The rifts expanded.
Not slowly, not gradually—they tore open like wounds in reality's flesh, bleeding impossible colors and sounds that shouldn't exist into the cosmic arena. Each rift was massive, large enough to swallow solar systems, pulsing with malevolent energy that made the previous challenges look like warmup exercises.
Tony's HUD went insane with warnings.
"JARVIS, updated threat assessment?"
"Sir, I'm now detecting sixty-three distinct cosmic-level entities. Threat classification: Singularity-equivalent or higher. They're organized, coordinated, and—" JARVIS paused. "Sir, they're LEARNING from our previous battles."
"They're what?"
"The data suggests they've observed our tactics against the corrupted versions. They know how we fight."
Tony's mind raced. "So we're facing an army that's watched our greatest hits reel and knows all our moves?"
"Essentially, yes sir."
"Wonderful." Tony opened team comms. "Everyone, heads up. We're not just facing numbers—we're facing an intelligent force that's studied us."
Thor gripped Mjolnir tighter. "Then we improvise new strategies."
"Exactly," Tony agreed. "Time to show them why genius never repeats itself."
---
The Cosmic Champions moved into formation—not the standard battle formation, but something new. Tony had been calculating this during the party (because genius never truly stops working).
"New formation!" Tony called out. "Three-layer defense. Galectors—outer ring, mobile defense. Thor, Loki, Black Adam—middle ring, rapid response. Superman, Alien X—heavy artillery reserves. Doremano—chaos insertion wherever needed. I'll coordinate from center and provide support fire."
"What about me?" Loki asked.
"You're middle ring rapid response. Did you not listen?"
"I was busy plotting."
"FOCUS!"
The formation locked into place just as the first entities emerged from the rifts.
---
They came in waves, and they were MASSIVE.
The first entities to emerge looked like living galaxies—swirling masses of stars and dark matter compressed into vaguely humanoid shapes. Each one was the size of a small planet, radiating power that made spacetime ripple around them.
"Galactic Titans," Alien X's three voices identified. "Beings formed from consumed universes. Each one contains billions of souls, countless civilizations, all compressed into singular destructive purpose."
"How many?" Superman asked.
"Twelve in the first wave."
"TWELVE?!" Thor bellowed. "We fought ONE singularity and barely—"
"And we WON," Tony interrupted. "Because we're BETTER now. We've trained. We've learned. And most importantly—we have a PLAN."
The Galactic Titans roared—a sound that existed across seventeen dimensions simultaneously, a chorus of extinct civilizations crying out in unified rage.
They charged.
"GALECTORS!" Tony commanded. "FORMATION OMEGA-SHIELD! GO!"
The seven star-metal warriors moved as one, their weapons extending and connecting, creating a massive energy shield that spanned thousands of miles. The Galactic Titans crashed into it like cosmic waves hitting a dimensional breakwater.
The impact was catastrophic. Stars nearby flickered and died. Reality itself groaned under the strain.
But the shield held.
---
"PHASE TWO!" Tony shouted. "THOR, DIMENSIONAL SCATTER!"
Thor swung Mjolnir in a complex pattern he'd been practicing during downtime (when he wasn't doing limbo). Instead of opening one dimensional rift, he opened HUNDREDS—tiny ones, scattered across the battlefield like cosmic landmines.
Three of the Galactic Titans flew through the rifts and emerged... scattered across different dimensions, separated from the pack.
"LOKI! PROBABILITY LOCK!"
Loki spread his hands, manipulating probability on a massive scale. Suddenly, the odds of the separated Titans finding their way back became ZERO. The probability of them stumbling into each other's attacks became ONE HUNDRED PERCENT.
The three isolated Titans, confused and disoriented, started accidentally attacking each other with galaxy-destroying force.
"BLACK ADAM! LIGHTNING NET!"
Black Adam's sentient lightning split into thousands of bolts, weaving between the dimensional rifts, creating a web of divine energy that tracked the remaining nine Titans' movements. Every time a Titan tried to attack, the lightning predicted it three moves ahead and redirected the Galectors' shield to counter.
"IT'S WORKING!" Superman shouted.
"DON'T JINX IT!" everyone screamed back.
Too late.
---
The Galactic Titans STOPPED.
All of them, simultaneously, just... stopped attacking.
"JARVIS, what are they doing?"
