Chapter Summaries

Deathstroke's group searched the underground cube for someone while Batwoman returned to Gotham and realized Joker had deliberately lost to awaken Bruce Wayne's primary personality. On a rainy police department rooftop, Constantine asked Batwoman to decipher a page in his notebook, and she began examining it.

• Deathstroke's group searched the underground cube while Deadpool sang to entertain the others.
• Batwoman returned to Gotham after defeating Joker and wondered why he had stayed silent.
• Batwoman realized Joker had staged his game to restore Bruce Wayne's primary personality.
• Batwoman found Constantine waiting on the Gotham Police Department rooftop, and he insisted he was trying to save everyone.
• Batwoman scanned Constantine's notebook for dangers, then examined its final used page.

Constantine told Batwoman that a mysterious name was visible and speakable to her but not to him, then tried to leave before she forced him to explain. In Gordon's office, Constantine began recounting how Deathstroke and Lucifer had drawn him into investigating Blank, while Batwoman demanded he continue.

• Batwoman identified the obscured word as a simple noun and realized magic prevented Constantine from seeing or hearing it.
• Constantine tried to abandon the investigation and leave Gotham, but Batwoman stopped him and dragged him into the police station.
• Batwoman asked Gordon for a secure room, cheap liquor, and food, then confronted Constantine in the closed office.
• Constantine said Deathstroke had asked him to investigate Blank and that Lucifer was involved, warning that gods made humans powerless.
• Batwoman challenged Constantine's claim by noting that the Justice League had defeated many gods and ordered him to continue.

Su Ming and his companions found Jaina hiding in an underground cave after she escaped Mirror Prison. Jaina revealed that her improved Water Divining Rod had led her to a powerful energy source underground, though Cloak sensed nothing there.

• Wade asked why the enemies had not followed Jaina into the cave, and Strangle indicated that a powerful creature inside had caught its attention.
• Su Ming and the others reached a large cavern, where Jaina emerged after confirming his identity.
• Su Ming cautioned Jaina against fleeing into natural caves, and she explained that she had trusted her Super Water Divining Rod to guide her.
• Jaina described how she had improved the device through her Pukwudgie engineering studies and used it to detect a powerful underground energy source.
• Su Ming checked with Cloak, but Cloak showed no sign of sensing the energy source.

Jaina showed Su Ming the energy-tracking device that had led her deep underground, where teleportation failed and the cave behaved strangely. As the detected source approached, Su Ming and Deadpool prepared to confront a pink sphere whose presence could barely be sensed.

• Jaina explained that her device tracked a moving energy source and revealed that she had brought a powerful bomb in case she needed an escape.
• Su Ming noticed the cave had no detectable scent or temperature change, and warned the group that the signal was rapidly approaching.
• Su Ming took Jaina’s device and readied his Lightsaber while the others boarded Cloak; Deadpool jumped down to accompany him.
• The approaching source appeared around a bend as a pink sphere, and Deadpool mocked its appearance.
• Su Ming ordered Deadpool to cut the sphere open and check what was inside.

Su Ming and his companions discovered that the pink Meatballs trapped them in a time loop inside the Underground Cave, repeatedly regenerating after they were destroyed. Su Ming suspected the gray slime marked Wade and kept them from escaping, but he suggested testing whether the Teleportation Belt could still work.

• Deadpool crushed a Meatball, tasted its gray slime, and found that it had no flavor or nutritional value.
• Su Ming noticed another approaching Meatball, and after more spheres appeared, he concluded that the group was trapped in a loop.
• Wade compared the repeating fight to Dormammu and Strange, while Hermione proposed testing the Killing Curse.
• Enchantress cast Avada Kedavra at a Meatball, but it burst apart and the loop continued.
• Su Ming said the slime on Wade marked him and made sneaking away impossible unless they abandoned him.
• Deadpool offered to stay behind, but Su Ming told him to check whether his Teleportation Belt still worked.

Su Ming kept the group fighting the recurring Meatballs while Deadpool teleported away to scout the surface, confident he could escape the time loop. In Gotham, Bruce Wayne recovered from his fight with the Joker and warned Alfred that a new threat endangered the multiverse.

• Deadpool used his Teleportation Belt to leave the tunnel and investigate the surface after Su Ming threatened to reveal his weaknesses to Shakara and Death.
• Hermione burned a Meatball with Fiendfyre, and Su Ming used Jaina’s device to detect another approaching creature.
• Su Ming told Hermione and the others to practice fighting the Meatballs while he kept his conceptual abilities in reserve and promised he could get them out.
• Alfred stitched Batwoman’s wounds in the Batcave as Bruce Wayne explained that Zorn had only been a temporary backup plan.
• Bruce told Alfred that the Joker was back in Arkham and that a new danger threatened their world and the entire multiverse.

