The corrupted versions hit the ground—or rather, the void equivalent of ground—and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Well, that was easier than expected," Tony said, lowering his gauntlets.
Thor grinned, spinning Mjolnir. "Aye! We are simply too mighty for our darker selves!"
"Don't jinx it," Loki muttered.
Too late.
The corrupted versions stood up.
But worse—they began to glow.
"JARVIS, what am I seeing?" Tony's visor lit up with warnings.
"Sir, their energy signatures are... increasing. They're mirroring our power levels. No—EXCEEDING them. Current readings show 150% and climbing."
"Oh, come ON!" Tony groaned. "That's just cheating!"
Dark Thor's corrupted form expanded, lightning turning from purple entropy to black nothingness. Chaos Loki multiplied into hundreds of versions. Corrupt Black Adam's eyes glowed with divine fire that burned across dimensions. Evil Superman's heat vision carved through spacetime itself. Soulless Iron Man's armor upgraded in real-time, adapting to every strategy. Anti-Doremano's gravity pulses created actual black holes.
The Corrupted Galectors synchronized into a formation that made their originals look like amateurs.
"Oh no," the Galector leader said. "They're learning. Adapting. Growing stronger by the second."
"Their energy levels are mirroring ours!" Alien X's three voices said in alarm. "Whatever power we use, they match it!"
The corrupted versions attacked again—but this time, they were overwhelming.
Dark Thor's entropy hammer swung, creating void rifts that swallowed Thor's lightning whole.
Chaos Loki's hundreds of versions surrounded the original, attacking from infinite angles simultaneously.
Corrupt Black Adam's sentient lightning countered the original's, creating a stalemate of divine energy.
Evil Superman moved faster, hit harder, his cosmic enhancement apparently doubled.
Soulless Tony's calculations were perfect—too perfect. He predicted every move regular Tony made.
Anti-Doremano's black holes started consuming actual stars.
"WE'RE LOSING!" Thor shouted, barely blocking another entropy strike.
"They're feeding off our individual power!" Loki gasped, dodging infinite versions of himself.
Tony's mind raced. "Wait... individual power. That's the key. JARVIS, analysis—are they mirroring us individually or as a TEAM?"
"Individual signatures, sir. Each corrupted version matches its original counterpart."
Tony's eyes widened behind his visor. "THAT'S IT! GUYS! STOP FIGHTING YOUR MIRRORS ONE-ON-ONE!"
"WHAT?!" everyone shouted simultaneously.
"They're mirroring our INDIVIDUAL power, not our TEAMWORK! If we keep fighting our own counterparts, they'll just keep getting stronger! We need to SWITCH OPPONENTS!"
"That's insane!" Black Adam shouted, barely holding off his corrupt self.
"It's GENIUS!" Tony corrected. "EVERYONE, ROTATE TARGETS NOW! COORDINATE AS A TEAM!"
There was a split second of hesitation—and then everyone moved.
***
The Teamwork Chaos Begins
Superman and Black Adam moved first.
"Adam, you thinking what I'm thinking?" Superman called out, dodging Evil Superman's heat vision.
"If it involves hitting something very hard, yes!" Black Adam replied, his lightning crackling.
They flew in opposite directions, each one drawing their corrupted self into pursuit. Evil Superman chased Clark. Corrupt Black Adam chased Teth.
"NOW!" Superman shouted.
Both heroes stopped mid-flight and reversed direction, flying straight at each other at maximum speed. Their corrupted versions, moving too fast to stop, couldn't react in time.
CRACK!
Evil Superman and Corrupt Black Adam collided head-first with each other in a catastrophic mid-void crash. The impact sent shockwaves rippling across multiple dimensions.
Both corrupted versions spun wildly through space, stars and planets blurring past them, their heads spinning like cartoon characters.
"Ow ow ow ow ow!" Evil Superman's voice echoed, dizzy and disoriented.
"By the gods... which way is up?!" Corrupt Black Adam groaned, spiraling.
Superman and Black Adam high-fived mid-air.
"That was satisfying," Black Adam admitted.
"Very," Superman grinned.
***
Meanwhile, Doremano had other plans.
The cosmic god-dog zoomed through the battlefield, tail wagging with chaotic glee. He spotted Dark Thor fighting the original Thor with entropy lightning and dimensional rifts.
