System malfunction || DC

Chapter Thirty-Two

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Compromise

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A/N: Because we've reached 8k I wanna be naughty and post another chapter early :) 

As golden liquors of the sun burned across Gotham's glass towers, a new horror emerged. Time was a contraption that appeared to hold both light and darkness in its grip. There would be darkness where there was light.

Even when the brightness of a new day climbed far into the sky, gloom reigned today. Its shadows reach far beyond Gotham's center and far into the green hills outside its limits.

It was unsettling. Such a harvest of death and destruction had already been reaped. Each day, the death toll climbed to an unknown amount. As they killed one Drom, additional would emerge from the Droms' campsite.

If the alliance was to stop them, they needed to go inside those fortifications and destroy their source of seeds. It doesn't matter how strong one is; against an unlimited supply of monsters, it's difficult to envision the end.

The villains had suggested bombing the place, as fire worked well to weaken the Drom. Not that it was a particularly bad idea, but just setting things on fire wasn't always a solution, especially when they didn't know how many humans were being kept inside the camp.

They already knew that the Drom were taking civilians as a source to keep building their army. But how many were kept alive and how many were instantly killed? They didn't want to risk it until they knew.

Besides, where were they going to get strong enough bombs to blow up creatures with armored skin?

As the alliance of heroes and villains emerged from the night and into the warm atmosphere of the warehouse, they had a new agenda to address. Something that had them all on the edge of their seats.

Jocelyn had spent most of her morning making breakfast. Cooking up enough food to accommodate all the particular diets of every person there Honest, at some point, the villains showed up strictly for the food rather than to keep their name alive.

Anyway, what was this pressing matter? Well, the Penguin and his goons came across a single Drom just standing out in the middle of the night. The man had taken the Drom back to the base for interrogation, rather pleased with himself.

The Drom was surprisingly cooperative, blinking rapidly as it sat with its restraints and parroted whatever it had been sent to say. Jocelyn knew that the messenger technique was very well known and thus made everyone stay as far as possible from the Drom as they questioned it.

"Who sent you?"

"Grand Duke Korin"

"Why did he send you?"

"To deliver a message"

"What is the message?"

"If you surrender Jocelyn to the Grand Duke, then he will leave Earth."

That had everyone's attention until the Drom suddenly exploded. After the clean up, everyone had gone to bed without having the opportunity to say anything because the Bat family were quick to silence anyone who tried to ask.

They didn't kill anyone. It was more like they sprayed them with water. To train a villain, you must teach him discipline.

Now that everyone was awake, it was time for the ambush of questions. The most important question was why Korin would go so far just to stop now. Was he truly intending on keeping his promise? Or was his intention to get rid of the main competition?