"Analyzing, sir. They're processing our tactics in real-time. And—oh no."
"'Oh no' is never good, JARVIS."
"Sir, they're SHARING DATA. The Titans are linked in a hive network. What one learns, they all learn."
The Titans' forms shifted, becoming more coordinated, more intelligent. Their attacks became precise instead of brutal. They started working together, covering each other's weaknesses.
One Titan created a gravitational well that pulled Thor's dimensional rifts closed.
Another generated an anti-probability field that countered Loki's manipulation.
A third released an electromagnetic pulse that disrupted Black Adam's lightning network.
"They're adapting to EVERYTHING!" Loki shouted. "Every trick we use, they counter within seconds!"
Tony's mind went into overdrive. "Then we don't give them time to adapt. We hit them with EVERYTHING at once. Overwhelming force, maximum creativity, zero pattern recognition."
"That's insane," Black Adam said.
"That's GENIUS," Tony corrected. "EVERYONE! FULL ASSAULT! NO COORDINATION—PURE CHAOS!"
"THAT GOES AGAINST EVERYTHING WE LEARNED!" Thor protested.
"EXACTLY! They're expecting teamwork! Give them CHAOS!"
Understanding dawned on Loki's face. "You magnificent madman. They can't adapt to randomness."
"DOREMANO!" Tony shouted. "TIME TO SHINE, BOY! MAXIMUM CHAOS!"
"BORK!"
---
What followed was the most beautifully insane battle the multiverse had ever witnessed.
Doremano went WILD.
His tail wagged with such chaotic enthusiasm that gravity became a SUGGESTION. Stars started orbiting in square patterns. Black holes opened and closed randomly. Up became sideways. Forward became yesterday.
The Galactic Titans, trying to process and adapt to this, simply... COULDN'T. There was no pattern to analyze. No logic to counter. Just pure, joyful, cosmic DOG CHAOS.
"BORK BORK BORK!" Doremano barked, each bark creating a different gravitational anomaly.
One bark made a Titan suddenly weigh nothing and drift away helplessly.
Another bark made a Titan so heavy it collapsed in on itself.
A third bark made gravity flow BACKWARDS around a Titan, causing it to implode into its own center.
Thor, seeing the opportunity, abandoned all strategy and just started SWINGING. Mjolnir opened dimensional rifts at random—not calculated, not planned, just pure instinct and divine power.
One rift dumped a Titan into a universe made entirely of cheese. (No one knew that universe existed. The Titan was very confused.)
Another rift sent a Titan into a dimension where time flowed in spirals. The Titan aged and de-aged simultaneously, experiencing its entire existence at once, and simply gave up.
Loki embraced his chaotic nature completely. He stopped trying to manipulate probability logically and just made RANDOM things happen.
A Titan suddenly turned into a giant rubber duck. (It still had all its power. It was just... duck-shaped.)
Another Titan found itself speaking only in limericks.
A third Titan's attacks turned into birthday confetti.
"THIS IS AMAZING!" Loki cackled. "WHY DON'T WE FIGHT LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME?!"
"BECAUSE IT'S EXHAUSTING!" Tony shouted back, firing repulsor beams in random directions that somehow hit targets through probability accidents.
Black Adam's lightning stopped being predictive and just went EVERYWHERE. Divine bolts struck at random, hitting Titans, missing Titans, hitting other lightning bolts and creating feedback loops that defied physics.
Superman abandoned his usual measured approach and just PUNCHED. No strategy, no thought, just flying at maximum speed and hitting things with dimensional-enhanced fists.
One punch sent a Titan spinning through seventeen dimensions.
Another punch was so powerful and so random it created a NEW dimension specifically to contain the shockwave.
The Galectors, seeing everyone else abandon formation, looked at each other.
"Should we—?" one asked.
"FORMATION CHAOS!" their leader declared.
They abandoned all synchronization and just started firing randomly, each warrior attacking different targets with different strategies, no coordination, pure individual creativity.
It was WORKING.
The Titans, designed to analyze and adapt to patterns, couldn't handle the complete LACK of pattern. They started making mistakes, attacking each other accidentally, trying to counter moves that didn't exist.
Alien X watched this chaos unfold and its three personalities had a moment of rare agreement.
"This is..." Bellicus started.
"Completely illogical," Serena continued.
"And PERFECT," Ben finished.
