
Without a moment's hesitation, Shin turned into a streak of light, darting through portal after portal in a blur. Within seconds, thunderous explosions echoed back through the rings.
"Done," Shin said calmly, standing still as the sound of explosions echoed behind him.
Ancient One nodded in satisfaction, and with a sweep of his hand, all the circular portals closed and faded like embers in the wind.
The vacuum shock had left most of the non-superpowered team like Luthor, the Joker, Captain Cold, and even Green Arrow staggering and gasping for breath. Once the base re-pressurized, they steadied themselves.
"What the hell just happened?" Captain Cold asked, still catching his breath. "That was... outer space?"
Having spent most of his time playing cat and mouse with Barry Allen in Central City, Captain Cold was unfamiliar with the broader world of metahumans and magic. Superman was the only Justice Leaguer he'd even heard of before joining the mission. Seeing someone open a doorway to space and go through it at lightning speed was enough to fry his brain circuits.
To be fair, very few sorcerers could do what Ancient One just did. Even Doctor Strange, successor to the Sorcerer Supreme title, couldn't open so many portals with a single flick. This wasn't a matter of raw magic power it was pure skill. Centuries of mastering countless spells had allowed Ancient One to bypass normal casting restrictions and achieve seemingly impossible feats.
As for the others, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Shazam, and the remaining metahumans they turned to Shin with shock and a new sense of respect. His brief burst of speed through the portals had nearly rivaled that of Superman and the Flash.
Even Quicksilver, whose pride rested heavily on his speed, found himself forced to reevaluate. Shin's movement was far beyond what Pietro could currently manage.
It made sense. Although Pietro's speed had improved dramatically since awakening his mutant powers, he had only recently reached the hundred-times-sound threshold. Shin, by contrast, was already operating on a level closer to one or two thousand times the speed of sound easily comparable to the Flash or Superman in their current versions.
The difference was staggering.
In fact, the comic book Quicksilver was always far behind Barry Allen in speed. While Pietro had more raw physical endurance, he lacked the full metaphysical capabilities of a Speed Force user. Still, if Pietro continued to grow and refine his power, he might eventually narrow the gap. For now, though, it was no contest.
"I believe it now," Diana said, clearly impressed. "You really might be able to handle Superman."
She turned to Luthor. "What's the satellite status?"
"All of them have been destroyed," Luthor replied, visibly pleased. "Without the satellites, Grid's processing power has dropped significantly. It's lost most of its surveillance and targeting precision."
"More importantly," he continued, "the nanorobots controlled by those satellites have suffered a major downgrade. Their coordination and adaptability have weakened."
"Excellent," Shin said. "Now we move to phase two. Luthor, send us the coordinates of your raw material warehouses so we can begin fabricating the electromagnetic pulse generators."
"I've got them here," Luthor responded, typing rapidly. Coordinates began flashing across the monitors. Shin's eyes narrowed at the sheer volume of them.
Luthor wasn't just rich, he was staggeringly rich. His hidden warehouses weren't just secret they were scattered across the entire United States like an underground empire. This was just his emergency stockpile. His main factories had almost certainly been overrun and repurposed by Grid's forces to manufacture more nanobots.
As Ancient One began opening portals one by one, Shin sprang into action. Through each gate, he descended like a hawk. With a wave of his arm, thick black fog spread outward his dark dimension swallowing up crate after crate of materials.
In barely thirty minutes, Shin had harvested over 100,000 tons of assorted metals, rare earths, and specialized polymers. His dark dimension, now vastly expanded thanks to his earlier encounter with the Devourer of Worlds, had more than enough room to spare.
Meanwhile, using a small reserve of base components, Luthor constructed a prototype electromagnetic pulse generator. Once complete, Shin analyzed the internal structure using the power of the Munch-Munch Fruit. Within seconds, he understood its construction down to the molecule.
Without hesitation, Shin duplicated the design dozens of times over his replication ability bypassing conventional manufacturing entirely.
With one major threat dismantled and the tools in place to neutralize another, the tide of battle had finally shifted.
The team had their weapons.
Now it was time to reclaim their world.
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