Earth 1
The city of Metropolis was in complete chaos, and that was putting it lightly.
Aside from the swarm of Changelings flying around, blasting people and kidnapping them to drain them of their love, aside from Infinite destroying all forms of resistance with the power of the Phantom Ruby, aside from all of that there was also the fact that Giganto was stomping around, destroying everything in his path.
Things were not looking good for Metropolis.
In the streets below, scared civilians payed no mind towards the Rift that had just emerged from thin air. There, from within the portal, jumped out Twilight Sparkle, Iron Man, Mario, Sonic, and the Batman. Not even a minute into stepping into Earth 1 and they were already shocked beyond belief.
Everyone surveyed the chaos surrounding them, all the damage, violence, fear. All the burning cars, buildings, and terrified people were just the beginning. There were multiple squadrons of soldiers dashing through the streets, firing off at any foe they saw, whether it be Changeling or phantoms generated by the Phantom Ruby.
As they took everything in, Sonic turned to Batman and said awkwardly, "Umm... Nice place ya got here, Bats."
The Dark Knight moved ahead of the group, taking all of it in. "This isn't right, something's wrong here."
"Ya think?!" Tony said, as if that weren't obvious.
Batman was about to retort when a sudden gasp from Twilight got their attention. They turned around and saw what had made the unicorn gasp in the first place. Down the street a group of Changelings were abducting civilians to take back to their hive so they could drain them of their love.
The unicorn took a step back in shock as she uttered, "Changelings..." As if that weren't bad enough, her head was suddenly filled with echoes of those seven haunting words.
"You have a lot to think about."
"You have a lot to think about."
"You have a lot to think about."
"You have a lot to think about."
"You have a lot to think about."
"You have---"
"Twilight?" The sound of Mario's concerned voice drowned out those thoughts. She turned to the plumber who placed a comforting hand onto her shoulder. "You okay?" He asked as he and the others stared at her with concern.
She nodded, although hesitantly, as she replied with, "Yeah. I just don't have the fondest memories of the Changelings or their queen."
Batman stepped forward and asked, "What are Changelings, Twilight?"
She then explained to her friends, "Changelings are shapeshifting insectoids that feed on the love that ponies feel in their hearts. The love that they drain give them sustenance so that they can keep on supporting their hive. They're led by their queen, Queen Chrysalis. The last time I encountered her she impersonated my old foal sitter, who was getting married to my brother." She then hesitated to tell the rest of the story before saying, "I figured out she was a fake and we all came together to stop her."
Although he noticed that Twilight was holding something back, Batman pressed on, "And how did you do that?"
"Cadance; my old foal sitter, and Shining Armor; my brother, used their love for one another to banish Chrysalis and her hive from Canterlot. We haven't heard from them ever since." Twilight explained to the group.
Batman nodded, but frowned behind his mask. She was clearly not telling them the whole story with this Chrysalis character. She didn't show it, but her eyes did. She was hurting, like that memory was a painful one. Could it be connected to how she was acting earlier back on Vorton?
So many questions yet to be answered.
But they couldn't dwell on that now, they had to find out what was going on and locate the Keystone.
"Batman!" A familiar voice to the Caped Crusader called out to him, enticing him to turn around. He saw Lois Lane, who had escaped out of Heroes Park, making a mad dash towards him.
"Lois? What's going on?" Batman asked, walking towards her with the others following behind him.
She stopped running and placed her hands on her thighs, panting heavily from running such a far distance. "I... was hoping.... that you would know... God that was far...." She stopped panting and straightened herself. It was then that she noticed that Batman wasn't alone. She leaned to look past him and asked, "Who are they?"
The Dark Knight turned around to see that Twilight, Iron Man, Mario, and Sonic had walked over along with him. He looked away from them and said to Lois, "Allies. They can be trusted."
