LOOTING DC #28. Spider Totem
...Oolong Island collapsed.
Once a crescent of jungle and steel, it was now a splintered mess - fractured rock, sinking labs, and boiling sea. The canopy was gone. The cliffs had caved. Where buildings once stood, only broken metal ribs jutted out like bones.
At the center, a caldera pulsed - molten, unstable - coughing up red lightning that spiderwebbed through black smoke. Fissures split the ground in all directions, spewing bursts of green, glitching mist - digital residue from systems that no longer existed.
Chunks of shoreline floated like tombstones. The rest was sinking fast.
One look, and you'd swear a Lord of Chaos had torn it apart. Your reasoning wouldn't be far off from the truth.
"You alive?" Superboy's voice was rough as he shoved a slab of concrete off Black Canary's legs.
She coughed - dry, hacking. "Barely. Give me a second." Her hand trembled as she grabbed his arm, pulling herself up with a groan. Her suit was torn, face streaked in soot, hair stuck to her cheek with blood and ash.
"That landslide must've carried you half a klick," Superboy said, steadying her. "How the hell did you end up here?"
"I don't know," she rasped. "Ground gave out under me. Everything started folding in. Next thing I knew, I was buried."
A blur zipped in, looped wide, then stopped beside them - Kid Flash, panting, covered in gray dust. He stared at Canary. "Okay, what just happened? Everything was solid - then it wasn't!"
"If it's what I'm thinking, we're toast if we stay here," she said. "Red?"
Red Tornado nodded.
She understood instantly - as if they'd just communicated telepathically. "How long have we got?"
That was a stupid question. With the answer obvious, she didn't wait for his factual response.
"This everyone?"
Superboy glanced toward the warped terrain. "Kaldur's pinned. M'gann's trying to phase him out-"
"I've got him!" Miss Martian called from a ravine. She hovered, glowing faintly, straining. "Just a little more - ugh! - he's stuck!"
"Hold on!" Canary limped over. "Red, scan him."
"Already on it - secondary weight on his spine."
"I can lift it," Superboy said.
"No!" M'gann shouted. "It's wedged. Straight up'll crush him!"
"Then how?!"
"No time," Canary snapped. "Wally, clear debris. Tornado, stabilize the ridge. Everyone else - on me. We need a path down."
"Down to where?" Kid Flash asked, eyes wide.
"To the containment," she said. "We'll be safe there."
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Jake knelt in the rubble, cradling Artemis against his chest.
She was still breathing - barely - but her skin had gone pale beneath the grime, her pulse flickering. He brushed matted hair from her face, jaw tight. "Come on. Don't check out on me now."
A gust of displaced air hit his back.
He didn't need to turn.
He felt her presence like a storm behind him.
Jake shifted slightly, tension rolling through his shoulders as he stood, still holding Artemis. "You here to finish what we started?"
Wonder Woman landed lightly behind him, armor scuffed, the edge of her gauntlet stained. She raised both hands. "We don't have time for that. She's poisoned - and the longer we stay topside, the worse it gets."
Jake's eyes narrowed. "I can see that. But what exactly are you suggesting?"
He let the question hang, glancing around - what was once a rooftop was now twisted metal and half a floor dangling over open sky. The rest had been swallowed by the collapse.
He met her eyes. "Are you the one who caused this?"
Wonder Woman blinked - once. "Far from it. I assumed, since you came looking for her, you understood."
"Understood what?"
A groan escaped Artemis as her eyelids fluttered. "Gonna need... cliff notes version…"
Wonder Woman stepped forward. "I'll brief you. Later. But first, we need to get her somewhere safe."
Jake didn't move.
She unhooked the Lasso of Truth and wrapped it around her wrist.
"You seem fond of my Golden Perfect," she said calmly. "So you know what it does. I promise no harm will come to you - but if you don't come with me now, Artemis' life is in danger."
Jake exhaled. "Not how I wanted this to go. But…"
He adjusted Artemis in his arms. "Which way?"
Wonder Woman turned, nodding once. "Follow me."
