Chapter Summaries

Su Ming and his group followed Master of Extras’s directions to a hidden warehouse beneath Gotham’s tidal power station, where they discovered a concealed portal marked with LEX. Su Ming called Luthor to find out why his equipment had become part of a soybean-smuggling operation.

• Su Ming sent Master of Extras back to the surface and led the group deeper into the dam.
• Strangle knocked out the guards as Su Ming’s group reached a warehouse full of crates of beans.
• Su Ming asked the group to search the warehouse for evidence, and Barbara found a hidden electronic lock and opened a Secret Door.
• Barbara discovered a Safehouse containing a large portal device connected to the neighboring warehouse.
• Su Ming found the letters LEX on the portal, and Deathstroke called Luthor to ask about it.

Deathstroke contacted Lex Luthor to ask about a Circus Ring found beneath a Gotham dam, and Luthor admitted he had made and given it away. The chapter ended with Deathstroke pressing Luthor to reveal who he had chosen to receive the device.

• Deathstroke called LexCorp and learned that Luthor had gone to a Justice League meeting with Superman.
• Deathstroke contacted Superman, who defended Luthor's chance to reform and brought him onto the call.
• Deathstroke showed Luthor the Circus Ring, and Luthor recognized it as a machine he had made and given away.
• Luthor claimed he could not remember who received the Circus Ring and denied leaving backdoors in his gifts.
• Deathstroke compared Luthor's gift-giving to a father secretly arranging a child's Christmas presents and demanded the recipient's name.

Su Ming and the team investigated Acolytes Industries and deduced that Doctor Santo was using a doorway to trade combat robots for soybeans with a world devastated by nuclear war. They suspected the company’s operation was a trap meant to lure Batwoman into another multiverse, but they had no proof of a connection to Darkseid.

• Su Ming asked Barbara to investigate Acolytes Industries after Luthor mentioned the company, and Damian explained that it made combat robots for the Department of Defense.
• The team deduced that Doctor Santo was trading robots through the doorway for soybeans from a post-nuclear world, potentially gaining control of its food supply and military force.
• Bobo and the others speculated that Santo might use the doorway to sell passage to desperate people and might have modified it to reach other multiverses.
• Damian warned that the promise of escape could weaken resistance to Darkseid, while Su Ming said they had no evidence linking Acolytes Industries to him.
• Su Ming concluded that the exposed doorway was likely a trap designed to lure Batwoman across it, where Santo could cut the power and strand her; Barbara wondered if Gotham was also a target.

Deathstroke's group began dismantling the Teleportation Portal in the dam, while Simon Santo met with Mayor Nakano to discuss Gotham and its decline. Santo showed Nakano a video of people in other cities describing Gotham, leaving the mayor to hear what they thought of his city.

• Su Ming decided to have Deathstroke's group dismantle the Teleportation Portal and take it away for study.
• Simon Santo met with Mayor Nakano and spoke of his return to Gotham and his wish to repay the city.
• Santo recalled his admiration for Thomas Wayne and criticized Gotham under Thomas's heir.
• Santo began showing Nakano interviews with people in other cities about Gotham.

Doctor Santo tried to persuade Mayor Nakano to approve his Praetor Program by portraying Gotham as beyond saving and promising prosperity, then showed him footage of Batwoman and her allies killing dockworkers and destroying a warehouse. Nakano left the decision open as Santo accused Batwoman of murder and warned that she could not be brought to court safely.

• A street-survey video showed people in several cities rejecting the idea of moving to Gotham, often with fear or disgust.
• Doctor Santo told Mayor Nakano that Gotham’s crime and Batwoman’s interference had made the city worse, and argued that his Crime Fighters could handle criminals.
• Santo presented the armored Praetor robots and promised to clear Gotham’s criminals, create jobs, and greatly increase its economy if Nakano supported the program.
• Nakano said he would consider the proposal but noted that Batwoman had more influence over Gotham than either of them.
• Santo showed surveillance footage of Batwoman, Batgirl, Robin, and a chimpanzee killing dockworkers and destroying a warehouse, then accused Batwoman of murder.

Su Ming sent Barbara and Damian to the Bell Tower to investigate Acolytes Industries while he prepared to act against the company without them. He checked on Harley in Middle-earth, then decided to bring her and Poison Ivy back to help him quietly demolish buildings and kill people.

