🚨🚨🚨Read my new story Peter Parker: To Think is To Choose.✅✅✅
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"Even gods need coffee. And peace, like power, is best shared in small rooms."
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Quinn & Ink, Gotham City
The door chimed for the sixth time in ten minutes.
Harley groaned from behind the counter, half-buried in a pile of visitor badges. "If one more cape or royal shows up, I'm startin' a cover charge."
King looked up from his sketchbook just as Lois Lane walked in — sharp eyes, notepad ready, the unmistakable determination of someone who'd hounded gods, monsters and billionaires with equal confidence.
Behind her was Clark Kent, glasses slightly askew, looking profoundly apologetic. Jimmy Olsen taking pictures.
"Mr. King," Clark began gently, "please — just one interview. She hasn't slept in two days. She's been quoting your UN speech in her sleep."
Lois crossed her arms. "In my sleep? Really, Smallville?"
Clark raised a hand. "You were arguing with the toaster about moral responsibility."
King blinked once. "That… sounds like a philosophical crisis."
Lois smiled wryly. "It's called journalism, Mr. King."
Before King could respond, the door chimed again.
This time, the scent of baked bread and olive oil filled the air.
"Maya!" Harley exclaimed, grinning. "You brought the entire restaurant, didn't ya?"
Indeed she had. Maya Ducard entered first — radiant and laughing — followed by her Italian family carrying baskets of pizza, tiramisu, bottles of olive oil and enough homemade pasta to feed a metahuman army.
Her grandmother waved a ladle like a scepter. "Where is this King boy? He saved my granddaughter — he eats!"
Maya blushed furiously. "Nonna, please—"
But the Nonna had already grabbed King by the arm and was pushing him toward the nearest chair. "Sit! You are too tall, too pale and too serious! Eat!"
King, eternally unbothered, allowed himself to be seated as the family descended upon him with laughter and endless food.
Harley was cackling behind the counter. "Oh puddin', you're doomed. Italian grandmas got more authority than the League."
Before anyone could reply, the door opened again — and this time, water trailed across the threshold.
The air shimmered with salt and pressure as Queen Mother Atlanna, Queen Mera and King Arthur of Atlantis stepped in, their presence turning the parlor's air heavy with the scent of deep oceans. Kaldur'ahm followed silently, regal in his calm.
Arthur blinked, rubbing his neck awkwardly. "Uh… sorry about the puddle."
Harley deadpanned. "Buddy, the carpet's seen worse."
The Nonna immediately mistook Arthur's trident for a pizza peel and began speaking rapid Italian, praising his "commitment to authentic cooking."
Arthur looked utterly lost. Mera was trying not to laugh.
Then the door opened yet again.
This time it was Oliver Queen and his protege Speedy. Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake, the current Robin.
"Wow," Tim said, glancing around. "This is the weirdest crossover episode ever."
King finally stood, taking in the surreal scene: the parlor filled with superheroes, royals, reporters and an army of affectionate Italians.
The walls seemed almost to buckle under the combined energy of gods and mortals, myth and chaos.
He sighed — the faint hum of the King Engine beneath his skin responding.
"This is getting crowded." He murmured.
Lois, unflappable, clicked her pen. "Perfect atmosphere for an interview."
King ignored that, turned to the group, and said simply:
"Follow me."
The Tower
The tower was called just 'Peace' it was a place with a shopping mall, a convention center and of course apartments for families. At the top floor was King's place. A penthouse.
The tower was like a modern eyesore within the Gothic buildings of Gotham. But it was King's home, who was going to say that to the man who reshapes the ground they tread on, on a whim.
The room they arrived in via Zeta tube wasn't an office.
It was a convention hall, lined with ambient lights, chairs, tables and decorations.
Maya's family went to full restaurant mode as they set up the plates with the food they brought.
Arthur blinked. "You own… this?"
King shrugged. "Yes. Generates revenue and free cake."
Mera raised an amused eyebrow. "You tore glaciers in half for Russia and you also set up a convention center just for cake?"
King smiled faintly. "Priorities."
Maya's Nonna had already commandeered one end of the hall, replacing some of the fancy platters with homemade lasagna.
Tim whispered to Speedy, "I think she just intimidated Atlanna."
Speedy whispered back, "Honestly? Same."
Meanwhile, Lois sat opposite King, recorder ready. "All right," She said briskly. "Let's start simple. Why build this tower here, in Gotham?"
King met her gaze. "I wanted to own a building."
She sighed. "That'll make a great quote."
Clark — still in glasses — sat beside her, quietly studying King.
"You're calm," He said softly. "After everything that happened."
"I am," King replied. "Because the world's chaos currently no longer needs my storm."
Arthur raised his glass. "To that."
The group settled into strange harmony — laughter echoing through the hall as Maya's Nonnas fed Atlantean royalty, Lois asked impossible questions and Harley snuck extra tiramisu when Ace wasn't looking.
For a fleeting moment, gods, heroes and mortals shared a single peace — one held together not by treaties or fear but by something simpler:
Respect.
And yet, beneath that serenity, something stirred.
A vibration — almost imperceptible — rippled through the tower's foundation.
King's eyes flickered for a fraction of a second, the Engine within him resonating like distant thunder.
He smiled, calm but knowing.
"Enjoy the peace while it lasts." He murmured, almost to himself. "The tide never stays still."
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Read till final chapter 190 on [email protected].π
Danzoslayer517
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