The 3,000 cosmic entities hung in the void like a swarm of angry gods, each one radiating enough power to destroy galaxies. The rifts pulsed with malevolent energy. Reality itself seemed to be holding its breath.
And the Cosmic Champions were sitting in meditation pose.
All of them. In a perfect circle. Floating cross-legged in the void.
Tony Stark floated at the center like the world's most over-qualified yoga instructor, his armor dimmed to a soft glow, hands resting on his knees in perfect zen position.
"Alright everyone," Tony said in his most soothing voice. "Deep breath in..."
The team inhaled in unison.
"Deep breath out..."
They exhaled together, creating a small cosmic breeze that made nearby stars twinkle.
"Good. Now, center yourselves. Focus on your inner cosmic chi or whatever."
"Is this REALLY the time for meditation?!" Superman hissed, one eye cracking open to look at the approaching army of doom.
"This is EXACTLY the time," Tony said calmly. "We're about to face three THOUSAND singularity-level threats. If we panic, we die. So. Don't. Panic."
"DON'T PANIC?!" Thor's voice cracked slightly. "THERE ARE THREE THOUSAND OF THEM!"
"Breathe, Thor. In through the nose, out through the mouth."
Thor took a shaky breath. "This is ridiculous."
"This is STRATEGY," Tony corrected. "We've already come past impossibles. We beat a living singularity. We defeated our corrupted selves. We rewrote reality from scratch. We made a Meta-Weaver question its existence. We've done IMPOSSIBLE things."
"But three thousand—" Black Adam started.
"Focus on what you LEARNED," Tony interrupted, his voice still eerily calm despite the apocalypse approaching. "You learned to think at conceptual level. You learned to create reality. You learned to work as a perfect team. You learned that Doremano is always MVP."
"BORK!" Doremano agreed, tail wagging slightly despite the meditation pose.
"You've got this," Tony continued. "You're Cosmic Champions. You operate at god-level. You're literally reality-bending badasses who drink cosmic mead and do karaoke in the void."
"We did have a really good party," Loki admitted, eyes still closed.
"Exactly! And remember—" Tony's voice took on a slightly mischievous tone, "—Superman arrived via SOAP PORTAL. If we survived THAT embarrassment, we can survive anything!"
"I HATE YOU!" Superman's eyes snapped open.
"There we go! That's the passion we need!" Tony stood up, breaking the meditation circle. "Superman, Soap-er Man, PORTAL man—whatever we're calling you today—you ready?!"
"It's SUPERMAN!" Clark protested, but he was grinning despite himself.
"That's the spirit!" Tony's armor flared to full brightness. "Everyone else! Remember your training! Remember your conceptual understanding! Remember that we've done the impossible SO MANY TIMES that 'impossible' is just 'Tuesday' now!"
The team stood up as one, meditation abandoned, game faces on.
"We've got genius!" Tony gestured to himself.
"Divine power!" Thor and Black Adam raised their weapons.
"Mischief and probability!" Loki's eyes glowed.
"Hope and will!" Superman's cape billowed in non-existent wind.
"Honor and unity!" The Galectors synchronized perfectly.
"Logic and imagination!" Alien X's form rippled.
"And one very good boy who can bite concepts!" Tony pointed at Doremano.
"BORK!"
"So HERE'S THE PLAN!" Tony shouted, his voice echoing across dimensions. "We're going to face three thousand cosmic-level threats, we're going to create reality faster than they can destroy it, we're going to coordinate like the well-oiled cosmic machine we are, and we're going to WIN! Because that's what Cosmic Champions DO!"
The 3,000 entities roared in unison, a sound that made stars tremble.
Tony grinned beneath his helmet. "Also, if we die, at least we'll die having thrown the best party in multiversal history. JARVIS still has the footage!"
"That's not inspiring!" Superman protested.
"It's REALISTIC!" Tony countered. "Now—COSMIC CHAMPIONS! The impossible awaits! The insane beckons! The absolutely, positively, definitely unwinnable battle is here!"
