Boom
A single punch from Amazo was enough to nearly kill Superman, sending him rocketing toward Earth, unconscious. One by one, the rest of the League stepped in—Captain Atom, Martian Manhunter, and countless others. But none of them could even slow Amazo down.
He tore through their defenses, flying straight toward Earth at such incredible speed that the planet's destruction seemed inevitable.
Back on Earth, heroes scrambled into the skies, doing everything they could to intercept him. But it was all in vain. Amazo's trajectory never faltered—until a beam of heat vision slammed into his side, sending him off course.
Supergirl. Her surprise attack was the first and only thing that managed to slow him down. But it didn't last. Amazo turned toward her, expressionless, and fired his own heat vision in retaliation.
With a blast that put a thousand suns to shame, space and time warped under the sheer heat compressed into those twin beams of energy. The heat vision surged forward at such impossible speed that Supergirl could only watch in frozen horror as they closed in.
But just before impact, at the very last second, something grabbed her, shielding her in the nick of time. The figure intercepted the beams, deflecting them with raw force. The redirected heat vision slammed back into Amazo, striking him head-on and sending him rocketing off the planet.
"Are you alright?" Ashborn asked, holding Supergirl in his arms like one might cradle a child. He looked down at her calmly, his face just inches from hers. Supergirl, caught completely off guard, turned bright red at the closeness.
"That heat vision was intense, I barely had time to remove the atoms in their path… you're flushed," Ashborn said with a sigh, mistaking her embarrassment for the effects of the attack.
He looked up toward Amazo, then at the countless injured heroes—some falling from the sky, others scattered across the battlefield, wounded and struggling. It was a scene that could shatter the fighting spirit of even the strongest warrior.
'Can I fight Amazo without using my shadows? I still haven't recovered my MP. On top of that, I can't call for backup—this Amazo would just copy anyone I bring in… Wait, he's weak to magic. Where is Doctor Fate?' Ashborn thought, frowning as he realized he hadn't seen the Doctor Fate of his universe. His universe is the universe where he gave Batman the Iron Man suit and so on.
Sighing to himself, he turned his attention skyward, watching as Amazo came rocketing back toward Earth—his speed now light-years beyond anything previously shown.
"Due to… certain reasons, I can't fight at full power," Ashborn said calmly. "So, can I make you my temporary herald?"
Supergirl's eyes widened as everything around her seemed to slow. Her heart dropped the moment she realized Amazo was now only meters away.
"What's a Herald?" Supergirl asked, unease tightening her voice as she watched Amazo slowly draw nearer.
"It means I gift you my powers," Ashborn replied calmly. "I don't have much to offer right now, but with the little I can give, although you will not go through a rebirth, it should be enough to unlock your full potential."
Supergirl nodded without hesitation, not wanting to waste another second as Amazo closed the final distance.
"Then arise!" What remained of the Shadow Monarch Force surged into Supergirl's body. In an instant, she felt divine—like a god reborn. The dark power twisted and reformed under her will, transforming into something new. Ashborn called it the Sun Monarch Force.
At speeds beyond comprehension, Supergirl flashed forward, catching Amazo's fist mid-swing—and crushed it effortlessly.
"Don't destroy it completely," Ashborn called out, leaning against a nearby wall to conserve his strength. "It might come back stronger. Just subdue it or something."
Supergirl, hearing Ashborn's words, narrowed her eyes. Slowly, she floated into the sky with Amazo still locked in her grip. Amazo desperately tried to scan and copy her powers, but of course, Ashborn had made sure that wouldn't happen—the Monarch Force shielded her completely.
As he watched from below, Ashborn got a good look at her and quickly realized something. This was the Supergirl from that one cartoon he used to watch as a kid—the one with the mini skirt and the exposed belly button.
Since she was floating above, directly in front of Ashborn… well, it didn't take much to guess what his angle of view was. Unfortunately, I mean, fortunately, Supergirl wore her miniskirt with cover under the skirt. She had it covered.
Supergirl moved fast—so fast that, to her, time may as well have been frozen. Amazo didn't even have time to react. In a single blur of motion, she tore his body apart and destroyed his power source, giving him no chance to regroup. Though the scattered parts of his body began to slowly draw back together, feeding off the sun's energy.
"How do I defeat him?" Supergirl asked, watching in alarm as Amazo's scattered parts began pulling themselves back together. She turned to Ashborn—only to see his shadows slither out, swallowing every shard of Amazo's body and dragging them into his shadow.
"You did a good job. I almost forgot how much potential Kryptonians hold," Ashborn said casually.
Supergirl opened her mouth to question what he had just done, but paused as she felt the power draining from her body. For a brief moment, she had held power on par with that of Superman, the one from the comics. The Superman who could move faster than comprehension, who bench-pressed the Earth for days without sunlight, who broke through dimensions using speed alone… and more. But it was only a temolry power up, and now it was leaving her.