She led him toward what looked like another ruined stairwell, but instead of rubble, it opened into a slope - reinforced stone descending beneath the island like a hidden artery. The air cooled instantly, the chaos above falling into silence behind them.
Jake glanced at the walls as they moved.
Faint, pulsing symbols glowed from the stone, almost breathing.
He slowed. "Are those... runes?"
Wonder Woman didn't look back. "Magic. The containment field is aligned with them. They buffer the chaos and filter out the radiation around a limited radius."
"Coff... coff..." Artemis stirred weakly in his arms.
Jake looked down. Her color was returning - just slightly - but enough to notice.
"It's working already," Wonder Woman said. "The poisoning's easing. She's not out of the woods, but this is safer than flying her off the island."
"Wait, wait - hold up." Jake came to a halt, frowning. "There's still a lot I'm not getting here."
"Like what?" Wonder Woman asked.
"Like how the entire island just collapsed," Jake said, leveling a look at her. "Wasn't that you? Our clash irritated you so much you tapped into your goddess wrath and blew the place sky-high, right?"
Her eyes widened slightly - then narrowed, amusement fading into steel. "Are you sure you even know why you came here?"
Jake didn't flinch. "Yeah. To take back the baby you wrongfully took from Cheshire two years ago."
"Do you know why we took her in the first place?" she asked, calm but pointed.
Jake hesitated - just long enough.
He sifted through flickers in the Web of Life. The glimpses he'd seen.
"I know you took her," he said coolly. "But whatever the reason - it wasn't right."
"And now that you've seen her collapse an island?" Wonder Woman pressed.
"That doesn't seem right..." Jake said - then realized, mid-thought, that she had a point.
Suddenly, the League's reasons for taking the baby made more sense than his own made-up justification for joining Artemis for this mission. He should've probably let Artemis explain. He'd assumed the League took the child because Cheshire was unstable - maybe even a psychopath.
But a baby did this?
This looked and felt like raw Chaos energy. Too powerful for a toddler to hold.
What did this to her?
"Coff…" Artemis shook herself free of Jake's grasp. "Keeping her... hff... locked up is still not right. No one locked up Superman for being who he is…"
Wonder Woman's gaze softened. "I'm sorry, Artemis. For what we put you and your sister through. But I promise you - Lian will be freed."
"Promise? Tch." Artemis spat. "Tell me something I haven't heard before."
Wonder Woman went silent.
"I thought so," Artemis said.
"Take me to my niece," she demanded.
"That won't be necessary," Jake intervened, eyes sharp and alert. "She's already here."
His gaze shifted to the wall blocking them, tuning into the strange energy behind it.
"I can..." he started, emotion creeping into his voice.
"I can feel her pain."
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Damian had mistimed his throw. He'd seen the device - the tech in Roy's hand. Batman-made. Designed to implode and fracture diamond-hard glass. He knew what it could do.
But he couldn't batarang it off Roy's wrist in time.
The containment glass cracked - and with it came the sound: a baby's wail, shrill and panicked.
Lian's body lit with a pure crimson glow.
Among all the colors of magic Damian had studied under Ra's al Ghul, red meant chaos. The wielder of this aura could very easily graduate into a Lord of Chaos.
But crimson? That was the raw power that came with being a true Chaos Lord.
The chamber shook violently. Cracks raced across the walls like lightning, but the protective runes held. For now. None of them below yet realized what had happened on the surface above.
The shard of kryptonite clattered from Roy's hand.
Superman didn't hesitate.
By the time the tremors stopped and Damian's sensors stabilized, the baby was still in the center of the chamber, still crying, but the crimson aura had dimmed. Superman now stood over Roy, fists clenched, his eyes glowing red - rage barely restrained.
Then a golden flash - the Lasso.
Wonder Woman stepped between them before he could act. A second figure moved into view beside her.
Damian's eyes narrowed. He didn't need a second look.
His hands moved on instinct, finding the grip of his sharper-than-life katana.
He didn't wait.
He charged - blade out, heart burning.
There'd be no cheap shots. No interference. No web tricks. No calling it even.
This time, the Spider was his - and Damian Wayne was going to win.
Powerstones please😭😭😭