Alien X joined the chaos, warping reality with no pattern. One moment creating, the next destroying, then rewinding time, then fast-forwarding, then making time flow sideways.
A Titan found itself experiencing Tuesday three times in a row.
Another Titan aged backwards and turned into a baby galaxy (still dangerous, but adorable).
---
The twelve Galactic Titans, overwhelmed by pure coordinated chaos, started to FRACTURE.
Their shared network, designed to make them stronger through collective learning, became their weakness. They were sharing information about attacks that made NO SENSE, patterns that DIDN'T EXIST, strategies that were ANTI-STRATEGIES.
Their hive mind started arguing with itself.
"ERROR: Cannot adapt to chaos!"
"ERROR: Pattern recognition failing!"
"ERROR: Logic circuits overheating!"
"ERROR: Why is there a rubber duck?!"
Tony saw the opportunity. "NOW! EVERYONE FOCUS! HIT THEM WITH ACTUAL COORDINATED STRATEGY!"
The team instantly snapped back to perfect coordination.
The Titans, expecting more chaos, had already adjusted their defenses to counter randomness. They'd left themselves WIDE OPEN to actual tactical strikes.
"GALECTORS! SYNCHRONIZED STRIKE PATTERN ALPHA!"
The seven warriors locked back into perfect formation and fired as one. Seven neutron-star beams converged on three Titans simultaneously, punching through their defenses like they were paper.
"THOR! DIMENSIONAL RIFT—CALCULATED TRAJECTORY THETA-9!"
Thor, switching instantly from chaos to precision, opened a rift exactly where Tony calculated. Two Titans flew through it and emerged inside each other, their masses trying to occupy the same space. The resulting explosion took out four more Titans caught in the blast.
"LOKI! PROBABILITY SPIKE—MAKE THEIR ATTACKS HIT THEMSELVES!"
Loki, focusing his chaotic probability into surgical precision, made the remaining Titans' own attacks loop back and strike their sources.
"BLACK ADAM! LIGHTNING COORDINATION WITH SUPERMAN!"
Black Adam's sentient lightning wrapped around Superman, enhancing his cosmic powers. Superman flew through the remaining Titans at light-speed, Black Adam's lightning striking each one at the moment of impact, amplifying the damage exponentially.
The Galactic Titans didn't stand a chance.
In less than thirty seconds, all twelve were defeated—some destroyed, some scattered across dimensions, some simply giving up because they couldn't process what had just happened to them.
The first wave was over.
---
The team regrouped, floating in the aftermath of destroyed cosmic entities.
"THAT," Thor gasped, "was EXHAUSTING!"
"But EFFECTIVE!" Loki added, grinning.
"We just beat twelve singularity-level threats with CHAOS and then INSTANT COORDINATION!" Tony said, his voice equal parts amazed and exhausted. "That was—that was BEAUTIFUL!"
"It was illogical," Alien X observed.
"It was PERFECT," Superman agreed.
"The Titans expected patterns," the Galector leader said. "We gave them chaos, then switched to order when they adapted to chaos. Brilliant."
"BORK!" Doremano barked proudly. The cosmic dog had clearly enjoyed himself immensely.
"Good boy," Tony said, and meant it. "You were the MVP. Again."
"JARVIS, status report?"
"First wave eliminated, sir. All team members functional. Energy reserves at 73% average. Minor damage to Galector unit three's left shoulder armor. And—" JARVIS paused. "Sir, the second wave is approaching."
"How many?"
"Twenty entities. Larger than the first wave. More diverse power sets. And sir?"
"Yeah?"
"They appear to have learned from the first wave's defeat."
Everyone looked at the approaching rifts, where new cosmic horrors were emerging.
"Of course they did," Tony muttered. "JARVIS, what are we looking at?"
"Reality Weavers, sir. Beings that don't just manipulate reality—they REWRITE it. They can change the fundamental laws of physics in their vicinity. And unlike the Titans, they don't share a hive mind. They're individuals. Each one is unique."
"So we can't use the chaos-to-order trick again," Black Adam said.
"Nope," Tony confirmed. "They'll each adapt differently. We need a new strategy."
Thor spun Mjolnir thoughtfully. "Then we give them twenty different strategies. One for each enemy."
"Personalized combat," Loki nodded. "Each opponent gets a unique approach tailored to them specifically."
"That requires real-time analysis and adaptation," Superman said.
