If you want to read up to 20!! chapters ahead go to https://www.patreón.com/cornbringer
Discord invite: https://discord.gg/XHduApz
Enjoy!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[David Lance POV]
Seeing as nothing was happening, at least nothing that required my attention, I decided to visit my sister to spend some time with her. It had been too long since I had seen her properly. Too long since I had talked to her.
"David!" Dinah greeted me as soon as I stepped into the manor. "I was about to make a trip to the base, give you a scolding for not calling your poor, old sister. How have you been?"
~I've been good. You know, work and stuff,~ I lied with a smile.
"Yeah, I know how that is," Dinah replied sympathetically.
~Where's Oliver?~ I asked.
"Working. Something about a shareholders meeting," Dinah replied before gesturing for me to follow her to the living room, where we took a seat opposite each other.
"Remember I told you before that I can see behind your lies? Well, let me ask you this question again. How have you been, really?" Dinah asked, giving me a look.
I hesitated for a moment, not sure how to answer that question without destroying my plans with Batman. ~Dinah, I'm fine. Stressed? Sure, but nothing too big, I promise you.~
Dinah sighed, shaking her head. "I don't believe you, but I'll let it go for now."
~Trust me to deal with this,~ I replied, placing my hand on hers.
"I do, I always do," Dinah said with a smile before her expression turned serious. "But please, don't ever forget that if you ever need to talk about anything, don't hesitate to come to me, all right? I'm always here for you, no matter what."
I nodded in response. ~So, any plans for today?~
"Besides spending time with my adorable little brother?" Dinah asked, a playful smile appearing on her face.
I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her. ~Yeah, besides that, dork.~
"Nothing besides that," Dinah replied, grinning from ear to ear. "So, what do you want to do? I'm all ears."
~I don't know,~ I replied with a shrug. ~What do you want to do?~
"Hmm," Dinah said, tapping her chin in thought. "We could go bowling."
Bowling? Hmmm, not a bad idea; I haven't done that in a while. ~Count me in.~
----------------------------
After bowling, eating an unholy amount of hotdogs, and watching an old movie at a trailer park, I decided to stay a bit longer in order to help my sister with her patrol of the city. Thankfully, there weren't any criminals on the run, or that required our attention, which allowed us to talk during the patrol without a care.
Eventually, the patrol came to an end, and it was time for me to go back to the base, so with a hug, I said my goodbyes, promising to visit her more.
As I neared the zeta tube to get back to the base, I noticed the sun had long since set, casting an eerie glow over the city. Smiling, I continued walking until I saw the space in front of me warped and moved.
Taking a step back, I felt my entire body tense, as in a burst of red, a figure emerged. Klarion.
"I told you we would continue our talk," Klarion said, a sick, demented smile on his face.
I took another step back, my hand reaching for the SOS beacon signal on my utility belt.
"Don't be a party pooper. This party is only for the three of us," Klarion said, waving his hand dismissively as a wave of red crashed into me, breaking upon contact. "Huh, magical warding? Interesting, but not enough to stop me. All that pesky mark will do is make this trip more painful for you."
I took another step back as Klarion stepped closer, a ball of red energy forming in his hand.
I frowned, hurling a few explosive knives at him. I had already called the team and anyone else, and now all I had to do was buy some time.
Klarion chuckled as the knives detonated harmlessly around him, the red energy in his hand growing larger until his familiar meowed at him. "What?... I... right, right, perspective, I knew that... YES, I DID, NO, I DID NOT FORGET! He knows I didn't forget, right Bolty?"
Taking his debate with the cat, I darted toward the opposite direction of him at full speed, knowing that a fight with him would only be a waste of time, as I had no way of dealing with him, not on my own.
Klarion chuckled once again, snapping his fingers as a small red energy sphere appeared in front of me, stopping me in my tracks. "Oh no, you don't; we're not done here yet." The sphere disappeared as quickly as it came, and I was sent flying into a nearby alleyway, where I hit a wall hard.
