Shadow Monarch in DC

The battlefield became more defined, where there had been panic, there was now resistance. The League held the center, the Shadow Lanterns carved through the flanks, and the hunters, those who hadn’t fled began to remember why they had been called Hunters.

And then the shadows deepened.

They didn’t fall from above like the Lanterns.

They spread, a ripple of darkness slipped across the ground between the beasts, flowing unnaturally fast, slipping through claws and teeth and trampling feet without resistance. It gathered at the heart of a group of humanoid wolves and humanoid beasts that had just broken through a defensive line,

Raven emerged from that darkness, her cloak flared outward, eyes glowing faintly beneath the hood as she lifted one hand, fingers curling slowly as if gripping something invisible.

"Azerath... Metrion... Zinthos!"

The beasts nearest to her froze as reality itself had tightened around them, their bodies compressing inward under an unseen force. Bone cracked. Armor split. The sound was wet as they imploded, crushed into nothing under the sheer pressure of her magic.

She didn’t stop, a jackal lunged at her from the side, its jaws wide, moving too fast for a human to react, a tendril of darkness snapped upward and caught it mid-air, suspending it for a second before slamming it into the ground hard enough to shatter it on impact.

Raven’s expression didn’t change.

If anything, it grew colder.

Another wave came.

She raised both hands this time.

A sphere of black energy formed around her, expanding outward in a sudden surge that tore through everything in its path. Giant wolves were lifted off their feet and hurled back, their bodies twisting unnaturally before crashing into the remains of shattered buildings.

For a moment, a clear space formed around her.

And then she moved again.

Above her, Superman ended his fight.

The Cerberus roared one last time, all three heads snapping wildly as it tried to overwhelm him through sheer ferocity, but it couldn’t overwhelm Superman, who was catching one head by the throat, then the second, then the third,

He snapped them.

Three sharp cracks echoed almost simultaneously, the force of it sending a shock through the creature’s massive body as it went limp. He released it without ceremony, letting it collapse into the ruined street below.

He was already turning toward the next threat.

Not far from him, Kara Zor-El didn’t fight like Superman and she didn’t hold back like Superman.

She tore through the battlefield like a storm, her strikes brutal and relentless, each one driven with enough force to send massive wolves skidding across the ground or straight through structures. One warcat leapt toward her, claws glowing,

She caught it mid-air and drove it into the pavement, the impact sending cracks racing outward before she lifted it again and hurled it into an oncoming group of beasts.

"Come on!" she shouted, almost daring them as they surged toward her again. "Is that all you’ve got?!"

A blur of movement caught her eye.

Small and fast.

Too fast for most to notice.

Her head snapped to the side just in time to see a familiar shape dart between the legs of a towering beast before leaping upward, Dark energy claws glowing faintly as it tore across its throat in a clean, precise strike.

The creature collapsed.

Kara blinked.

"...What?"

The small shadow lantern landed lightly on a broken piece of concrete, tail swaying lazily as if it hadn’t just taken down something ten times its size.

Her eyes widened.

"What the hell are you doing here, Dexter?!"

The shadow lantern cat didn’t even look at her.

It simply flicked its tail once, then launched itself forward again, weaving through the battlefield with impossible agility before pouncing onto another beast and ripping into it.

Kara stared at it for a second longer, completely thrown off.

Then she let out a short breath, somewhere between disbelief and amusement, shaking her head as she turned back to the fight.

"Great," she muttered to herself, though a smile was on her face despite everything. "Now I’ve gotta babysit a suicidal cat.."

And then she was moving again, keeping pace not just with the enemy,

But with the ones she wanted to protect.

Across the battlefield, something changed.

The hunters felt it before they understood it. the defensive line that had nearly broken began to stabilize. The overwhelming tide didn’t feel as absolute anymore. The League was pushing. The shadows were holding. The monsters were still coming, but they were being stopped.

A hunter, bloodied and breathing hard, watched as Marshal Zeus descended in a storm of violet lightning, annihilating a great number of beasts that had been seconds away from overrunning his position.

"...We’re still alive," he muttered, almost in disbelief.

