If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want !
/-\
THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE - NIGHT
The wind outside howled with the fury of a world untouched by warmth. Ice shards glimmered like daggers beneath the aurora, and within that cathedral of ice and silence the crystalline sanctuary of the Fortress of Solitude, a man moved with impossible precision and stealth.
Batman inside, almost silent. His suit adapted to the temperature, the matte black fabric absorbing light instead of reflecting it. He wasn't just moving unseen, he was moving unnoticed, bypassing Kryptonian sensors that were designed to detect everything unusual.
Rows of suspended crystal matrices glowed faintly along the corridor walls, pulsing with data and light. A normal intruder wouldn't have made it past the entrance. But Batman wasn't a normal intruder.
He had mapped the fortress for a long time, from orbit, from League files, from the time he spent here and from countless hours of watching Kryptonian energy signatures. Every camera, every defense crystal, every reactive sentinel drone, all accounted for.
And tonight, every single one was blind.
He stopped before a towering crystalline console. Holograms shimmered faintly in the air, Kryptonian text scrolling across them like streams of silver light. His gauntlet extended, and a small black device unfolded from his wrist a needle of code and subspace encryption designed to talk to alien systems without ever announcing itself.
A soft hum. A flicker of resistance. Then access granted.
The world's greatest detective was in, finally found the data he was looking for.
Alongside the tool Arthur wanted him to take, the Phantom Zone Projector, nestled in its containment mount. It looked almost ceremonial a device built to command dimensions. Batman's eyes narrowed.
'So this is it.'
He disengaged it with care, no sound, no alerts sliding it into a matte-black lead case designed by him specifically for this purpose. His reflection glimmered faintly on the crystal floor as he worked.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, something pulsed.
The holograms shifted energy surging like blood through veins. A warning blinked red across the alien console.
Batman's eyes darted to the device in his gauntlet. "Tch."
He'd gone one query too deep. He had the data and the device.. but the fortress knew.
The crystals around him began to glow brighter, humming, as if the fortress itself was waking up.
"Security countermeasure triggered," he muttered under his breath, yanking the hacking device free and tucking it into another lead-lined container. "Got what I needed. Not bad for a minute and forty-two seconds."
He turned, cloak sweeping like a shadow through the cold light.
And then he heard it distant, low, like thunder rolling through the void.
'He's coming.'
Moments later, the Batwing's engines roared against the Arctic night. The ice cracked beneath it, the craft cutting through the storm with silent precision.
Batman sat in the cockpit, unbothered, fingers flying across holographic controls. He secured both the Phantom Zone Projector and the encrypted data drive inside a black, reinforced case layers of lead shielding lined with experimental polymers. Superman couldn't see through it.
He sealed it shut with a soft hiss, watching as frost from the air condensed on the case's surface.
"Projector secured," he murmured, more to himself than to anyone. "Information extracted. Countermeasure activated. Time window: minimal."
And right on cue, a shadow fell over the cockpit.
He didn't need to look up to know who it was.
"Bruce."
That voice deep, steady, and disappointed in equal measure came from just outside his canopy.
Batman's gaze flicked upward. Superman hovered beside the Batwing, cloak flowing like living fire in the wind, his face unreadable but his eyes… knew everything.
"Clark," Batman said evenly.
Superman floated closer, the icy gusts whipping around him without moving a hair. He looked down through the transparent cockpit glass. His eyes narrowed slightly he couldn't see through the case sitting beside Batman. That, more than anything, told him enough.
"Did you take something?" Superman's tone wasn't angry, just cautious.
Batman met his gaze, unflinching. "No time to explain, and I couldn't send a request for permission. I took what I think is necessary… for what's coming."
Superman's expression tightened, a quiet conflict crossing his features. There was trust there but also that familiar irritation.
"You know," he said slowly, "I don't appreciate you doing things like this." His voice carried.
Batman said nothing for a moment. He simply adjusted the controls, eyes forward, the flicker of data reflecting on his cowl.
Superman sighed, a low breath that frosted the air. Then, after a beat, his tone softened. "But I'll allow it. This one time."
Their eyes met through the glass, the cockpit sealed shut with a mechanical hiss. Batman just powered the Batwing's thrusters.
