The universe was immense.
Millions of galaxies stretched in every direction, each one containing countless stars, planets, and forms of life.
But this was not an ordinary universe.
It was a universe where the impossible was part of reality.
Somewhere within that immense cosmos, a small disturbance had just occurred. At first, no one noticed it; it was barely a fluctuation, a small disturbance in the fabric of space.
However, that disturbance began to spread.
Like an invisible wave, it traveled across the universe. It passed between planets, crossed galaxies, and moved through dimensions. For an instant, even the barriers separating different realities seemed to tremble.
Something had entered.
Something that did not belong in that universe.
In Gotham City, a man dressed in black stopped on a rooftop. His senses had not detected anything specific: there were no explosions, enemies, or visible signs of danger. And yet, something had changed.
For a fraction of a second, the systems in his equipment registered a reading he could not identify.
—What was that...? —he muttered.
Far away, in Metropolis, something similar happened. A man capable of hearing sounds from miles away raised his gaze toward the sky.
For an instant, he felt something.
It was not a threat, but it was not exactly a presence either. It was different, as if something had suddenly appeared in a place where it should never have existed.
Elsewhere, the reaction was even stranger.
Magicians felt a disturbance in the magical currents, while cosmic beings sensed an anomaly in the balance of the universe.
But there were some who received a much clearer signal.
On a planet millions of light-years away, an enormous space structure remained suspended in the void.
Oa.
The headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps.
Inside the great citadel, hundreds of Green Lanterns were carrying out their usual duties when, suddenly, all of their rings issued an alert.
An unknown signal had appeared in space.
It did not belong to any registered planet or correspond to any known species. And, strangest of all, it did not appear to originate from any known region of the universe.
One of the Lanterns raised his hand as he looked at his ring.
—What's happening?
The information began appearing before him.
—I don't know. The signal just crossed several sectors.
Another Lantern approached.
—An invasion?
—It doesn't seem to be.
—Then what is it?
Before he could answer, a new alert appeared, this time much more serious.
The anomaly had crossed an impossible distance in an instant.
The Lanterns exchanged glances. This was not normal.
At the center of Oa, the Guardians of the Universe had already received the information. The small blue beings stood gathered together as they watched the data projected before them.
One of the Guardians spoke calmly.
—The disturbance does not match any known phenomenon.
—A dimensional alteration? —another asked.
—It is possible.
—An enemy?
Silence filled the room.
Finally, one of the Guardians answered:
—No.
He paused.
—This is different.
The Guardians analyzed the data again. The energy did not appear to originate from any specific point in the universe; it was as if it had appeared from... outside.
One of them raised his gaze.
—Outside the universe?
No one answered.
For millions of years, the Guardians had studied the cosmos. They had witnessed wars, the births of stars, the destruction of worlds, and even phenomena capable of altering entire sectors of space.
But this was different.
Something had crossed a boundary that, until that moment, they had believed to be practically impossible to cross.
—We must find its origin —one of the Guardians ordered.
Several Lanterns received the order at the same time.
—Investigate the anomaly. Find out what entered our universe.
The rings began to glow as the Green Lanterns prepared to depart.
But none of them knew exactly where to look.
The signal had appeared and disappeared between sectors, as if it were moving at an impossible speed.
And while they tried to locate it...
In a remote corner of the universe, far away from Oa, Gotham, and Metropolis, the cause of that disturbance remained completely unaware of everything.
The boy was standing in the middle of the void. Around him there was nothing but darkness, distant stars, and enormous celestial bodies that he could barely make out.
He did not know where he was or how much time had passed since he had arrived there. He knew even less that his arrival had been detected by some of the most powerful beings in that universe.
He could only think about one thing.
—Where am I...?
He looked at his hands.
His body was still the same one he had formed in that void, although something had changed. The energy flowing through him felt different: more intense, more alive.
Then he felt that strange sensation again.
Something moved inside him.
