Chapter Summaries

Su Ming and his group entered the Theater's warehouse and found the Court of Owls battling the League of Assassins. After drawing the Talons away from Talia, Su Ming intercepted her and demanded the Hunting Blade, but she accused him of hiring and then betraying her group.

• Su Ming sent Strangle through the warehouse door to inspect the interior, then kicked the doors open and found the Court of Owls fighting the League of Assassins.
• Su Ming explained that Talon assassins could be made with Amber Gold and surgical knowledge, while Donna spotted Talia fighting with the Hunting Blade.
• Su Ming taunted the Court of Owls, drawing every Talon away from the League assassins and toward Deathstroke.
• Su Ming sent Donna and the others to deal with the Talons while he pursued Talia as she tried to escape through a high window.
• Su Ming blocked Talia's escape and demanded the Hunting Blade, and Talia asked whether he had hired her group only to rob them.

Deathstroke negotiated with Talia for the dagger, learning that someone else had impersonated him to hire the League of Assassins. After paying her extra gold, he secured the dagger and Talia's promise to reveal what she knew about the impostor.

• Talia demanded payment for the dagger and used Damian and Deathstroke's supposed relationship with him as leverage.
• Deathstroke transformed into Batwoman, but Talia argued that his principles would keep him from killing her.
• Deathstroke said he had not hired the League and explained that an organized group of Black Americans was impersonating him.
• Talia initially refused to hand over the dagger because Deathstroke was not the client who hired her.
• Deathstroke offered Talia three gold bars, and she handed over the dagger and agreed to share what she knew about the impostor.

Donna, Wally, and Shazam defeated the Talons while Deathstroke questioned Talia and used Strangle to kill a captive. Deathstroke learned information from the Talons and pressed Talia to reveal what she knew about Batman, whose mind was deteriorating.

• Donna fought the Talons, while Wally stopped them from reaching Deathstroke and Shazam sat out the battle.
• Deathstroke called for a living Talon, and Shazam captured one, battered him, and passed him to Deathstroke.
• Deathstroke killed the captive by sending Strangle’s tentacles through his ears and draining his brain, frightening Talia.
• Deathstroke used his yellow ring to detect Talia’s fear and said he would compare her testimony with the Talons’ intelligence.
• Deathstroke warned that Batman might soon become the Joker or The Batman Who Laughs, then asked Talia to tell him everything she knew.

Deathstroke interrogated Talia about her League of Assassins contract and the New Checkmate, uncovering the organization’s members and its ties to Leviathan. After learning that Maxwell Lord and Colonel Steve Trevor had returned from the dead, he had Talia taken to a confinement cell aboard Sepulk.

• Talia told Deathstroke that a masked employer resembling him had hired the League of Assassins to find the Court of Owls in Blüdhaven and deliver the Hunting Blade at sea coordinates.
• Deathstroke suspected Talia belonged to the New Checkmate, and she admitted that the group had formed to fight Leviathan and named Green Arrow, The Question, Director Bones, and Colonel Steve Trevor as members.
• Deathstroke reasoned that Green Arrow was likely infiltrating the New Checkmate for the Justice League, while Lois Lane had declined to join the organization.
• Deathstroke knocked Talia unconscious with a frying pan after learning that Maxwell Lord and Colonel Steve Trevor had returned from the dead, then ordered Adjutant to take her to a confinement cell in Sepulk.

Deathstroke and his team traced the message sent to Delly to a shabby apartment, where they found a murdered shut-in whose death appeared connected to their investigation. Bobo began examining the crime scene while the team considered what the victim’s identity revealed.

• Deathstroke concluded that the League of Assassins, the Shogi Society, and the Court of Owls were involved in the deception, then decided to pursue the message’s source.
• Bobo traced the text message to a base station and led the team to the apartment address associated with the messages Delly received.
• Deathstroke had Strangle pick the apartment lock, and the team found a decomposed corpse in an overheated esports room.
• Wally checked the other rooms and the landlord’s records, identifying the dead man as a forty-year-old white shut-in who worked through online games.
• Bobo began investigating the crime scene and warned Shazam that their universe found ways to kill people who wanted to live.

