Lex Luthor, a proud human supremacist, accepted the challenge without hesitation. The war between Atlantis and humanity began along the coastlines, spreading chaos across continents.
America's armies, now infused with super-soldier serums developed by Luthor, clashed fiercely with the Atlantean warriors, who held unmatched power beneath the sea. But Atlantis's wrath wasn't limited to one nation—it was a war against the entire surface world.
Soon, the World Red Alliance was drawn into the fray. Thus began the Third World War—a prolonged and devastating conflict that continued to this very day.
When Barry Allen restarted the world and returned home, he expected the comfort of his mother's smile and the relief of his father's freedom. Instead, what greeted him were screams and gunfire.
In this new reality, the Barry Allen of this timeline had already died—killed two years prior during the war against Atlantis. Pressed into service as a common soldier, he never even awakened his connection to the Speed Force.
So when Flash appeared, his parents mistook him for an Atlantean impostor. Terrified, they attacked him. Heartbroken and confused, Barry fled into the shadows, forced to survive on the streets while his own face appeared on every wanted poster in Central City.
Days passed until Zod's global broadcast sent the world into panic. Barry's grief finally boiled over. Standing in the middle of a crowded street, he shouted in frustration,
"Damn it! Sunshine and beaches!"
Hidden nearby, Malrick couldn't help but let out a dry chuckle. A butterfly flaps its wings in South America, and a tornado forms in Texas—he'd heard the saying before. But his interference hadn't caused a simple tornado. It had changed the course of history itself.
Red flags now fluttered across half the globe. Even Batman's fate might have been altered by this twisted version of history. Nothing about this world followed the story he knew.
And when Malrick looked toward Siberia, he found something that made his brow tighten—Kara Zor-El was nowhere to be seen.
"I need to find Kara first," he murmured. "If I can't help Clark deal with Zod, then helping her is just as important."
He expanded his senses, letting his super-hearing sweep across the planet like a radar pulse. Within moments, he picked up a conversation deep beneath Washington, D.C.
"You think the alien we've been guarding might be the one General Zod's demanding?"
Malrick's expression darkened. "So this time, Kara isn't in Siberia… she's in Washington?"
Activating his enhanced vision, he peered through layers of concrete and steel. What he saw made his jaw tighten.
Beneath a forty-story skyscraper—the LexCorp Tower—lay a vast underground facility. Dozens of lead-lined chambers were stacked like honeycomb cells. Even Kryptonian eyes couldn't pierce that metal barrier. But Malrick wasn't just any Kryptonian. His vision had evolved far beyond theirs.
He saw everything. Rows of containment tanks filled with nutrient fluid. Human subjects floated inside, suspended in eerie silence. Some were unconscious, others dead.
And in the deepest room of all, he found her. A frail blonde woman sat inside a dimly lit chamber, wearing nothing but a torn nightgown. Her skin was pale and dry, her frame skeletal. Red light flooded the room, draining every ounce of strength from her body.
Kara Zor-El. Her arms were covered in healing needle marks, evidence of endless blood extractions. Her body bore no signs of violation—but her spirit was broken. Every inch of that room was rigged with red-sun projectors, the perfect prison for a Kryptonian. The scientists studying her had learned her weaknesses well. They feared her strength but coveted her biology. To them, Kryptonian blood was the ultimate treasure.
Malrick remembered a similar tale from the comics—how Lois Lane had once been accidentally injected with Superman's blood and briefly gained powers like his.
He stepped back from the vision. Above the underground complex, the towering LexCorp logo gleamed under the night sky.
"So that's how Luthor created his super-soldiers," Malrick muttered. "Not by cloning Kryptonians, but by twisting their blood to force human evolution. Typical Luthor."
He tapped the shoulder of the Mark Armor, signaling Jarvis to take Tony somewhere safe until he woke up. Then, with a soft hum of displaced air, Malrick vanished from sight.
---
Deep underground, Kara Zor-El sat motionless beneath the crimson glow. Her once-bright emerald eyes had dulled to gray. She couldn't remember how long she'd been here. Time meant nothing in the endless dark.
The last clear memory she had was her parents' faces—her mother's trembling hands injecting the life codex into her body, her father urging her to protect her younger cousin, Kal-El, before sending her away in a ship that barely survived Krypton's destruction.
But when she reached Earth, she didn't find hope. She found horror. Armed soldiers had surrounded her landing site before she could even step out. The sky erupted in gunfire. She had fought until her strength ran out, only to awaken in a cell.
The people here called her "the alien." They feared her, cursed her, and hurt her.
One day, a bald man with cold blue eyes came to see her.
"You are the key to humanity's evolution," he said. From that day forward, her blood became their obsession.
They drained her daily, fed her tasteless meals, and tested her powers using artificial sunlight. Whenever she resisted, they used red-sun radiation and lead barriers to subdue her.
He had promised to help her find her cousin, but the promise was a lie. Now, years later, Kara lived like a ghost—alive, but numb. Her only company was the sound of machines humming and the occasional hiss of syringes. Even her nightgown, once white, had turned gray with time. She had stopped counting the days, the meals, and the experiments.
Until, one day, everything changed. A low rumble shook her cell. Then came gunfire, shouts, and explosions. The walls trembled. For a moment, Kara dared to hope—but quickly dismissed it. Hope was a luxury she no longer believed in.
Then silence. Every red-sun light in her chamber flickered and died. She froze. Her spoon hung motionless in midair.
And then—light. A brilliant golden beam pierced the darkness as the lead door groaned open.
The shape of a man appeared in the doorway, surrounded by the glow of the real sun. He wore a black battle suit with a flowing cape, and an S emblazoned across his chest.
"Kara," the figure said. "Do you want to go out and feel the sunlight?"
Her bowl slipped from her trembling hands, shattering on the floor. Tears welled in her hollow eyes for the first time in years. She reached toward the light.
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Milestone
100 Power stones = 1 Bonus Chapter.
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