The boy froze.
—Again...?
The energy began moving through his body, slowly at first and then with increasing intensity, until his chest began to glow.
—What's happening?
He tried to control the energy, but he couldn't.
Then he felt something he had never experienced before.
A force.
It wasn't entering him.
This time...
Something was calling him.
The boy raised his gaze. He didn't know where it was coming from, but he could feel it. It was like an invisible connection crossing an unimaginable distance and pulling him toward it.
—Is it... calling me?
Suddenly, his body moved.
—What?!
He tried to stop himself, but it was useless. An invisible force dragged him forward, faster and faster.
The stars began turning into streaks of light.
—What's happening?!
He tried using his energy to slow himself down, but that force was far too powerful. His body accelerated even more and, within seconds, he had left entire star systems behind.
Entire galaxies began passing before his eyes.
It was a speed no human being could have endured, but his body did not break apart. The energy inside him seemed to protect him.
As he traveled, that sensation grew stronger and stronger.
The call was coming from a specific point.
A planet.
A planet that was incredibly far away.
Earth.
But he still didn't know that.
All he could feel was that something was taking him there.
—I can't stop!
Space seemed to distort around him. The darkness disappeared behind him as he continued moving at an unimaginable speed, crossing distances that normally would have taken thousands or even millions of years in mere seconds.
And the closer he got, the stronger that call became.
Meanwhile, on Earth, no one knew what was happening yet, although some had already begun looking toward the sky.
Something was approaching.
Something that had come from a place so far away that even the Green Lanterns' systems could not explain its origin.
And that something...
Was him.
---
The speed continued increasing.
The boy could no longer distinguish the stars; everything around him had become streaks of light. He did not know how long he had been traveling. It could have been seconds, minutes, or perhaps much longer. There was no way for him to know.
Then, for the first time since his journey had begun, he saw something different.
A blue sphere appeared before him.
—What...?
He stared at it in disbelief.
Oceans.
Continents.
Clouds.
A planet.
—Is that...?
The force pulling him became much stronger, and his body changed direction. He was no longer traveling through space.
He was falling.
Directly toward that planet.
—Wait! What are you doing?!
He tried to stop himself, but it was useless.
The blue sphere rapidly grew larger before his eyes.
—No, no, no...
He entered the atmosphere.
An explosion of fire engulfed his body. The heat was unbearable, and his energy form began to glow more intensely as an enormous trail of light appeared behind him.
From the surface, he looked like a meteor.
But he wasn't.
He was something much stranger.
Satellites began detecting the object. At different control centers, several screens displayed the same trajectory.
—We have an object entering the atmosphere.
—A meteor?
—It doesn't match any records.
—Then what the hell is it?
The speed continued increasing.
The boy could now see the surface of the planet: mountains, forests, oceans, and cities passing before his eyes at an impossible speed.
—I'm going to die again!
For an instant, he remembered his previous death.
The noise.
The impact.
The darkness.
—I don't want to go through this again!
The energy inside his body reacted. An enormous amount of power surged through him, and his silhouette began glowing with blinding intensity.
Then...
He impacted.
BOOOOOOM.
The ground deformed the instant he struck it.
An explosion of dirt and rock spread in every direction. The impact created an enormous crater, ripping trees from the ground and sending rocks flying through the air while a shockwave tore across the terrain and raised a massive cloud of dust.
For several seconds, everything was silent.
Then, a sound began coming from the center of the crater.
—Ouch...
The boy slowly opened his eyes.
Everything hurt.
He tried to move.
—Agh...
He brought a hand to his head. The energy forming his body shifted slightly.
—I think...
He looked around.
The ground had been completely destroyed. He had landed in a remote area far from the cities, and the enormous crater stretched out around him.
The boy remained sitting for a few seconds.
—...That hurt.
He looked at his hands.
They were still intact, and his energy form also appeared stable.
—How am I still alive?
Then he remembered the journey.
