The Connection.

30 advance chapters in my Patreon. Patreon.com/Saintbarbido.

Please gimme 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 Your Powerstones People.

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General P.O.V)

In a darkened room, filled with a board covered in parchments of newspaper articles, photos and pictures, was a lone monitor that shed the only bask of light on the figure sitting before the table.

A plate with a half eaten pizza with mold growing out of it sat next to a quarter full of orange juice in a glass. The man sitting across the monitor leaned to the side and grabbed the headphones slung over on the mic adjusting cord on the stand.

He pulled the mic closer as well, breathing heavily as he wiped the sweat on his face off. He had an untidy beard as well as blood shot eyes as he begun the podcast.

"Hello out there, mystery lovers. It's your favorite conspiracy podcast, Man in The Know here. However, this is not just a regular conspiracy theory channel touting about how the earth is flat and what not. I'll leave that for the fools who don't understand science."

He laughed out loud at the unfunny joke.

"No, no but seriously. Here we try to prove if shit is real (excuse my language) or not. We get down and dirty. And and and aaaalll my information is compiled from a long list of research. Mostly public witnesses, news network and superhero forums."

"I still haven't gotten a reply from the CIA about my request for a sneak peek on some of their data to confirm whether my info is usually right but I know a guy willing to..." He cleared his throat, cursing himself for almost saying something he shouldn't have. You don't mess with the underworld.

"That's besides the point, Mystery Lovers because this week...I have something that will knock your socks off." He took in a deep breath.

"Before that, shameless plug for my sponsors, Elite Cleaning products are amazing at removing stains..." He went on to give a clearly practiced and monotonous tirade.

After the advertising, he grabbed the glass with the orange juice with his meaty fingers and proceeded to drown it.

"Ah so refreshing..." He belched. "Now where was I?" A ringing sound came through the line but he cut it.

"I won't take any calls just yet. First you have to listen to what I got for you today."

His whole demeanor underwent a change.

"For a few months now, a series of heists have been carried out without the perpetrators getting caught. Some notable locations that have been broken into are like the Museum of Moesgaard, where an artifact able to cast illusions over a wide area called the mask of Amupit was taken. The mask was later on used by Abra Cadabra to rob a jewelry store in Central City before the Flash apprehended him. That was 2 months ago."

"A week later, Xiao technologies in Chima lost a shipment on a cruise going to Australia. Getting the details on the shipment was hard but someone spilled the info. It contained the mummified remains of Zhong Kui, the vanquisher of ghosts, a scholar who committed suicide Millenias back and was given the power to control ghosts."

"A few days later in Sivana industries, Fawcett City, an experimental drug capable of fully rejuvenating the recently dead at the risk of insanity was stolen by Brother Blood with, you guessed it, an army of his cultists and ghosts. Shazam who is no longer a member of the Justice League by the way, handled that particular villain with the help from Green Arrow."

"There are more cases like these two. The disappearance of the Tata Delaminea, a painting that is said to bring good luck to all gaze upon it, The Sword of Achilles, said to contain his mythical powers and a mystical goblet from King Solomon's own collection, said to house the soul of a djinn. The djinn can only be stirred from his slumber by pouring the purest waters of the earth in the cup." He snorted.

"Good luck with that."

"But why am I telling you all this? Through all the heists, there was one thing in common. White flames and clouds of darkness. That was literally it. Until a security guard managed to snag a picture of the ones responsible and while it's unclear, glowing blue eyes from a figure with a dragon tattoo and flashes of white Lightning can clearly be seen. The authorities designated him as The Contractor but the internet gave him another moniker, The White Shadow."

"And to aid him, the White Shadow has a partner. Darken. Her powers are exactly as stated, darkness and shadow manipulation in an unprecedented scale. She is able to plunge over 5 blocks in a darkness that dulls the senses. She can form constructs like weapons, shields and form wings made of darkness behind her that she can use to fly." He finished with a tinge of excitement coloring his tone.

"No one knows if their abilities particularly hers, are as a result of a meta gene or of it's magic. My money's on magic. A meta gene is more restricted in certain aspects. For example, Black Canary can only emit powerful sonic blasts from her mouth. Darken however has been known to shift her form into darkness, effectively becoming intangible as well as teleport through shadows. Magic while having strict rules is not limited like a meta gene. The other possibility is a fusion of both meta powers and magic, effectively making her a hybrid."

