The Prime Distortion
Superboy Prime's arrival wasn't heralded by trumpets or cosmic rifts—it was violence made manifest. The very concept of "hope" recoiled as his boots touched the fractured ground. He radiated a power that didn't just bend reality; it spat on it.
His eyes locked onto Superman.
> "You. You're the cause. You let people like him exist."
He pointed a trembling finger at Sentry—now kneeling, caught between divine restraint and his own unraveling psyche.
Robert Reynolds clutched his head, screaming as The Void coiled behind his skin like a caged serpent.
> "Don't let me become him again... please..."
But Superboy Prime wasn't listening.
> "You're all weak. Every version of you is a story about restraint. But me? I'm truth."
And then he moved.
Faster than spell.
Faster than thunder.
A punch aimed not at Sentry—but at Superman.
---
The blow struck like betrayal.
Superman skidded across conceptual ground, his cape torn and his chest cracked with the force of a star's death.
Cosmic Spider-Man reacted, launching twin webs of compressed time, trying to bind Prime's momentum.
But Prime laughed.
> "Nice try, Bug-God."
With a roar, he tore through the Enigma-threads and slammed Spider-Man into a collapsing starlight reef that existed only between frames of reality.
Thor moved next, calling down storm after storm. Runes exploded in the sky as Mjölnir-Eternal returned to his hand. The thunder was so loud it caused Earth-1610 to glitch.
Still, Prime stood firm.
> "Is that all the gods of stories can do?"
He headbutted Thor.
The thunder wept.
---
Strangefate stepped forward, hands glowing with both mutant force and arcane law.
> "Kal-El Prime. You are not a man. You are a tantrum wearing a cape."
He cast the Chrono-Severance Spell, slicing Superboy Prime from the multiverse for one breath.
But Prime screamed—and that scream overwrote the magic.
He emerged again, angrier.
> "You think you can stop me with words and illusions? I PUNCHED REALITY IN THE FACE AND IT BROKE."
And then—
He turned to Robert Reynolds.
> "You're worse than me. You're what happens when cowards get power."
Superman, bloody but standing, staggered between them.
> "Stay away from him."
Superboy Prime grinned.
> "Or what? You'll give me a speech?"
Superman didn't flinch.
> "No."
> "I'll remind you… that even a broken symbol can still protect what matters."
And with that—
Superman let go.
His aura flared—one final time. Not just solar, but conceptual.
He poured every ounce of who he was—truth, justice, hope—into a single uppercut that collided with Superboy Prime's chest.
The sound was not heard.
It was felt across creation.
---
Superboy Prime flew backward.
Crashing through realities.
Through ages.
Through forgotten timelines.
And vanished into a narrative void.
---
Superman collapsed to his knees, coughing light.
Spider-Man returned beside him, battered but alive.
Thor breathed heavily, cloak torn, but his hammer still shone.
Strangefate watched Sentry quietly.
And Robert Reynolds… cried.
> "I didn't ask for this... I didn't want to become the monster again."
Superman reached out.
> "Then don't."
But deep inside Sentry's soul…
The Void whispered:
> "You think this ends here?"
> "This was just a ripple."
> "The real story hasn't even begun."