Chapter 805: Chapter 761: Chance Encounter
Su Ming rubbed his face; these superheroes really do have a habit of staying up all night. Fortunately, Diana seems to remember nothing—the events from that revoked world are best left untriggered at the moment.
As for the Totality issue... Su Ming’s comic collection doesn’t cover that part, so he can only offer his guesses and perspective for now. But Diana is right, some matters truly cannot be shared with Harley; she goes out of control so easily.
Black liquid spread across his body, and a red gleam lit up in the darkness, while the Magic Floating Cloak flew over from the wall. Diana opened the door for a check, waved, and the two of them slipped out, bursting through the window and flying toward the moon.
The wind roared past their ears; from the ground, they seemed like two tiny black dots. Diana was the first to slow down, drifting beside Su Ming.
Su Ming raised an eyebrow: "How’s Paradise Island?"
"Not bad, but the flood destroyed quite a few homes and plants." Diana’s long hair danced with the wind, her face lines appearing extraordinarily gentle under the moonlight: "However, Donna and others have helped with repairs, it’s all done now. But some cars ended up on the island from somewhere, and their owners haven’t been found."
"Throw them into the sea; a car that’s been completely soaked is better off replaced than overhauled. How are Donna and Cassie doing?" Su Ming asked again; personally, he dislikes the Bat Ring Mountain on the moon; it feels like Batman is watching him.
Diana gave him an inquisitive glance, flipped over to continue flying in a backstroke posture: "Donna had dinner and went straight to bed, she never bothers overmuch about things. As for Cassie, have you interacted with her before?"
"No, I’m just curious about where Batman hid the Young Justice League during Earth’s crisis." Su Ming flipped over too, relaxing a lot.
"Only he knows that." Diana rolled her eyes; Batman wouldn’t inform teammates when doing these things: "By the way, did you see the Bat Clan?"
Su Ming nodded, feeling the airflow through gaps in his armor: "During the flood, I went to Gotham once, saved Director Gordon, and met with Barbara."
"I see." Diana nodded knowingly.
"So, what happened? What led you to find me in the middle of the night?" Su Ming guessed that Diana might have encountered Barbara in the Hall of Justice, and the girl slipped up somehow, so after smoothing things over, Diana quickly started steering the topic towards serious matters.
Diana touched the edge of her cloak, thinking it was okay to tell Deathstroke about these things.
So she briefly talked about Sea Star, Star Hero, and Bruce’s experiments.
Afterwards, she gazed at Su Ming’s face with large eyes, like she was out of ideas, and asked: "Are secrets really that important?"
Su Ming felt a tickle in his head at her gaze; Strangulation scratched his nose inside the helmet: "Batman is a detective; secrets and truths are very important to him. But I’m a mercenary, what matters to me are efficiency and costs."
"I see, so you agree with Batman’s actions? Because directly extracting information from Star Hero’s brain is the most efficient?"
"Quite the opposite, I believe that’s the least efficient method, and possibly the most costly."
Su Ming’s playful tone came through his mask, putting a look of puzzlement on Diana’s face. So, as he descended slowly, he explained: "Do you remember? Star Hero only has half a brain."
"Yes."
"Luthor is undeniably a genius; when he dissected Star Hero’s brain, it was certainly selective. That means, even if Batman learns something from Star Hero’s brain, it’s what Luthor wants him to know... The problem is, what happens when you learn a secret your enemy wants you to know?"
Diana appeared horrified, her eyes wide open, and her mouth opened a bit, but quickly closed as she caught wind.
"Luthor has set a trap, waiting for Bruce to jump in? That’s too dangerous! We’ve got to get back and inform him!"
Finishing her words, Diana reached out and grabbed Su Ming’s hand, pulling him toward Washington.
Su Ming reversed his hand, holding hers in mid-air, facing Diana’s anxious expression: "No need to go; it’s definitely too late—do you really think Clark can keep Batman in check? Superman is too simple; in Batman’s eyes, he’s riddled with vulnerabilities."
"But Clark is so powerful if he focused on monitoring Bruce, there’s no way he’d let him slip away." Diana floated and sank in mid-air, frowning.
Su Ming pulled Diana toward another direction: "There once was a time, Batman was gravely injured on an alien planet; all his limbs were broken, his spine and organs were half ruined. Ron confined him in the Hall of Justice for recovery and injected him with strong sedatives so he’d rest easy. Do you remember the outcome?"
Diana’s face showed helplessness too, like a balloon being propelled by Su Ming.
"The outcome was Bruce somehow bypassed Ron and Megan’s mind monitoring, went through all defenses of the Hall of Justice, and vanished under hundreds of people’s noses. He returned to Gotham that very night, donned the Bat Armor, and patrolled the streets, capturing Joker and sending him back to Arkham..."
"Exactly." Su Ming sent Diana a sympathetic look through his mask, believing she could understand.
Diana shook her head slowly, sighing: "I still don’t know how he did it, he is just an ordinary person, isn’t he?"
