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/-\
Kara was half melted across Arthur's chest, loose-limbed, warm, and blissfully unaware of the tension strangling the air around him. A droplet of drunken drool slid down his shirt. She giggled in her sleep.
Arthur didn't move.
He just exhaled, slow and quiet.
And when he whispered
"Come out."
he wasn't talking to the crowd.
A ripple of shadow peeled off his feet like ink breaking away from water.
It slithered across the floor, thin as smoke, unnoticed by every eye in the room except one.
Raven's.
Her gaze flicked down, then to Arthur, sharp as a blade.
"You just sent one of your shadows," she murmured not accusing, simply aware.
Arthur finally looked at her, lips curling faintly.
"You've become very perceptive."
She swirled the alien drink in her glass, violet reflections dancing across her black nails.
"I don't know whether I got more perceptive," she said softly, "or if that Shadow Ring you gave me is sharpening me. I feel things more clearly. Patterns. Intent."
Her eyes slipped sideways to him.
"It's like I can sense you moving even when you're silent."
Arthur's smile grew, approving.
"Well, that's a good thing."
"A terrifying thing," she corrected, but she didn't sound worried.
More… intrigued.
Kara made a noise that could only be described as blorp and smeared her cheek further into Arthur's shirt, still drooling, still asleep or close enough.
Arthur gently wiped her mouth with a thumb, voice lowering.
"There's someone here."
Raven didn't freeze, didn't widen her eyes.
She just straightened her posture. "You trust your instinct, and I trust you." she said. Not a question.
Arthur nodded once.
"I think we're being watched."
Raven's reply was simple and immediate.
"Then we watch back, I can figure out who is that person."
She didn't even glance at the crowd because if Arthur noticed, then nothing she saw would be surface-level anyway.
Kara mumbled again, words slurred into mush
"Mmm… I like the song… the… glowy… sandwiches…"
Arthur and Raven exchanged a look and they just sighed.
****
SOMETIME AGO IN DISTANT SPACE - APOKOLIPS
Apokolips a world that knew no dawn.
Its skies bled molten red, forever burning beneath black clouds that churned.
Fire spilled through the cracks of the planet like veins, lava rivers snaking across endless fields of nothing. Towers of brutal stone rose like jagged spears against the horizon, carved from agony and conquest. The air tasted of ash and iron. The ground trembled beneath the endless march of parademons winged horrors of flesh and machine, screeching with hunger, their eyes lit.
And at the highest point of that desolate throne-world stood the Palace of Darkseid, a fortress, Its walls pulsed faintly with energy, like a heartbeat that belonged to an eternal, inevitable being.
Inside that fortress, beneath pillars sculpted from the bones of conquered kings, the great ruler stood.
Darkseid.
Motionless. Unshaken. Hands clasped behind his back like a judge who had already condemned the universe to obey him, alone.
Beside him, half in shadow and half in fear, stood Desaad, his voice thin and trembling.
"My lord," Desaad spoke, eyes flicking to the raging fires beyond the window,
"as I foresaw, using the Phantom Zone prisoners… was unwise. Their hatred for the Kryptonian on earth blinded them and they were outmatched. They desired control, not blood. They would have served us better as parademons."
He hesitated, as if each word risked his bones being turned to dust.
Darkseid did not look at him.
He merely stared outward, where parademons carried screaming captives across the sky like insects devouring fruit.
"Yes," Darkseid finally answered, voice resonant.
"You were correct, Desaad."
Desaad blinked, praise from Darkseid was rare enough to terrify.
"But."
Darkseid's footsteps echoed like hammers as he began to walk down the hall, slowly.
"But in failure, they revealed something far more interesting."
Desaad tilted his head, uneasy.
"My lord?"
Darkseid turned, eyes glowing like twin red eclipses.
"The one that killed the Kryptonians..."
The words were slow, every syllable heavy enough to crush desaad's soul.
"And not with struggle.. He did so… ever so easily."
Desaad blinked, stunned.
"Then you do not speak of the Kryptonian who resides on Earth?"
Darkseid's voice lowered, almost thoughtful.
"No Desaad."
