“The Bond Breaks First”
Everything was fine—
Until it wasn’t.
The moment the battle ended, the world should’ve gone quiet.
It didn’t.
Danny felt it first.
A sharp snap inside his chest.
Like something invisible just cracked.
“…uh,” Danny says, wobbling slightly. “That’s new.”
The glow around him flickers.
Green → unstable.
The Lazarus energy that once obeyed him starts to twist.
Wrong.
Hungry.
Across from him—
His soulmate freezes.
Because they feel it too.
Not in their body.
In their soul.
“Danny,” they say carefully, “what did you just do?”
Danny laughs nervously.
“Okay so funny story—remember that giant sky thing I shoved back?”
“Yes.”
“…I don’t think it went all the way.”
The ground shakes.
Not from above.
From below.
Something answers.
The cracks spread through the streets—thin glowing green lines, like the Lazarus Pit itself is bleeding into the city.
But this isn’t madness.
This is something worse.
Controlled.
Watching.
Batman’s voice cuts through comms:
“Everyone fall back. Now.”
Too late.
A hand—
Massive.
Shadowed.
Not fully in this world—
Pushes up from the crack in the ground.
Danny stares.
Then, very quietly:
“…okay yeah that’s my bad.”
His soulmate grabs him.
“Can you fix it?”
Danny doesn’t answer.
Because for the first time—
He looks unsure.
And then he smiles.
Too sharp.
Too calm.
“Oh,” he says softly.
“I think it already knows me.”
The hand moves.
The crack widens.
The city holds its breath.
👉 Now the real problem begins… Continue — The Monster Knows His Name
