LOOTING DC #37. Lighting the Darkness
"I once harbored a twisted fascination with dragons. Those ageless beasts of flame and fury. I watched them soar over burning empires, their scales worn by centuries, defying death like it was beneath them.
There was a cruel beauty in their endurance. I wondered: why did they persist while gods vanished and kings rotted in golden tombs?
Longevity is both curse and privilege - a double-edged truth honed by time. Civilizations crumble like brittle bone. But the dragon? The dragon adapts. It conquers. Its fire becomes law. Its shadow is history.
I saw myself in them.
Eternal. Unyielding. Unrepentant.
And like them, I came to understand a truth most fear to face: survival is not the goal. Supremacy is.
The strong must endure by design, not chance.
The world cannot be left to chaos, sentiment, or blind progress.
It must be shaped - through control, through pressure, through pain.
That is why we exist.
That is the Light's purpose.
Not to preserve this world.
To evolve it.
To guide it past weakness, past illusion - into something worthy of survival."
In a chamber of darkness, five beams of light stood in silent formation, cold and constant.
The speaker stood at the center as one of the beams. He was a man of many names - warlord, prophet, king, monster.
But now, what the broken world still dared to whisper was one name:
Vandal Savage.
Others stood before the Light, still and reverent. Like insects before fire.
But not all were so small.
One dared to speak.
"You have a way with words, Savage." The voice was female - flat, but laced with venom. Pheromonal. "But I doubt a history lecture is why you dragged me out of my lab."
Savage turned, tone flat. "Poison Ivy."
He regarded her a moment. "You're a woman of intellect - and ambition."
Then his voice dropped, cold as stone. "It would be a shame if insolence became the end of such brilliance."
The air chilled. Ivy held her tongue.
"Your task is critical to the Light's mission. Do not abandon it again," he said - his tone final, as if even being ambushed by Batman was no excuse.
Still, Ivy remained quiet. Here, Savage held power. And truth be told, she believed in the Light's mission. As long as it involved cutting humanity down to size, she was all in.
Savage turned to the figure beside her.
"Sportsmaster," he said, voice hardening. "You continue to prove your incompetence. You have failed to retrieve the blueprints."
"For that, I should take your head."
Silence fell - thick, cold.
Meow.
A soft purr echoed from the beam to Savage's right.
"Yes, Teekl," a boyish voice responded gleefully. "I want to see the blood spray too."
Sportsmaster swallowed. Sweat ran beneath his mask, despite the chill. His gut said he might survive today - but with Savage, gut feelings were never reliable. The man could behead you mid-sentence and keep walking.
"However," Savage went on, "you and your daughters have proven useful elsewhere."
He paused.
"But punishment must still be served."
"You are stripped of rank. Your access to resources will be limited," he declared. "You're relieved of the blueprints assignment."
Meow.
"Not fair!" the Witchboy whined. "I was looking forward to someone losing their head!"
"You're right, Witchboy," Savage said, as if humoring a child - with a sword. "Failure is not tolerated in the Light."
He turned back to Sportsmaster.
"So, in exchange for your life... you'll offer one of your kin to Klarion the Witchboy."
Sportsmaster tensed - then bit back a grin. That, he could live with.
"Ooo, ooo! I want the blondey," Klarion chimed. "She always looks like she'll put up a fight."
Meow.
"I know, Teekl. That's what makes it fun."
Meow.
"What?" Klarion frowned. "What do you mean, that one?"
Teekl leapt down from the beam, circling Sportsmaster with unsettling purpose.
Meooow...
The purr was low. Threatening.
Klarion's eyes gleamed. "Wait... are you saying there's a third?"
Meow.
"A chaos vessel? Really?"
"I- I don't know what you're talking about," Sportsmaster stammered. If he had another kid besides Artemis and Cheshire... maybe. Wouldn't be a shock. He'd traveled the world after all, but he wouldn't know where to begin.
Meow...
The cat hissed at him, tail raised high.
Snap!
Klarion appeared behind him in a blink, hands already out.
"Looks like me and White Mask here have a lot to talk about," he grinned, just as Teekl leapt into his arms.
Another snap - and in a swirl of violent, violet energy, both Klarion and Sportsmaster vanished from the chamber.