Without wasting time, I pushed myself up, noticing Klarion slowly walking toward me with an amused look on his face. "Now, ready to receive some perspective?"
I glared at him, my mind racing for a way to get out of this. I had to buy some time for the others to arrive, but how?
"It was a retroviral question," Klarion cackled with glee as a red portal appeared in front of him. However, before he could continue, his familiar meowed at him. "Rhetorical, he knows I meant rhetorical!"
I took the opportunity to hurl a few knives at the familiar, only for Klarion to vanish in a puff of red fire, leaving the red portal in place as he reappeared behind me.
"Enjoy the trip," Klarion said with a grin close to my ear as he pushed me into the portal with a snap of his fingers, creating a small, red-looking explosion that pushed me straight to the portal, his demented laughter echoing around me as I felt myself entering the portal. "See you later, Bolty."
--------------------------------------------------
For what it felt like hours, I plummeted through the darkness that had been waiting for me behind the portal, feeling weightless, until suddenly, I collided against something with great force. The impact was so forceful that the breath was knocked out of me.
For a moment, I lay there in shock, gasping for air, trying to process what had happened as the darkness started to dissipate. Taking a deep breath, I got to my feet and looked around, realizing that I appeared to be in some kind of forest. There was no sign of civilization anywhere. No roads, no buildings, no people. Just trees as far as the eye could see.
Just where had Klarion sent me?
Finding myself alone, I tried to call Raven with my belt, but for some reason, it wasn't working, it was almost as if I was calling a number that didn't exist. Frowning, I then tried to call out for help using my second communicator, but like before, there was no response.
It was as if I had been cut off from the rest of the world.
With no way to ask for help, I started to walk in what I hoped was the right direction, hoping to find a town, or something in order to contact the team.
----------------------------------------------------
[Rachel Roth - Raven POV]
I had been meditating when I sensed it. A sudden change in the arcane energy around me. It was like the air had turned to ice, or as if the world had turned upside down. One moment I was surrounded by the familiar hum of magic, and the next, I felt something shatter, something disconnect.
The Mark of Asteria.
"David," I muttered.
I knew, with a sinking feeling in my gut, that something was very wrong. Something had happened to David. Without wasting time, I tried to reach out to him with my mind, with my magic, but there was nothing. It was as if he had vanished into thin air.
I summoned my communicator, finding an SOS message from him. However, the message appeared delayed, by unnatural means. Technomancy?
Klarion.
The name crossed my mind like a curse.
"Kent, he will know what to do," I muttered, before teleporting to the tower of fate to meet with him. He would help me.
If you want to read up to 20!! chapters ahead go to https://www.patreón.com/cornbringer
Discord invite: https://discord.gg/XHduApz
Enjoy!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[David Lance POV]
Aimlessly, I walked through the forest Klarion had left me in for hours, growing ever so desperate to find some sign of civilization as time went by.
Eventually, my aimless exploration paid off as I found myself face to face with a path leading out of the forest. It was a dirt road, barely more than a path, but by the way, it was shaped, it was easy to tell that it was a way out.
Smiling, I quickened my pace, eager to escape the forestal prison that encased me. But as I walked, I couldn't help feeling a sense of unease growing larger and larger as the seconds passed.
Keeping my pace, I shook off the feeling and continued running down the path until I found myself face to face with an empty highway, a sign standing in front of me.
I stopped, giving the sign a look. [Washington DC - 300 Miles Away].
Washington DC.
Had Klarion really just teleported me to a random forest close to Washington DC? So much effort for that?
It felt off.
Taking a deep breath, I shook my head, trying to clear my mind as I started to walk toward Washington DC; however, with each step, a cold breathing-taking chill ran down my spine until I was forced to come to a full stop.
My newest superpower was going crazy, haywire, telling me to go in the opposite direction.
