"Playtime's over," Marcus declared, his voice cutting through the tense silence. The words were spoken with a casual finality, as if he were merely ending a child's game.
With a dismissive flick of his wrist, the swirling magnetic singularity he held in his palm collapsed in on itself. The raw, crimson energy of Homelander's heat vision, trapped within its gravitational pull, was now unleashed, not outwards, but directly back at its source. A beam of pure, focused rage, now turned against its master.
Homelander's eyes widened for a fraction of a second in surprise before narrowing in fury. He didn't dodge. Instead, he met the challenge head-on. A fresh torrent of red light erupted from his own eyes, a defiant roar of power screaming across the sand-swept battlefield to meet the reflected attack.
BOOM!
The collision was apocalyptic. Two identical forces of destruction met in a cataclysmic explosion of light and sound. A dome of superheated energy expanded in an instant, the subsequent shockwave blasting across the landscape like the wrath of a god. The remaining supes, who had been cautiously circling the confrontation, were swatted away like flies, their bodies tumbling helplessly through the air before slamming into the dunes. The ground itself shuddered, and the very air seemed to boil.
This was the power Homelander wielded. An force capable of leveling cities, and Marcus had just turned it back on him without a second thought.
"All that power," Marcus's voice echoed in the ringing aftermath, laced with a profound disappointment. "And this is the best you can do? Pathetic."
As he spoke, the battlefield began to answer his call. The mangled wreckage of cars, twisted steel rebar from long-collapsed structures, and shards of shrapnel buried in the sand all trembled before ripping themselves free. They rose into the air, drawn to Marcus like iron filings to a lodestone. Under his telekinetic command, the metal contorted, compressed, and sharpened, glowing a dull red from the sheer pressure. In seconds, a swarm of wickedly sharp spears floated around him, humming with contained energy.
With another gesture, he unleashed them. Empowered by a magnetic slingshot effect, the projectiles didn't just fly; they accelerated to hypersonic speeds, breaking the sound barrier with a series of sharp cracks. They became invisible blurs, leaving nothing but shimmering trails of distorted air in their wake as they tore through the surroundings.
The supes who had just staggered to their feet were thrown into absolute chaos. Their powers, once a source of arrogant pride, were now pitifully inadequate. A man made of stone was shattered into a hundred pieces. A woman who could teleport found herself impaled the moment she reappeared. They screamed, they fled, they dodged desperately, but the rain of magnetically-propelled death was relentless and merciless.
Their desperation finally boiled over into a unified assault. A dozen different powers—fireballs, bolts of lightning, concussive blasts—all converged on the calm figure at the center of the storm.
Marcus simply watched them come. He didn't even bother to raise a hand. Instead, a ripple of energy pulsed outward from his body. It was a wave of shimmering, distorted light, a fusion of his innate magnetic power and the cosmic, crimson glow of the Phoenix Force.
Buzz…
The pulse expanded at a deceptive speed. It didn't look particularly fast, but its effect was absolute.
Wherever the wave passed, annihilation followed. The very fabric of reality seemed to unravel. The sand it touched didn't just get pushed aside; it was flash-heated into glass, which then sublimated into nothingness. The wreckage it swept over was erased from existence, molecule by molecule.
A supe, bleeding heavily from a dozen shrapnel wounds, had just managed to prop himself up on one elbow. He could only watch in mute horror as the shimmering curtain of light washed over him. He felt a sudden, all-consuming heat, a pain so profound it was beyond screaming. He forced his eyes downward and saw his own legs dissolving, breaking down into shimmering motes of light and ash that were then swept away into the pulse. His agonized wail was cut short as the wave continued its journey up his torso, leaving nothing behind.
He wasn't the only one. Across the battlefield, the injured and the terrified were simply… erased. One by one, their powers, their bodies, their very existence was nullified by the destructive wave.
Heh, Marcus thought with a flicker of dark amusement. 'Shield Polarize'. A defensive ability meant to strip enemy shields and replenish my own. Fused with the Pheonix Breath, it becomes a tool of absolute erasure. How beautifully ironic.
"YOU BASTARD!"
The roar came from behind him, thick with rage and desperation. Breaking through the dust and lingering energy, Homelander shot towards him like a missile, his eyes blazing with renewed intensity. The twin beams of heat vision slammed into Marcus's personal shield, causing it to shimmer violently but hold firm against the onslaught.
Marcus turned slowly, his expression bored. As Homelander closed the distance, arm cocked back for a devastating punch, Marcus's own hand shot out. It moved with an impossible, unnatural speed, closing around Homelander's outstretched arm before the hero could even process the movement.
CRACK!
The sickening sound of thick bone snapping echoed in the sudden quiet. Homelander let out a choked gasp of pain and shock, his invincible arm now hanging at a limp, unnatural angle.
"I told you," Marcus said, his voice dropping to a low, cold whisper as he tightened his grip. "You are nothing more than a toy."
He wasn't holding back anymore. This world held no more surprises, no more challenges. The game was over, and it was time to leave. But before he did, he would carve a final, indelible lesson into the memory of this universe.
In his free palm, a new magnetic singularity began to form. This one was different. Unrestrained. It was a swirling vortex of pure, crushing gravity, a miniature black hole crackling with veins of crimson Phoenix fire. The air bent around it, light itself seeming to warp as it was drawn toward the terrifying sphere of energy.
All that Void energy twisted into you, and this is all the stronger you became? Marcus mused, looking into Homelander's horrified eyes. When I first met you, you were an infant with a cannon. Now… you're just an infant with a slightly larger cannon. You learned nothing.
"Time to send you on your way."
With those words, he pressed the singularity against Homelander's forehead.
There was no epic struggle. No final, defiant shout. The moment the singularity made contact, Homelander's being began to unravel. There was no blood, no gore, just a clean, silent, and absolute deconstruction. His skin, muscle, and bone were pulled apart at the atomic level, drawn into the crushing center of the vortex. His expression of terror was erased before it could fully form. The last thing to go was his iconic, star-spangled cape, which fluttered for a moment before dissolving into nothingness.
Silence. The most powerful man on the planet was gone.
Marcus let the singularity hover in his hand, a hungry, waiting maw. He raised his other hand and, across the battlefield, the last surviving supes—the members of the new and old Seven, and a few others—were lifted helplessly into the air.
"As toys," his voice boomed, devoid of any emotion, "your purpose has been fulfilled."
They screamed, they struggled, their powers flaring uselessly against his unbreakable telekinetic grip. They were like puppets on invisible strings, being drawn toward their doom.
"LET ME GO!" A-Train shrieked, his body vibrating with terror. "I'll join you! I'll join the Tenno Council! I swear!"
Marcus didn't even glance at him. "Join us?" he scoffed, his eyes fixed on the singularity. "With your pathetic strength? My pets are far stronger than you could ever hope to be. You are not worthy."
He clenched his fist. The river of screaming, struggling bodies was yanked forward, accelerating toward the vortex. They were pulled into a horrifying spiral, a whirlwind of brightly colored costumes and terrified faces. Beams of energy, bursts of flame, and shards of ice erupted from them in a final, panicked display, only to be swallowed by the singularity without a trace.
"Then goodbye!" Marcus said softly.
One by one, their screams were snuffed out as they were fed into the churning vortex of annihilation. In a matter of seconds, the air was silent once more. Every last one of them was gone.
No. Not quite every one.