He raised his fist to the void.
"SO LET'S GO PROVE THAT 'UNWINNABLE' IS JUST A WORD FOR QUITTERS!"
Everyone raised their weapons, powers flaring.
"FOR THE MULTIVERSE!" Thor bellowed.
"FOR MISCHIEF!" Loki added.
"FOR JUSTICE!" Black Adam's lightning crackled.
"FOR HOPE!" Superman's eyes glowed.
"FOR HONOR!" The Galectors synchronized.
"FOR LOGIC!" Alien X calculated.
"FOR THAT REALLY GOOD LIMBO CONTEST!" Tony shouted.
Everyone stared at him.
"What? That limbo contest was LEGENDARY. Doremano won. It was beautiful. Worth fighting for."
"BORK!" Doremano agreed enthusiastically.
"You're insane," Loki said.
"I'm a GENIUS," Tony corrected. "There's a difference. Now—MOVE OUT! FORMATION OMEGA-IMPOSSIBLE! GO GO GO!"
The Cosmic Champions charged toward 3,000 cosmic entities with absolutely no chance of victory, armed with nothing but conceptual reality manipulation, perfect teamwork, one gravity-manipulating dog, and the unshakeable confidence of people who'd survived a soap portal incident and lived to tell the tale.
The impossible battle had begun.
And somewhere in the cosmos, reality itself whispered: "This is either going to be GLORIOUS or the most spectacular failure ever witnessed."
JARVIS, still recording everything, filed it under: "Could Be Either. Possibly Both."
***
The Overwhelming Assault
The first wave of the 3,000 hit them like a cosmic tsunami.
Reality exploded into chaos.
Entities made of collapsed stars. Beings formed from quantum foam. Creatures that were living paradoxes. Monsters made of pure mathematics. Things that shouldn't exist attacking things that had learned to create existence.
"DEFENSIVE FORMATION!" Tony commanded, his tactical mind processing thousands of attack vectors simultaneously.
The Galectors moved first, creating their synchronized shield wall—but THIS time, instead of a physical barrier, they created a CONCEPTUAL shield. A field where "attack" was redefined as "miss."
Hundreds of cosmic blasts hit the shield and simply... missed. Not deflected. Not blocked. They just MISSED because the Galectors had made "hitting" impossible in that space.
"THAT'S NEW!" Superman shouted, impressed.
"WE'VE BEEN PRACTICING!" the Galector leader called back.
"THOR! DIMENSIONAL SCATTER—MAXIMUM SPREAD!" Tony commanded.
Thor swung Mjolnir in a pattern so complex it looked like he was conducting a cosmic symphony. Hundreds of dimensional rifts opened across the battlefield, not in straight lines but in FRACTALS—each rift connected to seventeen others, creating a web of dimensional chaos.
Enemies flew through one rift and emerged from random other rifts, completely disoriented, attacking each other by accident.
"LOKI! PROBABILITY CASCADE!"
Loki spread his hands wide, and suddenly the probability field went INSANE. The chance of enemies successfully coordinating their attacks dropped to nearly zero. The probability of them accidentally helping the Champions increased dramatically.
One entity tried to fire an energy beam and instead created a shield that protected Superman.
Another tried to teleport behind Black Adam and ended up teleporting INTO a star.
A third tried to manipulate time and accidentally fast-forwarded itself into old age and retirement.
"I LOVE THIS!" Loki cackled.
"BLACK ADAM! JUDGMENT FIELD—SECTOR SEVEN!"
Black Adam's sentient lightning expanded into a massive dome, and within that dome, divine judgment was LAW. Every entity that entered was instantly JUDGED—and if found guilty of attacking reality itself, the lightning struck them down automatically.
"Superman! Will-points at coordinates alpha through omega!"
Superman flew at impossible speed, creating dozens of "will-points"—spots in space where his determination to protect was so strong it became SOLID REALITY. Immovable. Unchangeable. Safe zones that nothing could penetrate.
