Lex Luthor was currently aboard what had once been the most notorious pirate ship in the Atlantic, drifting aimlessly across the ocean.
What a strange world this had become. A law-abiding, trustworthy, patriotic businessman and scientist like himself was now working alongside a pirate captain.
"Stop complaining. You're not the one who paid to hire me," said Slade Wilson, standing behind Lex Luthor, his single remaining eye fixed on the ship's monitoring screens alongside him. "So how did your government even find out that Aquaman is building a 'doomsday weapon'?"
"Scientists may have their nations, but some of them—like me—also have a sense of morality and conscience, Captain Deathstroke."
Luthor absentmindedly adjusted the instruments, which continued to display the same unchanging data. Their risky voyage had yielded nothing so far.
"It seems our informant had a conscience, but not much use. Atlantean magic clearly lies beyond the scope of my science. I can't detect any large-scale energy fluctuations in these waters."
In this universe, Slade Wilson and Lex Luthor had not diverged much from their original counterparts.
Deathstroke still worked for money, living a life on the edge—only now as a pirate instead of a mercenary. And Luthor remained the same arrogant genius, but without Superman as a rival, his brilliance was confined to the mundane.
"A genius like you supposed to surpass ordinary people—why don't you try using that brain?"
Seeing that Luthor was no help, Deathstroke prepared to have the ship return to Gibraltar for resupply. They had been at sea far too long—long enough to risk being discovered by Atlantis.
"No amount of intelligence can make these conventional instruments detect energy that doesn't exist. At this point, you'd be better off hoping for some superpowered being to just wipe out Atlantis."
Luthor recalled the red-caped figure he had seen days ago on a satellite feed—someone who had effortlessly lifted an entire continental shelf beneath Themyscira and moved it from the North Sea to the Arctic.
That figure rarely appeared on camera, but he had restored the Amazons' homeland, defeated Wonder Woman, forced their withdrawal from Britain, and even driven back Aquaman's assault.
The other woman, however, showed no hesitation in appearing before the public. She had resolved over a dozen humanitarian crises in Africa, stabilized conflicts in South America, and even preemptively negotiated with armed factions to prevent a civil war in Britain.
So far, everything they had done benefited humanity. Reporters from Reuters and the BBC—recently allowed back after the Amazons' withdrawal—had even begun calling them 'guardians of mankind.'
But who knew where things would go next?
Luthor had secretly reviewed classified military files. He knew the origins of the two red-caped figures—especially that one of them had been imprisoned and studied by the military for over a decade.
A powerful alien race descending from the sky, bringing peace and hope out of pure goodwill?
Luthor had stopped believing in such nonsense at the age of seven, after skipping school to visit the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington.
Come to think of it, the two caped figures had never given themselves names. Considering the large 'S' emblazoned on their chests, perhaps he could call them Superman?
Just as Luthor was pondering this, the instruments in front of him suddenly emitted sharp warning alarms, snapping him back to reality.
After seeing the energy readings, a stunned Luthor pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the cold sweat from his bald head.
"Captain Deathstroke, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?"
The good news: they had confirmed that Aquaman was indeed building a doomsday weapon—and they now knew its location.
The bad news: Aquaman had already activated it, and their ship was directly in the path of the seismic wave it had unleashed.
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Joey was currently on Themyscira, now relocated to the Arctic, helping the Amazons settle into what was both their new home and their old one.
Atop a platform made of Kryptonian crystals—what Joey preferred to call Sunstones—constructed over a cooled volcanic crater, he installed an Arc Reactor he had taken from Tony Stark.
The Sunstones displayed remarkable adaptability, instantly reprogramming themselves to integrate the Arc Reactor's energy output into their system.
A beam of light shot into the sky, forming a circular, semi-transparent barrier that enveloped the entire island, shielding it from the Arctic's storms and blizzards.
Hovering in the air, Wonder Woman examined the barrier, even testing its strength with her sword.
"This thing is incredibly durable. Using it just to block wind and snow is a complete waste."
Joey still couldn't understand how the Kryptonians had managed to destroy themselves.
"This was reverse-engineered from unknown invaders after the disaster in Kandor. It's just the tip of the iceberg of Kryptonian technology."
But he had no time to dwell on it.
In the next instant, every hair on his body stood on end. The world seemed to freeze.
It wasn't that matter had slowed—Joey himself had accelerated.
Kryptonians could think fast, but he had never thought this fast before. No one wanted to experience one second of reality as if it lasted three hundred years.
But he had no choice.
A massive seismic wave had erupted from deep within the Earth's crust, originating beneath the ocean and heading straight for Britain.
Based on his calculations, when it reached its destination, it would not only devastate the British Isles but also tear apart most of the Western European plains—from Brittany to Rome—and drag them beneath the sea.
Estimated casualties: 547 million.
Within that single second of thought, Joey had already traveled from the Arctic to the Atlantic.
He no longer needed to search for Aquaman's doomsday weapon.
Though it remained hidden by magic, the immense energy surge and the direction of the seismic wave made its location unmistakable.
"Arthur Curry… you've completely lost your mind."
Joey hadn't expected Aquaman to be this reckless—to sink all of Western Europe just to eliminate the Amazons who hadn't fully withdrawn from Britain.
Atlantis was a highly advanced civilization, with a population of 173 million. And in Joey's eyes, it suddenly felt… overly urbanized.
No—focus.
Revenge against Atlantis could come later. Right now, he needed a solution.
This wasn't beyond saving yet. Compared to Joey, the seismic wave was moving incredibly slowly. He still had time to figure something out.
But before he could—
He noticed someone on Earth he should have noticed long ago.
A speedster, surrounded by red lightning.
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