"That requires GENIUS," Tony corrected. "And lucky for us, we have that. JARVIS, start profiling each Reality Weaver as they emerge. Find their individual weaknesses, power patterns, and behavioral quirks."
"Already compiling, sir."
The second wave emerged from the rifts—twenty beings, each one radically different from the others. Some looked like living mathematical equations. Others were pure concept given form. One appeared to be a sentient paradox. Another was literally made of broken causality.
"Okay team," Tony said, his tactical mind already formulating twenty different battle plans simultaneously. "Here's what we're going to do..."
---
Tony's plan was insane, brilliant, and absolutely necessary.
"We split up," he announced. "Each of us takes specific targets based on matchup advantages. Galectors—you seven work together on the three Weavers that are structurally similar to you. Thor—the one that manipulates storms, that's your dance partner. Loki—the paradox entity, obviously. Black Adam—the divine reality manipulator. Superman—the one that's rewriting physics to make everything heavier. Alien X—the conceptual being. Doremano—"
"BORK?"
"Surprise me. Just cause chaos wherever needed. And I'll float support, coordinating and providing backup."
"We're SPLITTING THE PARTY?!" Loki protested. "That's how everyone dies in every story ever!"
"In every story where the party ISN'T cosmically enhanced, genius-coordinated, and backed by a reality-warping dog," Tony countered. "We can handle this."
"Famous last words," Loki muttered.
"MOVE OUT!"
---
Thor flew toward his target—a being made of pure atmospheric chaos, constantly shifting between hurricane, blizzard, and electrical storm.
"YOU DARE MANIPULATE STORMS IN MY PRESENCE?!" Thor bellowed. "I AM THE GOD OF THUNDER!"
The Storm Weaver responded by creating a lightning bolt that struck BACKWARDS through time, hitting Thor three seconds before it was fired.
"OW!" Thor rubbed his head. "That was—that was actually impressive! BUT I CAN DO BETTER!"
Thor swung Mjolnir, and instead of creating lightning, he created a DIMENSIONAL STORM—a tempest that existed across multiple realities simultaneously, raining probability and thunder in equal measure.
The Storm Weaver tried to counter it, but dimensional storms don't follow normal atmospheric rules. It got caught in its own counter-attack, experiencing weather from seventeen dimensions at once.
"LIGHTNING DOESN'T JUST STRIKE DOWN!" Thor shouted, opening a rift beneath the Weaver. "IT STRIKES IN ALL DIRECTIONS!"
The rift opened into a dimension where "up" didn't exist. The Storm Weaver, confused about which direction to attack, simply dispersed.
"ONE DOWN!" Thor called out.
---
Loki faced his opponent with a grin—a being that existed and didn't exist simultaneously, that was both attacking and not attacking, both defeated and victorious at the same time.
"Oh, you beautiful contradiction," Loki said. "You're like looking in a mirror."
The Paradox Entity responded by making Loki's existence UNCERTAIN. Suddenly, Loki wasn't sure if he was real, if he'd ever been real, if reality was real.
"Nice trick!" Loki laughed. "But I've been gaslighting myself for CENTURIES! YOU'LL HAVE TO DO BETTER!"
Loki manipulated probability to make the Paradox Entity's paradox RESOLVE. Suddenly, it had to choose—exist or not exist. Attack or don't attack. Win or lose.
A paradox that's forced to resolve... isn't a paradox anymore.
The Entity flickered, confused, unable to maintain its contradictory nature. Loki sealed it in a probability loop where it would spend eternity trying to decide if it existed.
"TWO DOWN!"
---
Black Adam faced a being that claimed to speak for gods—a Reality Weaver that rewrote divine laws, making lightning fall upward, making justice become chaos, making power become weakness.
"You dare pervert divine authority?!" Black Adam's eyes glowed with pure godly fury. "I AM THE CHAMPION OF SHAZAM! BLESSED BY SOLOMON, HERCULES, ATLAS, ZEUS, ACHILLES, AND MERCURY!"
"And I rewrite what 'blessed' means," the Divine Manipulator laughed, changing the definition of divine power in its vicinity.
Black Adam's lightning flickered, confused about what it was supposed to be.
"You can rewrite definitions," Black Adam said calmly. "But you cannot rewrite WILL."
