Utopian awoke half-buried in the warm sand of the Sahara. Every muscle protested, yet a strange sensation of power coursed through his veins. The intense pain from the previous day had transformed into mere stiffness, and he felt his body... different. Denser. More resilient. Fighting adversaries of cosmic caliber seemed to uniquely stimulate the Compound V within him. He savored this silent evolution for a moment.
Suddenly, his scrambled communicator began to beep. He dug it out of his dusty pocket.
"Hello?"
The calm, measured voice of Jon Jones, aka Martian Manhunter, responded. "Utopian. J'onn J'onzz here. Our sensors detected a massive energy anomaly and localized seismic disturbances in the Sahara Desert. The epicenter corresponds to your location. Is everything alright?"
Utopian fully extracted himself from the sand. "Yes, J'onn. I was attacked. By a certain... Lobo."
There was a brief, weighty silence on the other end of the line.
"We are aware," J'onn finally said, his voice growing graver. "He is the one The Preserver hired to capture Superman. Batman demands your immediate presence at the Watchtower for a full debriefing."
Utopian couldn't suppress a groan. "What? Paperwork? Now? Seriously?"
"Sorry, Utopian," J'onn replied, unflappable. "You know the procedures. It's for the League's archives. All encounters with cosmic-level threats must be documented. Any data you can provide on Lobo is invaluable for our future strategies."
Utopian looked around at the devastated expanse, the lunar battlefield he had helped create. He sighed, knowing J'onn was right.
"Alright, alright. I'm on my way."
Minutes later, he landed in the arrival bay of the Watchtower, still covered in sand and with slightly singed clothing. Batman was waiting for him, standing before a holographic screen, arms crossed.
"Report. Everything. From the beginning," Batman said without preamble.
Utopian recounted the events: his test flight into space, the encounter with Lobo's ship, the challenge, and the titanic battle in the desert. He described the Czarnian's incredible brute strength, his apparent invulnerability, his energy axe, and his unpredictable, violent behavior.
"He mentioned a bounty on Earth," Utopian added. "And he seemed to view our fight mostly as a 'warm-up.'"
Batman recorded every detail, his expression betraying no emotion.
"You survived. That's more than most can say after crossing his path," Batman commented once the report was finished. "Your observations confirm and supplement our own data on Lobo. His strength likely surpasses Superman's at his peak. His regeneration is near-instantaneous. And his psychopathy makes him impossible to reason with."
He turned his piercing gaze toward Utopian.
"You utilized a combination of strength and technique. That is the correct approach. Brute force alone is useless against him. The fact you managed to damage his weapon is crucial intelligence."
Utopian nodded, finally understanding the tedious importance of this report.
"So, what do we do now?" he asked.
"Now," Batman said, bringing up ship schematics and stellar maps on the hologram, "we prepare. Lobo was just a mercenary. The real problem is The Preserver. And if Superman is his target, he won't give up. Your fight was only the first round. The League needs to be ready for the next one. Your experience, Utopian, has just become a key element of our defense plan."
Duty called. The paperwork was done. The real battle, the one to retrieve Superman and protect Earth from an interstellar threat, had just begun.