"Alien X! Imagination barriers around the team!"
Alien X's three personalities worked in perfect harmony, creating shields made of pure IMAGINATION—barriers that adapted to whatever attacked them, becoming exactly what was needed in each moment.
"DOREMANO! CHAOS INSERTION—EVERYWHERE!"
"BORK!"
Doremano went WILD.
His tail wagged with such enthusiasm that gravity stopped being a constant and became a SUGGESTION. Up was sideways. Forward was yesterday. Mass was optional.
Enemies found themselves suddenly weighing nothing and drifting helplessly. Others found themselves so heavy they collapsed into micro black holes. Some found gravity flowing in spirals around them, creating cosmic whirlpools that trapped dozens of entities at once.
"GOOD BOY!" Tony shouted, coordinating everything from the center. "EVERYONE, KEEP IT UP! WE'RE HOLDING!"
But they weren't just holding.
They were WINNING.
The 3,000 enemies, designed to overwhelm through sheer numbers, were running into the fundamental problem of fighting beings who could REWRITE WHAT NUMBERS MEANT.
***
Reality Creation on Massive Scale
"Phase two!" Tony called out. "ACTIVE REALITY CREATION! Everyone—make the universe work FOR us!"
This was the true test of what they'd learned.
Not just defending. Not just attacking.
CREATING.
Thor raised Mjolnir and created CONNECTION—dimensional bridges that linked all their powers together, amplifying everything. Every attack from one champion boosted the others. Every defense protected everyone.
Loki created CHOICE—forcing enemies to make decisions about their attacks, and every choice created a probability branch that worked against them. Attack Thor? Accidentally hit Superman. Attack Superman? Accidentally create a shield for Black Adam. Try to coordinate? Accidentally destroy your own allies.
Black Adam created JUDGMENT—zones where the concept of "unjust attack" was IMPOSSIBLE. Within his domains, only fair, honorable combat was allowed. The chaotic 3,000 couldn't fight fairly. So they simply COULDN'T FIGHT there.
Superman created WILL—pockets of reality where determination was the strongest force. Where hope was POWER. Where protection was ABSOLUTE. Safe zones that expanded with every victory.
The Galectors created UNITY—fields where individual power meant nothing, but synchronized effort meant EVERYTHING. Enemies fighting as individuals were weakened. The seven Galectors, fighting as one, were amplified.
Alien X created IMAGINATION—reality that worked on dream logic, where the heroes' creative solutions always worked and the enemies' rigid attack patterns always failed.
And Doremano created CHAOS—gravity that danced, matter that sang, energy that laughed. Pure joyful chaos that delighted in confusing enemies and helping friends.
Tony coordinated it ALL.
"Thor, connection bridge between Superman and Black Adam—NOW!"
The bridge formed, and suddenly Superman's will-powered punches carried Black Adam's divine judgment. Every hit was both protection AND justice.
"Loki, probability spike on the quantum entities—make their existence UNCERTAIN!"
Loki waved his hand, and fifty quantum-based enemies suddenly weren't sure if they existed. They flickered between real and unreal, too confused to attack.
"Galectors, unity field overlapping with Alien X's imagination barrier—coordinate on my mark—MARK!"
The two fields merged, creating a zone where imagination synchronized across all seven Galectors became REAL. They imagined victory, and the universe made it happen.
"DOREMANO, GRAVITY WELL AT CENTER MASS—PULL THEM TOGETHER!"
"BORK!"
Doremano's tail wagged ONCE, and five hundred enemies suddenly found themselves pulled together into a dense cluster by gravity so strong it defied physics.
"EVERYONE—HIT THE CLUSTER! NOW!"
Thor's lightning, Loki's probability manipulation, Black Adam's divine judgment, Superman's will-enhanced strength, the Galectors' synchronized fire, Alien X's reality warping, and Doremano's gravity chaos ALL hit the clustered enemies simultaneously.
