Multiverse: Deathstroke

Boom!!!

With the sound of an explosion, a cloud of dust surged out from the doorway, leaving everyone hiding behind cover covered in dirt. The dust mixed with the rain still wet on their bodies, turning it all into mud.

A piece of some signboard from who-knows-where flew in front of Su Ming's eyes. The fragment only had the word "laboratory" remaining on it.

"Looks like Falcone hasn't done much cleaning up since moving in. His New Rome isn't as clean as the Old Rome," Cindy observed as the dust settled. She brushed off the dirt from her body and added, "Though it does have a kind of archaeological vibe."

"Are you sure his men took Commissioner Gordon through this route? This environment doesn't look right." Su Ming raised his gun and peered into the research facility, seeing only a mass of red through his mask's lenses.

"Not sure, because I didn't find any footprints from today. There might be another entrance in the junkyard," Cindy said as she walked a few steps forward, leaning against the doorframe. The debris on the ground crunched under her feet.

The night vision function in their helmets had always been handy, but looking inside from the door, all that was visible was various kinds of garbage. Everything was left as it was during the evacuation: scorched documents, smashed typewriters—basically, anything that could be destroyed was destroyed.

"Well, it's the right place."

He realized it was likely Vickie Vale's luck at work. She just wanted to film the news segment Su Ming had promised, so fate had led them here.

No need to think; by taking this path, there would definitely be enough fighting inside to edit into a 'news blockbuster.' And in such a strange situation, if they wanted to find another path, they surely wouldn't be able to—that's how luck works.

She wanted a gas mask, and she could find one in the Batcave without any trouble. She felt short on money, and she stumbled upon gold.

Vickie was like an uncontrollable weapon of causality—a double-edged sword. Sometimes Su Ming suffered from her luck as well.

But he had to rely on her luck for now. He didn't think he had much luck himself. Being thrown from a rental room into Gotham, facing a hail of bullets, with a countdown to the end of the world—this was the treatment of an unlucky soul.

Bringing her along might save them in a situation beyond his control. For now, she was a lucky charm, until he found Bruce, the Chosen One, whose presence was even more potent than Vickie's. Then he'd decide based on the situation.

For now, Su Ming just hoped there wouldn't be too many monsters inside.

"We're going in. You protect them," Su Ming put away his gun, once again drawing the long sword from his back, ready to enter the research facility.

Cindy quickly extended a finger, pressing it against the chest of his armor, shaking her head as she pushed him back. She drew her own twin swords from behind her and walked in first.

"Are you kidding me? Letting a man take point? Where's the honor in that?" 

Su Ming shrugged. If she wanted to take the lead, he'd guard the rear. It was just a few steps' difference, after all.

Both their helmets had night vision systems, so the dim environment inside didn't affect them. The other three, however, had to rely on the lighting from the camera to see their surroundings.

The power supply here was functioning, but the first floor's lighting system had been destroyed. The electrical panel, along with its wires, dangled limply from the wall, like a dead animal with its guts hanging out.

To Barbara, it looked as if a typhoon had swept through the place. In the camera's lens light, she saw that most things were shattered.

Gotham's history lay broken before her eyes. This kind of place shouldn't exist in Gotham.

Vickie had started recording, but she was just having Peter shoot some environmental footage as background material, not yet starting her commentary.

This was the first layer of the underground research facility. Logically, it should be relatively safe, but judging by the surroundings, Su Ming felt something had probably escaped from below.

Just then, Cindy swung her weapon, the cold gleam of the blade flashing in the air. Some shadow that flew at her was sliced in two, dropping to the ground.

The thing wasn't dead yet; it kept wriggling on the floor. Cindy glanced down—it looked like a palm-sized black maggot.

"What the hell is this?" She lifted her foot and stomped the wriggling creature into a puddle of goo.

"Looks like an oversized maggot," Su Ming also saw the thing. It was just a byproduct of genetic experiments.

"I'm starting to hate this place."

Cindy wiped her blade on a broken desk, the back of the blade covered with a jelly-like green substance, then she continued forward. Every now and then, more bugs leaped out of the darkness toward them.

"We need to find a way down to the lower levels, through the experiment area, to the dormitory sector." Su Ming chopped down another bug and spoke to Cindy.

"200 meters at 11 o'clock, there's a passage," Cindy glanced ahead. With her equipment and experience, she quickly made the judgment.

So the group moved in that direction. As they progressed, there were more and more black bugs on the road, densely packed. Cindy switched to her shotgun to speed up their advance.

These things seemed endless, countless in the darkness. It was better to move quickly.

The closer they got to the passage, the denser the creatures became, proving Cindy's judgment correct. These things had escaped from the experiment area, and that was the path leading to it.

However, this also meant something had broken containment. Mad scientists wouldn't just play with such small creatures.

Under the protection of the two, the group smoothly reached the door. With a light push, the door opened.

Suddenly, a shadow leapt from the ceiling onto Cindy, clawing and biting at her, producing metallic clashing sounds.

But Cindy didn't panic. As a world-class mercenary, she had encountered countless surprises. She immediately drew her blade and stabbed it straight into its head, through the eye socket, out the back of its skull, with a cracking sound.

The corpse dropped to the ground.

It looked like a hairless monkey or ape, with thick, chitinous armor on its joints, like a crab shell.

It should have been a predator feeding on leeches, but it chose the wrong prey this time.

Cindy decisively chopped off its head. Even if it had regenerative abilities, it would need a lot of time to recover, allowing the group to pass.

"What do you call this? A beetle monkey? A stag beetle ape?" Cindy picked up the strange creature's head. Its teeth grew horizontally, like those of an insect.

"Who knows what it's called? Probably just an experiment code. But I guess it might have once been human." Su Ming said indifferently, leading the three through the passage door.

Cindy shrugged and continued forward. Since it was a military experiment, there were plenty of humans available as primate samples. Why would they need monkeys?

"This was human?" Barbara was shocked. Aside from its vaguely human-like features, it was impossible to guess it had once been a person.

"A guess." Su Ming closed the door behind them, taking one last look at the body on the ground.

Barbara was speechless, feeling a sense of sorrow, once again witnessing humanity's madness. This tendency towards self-destruction always seemed to accompany humanity.

Vickie, on the other hand, nodded. It confirmed her suspicions about Deathstroke's origins. She immediately wrote it down in her notebook and directed Peter to film the thing on the ground—whatever it was—with close-ups of its corpse and overall scene.

She believed that after viewers saw this special episode, they would go crazy and fall in love with her.