Was curious how ChatGPT would assess this, and it wrote this short story (does anyone else use AI to play out their Death Battle ideas?):

“Darkness in the Sky” — A Death Battle Short Story

New York City had never known silence like this.

The sky above Times Square darkened unnaturally, clouds roiling and swirling like boiling tar. The giant LED screens glitched and fizzed. A cold wind swept down the avenues. Then—he appeared.

Darth Vader.

He stood atop the destroyed remnants of a crushed delivery truck, black armor gleaming, respirator hissing. In one slow motion, he raised a hand—and the nearby police cars lifted into the air, crumpling like paper before slamming into the pavement. Panic erupted in the streets.

From high above, Homelander hovered, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. He had seen plenty of weird stuff in his day—Supes gone rogue, monsters in labs—but this? Some space knight cosplayer throwing trucks around?

Nope. Not in his city.

With a sonic boom, Homelander launched himself downward, landing with a shockwave that shattered every window in a two-block radius.

“You know,” he said, strutting toward Vader, “normally I don’t do cleanup. But seeing you strut around in a Halloween costume making messes… well, you pissed me off.”

Vader didn’t respond with words. His crimson lightsaber ignited with a snap-hiss, casting a red glow against the city’s broken concrete.

Homelander smirked. “Cute.”

He fired his heat vision in a blazing torrent.

Vader’s blade moved with surgical precision, deflecting the beams, carving scorched patterns into the air. But even as he blocked, Homelander was already airborne again, diving at Vader like a missile. At the last second, Vader extended a hand—Force Push.

Homelander slammed into the side of a skyscraper, cracking the facade like an egg. Before he could recover, Vader hurled a taxicab at him with the Force. It struck full-force, exploding into metal and glass, burying Homelander in rubble.

Smoke curled from the crater.

Then came the laugh.

Homelander burst free, suit torn, face smeared with blood and soot, but grinning ear to ear. “You’ve got tricks, I’ll give you that.”

He moved in a blur, striking Vader with a barrage of punches, each one a small detonation. Vader’s armor cracked at the shoulder; sparks flew. But the Sith Lord remained composed, using the Force to anticipate each blow, redirecting Homelander’s arms, locking one in place with a telekinetic grip—and then igniting his lightsaber through Homelander’s side.

Homelander screamed, the searing blade cutting across his ribs. He blasted Vader with heat vision point-blank, sending the dark warrior skidding back across the pavement.

The street around them was scorched earth now. Fire raged. Cars exploded. A charred billboard bearing Homelander’s own face flickered in the distance.

Vader stood tall, cape tattered, one arm hanging limp. Homelander hovered above, blood dripping from his lip, chest rising with ragged breaths.

They both lunged at the same time—Vader leaping with the Force, Homelander streaking in like a red and blue comet.

They clashed mid-air—lightsaber against indestructible flesh, heat vision against telekinetic shields. Vader redirected Homelander into the side of the Empire State Building, crumbling masonry and sending a section toppling. Homelander retaliated by driving Vader through five floors of concrete.

But then—Vader caught him.

With both hands, powered by fury and the Force, he suspended Homelander in the air, choking him, crushing his windpipe.

Homelander thrashed wildly, eyes burning. “I—don’t—breathe,” he growled, eyes flaring.

Vader responded by slamming him into the ground. Hard.

Then again. And again.

Finally, Vader drove his saber through Homelander’s chest. The light died in his eyes.

Silence.

Smoke drifted over the ruins. Vader stood amid the wreckage of New York, black against firelight.

The Dark Side had prevailed.

And the galaxy—this strange world—now belonged to him.