• Su Ming assigned Barbara to investigate Acolytes Industries at the Bell Tower and Damian to protect her, then sent them there with Cloak.
• Bobo realized Su Ming had sent Barbara and Damian away so he could pursue a more dangerous plan.
• Su Ming asked Adjutant what Harley was doing and learned that she was fleeing the Fellowship of the Ring while wearing The One Ring.
• Adjutant showed Harley and Poison Ivy driving away in a pink convertible as Gandalf, Frodo, and the Ringwraiths pursued them.
• Su Ming decided Harley would rather return to Gotham and that he needed Poison Ivy's abilities to demolish buildings and kill people quietly.

Harley and Su Ming returned to Gotham, where they planned to recruit old allies for a massacre targeting a new company and its suspected Darkseid-aligned boss. Meanwhile, Green Arrow and Black Canary learned Cyborg's condition had worsened and sensed they were being watched.

• The Adjutant teleported Harley and her car back to Gotham, where Su Ming stopped her and she showed him the One Ring she had found.
• Su Ming told Harley he planned to kill the family and employees of a new Gotham company, and Harley proposed letting the city's villains handle the matter so Batman would see it as toys settling their own dispute.
• Harley called their old friends to arrange a reunion at the Iceberg Lounge, while Su Ming said the Penguin would pay for their meal.
• Green Arrow and Black Canary discussed Cyborg's worsening condition, and Green Arrow dismissed the idea that Su Ming had targeted him.
• Black Canary said she felt watched, and Green Arrow told her to stay alert and play it by ear.

The Justice League divided up to investigate Brutus’s teleportation and the forces behind him, while Su Ming arrived at the Iceberg Lounge with Harley, Red, and the gorilla. The chapter left Superman and Luthor searching a warehouse as Su Ming reminded Penguin that he could kill him as easily as he had saved him.

• Superman, Luthor, and the Justice League concluded that Brutus was backed by a larger force, though Luthor claimed he had found no clues.
• Superman assigned Luthor to search his Metropolis warehouses, Hawkgirl, Barry, Arthur, and Queen Hippolyta to investigate Atlantis, and John Stewart to consult the Lantern Corps on Oa.
• Luthor used the Door Handle of Destruction to open a portal to one of his warehouses and invited Superman through.
• Su Ming arrived at the Iceberg Lounge with Harley, Red, and the gorilla, and Harley demanded the lobster she had ordered from Penguin.
• Harley and Red went inside to eat while Su Ming questioned Penguin about his death and return, leaving Penguin sweating beneath his hat.

Deathstroke warned Gotham’s villains that Acolytes Industries planned to impose order with killer robots, and used Barbara’s intelligence to convince them to unite against the company. The villains prepared to target the newcomer as Deathstroke toasted their alliance and dismissed the gathering.

• Harley’s invited Gotham crime bosses and villains gathered for dinner while Deathstroke kept the crowd in check.
• Deathstroke told the guests that Acolytes Industries and Mayor Nakano planned to deploy military robots that could wipe out Gotham’s criminals and threaten Batman.
• Black Mask questioned Deathstroke’s motives, but Deathstroke presented intelligence Barbara had gathered about Dr. Simon Santo, the mayor, and the Magistrate Program.
• After seeing the announcement and images of the armed robots, Two-Face, Penguin, Black Mask, and the other villains began calling their crews to act against Acolytes Industries.
• Deathstroke poured champagne, toasted Gotham’s freedom, and sent the villains off to give the company a Gotham-style welcome.

Su Ming left the gang leaders to their chaotic plans and set out with Harley, Bobo, Poison Ivy, and the others to find and kill Doctor Santo. Poison Ivy began using the plants in a nearby park to search for him.

• Su Ming left the restaurant after Scarecrow and decided to eliminate Simon Santo while the gangs caused chaos across Gotham.
• Su Ming, Harley, and Bobo stopped eating, and Deathstroke said he would handle Doctor Santo himself rather than risk killing innocents indiscriminately.
• Su Ming learned that Batgirl had found no clues to Doctor Santo’s whereabouts and suggested that Poison Ivy search for him.
• Cloak carried the group to a small park, where Poison Ivy called on the plants to find the man she sought.

