Multiverse: Deathstroke

Chapter 435 - Ch.435 One Wave After Another

Back in Gotham, Su Ming retrieved his armor and weapons, slipping back into Deathstroke mode.

He hauled Harley up to the roof of Wayne Tower, waiting for Poison Ivy to rendezvous.

Finding a spot in Gotham to make a call? Harley could handle that solo. Sure, she'd been a wild card in the past, but she had a hundred or so goons under her belt—she was the big boss of the "Harley Gang."

Though her crew was more like a fan club. After splitting with the Joker, the real psychos followed him, leaving her with the dregs and misfits.

Still, scoring a phone was child's play.

Poison Ivy soon tapped into the plant network, double-checking it was really Harley. She had to make sure this wasn't some ARGUS trap.

Ivy was sharp—her and Harley's duo was like a brainiac girl-power team.

Harley graduated top-tier in psychology, one of Gotham's best shrinks. How else could she land a gig at Arkham so young?

Ivy was the same caliber—genius in botany and chemistry. Her hybrid plants and toxins even gave Batman a run for his gadgets.

That "gadget"? A butler in a tux who cooked a mean roast.

As for the third of Gotham's Sirens, Catwoman? She came off a bit less... scholarly.

Ivy was in Gotham now, just rootless—usually squatting in parks on the down-low.

She'd been rolling with the Birds of Prey lately: Batgirl, Black Canary, Huntress, Owl (Xiao), and Katana—a fierce lady squad.

There used to be a guy, Hawkman, but post-N52 reboot, he vanished like he'd never existed.

Most missions were just Batgirl, Canary, and Huntress, though. Ivy didn't care for cases without plants.

Owl, ex-Talon of the Court of Owls, had some... physical and mental baggage to sort out.

Katana? She was all-in with Task Force X these days.

Ivy showed up fast, swinging in like a female Tarzan, vines dropping her onto Wayne Tower's roof.

"Red!"

"Harley!"

The two women hugged it out, Harley grinning ear-to-ear, nuzzling Ivy's face like a clingy pet.

Su Ming just crossed his arms, watching quietly. Dawn was creeping in—a faint glow on the horizon.

The "Parliament of Trees" and "Parliament of Flowers" feud hadn't touched Ivy, it seemed. Her powers were still peak.

Per Swamp Thing's comic lore, Ivy's juice started with some serum, but she'd since tapped into the Green. Behind her loomed a cryptic vine rep—the "May Queen."

No one's seen what the May Queen really is—too many vines in the world. But as long as plants and venom flowed, Ivy had fight in her. The Green helped some, but she didn't lean on it much.

"He saved you?" Ivy snuck a glance at Su Ming, whispering to Harley.

"Yup! Check my neck—is there still a little hole?" Harley nodded, spinning around so Ivy could peek at her nape, confirming the bomb was gone.

Thing is, it was a nano-bomb—big enough to pop a head, but removal didn't leave a crater.

Ivy just patted Harley's neck soothingly, plucking a leaf from herself and sticking it there.

"You're fine, healed up. Let's go—party at your New York place." Ivy tugged Harley's hand, eager to split. Being near Deathstroke creeped her out.

Harley propped her rebar-and-concrete chunk on the ground, rubbing her arm. "Can't, Red. Gotta save the world."

"Huh?" Ivy gave her a weird look. "You off your meds or on the wrong ones? Leave saving the world to the Justice League. We're hitting New York—throw my bestie a loud welcome bash."

"No, Viney, listen!"

So Harley spilled about the gestalt entity and Earth dying—mostly wild tangents with little meat.

Ivy conjured a vine chair, plopped down, face blank with numbness.

"So you're saying a treasure fell from the sky, Batman and Lex are scrapping over it, but it's a bad treasure that'll turn the multiverse into a giant cake?"

"Yup, that's it," Harley nodded hard, dead serious. "Bat and Baldy don't believe it. Saving the world's on me now. Red, you'll help, right?"

Harley hit her with puppy-dog eyes, big and watery, locked on Ivy.

Ivy turned away—she couldn't handle that attack. If she said no, Harley'd cling and cry 'til she caved.

"Fine. What's the plan? Storm the Hall of Justice? Snag the treasure?"

"Uh... haven't figured that out..." Harley scratched her head, tossing a helpless look at Deathstroke. He'd have a scheme.

Su Ming didn't want the gestalt thing. The Justice League and Lex thought it held all concepts beyond the Source Wall.

Too vague a concept.

Right now, the Hall of Justice had Batman, Flash, Hawkgirl, and Wonder Woman—maybe some B-listers too.

If Su Ming launched a raid, him and Ivy teaming up could probably nab it.

Then what?

He had no clue what that glowing orb did. In his hands, it might be useless.

Plus, he'd face a pincer attack from the League and Lex's crew.

Doing that'd be brain-dead. Better to sit back, see if it's a prize or a doomsday trigger.

As he mulled it over, a sound like a stampede hit—booming roars echoing outside the city, closing in fast.

"Hm?" Harley perked up, tilting her head to listen. "Been a while since I was in Gotham. Noise pollution's this bad now? Lemme check—6 a.m. Is this Utopia's wake-up call?"

Ivy didn't buy it. She bolted to Wayne Tower's edge, peering out. On the eastern horizon, a ghostly blue line shimmered.

"Tsunami!"

Su Ming saw it too—a mega-tsunami. Earth's curvature math said if you spotted a wall rising above the horizon from Wayne Tower, shifting like a flat line, by the time it hit, it'd be a mountain.

End-of-days flood, basically. Su Ming figured he'd call Flash pronto—see if he could whip up a Noah's Ark in a few dozen seconds.

Wasn't Aquaman supposed to be handling ocean fallout? This the result?

Or had Sea King finally snapped from the League's shade and gone rogue?