Space.
The speed.
Earth.
He slowly raised his head.
The blue sky was partially covered by a cloud of dust.
For the first time since he had died, he was truly standing on a planet.
A planet with air, gravity, ground, and life.
The wind passed through his energy body.
It was a strange sensation, but a pleasant one.
The boy closed his eyes for a moment.
—So this is... Earth.
He had no way of knowing that his arrival had not gone unnoticed.
Hundreds of miles away, some people had seen the enormous light crossing the sky, and surveillance systems had recorded the impact.
And much farther away, in Metropolis, a man in a blue suit and red cape raised his gaze.
He had heard the explosion.
But it wasn't only that.
He could feel something.
Something strange.
Something that did not belong on Earth.
Meanwhile, in Gotham, a new signal appeared on the systems of the man dressed in black.
This time, it was much clearer.
A location.
An exact point.
The place where something had just fallen.
And somewhere in space, the Green Lanterns' rings received the same information.
The anomaly had reached a planet.
Earth.
The boy, unaware of all this, slowly stood up from the crater and looked at the strange landscape around him.
—Well...
He paused for a moment.
—I suppose now I have to figure out where I am.
But deep within his body, the energy began moving again.
And that sensation that had drawn him there was still present.
It had not disappeared.
It was simply...
Now much closer.
---
A few minutes later, a figure appeared in the sky.
He was rapidly approaching the impact site.
The man slowly descended until he was hovering above the enormous crater.
It was Superman.
He had followed the trajectory of the strange object after detecting its entry into the atmosphere. He expected to find a meteorite, perhaps a spacecraft, but he found neither.
He found something much stranger.
At the center of the crater stood a figure.
Superman watched in silence.
His senses tried to analyze what was in front of him, but he could not identify its origin.
It did not appear to be human.
It did not appear to be a machine either.
And it was definitely not something he had ever seen before.
The boy looked at him as well.
He did not know who he was or exactly where he was, and he certainly did not know that his arrival had been detected by beings scattered throughout the universe.
To him, there was simply one person standing before him.
Someone who looked human.
Superman took a step forward.
The luminous figure instinctively stepped back.
—Easy —Superman said—. I'm not going to hurt you.
The boy remained silent.
He didn't know what to say.
Superman spoke again.
—Can you understand me?
After a few seconds, the figure answered.
—Yes...
His voice was strange.
It did not seem to come from a mouth.
It simply echoed through the air.
Superman kept his eyes fixed on him.
—Who are you?
The boy lowered his gaze.
For a moment, he tried to remember his old life, his death, the void, and everything that had happened afterward.
But he could not find an answer.
—I don't know.
Superman remained silent.
The answer seemed sincere.
—Do you know where you are?
The boy looked toward the sky and then at the destroyed ground beneath his feet.
—On... Earth.
—Yes.
The boy looked at him again.
—And who are you?
Superman did not answer immediately.
Before he could, a small fluctuation passed through the boy's energy body.
Superman noticed it.
Something was happening inside him.
The same energy that had caused the cosmic anomaly was still there, but now it seemed to be reacting to Earth.
The boy felt it too.
—Again...
The energy traveled through his entire body and, for an instant, his silhouette glowed with greater intensity.
Superman became more cautious.
He did not know what might happen, but the creature didn't seem to know either.
The boy looked at his own hands.
—I don't understand what's happening to me...
Superman watched him for several seconds.
—Then I suppose we have something in common.
The boy raised his gaze.
—What?
—I also want to know what you are.
The boy remained silent.
In the distance, some birds began leaving the trees as the wind started blowing across the crater again.
And for the first time since he had arrived in that universe...
the boy was not completely alone.
But neither of them knew yet that, far away, the Green Lanterns had already begun heading toward Earth and that the Guardians of the Universe were still watching that strange energy.
Something had arrived from outside the universe.
And now it was standing before Superman.
The real story was only just beginning.