A call started blaring through but he hanged up with a groan.

"I know you have questions guys but I'm getting to the good part, so please calm down. Now, not much is known about The White Shadow. He is a true enigma. His powers consist of pyrokinesis, which he uses to control and manipulate a white fire for various effects. He can conjure shields and weapons by compressing the flames and release very hot flames capable of melting steel."

He paused to grab the slice of Pizza from his plate, sniffed it, shrugged and proceeded to take a bite.

"The White Shadow also possesses lightning manipulation similar to Black Lightning. The difference of course being that his Lightning is completely white. It is also strong enough to completely shred apart a shipping container as evidenced when the shipment from Xiao technologies was stolen." He chewed and swallowed before belching to the side.

"Super strength, super speed, enhanced senses and the ability to teleport seem to be a part of his power as well. The two have faced off against the Superion and the Justice League Mini, still hoping that name will catch on, but never have they once captured either of them. If you're new to the channel and want more info on Superion and Justice League Mini along with Superman's cause of disappearance, revisit some of my older episodes."

"Now mystery lovers you might be wondering why I gave you all a run down of all that, right? Simple...for the first time ever, a news crew has managed to capture footage of The White Shadow in action. The incident happened in Japan on one of the Chaos pockets the League labelled a hazard.

"I'm sure you're all aware of Chaos Pockets now. They appeared two days ago, popular consensus makes them out to be pocket dimensions sustained by a mass belief in something native to that location. It is also a sign that the world has gone to shit. A few months ago, Pluto was destroyed, the debris is only just now reaching Mars, the moon was temporarily covered by a halo of light. Further study showed that the halo was made up flying beings. I don't believe it was angels like some experts say."

"And then Superman disappeared, the string of heists carried out successfully by the White Shadow happened and recently the chaos pockets, followed by the disappearance of the moon! Of course it came back but still. All these things points to something coming. Something huge is on the way." His voice grew grim. "A new world order..."

His line started blowing up from the hundreds of calls.

"And standing in the middle of it all...is The White Shadow. All the objects from the heists he carried out ended in the hands of other villains, showing that he's a dealer. But if he is a villain, then why would he bother to save people from the Chaos Pockets? First caller of the day, how are you?"

He finished and accepted a random call.

"Yeah," a soft voice that sounded young replied.

"I was...umh...I was wondering if...if they're dating? You know Darken and The White Shadow"

The man in the room shook his head in disbelief.

"I just revealed to you all about a possible connection between all the crazy shit that has happened and you're worried about whether they fuck or not?"

He questioned in annoyance.

"Yeah..."

The soft voice replied.

"Probably." The man sighed. " I mean from the rare pics ever captured of them, Darken is a total babe. The White Shadow would be a fool not to hit that."

He swerved on his chair while sipping the last of the orange juice. Then a prompt appeared on his screen.

The man scrambled to his keyboard in excitement.

"I just got the link to the video guys. The raw footage of The White Shadow going ballistic on a monster's ass. I'm sending the link to my discord now. Aaand done!"

He then clicked on the link and started playing the video.

After it ended the man had a shocked look on is face. He removed the glasses on his face and rubbed them.

"That...that...that was Yamata no Orochi and...and he took it down without even trying guys. I think I'll need to evaluate his power again."

He momentarily switched off the mic and headphones and walked over to his board.

News paper clippings dating back to 6 months ago, showed an image of Maelstrom in Metropolis, with Superman and Superion saving a bus. Then another article showed a grainy picture of Maelstrom standing above Superman's body. Then another picture showed him flying away from Washington. All these articles were connected together with a red string.

The man uncapped a sharpie and wrote down on a piece of paper. He then attached the paper to the middle of the board, separating the board into two sides. One side was labelled, Maelstrom and the other was labeled The White Shadow.

For months he'd been trying to figure out the connection between them. He wasn't the one to even start suspecting a connection. No that had been a 'friend' A friend that wanted payback.

But now he had the connection. He used the sharpie to circle the word on the piece of paper he'd written.

"The yellow portals."