The evacuation sirens echoed through the city long before the Avengers arrived, a hollow, desperate sound that bounced off skyscrapers and empty streets. Cars were abandoned at odd angles, doors left open, lives interrupted mid-escape. The city was running out of time. And so were they.
Doomsday stood at the center of it all.
He did not attack immediately. He never rushed. He stood between two towers, his massive frame perfectly still, the dark staff resting against the ground like a claim staked into the planet itself. The air around him shimmered faintly, bending light in a way that made it difficult to focus on his exact shape, as if the universe itself hesitated to define him. Every step he had taken to reach this place was etched into the street below—footprints pressed deep into asphalt and steel, glowing faintly with residual pressure.
"Eyes on target," Tony Stark said over comms, nanotech sliding into place around him. "Okay, big guy. No hero moves, no solo acts, and absolutely no—"
Hulk roared.
The sound tore through the silence like an animal challenge, raw and furious. Bruce Banner vanished beneath the green surge of muscle and rage as Hulk leapt forward, cracking the street beneath his feet. He landed hard, fists slamming into Doomsday's chest with enough force to level a building.
For half a second, hope sparked.
Then Doomsday moved.
He caught Hulk's wrists mid-strike. Not strained. Not slowed. Just caught. The impact wave rolled outward, shattering windows for blocks, but Doomsday did not stagger. He tilted his head slightly, as if analyzing an unfamiliar object, then slammed Hulk into the ground with a force that split the street open like broken glass. Hulk roared again—this time in pain—as Doomsday lifted him and threw him aside, sending the green giant crashing through three buildings before disappearing in a cloud of dust.
"Hulk's down!" Natasha shouted.
Thor didn't wait.
Lightning cracked across the sky as Stormbreaker spun through the air, Thor charging behind it like a living storm. "For Midgard!" he roared, bringing the axe down in a blinding arc of electricity aimed directly at Doomsday's head.
The strike connected.
Lightning engulfed Doomsday, the blast vaporizing the ground beneath him, carving a molten crater into the street. Energy surged, thunder screaming against reality itself. For a heartbeat, Doomsday was lost inside the storm.
Then he stepped out.
The lightning crawled across his skin and faded. His body had changed—subtle, horrifying. The surface of his flesh now absorbed the remaining energy, dispersing it harmlessly into the air. Thor froze, disbelief flashing across his face.
"No," Thor whispered.
Doomsday struck.
He drove the staff forward, not stabbing, but impacting Thor's chest with a force that ignored armor, magic, and godhood. Thor was launched backward, crashing into the side of a tower hundreds of meters away, his lightning extinguished mid-air.
"Adaptation confirmed," Banner's strained voice came through comms from somewhere beneath the rubble. "He's already immune to high-output energy."
"Then we switch tactics," Steve said sharply. "Nat, Tony—precision strikes. Strange, containment!"
Doctor Strange raised his hands, golden sigils spinning into existence as he began weaving a containment spell older than written language. The air around Doomsday thickened, reality folding inward as glowing bands of mystic force wrapped around his limbs, anchoring him to the ground.
"For now," Strange muttered, sweat beading on his forehead.
Tony didn't waste the opening. Repulsors flared, micro-missiles deploying in a focused barrage—kinetic, sonic, and vibrational attacks layered together. The blasts tore into Doomsday's frame, ripping chunks of flesh away, cracking bone, staggering him back a single step.
Another heartbeat of hope.
Then Doomsday's body began to move.
Wounds closed in real time. Bone reshaped itself. Skin hardened, dense and dark, resonating faintly with the frequency of the attacks used against him. The mystic bands snapped one by one, reality rejecting Strange's spell like a foreign object.
Doomsday turned his head.
And for the first time, he looked at them.
Not with rage. Not with hatred.
With recognition.
He vanished.
One moment he stood before them, the next he was behind Natasha. No sound. No distortion. Just absence followed by presence. She barely had time to react before his hand closed around her shoulder and slammed her into the ground, cracking the pavement inches from her head.
"Nat!" Steve charged forward, shield raised.
Doomsday released her—not dead, but broken enough to understand the message. He turned toward Captain America as the shield collided with his arm. Vibranium rang against something that should not exist. The impact sent Steve flying backward, shield spinning uselessly across the street.
Doomsday advanced.
Tony fired again, desperation creeping into his voice. "Okay, okay, note to self—nothing works twice!"
The staff struck the ground.
The shockwave rolled outward like a tidal force, flattening vehicles, tearing buildings apart, throwing Avengers like leaves in a storm. Strange was hurled into a wall, his spell collapsing mid-gesture. Thor struggled to rise. Hulk remained buried.
Captain America forced himself to his feet, blood running from his temple. He raised his shield anyway.
"You don't get to do this," Steve said through clenched teeth.
Doomsday stopped in front of him.
For a long moment, the world held its breath.
Then Doomsday spoke—his voice low, heavy, layered with something ancient and final.
"Resistance is remembered," he said. "And corrected."
He turned away.
In a blink, he was gone.
The city fell silent again, broken but still standing—barely. The Avengers lay scattered among the ruins, battered, bleeding, alive only because he had allowed it.
Strange pulled himself up slowly, fear clear in his eyes. "We didn't test him," he said hoarsely. "We trained him."
Tony stared at the destruction, jaw tight. "Yeah," he replied quietly. "And class is over."
Far away, unseen, Doomsday moved toward his next destination—stronger, smarter, evolved.
The Avengers had made first contact.
And they had failed.