Multiverse: Deathstroke

Chapter 466 - Ch.466 Safest Place

Since he had no clue how Batman and Superman were holding up, Su Ming started grilling the Teen Titans about the situation on Earth.

While he was underwater and out in space, what had the Justice League been up to?

Starfire gave him the rundown: rescue and resistance.

The rescue gig went decently enough. There were still plenty of folks who hadn't turned into fish, and they were all holed up on dry highlands.

But the resistance? Total bust. Superman got pummeled half to death by that sea god from earlier, Flash caught the fish-man plague, and the other heroes—aside from the second- and third-tier ones keeping order on the highlands—were basically wiped out.

Su Ming took a deep breath. He knew Batman's risky multi-front plan wouldn't end well.

Good thing his drainage scheme worked. Earth's sea levels were now under a remotely controlled dynamic balance.

However much water the aliens pumped in, the giant statue on the Source Wall would piss out just as much.

Sure, he'd learned his enemies were three sea gods, but Su Ming wasn't sweating it.

Their water couldn't just pop out of nowhere—it was probably just the oceans from their three planets, tops.

Which meant Earth wasn't in danger of drowning anytime soon.

Su Ming gave a quick rundown of the sea level situation to a few clueless teammates. Kept it vague—just said Earth wouldn't sink and he'd handled it.

How'd he handle it? Not a single word on that.

The Titans, half-doubting, half-curious, bolted to the ship's edge to scope out Earth. After a bit, Starfire confirmed the water wasn't rising anymore.

"Awesome! That's the best news I've heard all day." Raven wiped a tear with a laugh, feeling a weight lift off her shoulders.

Especially since Deathstroke wasn't holding a sword to their throats and had even fixed Earth's mess.

Wonder Girl stared at him hard, but eventually dropped her gaze to bang on her shield. The dents from that alien sea god's attack needed hammering out from the back.

Beast Boy nodded, touched. "Deathstroke, looks like I misjudged you. You're not a bad guy anymore."

Su Ming shot the clown a side-eye, determined not to give him an opening for jokes or memes.

"Nah, you didn't misjudge."

"???"

Seeing the green monkey's baffled face, Su Ming felt a wave of satisfaction.

He ignored Beast Boy's confusion and stepped up to Wonder Girl. "What was Batman's original mission for you guys?"

"Uh, rescue people."

Wonder Girl rubbed her shield's surface, eyeing the arrow emblem, and muttered softly.

Once again, the Titans hadn't followed Batman's orders—they'd gone rogue.

As acting leader, Wonder Girl felt ashamed, especially since they'd lost Garth in the process.

She figured Deathstroke was about to chew her out for the Titans' reckless streak.

Instead, he clapped her shoulder, grinning like he was thrilled. He pulled out some bandages for her to patch up, then took over fixing her shield.

"Good job. Ignoring Batman was the right call!"

Wonder Girl: "???"

Was this for real? Openly defying Batman?

Starfire piped up in protest. Her uncle had told her to listen to Batman—besides, he'd been busting his hump for the world.

Deathstroke's cryptic lone-wolf style made it impossible for anyone to sync up with him.

Su Ming, now backed by Shadowpact, had the juice to take on Lex Luthor. Why would he need random extras tagging along?

"Think about it. How's everyone who followed Batman's orders doing right now?" Su Ming smirked, puffing his cigarette as he crouched, hammering Wonder Girl's shield flat with Godslayer morphed into a mallet.

Starfire stammered. True enough—heroes who'd stuck to Batman's playbook had mostly turned into fish.

Superman lost his powers, Flash was half-fishified, and the heavy hitters were toast.

If the Titans hadn't gone off-script and shot up to space—instead staying on the ground to rescue or fight aliens—they'd probably be wiped out too.

Losing just Garth while keeping the team intact was a stroke of luck in a sea of bad news.

Su Ming had his eye on the Titans because they were useful. In a fight, Raven and Starfire pulled weight. Outside of combat, Cyborg was the MVP.

Sure, Beast Boy was sharp and could handle alien tech quick, but science has specialties. Cyborg's physics and computer skills outclassed him.

Beast Boy could stick to babysitting the phone, hauling bags, and piloting the ship.

"See it now? Batman's orders just screw you over. Saving people's fine, but it's all about the how." Su Ming smugly pounded the shield a few more times, handing it back to Wonder Girl, good as new. "Ask Eve and Lori—they'll tell you running with me's zero risk and a blast."

Under Starfire's questioning gaze, Eve and Lori mulled it over.

Danger? Nah, none of that. Deathstroke's rep as Earth's top merc wasn't hype—whatever the enemy, this beast of a warrior was always out front.