After examining the grotesquely mutilated corpse of a shut-in, Su Ming and Bobo concluded that “My Lord” was likely an organization rather than one person. The investigation left them with a new theory but no direct evidence from the scene.

• Bobo reported that the victim had suffered numerous stab wounds, gunshots, burns, poisoning, drowning, electrocution, and decompression injuries.
• Bobo found the internet calling software L used on the victim’s computer and bloody handprints on the keyboard.
• Su Ming argued that the victim’s many different injuries suggested multiple perpetrators rather than one killer.
• Su Ming and Bobo independently concluded that “My Lord” might be an organization or a group of people.
• Bobo cited the target’s varied abilities and contradictory actions as evidence that “My Lord” was not a single person.

Deathstroke and Bobo used Wally’s Speed Force abilities to review the moments before a murder, revealing four unknown killers. Su Ming sent the footage to the Justice League and ordered the Adjutant to investigate while the team considered whether the enemies came from another multiverse.

• Deathstroke triggered the corpse’s head to explode, and Su Ming sealed off the poisonous smoke with a Power Ring barrier.
• Bobo suggested using The Flash to revisit the moment of the murder, and Su Ming sent Wally to record what had happened.
• Wally returned with the footage, then made another trip after Deathstroke realized he had forgotten the evidence-preserving device.
• The team left the apartment after the Adjutant contacted the police and erased their traces.
• The footage showed four killers, including a white-haired old man, a giant penguin-faced torturer, an armored Deathstroke, and an alien.
• Su Ming asked the Adjutant to send the footage to the Justice League and search for information about the killers.

Su Ming’s team watched Wally’s recording of the killers torturing a mistaken target and learned that the group calling itself “My Lord” was hunting a hacker named Ulysses, also known as the Prophet. They left the recording with a plan to identify the alien invaders through the Green Lantern Corps.

• Wally showed the team how four members of “My Lord” abducted and tortured a man whose computer had become a zombie machine, then killed him when they realized he was not Ulysses.
• Bobo noted that the enemy group included another Deathstroke, while Su Ming judged the wizardly mercenary too ill to pose much of a threat.
• Wally could not identify the old man in green robes, but Su Ming concluded that the man likely came from their own Multiverse.
• Donna proposed consulting the Green Lantern Corps and the Book of Oa to identify the pink-skinned Alien, and Su Ming had the Adjutant contact the Corps.
• Shazam suggested checking Arkham’s records, and Su Ming gave him Fizzing Whizbees to keep him quiet.

Su Ming led his team toward Bick Beach to eliminate Maxwell Lord and Steve Trevor, while Wally questioned whether Lord needed to die again. The team received a secret password, and Su Ming left the decision to join the attack to his companions.

• Su Ming gave his teammates a tongue-twister password and sent it to them through Strangle.
• Su Ming announced that they were heading to Bick Beach to kill Maxwell Lord and Steve Trevor, and offered to let anyone unwilling to fight wait at Nightwing's cave.
• Wally asked whether they really had to kill Lord, noting that Wonder Woman had already killed him once and that he seemed to have behaved since his resurrection.
• Su Ming ordered Cloak to descend outside Nightwing's cake shop and called Wally's reluctance sentimental weakness.

Deathstroke raided the Shogi Society’s underground base at Bick Beach, killed Maxwell Lord and Colonel Steve, and found a lead on the hacker Ulysses. He left the Society intact for now and set out to deal with his own lord.

• Wally, Donna, and Shazam agreed to let Deathstroke handle Maxwell Lord, and Cloak carried the group to Bick Beach.
• Bobo identified the secret base by finding the stretch of beach without footprints, while Shazam guarded the entrances and exits.
• Deathstroke cleared the underground base in thirty seconds, killed its synthezoid defenders, and had Strangle devour Maxwell after killing Colonel Steve.
• Deathstroke found Ulysses’s photograph and other intelligence in Maxwell’s memories, while Bobo searched the base’s computers.
• Deathstroke decided to leave the Shogi Society for Director Bones or The Question to take over and declined Donna’s suggestion to kill Leviathan’s leader, Mark Shaw.
• Deathstroke left with Bobo, saying he had cards to play against his lord.