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"Where are you taking me?" Artemis had asked.
After a long stretch of silent swinging, Jake finally brought them to a stop.
Artemis looked around. Her eyes widened.
"Wait-"
She recognized the trees, the alleyway, the skyline. Her throat tightened.
She turned to face Jake slowly. "It's not a coincidence you brought me here, is it?"
Jake rolled his shoulders. "Guess not."
"Then tell me," she said, planting her feet. "How do you know where I live?"
"I-" Jake began, but she cut in.
"-and before you say you can't explain your powers, think twice," she warned, her voice level.
Harmless threat, but the frustration behind it was clear. Jake had ducked this question too many times to get a pass now. Unless he wanted to be a complete jackass - which, honestly, was tempting.
Still, he figured it wouldn't hurt to give her a little truth.
He exhaled and started, "Technically, I didn't know this was your neighborhood. Not until you said so."
"Then how did we end up here, specifically?" she pressed.
"Felt like the right place to go," Jake said with a shrug.
She stared at him.
"Alright, alright," he relented. "I have a precognitive ability. It's called the Spider-sense. Kinda guides me."
She kept staring.
"I really can't explain it beyond that," he added. "It's like a Martian turning invisible - just part of the package. Encoded in my DNA."
"With this Spider-sense," Artemis said, making air quotes, "you can also guess people's real names?"
Jake's stomach dropped. He knew where this was going - straight to how he knew her identity. "Uhhh… yeah?"
She didn't reply. Just turned and pointed to an apartment window, where a silhouette stood behind the glass.
"Do you need to get closer to tell me her name?" she asked.
Jake shook his head.
"What is it, then?" she asked. "What's the name of the girl by the window?"
He froze, eyes on the silhouette. He hoped the Web would back him on this. Because Spider-sense definitely wasn't built to pull names out of thin air.
A shaft of moonlight passed over the figure. Tall. Athletic. Long, flowing blonde hair. Tights. Her face - too exotic to blend, too familiar to mistake who she reminded him of.
Jake almost said holy shit - but swallowed it back.
"Is she your college roommate or something?" he asked instead.
His fingers brushed the Lasso of Truth, gripping it like a lifeline. Whoever that girl was - she wasn't random. She felt like a warning.
"You still haven't answered me," Artemis said quietly.
Jake forced a breath. Maybe this was the Web helping. Or maybe it was throwing him a wildcard.
Because he knew who the girl was. No doubt.
"If I tell you her name," he said, "what do I get in return?"
"What do you want?" she shot back.
"Let me take you out sometime."
She paused. "Still think it's a pumpkin under that mask," she muttered. "But fine. I wouldn't mind going out with you."
"Hmh," Jake smirked.
"Her name…" Jake said, drawing it out.
"…is Cassie."
Artemis scowled. "Last name?"
"I only get first names," Jake deflected, shrugging. "Spider-sense doesn't do full bios."
"How convenient," she muttered, tone dry. But then - slowly - she smiled. "Well… at least now I know you're not a creepy stalker."
Jake tilted his head. "That how you really saw me?"
Artemis met his gaze - then looked away.
"I mean… mostly, I thought of you as a pumpkin wearing a mask," she said, voice low but teasing.
Jake raised a brow behind the fabric. "And now?"
He reached for the mask, fingers brushing the edge.
Artemis leaned in slightly. Curious. Focused.
Jake peeled the mask up-
-then stopped halfway. Right under his nose.
"Still think I'm a pumpkin head?" he asked, smirking.
Artemis watched his mouth move. Every word. Every twitch of his lips.
He was-
She hadn't realized he was-
Why was he so-
She blinked, snapped herself out of it.
"No point in showing me," she muttered, trying to sound unaffected. "I won't show you mine."
Jake chuckled.
"What?" she asked sharply.
"Nothing," he said, too quickly.
"No-" her eyes narrowed. "You already know what I look like, don't you?"
He didn't answer.
His mask was still mid-pull.
"Show me then," she said, stepping closer. "Fair's fair."
Jake hesitated - fingers still gripping the fabric. Half of him wanted to play it off. The other half?
Well… it was tempting.
Bad idea. Terrible idea.
But when she looked at him like that - daring, curious - he almost forgot why.
Almost.
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