The ruins of the CADMUS lab still smoldered. Broken steel beams jutted out of collapsed concrete like bones from a grave. Smoke drifted lazily into the sky, carrying the acrid scent of burning circuitry and scorched flesh.
Four hours had passed since the blast, but the ground still radiated heat. It was on the outskirts of National City, an area well known for gang warfare in a group of abandoned warehouses used to disguise the laboratory.
A dark figure stood at the edge of the crater, cape snapping in the night wind. Batman's gaze over the devastation.
"This wasn't an accident," he said, his voice low, grave, "This was a detonation of energy, completely unstable and destructive, almost everything was annihilated. The energy readings are off the charts."
Heavy boots crunched against the fractured asphalt behind him. Superman landed in a swirl of dust, his red cape settling at his heels. His face was tense as he scanned the wreckage with piercing blue eyes.
"I checked from orbit," Superman said. "This entire block is nothing but rubble. Whatever was here, it's been erased. No survivors."
A golden gleam cut through the smoke as Wonder Woman stepped forward, her armor catching the light of the fires. She crouched, running her fingers across a slab of blackened steel. The metal was warped, half-melted, yet scarred by something sharper than heat.
"This was no explosion of fire or technology," Diana said firmly. Her eyes narrowed at the strange marks, "I feel it in the air still. Energy far older, far greater than anything this world should possess. Light and shadow, opposing forces, yet intertwined."
Superman frowned, "Magic?"
She shook her head, "Yes but also no. It's something primal, beyond Earth and maybe beyond this Universe itself."
Hovering just above the rubble, Martian Manhunter descended silently, his green form blending with the haze. His crimson eyes glowed as he stretched his senses outward, probing the faint traces that lingered in the wreckage.
"Have you got anything psychically?" Batman asked the Martian, who quickly responded.
"Echoes, but not enough to pinpoint," J'onn murmured, "Two presences, both human. Yet their psychic energy has been contaminated by this primal power. One touched by a kind of primal void, the second my psychic energy touches it, I feel backlash, the other infused with radiance, when my psychic energy touches it, I feel...soothed?"
"How intriguing," Wonder Woman said,
"Indeed, these energies should've destroyed one another," He paused, unsettled, "Instead, they survived."
Batman's jaw tightened. He pulled a shard of broken machinery from the dirt, its edges scorched. Etched faintly across the metal was a familiar emblem: a stylized DNA helix.
"CADMUS," he growled. "This was one of their facilities."
Diana's eyes hardened. "So they were experimenting again. Twisting life into weapons."
Superman stepped closer, his voice heavy with restrained anger, "And now something's loose in the city. Something powerful enough to wipe out an entire CADMUS lab."
Batman rose to his full height, holding the shard like evidence in a trial, "We don't know what, or who, we're dealing with. We've already seen what CADMUS did last week," Batman said, and Superman looked away, the clone of him flashing in his mind.
His gaze swept over the others, cold and sharp, "We need to find them. Immediately."
Superman nodded, "I'll have Kara look out,"
"Are you sure about that? She seems more interested in impromptu trips to red sun planets for binge drinking," Batman said, his tone of voice not at all changing as he turned away from the group.
Clark sighed and nodded, "Don't worry, a request from me? She'll take it very seriously,"
Diana crossed her arms, steel in her voice, "And when we do find these two?"
Batman's expression didn't waver, "Then we decide whether they're friend…" He let the silence linger like a blade. "…or foe."
Above the ruins, the smoke thinned, revealing the faint shimmer of dawn creeping across the horizon. The first light of morning brushed against the scorched earth, but it did nothing to chase away the shadows left behind.
Somewhere out there, two children of light and darkness were alive.
And the Justice League was already looking for them.
***
4 Hours Prior!
The explosion had just occurred, chunks of debris still raining down around Tyrone and Tandy. A large portion of the warehouse district was nothing but ruin now.
Somewhere deep inside the wreckage, small fires crackled, the only sound breaking the unnatural silence that followed the blast.
Tyrone coughed hard, pulling himself up on shaky arms. His clothes were torn, blackened in places from the force of the explosion. His glasses hung cracked on his face, one lens missing entirely.
Then he saw her.
Tandy sat in the dirt only a few feet away, trembling, her porcelain skin streaked with soot and tears. Her long blonde hair hung in disheveled strands, clinging to her wet cheeks. Her chest rose and fell sharply, like she couldn't get enough air no matter how hard she tried.
Her body glowed faintly, those hands that had trembled released sparks of radiant light. When their eyes met, there he saw it, her eyes were endless pits of magnificent light, while Tyrone's eyes were pits of eternal darkness.
Neither of them spoke as they stared at each-other, the only survivors of this tragedy. Yet, they could 'feel' each-other, a strange sense deep within them, telling the duo to grow closer, that they're made for each-other.
"Guah," Tyrone groaned as he felt his body twist violently. At first, he thought it was fear, or nausea from the smoke.
But it was deeper, darker. A hunger, endless and gnawing, stretching through his veins like ice water. It clawed at him, demanding, insistent. It whispered into his ear, 'devour, eat, consume, light,'
All these thoughts swarmed him, more an more negative thoughts as well, but he clenched his fists, fighting the urge to fall over as he stumbled forward.
"Hey," his voice cracked, harsher than he intended. He softened it, trying again, "Hey. We can't stay here."
Tandy's wide, tear-bright eyes darted up to him, her light began shining brighter and brighter, "W–What happened? What was that? Why are we," Her words broke, swallowed by a sob.
"I don't know," Tyrone admitted, crouching down in front of her. His hands trembled as he reached out, then hesitated before touching her shoulder, "But I do know one thing. If those guys had a lab here, they're not gonna just walk away. They'll send more."
Her breath hitched. The thought alone made her shiver harder. She had never experienced something like this before, and the thought of being captured once more more her terrified.
Tyrone glanced over the ruins, the way the fires painted the dark in flashes of red and gold. They were exposed, too exposed.
The gangs in this part of National City didn't need an excuse to kill someone, and two teenagers wandering bloodied out of a demolished warehouse? That was a death sentence.
"We gotta move," he said firmly, meeting her gaze again. "Now."
She blinked at him, hesitant, then nodded weakly. Slowly, shakily, she stood. Her knees almost buckled, and without thinking, Tyrone caught her.
She leaned into him, her body trembling, and he felt the warmth of her against the strange, cold ache gnawing inside him. For a fleeting moment, it eased, like something nourishing his soul.
He wanted more, he needed more, but he swallowed hard, forcing his thoughts away from it.
Keeping his arm around her, Tyrone guided her away from the smoking crater. Every step was careful, deliberate. The streets beyond were darker, the faint glow of streetlights flickering against graffiti-scarred walls and broken windows.
Somewhere distant, sirens wailed, but closer, closer, was the sharp echo of gunfire. A reminder of where they were.
Tyrone tightened his grip on Tandy's shoulder.
"My place isn't far," he murmured, scanning every alley, every shadow.,"You'll be safe there."
Safe. The word felt like a lie in his mouth, but it was all he had to give her.
And so, under the veil of night, two children scarred by light and darkness limped their way into the heart of a city that would never forgive them.