Superman from the comics: Starting with the Black Robe

Chapter 8 The Demon in the Shadows

The female musician was clearly more than just a musician, because the guy across from Joey, Chicken Guy... oh wait, Stan Edgar, didn't seem surprised by her abrupt behavior. His only emotional reaction came from Joey's inappropriate chicken joke.

"Don't be so petty, Stan." The female musician chuckled and patted Joey's chest, stopping him from apologizing. At that moment, she was almost face to face with Joey, as if the two had some kind of intimate relationship.

"Children speak without thinking; he's just a child."

"Indeed." Stan's displeasure lasted only a brief moment, before he regained his composure and became the authoritative helmsman he once again. He took a sip of whiskey and transformed back into a pure businessman.

"Child, you awakened your superpowers, but unexpectedly lost your family. I offer my condolences. Normally, we would send a teenager like you to an orphanage after completing the legal procedures, but you are different. You have enormous potential that others do not have, and Vought International cherishes all people with potential."

Stan Edgar climbed his way up from the bottom at Vought International, so he naturally knew how to handle a sixteen-year-old boy who had mistakenly killed his parents. Although the boy showed ordinary calmness or even cold-bloodedness, what boy doesn't dream of being a superhero?

"Now is the time to make a decision: join the Walter family, become a legend in the spotlight, or reject us, get embroiled in lawsuits, and fade into obscurity?"

Faced with Stan Edgar's soft threat, Joey smiled and shook his head. He didn't care about any of that nonsense about superheroes or orphanages; he just wanted to get something from the superhero teams in this world.

"Mr. Stan, first of all, I want to apologize for what I just said; secondly, I'm not here to become a superhero like everyone else, I think..."

"Shh~" The female musician interrupted Joey with a finger, then gestured for Edgar to speak alone. "Stan, could we talk alone for a bit?"

"No problem, Lady Storm."

Stan remained calm, downed his whiskey in one gulp, and got up to leave decisively, but a few ripples stirred within him.

The board of directors of Walt Entertainment chose him to take charge, but this did not mean that he could be absolutely autocratic within the company. Just like Disney Media, there were two undercurrents fighting within the company. One faction was the outside investors who entered the company's board of directors by increasing their shareholdings and gained the power to speak in the company.

The other faction is the company's local faction, consisting of members of the Water family and company veterans who already held original shares in the company, and Storm is one of the most important members among those original shareholders.

The storm had rarely appeared in the open since Stan Edgar first joined Vought Corporation. This time, it suddenly appeared, specifically asking the company to recruit a young man. Stan couldn't say what this meant, but he could foresee that it was definitely not a good thing.

And sooner or later, I'll have to clean up this mess myself.

~~~

"Child, what happened to you was not your fault."

The woman Stan called "Storm" pulled over a chair from a distance and sat down facing Joey. Her smile was gentle and kind, and her words were full of care and understanding. Her facial features were soft, her skin was fair and delicate, and her slender fingers gently pressed on Joey's shoulders to help him relax.

It's quite common for superhumans to accidentally kill their own family members when they awaken their superpowers and lose control. Storm looked at the little boy in front of her, whose face was as hard as steel and who showed no sadness, with eyes full of doting affection.

A child who has just lost his parents may have a broken heart hidden beneath a seemingly icy exterior. With just a little bit of warmth, care, and love, he will become completely devoted to you.

Are you hungry? Or tired? Or would you like something to drink?

Storm stood up to lay out the cutlery for Joey, and before Joey could refuse, she carefully bent down to tie his napkin, revealing a glimpse of her cleavage. "I don't like the owner of this building, but the food here is quite good..."

Joey was momentarily at a loss for words in the face of Storm's attentiveness. His reason told him to be highly vigilant, but he needed her help and couldn't refuse such enthusiasm. By the time he realized what was happening, a napkin was already tied around his neck, and he was given the menu. Joey could only steel himself and state his purpose for being there:

"Ms. Storm, I just want to ask you for some information."

Storm winked playfully in her amber eyes, her eyelashes trembling slightly, carrying a subtle allure. She looked at Joey with a gentle smile, extending her right hand to display the arc of electricity pulsating in her palm:

"I am a superhuman, just like you. Storm is just my code name. You don't need to call me that. My real name is Clara Lessinger. Just call me Clara."

Storm adjusted Joey's chair so that it faced the dining table:

"Whatever you want, as long as it's available at Walter Corporation, I can get it for you, but for now—let's order first."

~~~A few hours later~~~~

Joey was holding a tablet computer, rapidly flipping through all the information on magic, witchcraft, Taoism, voodoo, shamanism and other legends that Vought had collected since the company's inception. The tablet's extremely slow refresh rate greatly reduced his reading efficiency, and his mind was trapped in a bunch of fabricated, frivolous, and fantastical legends.

For example, a witchcraft legend that Joey immediately identified as fake mentioned that some demons, weaker than humans, would secretly eat human shadows to take their place and lurk beside their victims, waiting for an opportunity.

Huh~ Joey looked at the pitch-black shadow at her feet and suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

With a whoosh, Joey swiftly traversed most of the presidential suite she was staying in, the gust of wind causing the crystal chandelier overhead to sway from side to side, but the shadow beneath Joey's feet remained perfectly still.

Seeing that its disguise had been exposed, the raven, hiding in Joey's shadow, simply stopped hiding. Several wisps of black mist rose from the shadow and converged at the window. The raven, cloaked in black, sat cross-legged on the windowsill.

"You actually found out? Are you really a Kryptonian? Most Kryptonians aren't sensitive to magic."

Joey stared intently at the raven sitting by the window, a nameless rage rising within him, nearly crushing the tablet in his hand: "You actually dared to hide next to me!"

"If it were before today, I would have run away without hesitation after being exposed, but now I think we need to talk." Raven's face, hidden by her cloak, was expressionless. She was facing Joey, with only a small part of her pointed chin showing.

"What you're looking at right now is almost useless, and I can sense what you're thinking—you're trying to resurrect your parents through magic or some kind of sorcery."

"I know what it feels like to lose a loved one, and I know even better what the consequences are of abusing magic and dealing with hell."

Raven removed the hood of her cloak, revealing her exquisite face and long, obsidian-like, purplish-black hair. Her dark, deep eyes stared directly at the superhero of this world, and two lines of tears streamed down her face.

"Because I used magic recklessly, I opened the gate to the dimension of hell. My mother, thousands of people, and the place where I grew up were mercilessly annihilated by my father, the Sangu Demon. They all died because of me."

The raven swooped down from the windowsill and grasped Joey's taut wrist:

"Don't follow in my footsteps, Superman. Accepting harsh realities breaks the heart, but refusing to accept them only leaves ever-deeper scars."

Go back to Kansas, erect tombstones for them, bury them, remember them, and let them go.

Raven's words were undoubtedly sincere. Joey had remained as calm and composed as ice all day, but beneath that placid exterior lay a vast, black hole of sorrow. Especially now, seeing Raven seemed to have reignited his anger. The clash of these two intense emotions left Joey bewildered, and he grabbed Raven's arm:

Are you trying to change my mind?

"What?!"

Raven wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, her gaze filled with astonishment. Through physical contact, she could indeed sense Joey's thoughts more clearly, but she had never intended to twist the mind of a Kryptonian. Feeling Joey's hand gripping her arm, she immediately understood what was happening:

"You know I didn't do that! Stop lying to yourself, Joey!"

She didn't change Joey's mind, and Joey knew she didn't, but Joey now had to find a reason for his subsequent willfulness.

dong dong dong~

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

The raven transformed into a giant crow, flapped its wings, and flew outside, ending the argument.