The Sahara Desert was an ocean of heat and silence. The sun hammered down on the endless dunes, distorting the air into shimmering mirages.
But in a secluded valley deep within the wastes, the silence was broken by the hum of high-tech machinery and the shouting of men.
A massive excavation site had been established. Tents marked with the LexCorp logo surrounded a central pit. Armed mercenaries in heat-reflective armor patrolled the perimeter, holding energy rifles.
At the edge of the pit stood two men who shouldn't have been working together.
Lex Luthor, bald and immaculate in a white desert suit, adjusted a pair of spectral goggles. "Remarkable," he murmured. "The radiation output is infinite. It's not nuclear. It's... living energy."
Beside him stood Ra's al Ghul. The Demon's Head wore his traditional green robes, seemingly unaffected by the blistering heat. He stared down into the pit with ancient, hungry eyes.
"It is not technology, Detective Luthor," Ra's said, his voice smooth as silk. "It is a soul. I can feel it resonating with the Lazarus Pits. It is a source of eternal renewal."
In the center of the excavation, suspended in a containment field generated by Luthor's machines, floated the prize.
A Chaos Emerald. The Purple one.
It hummed with a low, throbbing violet light, pushing against the invisible walls of the forcefield.
"We are agreed on the split?" Luthor asked, checking a datapad. "I get the energy signature to power my Warsuit. You get the regenerative properties to stabilize your Pits."
"Agreed," Ra's nodded. "But we must hurry. The League will have detected this spike."
"The League is busy dealing with a satellite malfunction I arranged," Luthor smirked. "We have time."
BOOM.
A sonic boom shattered the air above them, kicking up a sandstorm that instantly blinded the guards.
"You really don't," a voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere.
Luthor looked up, shielding his eyes. "Target incoming! Activate the perimeter!"
A blue streak tore through the camp.
It didn't stop to fight the mercenaries. It ignored them. The blue blur spiraled around the containment field, analyzing the frequency.
Elias skidded to a halt atop a dune overlooking the pit. He was panting slightly, the heat affecting him even with his durability. He glared down at the two villains.
"That doesn't belong to you," Elias called out. "And trust me, you don't want to know what happens when you mess with it."
"Ah," Ra's al Ghul clasped his hands behind his back. " The Anomaly. Batman spoke of you."
"Fast," Luthor analyzed, tapping his wrist computer. "But not invulnerable."
Luthor pressed a button.
From the sand around the pit, four automated turrets rose up. They didn't fire bullets. They fired concentrated bursts of Kryptonite radiation and sonic disruptors.
SCREECH.
The sonic blast hit Elias like a physical wall. He fell to his knees, clutching his ears. His equilibrium shattered.
"Did you think I wouldn't prepare for a speedster?" Luthor sneered. "The frequency is calibrated to disrupt your inner ear. You can't run if you can't stand."
Ra's gestured to his elite assassins, the League of Shadows, who emerged from the sand like vipers. "Cut his tendons. Bring him to me."
Elias gritted his teeth. The pain was blinding. The sound was tearing his brain apart. He looked at the Purple Emerald. It was pulsing violently, reacting to his distress.
The Purple Emerald represented Ambition and Intuition. But in the wrong hands... it felt like fear. It felt like violation.
Elias saw Ra's al Ghul reaching for the gem. He saw Luthor smiling.
He remembered the feeling in the sewer. The cold, jagged current.
"No..." Elias whispered.
The sonic disruptors whined louder. The assassins drew their scimitars.
Elias stopped fighting the noise. He stopped trying to run.
He let go.
"You want to see a monster?" Elias's voice dropped an octave, vibrating with a terrifying, hollow resonance.
The blue quills on his head turned pitch black.
The green eyes rolled back, replaced by the blank, white void of pure nothingness.
A shockwave of violet energy exploded from his body, shattering Luthor's sonic turrets instantly.
Dark Sonic had entered the chat.
Luthor stepped back, his sensors screaming warnings. "What is this? Energy output spiking... 400%... 800%..."
Elias didn't run. He vanished.
He reappeared directly in front of the first assassin. He didn't punch him. He simply moved through him. The assassin collapsed, his armor shredded by the sheer friction of the dark aura.
"Ghost..." Ra's whispered, drawing his sword.
Elias turned his head. The white eyes bored into Ra's soul.
"You talk about death," Elias said, his voice a distorted chorus of rage. "You know nothing of the void."
He raised a hand. The shadows of the mercenaries stretched out, grabbed their owners, and slammed them into the ground.
Luthor panicked. He activated his personal forcefield. "Open fire! Everything we have!"
The mercenaries unleashed a hail of laser fire.
Elias didn't dodge. He stood there, wreathed in black smoke. The lasers hit him and were absorbed.
"Thanks for the charge," Dark Elias growled.
He snapped his fingers.
Chaos Blast: Dark Variant.
A sphere of black energy expanded outward. It disintegrated the excavation equipment. It vaporized the tents. It picked up Lex Luthor—forcefield and all—and hurled him three hundred yards into a sand dune.
Only Ra's stood his ground, using his sword to deflect the energy, though his robes were torn and burned.
"Sorcery!" Ra's spat.
Elias floated toward the containment field. The Purple Emerald was screaming now.
"Mine," Elias hissed.
He punched the containment field. The high-tech glass shattered.
He grabbed the Chaos Emerald.
The moment his skin touched the stone, the feedback loop closed. The Purple Emerald didn't feed the rage; it clarified it. It was a neutral force.
The white eyes flickered. The green returned for a second.
"Wait..." Elias gasped, fighting the darkness. "Too much... too angry..."
He looked at Ra's, who was recovering, and Luthor, who was climbing out of the sand in a prototype Warsuit.
"I have the Emerald," Elias panted, the black fur receding, then surging back. He was losing control. If he stayed, he would kill them. He would kill everyone in a ten-mile radius.
"Chaos... Control!"
He didn't aim. He just wanted out.
A warped, black-and-purple portal tore open in the sky.
Elias rocketed into it, clutching the Emerald to his chest. The portal snapped shut behind him, leaving a silent, scorched crater in the middle of the Sahara.
Luthor walked to the edge of the pit, dusting sand off his suit. He looked at the empty space where the emerald had been.
"He's unstable," Luthor said, a cold smile returning to his face. "He has godlike power, and he can't control his temper. That... we can exploit."
Ra's sheathed his sword. "He fights like a demon. But demons can be bound."
The two villains looked at each other. The alliance wasn't over. It had just found a new target.