Deathstroke and his team planned to impersonate Ulysses and lure the My Lord organization into an ambush. They chose Nightwing’s Batcave as the trap site, and Deathstroke began transforming himself into the hacker target.

• Donna admired Deathstroke after seeing Maxwell Lord’s final moments, and Deathstroke explained that he would pose as Ulysses to bait the My Lord organization.
• Bobo explained that Deathstroke’s Symbiote-enhanced mimicry would let him impersonate Ulysses while the team prepared an ambush to capture the attackers.
• Su Ming released the unconscious Talia outside the base, then regrouped with Shazam and the others and confirmed that Wally had remained safe.
• Bobo suggested using Nightwing’s Batcave for the trap, and Su Ming agreed and had the Adjutant teleport the team there.
• Su Ming transformed into the young hacker from the surveillance image, then altered his hair, physique, and smell at Bobo’s direction until Bobo collapsed from the stench.

Su Ming set a trap for My Lord by impersonating Ulysses and preparing a staged cyberattack on the New Colony military network. As the team hid in the knockoff cave, the Adjutant took control of the network and began setting up a drone spectacle that would lead My Lord to them.

• Su Ming ordered Strangle to withdraw its scent and assigned Shazam, Wally, and Donna hiding and ambush positions while keeping Bobo at his side.
• Su Ming explained that they would attack a third party’s network so My Lord would discover and trace the cave themselves.
• Bobo and the Adjutant began preparing an attack on the New Colony military network, with Bobo helping make the intrusion appear convincing.
• Strangle connected the computer to the Adjutant, who took control of the system and found intelligence for Su Ming.
• The Adjutant exploited backdoors in LexCorp equipment to access the New Colony systems and began designing a dramatic drone display.

Colonel Kaine prepared to invade Gotham from Blüdhaven, believing Batwoman’s illness and Gotham’s fireworks would let his army seize the city. His deputy then spotted the drone swarm carrying Tactical Neutron Bombs launching without orders.

• Kaine’s history revealed that he had left the League of Assassins, built a mercenary army, and repeatedly failed to conquer Gotham.
• Kaine reviewed his forces at a lighthouse command post in Fear Gorge and received news that Batwoman had been poisoned and was hallucinating.
• Kaine confirmed that his agents had planted drugs in Catwoman’s empty home and arranged to pay an intelligence source who had reported Batman’s investigation.
• Kaine planned to advance from Blüdhaven and isolate Gotham while fireworks concealed his forces’ gunfire and artillery.
• Kaine’s deputy noticed the drone swarm carrying Tactical Neutron Bombs launching without orders.

Deathstroke and Bobo discovered that Colonel Kaine's drones carried miniature nuclear weapons, but Deathstroke kept the Adjutant's plan to stage a drone light show. The Adjutant began an animated performance for Kaine's troops, and Deathstroke requested that the little duck sing Huangmei Opera.

• Deathstroke and Bobo examined the drones' miniature missiles and suspected they were Neutron Bombs.
• Deathstroke told the Adjutant to continue the light show, while Bobo warned him not to fire nuclear weapons at the camp.
• The Adjutant defeated Kaine's attempts to regain control of the drones and tested their formations.
• The Adjutant used the drones' lights to show Colonel Kaine's troops an animated version of The Ugly Duckling.
• Deathstroke asked the Adjutant to make the little duck sing Match of the Immortals in Huangmei Opera.

Su Ming turned Kaine’s attempt to rally his troops into a drone-lit rave, leaving Kaine incapacitated and his soldiers dancing. He planned to bait New Colony’s forces into tracking the staged traces back to him.

• Howard the Duck performed Huangmei Opera with Adjutant’s drone effects while Kaine ordered his forces to jam and destroy the drones.
• Su Ming had Adjutant impersonate Kaine and order the soldiers to put down their weapons and dance as Howard switched to DJ music.
• The soldiers accepted the fake order and began raving, while Bobo recognized that Su Ming was tiring them out before using Sand of Time or another incapacitating method.
• Su Ming had Adjutant overload the electronics in Kaine’s command room, and Kaine collapsed, unable to retaliate.
• Su Ming explained that Wilson Enterprises had access to vast quantities of cow dung and told Bobo to leave traceable evidence in New Colony’s system to lure its forces to them.