"There is one who escaped the Phantom Zone in his struggle against this person, one I had intended to recruit. A Kryptonian clone, powerful and evolving."
His gaze sharpened, lethal.
"And the one who ended him was no Kryptonian at all…"
"It was that earthling. The Shadowbearer, the one who commands those shadow lanterns we have heard about."
The palace seemed to exhale like even the stone understood the implications.
Desaad shivered, voice barely steady:
"I see… so that is why you summoned him."
Darkseid did not confirm. Did not deny.
Silence itself was his answer, absolute.
Desaad bowed "I have… summoned the hunter, as you commanded. He waits below."
Darkseid's unreadable stare drifted back toward the horizon, where fire split the sky.
"Good."
Desaad hesitated, then dared to speak
"My lord...if I may…
Do you truly believe he is suitable for such a task?
He is unstable. A creature of chaos. He bows to no throne."
Darkseid did not raise his voice.
He didn't need to.
"He does not need to bow," he said simply.
"He only needs to kill for me."
The palace trembled either the world quaked or reality itself did.
And from below, walking through fire as though it were mist, a man approached.
Broad. Armored.
A chaotic bounty hunter whose name was whispered in fear across systems.
Darkseid smiled barely perceptible, but enough to chill Apokolips itself.
"He is mad," Darkseid said, voice cold.
"But he completes what he accepts. Always."
Desaad bowed again.
"It shall be done, my lord."
Darkseid's eyes burned brighter.
"Let him hunt the Shadow of Earth."
****
The night on that alien world had begun loud music, neon, gravity-flipping chaos
but now outside that party place, the city felt alive in a different way.
Quiet hum of speeders gliding overhead, holographic signs rippling across buildings, violet mist rising from vents like the world itself breathed electricity.
Arthur walked calmly through it all.
With Kara snoring on his back like a knocked-out koala.
Her arms loosely around his shoulders, cheek smushed against the back of his neck, drooling slightly.
Raven hovered beside him, with a faint, amused curl at her lips.
Arthur spoke first low, thoughtful.
"My shadow returned a report. I know who the watcher was."
Raven's eyes flicked toward him, interest blooming.
"And?"
"He vanished moments after we noticed him," Arthur continued, adjusting Kara as she slid dangerously sideways. "Which means he's cautious. Experienced."
Kara mumbled something into his neck that sounded like "no more spinnyyyy…"
Arthur ignored it.
Raven asked quietly
"Did your shadow see his face?"
"Yes, And I got more than enough."
Arthur's tone sharpened.
"There's only one man across the stars who looks like that white skin, biker jacket, chain, engine exhaust on his scent. it's that damned bounty hunter."
Raven stopped walking.
"Lobo?"
Arthur nodded once.
Raven blinked slow, disbelieving.
"…That Lobo?"
"The very one."
She stared at him like he had just told her the sun tasted like soup.
"Arthur, Lobo is banned from Heaven and Hell."
Arthur's expression barely shifted.
"I know."
"He annihilated his own species for fun."
"I know."
"He once sold his soul three times to three different demons and argued with all of them when they tried to claim him."
Arthur sighed.
"Okay.. I don't think I know about this one.. isn't that Constantine though ?"
Raven threw her hands up.
"Probably... I mean why are you so calm?"
Arthur adjusted the sleeping Kryptonian like she weighed nothing.
"Because panic won't make him disappear."
A faint smirk tugged at his mouth.
"And… I might actually enjoy the challenge."
Raven stared at him.
"You're insane."
"Possibly."
They resumed walking through neon streets bathed in violet light.
Kara shifted on his back, mumbling:
"…told you I can dance…"
Arthur exhaled through his nose like a man questioning his life choices.
Raven watching him fondness, worry, admiration all tangled together.
"So." She said quietly.
"A Deathless bounty hunter. Cosmic biker. We're on his radar."
Arthur's eyes shone faintly violet in the cyberpunk glow.
"Yes, but I'm pretty sure he is here for me alone."
"And you think you can handle him?"
Arthur smiled.
"He will be tricky to deal with, but I can."
/-\
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