Dark Thor raised his corrupted Mjolnir high. "I AM THE ALMIGHTY GOD OF ASGARD! NONE CAN—"
CHOMP!
Doremano bit down on Dark Thor's cape and yanked hard, his gravity manipulation making the god of thunder suddenly weigh approximately nothing.
"WHAT?!" Dark Thor flailed wildly as he was flung through space like a chew toy. "LET ME GO, YOU INSOLENT CREATURE! I AM THE ALMIGHTY GOD OF ASGARD!"
"BORK BORK BORK!" Doremano's bark was absolutely delighted as he swung Dark Thor around in circles, gravity waves making the corrupted god spin like a cosmic pinwheel.
The real Thor watched, mouth open in shock, then burst out laughing. "BY ODIN'S BEARD! THE DOG HAS BETTER COMBAT STRATEGY THAN I DO!"
Loki, dodging his infinite Chaos versions, couldn't help but smirk. "I'm putting that in my memoir. 'The Day My Brother Got Beaten By A Dog.'"
"SHUT UP, LOKI!"
Doremano released Dark Thor, sending him flying straight toward Anti-Doremano. The two dark versions collided with a thump, and Doremano barked triumphantly, tail wagging so hard it created a gravitational victory dance.
***
Tony coordinated the chaos like a cosmic conductor.
"JARVIS, probability calculations on enemy positions!"
"Calculating, sir. Recommend the following: Thor should target Soulless Iron Man, Loki should trap the Corrupted Galectors, Alien X should stabilize Chaos Loki's timeline, and you should—"
"—Annoy Dark Thor. Got it."
Tony zoomed toward the still-dizzy Dark Thor, who was trying to recover from being dog-handled.
"Hey, Sparkles! Over here!"
Dark Thor turned, snarling. "YOU DARE MOCK A GOD?!"
"Daily, actually. It's kind of my thing." Tony fired a repulsor beam—not at Dark Thor, but at the space behind him, creating a gravitational slingshot that sent the corrupted god flying directly into Evil Superman, who was just recovering from the earlier head-butt.
WHAM!
"STRIKE TWO FOR EVIL SUPERMAN!" Tony commentated. "And the crowd goes wild!"
***
Loki's probability magic went into overdrive.
The hundreds of Chaos Loki versions swarmed toward him, each one existing in a different possibility, attacking from infinite angles.
"This is problematic," Loki muttered. Then he grinned. "But I do love a challenge."
He spread his hands, manipulating probability on a scale he'd never attempted before. He didn't try to fight all the Chaos versions. Instead, he manipulated the probability that they would all attack the Corrupted Galectors instead of him.
Suddenly, hundreds of Chaos Loki versions turned as one and swarmed the Corrupted Galector squad like a demented probability storm.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" the Corrupted Galector leader roared as infinite trickster gods poked, prodded, and pranked them simultaneously.
"Just a little mischief," the real Loki said sweetly. "You understand."
***
The Galector Squad saw their opening.
"FORMATION OMEGA!" the original Galector leader commanded.
The seven loyal Galectors moved as one, their star-metal weapons charging. They targeted not their corrupted counterparts, but Soulless Iron Man, whose perfect calculations were currently being disrupted by having Chaos Loki versions teleporting his armor pieces to random dimensions.
The synchronized Galector strike hit Soulless Tony with precision so perfect it looked choreographed. Seven neutron-star weapons fired as one, creating a cascade of energy that sent the corrupted armor flying backward into—
WHAM!
—Corrupt Black Adam, who was still spinning from the earlier collision.
"AGAIN?!" Corrupt Black Adam groaned. "CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHICH WAY IS UP?!"
***
Alien X made its move.
The reality-warper's three personalities spoke in perfect harmony: "Time to end this chaos."
Alien X raised its hand and rewound time—but only for the corrupted versions. Suddenly, every injury they'd taken, every hit they'd absorbed, every collision they'd suffered... all happened again.
Dark Thor got bitten by Doremano again.
Evil Superman and Corrupt Black Adam head-butted again.
Soulless Iron Man got hit by Galector weapons again.
The Corrupted Galectors got swarmed by infinite Loki versions again.
