21. Engine start

- Zion's Fortress -

[Ring! Ring!] [Ring! Ring!]

The sound of the old ringtone filled the workspace as Zion looked up from the blueprint he was working on. The old relic of the modern age revealed the caller to be his friend Mark's, prompting Zion to answer it with curiosity.

"Hello, Mark. How are you doing, mate?" Zion inquired, his voice light with no worries.

"Zion," Mark answered, his voice typically warm and cheerful, now carrying an unusual weight.

Zion's senses sharpened as he sensed something amiss. "What's going on, Mark?" he asked, his tone laced with unease, drawing the attention of those around.

Grey Matter and Upgrade stopped what they were doing and turned to Zion. They clearly felt that something was wrong. Zion waved his hand to show it was nothing serious, but his partners just observed him for more details.

"Zion, did you transfer money to Pastor's account?" Mark's question was laden with frustration. The situation was far from ordinary.

Confusion clouded Zion's features as he tried to grasp the situation. "What do you mean?" he queried, trying to find the reason.

"Haaa....," Mark breathed a long sigh, "The Pastor was called by the bank to inform him about a large transaction to the church's account. A big company had donated ten million dollars to the church. The Pastor was shocked and had inquired if they were really telling the truth. Pastor also called me to check it, and from the details from the bank, it was from Wayne foundation."

"So, what's the problem here?" Zion asked, his voice laced with confusion. "It's just some company donating to a church that runs an orphanage. What's the big deal? Why are you so serious?"

Zion couldn't understand why his friend and father would act so seriously about some donation.

"The problem is, it is from Wayne Enterprises and Gotham is hundreds of miles away," Mark replied.

"So?"

"Don't you understand?" Mark nearly shouted, the frustration was getting to him. "A big company that's literally on the horizon sent a donation to a small church that runs a small orphanage, and millions of dollars at that? Don't you feel that's fishy?"

"There is nothing fishy here, Mark. Wayne Enterprises is a big company, and they make billions of dollars in revenue. Ten million is just pocket change, and they frequently donate to orphanages and other charity organizations," Zion explained, offering reassurance.

But Mark wasn't easily convinced. "Zion, you do know that with that much money we could renew this whole town?" Mark now felt frustrated with Zion's lack of understanding of the situation.

"I know," Zion answered, "And then why did you ask me if it was me who sent the money? The sender is clearly Wayne Foundation."

"Because why would a big company donate to a no-named orphanage in a small town?" Mark didn't know how to explain. "It was just an intuition, but I thought that it might have been your work. After all, you did turn into an alien velociraptor."

"You thought I used my power to send you money. Like how? By robbing banks?" Zion voiced, aggrieved.

"Maybe," Mark replied, unsure, "I thought you were using your power to do good, you know, like Robin Hood. Taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor.... So, it wasn't you?"

"Haaa," Zion sighed and revealed the truth to his friend, "Mark, it was me who donated the money through Wayne Enterprises. It was my share from a project I am working on."

"So, it was you!!!" Mark's shouted but voice visibly relaxed.

"Shut up, dude!!! Can't you act normal instead of doing detective work? I already told you to stop watching detective movies all the time." Zion shouted at his friends nossy behaviour.

"And what is Dad thinking about this?" Zion asked after a moment of pause. He wanted to know what his father was thinking.

"Well," Mark's regained enthusiasm plummeted, "He was restless the whole day before he came to the possibility that some dark organization was trying to use the orphanage to launder their black money."

"What!!!" Zion shouted, "How did he even come to that solution?"

"I don't know about that, but all I know is that he was planning on confronting all those who have their eyes on the orphanage," Mark replied.

As Zion heard Mark's reply, he saw an image of the pastor with a black outer coat and a cross around his neck, looking menacing as he wrapped his hands with a bandage, ready to battle all his enemies. The pastor was ready to preach the unholy soul the path to God.

"Zion, Zion! Are you there?" Mark called.

"Y-yes, I am. I was just distracted," Zion shook his head to clear distracting thoughts, "Just calm the pastor down before he does something. Just assure him that it was a donation from my boss after learning about my story."

Zion quickly made up a story that his dad would believe.

"Okay, I will convince him. But you are not doing anything illegal, are you? You do know that we don't need this much money?" Mark asked, worried for his brother.

"No, Mark. I am not doing anything that will make the pastor feel ashamed. I am doing good work to improve the world, make it a better place," Zion assured.

Zion was making the world a better place, but his methods were still questionable. Would he become a tyrant that will conquer the whole world? or a messenger that will preach peace? Even he didn't know. After all, one of his mottos was, "Just swing it. It will all work in the end."

"I trust you too, Zion. I will call later, after calming down the pastor," Mark replied.

Zion smiled, "Later, mate."

[Beep beep]

"Haaa... Man, that was something," Zion muttered.

"What happened?"

"Is everything okay?"

Zion turned to his clones' questions. "Yep, Mark is taking care of it."

"Okay." With that, they returned to their devices, no longer interested in the subject.

***

Zion turned to what he was planning.

The blueprint for the ship he was planning to construct, it was for his interstellar explorations. He only knew about the surface-level information about the prime universe from comics, so there were many things he didn't know about this universe.

