Despite being half the size of Ant-Man, Thanos caught his descending fist with casual ease, throwing the hero aside like he was swatting a fly.
Ant-Man shrunk as he flew across the room, giving him more space to recover in, but Thanos paid him no mind, already turning to face Mr Fantastic.
He clenched his fist, the three Infinity Gems in his gauntlet glowing ominously. "Do you really think you understand what is going on here?" He demanded.
"Better question." Mr Fantastic responded. "Do you know what happens when you resonate a temporally-frozen, extra-dimensional force-energy with the kind of energy source you use in your throne?"
Without looking, Thanos fired another blast of electricity from the Infinity Gauntlet into Ant-Man, who had been trying to attack him while he was talking. "Your attempt at distracting me is as pathetic as it is transparent."
Mr Fantastic smirked. "Good thing we were both distractions, then."
In their home universe (and all the others too, frankly), martians were known as the most powerful telepathic race.
Not in the sense that the telepathic abilities they possessed were the strongest (though the species that even rivalled them could be counted on one hand) but that of the species that possessed telepathic abilities, they were the most powerful. Strength and toughness that comparable to that of a kryptonian, flawless shape-shifting, phasing, and flight were all part of a Martian's heritage. If it wasn't for their weakness to fire, a martian would be essentially unstoppable.
Now, Thanos had telepathic abilities of his own, and was skilled enough with them to hold Manhunter far enough at bay to be able to use the Mind stone to force him out fully.
But before his people had been rendered functionally extinct, J'onn J'onzz had been a manhunter – a martian who captured criminal martians. He knew many techniques for bypassing mental shields, including and especially those that only a Martian could pull off.
And in the moment that Thanos was looking at Mr Fantastic and focusing on Ant-Man in his peripherals, the Martian Manhunter phased back up through the floor, positioned himself immediately behind Thanos, and leaned forward, still intangible, to put his head in the same place as Thanos's.
Mental barriers, as it turns out, have a much harder time keeping out someone whose brain was technically inside your skull.
"Aggh!" Thanos screamed, as Manhunter started smashing through his last-ditch innermost mental defences. After a moment, he slumped over, his consciousness forcibly shut down.
Mr Fantastic quickly stretched out his hands to Thanos's throne, lifted up a panel, and started tinkering.
Floating back slightly, Martian Manhunter let himself become tangible again. He turned around and knelt down to Ant-Man's smoking body, helping him up. "My apologies for putting you in harms way like that."
"It's no big deal." Ant-Man said, his words slightly slurred. "Suit's got enough metal to work as a Faraday Cage…" He swayed on his feet, indicating that Thanos's attack had still done some damage.
Martian Manhunter grimaced. It was fortunate that Ant-Man and Mr Fantastic were familiar with telepathically coordinated battles – this "Professor X" he had seen in their memories seemed to rival even him in skill. If he got the chance, he would greatly enjoy 'talking shop' with the other telepath.
"There we go…" Mr Fantastic muttered, closing the panel on the throne. The machinery underneath sparked and hummed, a soft glow emerging from under the panel.
At the same time, the Speed Force capacitor around Flash's neck began to glow, despite being frozen in time. Small sparks started leaking out of the seams of the device as it responded to Mr Fantastic's handiwork, Speed Force impossibly starting to leak out. As it did so, the Flash's body started, slowly at first but with increasing speed – to move.
With a sharp crack the time-stop field abruptly shattered, the Flash blurring forwards then skidding to a halt in front of Thanos's unconscious body. "Oh. I guess we won then?"
"Yep." Mr Fantastic confirmed, attaching a cable from Thanos's throne to the Infinity Gauntlet. There was a bright flash, a loud zap, and a couple of muffled bangs as electricity discharged into the throne, frying most of its systems.
Mr Fantastic then swiftly pulled the Infinity Gauntlet off of Thanos and examined it with a critical eye. "He used the Power Stone to electrify his gauntlet. That's new." Mr Fantastic looked over at Flash. "Mind explaining why you aren't dead?"