The resulting explosion created a NEW STAR that burned with conceptual fire.
"FIVE HUNDRED DOWN!" JARVIS reported. "2,500 remaining!"
"WE'RE DOING IT!" Superman shouted, energized.
"Don't jinx it!" Everyone yelled back reflexively.
***
The Desperate Measure
But then the enemies adapted.
The remaining 2,500 entities stopped attacking individually. They synchronized. They learned. They started COORDINATING.
"Oh no," Tony breathed as his sensors picked up the change. "They're forming a hive mind."
The 2,500 enemies merged their consciousness, becoming a single COORDINATED WILL focused on one goal: destroy the Cosmic Champions.
Suddenly, the attacks were PRECISE. Calculated. They hit weak points. They exploited gaps. They countered every strategy the moment it formed.
"We're losing ground!" Thor shouted, his dimensional rifts being sealed shut by coordinated enemy action.
"They're adapting faster than we can create!" Loki gasped, his probability manipulation being countered by sheer statistical force.
"Judgment zones collapsing!" Black Adam reported, his divine domains being overwhelmed.
"Will-points breaking!" Superman's immovable zones shattered under focused assault.
"Unity fields failing!" The Galectors' synchronization was being disrupted.
"Imagination barriers cracking!" Alien X's creative defenses were running out of ideas.
Even Doremano's chaos was being ORDERED by the coordinated enemy force, his gravity manipulation being countered by precise physics calculations.
"FALL BACK!" Tony commanded. "REGROUP AT CENTER!"
The team pulled together, forming a tight defensive sphere, but the 2,500 enemies surrounded them completely, attacking from all angles, coordinated and relentless.
"Ideas?!" Superman shouted over the chaos. "Anyone?!"
"They're coordinating because they're all connected!" Tony's mind raced. "Hive mind means shared processing power! They're thinking as ONE!"
"So we disrupt the connection!" Loki suggested.
"NO TIME!" Tony countered. "They'll overwhelm us before we can find the link!"
The attacks intensified. The defensive sphere was shrinking.
They were losing.
For the first time since the trials began, they were actually LOSING.
And then Doremano barked.
Not his usual happy bark. Not his battle bark.
A DETERMINED bark.
And Tony understood.
"That's INSANE!" he shouted at the cosmic dog.
"BORK!" Doremano insisted.
"What? WHAT IS INSANE?!" Thor demanded.
Tony's visor calculations went into overdrive. "Doremano has an idea. It's completely insane. Impossibly difficult. Will probably kill us all."
"WHAT IS IT?!" everyone shouted.
Tony looked at his team—exhausted, battered, but still fighting.
"We create a POCKET UNIVERSE," he said. "Right here. Right now. A mini-universe with custom physics designed specifically to counter these 2,500 enemies. We trap them inside and then COLLAPSE IT."
There was a moment of stunned silence.
"That's..." Alien X's three voices struggled for words. "That's CREATING AN ENTIRE UNIVERSE!"
"We've created reality before!" Tony countered.
"Bits and pieces! Not a WHOLE UNIVERSE!"
"Then we level up!" Tony's voice carried absolute conviction. "We operate at TRUE god-level! We don't just manipulate reality—we CREATE it from NOTHING!"
"Can we even DO that?!" Superman asked.
"I DON'T KNOW!" Tony admitted. "But we're about to find out! Everyone—give me your conceptual understanding! All of it! We're making a universe RIGHT NOW!"
The attacks were seconds from breaking through.
"DO IT!" Thor roared.
"NOW OR NEVER!" Black Adam agreed.
"FOR SCIENCE!" Tony shouted. "EVERYONE—CONCEPTUAL CREATION—MAXIMUM POWER—GO!"
***
The Pocket Universe Creation
What happened next would be remembered across infinite realities as the moment mortals became gods.
Thor offered CONNECTION—the fundamental force that links all things. The fabric of spacetime itself.