Another nearby, gripping his weapon tighter now, let out a shaky laugh. "Yeah... yeah, we are."

His eyes lifted, watching Superman tear through another wave, watching Wonder Woman carve a path through the battlefield, watching the Shadow Lanterns...

"...We might actually survive this.."

Others began to echo the same sentiment,

It was enough to stand again, enough to fight.

And then,

The Gate itself changed.

Again. As a different sound emerged from it this time, not the thunderous presence of beasts, now it was higher, a chittering, skittering noise that crawled under the skin.

Another wave poured out, and it wasn’t the same.

They were smaller.

But worse.

Winged insects burst from the Gate in swarms, their bodies glistening with unnatural colors, their wings vibrating fast enough to create a constant, oppressive sound. Some resembled massive hornets, their stingers dripping with glowing venom. Others crawled, ant-like creatures with armored bodies and serrated mandibles, moving in coordinated numbers that flowed like tides.

And then there were the others.

Plant-like horrors with segmented bodies, their forms covered in thorned growths that pulsed faintly as they released clouds of toxic spores into the air.

Every eye turned upward.

"There’s more?!" someone shouted, almost desperate.

A hunter further back staggered slightly as he recognized them, his face draining of color. "No... no, that’s not just more..."

His voice cracked.

"Those are A-rank boss monsters."

The words spread faster than the insects.

"We faced one of those in a Gate.. just one.. and it wiped half our team with that poison," he continued, almost forcing the words out now. "We had an S-rank with us... it still killed him.."

The swarm descended.

And for a brief moment, fear returned as well.

A single bolt of violet lightning tore downward from the sky, striking the center of the swarm with devastating precision. The impact alone annihilated dozens of the creatures instantly, their bodies disintegrating under the sheer force.

But it didn’t stop there.

The lightning spread.

Jumping from one insect to another in rapid succession, chaining through the swarm in a cascading wave of destruction that burned through them faster than they could scatter.

The hunters stared upward.

They didn’t say anything.

The Shadow Marshal hovered above, lightning still crackling around him.

And they understood, so they kept fighting.

High above the battlefield, inside the Batwing, Batman’s focus had changed entirely.

His screens flickered with new data, new readings, new patterns that didn’t align with what he had already established. His mind moved faster than the systems around him, connecting pieces, discarding assumptions, rebuilding the situation in real time.

"Arthur mentioned that each Monarch governs an ecosystem of monsters," he said, his voice low, "The initial wave was beasts, wolves, warcats, even a Cerberus... a unified structure."

His eyes narrowed as he watched the insect swarm continue to pour from the Gate.

"But these don’t fit."

Then,

Realization hit him like a truck.

His grip tightened slightly.

"...Unless they’re not supposed to fit.."

His head tilted just slightly, gaze sharpening.

"Two ecosystems."

The words settled heavily.

"Two Monarchs."

He didn’t waste another second.

"Superman," he said into the comms, his tone cutting through the chaos with urgency. "There’s a high probability we’re not dealing with a single Monarch."

Superman’s voice came through, steady even as the sounds of battle raged around him. "Go on."

"The beasts and the insects don’t align under one hierarchy," Batman continued. "Different structures, different compositions. This isn’t reinforcement, it’s coordination."

"Two Monarchs are deploying their armies simultaneously."

Superman adjusted mid-flight, his expression tightening slightly as he processed that. "And neither of them is here."

"Not yet," Batman replied. "And that’s the problem."

Another screen lit up.

No anomalies, no clear signatures.

"They may not come through the Gate at all," he added, voice lowering. "If they operate independently, they could emerge anywhere. Any time. This battlefield might just be a distraction."

A second of silence.

Then Superman exhaled slowly.

"I understand."

He hovered for just a moment longer, eyes narrowing as his senses stretched outward, pushing beyond the battlefield, beyond the city.

"I’ll expand my range," he said. "If there’s something out there, I’ll find it."

Batman’s gaze remained locked on the data, already searching for what even Superman might miss.

"I’ll do the same," he replied.

A beat passed between them.

Then, quieter,

"I’m counting on you."

Superman allowed himself a smile.

"You can."

/-\

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