Bruce investigated an entity whose name people could not remember or record, and Alfred suggested sending its name back in time to study it. Bruce left to consult Detective Chimp, while his marriage to Selina remained unresolved.

• Bruce showed Alfred the four unreadable symbols and explained that people and computers filtered out the entity’s name.
• Alfred proposed placing the name in a time capsule and sending it to a time before the entity was born.
• Bruce considered borrowing Luthor’s time machine, then discussed Alfred’s continued efforts to push him toward marriage.
• Alfred joked about hiring Deathstroke to deal with Joker, and Bruce warned that the Joker Virus could turn Deathstroke into a threat.
• Bruce left for the Justice League to discuss the matter with Detective Chimp.

Lucifer returned to a secluded corner of Hell and met Mammon, who accused him of abandoning the angels. Lucifer explained that he had brought them there to protect them from Blank and went to find Duma, who was still guarding the mortal world.

• Two demons tortured a dead fat man to collect the debt from his bargain, then recognized Lucifer and greeted him as their former king.
• Lucifer told the demons he was no longer Satan and warned them to stay away because an archangel lived nearby.
• At the mountain, Mammon confronted Lucifer for abandoning the angels, and Lucifer said they would have been driven mad by Blank if they had stayed in Heaven.
• Lucifer gave Mammon a bottle of liquor from his human friend Deathstroke and asked whether Duma was home.
• Mammon said Duma was in the garden, and Lucifer headed on alone while inviting Mammon to visit his nightclub when he had time off.

Lucifer visited Duma in Hell and recalled the quiet ages before and during humanity’s beginnings. He asked his silent brother whether he remembered what had been floating beneath the sea’s surface.

• Lucifer returned to Hell, where he feared that his father’s prediction might be coming true.
• Lucifer walked to Duma’s isolated greenhouse garden and entered after the Angel opened its gate.
• Lucifer described the torments of Hell and spoke with Duma as he tended his plants in silence.
• Lucifer recalled the world’s ancient silence and Duma’s care for early humanity, then asked whether he remembered what floated beneath the sea.
• Duma stopped watering, sighed, and turned to face Lucifer, recognizing what his brother had come to say.

Lucifer explained to Duma how nameless Silent Gods arose from humanity’s fears and casual prayers, then grew stronger through imagination and expanding knowledge. He warned that a new force of Desire could make wishes come true, disrupt Hell, and endanger their world.

• Duma recalled following Lucifer in Heaven and watching humanity, whose fears had given rise to the earliest shapeless gods.
• Lucifer explained that named gods became Old Gods, while forgotten, nameless gods survived on incidental prayers and became known as Silent Gods.
• Lucifer said human imagination had made the Silent Gods powerful enough to reach Hypertime, while humanity could not understand or discuss them directly.
• Lucifer revealed that he had once created a Silent God himself when he felt lost after seeing God's true face.
• Lucifer warned Duma that a new force of Desire was growing and that wishes inspired by stories or fantasies could create Silent Gods and disrupt Hell.

Lucifer asked Duma where to find the Silent Gods and left to confront them despite Duma’s warning. Meanwhile, Batwoman told the Justice League that contact with Earth-16 had been lost, and the meeting turned to finding out what had happened.

• Lucifer asked Duma for clues about the Silent Gods, and Duma pointed beneath them and indicated the number seven.
• Duma tried to stop Lucifer from confronting the Silent Gods, but Lucifer broke free and left.
• Batwoman told the Justice League that they had lost contact with Earth-16 and explained that Booster Gold had gone to investigate.
• The Justice League reacted with concern over the missing heroes, and Batwoman showed them an unreadable note and asked if anyone could decipher it.

Batwoman tested whether anyone at the Justice League meeting could read the notebook’s hidden words, but only Detective Chimp could. She and Bobo left the others behind to discuss the mysterious phrase “Silent Gods” in private.

• Batwoman discovered that Superman, J'onn, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and the other attendees could see only four asterisks in the notebook.
• Batwoman adjourned the meeting and left through a concealed passage while Superman followed to find her.
• Diana woke Arthur, went to find Slade, and asked the Adjutant to teleport her to Sepulk after learning contact with Deathstroke had been cut off.
• Batwoman called out Detective Chimp, who had secretly followed her in a cardboard box, and learned that he could read “Silent Gods.”
• Detective Chimp suggested that people who could recognize the phrase were the only ones able to communicate about it, and Batwoman agreed.

Batwoman and Detective Chimp set out to meet Booster Gold after suspecting the Silent Gods had lured Deathstroke away. Elsewhere, Deathstroke and his companions held a tea party in the underground prison, where Xivandi concluded their surroundings were a distorted world but could not explain their captors’ purpose.