Loki offered CHOICE—the quantum probability that makes reality POSSIBLE. The foundation of existence.
Black Adam offered JUDGMENT—divine law that gives structure to chaos. The rules of reality.
Superman offered WILL—the determination that makes matter SOLID. The force that says "this IS real."
The Galectors offered UNITY—the synchronization that makes particles become atoms, atoms become molecules, molecules become LIFE. The harmony of existence.
Alien X offered IMAGINATION—the creative force that determines WHAT exists. The design of reality.
Doremano offered CHAOS—the entropy and energy that makes reality DYNAMIC. The motion of existence.
And Tony offered COORDINATION—the intelligence that brings all these forces together into a SYSTEM. The consciousness of reality.
They combined their powers.
And they CREATED.
Light erupted from their formation—not normal light, but the light of CREATION itself. The light that existed before the Big Bang. The light that IS existence.
A bubble formed around them, expanding rapidly, and within that bubble...
A UNIVERSE.
Not a big universe. Just a pocket. But complete. Whole. Real.
It had space. It had time. It had matter and energy. It had LAWS.
And those laws were specifically designed to counter the 2,500 coordinated enemies.
Law 1: Hive minds cannot exist. Individual consciousness only.
Law 2: Attacks against Cosmic Champions automatically fail.
Law 3: Gravity obeys the dog.
Law 4: "Impossible" is not a valid concept.
Law 5: Hope is the strongest force.
The 2,500 enemies were pulled into the pocket universe—and immediately their coordination SHATTERED. Hive mind broken by universal law. Individual entities confused and separated.
"IT'S WORKING!" Loki shouted in amazement.
"KEEP CREATING!" Tony commanded. "EXPAND THE LAWS!"
They added more:
Law 6: Lightning can make right-angle turns (for Thor and Black Adam).
Law 7: Probability always favors tricksters (for Loki).
Law 8: Capes look awesome in zero gravity (for Superman).
Law 9: Synchronized attacks are 777% more effective (for Galectors).
Law 10: Imagination instantly becomes real (for Alien X).
Law 11: Dog barks can solve any problem (for Doremano).
Law 12: JARVIS has administrator privileges (for Tony).
The pocket universe stabilized, containing all 2,500 enemies in a reality specifically designed to defeat them.
"Phase three!" Tony announced. "COLLAPSE THE POCKET UNIVERSE! CONTROLLED IMPLOSION!"
"Won't that destroy everything?!" Superman protested.
"Not if we collapse it INTO A CONCEPT!" Tony explained rapidly. "We created it from conceptual understanding—we collapse it back into concept! The enemies become THEORETICAL instead of REAL!"
"That makes no sense!" Black Adam shouted.
"EXACTLY!" Tony grinned. "It's so illogical that logic can't stop it! DO IT!"
The team reversed their creation process.
They UNCREATED.
The pocket universe collapsed, shrinking, compressing, reducing. The 2,500 enemies were compressed with it, crushed not by physics but by CONCEPTUAL PRESSURE.
They weren't destroyed.
They were made THEORETICAL.
Possible enemies. Potential threats. But not REAL anymore.
The pocket universe collapsed to a single point of light, which Tony grabbed in his gauntlet and CRUSHED.
The light scattered into harmless sparkles.
2,500 enemies defeated by being reduced to mathematical probability.
***
The Final Push
But they weren't done.
Five hundred enemies remained—the ones who'd stayed outside the pocket universe, the smart ones who'd seen the trap.
Five hundred singularity-level threats.
Against eight exhausted Cosmic Champions and one determined cosmic dog.
"Can we do that again?" Superman gasped, breathing hard.
"NO!" everyone else shouted simultaneously.
"That nearly killed us!" Thor panted.
"I'm out of conceptual energy!" Loki wheezed.
"Divine power at 23%!" Black Adam reported.
"Unity field generators overheated!" The Galector leader's voice was strained.
"Three personalities arguing about taking a nap!" Alien X admitted.