Lois smirked coyly, placing one hand on her hip as she regarded the group, "Quite an ensemble. Never thought I'd ever see a unicorn in the flesh, but hey I'm marrying an alien so what do I know."
"How did this happen, Lois?" Batman asked, getting back to the matter at hand.
Her face turned serious as she recounted the events leading up to this attack. "A few hours ago a meteorite crash landed in Heroes Park. It was a huge story, and why wouldn't it be? Everyone was on edge, of course. Last thing we needed was another Doomsday attack, right?" She was getting sidetracked, so she continued on, "Anyway long story short, turns out it wasn't a meteorite at all. It was some kind of glowing stone, nobody knew what it was or what it could do. When the army showed up I did some digging into this thing. When I got nowhere with my research I went to see it for myself, when lo and behold, the army were actually these insect things--"
"Changelings." Twilight corrected helpfully with a smile on her face.
Lois stared at her oddly, only now just realizing that she could talk. "...Rrrrriiiight... Thank you, talking, purple unicorn who can apparently talk." She sighed as she massaged her forehead, "I don't know why I'm even surprised anymore." She let out a deep sigh before continuing, "Anyways their leader took the stone thing and flew off to Lexcorp. I managed to get out of Heroes Park and wouldn't you know it, that's when I found you."
Upon hearing all of this information, Batman stroked his chin in thought as he began to hypothesize, "That meteorite you spoke of sounds like the Keystone."
"Keystone?"
It was then that Iron Man stepped in, "A powerful artifact not of this world. If it falls into the wrong hands it could be catastrophic."
"Which is why we need to find it as soon as possible." Batman finished for the Armored Avenger.
"Is there anything else we should know?" Twilight asked the reporter, hoping for more info that could help them in solving this problem. Although she was inwardly hoping that there wasn't anymore to deal with. The Changelings were enough on their own the last time she encountered them. "Any other threats we should know about?"
It was then that a loud, thundering roar broke through the air.
Loud, booming, earth shaking footsteps followed the beastly roar, originating from behind the group of heroes. Once they all turned around to where Lois was staring, her face filled with dread, they all saw what it was that she feared.
The dreaded Titan: Giganto
He let out a low growl as he looked around, a trail of destruction behind him in his wake. A fleet of jets flew over the Titan's head, launching rockets as they flew by, hoping to do some sort of damage to him. All they managed to do was tick him off. Giganto let out another roar as he opened his mouth, the multiple rows of teeth opened up as well, and a purple light was seen at the back of his mouth.
He then unleashed a massive laser beam from his gaping maw, following the jets as they flew ahead of the laser. Unfortunately they weren't fast enough and were immediately vaporized by Giganto's attack.
Twilight let out a horrified gasp as everyone else scowled and leered at the massive Titan.
"Yeah there's also that thing!" Lois screamed, actually shaking in fear. It took a lot to scare Lois Lane, she stared down Doomsday during his rampage. She's been kidnapped lord knows how many times. She even managed to help rally the people during Darkseid's invasion of Earth. She had a somewhat sixth sense when it came to how dire a situation was, and she was getting all the wrong feelings when she stared upon the giant that was Giganto.
She didn't know why, but whenever she stared at him, she got this feeling, like they weren't going to make it out of this. It was the exact same feeling she got when Doomsday first arrived on Earth.
It was terrifying.
"W-What is that thing?" Mario asked, hoping that someone would have an answer.
Sonic scowled, "I don't know, but there's something familiar about it."
Tony's eyes shot open in realization, "Hey, you're right! Look at its design! Doesn't it look familiar?"
Upon further inspection, Batman knew what Tony was talking about. "It has the same makings of that creature we fought when we first met."
"You're right! It does!" Twilight exclaimed, finally catching on to what they were saying. "It has the same color scheme, and it appears to be just as destructive as that creature back in... Oz I believe it was called."
"There's gotta be a connection." Sonic said, stroking his chin in thought, "I can't be a coincidence that we've seen two creatures who look and act similar to each other."