"Lighting's kind of a friend of mine." The speedster shrugged.
Mr Fantastic eyed Flash for a moment, then sighed and pulled the Power Stone from the gauntlet. "Come give Hank and me a hand hooking this up to the dampener."
"Skeletor, you fiend!" He-Man shook his fist as the red Superman began to cackle with maniacal laughter. "What have your dark magics wrought now?!"
"Isn't it obvious, cabbage-for-brains? Neh-heh-heh!" Skeletor laughed as well. "I have separated the super-dunce into his good and evil selves!"
"Fiend!" He-Man cursed. He still remembered the 'Faker' clone Skeletor had once made of him.
Zatanna held up her wand. "Og ot peel–"
She didn't get to finish her spell as Red Superman's super-speed was invoked. In the blink of an eye, he had gone from laughing in mid-air to holding her by the neck, her breathing constricted.
He-Man was quick on the draw however, and dashed over fast enough to tackle Red Superman away before he could do anything permanent.
Red Superman, however, was not playing nice. With a gust of super-breath, he encased He-Man's front side in ice, then zapped it with heat vision to cause it to explode, blowing He-Man away in a burst of scalding steam.
That meant he stayed still long enough for Man-At-Arms's cannons to target and blast him, but he just laughed it off.
"Yes, yes!" Skeletor cackled. "Destroy them all, my evil minion!"
Skeletor didn't have any eyelids (or eyes for that matter), and didn't blink. Thus, he actually saw the moment Red Superman sped in front of him, fist raised.
"I am no one's minion!" Red Superman roared, punching Skeletor so hard that he was sent flying into a hill with enough force left over to embed him in the soil.
The sensation of a laser being fired into his back made Red Superman whirl around, finding Legend floating alone in the sky.
Legend made the 'come-on' gesture.
Red Superman snarled, then rocketed forwards to plunge his fist through the hero.
Legend turned to light and let the fist pass through him harmlessly.
Red Superman used his super-breath to encase Legend in ice.
Legend turned to light and moved out of the ice without issue.
Red Superman, in desperation, fired his heat vision at Legend.
Legend turned to light and absorbed the heat vision, recharging his own energy.
Red Superman snarled. "It seems that neither of us can hurt the other."
Legend just sighed, shacking his head. "Your world and ours were only pitted against each other for a few hours, but you'd be surprised what you can do with a few hours and a couple thousand Thinkers."
Especially when one of those Thinkers was Contessa.
Legend cracked his knuckles. "Yours is the biggest name on Earth Tsadi, so we made sure to work out plenty of countermeasures for you. For example, I happen to know that you have a problem with red sunlight."
Legend's next lasers were red.
"Hmm." Joseph Joestar muttered, tracing a circle in mid-air with a walking stick. A portal formed where he had traced, and he stuck his head in briefly to look around. He yelped, pulling his head back just in time to avoid something resembling a lobster's claw from pinching shut on his nose. "Not that one!" He cried, dispelling the portal by slashing through it with the walking stick.
A short distance away, Knuckles was kneeling on Altar Emerald. The recovered Master Emerald was floating freely in mid-air, the dampener placed beneath it. "Oh Master Emerald, please, I'm begging you – lend us your mighty power!"
The Master Emerald began to glow softly, and a soft beam of light shone from it into the dampener below, which began to hum as it powered up.
Batman, standing at the base of the altar, nodded appreciatively. "All four Dampeners are linked to the main JLA computer in our universe. Once the Dampeners are powered up, it'll automatically begin the slowing process."
Joseph opened another portal, and didn't even try to look inside it as fire gushed out from it. "Nope." He grunted.
Joseph leaned back on the walking stick, waiting for the portal to close on its own. "Hey, Bats. If we're going to be stuck here until I get this working or Access picks us up –"
"Tails could probably get you home if it comes to that." Knuckles interjected.
"Cool." Joseph responded, then resumed his question to Batman. "You mind answering a question?"
"Shoot."
"This White Queen lady – she's some kind of big bad super god thing."
"Correct."
