🚨🚨🚨Read my new story Peter Parker: To Think is To Choose.✅✅✅
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"Not all monsters are born from hate — some are forged from loneliness, waiting for someone to tell them they're more."
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The shop was quiet.
Rain whispered against the windows, Harley hummed faintly in the back room and Ace sat cross-legged on the counter, sipping coffee that had gone cold.
Across from her sat King, the hum of the tattoo machines silenced for once. He didn't speak. He rarely needed to. His presence filled the silence like a mountain — steady, immovable, older than the concept of fear.
Ace finally broke the quiet.
"They came for me again." She said softly, setting the mug aside. "Cheshire and Gamemaster, I think. Tech junkie, good aim."
King didn't lift his eyes right away.
"Did you kill them?"
Ace shook her head. "No. Didn't need to. I just threw them off the block — bones snapped before they hit the street. They'll live. Probably wish they didn't."
There was no bravado in her voice — just tired honesty.
King looked at her then. His gaze wasn't stern. It was weighing, the kind that saw through masks and defenses like smoke.
"You didn't kill them because you didn't have to." He said, the faintest trace of approval in his tone. "That's growth."
Ace looked away, rubbing her thumb over her tattooed wrist. "I just… didn't feel angry. That's new, I guess."
King leaned back in his chair, the leather creaking.
"You've reached the point where your mind and power have stopped fighting each other." he said. "You're not a weapon anymore, Ace. You're a person who can fight — that's different."
A small smile flickered on her face. "You make it sound like I'm cured or something."
King's eyes softened — just a fraction. "You're not cured. You're becoming."
Ace looked at him for a long moment — the tattoos on her arms visible under the soft light.
"You know," She said, her voice quieter now, "I used to think you'd get tired of me. I mean… I'm a walking headache. Literally."
King almost smiled. "Headaches don't raise their own shields and choose mercy."
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "The collars don't work on you anymore, do they?"
She shook her head. "No. I figured out that I can use my psychic power to reinforce my body instead. Like psychic armor. Makes the inhibitors useless. I broke one just by breathing too hard."
King's expression didn't change, but something proud flickered in his eyes. "That's why they came for you. They're afraid of what can't be contained."
Ace snorted. "Guess that makes me your problem, huh?"
King stood, placing one massive hand on her shoulder — a rare gesture. "No," He said, voice low. "That makes you my success and the reminder that boredom isn't the only emotion that dominates me."
Harley shouted from the back, "Hey, Ace! If you're done with the father–daughter therapy session, come help me find my glitter gun!"
Ace rolled her eyes, hopping off the counter. "Duty calls, King."
As she walked off, she turned back. "Thanks… for, you know. Not giving up."
King gave a single nod. "That's not what I do."
Washington D.C. — The Hall of Justice
The evening light poured through the glass dome, bathing the marble floor in gold.
Aqualad, Robin, and Kid Flash stood in the Justice Library, waiting — or pretending to. Roy Harper's words from earlier still hung over them like thunder.
Wally paced. "Man, I can run across states in five minutes but I can't even get past this waiting room."
Aqualad kept his composure, though the frustration showed in the slight clenching of his jaw.
Robin sat apart, tapping on his gauntlet — his mind a storm of data and curiosity.
He glanced up at the League members across the hall, their holographic discussion glowing faintly.
"I'm done sitting around." Tim said under his breath.
Wally blinked. "Uh-oh. That's your I'm about to do something illegal tone."
"Not illegal," Tim replied, fingers moving rapidly. "Just… off the record."
A faint flicker of blue light reflected off his lenses.
Lines of encrypted code danced in the air as Tim silently accessed the League's internal system.
"Seriously?" Wally hissed. "You're hacking the Justice League?!"
Tim didn't answer. The lock cracked open in seconds. A set of encrypted files rolled across the screen. One caught his eye — a tag Cadmus Labs.
Aqualad frowned. "What does that mean?"
Tim's expression darkened. "No clue. But whatever it is, Batman's keeping it quiet."
Suddenly, the building lights flickered — alarms shrieking through the Hall.
"Alert: Fire in Cadmus Labs." The computer intoned.
Wally grinned nervously. "We're checking it out aren't we?"
Tim shook his head. "Yup. Also we'll take a look."
Aqualad's water bearers shimmered to life. "Then we must see for ourselves."
Tim looked at his friends. "If we do this, there's no turning back."
Wally smirked. "Since when do we ever turn back?"
Cadmus Labs — Washington DC
The descent began at dusk.
Aqualad and Kid Flash quickly rescued the scientists and put out the fire while Tim hacked Cadmus servers and discovered the deep subterranean complex.
They reached a hidden elevator shaft disguised behind an old LexCorp storage room.
The air was thick with humidity and static — something unnatural pulsed below like a living heartbeat buried in concrete.
Wally muttered, "Creepy place. Definitely evil science vibes."
"Stay close." Aqualad instructed. "And quiet."
The elevator stopped abruptly at a sub-level that didn't exist on any blueprint. The doors opened to reveal a cavernous corridor — walls lined with organic conduits that pulsed like veins.
"Cadmus…" Tim whispered, scanning. "The walls are active. But these readings — this tech is way beyond regular bioengineering."
A row of cells glowed faintly — silhouettes of creatures inside, asleep or watching.
"What are these creatures?" Asks Wally.
"Genomorphs." Tim said, voice low while accessing information from the database. "Artificial beings. Also, what's Project: Kr?"
Wally pressed against the glass, peering into the shadows. "Can you find out?"
Tim's eyes scanned the faint energy readings. "There's no data about that in the database."
He traced a hand over the surface of the lab.
"No connections to LexCorp." He murmured. "This is someone else's design."
Aqualad's hand tightened on his water bearers. "Then we must find who and why."
Behind them, a tremor ran through the structure, faint but deep as if the lab itself had sighed.
None of them noticed the flicker of light far away— a silhouette on a rooftop hundreds of miles away, watching the city in silence.
King opened his eyes.
He felt the vibration of something beneath Washington DC.
Something the world wasn't ready for yet.
And in the quiet hum of Quinn & Ink, the King Engine rumbled once — like thunder beneath the heart of the Earth.
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Danzoslayer517
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