I guess it would be best to listen, but unless I see the threat, I won't know how to plan and react accordingly. Reminding myself of Batman's words, I walked back into the forest, deciding to run a few miles inside the forest before putting on a civilian attire to continue my path.
As I walked back into the forest and started running, the unease remained, but it was now calm compared to before, like a whisper instead of a shout in my ear.
Eventually, after half an hour of running through the forest non-stop and covering quite some mileage, I exited the forest back into the highway, this time looking like a normal guy, a hitchhiker even.
[Washington DC - 125 Miles Away]
Taking a deep breath, I started walking down the highway, the hot sun beating down on my skin, as I kept a thumb up in order to try and get a ride.
Thankfully, it didn't take long before a car stopped in front of me, and an old man leaned out the window of an old truck, a Ford F-250, from 1978. "Where are you headed?"
Pulling out a notepad, I raised my hand to him before writing my answer. [I'm heading to Washington, I apologize for the note, the downsides of being mute.]
The old man nodded his head before motioning for me to get in. "Not a problem, son. I'm heading that way myself. Smart thinking, having a notepad with you."
I nodded my head in response before getting into the truck, the old man keeping up a single-sided conversation as we drove down the highway.
I guess he was just happy about having someone to listen to him.
As time went by, the conversation went from personal anecdotes the old man wanted to share to a topic that caught my attention, and not in a good way, not at all.
"I still can't believe what happened in Metropolis, you know? I had friends there," The old man said, his voice trembling slightly. "It's just not right, all those people dead. And for what?."
What happened in Metropolis? Was that the reason I didn't receive any backup for my SOS calls, or why no one seemed to get them in the first place?
"That Joker," The old man said, shaking his head. "I really hope he's rotting in hell right about now."
The Joker.
Metropolis.
Lots of dead people.
It... it can't be? right?
I turned to the old man, my mind racing a million miles a minute as I tried to process everything. Then, after a moment or two, I pulled out my phone, and using the text-to-speech function, I asked one simple question. [What about the nuclear radiation?]
The old man sighed, shaking his head. "No idea, son. They say it might take years, decades even before the city is livable again, and it's not because of the radiation."
My heart sank into my stomach as the old man's words sunk in. I was in the world of Injustice.
This wasn't my earth, my reality.
As the realization hit me, my heart started racing, and my breathing became erratic. I was in a world where the Joker had nuked Metropolis, destroying the city and robbing Superman of everything, I was in a world where Superman had gone mad with grief.
"Are you okay, son?" The old man asked, looking at me with concern. "You don't look so good."
I nodded, trying to clear my mind as I took a few deep breaths.
The old man looked at me for a few more moments before sighing and shaking his head. "Young people nowadays." He muttered before turning his attention back to the road.
I sat in silence for the rest of the ride. I know knew, with every cell of my being, this would probably be the last moment of peace I had, for a storm was brewing for me right ahead.
-------------------------------------------------
[Batman - Injustice - POV]
I looked out the window, arms crossed. The wind was howling outside, and the trees were swaying. In the distance, I could see lightning and hear the thunder crashing as a storm started to brew in the city.
"Batsy!" Harley greeted, entering the room.
I turned to face her. "Harley, I need you to investigate something for me."
Harley cocked her head to the side, biting her lower lip before asking. "What is it?"
I handed her a paper with coordinates. "I received an SOS call near Washington DC. What really got my attention was that whoever sent this call was using an old line, one I don't use anymore because of the Regime."
Harley took the coordinates from me. "Sure thing, Batsy! Is whoever I'm supposed to bonk still here, or do I have to go commando super serious and stuff?"
"Unlikely. Whoever sent the signal turned the tracking off," I replied, wondering who this unknown was. I knew it wasn't the Regime. However, that didn't mean whoever this unknown was, wasn't an enemy.
"Well, I'll see what I can find!" Harley said with a salute before leaving the room.
您可能也喜歡