His sentient lightning, which had learned and grown throughout their journey, REFUSED to be redefined. It remembered what divine power meant because it HAD EXPERIENCED IT. It had learned, adapted, become more than just energy.
The lightning struck the Divine Manipulator with such conviction, such absolute certainty of purpose, that reality itself sided with Black Adam.
You cannot rewrite something that KNOWS what it is.
The Divine Manipulator shattered under the weight of lightning that refused to change.
"THREE DOWN!"
---
Superman flew toward his target—a being that was making everything in its vicinity heavier, trying to increase mass until gravity crushed all matter into singularities.
Superman could feel it immediately. His cosmic-enhanced strength was struggling under the increased weight of his own molecules.
"Trying to make me too heavy to fly?" Superman grinned. "I've lifted PLANETS!"
"Then lift THIS," the Physics Rewriter said, increasing Superman's molecular mass by a factor of a million.
Superman dropped like a stone—or rather, like a Clark-Kent-shaped black hole.
But Clark remembered his cosmic training. He remembered that physics was just... suggestions. Strong suggestions, but still just suggestions.
He reached out with his dimensional awareness and simply... MOVED himself to a dimension where he weighed less. Then he punched THROUGH dimensions back into the battle, hitting the Physics Rewriter from an angle where mass didn't matter.
The Rewriter tried to increase Superman's weight again, but you can't manipulate the physics of something that's existing in seventeen dimensions at once.
Superman's punch connected, sending the Rewriter flying into a nearby star.
"FOUR DOWN!"
---
Alien X faced perhaps the strangest opponent—a being made of pure CONCEPT. Not matter, not energy, not even reality. Just... the idea of threat. The notion of danger. The concept of "enemy."
"How do you fight an idea?" Bellicus asked.
"You can't destroy concepts," Serena agreed.
"But you CAN change them," Ben realized.
Alien X did something unprecedented—it REASONED with the conceptual being.
"You are the concept of 'enemy,'" Alien X said. "But concepts can be recontextualized. What if instead of being our enemy, you became the concept of 'challenge'? 'Challenge' makes us grow. Makes us better. It's still opposition, but productive."
The Conceptual Being paused, processing this.
"Or," Alien X continued, "you could be 'rival.' Rivals push each other to excellence."
The being flickered, its nature shifting. It was still opposed to them, but now in a way that was... constructive? Educational?
It stopped attacking and simply... observed. Learning. Evolving.
"FIVE DOWN! Kind of!" Alien X called out. "It's complicated!"
---
The seven Galector warriors faced three Reality Weavers that were structural entities—beings that manipulated the fundamental architecture of matter, breaking molecular bonds, rearranging atoms, deconstructing reality at its most basic level.
"FORMATION OMEGA!" the Galector leader commanded.
But the Structural Triplets were already attacking, trying to deconstruct the Galectors' star-metal armor.
"They're breaking us down at the atomic level!" one warrior reported.
"Then we don't stay atomic!" the leader decided. "FORMATION SHIFT—PURE ENERGY MODE!"
The seven Galectors transformed, converting their solid forms into pure energy states. You can't deconstruct atoms if there ARE no atoms.
As energy beings, they flowed around the Triplets' attacks, then reconverged and SYNCHRONIZED STRIKE from all seven angles simultaneously.
The Triplets tried to deconstruct the energy beams, but energy doesn't have structure to break down.
All three Structural Weavers were eliminated in a cascade of their own reflected attacks.
"EIGHT DOWN!" the Galector leader reported.
---
Doremano was having the time of his life.
The cosmic dog ZOOMED around the battlefield, not targeting any specific enemy but causing absolute mayhem wherever he went.
One Reality Weaver was trying to manipulate gravity. Doremano bit its tail (conceptually speaking) and suddenly ITS gravity manipulation was backwards. It crushed itself.
Another Weaver was rewriting causality. Doremano barked at it, and the bark traveled backwards through time, hitting the Weaver before it could attack. The Weaver defeated itself in confusion.
A third Weaver was making everything exist in quantum superposition. Doremano's tail wag COLLAPSED all the wave functions at once, forcing everything to choose a state. The Weaver chose "defeated."
"BORK BORK BORK!" Doremano's joyful barks echoed across dimensions.
"ELEVEN DOWN!" Tony reported, tracking Doremano's chaos. "Good boy is doing WORK!"
---
Tony floated at the center of it all, his enhanced perception tracking every battle simultaneously, his tactical genius coordinating support for whoever needed it.
