System malfunction || DC

Chapter Thirty-Five

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The Cost of Winning

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WARNING: Mentions of Gore

Be ready for another shit chapter lol

The devastation of the battle could be seen plainly as constant rays of light peered through the thick plume of ashen clouds. The asphalt and stone had been elevated and fractured. Cars had been flipped over, and light fixtures had been twisted. Blood splashed across it all like paint.

The Drom's surviving bodies were immediately burnt till even their bones were gone. They didn't want to risk their numbers multiplying again as they understood how the Drom replicated and revived themselves.

Dick split off to find Jocelyn as the bat colony moved about to advise their associates on how to deal with the aftermath. She had made it apparent from the beginning that Korin was her primary aim, so he proceeded in search of any traces of their fight.

Damian, Tim, and Jason accompanied him on the hunt. They both wanted to enjoy the triumph as a group while also ensuring Jocelyn's health and safety. They wanted to congratulate the girl since she had been hellbent on murdering the alien for a long time.

They eventually discovered her near where Korin had fastened her to a pole. Her body was hunched forwards, resting on her knees a few feet from the burnt remnants of what they assumed was Korin. She was kneeling among some jagged debris, her flesh cruelly exposed to the aftereffects of their violent dance, while stone pillars crumbled around them.

She wasn't alone. A ginger-haired girl with mousy features bowed next to her, and they recognized her as a member of Jocelyn's squad. This was the same girl that had jumped from the skies, alerting everyone to who they were before slicing a Drom in half with a flick of her hand.

She murmured as she held a thing in her hand. A little flat disc made of a dark shiny metal. The girl ignored them, and held it in her hand. Holding it up to the woman before her and waiting for it to light up. To light up and alert her that it scanner found life.

It beeped as it searched the area before it. The eerie sound getting quieter and quite until it shut down and turned off. No life found. The other soldiers who were watching in anticipation let out muffled chokes of sorrow  Dick was the only one who dared to go forwards.

He paused to kneel in front of the girl he had grown to love, carefully threading his way through the swarm of troops. He was aware that something was awry. He felt his heart wasn't ready to convey the truth behind their music.

But he needed to know. Her back arched to hide her figure from their gaze, but when he softly held her neck and pushed her to lie on her side...

He let go of her, allowing her body to collapse to the side as he turned around to empty his stomach. He's shivering and choking as foul-tasting bile rises from his stomach and bursts out of his mouth. (In the first edit it said 'shit from his mouth'.)

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