Iron Man stepped forward and said, "We didn't even beat that creature when we first met. How the hell are we supposed to stop a giant one that's rampaging through the city?"
Their situation was dire. Iron Man had a point. None of their attacks managed to even lay a scratch on the Wyvern. And Giganto appeared to be just as strong, if not stronger, than the Wyvern entirely. How could they even stop him? But things got worse when Giganto let out another roar before backhanding a building beside him.
More specifically the building Twilight and the others were standing under. Lois looked up as half of the building began to collapse and descend upon them. "LOOK OUT!!!" She shouted in fear.
They all looked up and began to move, with Iron Man boosting over to try and grab Lois while Batman grabbed Twilight and booked it for safety. But they weren't fast enough. The building was going to crush them. They were going to die and there was nothing they could do about it.
But he could.
Suddenly everyone was miles away on a rooftop, safely away from any present danger. Confused, they all looked around, wondering what just happened. Twilight looked upward and saw a globe spinning around with the words 'Daily Planet' circling it.
The only ones who weren't confused were Batman and Lois.
"Took you long enough." Batman said as he looked up.
"You really have a knack for timing, Smallville." Lois said as she stared at her savior with a loving look.
Once everyone looked up, they all saw who was saved them.
It was a man. A flying man. He wore a blue suit with a red cape flowing behind him. He had black hair with a curl and the kindest blue eyes anyone had ever seen. On his chest was an 'S' symbol enclosed in a red diamond with a yellow backdrop. To go along with his red cape he had red boots and red tights with a yellow belt around his waist. He was very muscular in stature, very imposing yet his kind smile betrayed any form of fear he might have caused due to his physical appearance.
Twilight stared at Superman slack jawed as he landed softly on the roof with the rest of them. Who was this person? Was he the one who saved them? How could he fly without wings? Tony could because of his suit, but this person didn't have any form of technology on him. How was he fast enough that he saved them all before they could even blink?
She had so many questions.
Superman smiled at his fiancé as he said, "And you have a knack for getting into trouble, miss Lane."
She giggled before playfully smacking his chest with her hand, "Only because I know you'll be there to catch me when I fall."
They both shared a brief kiss before breaking apart. Once they had, Superman noticed that his friend was standing right there with an unamused look on his face. Superman's face brightened at the sight of his best friend before smirking at him, "Surprised to see you here, Batman. Not that I'm not happy to see you, but I was told you went off the grid by a... friend." He revealed, not wanting to disclose anything about Bruce's personal life in front of people he didn't know.
"I can always count on you, Alfred." Batman thought to himself before walking towards his friend. "Off the grid is putting it lightly."
Superman peeked over Batman's shoulder, noticing Twilight and the others staring at him, still trying to process what on Earth just happened. "I'm assuming it's the same place you met them?" When Batman nodded, Superman walked past him and kneeled down in front of Twilight, smiling kindly at the slack jawed unicorn. "You don't need to be scared, I won't hurt you. What's your name?"
Recovering from her shock, Twilight stuttered out, "T-Twilight Sparkle."
The Last Son of Krypton nodded before introducing himself, "I'm Superman, it's a pleasure to meet you." He then reached behind Twilight's ear and began scratching as a gesture of kindness so that she wouldn't feel afraid of him.
Twilight appreciated the gesture as she smiled shyly.
The Man of Steel ceased scratching and stood upright as he walked over to Iron Man, reaching out his hand. "Superman. And you are?" He asked the billionaire.
Tony grabbed the Kryptonian's hand and shook it, his faceplate sliding up to reveal his face. "Tony Stark. Gotta say, that's a strong grip you've got there."
"You have no idea." Superman replied as the two heroes parted ways. He looked down and saw that Sonic was walking over to him with a smile on his face. He chuckled as he said, "A blue hedgehog, not something you see everyday."
