Out in the Abyss, deep in the Marvel universe, Tony scanned the group with a firm nod.
"Alright, let's grab those Infinity Stones and get back before the timeline fractures."
A quick reminder—because things had a tendency to spiral.
Hulk adjusted his glasses, fingers moving with precision.
"Friday, start the countdown. Sync the quantum stabilization matrix to the time dilation field."
"Initializing gravitational wave calibration…"
Silence settled over them until Ant-Man broke it.
"So, uh… let's hope this Planck-scale fluctuation stays stable."
Thor raised an eyebrow, turning to the group with that usual mix of skepticism and curiosity.
"I don't recall being informed abou—"
He didn't get to finish.
Gravitational tidal forces wrenched through the ship. The team was suddenly spaghettified—stretched and twisted into the void, atoms straining against relativistic shear.
Hulk let out a quiet chuckle at the absurdity of it all.
"Heh."
Then—
"Chronometric instability detected!"
Hulk's amusement vanished.
"Uh-oh."
His hands flew across the console as tachyon readings spiked.
Sparks. Warning lights. Hawking radiation flared across the viewscreen.
"Okay, that's causal loop levels of not great."
Friday's diagnostics flooded the screen.
"Temporal fracture at 98% divergence. Multiversal rift forming."
The tremor was back—like something had just slammed into the cosmic microwave background itself.
Then, just like that, they were gone.
The Avengers—now trapped in a Bose-Einstein condensate of time, scattered together like confetti, lost in the Abyss.
Hulk's heart sank.
"No… guys…"
His voice was barely a whisper.
They had been cut loose. No anchor. No way back.
"That causality pocket… they'll be entropy-locked there forever."
The screen flashed red. No solutions. No hope.
"What have we done?"
Meanwhile, in the 21st Universe…
Gohan's eyes slowly opened.
'Feels like I'm underwater…'
Diana noticed first. She was on her feet in an instant.
"Gohan!"
The shout caught the attention of Trunks and Sentinel No. 1. Martian Manhunter was already at the controls, fingers flying across the interface. The liquid surrounding Gohan drained, revealing him in just his Destroyer pants.
Vital sensors fell away as he stepped forward, taking a slow, deep breath. Even though he didn't need to breathe, it still felt better.
From a distance, Zatanna, Damian, Donna, and Barbara watched. They had been waiting.
With a flicker of his Energy of Destruction, the liquid vanished. A snap of his fingers, and his Destroyer uniform reformed—pristine, untouched, as if he hadn't just battled a demon god. His golden bracelets and ear cuffs returned.
But something was still wrong.
He looked down at his arm. The mist still clung to him. A plague.
His expression darkened. His Ki sharpened.
A pulse of destruction energy erupted from him, bathing the Watchtower in an oppressive purple glow. His eyes burned violet, intent and absolute.
Yet the mist resisted.
His irritation flared. His hair lifted, beginning to glow silver—
Then—
A hand on his shoulder.
His Beast-like rage lashed out in an instant. The force of his glare alone ripped a hole through the Watchtower.
Vermont tilted his head just slightly—just enough to avoid the impact.
Gohan's eyes flashed red as realization hit him.
'It's Vermont. What am I doing?'
A slow breath.
The oppressive aura flickered, then faded.
His hair settled, shifting into the warm, controlled glow of Super Saiyan God. Peaceful. Grounding. The divine energy washed over him, forcing the raw anger away.
He exhaled.
"Geez… sorry about that, Vermont. Don't know what came over me."
A small, tired chuckle.
"Good thing it was you."
The angel gave a small nod and wiped his cheek.
A cut.
Gohan froze.
"Wait… I did that?"
Vermont simply motioned for him to look at the others.
And then he saw Diana.
Shock. Awe. Concern.
And fear.
What had just happened?
The group of youngsters were apprehensive.
"With all due respect, that was a little extreme," Damian quipped as Donna relaxed and Barbara loosened her mask. That was beyond terrifying.
"It felt like I was about to be crushed," Damian explained as Gohan nodded his outburst might have been too intense.
"It shouldn't have been so heavy, sorry about that," Gohan mused, everyone completely relaxed.
"You don't know your own strength anymore," Trunks theorized. "You must have gotten really strong after you healed."
Vermont nodded, although his gaze felt strange on Gohan.
"This marks the first moment you were able to land a strike on me."
A moment of recognition dawned on him.
"I feel so much more powerful!"
*Gotham City – The Iceberg Lounge*
In the dimly lit backroom, the air was thick with cigar smoke and ambition. Four shadowy figures huddled around a dimly lit table, their faces illuminated by the flickering glow of a laptop screen. A blueprint of a S.T.A.R. Labs vault dominated the display, surrounded by stolen security schematics from a compromised GCPD database.
Black Mask leaned back, twirling a USB drive between his fingers. "Look, I'm just saying—ever since Red Hood torched my last shipment, I've had to get creative. You know how hard it is to move military-grade tech in this city with Batman's little army breathing down my neck?"
Clock King adjusted his watch, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Oh yes, terribly inconvenient. Let's all shed a tear for the man who can't commit war crimes without the Bat looming over him. But hey—lucky for us, the Caped Crusader has bigger things to worry about than a good old-fashioned robbery."
Magpie grinned, her silver teeth glinting in the low light. "Robbery? Sweetheart, this is a Vanishing Point chronoton core. Steal this, and we can rewrite any stock market, erase any rival—hell, we could scrub Bruce Wayne's birth certificate out of existence."
The Calculator typed furiously on a wrist-mounted keypad. "Irrelevant. The core's energy signature is negligible compared to the kind of crises Batman deals with. My models predict a 97.3% chance he ignores us—unless we're stupid enough to turn this into an apocalyptic event or grab his attention."
Black Mask snorted. "Please. Last guy who tried pulling some doomsday stunt got turned into a cautionary tale."
Clock King smirked. "Exactly. Batman fights existential threats now. We're pulling off a high-stakes heist. It's beneath him. We can easily deal with his lackeys."
Magpie leaned in, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "But what if the core's connected to… bigger problems? Word is the Feds are sniffing around S.T.A.R. Labs. Maybe even Task Force X."
Calculator froze, his fingers hovering over the keypad. "You didn't mention them."
Black Mask waved a hand dismissively. "Relax. By the time Waller catches wind of this, we'll be long gone."
The room fell silent, the weight of their plan hanging in the air like the smoke from their cigars. Each of them knew the risks, but the potential rewards were too tantalizing to ignore. In Gotham City, where shadows hid both danger and opportunity, they were ready to play their hand—no matter the cost.