"NO FAIR!" Dark Thor shouted, dangling from Doremano's jaws once more. "LET ME GO! I'M THE ALMIGHTY—"
"Yeah, yeah, we heard you the first time," Tony interrupted, firing another repulsor slingshot that sent Dark Thor spinning into the chaos.
***
Superman and Black Adam prepared the finishing move.
"One more time?" Clark asked, grinning.
"With pleasure," Teth replied.
They flew in opposite directions again, drawing Evil Superman and Corrupt Black Adam into pursuit. The corrupted versions, still dizzy from multiple collisions but too proud to stop, followed.
"They're not going to fall for this again," Evil Superman growled.
"Definitely not," Corrupt Black Adam agreed.
They were wrong.
Superman and Black Adam reversed direction simultaneously. But this time, they added a twist—literally. Both heroes spun as they flew, adding rotational momentum.
When the four of them collided this time, it wasn't just a head-butt.
It was a head-spin collision.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
The four heads collided in rapid succession like a cosmic newton's cradle, each impact sending them spinning in different directions. Evil Superman spiraled left. Corrupt Black Adam spiraled right. Superman and Black Adam controlled their spins and landed gracefully.
"I think that's a new record," Superman said.
"Definitely a new record," Black Adam agreed.
***
The Corrupted Versions Were Defeated... By Teamwork
One by one, the dark mirrors fell.
Dark Thor, exhausted from being dog-handled and repulsor-slingshot multiple times, collapsed.
Chaos Loki's infinite versions, confused by being turned against the Galectors, imploded into a single, unconscious form.
The Corrupted Galectors, overwhelmed by coordinated strikes from everyone except their original counterparts, shut down.
Soulless Iron Man's perfect calculations failed when faced with imperfect teamwork, and his armor powered down.
Evil Superman and Corrupt Black Adam, after three separate head-collision incidents, finally stayed down, too dizzy to continue.
Anti-Doremano whimpered and retreated, unable to match the real Doremano's joyful chaos.
***
The arena fell silent.
The heroes regrouped, floating among the defeated corrupted versions.
Tony's visor scanned the results. "Energy levels stabilizing. They stopped mirroring us once we stopped fighting individually."
"Teamwork," Superman said, smiling. "That's what made the difference."
"And strategic head-butting," Black Adam added seriously.
"And dog bites," Thor said, looking at Doremano with newfound respect. "That was... surprisingly effective."
Doremano barked proudly, tail wagging creating tiny gravitational sparkles.
Loki smirked. "I'm still writing that memoir chapter. 'Brother Gets Beaten By Dog.'"
"LOKI!"
The God appeared above them, and this time its voice carried something like amusement.
"Well done, Cosmic Champions. You learned the lesson. Individual strength can be mirrored and matched. But teamwork... true coordination... that is unique. That is unstoppable."
The God's form shimmered. "You did not just defeat your corrupted selves. You defeated them with HUMOR, with CREATIVITY, with JOY. THAT is what makes you worthy."
Tony grinned beneath his helmet. "So basically, friendship is magic, teamwork makes the dream work, and dogs make everything better?"
"Essentially, yes."
"I can live with that."
The God faded, leaving the team floating among the stars.
Superman looked at Black Adam. "Same time next fight?"
"The head-butting strategy?"
"The head-butting strategy."
"Agreed."
Doremano barked, and everyone agreed that he was, without question, the MVP.
The corrupted versions dissolved into harmless energy, returning to their own dimensions, defeated not by greater power, but by something they could never possess—unity, creativity, and joy.
The Cosmic Champions floated together, battered but victorious, having proven once again that the sum of their parts was far greater than any individual strength.
"So," Tony said, stretching in his armor. "Who's up for round three?"
Everyone stared at him.
"What? I'm just saying, if there's a round three—"
"DON'T JINX IT!" everyone shouted in unison.
Tony raised his hands defensively. "Okay, okay! No jinxing! Sheesh."
But somewhere, in the infinite void, in dimensions beyond counting, something stirred.
Something that had been watching.
Something that found their victory... interesting.
***
END OF CHAPTER 8
The Cosmic Champions had defeated their corrupted mirror selves through teamwork, humor, and one very enthusiastic cosmic dog. But their trials were far from over. The God's tests had only just begun, and the multiverse held challenges far greater than any they had yet faced.
Next: The true nature of the God's arena would be revealed, and the Champions would face their greatest test yet...