"BORK!" Doremano barked tiredly, tail wagging slowly.
"Great," Tony muttered. "We're exhausted, they're fresh, and there's still five hundred of them."
The five hundred enemies closed in, sensing weakness.
"Ideas?" Superman asked quietly.
Tony's mind raced through possibilities. They were too tired for conceptual creation. Too drained for reality manipulation. Too exhausted for complex strategies.
They needed something SIMPLE.
Something BASIC.
Something... wait.
"Guys," Tony said slowly. "We've been fighting at god-level this entire battle. Using conceptual powers. Creating reality. Operating beyond physics."
"Yes, and?" Loki prompted.
"What if we just... punch them?"
Everyone stared.
"WHAT?!" Thor exclaimed.
"Hear me out!" Tony continued. "They're EXPECTING god-level reality manipulation! They're defended against conceptual attacks! But are they defended against just... getting PUNCHED really hard?"
There was a pause.
"That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard," Loki said.
"It's so dumb it might WORK," Black Adam added.
"I can punch things!" Superman perked up.
"WE CAN ALL PUNCH THINGS!" Thor raised Mjolnir.
"FORMATION PUNCH!" Tony commanded. "EVERYONE—FORGET CONCEPTUAL POWERS! FORGET REALITY MANIPULATION! JUST HIT THEM WITH PHYSICAL FORCE! MAXIMUM VIOLENCE! GO!"
The Cosmic Champions, too tired for god-level operation, resorted to the most basic strategy in existence:
Hit things until they stop moving.
Thor flew forward and just SMASHED Mjolnir into an enemy's face. No dimensional rifts. No probability manipulation. Just a really, REALLY hard hammer swing.
The enemy, completely unprepared for such a BASIC attack, was knocked out cold.
"IT WORKED!" Thor shouted gleefully. "I JUST HIT IT!"
Superman grinned and started PUNCHING. No will-points. No conceptual strength. Just good old-fashioned super-strength applied directly to enemy faces.
Turns out, when you can punch through planets, you don't NEED conceptual reality manipulation.
Black Adam's lightning stopped being "sentient divine judgment" and became "really angry electricity that hurts a lot."
Loki stopped manipulating probability and started just STABBING things with conjured knives.
The Galectors stopped creating unity fields and started just SHOOTING with regular neutron-star weapons.
Alien X stopped warping reality and started just EXISTING AT things really aggressively.
And Doremano?
Doremano just CHOMPED.
No gravity manipulation. No chaos creation. Just DOG BITES.
Turns out, a cosmic dog's bite is REALLY EFFECTIVE even without reality-warping powers.
The five hundred enemies, completely confused by this sudden return to BASIC COMBAT, were overwhelmed.
They'd prepared for conceptual warfare. They'd adapted to reality manipulation. They'd learned to counter god-level attacks.
But nobody had prepared them for getting PUNCHED IN THE FACE.
***
Victory and Collapse
The last enemy fell.
Not destroyed by conceptual erasure. Not defeated by reality manipulation. Not eliminated by probability collapse.
Just knocked out by Doremano sitting on it until it stopped struggling.
"BORK!" Doremano barked triumphantly, tail wagging on top of the defeated cosmic entity.
The arena fell silent.
No more enemies. No more attacks. No more rifts opening.
Just... quiet.
The Cosmic Champions floated in the void, staring at the aftermath of the impossible battle.
"Did we..." Superman started.
"Win?" Tony finished. "Yeah. Yeah we did."
"We just beat THREE THOUSAND cosmic-level threats," Thor said slowly, processing it.
"We created a UNIVERSE," Loki added, still amazed.
"And then we won by PUNCHING things," Black Adam concluded.
"That's..." Alien X's three voices struggled. "That's the most illogical victory ever."
"That's GENIUS," Tony corrected, exhausted but grinning. "We operated at every level—conceptual, reality, physical. We adapted. We improvised. We WON."