Deathstroke ambushed and killed an Alien sent by MY LORD, then had Strangle eat its brain to extract its memories. The intelligence revealed that MY LORD was an alliance of seven forces seeking revenge, and Deathstroke prepared to share the information with the others.

• An Alien tracked the team to the bootleg Batcave and tried to capture Deathstroke, who stabbed it with a poison-coated Owl Dagger.
• The poison killed the Alien, and Strangle ate its brain to obtain its memories.
• Deathstroke gathered the team and took them to the Lighthouse near Fear Gorge while Strangle sorted the Alien's memories.
• Deathstroke called the others and reported that MY LORD was an alliance of seven forces driven by envy, jealousy, and hatred toward them.

Su Ming fed the team and briefed them on the alien factions after stopping Kaine's planned attack on Gotham. He identified the pink aliens as the technologically advanced Yongjia Race, whose multiverse vanished after one of their experiments, and left the team preparing to confront the remaining factions.

• Su Ming explained that the seven members of “My Lord” included an unknown faction represented by the space in the name.
• Colonel Sanders delivered food, agreed to take Kaine to Arkham, and knocked him unconscious when he tried to escape.
• Su Ming began briefing the team about the pink aliens, identifying them as the Yongjia Race and describing their warrior culture and advanced weapons.
• Su Ming revealed that the Yongjia Race had once ruled a multiverse that disappeared after one of their scientific experiments, leaving only a single fleet.

Su Ming explained the Yongjia People’s origins and threat while the team prepared to deal with their fleet and remaining enemies on Earth. He also revealed that the “L” in “My Lord” referred to the Last 52 Multiverse, whose survivors still planned to destroy Earth-0.

• Su Ming shared intelligence Strangle had read from a captured Yongjia Person, including the race’s warrior culture, advanced technology, and history of exterminating civilizations.
• Bobo urged the team to attack the Yongjia fleet, but Su Ming said they needed the fleet’s trajectory and should first address enemies still hiding on Earth.
• Shazam guessed that the old man in green robes was “L,” but Su Ming corrected him and identified the man as “M.”
• Su Ming explained that “L” stood for the Last 52 Multiverse, a group of Laughing Multiverse survivors still plotting to destroy Earth-0.
• Bobo reacted with dismay when Su Ming reminded him that some of The Batman Who Laughs’s followers had escaped capture.

Su Ming arranged defenses against the Last 52 Multiverse Army, deciding to call in the Doom Patrol while keeping other forces in reserve. The chapter ended with the team jokingly blaming Batwoman for the army’s return as they prepared to protect Earth-0.

• Bobo proposed contacting Justice League Dark and the Shadow Pact, but Donna offered to call the Doom Patrol instead.
• Su Ming approved Donna’s plan and explained that Justice League Dark’s remaining members were too vulnerable to send into battle.
• Su Ming said he had contacted Superboy-Prime and secretly warned Bliss and Cindy, while keeping other forces in reserve.
• Wally blamed himself for the Last 52 Multiverse Army’s return, and Bobo reminded him he had been in prison during the postwar cleanup.
• Su Ming encouraged Wally to blame Batwoman, joking that she enjoyed being tormented.

Su Ming led his team through the Speed Force to intercept the Yongjia People's Homeworld Ship, with Colonel Sanders joining the mission. After spotting the enemy fleet, the group planned to infiltrate through a dock and named themselves the Free Trade Troupe.

• Su Ming prepared the team to leave Earth-0 and used the Sand of Time to kill the troops below.
• Colonel Sanders returned and agreed to join the mission under Su Ming's command.
• Wally carried the group through the Speed Force to a planet near the Yongjia fleet.
• Su Ming spotted the Homeworld Ship and proposed blending in with the egalitarian Yongjia People.
• Bobo recommended entering through a dock beneath an enemy ship, and Wally agreed to try it.
• Wally asked for a team name, and Su Ming called them the Free Trade Troupe.