Sonic laughed heartedly, responding with, "Not everyday I find someone as fast as I am." He extended his hand upward and introduced himself, "Name's Sonic. Sonic the hedgehog!"
Superman grabbed the hedgehog's hand and shook it, "A pleasure to meet you, Sonic."
It was then that Mario walked over and introduced himself, "I'm-a-Mario! Nice to meet you."
"Likewise." Superman said kindly as he shook his hand. Once the introductions were over, Superman turned to Batman and asked, "Mind catching me up to speed?" He then gestured to Twilight and the others as he said, "Because it seems that I've missed out on a few things."
Meanwhile
Infinite hovered in the air, a phantom aura surrounding his form as endless waves of Phantom Soulless Ones marched against the barricade set up by the army. Bullets and laser blasts were flying, people were suffering and dying.
The jackal could care less.
"This pitiful rebellion has become rather tiresome." He said as he adjusted his mask. "I expected a challenge of sorts. Instead I've been met with nothing but disappointment. What a let down." He then proceeded to destroy their vehicles with a laser beam from his hand, causing them to retreat.
He scoffed before zooming up into the air, taking in all of the chaos around him. He looked to his left and saw Giganto destroying any buildings in his path. Infinite then looked to his right and saw that Lexcorp had already been overtaken by Chrysalis and her Changelings. It now had hives surrounding the whole building, with the helipad on top of the building now being decorated with a grotesque, crooked Changeling fortress where the queen of the Changelings resided.
Infinite looked down to see multiple camps filled with innocent people, waiting to be drained of their love. He smiled behind his mask, a perfect way to keep the rabble in line. He folded his arms as he hovered in the air, it wouldn't be long now until a true challenge would present itself.
All he had to do was wait.
Back at the Daily Planet
Lois was standing on a perpetual gold mine. The single greatest story in history was looking her dead in the face, and she couldn't say a thing about it. People already had enough to deal with, the last thing they needed to know was that multiple universes exist.
It would be the straw that broke the camel's back.
Superman placed his hands on his hips and sighed, "Dealing with alternate Earths is always a pain."
Twilight tilted her head in confusion, "Wait, this isn't your first time dealing with alternate dimensions?" When Superman shook his head, she turned to Batman, who also shook his head. When she looked to the others, Sonic was looking away, whistling a happy tune. Mario coughed into his hand awkwardly. And Iron Man simply shrugged.
Apparently she was the only one who was new to this sort of thing.
Lucky her.
The silence was broken when Lois asked, "So that meteorite that landed in Heroes Park was this Keystone thing you guys are looking for?"
"Pretty much." Iron Man answered.
It was then that Lois smirked knowingly, "Well I happen to know where it is." She revealed, gaining everyone's attention. "I saw that bug horse thing take it with her to Lexcorp."
Sonic clenched his fist and declared, "Then that's where we need to go!"
"Um, have you forgotten about the giant robot monster thing destroying the city?" Mario reminded the hedgehog. "We should at least find a way to slow that thing down if we can."
Agreeing with the plumber, Batman turned to Superman and asked, "Where's the rest of the League?"
"On their way." Superman replied before saying, "But we need to get started. Innocent people are dying."
Iron Man walked over to the edge of the Daily Planet and looked down. He saw a camp of cocooned civilians guarded by Changelings and Phantom Soulless Ones. He motioned the others to join him with his hand as he directed a question at Twilight. "Down there. What are they doing, Twi?"
She frowned in concern as she replied, "They're cocooning them, preparing to feed off of their love."
"So they're basically love vampires?" Lois asked.
Twilight shrugged, "That's an easy way to put it."
"Point is we have to save those people." Said Iron Man. "I don't know about you guys, but the last thing I want is to see people getting hickeys from love vampires."
Twilight turned to face the billionaire with a deadpan expression on her face, "They don't actually bite into their necks to drain their love."