But a blast?

Surrounded by nightmare fuel monsters underwater, summoning an even bigger magical abomination while cracking jokes, forcing them to watch the Source Wall giant take a leak—where's the fun in that?

Still, facts were facts: Batman was MIA, and Deathstroke, the tactical genius, was the only leader left.

So Eve—and Lori, now split off and back in her own body—nodded.

Blue Devil's take was simpler.

Stopping the sea level rise? Deathstroke. Rescuing the kids here? Deathstroke. Beating back an alien god? Still Deathstroke.

What's there to debate? Stick with him, and saving Earth wasn't such a long shot.

He glanced back at the ship's bridge through the massive viewport. All he could see was Earth, now a purple waterball.

Blue Devil wondered if they even had the juice to fix this mess.

Su Ming didn't care much for Starfire's opinion. Wonder Girl was Team Deathstroke, so the Titans weren't going anywhere.

Starfire wasn't even a Titan—she was probably just Batman's babysitter here. If the Titans rolled with Deathstroke, she'd have to tag along, like it or not.

Otherwise, she'd be the one ditching Batman's orders.

And over here, Su Ming called the shots. One rule: obey. Don't like it? Tough.

As for team morale?

He had Beast Boy and Harley for that—one to preach big ideas, the other to clown around. They'd be one happy family in no time.

Plus, the biggest pain, Garth, had just taken a dive—literally. One less headache.

The situation was that simple.

Deathstroke was taking Shadowpact to save the world. Titans—coming or not?

Even without her sharp brain, Starfire could see the fire in Wonder Girl's eyes. No stopping the Titans from riding with Deathstroke now.

A guy who saved them in a pinch naturally scored major points. Even their black-and-yellow phobia seemed cured.

The green-skinned girl let out a quiet sigh.

"Phew... fine, we'll follow your lead. What now? Back to Earth—where to?"

"Why go back to Earth?" Su Ming shot back, casually popping open a cabin door along the corridor and peeking inside.

"Uh, because it's not safe here?" Starfire ventured, uncertain.

"Wrong. This is the safest place around."

Su Ming spotted a room full of frozen fish, squinted, shut the door, and shook his head at Starfire.

"But we're surrounded by the enemy fleet right now."

The Martian girl was totally lost. Human hearts still baffled her.

Normally, she and Martian Manhunter could lean on telepathy—no need for sketchy psychology tricks.

But with psychic powers offline, it was back to old-school guesswork. She still couldn't figure out what that sea god was thinking earlier.

Su Ming led them back to the bridge, ordering Garth to deal with the bodies.

"Chuck 'em into space or eat 'em—your call."

Garth shivered. Even if these aliens had fish faces, they had limbs, torsos, and brains. No way he was eating them.

Fear of Deathstroke crept right back in. He quietly dragged the corpses, tossing them one by one out the gaping hole Garth had smashed earlier.

Watching him tremble through the task, Su Ming told Cyborg to rip out some interior walls or doors to patch the floor's hole and get the ship flight-ready again.

Once they were off on their jobs, Su Ming plopped into the captain's chair, set his helmet on his knee, propped his greatsword beside him, and faced an antsy Starfire.

"Like you said, we're boxed in by the enemy fleet. Thousands of laser and plasma cannons are aimed at us—so why aren't they firing?"

If they held off before because their god was onboard, Aquaman's gone now. They had every reason to blast this ship into space fireworks.

So why weren't they?

Starfire frowned, thinking hard.

Su Ming didn't wait for her to guess. He sent Eve and Lori to sweep the ship for enemies, then had Blue Devil use hell magic to contact Banshee, telling Beast Boy to bring the rest up to space for a rendezvous.

"Because we've got hostages."

"Hostages?"

"More like 'fish-tages.' Those frozen fish."

Su Ming pointed her toward the corridor to check it out. Nearly every cabin on the ship was a cold storage unit, packed with fish.

With her X-ray vision, Starfire didn't even need to move—she saw it all, just like Deathstroke said.

It clicked.

For Earthlings, frozen fish screamed food—easy to transport.

Assuming the fish were dead.

Alien tech wasn't like that. Even a dry rock like Mars had slick cryogenic tech, keeping lifeforms alive in stasis.

Thermostatic cryo-pods were the backbone of any civilization's long-haul space travel.

The sea folk's version just looked a bit rougher, that's all.

Those ice-block fish were alive. No clue what these alien fish were, but they clearly meant a ton to the invaders.

So Deathstroke called them hostages and used them as a shield without blinking. Fact was, the enemy fleet didn't dare open fire.

This transport ship? It was the safest spot in the world right now.