Poison Ivy searched Gotham’s plants for the missing Dr. Baldy and Mayor Nakamura, then connected Deathstroke to Black Orchid so he could speak with The Red. Deathstroke found himself floating before The Red’s immense representative, where the conversation was about to begin.

• Poison Ivy called on Gotham’s plants but could not sense Dr. Baldy or Mayor Nakamura, and Su Ming suspected the two were hiding underground together.
• Su Ming asked Ivy to contact The Red, and she summoned Black Orchid, a dual representative of The Green and The Red.
• Black Orchid agreed to help and invited Deathstroke to enter her mind so he could reach The Red.
• Su Ming used a black tentacle to connect Deathstroke to Black Orchid, and Deathstroke appeared before The Red’s enormous representative.

Deathstroke spoke with The Red, which thanked him for preserving the Life Cycle and offered him a representative role. After asking it to help find Simon Santo or Nakano, he learned it needed physical traces, but the Acolytes Industries Building had just exploded.

• The Red thanked Deathstroke for helping preserve the Life Cycle and said it could not find Darkseid.
• Deathstroke asked The Red to locate Simon Santo or a Japanese man surnamed Nakano, but it needed their scent, pulse frequency, or soul traces.
• The Red invited Deathstroke to become its representative, and he declined.
• Deathstroke returned to the others and said they would search the Acolytes Industries Building for physical traces.
• A building near Wayne Tower exploded and collapsed, prompting Bobo to realize the Acolytes Industries Building might already be gone.

Su Ming’s group watched Penguin’s men destroy Acolytes Industries, leaving the building ablaze and its evidence likely lost. As Batman appeared, newly appointed police robots arrived and opened fire on the celebrating thugs, who charged them in return.

• Harley and Bobo discussed the fire and Gotham’s unusually high number of arsonists while Su Ming’s group watched the ruined Acolytes Industries building.
• Su Ming freed Bobo from Harley’s teasing and said the group should leave because Batman had appeared.
• A convoy of robots posing as police arrived on oversized motorcycles that transformed into heavy machine guns.
• The robot officers opened fire on the thugs without attempting arrests, and most of the crowd rushed to attack them.

Su Ming took Harley, Poison Ivy, Black Orchid, and Bobo to Gotham City Hall to collect evidence for tracking Mayor Nakano and Doctor Santo while they watched Batman destroy the Archon robots. They reached City Hall, where Su Ming used the Force Choke on a security guard who challenged them.

• Su Ming flew the group toward City Hall and used Strangle to project footage of the firefight between the thugs and the Archon robots.
• Su Ming had the Adjutant highlight Batwoman, revealing her hidden position in a skyscraper window.
• Batman attacked the Archons with a Bat-Flare Emitter, destroying the robots, then used the Bat-plane to disperse tear gas and tranquilizers around the street.
• Su Ming brought the flying carpet down at City Hall and concluded that Doctor Santo's plan had been designed to trap Batman in Another World.
• A City Hall security guard ordered the group to stop, and Su Ming used Force Choke on him.

Mayor Nakamura was imprisoned by Doctor Santo after being used to push through the robot law enforcement bill, while Deathstroke and his allies rescued him from Bane’s old base. The city was already engulfed in fighting between Acolytes Industries’ robots and Gotham’s gangs, and Deathstroke left to confront Doctor Santo as the mayor headed outside.

• Nakamura realized Doctor Santo had likely forged his signature and used him as a human rubber stamp to approve an emergency decree.
• Deathstroke, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and their companions appeared in Nakamura’s locked room and confirmed he had been knocked unconscious and held as a potential puppet president.
• Deathstroke gave Nakamura a pistol and told him to find his own way out of Bane’s old base beneath Gotham Stadium.
• Bobo warned that Acolytes Industries’ robot army was fighting Gotham’s gangs across the city and slaughtering people.
• Deathstroke kicked through the wall and left to find Doctor Santo, telling Nakamura that Batwoman would soon seek him out.

Su Ming and his group fought through Doctor Santo’s underground facility to find the reception room where Mayor Nakano had met the doctor, hoping to obtain a biological sample. After learning that Crossfire robots were spreading across Gotham and that Batwoman was investigating possible Teleportation Portals, Su Ming prepared to help Batgirl track the network.

