XANDAR – NOVA CORPS STRATEGIC OPERATIONS CENTER
In the galactic core, on the glistening world of Xandar, a vast projection of a massive bronze face materialized in the sky above the Nova Corps' primary facility. The armored warriors below looked up in unison as the Worldmind, Xandar's ancient synthetic overseer, took form.
"A NEW PLAYER HAS JOINED THE GAME."
Its voice rang like a chorus of bells and engines, resonant, layered, clear only to those it deemed worthy to hear.
A man clad in deep blue and gold armor stepped forward. Broad-shouldered, clean-cut, and steeled with duty, he raised a fist to his chest in salute. His presence alone quieted the murmuring crowd.
"How shall the Nova Corps respond?" he asked, voice measured but firm.
The Worldmind's construct flickered for a moment, processing incalculable variables, before replying.
"LOCATE AND OBSERVE. DO NOT ENGAGE. AUXILIARY ACTIONS WILL DEPEND ON THEIR ALIGNMENT WITHIN THE COSMIC FRAME."
The commander nodded once, sharp and clean. No wasted motion. He turned without another word, his cape sweeping behind him, and the rest of the Corps followed. The Worldmind's face shifted through subtle expressions, concern, curiosity, awe, before its form dissolved into motes of golden data.
"GODSPEED, NOVA CORPS."
The words echoed through the vast chamber like a prayer.
Then, silence.
SAKAAR
Far across the galaxy, the planet Sakaar groaned like a creature in metamorphosis. Its core, once unstable and corrupted, now pulsed with new energy, hardened into a power battery of pure resolve. The ravaged surface boiled with life as evolution itself warped and accelerated.
Where ruins once stood, nature clawed its way back.
Among the few survivors, scarred but unbroken, some were drawn to the pulsing light beneath the planet's crust. As they approached the molten heart, they were tested not by strength or knowledge, but by will.
Those who persevered were rewarded.
Bronze rings formed around their fingers, not as gifts, but as acknowledgments. They knelt before the planetary core, speaking words they had never learned, yet somehow always known:
"In burning heart and sharpened mind..."
Light consumed them, flaring outward into the heavens, marking the birth of the Resolute Corps.
And in that moment, Sakaar did not burn. It glowed.
ABOARD THE HARBINGER OF RUIN
On a throne carved of obsidian and pulsing with alien veins of starlight, William sat motionless. Kara and Raven flanked him, one to each side, his left and right hands in more ways than one, each wrapped gently around his arm.
On his lap, Harley Quinn straddled him without a care in the universe, her movements slow, teasing, predatory.
"Mm-mm, Bossman," she purred, twisting her hips in a slow circle. "You sure you don't want to take a little break from all this brooding god-king energy?"
Kara glared at her sharp enough to cut steel. Raven didn't even bother with subtlety; her eyes rolled so hard they nearly took flight.
Harley only grinned wider.
But William wasn't listening.
His brow furrowed, eyes distant. Somewhere far away, yet impossibly close, a signal had ignited. Not a message. Not a call.
A connection.
He barely felt Harley anymore. Barely registered Kara's shifting posture or the flickering of Raven's aura. Instead, his awareness stretched outward like a web, pulled toward a distant world he hadn't yet visited.
KRYPTONIAN COLONY – THE MOUNTAIN TEMPLE
On a small planet in his private domain, where Kryptonians had settled and thrived, a temple of Rao stood at the summit of a towering mountain. The air was thin, the wind sharp, but faith kept the priests warm.
At the heart of the temple stood a statue of Rao, hands open in eternal offering.
Without warning, a brilliant bronze glow bloomed between the statue's palms.
Gasps rang out.
Priests and worshippers fell to their knees as a lantern, perfectly shaped and impossibly warm, coalesced into being. The light did not blind, it inspired. The Kryptonians didn't know what it was, but they felt its truth.
The divine had shifted.
BACK ON THE THRONE
William's hand twitched.
The rings on his right hand began to quiver, softly at first, then violently. A pulse of warmth spread up his arm. He turned, his eyes narrowing.
The rings were glowing.
No, transforming.
One by one, they lifted from his fingers, hovering midair as colored lights spun around them, red, yellow, green, until they collapsed inward, fusing into a single, burning bronze ring.
He stood, ignoring the sudden silence in the chamber. Harley slid off his lap, expression suddenly uncertain.
Kara stepped back.
Raven lowered her hood.
The bronze ring hovered before William's face.
And then—
A voice. Not heard. Felt.
"In burning heart and sharpened mind…Through wrath and dread and will aligned,No force shall bend, no dark shall bind,I am resolve, unyielding, and defined.By bronze flame's roar, I stake my claim.Let all who challenge…feel my flame."
The ring slid onto his finger, and the chamber erupted in cascading bronze light.
William commanded his ship to decelerate and stopped it entirely, stepping out of the airlock the instant it opened. He didn't bother with a suit, as a mysterious bronze brilliance was already enveloping his body.
His form emitted an immense surge of energy as he came to rest in the boundless expanse of space. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes, folded his legs, and began to hover effortlessly in the infinite void.
RUMBLE!
The bronze light engulfed him completely, transforming him into what appeared to be a small bronze star. However, within his mind, a different scene was unfolding.
WITHIN THE SYSTEM SPACE
William floated leisurely in the void of his system space, marveling at its surreal natural beauty, when a loud, commanding roar echoed in his ears. Turning with a grim expression, he faced the source of the sound.
In the distance, a colossal ape composed entirely of bronze energy stood imposingly on its hind legs, glaring down at William with a menacing presence.
For a brief moment, the two locked eyes. Then, without warning, William's body erupted in a vibrant green energy. His muscles swelled, his hair bristled, and his entire being radiated power.