"And fighting that sort of thing is what Strange and Fate do for a living. And both of them were put on Alexandria's team."
"You still haven't asked a question."
Joseph gave an exaggerated shrug, his biceps level with his head and hands in the air. "Does Alexandria know we're expecting the Queen to attack her?"
"Who do you think made the original team suggestions?"
With an almighty crash, Alexandria impacted the black pyramid with enough force to create a 3 meter wide crater and send cracks through the rest of the structure. She had no time to catch her breath, however, having to quickly dash out of the way before a beam of pure white erased the pyramid altogether.
It was nighttime locally, the only notable source of light the hundreds of magic circles that Doctors Fate and Strange had filled the sky with. They rained down fire, ice, lightning, chains of light, spears of darkness, and a million other things as well. Each shot shook the ground, and their continued barrage was making Alexandria worry that the planet itself would break apart if the fight continued.
The White Queen barely noticed their efforts.
She strode forwards, absentmindedly firing another pair of white beams in Alexandria's general direction. Around the Queen stood the bodies of the local inhabitants, anthropomorphic cat people.
"Don't let her near the Dampener!" Strange roared, redoubling his efforts.
"Indeed! We cannot allow the lives of those here to have been spent in vain!" Fate agreed, also putting his all into his casting.
A million weapons – spears, swords, axes and more – erupted out of the back of the White Queen's dress and into the sky. They pierced through the magical circles and erased them, plunging the battlefield into darkness. Both magicians were sent flying by the aftershocks of their own spells detonating.
"You are both more than capable of handling the Divine-class." The White Queen acknowledged. "But the Unexplored-class is out of your league, let alone the strongest of the Unexplored!"
"But this…" The White Queen turned to the Dampener, and to the sword that had been plunged into the ground before it. Or, perhaps, she was looking at the small gem embedded into the sword's cross-guard. "This is worthy of my time~"
Thanos groaned as he came to, which quickly turned into a snarl as he saw the Martian Manhunter standing over him, his throne smoking on the other side of the room, and his gauntlet missing.
"What have you done with the stones?!" He roared, headless of the way the Manhunter loomed over him.
"We used the Dampener to recharge Flash's Speed Force capacitor, then he took the Time and Mind Stones and modulated his frequency to leave this dimension – which, apparently, is another thing he can do." Mr Fantastic replied, ending on an exasperated mutter.
"The Stones are harmless outside of this universe." Ant-Man continued. "The JLA will watch over the Mind Stone, and the PRT the Time Stone. We'd scatter the other four as well, but the Space, Reality and Soul stones aren't here, and we need the Power Stone for now."
Thanos leapt to his feet. Manhunter interposed himself between Thanos and the two scientists, but Thanos made no move to advance. "You imbeciles! Tell me you haven't –!" He got a proper look at what they were working on, and ground his teeth in frustration.
The Power Stone had been placed into a socket in the Dampener, and both objects were now glowing brightly, vibrating slightly in place. The Power Stone only had influence in this universe, but the Dampener was in this universe, even if it was pumping Speed Force into the surrounding 'space' in the multiverse. All the Power Stone had to do was tell the universe that the Dampener had access to infinite power, and the universe would play along.
"It's controlled by a computer in another universe, and has a force-field built-in." Mr Fantastic said. "Even we couldn't stop it at this point."
Thanos glared at the three superheros. "It always amazed me how you people could be so smart, but so stupid at the same time."
Manhunter suddenly turned pale, having glimpsed what Thanos was about to say next. The two super-scientists in turn felt the first pangs of doubt.
"What –?" Ant-Man began, but Thanos wasn't done talking.
"I was going to use the Stones to reformat the universe to one toxic to the Queen. You simply picked the first solution that came to mind, without considering the consequences." Thanos spat. "You put so much effort into making these devices work, you never asked yourself one basic question."
"And… there we go." Sorceress, a woman wearing a dress that made her look like a falcon, said. "Back together again."
