Give up everything

"Then you have my bow."

The red tattoos on her arm almost glowed with that statement.

“To be selected by the Chosen One and his cock is an honour. You may use me as you see fit. I am a weapon. An arrow for your bow.”

One hand held the thirty kilogram bow. Shado was waiting for the other. For Aaron. For his acceptance. He reached forward and grabbed the bow.

“You will be paid finely for your work, Shado. Not only in money but in peace and purpose,” Aaron declared. “Now…tell me where this Dante is. Tell me where the leader of the Ninth Circle is.”

“Dante has set up his base deep underground of Queen Tower,” Shado said. “More than that, you will find the Green Arrow and Black Canary there.”

“Hm?”

“The Ninth Circle captured them,” Cheshire elaborated, finally rising alongside her comrade. “All of us, together. It was a tedious affair. I had to create a poison to specifically nullify the Canary’s scream.”

He read her mind. ‘So it is. They really captured Oliver and Dinah.’

They were nice to him at the nude beach and loyal to each other. To many, they were probably couple goals. Aaron glanced at Talia and nodded at her. “Follow my orders. I am going. Alone.”

No one opposed him. With the snap of a finger, Aaron Reigner was gone.

***

Star City, otherwise known as Seattle. The name Star City was a mocking name to show how much the city had fallen. The name stuck too. Politicians regularly used the name. In Gotham, Star City was all they called Seattle.

Aaron was one of those Gotham people. He stood on a rooftop that overlooked the city yet was far away from Queen Tower. The stars shone above him, watching him. He loved the night. It was when he worked best.

“Queen Tower,” Aaron muttered. He put a hand on his hip, the fur of his bathrobe bristling from the night wind. “Looks like a rip-off of Wayne Tower to me.”

Queen Tower was shaped like pincers almost. Tall and separate, the two sections of the building were full of normal employees. Aaron could see that and scanned it with his mind reading.

But underground was a whole other ballpark. Aaron could feel it. Life was teetering down there. So he narrowed his eyes and focused.

X-ray vision, thermal vision, and telescopic vision until he found people. Aaron was like Superman in this moment.

‘There it is.’

Deep beneath Queen Tower, hidden far from the prying eyes of the people, lay Dante’s underground lair. This clandestine stronghold was more than a mere bunker; it was a fortress designed to forge an impenetrable hideaway for his most delicate operations.

The underground lair spanned several floors, each serving a distinct purpose in the Ninth Circle’s criminal empire. The top level housed state-of-the-art monitoring equipment, a nerve center that tracked global markets, ongoing criminal activities, and the movements of enemies. Armed guards patrolled the narrow corridors.

‘Shouldn’t be an issue. They are normal people.’

Below that were storage rooms filled with evidence of the Circle’s countless illegal dealings—money, weapons, data drives, all hidden within unmarked containers. There was a whole treasury room too.

Interesting. Especially considering nearly all the walls had Nth Metal outlining them. Simply breaking through via brute **** would be tough, even for Aaron.

'Makes sense. The Ninth Circle has been around for a hundred years. They have the wealth, power, intelligence, and most importantly, time to build this place. Even against the Justice League, it would do well.'

At the lowest level, however, was the heart of the lair: a large, open chamber surrounded by thick, reinforced walls. Several smaller rooms splintered off from the main chamber, each designed to hold prisoners who were too valuable or dangerous to be kept in conventional cells. It was here that Dante held two of his most critical captives—Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, and Dinah Lance, Black Canary.

Oliver was restrained in a room built like a vault. The heavy door required an intricate passcode and a keycard known only to Dante. Stripped of his arrows, Oliver was constantly watched.

And, erm...well, maybe once he went there, he would describe what was up with it. Because it was bad. Really, really bad.

Black Canary, however, was held in a far more isolated part of the floor. The farthest corner, in fact, where she was imprisoned in a massive Promethium steel box—an airtight, soundproof cage that could withstand the devastating power of her Canary Scream. Promethium itself was said to be indestructible. But this cage was not pure Promethium. Not the Promethium that was a catalyst to the Dark Multiverse and to the Chosen One.

‘It’s Depleted Promethium. I remember reading about it in Ra’s library. Alloyed with titanium and vanadium, it is what the bionic and cybernetic components of Cyborg are made out of.’

The walls of her prison were over six inches thick, reinforced with vibrational dampeners to ensure that even if she tried to unleash her powers, they would be absorbed before they could escape.

Outside this Promethium steel tomb sat…

Okay, his cock twitched. There was just no helping it. No shame in it either. The woman guarding this steel cage wore a bored expression, though her icy fingers tapped against the armrest, sending occasional spikes of frost down the metal frame of her seat. She was dangerous, always ready to turn any situation into a deadly one with a flick of her wrist.

And good god was she hot.

Aaron did not waste time. He teleported.

Although the Ninth Circle had time and effort and money, they lacked the understanding of the one thing no one understood: magic. The Ninth Circle thought they would never have to encounter John Constantine or Zatanna. They were of different worlds. Getting somebody to set-up defensive spells was impossible because the world of magic was just that isolated.

So, Aaron Reigner could teleport without a single disruption.

A soft ripple in the air disrupted the stillness. One moment, the space was empty; the next, a man in black bathrobes stood there, calm and composed, his gaze fixed on the seated woman.