Deep beneath Umbrella Corporation's primary underground facility, a spacecraft rested inside a launch chamber large enough to swallow a football stadium whole.
The ship was monstrous.
Twenty ters long.
Five ters high.
Fifteen-ter wingspan.
Its design resembled a predatory beast more than a conventional spacecraft. Thick armored plating overlapped across the hull in sharp, aggressive layers, giving the vessel the appearance of sothing built to ram through enemy fleets headfirst.
Even without weapons, it could probably smash through the world's most advanced fighter jets without taking a scratch.
This was Drex Valen's first true interstellar ship.
Without complete Kryptonian schematics, he'd been forced to reverse-engineer most of the technology himself.
Still, the final result bordered on absurd.
The hull used a triple-alloy composite.
Vibranium.
Proto-Kryptonian tal.
Adamantium.
Blended together in perfect proportion.
The defensive capabilities were so ridiculous that even Captain Arica's shield looked outdated by comparison.
Drex strongly suspected that even Thanos swinging a uru-forged double blade at full force wouldn't leave a mark on the ship.
And because the Proto-Kryptonian alloy could absorb energy and regenerate itself, the vessel possessed limited self-repair capabilities as long as sufficient power remained available.
"Weapons systems online. Navigation online. Communications stable. Recon systems stable…"
Drex looked over the final diagnostics with visible satisfaction.
At last.
Space.
Just the word itself carried a strange gravitational pull.
Even though he'd already traveled across planets back in the DC universe alongside Kryptonian military forces, this felt different.
The DC cosmos was a nightmare.
Every mission there felt like walking through a minefield while cosmic gods rolled dice overhead.
Marvel's universe was dangerous too, but at least it was a different flavor of insanity.
Drex was about to call for Lyra Yan, Esdeath, and Tifa Lockhart when he suddenly turned around and nearly had a heart attack.
Ancient One stood silently behind him.
Drex clutched his chest dramatically.
"You know, one day you're actually going to kill sobody doing that."
Each thump against his own chest carried enough force to flatten the Hulk.
The Ancient One's eyelid twitched slightly.
She had noticed it imdiately.
Drex had beco stronger again.
A lot stronger.
Before, his existence had resembled a candle in the dark.
Now?
Now he felt like a star trying to compress itself into human form.
The rate of growth was grotesque.
"What, here to stop from leaving Earth?" Drex asked. "Concerned I'll beco the universe's problem instead?"
"No," the Ancient One replied calmly. "I ca to give you this."
She handed him a tallic cylinder.
"A star map."
Drex blinked.
"…Seriously?"
"The universe is constantly changing," she explained. "Black holes drift. Stars collapse. Supernovas erupt. Without updated navigation data, even you could accidentally fly into sothing catastrophic."
Drex paused.
"How many futures ended with crashing into a black hole?"
The Ancient One actually considered the question.
"Out of ten million futures…"
"Five million ended in black holes."
"Over three million ended inside stars."
"The remaining futures involved supernova explosions."
Drex stared at her.
"…Am I cursed?"
That level of bad luck felt statistically offensive.
To be fair, none of those hazards really threatened him anymore.
Becoming a Doomsday-Kryptonian hybrid ca with certain advantages.
But Lyra Yan, Tifa, and Esdeath were still normal Kryptonians by comparison.
He wanted this trip to feel like a honeymoon.
Not a cosmic widow-generator.
The Ancient One glanced toward the blue gem embedded in Drex's palm.
"In truth, the Space Stone already recognizes you. Once you understand it properly, avoiding those outcos should beco instinctive."
Drex opened his hand.
The deep blue glow of the Space Stone illuminated the chamber.
The gem had fused directly into his flesh.
Most people would vaporize touching an Infinity Stone.
Drex wore one like jewelry.
The Ancient One sighed softly.
"You may genuinely be the only being on Earth capable of embedding an Infinity Stone into your body without consequences."
Drex shrugged.
"There are stronger monsters out there."
Honestly, he'd originally considered eating the thing.
Partly curiosity.
Partly because he genuinely wanted to know whether his new physiology could digest Infinity Stones.
Also, the Milky Way contained over a hundred billion stars.
Who knew what different stellar radiation might do to Kryptonian biology?
Maybe he'd unlock sothing ridiculous.
Magic Superman.
Thought Robot Superman.
Cosmic nonsense with ten-page power descriptions.
The possibilities were endless.
Not that he actually needed more power anymore.
Becoming a Doomsday variant had removed most of his weaknesses entirely.
Still.
More abilities never hurt.
The Ancient One's expression grew slightly more serious.
"You'll need to figure out the Space Stone on your own."
She deliberately avoided elaborating.
Because the Space Stone wasn't just for teleportation.
Most people underestimated it.
Space collapse.
Gravitational distortion.
Artificial singularities.
Used correctly, the stone could annihilate entire regions of space instantly.
"Co back soon," she said finally. "Earth still needs you."
Drex looked genuinely confused.
"Does it?"
He had built S.W.O.R.D. into a monster already.
At this point, even Thanos risked getting beaten unconscious if he invaded too early.
"There are still enemies coming," the Ancient One said quietly.
And, naturally, refused to elaborate further.
Drex rolled his eyes internally.
Mystics really loved speaking like malfunctioning fortune cookies.
Either say the thing or don't.
The Ancient One vanished monts later.
Drex inserted the star map into the ship's navigation port. Data streams flooded the system instantly as galactic coordinates updated across the main display.
Then he called the others.
Ada Wong remained behind to assist Urd with Umbrella operations. Drex had originally designed Ada only slightly beyond peak human levels, so bringing her into deep space felt unnecessary.
Tifa looked genuinely stunned after boarding.
"A honeymoon across the universe?" she said, smiling brightly. "That's… actually insanely romantic."
Lyra Yan tilted her head thoughtfully.
"To wander the endless void…" she murmured. "Was that always humanity's dream?"
Truthfully, she didn't care much about space itself.
If given the choice, she'd rather revisit the ancient lands she once called ho.
Esdeath, anwhile, looked ready to invade the galaxy personally.
"We're only bringing the four of us?" she asked. "No army?"
Ever since learning what the cosmos truly contained, she'd beco fascinated with it.
Infinite civilizations.
Infinite wars.
Infinite battlefields.
Drex shook his head.
"Exploration first."
"Conquest later."
The Burning Legion simply wasn't large enough yet.
Thanos deployed armies in the billions.
Even Drex wasn't arrogant enough to start galactic wars with a handful of troops.
Monts later, the spacecraft ignited.
The launch chamber shook violently.
Then the ship tore upward and blasted through Earth's atmosphere in a streak of silver-blue light.
Clouds fell away beneath them.
Then oceans.
Then continents.
Earth slowly shrank behind the ship, luminous and impossibly beautiful against the darkness.
For a long mont, nobody spoke.
The silence of space swallowed everything.
And ahead of them waited the universe.
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