• Su Ming followed Mayor Nakano’s scent through the facility, cutting apart the machine soldiers while Strangle searched their data.
• Su Ming explained to Detective Chimp that he had spared Nakano because the mayor’s obsessive love for Gotham made him useful, and Bobo realized Su Ming had tried to push Nakano toward madness as a gift for Batwoman.
• Su Ming’s group reached the reception room, where Bobo, Harley, Poison Ivy, and Black Orchid searched for Doctor Santo’s biological sample and relayed information to The Red.
• Barbara told Su Ming that 732 Crossfire sites were active across Gotham and that the number of robots was increasing.
• Barbara identified ring-shaped robot defenses that might guard Teleportation Portals, but a powerful hacker blocked her access to surveillance footage.
• Su Ming ordered his Adjutant to assist Barbara in mapping Gotham and monitoring computer centers worldwide while he continued his work underground.

Deathstroke pursued Doctor Santo through a teleportation portal, but the doctor escaped after his secretary destroyed the portal controls. The damaged technology pointed toward Genesis, so Deathstroke decided to alert the Hall of Justice and rebuild the portal to continue the hunt.

• Black Orchid told Deathstroke that Doctor Santo's presence had vanished, and the group followed The Red to the portal site.
• Deathstroke's team defeated Doctor Santo's bodyguards, and Strangle killed the secretary after he destroyed the portal controls.
• Deathstroke found the portal's records destroyed and returned with the others to Sepulk.
• Black Orchid said The Red could not tell whether it could track Doctor Santo across the Multiverse, so Deathstroke prepared to test it.
• Deathstroke gave the dismantled portal to Adjutant to rebuild, and she identified its technology as resembling that of the New Gods of Genesis.
• Deathstroke suspected Doctor Santo was working for Darkseid and told Bobo to contact the Hall of Justice.

After the Adjutant found the multiverse where their quarry had fled, Deathstroke's team discovered that Earth-0 had suffered a total blackout and the Justice League had gone silent. Deathstroke recruited Superboy-Prime and set out for Justice League Dark headquarters to investigate.

• The Adjutant activated the Teleportation Portal, located a new multiverse, and identified the Earth where their target had fled.
• Bobo reported that he could not contact the Justice League, and Harley's calls to Little Dai and Zatanna went unanswered.
• Ivy and the Adjutant confirmed that Earth-0 had suffered a total blackout, while Gotham still showed firelight.
• Deathstroke summoned Superboy-Prime to help investigate the blackout and the missing Superman.
• Deathstroke ordered the Adjutant to teleport the team to Justice League Dark headquarters.

With electricity gone worldwide, Su Ming and Little Superman searched the dark Hall of Justice for the missing League members and any sign of danger. They found Mister Terrific had already evacuated Cyborg, then headed toward the surveillance room to look for Green Arrow and Black Canary.

• Bobo questioned Man-Bat and Khalid about the blackout, and Khalid said the fusion reactors still worked but produced no electricity.
• Su Ming learned Zatanna remained unconscious, left the others in the underground headquarters, and took Little Superman upstairs.
• Su Ming and Little Superman searched the dark Hall of Justice and found Mister Terrific had left a note saying he had taken Cyborg to shelter.
• Su Ming and Little Superman left the infirmary and went to find Green Arrow and Black Canary, while Su Ming predicted people would soon demand that the League fix the outage.

Su Ming and Superboy-Prime found Green Arrow and Black Canary unconscious in the Hall of Justice’s locked control room, then learned that an unknown force was stealing electricity worldwide. They began searching for survivors while the cause of the outage remained uncertain.

• A silver liquid-metal creature attacked Su Ming and Superboy-Prime, and Superboy-Prime burned it to ash with Heat Vision.
• Su Ming and Superboy-Prime opened the control room and found Green Arrow and Black Canary unconscious; Su Ming revived Oliver with water.
• Oliver explained that strange patterns appeared on the monitors before the power failed and Batwoman’s sleeping-gas security system knocked them out.
• Su Ming said the generators still worked but their electricity was being stolen, and he sent Strangle to search the Hall of Justice for survivors.
• Green Arrow and Black Canary woke and reunited, while Superboy-Prime joked about their closeness and Oliver warned him against tempting fate.