"You're back."
Brainiac 21 asked Deathstroke behind her. She was currently linked into the network, processing information from various terminals. The dense cables and equipment formed her lofty throne.
Though Su Ming looked somewhat weary, as if he had fought the Carrion Eaters, he had still returned successfully with a group of team members.
Brainiac 21's main base was no longer in the sewers beneath Steel Star, but in the toxic ocean of Phyllis I. She had mind-controlled vast numbers of poisonous creatures and made the defenses here nearly impenetrable.
"Didn't your duplicate see it?" Su Ming found a chair and sat down, removing his mask and letting out a breath. "The Carrion Eaters were difficult to deal with, and they hate me. But after I said I could help them eat Darkseid, they still couldn't overcome their appetite."
"That matches my calculations." Tubes were plugged all over the back of Number 21's head, green light flowing through them. "Beasts are beasts, after all. They can only execute the program Perpetua set for them long ago."
"Yes, so I helped them prepare some means of transport, making it easier for them to keep heading to Sepulk as the vanguard and buy us time."
Su Ming pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and rubbed his chest.
The negotiations had been nowhere near as calm as he made them sound. Those monsters hated him to the core. If not for Strangle's powerful regeneration and his own Tenth Metal skeleton, he would probably still be tumbling around in a grinding mill of flesh and blood.
Still, after proving that he could keep wearing them down without end, the Carrion Eaters believed Deathstroke really could help them eat Darkseid. So they declared a truce and even invited Deathstroke to serve their Goddess with them.