"If you ask me, I wouldn’t have the answer. But if you were to ask him, I guess he would say..."
"Because I’m Batman!"
Diana imitated Bruce’s voice, and after she spoke, she laughed too, reminding her of when everyone used to mimic The Bat back then.
Just no word yet on the situation with Ron and Steel Bone’s team off in the cosmos; there’s been no news at all.
"So, he’s definitely fallen into this trap, now all he needs to do is get ready to pay me for his rescue." Su Ming glanced down, the familiar spotlight was still on: "Didn’t have dinner tonight? Let’s grab a late-night snack."
"???"
Diana watched as Su Ming instantly transformed into Batman and then pulled her directly toward the ground, landing outside a very beautiful building.
This building originally looked like a cluster of ice crystals at night, but now the surrounding lighting fixtures had been damaged by the flood, making the building appear somewhat dull.
"Iceberg Restaurant?" Diana tilted her head.
"Gotham’s best restaurant, I’ve always wanted to bring you here to eat, but unfortunately..."
Diana wasn’t paying attention to what Su Ming was saying, she only reacted to the mention of Penguin Man’s name: "Wait, isn’t he a Gotham villain?"
"Doesn’t matter, because I am Batman!"
"You.... alright, being able to intimidate the bad guys is also nice, the Justice League really hasn’t had time to deal with them lately." Diana wanted to say something but suddenly changed her mind.
At this moment, the two of them suddenly heard the continuous sound of people landing behind them, turning their heads to see it was actually the Teen Titans.
As soon as Damian landed, he squinted at ’Batman’, wondering why his father would be here with Wonder Woman in the middle of the night? So strange...
Diana’s eyes rolled skyward as Batman, impersonated by Deathstroke, landing and meeting the son was truly awkward.
Su Ming didn’t panic at all, if he encountered unfamiliar heroes he might not be able to fool them, but with his knowledge of the New Teen Titans, he just might be even better than Batman.
Currently, this team was formed by Damian after the older generation of ’Teen Titans’ had upgraded to ’Titans’, consisting of Damian, Red Arrow, Crush, Giant Spirit, Spiral Bullet, and Lightning Boy.
How to say, they could be considered a ’Super Second Generation’ team, with pretty good strength and a very reasonable team composition.
Crush is the daughter of Violent Wolf, although a mixed blood with humans, she’s basically inherited Violent Wolf’s superpowers, making her an extremely powerful unarmed berserker.
Naturally, her tendency for violence is very severe, and she has also inherited that heavy metal style aesthetic from Violent Wolf.
This Lightning Boy is Black Wally, and like White Wally, he is the nephew of Barry’s wife, uh... Barry’s wife before the Flashpoint event, not anymore.
Regular dealings with Divine Speed lead to such contradictory stories, time has never been normal for this family.
Spiral Bullet is Black Wally’s online friend, both are vloggers on an emerging video platform, he’s a Chinese descendant altered by unexpected alien technology, named Billy Wu, except his skin has turned entirely blue and he’s dyed his hair golden.
His ability, simply put, is ’Meat Cannon’, he turns himself into a ball and crashes into enemies, while the alien technology armor protects him from harm and obstruction. His debut battle was against Captain Cold, considered a very high starting point for a newcomer.
Today’s Red Arrow is Meihui Queen, Green Arrow Hero’s half-sister, not only proficient in traditional archery, but also adept in close combat, and she’s very dark.
Having experienced darkness, with a dark psychology, very much aligns with Damian’s thinking.
Giant Spirit’s real name is Mili, a magic elf lost in the Main Dimension, she’s 4000 years old this year, but looks like a twelve or thirteen-year-old Black girl.
Her true form is a purple light orb, she can freely change her appearance, and her elf magic is similar to Mia’s lineage system, casting spells without going through the Inverted Man.
This team has double tanks, double brains, good at close and long range, with strong magic support and a Speedster. Comparing with Nightwing’s current Titans, it’s obvious Damian’s team structure is much more reasonable, as that side is five fighters and one mage...
Su Ming stood steadily, the long black cloak stretched his shadow very long under the moonlight, and the moist ground reflected a ghostly ghost shadow.
As he glanced over, all the Teen Titans except Meihui and Damian involuntarily took a step back.
Under that bat-shaped mask, behind the white goggles, there was something incredibly terrifying, as if everyone’s weaknesses were exposed under the sunlight with just one glance.
Batman was simply too dark, this terrifying aura was like the abyss itself.
Damian stood in front of Su Ming, disgruntled, what’s the idea of scaring his teammates the moment they met? Unfortunately, he was too short, only 1.37 meters, nowhere near enough to block that terrifying gaze.
"What are you doing here?"
Damian put his hands on his hips, puffing out his chest as if somehow that would make him taller.
"You should tell me."
Su Ming coldly expressed a question with a statement tone, that’s how Batman interacts with his son.
The Teen Titans became even more nervous, with this tone, does that mean Damian’s gonna get hit? It’s hard for us outsiders to get involved if his dad gives his son a beat...
