Multiverse: Deathstroke-Chapter 449: Teen Titans Ready to Strike

Su Ming knew about the Trench Kingdom. The residents there were anything but friendly. Though he'd crossed over too early to catch Aquaman's solo movie, he knew this place from the comics.

This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom.

In simple terms, the ancient Atlantean city split into several chunks and sank to the seafloor, one of which landed in the trench.

The lightless depths of the trench, combined with harsh living conditions, completely drove those residents insane.

Under the external environment's influence, they evolved into another kind of terrifying appearance.

Of course, that's just from a human aesthetic perspective—deep-sea creatures with giant eyes, sharp teeth, and claws are pretty scary.

But beyond that, these Atlanteans also turned ruthless, constantly in a state of frenzied hunger, which was real bad.

It completely cut off any chance of normal communication. Even language got tossed out by them.

In the deepest recesses of their memory, sure, there was still the glory of Atlantis, but that only showed in how they'd avoid the wielder of Poseidon's Trident and double down on attacking whatever that weapon pointed at.

Poseidon's Trident was now in Atlantis's capital—Arthur and Mera's city, Poseidonia, which had surfaced.

Normally, "Atlantis" referred to this capital, inheriting the ancient name.

Arthur called himself the King of the Seven Seas, but in reality, the underwater kingdoms were just six. The Arctic Ocean was a total blank. Even with Atlanteans' tough bodies, they couldn't live in icy water long-term.

If he wasn't wrong, the moment Mera sensed something off, she'd grab Poseidon's Trident to protect her people.

That also meant Su Ming didn't have any reliable way to deal with the Trench folk here.

He'd have to rely on the weapons in his hands to carve a bloody path through the Trench clan, now twice-mutated by the toxic water.

But what the hell was up with Nightshade and Alice zoning out during the mission?

They were seasoned heroes—fought in tons of battles. Especially Black Alice—she was the girl who killed so much even Wildcat and Deadshot found it sickening.

So what was going on now?

Su Ming wasn't a god. He couldn't know or control everything, and right now, the two girls' unprofessional behavior could easily throw a wrench into the mission.

He tapped Blue Devil's shoulder to signal his intent—he and Daniel flanked the sorceress, guarding her from both sides.

No way around it—that's a warrior's lot.

He'd figured Eve, bonded with the symbiote, wouldn't need protecting. Turned out she was worse off than before.

Not sure if it was psychological, but the water here felt noticeably darker than other spots. Even a bit further out, Su Ming's visor couldn't see a thing.

All he could make out were jagged seafloor rocks and irregular, bizarre coral shapes.

And this was just the trench's edge—what lay below was a total unknown.

So far, they'd only run into scattered marine critter attacks. Not a single Trench clansman—the real threat—had shown up.

Su Ming stayed on high alert. If things went south, he'd settle for a less-than-perfect spot instead.

A little earlier, in Poseidonia.

Morning sunlight hit the city, its shell-like, colorful spire buildings giving off a strange glow.

Atlanteans hit the streets, starting their day.

Yep, born as a seafloor race, they had almost no wants—just fish to eat, and they were set.

Houses were state-issued, clothes and daily goods too. They didn't even have a concept of money.

Building houses or hunting food—it was all a group effort. Busy together, rest together. That's Atlantis's rule.

And now, with Batman's funding, Atlantis had scored plenty of surface food and new clothes, so the whole city was on holiday.

When people woke up this morning, they found a brand-new amusement park next to the city—Egyptian-style.

They'd never been to Egypt, let alone seen pyramids or temples. It was all super appealing to Atlanteans.

Idle folks plus a shiny new park? Of course they'd go play.

To fit the Atlantean vibe, Barry built the park half-submerged, leaving a note on a stone tablet saying it was a gift from the Justice League to the Atlantean people.

Maybe slapping Deathstroke's name on it would've been too weird, so he went with the League.

Atlanteans kicked off a party, swimming toward the new park to kill a boring day.

A kid was griping to his mom about hating the surface sun and dry air, while his dad, in the water, called him down to hit the park together.

"The ocean hasn't left us. Look, it's right here with us."

"But Dad, the water's color looks kinda—"

And then his dad let out a scream, like something grabbed his foot from below, dragging him into the purple seawater.

