The mission had gone perfectly.

Too perfectly.

A hidden facility.

Suspicious activity.

An unidentified prisoner being held against her will.

Naturally, the Justice League did what they always did.

They broke in.

Defeated the guards.

Rescued the prisoner.

And brought her back to the Watchtower.

Easy.

Simple.

A textbook operation.

For approximately twenty minutes.

Then Batman looked at the scans.

Then looked again.

Then a third time.

Which was never a good sign.

Across the room, Superman noticed immediately.

“Bruce?”

Silence.

“Bruce.”

A longer silence.

Finally, Batman slowly lowered the tablet.

“…We have a problem.”

Everyone turned.

“What kind of problem?” asked Flash.

Batman removed his cowl’s communicator.

He suddenly looked like a man reconsidering every life choice he’d ever made.

“The person we rescued…”

A pause.

“…is the daughter of” Darkseid.

The room went silent.

Completely silent.

Flash blinked.

Once.

Twice.

“…I’m sorry, whose daughter?”

Batman looked up.

“Darkseid’s.”

Silence.

Then—

“We kidnapped Darkseid’s kid?!”

“We rescued her,” Superman corrected.

“We rescued her from her own planet!”

Another terrible silence followed.

Because somehow that sounded even worse.

Then every alarm on the Watchtower activated at once.

Red lights flashed.

Warning systems blared.

Cyborg’s monitor suddenly filled with alerts.

Boom Tube signatures.

Hundreds of them.

Everyone slowly turned toward the main screen.

A massive image appeared.

Darkseid.

Standing motionless.

Staring directly at them.

Nobody breathed.

Then his voice echoed through the Watchtower.

“Return my daughter.”

Another pause.

“Immediately.”

Flash looked ready to faint.

Green Lantern looked ready to leave the planet.

Batman pinched the bridge of his nose.

Because after years of saving the world, defeating impossible enemies, and surviving countless crises—

the Justice League had finally accomplished something truly impressive.

They had accidentally kidnapped the daughter of one of the most dangerous beings in the universe.

And now her father was coming to pick her up.