The drained and unconscious forms of Red Superman and Blue Superman winked out in a flash of magic, replaced with one whole Superman. Though now a full person again, Superman still looked exhausted by the ordeal. He gave a tired but grateful nod to both Legend and Sorceress. "Thanks, both of you. I'm sorry that any part of me tried to hurt you."
"I'm sorry too, Superman. Sorry that Skeletor fooled me so completely." Sorceress shook her head. "I will have to be vigilant against such trickery in the future…"
Legend coughed slightly. "Glad as I am to hear that, I'm afraid there's still the matter of what we came for."
"Of course." Sorceress nodded. "You wished to borrow the might of Castle Greyskull's secrets, did you not?"
Zatanna gave a quick summary of the issue and their solution, and Sorceress nodded. "A worthy cause. One moment – I must be in the castle proper for this."
Sorceress walked into the entrance to Castle Greyskull, carrying the Dampener with her. The sound of chanting echoed out of the castle, the whole structure seeming to hum with power.
Those standing outside the Castle turned at the sound of someone approaching, and found He-Man marching Skeletor over to them. Skeletor's hands were being held behind his back by He-Man, preventing him from casting.
"Superman punched him so hard he was left buried in the soil." He-Man chuckled, causing Superman to hold his head in his hands and groan.
Skeletor, due to having a skull for a head, couldn't really make facial expressions. So, when he looked up at Castle Greyskull and heard the chanting coming from within, he could only grit his teeth. "Tell me that isn't the Sorceress powering up that deplorable device you numbskulls brought with you."
"It is, Skeletor. Your plan, whatever it was, has failed." Superman glared.
"Power that device on and you will deeply regret it." Skeletor warned.
"Ignore him." Legend said, having dealt with hundreds of bad-looser villains over his career.
Skeletor gave a dark chuckle. "And you dunderheads wonder why I tricked you into fighting. Did you never consider why I kept up the charade, even after I got inside the castle?"
He-Man gave a sudden start. "That's right! Skeletor's plans have always been about trying to get inside Castle Greyskull! There's no way he'd pass up a chance to steal the castle's secrets!"
"I would if it meant keeping Eternia in the centre of the multiverse." Skeletor countered. "It might have slipped your mind, He-Dunce, but I happen to rely on magic, and would much prefer that it kept working."
Sorceress's chanting was reaching a crescendo, but everyone's attention had now moved to Skeletor.
"How did you know that the universes are moving?" Zatanna demanded.
"There might not be honour amongst thieves, but there is a strong sense of self-preservation." Skeletor said. "When some over-hyped trollop gets it in her head to destroy the status quo, you really shouldn't be so surprised that the forces of evil might pass the word."
"Did Hordak somehow let him know…? No, that doesn't make any sense; how would Hordak have found out…?" Man-At-Arms muttered.
"But, wait, that still doesn't make sense." He-Man protested. "These people are trying to stop the universes moving."
Skeletor laughed, a nasal 'neh-heh-heh'. "Is that what they told you? Listen here you jumped up muscle-boy. You really think universes haven't been destroyed before? The surrounding universes will stop on their own; which those imbeciles would surely have noticed if they'd watched them for more than five minutes."
Zatanna grimaced. "He has a point. As soon as we noticed that the universes were moving, we immediately jumped to figuring out how to stop them."
"That's because we were worried about collisions!" Legend defended (despite not having been there for that discussion).
"Are you saying that this Dampener will… what, over-stop the universes?" Man-At-Arms asked.
"No, quite the opposite I'm afraid." Skeletor said. "You see, as things are, the universes won't move far enough for that bleached tramp's purposes."
The collected heroes looked at each other, then as one turned to tell Sorceress to stop casting, only to find her staring back at them from the doorway, already finished.
The gem in the sword – the Eye of Thundera – could think for itself, and was even now trying to cut the energy feeding into the Dampener. But something wasn't allowing it to stop. Or more accurately, someone wouldn't allow it.
"Why on earth," the Queen laughed, her hair plunging down into the Dampener, shattering its forcefield and overriding control of the device "did you try to slow down the cosmos using something called the Speed Force?"