Others started fleeing the purple water like mad, but in that murky mess, it was like something was snatching them up nonstop.

They couldn't see it, but Atlanteans touched by the purple water morphed into alien freaks almost instantly—sprouting useless fins or webbing, skin turning red and green, way more feral.

A six-foot tough guy would shoot up to nine feet in a flash, covered in scales and bulging with explosive muscles.

The kid's dad turned into a red-skinned sea monster, lunging out of the water at the mother and son, spewing weird, incomprehensible gibberish from his mouth.

"Ah!!!"

The kid's mom screamed. She couldn't handle her lover's sudden mutation, while folks around started running, shouting Poseidon's name, hoping he'd save them.

Poseidon wouldn't show. He never cared about mortal lives—land or sea, same deal.

Back when Kronos was slaughtering Olympians, Poseidon was chilling in the sea, not bothering to step in. And those were his relatives.

Let alone now—Poseidon was actually dead, unable to hear the waves carrying his followers' cries.

But someone could hear—heard her people screaming on the shore.

A water curtain shot up from the coast, a dragon-like pillar blasting the mutated ones back into the sea.

Red-haired Mera appeared on the shore, fully armed.

She wore a golden crown, green scale armor, and held a silver double-axe trident.

She relied on superpowers in fights, but having a weapon in hand was better than nothing, right?

Aquaman's trident was with Arthur, and Poseidon's Trident was a sacred relic in the temple—she didn't want to touch it. So she grabbed "Ocean Master" Orm's weapon.

Just, a petite woman wielding that heavy thing looked a bit odd.

"Everyone! Get off the coast!"

Her water control could hold Atlantis for now, but as an ancient underwater city, it had no walls.

Those mutated fishmen were swarming the city from all directions. She could only lead the residents to retreat to the palace district—the highest "Third Tier."

But Atlantean buildings were never waterproof. In another hour, the whole city would be submerged.

For the first time, she felt afraid of the sea.

She asked her advisors and guards for ideas, but they were stumped. This was a planetary crisis—Atlantis alone couldn't handle it.

"No matter the cost, I'll save my people."

Mera decided to contact the Justice League.

Her ties with the Justice League were so-so. Those guys clearly sided with Arthur, always calling her "Aquaman's wife" like they didn't even know her name.

Mera had some emotional control issues. Most of the time, she came off poised, beautiful, soft, and delicate.

But when she got hurt or felt down, she'd flip into a rage mode—endless anger that could even draw a Red Lantern ring.

Before meeting Arthur, she was queen of the mysterious Xebel waters—a tough, decisive woman who rarely bent for anyone.

But in this situation, she had to reach out to the Justice League.

Back then, Batman was still organizing rescues, sending every hero he knew out to save people worldwide.

The die-hard Teen Titans were no exception.

But after Nightwing got shot, the Titans were clearly leaderless. In Batman's eyes, Damian was nowhere near ready—he'd forced him to take shelter.

Just like Su Ming forced Gordon to hole up somewhere safe.

Now the Titans were temporarily under Starfire's command in the field.

Starfire didn't really have leadership skills. This alien princess loved fun, was a bit of a klutz, and wasn't cut out to lead.

But the mission was simple—just do what Batman said. She only had to keep the team from wandering off.

As they geared up to roll out, an old teammate came back. He'd caught the Justice League's rally call. A college kid on land, he raced to the Hall of Justice.

He was Garth, "Tempest," once known as "Aqualad," Aquaman's sidekick and prince of the underwater kingdom Idyllist.

Idyllist used to be part of ancient Atlantis and was still a vassal state of the Atlantean kingdom.

Garth grew up fighting alongside Arthur, but he wasn't a kid anymore. He'd passed the Aqualad title to Jackson Hyde, Black Manta's son from Earth-16.

Main-world Black Manta was a super-villain, but his Earth-16 counterpart's kid was a legit good guy.

When Garth hit the Hall of Justice and learned Nightwing was shot, Idyllist's people had all turned to fish in the water, and Arthur—his big-brother figure—was missing...

Garth figured the longer they delayed, the worse it'd get. He couldn't stand Batman's slow-ass plans anymore. He was taking the Teen Titans to save the world.