The Galectors floated together, their usually perfect formation now just a tired huddle. "We... we actually did it."
"BORK!" Doremano agreed, finally getting off the last enemy and dog-paddling through space back to the team.
They regrouped in the center of the arena, floating among the defeated enemies—some theoretical, some unconscious, all thoroughly beaten.
"Status report," Tony said wearily. "Everyone alive?"
"Define 'alive,'" Loki groaned.
"Conscious and functional?"
"Barely," Thor admitted.
"Present," Black Adam confirmed.
"Still here," Superman said, though his cape was singed and his suit was scorched.
"Operational at 12% capacity," the Galector leader reported. The seven warriors looked exhausted even through their star-metal armor.
"Personalities voting 2-to-1 to take a nap," Alien X said. "But yes, present."
"BORK!" Doremano wagged his tail slowly, clearly tired but happy.
Tony's HUD ran diagnostics. "JARVIS, damage assessment?"
"Sir, everyone is alive and technically functional, though I use the term 'functional' very loosely. Power levels critically low across the board. You've all exceeded your recommended operational limits by approximately 847%. And sir?"
"Yeah?"
"That was the most insane, illogical, brilliant, stupid thing I've ever witnessed. And I've been recording you for years."
"Thanks, J. I'll take that as a compliment."
They floated together, exhausted, battered, but ALIVE. Victorious against impossible odds.
"No more enemies?" Superman asked, almost afraid to hope.
Tony scanned the void. The rifts were closed. The arena was empty except for defeated foes and one very tired team of champions.
"No more enemies," Tony confirmed.
There was a collective sigh of relief so deep it created a minor gravitational wave.
"We did it," Thor said, grinning tiredly. "We actually did it."
"Of course we did," Loki said, trying to sound confident despite looking like he'd been run over by a cosmic truck. "We're Cosmic Champions."
"Damn right we are," Black Adam agreed.
"Best team ever," Superman smiled.
"Most insane team ever," the Galector leader corrected. "But yes. Best."
"Adequate," Alien X said, which from Alien X was high praise.
"BORK!" Doremano barked, and everyone agreed that was the most important contribution.
Tony looked at his team—his weird, ridiculous, powerful, absolutely incredible team—and felt something warm in his chest that his armor couldn't quite quantify.
Pride. Friendship. Family.
"You know what?" Tony said. "I take back every joke I made about the soap portal incident."
"REALLY?!" Superman perked up.
"No. I'm never letting that go. JARVIS still has all the footage."
"I HATE YOU!"
"But," Tony continued, grinning, "you DID just help save the multiverse by punching three thousand enemies in the face. So... respect, Soap-er Man."
"It's SUPERMAN!"
Everyone was laughing now, exhausted, relieved, victorious laughter that echoed across the void.
And then the presence appeared.
The God.
But different this time. Not looming. Not testing. Just... there.
Solid. Real. Almost sad.
"You have completed the trials," the God said, its voice gentle. "ALL of them."
The laughter stopped.
"This was it?" Tony asked. "The final test?"
"Yes," the God confirmed. "And you have surpassed every expectation. You fought the impossible and won. You created reality itself. You operated at true god-level consciousness while maintaining your humanity, your humor, your SELVES."
The God's form shifted, becoming more defined, more present than it had ever been.
"You are ready," it said.
"Ready for what?" Superman asked, though part of him already knew.
The God's presence intensified, and suddenly they all FELT it—the weight of truth, the gravity of revelation, the understanding of purpose.
"Ready for the REAL fight," the God said quietly. "The trials are over. The training is complete. Now... I need to tell you why you're really here."
The arena seemed to hold its breath.
"Tell us," Tony said, his voice steady despite his exhaustion.
And the God began to speak.
The truth. The purpose. The REAL reason they'd been chosen.
The trials had been preparation.
But for what came next... nothing could truly prepare them.
***
Chapter 12: Side Mini-Chapter: "The Solar Butterfly Flare"