And in a burst of light and sound, the jet tore through the frozen night, vanishing into the aurora leaving Superman alone, staring into the distance, his cape rippling in the icy wind.
For a long time, Clark hovered there, his jaw tight.
Then, quietly to himself, he muttered, "You never make it easy, do you, Bruce?"
****
ARTHUR'S BASE - TRAINING ARENA
The sound of impact echoed through the arena like thunder. Each blow carried enough force to shatter reinforced steel fists meeting flesh that no longer belonged to mortals.
Arthur moved like a storm, bare-chested, muscles taut and glistening with sweat beneath the dim violet light that bathed the arena. His eyes blazed, twin amethysts burning with raw focus. Across from him, Doom, the shadow of Doomsday himself, swung a monstrous arm jagged bone protrusions slicing through the air. Arthur ducked beneath it, countered with a brutal uppercut that sent the hulking figure sliding back across the floor.
The shadows around them stirred like a crowd at war, shifting, alive. Each strike radiated the faint pulse of his power, the same hue that glowed behind his eyes.
From a safe distance, George stood alongside a figure cloaked in violet Raven. Her expression, calm at first, faltered the longer she watched. The clash below wasn't just training.
Arthur was relentless, his body moving in perfect rhythm with violence. The shadow creature swung again; Arthur caught its arm, twisted, and slammed it down hard enough that the sound reverberated across the hall.
"Remarkable isn't it…" George murmured, clasping his hands behind his back. "The way Master Arthur fights." He turned to Raven, who hadn't said a word. Her hood still shadowed part of her face, but her eyes betrayed her a flicker of red across her pale cheeks, her lips parting in a small, startled breath.
She hadn't expected this.
Sweat rolled down Arthur's chest, tracing the lines of his defined form as he stepped forward again, knuckles tightening. The room was charged with his energy, the hum of shadows obeying their monarch.
George cleared his throat gently. "Master Arthur," he called out, his tone refined yet firm. "You have visitors. One of them quite… important, I believe."
Arthur didn't look up. He pivoted, blocking another strike from Doom with his forearm, the sound echoing. He pressed forward, forcing the shadow back, ignoring George completely.
Raven blinked, her blush deepening. 'He's ignoring us?'
She felt something hot twist in her chest irritation, or maybe something she didn't want to name. With a small sigh, she raised a hand, violet energy spiraling from her fingertips. A dark rune shimmered midair and suddenly, a barrier erupted between Arthur and Doom.
The shockwave from their interrupted momentum rippled through the air. Doom froze mid-swing, his massive hand stopping just inches from the barrier. Then he slowly stepped back, obedient.
Arthur's head turned, eyes narrowing slightly as the barrier dissolved into smoke. He saw her standing there beside George, Raven, arms crossed, trying to maintain her usual calm but visibly flushed.
He exhaled once, running a hand through his damp ashen white hair, and reached for a towel resting nearby. As he walked toward them, he wiped his face, the towel hanging loosely around his neck.
Raven looked away quickly, pretending to study one of the screens on the wall. Trying not to reveal more of her reddened face.
Arthur stopped right in front of her close enough that she could feel the faint aura radiating from him.
"I was waiting for you," he said, voice low, calm but carrying that quiet weight of command. "You wanted to tell me something, right?"
For a moment, she couldn't form words. Her usual sharp retort faltered somewhere between her throat and her mind. "I... uh…" she began, blinking, forcing her tone back into something even. "Yeah. I did."
George, ever the gentleman, discreetly stepped a few paces back, hands folded behind him with a faint smirk. "I shall… give you both a moment. It seems my presence is rather unnecessary here."
Arthur's lips curved in a slight grin. "You tried to get into my head again?"
She frowned. "I wasn't spying. I was ... concerned about something.."
Arthur chuckled softly, his tone lighter now. "You really came all the way here just to tell me that? what is really going on."
She glanced back, her expression caught between annoyance and something softer. "No," she said, voice quieter. "I thought I would find Kara with you, I... I admit, I casted a spell on her, a certain kind of spell."
Arthur dropped the towel onto a chair nearby and leaned slightly closer, his violet eyes glinting faintly. "I'm listening."
/-\
If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want