The North Pole was usually quiet, save for the wind and the occasional visit from Superman to his Fortress. Today, it was a war zone.
The ice shelf had been shattered. In the center of a massive crater stood a piece of alien technology—a World Engine, dragged here from the Phantom Zone. And floating above it, suspended in a field of hard-light data, was the Yellow Chaos Emerald.
It was the Emerald of Thunder and Magnetism, but more importantly, it was a key.
Three factions had converged to claim it.
On the left, the cold, calculating intellect of Brainiac. His skull ship loomed overhead, dropping robotic drones like rain.
On the right, the Kryptonian purity of General Zod and his lieutenants, Ursa and Non. They floated with arms crossed, eyes glowing red with heat vision.
And in the center, emerging from a Boom Tube, were the furies of Apokolips: Kalibak and the Female Furies, led by Granny Goodness.
"The Mother Box hungers for this energy!" Kalibak roared, swinging his beta-club. "Darkseid shall have it!"
"It is Kryptonian property!" Zod bellowed. "Kneel before Zod, and surrender the gem!"
"Illogical," Brainiac's voice droned from a thousand drones. "The gem is a data storage device of infinite capacity. I will assimilate it."
They charged.
The ice exploded. Kryptonians clashed with New Gods. Brainiac's drones swarmed over them like locusts.
Elias watched from an iceberg a mile away. He was shivering, but not from the cold.
"This is bad," Elias whispered. "Zod. Brainiac. Apokolips. This is a Crisis-level event."
He checked his inventory.
Chaos Emeralds: 3/7.
World Rings: 3/7 (Rage, Hatred, Sadness).
He couldn't use Super form. He didn't have all seven Emeralds.
He couldn't use Werehog. It was day.
He couldn't use Dark Sonic. He needed to be precise, not a berserker.
"Magic," Elias decided. "I need to rewrite the script."
He focused on the three World Rings floating in his mental space. They were heavy, ancient, and burned with the emotions that bound reality together.
"Make me the Author."
Transformation: Darkspine Sonic.
A pillar of purple fire erupted from the iceberg.
When the flames died down, Elias floated in the air. His body was a deep indigo. His eyes were blank white. He had no mouth—he didn't need to speak; his will was law. Four rings of fire blazed around his wrists and ankles.
He flew toward the battlefield.
Zod saw him first. "Another insect?"
Zod fired his heat vision. Two beams of solar energy hotter than the sun.
Elias raised a hand.
"Refuse."
The heat vision didn't bounce; it ceased to exist. Elias had rewritten the reality of the beams. He simply decided they didn't happen.
Zod blinked, confused. "What?"
Elias flicked his wrist. A massive hand made of purple soul-fire manifested in the air. It grabbed Zod and slammed him into the ice with the force of a meteor impact.
Kalibak charged next. "I will crush you, little blue man!"
Elias didn't move. He looked at Kalibak's beta-club.
"Heavy."
Suddenly, the club weighed a thousand tons. Kalibak screamed as his own weapon dragged him down, pinning him to the ground, unable to lift it.
Brainiac's ship targeted him. "Anomaly detected. Probability manipulation. Countermeasures initiating."
A hundred missiles fired.
Elias floated through them. He spun in the air—Speed Break.
He moved so fast he ignited the atmosphere. He became a living fireball. He slammed into Brainiac's ship, not breaking the hull, but phasing through it to the core.
He found the central processor.
"Rewriting Code," Elias's thought echoed.
He touched the console. The World Rings allowed him to manipulate the fabric of the story. He changed Brainiac's directive from Collect to Eject.
The skull ship shuddered. "Error. Primary directive altered. Retreating."
The massive ship turned and rocketed back into space.
Elias flew back down to the ice. The Yellow Chaos Emerald was still floating there.
Zod pulled himself from the crater, bleeding but furious. Ursa and Non flanked him. The Female Furies were regrouping.
"You cannot defeat us all!" Zod shouted. "We are gods!"
Elias landed in front of the Emerald. He looked at the Kryptonians. He looked at the New Gods.
The Darkspine form was powerful, but it drained his life force. He could feel his soul thinning, stretching.
"I don't need to defeat you," Elias projected his thought. "I just need to change the setting."
He raised both hands. The rings of fire on his wrists spun wildly.
Time Break.
The world turned sepia. The wind stopped. The snowflakes hung in the air. Zod was frozen mid-lunged. Kalibak was frozen mid-scream.
Time had stopped.
Elias walked casually over to the Yellow Emerald. He plucked it from the air.
"Four."
He looked at Zod. He placed a single finger on Zod's forehead.
"Sleep."
He tapped into the World Ring of Sadness. He flooded Zod's mind with the memory of Krypton's destruction. Not the rage of it, but the grief.
Zod's eyes widened (in the frozen time). When time resumed, he wouldn't be fighting; he would be weeping.
Elias turned to the New Gods. He tapped into the World Ring of Fear.
"Run."
He released the Time Break.
Color snapped back into the world.
Zod collapsed to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably, clutching the snow. Ursa and Non rushed to him, confused and terrified by his breakdown.
Kalibak and the Furies looked at Elias. They saw a demon of purple fire. They felt a primal terror that overrode their loyalty to Darkseid.
They triggered their Boom Tube and fled.
Elias hovered alone on the ice. The indigo color faded. The fire rings vanished.
He dropped to the ground, gasping, his blue fur returning. He felt cold. So cold. Using the World Rings took a piece of you every time.
He clutched the Yellow Emerald. It buzzed with magnetic warmth.
"That was... close," Elias chattered, hugging himself.
He looked at the sobbing General Zod.
"Sorry, General," Elias whispered. "But you needed a time out."
He tapped the Yellow Emerald.
Chaos Control.
He vanished from the North Pole, leaving the Kryptonians to their grief and the ice to its silence.