"Point still stands." Tony retorted before hovering in the air with his thrusters. "Time to work for a living." With that, he boosted downward to save the prisoners from the Changelings.
Twilight lit up her horn and teleported down to the street while Sonic and Mario jumped down from the Daily Planet, not wanting to miss out on some of the action. Batman and Superman looked to one another before they went down to join them.
Lois simply smiled and folded her arms, letting them do their thing.
The Changeling didn't know what hit him.
One moment he was cocooning a civilian, the next he was blindsided by a blue blur. Said blue blur was currently running circles around them as Iron Man jetted towards them at high speeds. Before they knew it, the swarm of Changelings were blasted in the chest by two Repulsor Blasts.
As Twilight appeared in the middle of the camp, the Changelings guarding the cocooned prisoners hissed before firing off their horns. The unicorn projected a shield with her magic as Mario suddenly dropped down and stomped on their heads individually, knocking them out.
He flipped through the air before landing and giving Twilight a thumbs up.
The unicorn dispelled the shield as she fired a magical blast that destroyed the cocoons holding the civilians prisoner. Twilight turned around to free more prisoners, but was suddenly surrounded by four Phantom Soulless Ones. She lit up her horn and released a burst of magic, causing them to fade away from reality.
She looked up and saw both Batman and Superman fighting off both Changelings and Phantom Soulless Ones, with the Dark Knight fighting on the ground and the Man of Steel flying above him, destroying the illusions with his Heat Vision.
Using this chance, Twilight galloped over to the rest of the cocoons and proceeded to free them with her magic. But unbeknownst to her, one of the Changelings had woken up from her earlier magical outburst. It hissed as it charged up an attack with its horn.
Seeing this, Sonic immediately zoomed over to help his friend, but stopped suddenly when a red blur suddenly zipped past and knocked it out. The red blur had yellow lightning trailing behind him as he moved so fast that nothing could stop him. He knocked out any Changeling he came in contact with.
The hedgehog's jaw was hanging low, unable to comprehend what he had just seen. It was then that the red blur stopped right in front of him. He wore a red suit with golden gloves, golden boots, and golden wingtips on the side of his head. In the middle of his chest was a yellow lightning bolt striking downward with a white background behind it.
The Flash smirked at the hedgehog's look of disbelief. "Y'know, it's not everyday that I see a giant, blue, talking hedgehog." The Scarlet Speedster said to Sonic, who had shaken the look of disbelief off of his face.
Sonic smirked as he replied with, "Well it's not everyday I meet someone as fast as me."
Then out of nowhere, a swarm of Changelings flew down from up above, hissing at the two speedsters. Both Sonic and Flash looked to one another before smirking, crouching down in a running start position.
"Try to keep up." The Flash said to the Blue Blur.
"Right back at ya." Sonic replied to the Scarlet Speedster.
With that out of the way, the two speedsters blasted off at insane speeds, creating a sonic boom that sent the Changelings flying through the air as they both dashed through the streets of Metropolis.
Iron Man was surrounded, Changeling after Changeling, they just kept coming.
"On your left." J.A.R.V.I.S. warned his creator as a Changeling came flying from his left. Tony turned and blasted the Changeling with a Repulsor Blast. "On your right." Came the warning, to which Iron Man turned and took down the enemy Changeling. "Behind you." He was about to take down the incoming Changeling, but it was suddenly blasted out of the air by an energy blast from an unknown source.
When Tony turned around to see where the blast had come from, he saw that an African American man/robotic hybrid standing on a nearby rooftop. Half of his face was organic, while the rest of his body was robotic. His robotic augmentations were colored white while other parts of his body were a dark grey. He had a red optical on the left side of his face and a red cog-like symbol in the middle of his chest. He could also transform his arms into cannons to fire projectiles at his enemies.