"Thor, dimensional rift opening three meters to your left—DODGE!"
"Loki, probability spike needed at coordinate alpha-7!"
"Black Adam, lightning redirect in five, four, three—NOW!"
"Superman, incoming physics manipulation from behind!"
"Galectors, synchronize strike in T-minus two seconds!"
"Doremano, bite the one on your right—YOUR OTHER RIGHT!"
His repulsor beams fired constantly, not to destroy enemies but to create opportunities—redirecting attacks, creating shields, manipulating energy flows to give his team advantages.
"JARVIS, enemy count?"
"Eleven down, nine remaining, sir. But—"
"But what?"
"Sir, the remaining nine are COMBINING."
Tony's visor focused on the battlefield. The nine remaining Reality Weavers were flowing together, merging into a single massive entity.
"Oh no."
"What is that?" Superman called out, finishing his opponent and seeing the merged being.
"THAT," Tony said as his HUD analyzed the new threat, "is called a META-WEAVER. They've combined their reality-manipulation powers into a single entity that can rewrite EVERYTHING simultaneously."
The Meta-Weaver looked at them with nine heads, spoke with nine voices in perfect harmony:
"YOU HAVE DEFEATED OUR INDIVIDUALS. NOW FACE OUR UNITY."
It raised nine hands, and reality SCREAMED.
---
Physics stopped working.
Not gradually. Not selectively. Just... STOPPED.
Gravity became optional. Time flowed in random directions. Cause and effect separated. Matter forgot how to be solid. Energy forgot how to move. Space folded into impossible shapes.
The Cosmic Champions found themselves in a universe where the rules had been deleted.
Thor tried to swing Mjolnir but forgot what "swinging" meant.
Loki tried to manipulate probability but probability no longer existed.
Black Adam called for lightning but electricity had been conceptually erased.
Superman tried to fly but movement was undefined.
The Galectors tried to fire their weapons but "weapons" had stopped being a concept.
Even Alien X's reality warping failed because there was no reality left to warp.
Only Tony's consciousness remained clear, protected by his armor's dimensional shielding.
And Doremano, because apparently cosmic dogs exist OUTSIDE the rules anyway.
"JARVIS, tell me you have a solution!"
"Sir, the Meta-Weaver has created a null-reality zone. It's not manipulation—it's ERASURE. Every law of physics within five thousand miles has been deleted."
"How do we fight in a place with no rules?!"
"You don't, sir. You MAKE new rules."
Tony's mind raced. Make new rules. Create physics from scratch. Define reality itself.
That was impossible.
That was beyond even cosmic-level power.
That was...
That was exactly what the God had been training them for.
"Oh," Tony breathed. "Oh that's what this was all about."
He understood now. The entire training, all the tests, the singularity, the corrupted versions, the chaos strategies—it had all been leading to THIS.
They needed to learn not how to work WITHIN reality's rules.
But how to WRITE the rules themselves.
Tony opened team comms. "EVERYONE! I need you to THINK! Don't try to use your powers—they don't work here! THINK about what your powers ARE! The fundamental CONCEPT behind them!"
"I can't think!" Thor's voice came through, confused. "Thinking doesn't—"
"THINKING ALWAYS WORKS!" Tony shouted. "It's the one thing that exists independent of physics! CONSCIOUSNESS is the only thing the Meta-Weaver CAN'T erase! SO THINK!"
Slowly, painfully, the team's thoughts became clearer.
"Thor! What IS lightning?!"
"It's... it's electrical discharge! It's energy movement! It's—"
"NO! DEEPER! What is it REALLY?!"
Thor focused. In the absence of all rules, in the void of null-reality, he found the answer.
"It's... connection. Lightning connects sky to earth. It's the bridge between forces."
"YES! And dimensional rifts?"
"Connections between realities!"
"THEN CONNECT! You don't need physics! You need PURPOSE!"
Thor focused on the CONCEPT of connection, and suddenly—without physics, without rules, just through pure will and understanding—a rift opened.
"IT WORKED!"
"EVERYONE ELSE! SAME THING! Find the CONCEPT behind your power!"
"Probability!" Loki gasped. "It's not math! It's... it's CHOICE! The universe choosing between options!"
"Lightning!" Black Adam realized. "It's not electricity! It's... divine JUDGMENT! Decision given form!"
