"Even with everything falling apart around you, you still won't listen," I say, throwing off thousands of tons of rubble as I emerge from the ruined building. That wouldn't have been much of a problem for me even
before I became what I am now.
"You've lost on every front."
I focus my cosmically-enhanced telescopic senses, now able to project my vision across enormous gulfs of space, and watch the destruction of the Black Lantern Battery in real-time.
"My friends have just broken the source of the Black Lanterns' power, and erasing the damage that Anti-Life has done all across the universe. Just like always, you've underestimated the strength that we 'mere mortals' have. We not only defied you, we've not only fought you.....now we've beaten you."
The swarm of Supermen begins to gather around Darkseid, closing in on the mad god.
"You may hold yourself up by your anger and your lust for power, but there are things far more powerful than even Anti-Life itself. Things that you've simply ignored."
Darkseid unleashes a blast of his Omega Beams, which I let hit me again. With the power of the Source itself running through me, the Omega Effect is canceled out.
"Truth. You've lived too long in self-delusion, hearing and seeing only what you want instead of learning the way things really are. Truth can be covered, it can be shrugged off or twisted into lies, but in the end, the truth is an absolute, and it cannot be changed."
The other Supermen begin to whirl around him, creating a powerful vortex to pin him in place.
"Justice. It's the cornerstone of civilization itself, that raises us beyond the simple savagery of the strong preying on the weak. Upholding right and punishing wrong. And eventually, it catches up with everyone. It can be delayed or diverted, but it can't be avoided."
Within the swirling hurricane winds generated by the swarm of Supermen, ribbons of red light blast into Darkseid; the burning gaze of them letting loose with their Heat Vision.
"And the American Way. Two hundred years ago on this tiny little planet, a band of uncertain and under-equipped rebels openly defied the will of an empire. They were willing to fight and die for the belief that every man is in charge of his own destiny, and can accomplish incredible things when set free. It was a belief that changed the very course of history on this world. It can be mocked, it can be subverted and passed around and distorted in the hands of bureaucracy, but it can never be defeated."
I pass into the spinning maelstrom of alternate versions of myself, and stare Darkseid in the eye.
"I've had everything I needed to stand against you from the very beginning. The only difference now is that I can finally rid the universe of you for good."
The Supermen pick up speed, the world filling with a deafening roar of a thousand sonic booms as they rip through the air, gaining speed to rival even the Flashes.
"I'm not going to kill you, Darkseid. Destruction and revenge are your ways, not mine. Instead, I'm going to just ask--did you really think I brought the entire collective spectrum of my own existence here just so we could have a fist-fight?"
One by one, the streaks of color that are each a Superman moving at super-speed freezes in place: it's the visual equivalent of a sonic boom: an 'optic boom' generated as they reach the speed of light.
"This many beings moving at luminal velocity, generating this much power in one spot. It's going to drill a hole right through the fabric of space and time."
Beneath us, the ground begins to swirl and crack, before giving away to a bottomless void: the very literal nothing that exists outside the Multiverse.
"Reality has rejected you, Darkseid.....and I'm going to throw you out the door."
"And I'm going to make sure you never come back."
Orion. The Dog of War. The prodigal son of Darkseid, the one prophesied to slay him in battle, and a good friend of mine. Apparently Darkseid wasn't able to keep the other beings of the Fourth World from coming back.
"You knew it was always going to come to this, father. In the end, it was always going to be you and me. Superman just put it all together."
"Orion," I say, placing my hand on his shoulder,
"You know if you go through this portal, you can't ever come back. You'll end up existing outside of existence, and once this door is closed, it can't be opened again. You don't have to do this."
Orion looks at Darkseid, then looks back at me and smiles.
"Mortal men have the ability to choose their fate. Gods do not."
With that, he charges toward his father, and they both go tumbling into the void.
With that, the vortex begins to collapse on itself, the other Supermen blinking out of this universe and back into their own. I've still got the power of the Source to patch things up, to keep the vortex from growing unstable and swallowing the rest of the universe with it.
I fly into the heart of the storm itself, spinning the opposite way to counteract it. But it's no use. I feel myself being pulled into the void as well.
Then there's a golden light.......
.......and I can see everything. All of time, all of space, all of possibility and probability laid out before me. And not only can I see it....I can reach out and
touch it.
I am one with the Source.
"My God," I say to myself.
"It's incredible."
Here and now, I've got it within my power to undo the damage done by Darkseid. But I can go so much further than that. I can alter the course of history and of the future in any way I want. I could prevent wars, stop extinctions.....save entire planets from destruction....
Everything, from the rise and fall of massive intergalactic nations, right down to the DNA structure of a single person in a single spot in time, can be altered if I want it.
With all of this power concentrated on me.....
.....I've got the whole world in my hands.