He had ascended to his legendary state, realizing that the formidable entity before him would only acknowledge him through conquest.
In reaction to William's transformation, the radiant bronze ape unleashed a powerful aura that surged into the creature's mouth. A concentrated sphere of energy began to form, swelling rapidly to an alarming and destructive magnitude.
WHOOSH!
William surged toward the radiant bronze ape, which appeared to grow even more colossal as he drew closer. Despite the overwhelming size disparity, he pressed forward relentlessly, his sheer speed and the potent aura of power enveloping him distorting the fabric of reality in this space.
"HRRRR!"
The glowing bronze ape let out a guttural growl, its mouth stretching impossibly wide to accommodate the massive energy attack. The sheer scale of the attack bore an uncanny resemblance to a spirit bomb rather than any conventional assault.
As William reached the halfway point to reaching the now moon-sized bronze ape, it unleashed the attack that it had been building up and sent a sun-sized ball of bronze energy shooting towards him, which reached him with surprising speed.
CTCHHHHHHH!
The massive sphere of energy came screaming through the void like a newborn sun, an apocalyptic comet forged in the breath of gods and bound by will alone.
William's eyes widened at the sheer scale of it.
No evasion.
No deflection.
Just choice.
Stand firm or fall.
"Let's see whose resolve truly burns brighter," he muttered under his breath, aura surging in response.
The moment the energy wave neared, William shot forward, green lightning cracking around his body, his momentum folding space with every pulse of motion. He didn't hesitate. There was no time to hesitate. Not here. Not before this.
The bronze ape roared, shaking the stars within this inner realm. Its growl reverberated in William's bones, but he answered it with silence, no theatrics, no threats.
Just a purpose.
As he collided with the sphere, the world seemed to shatter.
The energy engulfed him whole, blinding brilliance smothering his form in a cataclysm of bronze and fire. The sheer force of it crushed mountains of thought and memory in the space around him. It was more than power, it was judgment. The ape hadn't just launched a blast, it had launched a crucible.
And now William was inside it.
Time didn't exist inside the heart of the energy storm, only struggle. Every inch forward was a battle against entropy itself. Bronze flame scraped at his skin, peeling away weakness, pride, and doubt. His vision blurred. His body screamed. His mind split into pieces.
He had no ring.
No spear.
No backup.
Only resolve.
This is it, he thought. This is what the flame demands.
Images flashed in the inferno, memories of his first fall, of blood on steel, of standing alone before armies and dying more times than he could count. Of healing. Of failing. Of rising.
"You are not worthy until you stand in the fire and remain unbroken."
It was not the ape's voice. It was the flames.
William's teeth gritted as he forced his legs to move. Inch by inch, he climbed the tidal wave of energy, arms shielding his face, body crackling with surging viridian power that fought to hold form against the inferno.
And then—
He broke through.
The light peeled away, revealing the colossal bronze ape only yards ahead. Its eyes widened in disbelief, perhaps even respect.
William's body steamed with raw force, smoke trailing from his armorless chest. His skin shimmered faintly with bronze fractal patterns that hadn't been there before, like divine circuitry etched by the trial itself.
He didn't speak.
He didn't need to.
He clenched his right fist, and it responded.
The bronze ring on his hand flared, rippling with synchronized energy that fused with the green aura surrounding him.
Not separate anymore.
Not conflicting.
Aligned.
With a deafening crack, William exploded forward, fist cocked back.
The bronze ape braced.
They collided.
The first blow shook the fabric of the System Space. Shockwaves tore across the dreamscape, warping the sky into fractals of orange, green, and deep gold. Each of William's strikes burned like meteors, hammering into the ape's chest and arms, forcing it to stumble backward across floating platforms of broken intention and will.
The ape countered with a sweeping backhand, but William ducked under it, leaping onto its arm and sprinting upward, striking pressure points with precision and force.
As he neared its head, the ape roared again and slammed both fists together, creating a concussive blast that launched William backward
"Good," he spat. "Let's go again."
The bronze aura around him intensified, smoother now, more complete. Every movement felt refined, focused. The ring no longer resisted him. It guided him.
The ape lunged.
William launched skyward to meet it, twisting midair and delivering a spinning roundhouse kick that detonated like a bomb on contact with the beast's jaw. The ape reeled back, and William pressed the assault.
He flashed from point to point, teleporting short distances with sheer force, appearing on the ape's shoulder, then its arm, then its back. Each time, he struck with devastating bursts of power channeled through the ring. His fists were no longer just physical; they were principles given shape.
Resolve. Focus. Persistence.
The ape, overwhelmed, tried to retaliate with a sweeping claw strike, but William caught it, caught it, his boots grinding across the invisible floor of the void as he pushed back with every fiber of his being.
The space beneath him cracked open, revealing a chasm of nothingness.
But he didn't fall in.
He screamed, and his voice became a flame.
"I WILL NOT BEND!"
Bronze surged from his core, outpacing even his aura, engulfing him in a radiant silhouette that dwarfed even the ape's glow.
With a final step forward, William spun, ring-first, and unleashed a devastating uppercut that tore the very color from the void.
CRACK!
The bronze ape staggered, teetered, then collapsed backward like a mountain giving in to time.
It didn't vanish.
It didn't die.
It knelt.
Its massive head bowed low as its form slowly dissolved into floating motes of bronze light. The remnants of its being swirled upward and funneled into the ring on William's hand.
Accepted.
Integrated.
Tamed.
As this occurred, information surged through his mind, revealing that he was the architect of a newly formed cosmic force within the Marvel Universe, and during this injection of information, his body was covered in a suit of pure bronze resolute energy.
The Resolute Corps was born this day, and the universe would soon know what this meant.