"Strength!" Superman understood. "It's not force! It's... WILL! The determination to protect!"
"Synchronization!" the Galectors said as one. "It's not timing! It's... UNITY! Seven minds as one!"
"Reality warping!" Alien X's three voices harmonized. "It's not manipulation! It's... IMAGINATION! Possibility given form!"
One by one, their powers returned—not because physics came back, but because they'd redefined their abilities at the CONCEPTUAL level, deeper than physics, deeper than reality.
They were no longer using powers within reality's framework.
They were creating their OWN framework.
Tony grinned inside his helmet. "NOW we're operating at god-level. ATTACK!"
---
The Meta-Weaver realized too late what had happened.
The Cosmic Champions weren't fighting IN null-reality.
They were CREATING reality as they fought.
Thor connected the Meta-Weaver to a dimension made entirely of pure order. Its chaos couldn't exist there.
Loki made the Meta-Weaver face a choice: exist as nine beings or one. It couldn't be both. It had to CHOOSE. The moment it chose, it fractured.
Black Adam judged the Meta-Weaver and found it guilty of perverting existence. His judgment was absolute. The Meta-Weaver was sentenced to dissolution.
Superman's will to protect created an immovable point in space. The Meta-Weaver couldn't move it, couldn't manipulate it, couldn't exist around it. It was pushed out of existence by sheer determination.
The Galectors' unity created a field where separation was impossible. The Meta-Weaver's nine aspects were forced to become truly one—and in becoming truly unified, they lost the individual strengths that had made them strong.
Alien X imagined the Meta-Weaver's defeat, and imagination at this level of existence WAS reality.
And Doremano?
Doremano bit the concept of "Meta-Weaver" itself and shook it like a chew toy until the concept fell apart.
"BORK!"
The Meta-Weaver shattered into nine pieces, then ninety, then nine thousand, then simply ceased to exist.
The null-reality zone collapsed. Physics remembered how to work. The universe sighed in relief.
The second wave was defeated.
---
The team regrouped, floating in the restored space, and there was a moment of awed silence.
"Did we just..." Superman started.
"Rewrite reality from scratch?" Tony finished. "Yes. Yes we did."
"We operated at CONCEPTUAL level," Alien X said, its three voices shaken. "We created physics through pure thought. That's... that's god-level operation."
"That's what the training was for," Tony realized. "The God wasn't just making us stronger. It was teaching us to think BEYOND strength. Beyond power. To understand existence at its most fundamental level."
"We're not just warriors anymore," Black Adam said quietly. "We're... something else."
"We're Cosmic Champions," Thor said firmly. "We always were. We just didn't understand what that MEANT until now."
"BORK!" Doremano agreed, tail wagging proudly.
"JARVIS, how many waves left?"
There was a long pause.
"Sir... I'm detecting movement from ALL remaining rifts. Approximately thirty more waves, each larger than the previous two. And they're all mobilizing simultaneously."
"All of them? At ONCE?"
"Yes sir. The enemy has apparently decided that sending them one wave at a time isn't working. They're committing everything to a full assault."
Tony looked at his team—exhausted, amazed, and absolutely ready for more.
"How many entities total?"
"Approximately... three thousand cosmic-level threats, sir. All converging on our position."
The number hung in the air like a death sentence.
Three thousand singularity-equivalent enemies.
All at once.
"Well," Tony said, his voice remarkably calm. "Guess it's time to see if we can write reality fast enough."
Thor raised Mjolnir. "FOR ASGARD!"
"For mischief!" Loki added.
"For justice!" Black Adam declared.
"For hope!" Superman smiled.
"For honor!" the Galectors said as one.
"For logic!" Alien X calculated.
"BORK!" Doremano barked.
"For GENIUS!" Tony finished. "COSMIC CHAMPIONS—PREPARE FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE!"
The thirty waves emerged from their rifts simultaneously.
Three thousand cosmic horrors descended on their position.
The Multiversal War had truly begun.
And reality itself held its breath to see what would happen next.
---
END OF CHAPTER 10
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 11: THE IMPOSSIBLE BATTLE
Where the Cosmic Champions face three thousand enemies at once and discover what it TRULY means to operate at god-level. Will their newly discovered conceptual powers be enough? Can they create reality faster than it can be destroyed? And will Doremano get to bite ALL of them?
Find out next time!