Victor Stone, aka Cyborg, kept firing laser blasts from his arm cannon, taking down any Changelings in his line of sight. "Booyah!!!" The hero shouted as he blasted another Changeling with his arm cannon. Once the Changeling drone was dealt with, the cybernetic hero took notice of the Armored Avenger.
Underneath his helmet, Tony smirked and said, "Nice augmentations."
Cyborg smirked and replied with, "Nice armor."
A sudden screeching noise was heard from behind Iron Man. Once he turned around, both him and Cyborg saw a swarm of Changelings flying right towards them, hissing menacingly as their horns lit up with green magic.
The two tech based heroes looked to one another before introducing themselves.
"Cyborg."
"Iron Man."
Victor activated his own thrusters and flew up to hover alongside Iron Man, staring down the swarm of Changelings headed their way.
"Shall we?" Tony asked as he aimed his Repulsor Rays at the incoming enemies. He got his answer when Cyborg aimed his arm cannon outward. The two of them then flew straight towards the Changelings, ready to take them head on.
Batman, Superman, Twilight Sparkle, and Mario were surrounded by Phantom Soulless Ones and Changelings. They were all standing back to back in the middle of the street as the enemy forces moved in closer. The unicorn lit up her horn and fired a blast of magic as Superman let loose his Heat Vision.
But any Phantoms they destroyed just multiplied, their forces were never ending.
The Changelings laughed as they all lit up their horns, ready to seal them and drain them of their love while the Phantom Soulless Ones prepared to go in for the kill. But a sudden honking sound made itself known to everyone. Before anyone could question what they had heard, a green truck rammed into a small portion of the Changelings and Phantoms.
When it suddenly disappeared into thin air, a giant, green baseball bat suddenly projected into existence. It then swung down and sent both Changeling and Phantom alike soaring into the sky.
Twilight and Mario were understandably confused while Batman and Superman knew exactly what was going on.
Back up had arrived.
"Looks like you could use a hand." A familiar voice said from above. When the group looked up they saw three individuals flying above them.
One of them was a tall, muscular man with short brown hair. He wore a green domino mask to go along with his green outfit. It had multiple green highlights going all across his suit, the power of his ring coursing through his entire form. He wore a green Power Ring on one of his hands, which were enclosed in white gloves.
Floating beside him was a woman with long, black hair with a metallic silver tiara on her forehead. She wore red armor with gold accents as with a silver and gold bust line. The armor was attached to her blue pants and red boots, completing the look. She wore two wrist gauntlets, and was wielding both a sword and shield. And hanging by her side was her Lasso of Truth.
And floating to the right was a green skinned alien with red eyes who wore a purple cape with red lining the collar, with red straps rising from the loincloth over his blue pants and boots, the straps connecting to the red Martian emblem on his chest.
Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Martian Manhunter all floated down to join their fellow League members as well as the two newcomers.
Superman smirked up at his friends and said, "Right on time."
Wonder Woman noticed both Mario and Twilight standing alongside them. She turned to Batman, who she had also noticed was no longer AWOL and simply said, "Looks like you have quite a story to tell." She sent him a sly smirk as she landed next to him.
Batman said nothing as he took out a Batarang and threw it forward, hitting a Changeling in the side of the head, stunning him. As more Changelings and Phantoms started convening on their position, the group of heroes wasted no time in charging forward, taking their chance to attack.
The Changelings hissed before flying forward.
Twilight lit up her horn and fired a magic blast, striking a Changeling in the chest. Her thoughts were all over the place, part of her wanted to know who these people were, but she noticed that both Batman and Superman knew who they were. And it seemed that they were on their side.
She wasn't complaining of course, they needed all the help they could get.
With that thought in mind, she let out a battle cry and charged alongside her fellow heroes, meeting the Changelings and Phantoms head on, completely unaware that a certain jackal was watching them from a distance, studying them as they fought.
Infinite smiled behind his mask, "So they've finally arrived." He said as he adjusted his mask once more. "Finally, a worthy challenge."