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The atmosphere in the conference room felt as if ignited by the fires of war.
The Flash, Barry Allen, swallowed hard. Looking at the women before him, their fighting spirits burning high, he suddenly felt he couldn't let the men's side down.
"Well... I think this sounds like a suicide mission..." Barry scratched his head, "but every time I get scared, things just get worse. Maybe playing it crazy is a good idea. I... I'm in."
"Heh... Since everyone's gone mad, count me in too." Slade Wilson, Deathstroke, who had been silent until now, let out a cold laugh and gave his stance.
All eyes finally settled on Bruce Wayne.
As the brain of the Justice League, the mother box was now under his control.
Bruce sat with his eyes closed, his hands tightly clasped together.
Homelander's plan, to his ears, held no tactical merit whatsoever—it was pure recklessness.
In the past, he would never have agreed to such a crazy, all-in gamble of a plan. He needed contingencies, a Plan A, a Plan B, even a Plan Z.
But...
Bruce recalled how this man had single-handedly destroyed the global Parademon army and crushed Superman underfoot.
Perhaps, to deal with a New God like Darkseid, who was unreasonably powerful, you needed an even more unreasonable madman.
"Victor, give him the mother box."
Cyborg was stunned. "Bruce! Are you really going insane?"
"Do it, Victor." Bruce's tone was firm. "We have no choice."
"I hope you remember your promise today, Homelander. If you screw this up..."
"Heh, then I screw it up!" Homelander laughed arrogantly, turning his back to the group as he continued.
"But I've never screwed anything up, Bat."
With that, Homelander strode towards the door.
"Bring those three damned boxes and follow me." He tossed the words over his shoulder without looking back.
...
Over ten minutes later.
The ruins of Century Park in the center of Metropolis. This was where Superman's massive memorial statue once stood, now smashed to rubble by an angry populace.
Homelander stopped in the center of the clearing.
Bruce, Cyborg, The Flash, and the other heroes followed closely behind.
Harley Quinn, carefree as a high school girl, skipped along beside Homelander with a backpack, humming an unknown tune.
Homelander turned and gave a slight nod of his chin towards Cyborg.
"Take them out, Victor."
Hearing Homelander's words, Cyborg immediately knelt on one knee and opened the specially shielded case.
Hum—
The moment the three cubic metal boxes were revealed, the surrounding air emitted a low, resonant hum.
The complex patterns on their surfaces seemed alive, glowing faintly as they flowed with some unknown frequency.
The three mother boxes exerted a powerful gravitational pull on each other, struggling to break free and merge.
"Their energy levels are spiking continuously," Cyborg said gravely. "They're calling to each other, and to Apokolips. Once they achieve trinity synchronization, the Boom Tube will form instantly."
"Mother boxes." Mera gripped her trident, a flicker of disgust crossing her beautiful face. "These things destroyed Atlantis. The waves they emit make me sick."
"Soon, they'll be our cleanup crew."
Homelander said casually, flipping his wrist to reveal a master ball in his palm.
"Time to work, Ego."
Homelander casually tossed the master ball forward.
A flash of white light.
When the light faded, a massive blue brain, several meters in diameter, hung quietly in the air.
"Whoa!!"
Barry, like a startled rabbit, flashed with lightning and zipped back a dozen meters in an instant.
He stared wide-eyed at the enormous blue brain that had appeared out of thin air, his face a mask of terror.
"What... what is that thing?! A B-grade horror flick from the '80s? Brain demon?"
Amazon General Phillips also instinctively shifted into a combat stance.
Only Batman and Harley Quinn remained calm. Harley even whistled. "Hey, Mr. Brainy, long time no see."
Ego ignored the mortals' fuss, its blue neural tendrils swaying slightly in the air.
A respectful voice resonated through mental waves in the air.
"Master, your loyal servant awaits your command."
"Listen, Ego." Homelander pointed at the three metal cubes on the ground. "These things are called mother boxes, a form of living machinery. They're currently programmed to turn this Planet into a hellscape of lava and poison gas."
"I want you to change the parameters. Turn this smog-choked Earth back to the way it was, with sunshine, beaches, bikinis..."
Ego hovered in the air, its blue neural tendrils slowly extending towards the three mother boxes.
"An exceedingly advanced mechanical lifeform..." Ego sensed the mother boxes' fluctuations and emitted a sound of admiration. "Their underlying logic is flawless, an instruction set built upon higher-dimensional mathematics. Direct external tampering is extremely difficult."
"I'll help you."
Cyborg, Victor, stepped forward. The armor on his left arm rapidly reconfigured into three complex probe interfaces.
"I am the son of the mother boxes. My code originates from them. I can forcibly tear open their firewall in an instant, creating a vulnerability lasting zero-point-something seconds."
"That's enough," Ego responded. "Just open the door, and I can pour my will inside."
Bruce looked at Cyborg and gave a slight nod. "Do it, Victor."
Cyborg nodded back and forcefully drove the data probes into the three mother boxes.
"Aaaargh—!"
The moment of contact, Cyborg threw his head back and let out a roar of agony.
High-temperature steam shot from the seams of his mechanical body. The mother boxes' immense data flow, like a raging tsunami (violent tsunami), tried to completely overwhelm and swallow the consciousness of this 'child unit.'
"firewall breached! Now!!" Victor gritted his teeth, forcing the words out.
"Child's play."
Ego erupted with intense, eerie light. Dozens of blue energy tendrils shot like arrows from a bow, precisely following the Vulnerability (breach) Victor had torn open, and plunged deep into the mother boxes' cores.
The divine power of a God intertwined with the Apokoliptian energy of the mother boxes.
The mother boxes began to vibrate violently, emitting a sharp, piercing hum.
...
At the same time, deep in the distant cosmos.
Sector 0, Oa.
Darkseid's towering gray form stood before the ruins of the Central Power Battery.
"Great Darkseid."
Desaad, hunched over, hurried to his Master's side and bowed deeply.
"The hyperspace transit channel on Oa is complete. Using the Green Lantern Corps' central energy, we have successfully bypassed the Universe's spatial barriers."
"How much longer?"
"Twenty-four hours, Master," Desaad replied. "In twenty-four hours at most, this gateway will be large enough to accommodate your entire dark fleet simultaneously. Then, the wrath of Apokolips shall descend upon Earth once more."