He wanted to explore them. Maybe he will find another Superman on another planet, who knows. But the exploration was for him to learn the laws of this universe and find some stuff he would need in the future.

That was his plan.

He would leave this solar system to explore the universe and get things he would need. He would find them, or get them, using any means possible. It was his way of preparing for the future, when he would have completed his duty. When that time came, he would leave a stronger universe behind.

There was also things he was confused about in this universe.

He was a bit confused with the technological level of this universe. Earth would have dimension-traveling devices, and they still didn't become an interstellar civilization. They would fight demons and celestials alike but still not expand.

Why wait for the 31st century?

Why are they battling for a planet when they could conquer the whole solar system?

Why do they not understand that they are nothing but dust in the grand scale of things?

Why do they not solve all crimes? or world hunger?

Why does poverty even exist?

After thinking about it for a while, he came to an answer.

The Justice League.

You would think with all these threats the earth would advance leaps and bounds. But, these group of heroes that prevent all world-ending threats made technological development useless. A civilization needs to be unified for them to ascend to an interstellar age. For unity, the whole of humanity should unite under one banner.

What more than world-ending threats bring all humans under one banner?

But, with the Justice League present to solve all their problems, they are getting stagnated, idle in their fake peace. This stagnation limits their imagination. Maybe they need a wake-up call for them to rise, a threat so massive that even the Justice League can't overcome.

This universe was dark, but it had the potential to be so much better, and they would be better, but that is in the future, not now. We need to solve the suffering now to end the suffering in the future. He would do what Superman with all his powers couldn't, he would do what Batman with all his wealth couldn't.

He would become the force of nature that will make the Earth stronger, at least strong enough to survive the tides of time. To make them stronger, he needs to become a wall that they need to surpass.

He told Kara that he didn't want to become Justice League's enemy, he didn't want to, but it was a must. They need to evolve to fight for what's coming, and he was okay with becoming their villain, after all, the Justice League doesn't have qualms about a villain's help if the situation demands it.

So, to build power, he would gather all powers this universe can give. Maybe give the Justice League a breather before letting all hell loose. Not that they would have a calm period, a breather when all hell breaks loose with all multiversal threats unchained.

He was not essentially needed to make them stronger, but he would strengthen them, as a friend or an enemy.

"Hmmm... I moved too much out of the subject."

Zion cleared his throat, clearing his wandering thoughts.

He turned to look at the spaceship. It looked like any advanced interstellar ship from all those movies. The ship would be equipped with all his advanced tech as it will be a research ship. It will also be equipped with the necessary amount of weapons.

He would be on the ship, and he was sure he could deal with the threats himself if needed. So, not much thought was given to building a weapons system.

For now, that was the outline of this ship; it was still in the designing phase.

"Zion, it's ready," Grey Matter called.

Zion changed his focus to the object next to Grey Matter. The Cube looked like a metal cube. A silver, perfectly cut metal cube, nothing more. This was the atomic engine that would produce near-limitless energy. The cube was only slightly taller than Grey Matter, who was standing next to it.

"So, let's kick start this baby, yeah?" Zion smiled.

"Yeee!"

"Mmm."

"Atomix!"

He turned into Atomix, the white giant with gold lines and an hourglass symbol on his chest. His head has a helmet-like visor with the same symbol. He's tall, muscular, and looks like a sci-fi character brought to life.

Atomix slowly walked up to the Atomic Engine and clasped it with both his hands. He didn't have any other power source strong enough to jump-start this engine, but why worry when he could change into a walking atomic reactor.

With that, Atomic focused his powers in the middle of the device, where many exotic radioactive materials were stored. He was using his atomic fusion powers to start the reaction which this engine would cycle to produce energy. He was also there to make sure it doesn't destabilize and blow up in his face. The time slowly moved as the atoms collided, breaking into new unstable atoms, producing energy. The reaction was small at first, not even producing the energy needed. But as the time went, the speed of the spontaneous reaction increased tremendously.

Atomix could feel the temperature around him rise. Grey Matter and Upgrade moved to the back to avoid the heat. Atomix didn't mind the heat as he held onto the Atomic Engine, guiding its reaction. He didn't want to blow up Metropolis to kingdom come.

"Is everything ready, my compatriots?" Atomix's voice filled the room.

"Yes, put it in the car," Grey instructed as he moved to a panel connected to the car with many thick wires.

Atomix took heavy steps as he moved to his car, which looked small compared to before. His fingers were a bit bigger to put the small Atomic engine into the chamber meticulously. But he didn't need to worry much as the hood dismantled itself, revealing the 4-cylinder turbocharged engine, which opened with the clicking sound of multiple small components.

The toy engine turned into a chamber with four cylinders poking out. The whole engine looked futuristic with its silver surface glowing with blue circuits. Atomix was about to somehow put the Atomic engine inside the opened compartment when he felt a tug at the Atomic engine from the chamber.

Feeling the magnetic field from the chamber activating, he slowly let go of the Atomic engine in his hand. The white-hot cube hovered above the chamber for a moment before it slid into the chamber. With the Atomic engine settled in neatly, the chamber closed and morphed back to look like the 4-cylinder engine.

The hood closed, and the car just stood silent. There was no other light effect or any of that kind. The car just stood still like a rock.