• Bobo told Batwoman that Deathstroke was out of contact and might have been diverted or trapped by an unseen enemy.
• Bobo asked to accompany Batwoman to meet Booster Gold so he could report what he observed to Deathstroke, and Batwoman agreed.
• Su Ming brewed tea for Xivandi while the others repeatedly killed Meatball for amusement.
• Xivandi enjoyed the tea and admired Su Ming’s explanation of nature and balance.
• Xivandi described the prison as a distorted world with no natural life and wondered whether the monsters were observing them.
• Deathstroke suggested their captors might already have obtained something intangible, and Xivandi prayed to Elune for guidance.

Jaina and Hermione failed to break the Meatball’s Time Loop, so Su Ming negotiated with it before using the Anti-Life Equation to control it. The loop ended, and the Meatball obeyed his order to kill its kin and then itself.

• Jaina rested and sensed that the Meatball had anchored itself to a point in time, while Hermione concluded that Ancient Magic might break its loop if she had enough energy.
• Su Ming offered the Meatball a deal to release them from the loop, but it reinforced the temporal effect instead.
• Su Ming sent Strangle to devour the Meatball and learned that it had trapped previous invaders to protect its species’ underground home.
• Su Ming spread the Anti-Life Equation through the darkness, controlled the next Meatball, and made it undo the Time Loop.
• The Meatball spoke in English, and Su Ming ordered it to kill its kin and then itself.

Su Ming and his companions escaped the tunnel after fighting Meatball and reunited with Deadpool, who had been killing Strange Hands while they were away. As they flew into the darkness to search for the cube’s boundary, Deadpool promised he had discovered a valuable secret.

• The Enchantress asked whether the fight was over, and Su Ming explained that their real enemy might already know he was there and that the strange creatures might be trying to delay them.
• Su Ming led the group back toward the surface, planning to find Deadpool and send a message to the Adjutant while they searched for a way out of the cube.
• Su Ming and the others found Deadpool singing and pulling nails from a dead Strange Hand, surrounded by mutilated monster corpses.
• Deadpool told Su Ming that the monsters were prisoners like them, had emotions, and could be defeated by provoking their Disgust.
• Deadpool teased that he had uncovered a valuable secret as Su Ming flew the group deeper into the darkness.

Deadpool discovered that the body parts taken from different Strange Hands were identical, suggesting they came from a single source. As Cloak reached another mirror barrier, the group still lacked the head needed to understand the mystery.

• Deadpool showed Deathstroke two identical fingernails taken from different Strange Hands, and Su Ming confirmed their patterns and molecular arrangements matched.
• Su Ming speculated that the Strange Hands and other body parts might all come from one individual and rewarded Deadpool with a Chocolate Frog.
• Hermione discussed the importance of heads, while Su Ming noted that they had passed through two cubes without finding the head with empty eye sockets.
• Cloak brought the group to another silver mirror barrier, and Deadpool's boast about his looks made Little De, Amber, Yrel, and Jaina vomit.
• Su Ming touched the barrier and waited for the others while considering where to cut through.

Su Ming and Deadpool arrived in a dark, unfamiliar New York inside the cube and discovered that a stolen saint’s skull had become a local treasure-hunting obsession. Su Ming decided to investigate the skull, suspecting it might be the one they were looking for.

• Su Ming, Deadpool, and the others passed through a spatial disturbance and appeared above a nighttime metropolis that Wade recognized as New York.
• Su Ming confirmed that the Adjutant could not reach them, landed the group in an alley, and went with Deadpool to read a discarded newspaper.
• Su Ming and Deadpool learned that Fabio Mendoza, a notorious killer, had escaped during a prison transfer and killed his six escorting officers.
• Su Ming read that the Skull of Saint Pieso had been stolen from an Italian mafia family and was believed to have reached New York.
• Su Ming decided to search for the skull and see whether it was the one they were looking for.

Hit-Girl tried to recruit Paul as the new Kick-Ass and take him on a mission to kill armed criminals, but he refused and walked away. She continued toward the warehouse alone.

• Hit-Girl laid out a plan for Paul to help her attack three armed men in a Brooklyn warehouse.
• Paul refused to continue, removed his mask, and told Hit-Girl that he did not want to kill anyone or become Kick-Ass.
• Hit-Girl explained that she had chosen Paul because he was bullied and suggested he practice revenge on his school bullies instead.
• Paul said he would report the bullies to his teachers and offered to have his mother take Hit-Girl wherever she wanted.
• Paul and Hit-Girl went their separate ways, with Hit-Girl continuing the mission alone and insulting him as she left.

Mindy mourned the loss of her former partners and decided to stop looking for a sidekick, instead seeking out established Heroes to work with. After hearing her dead father encourage her, she headed for the docks to investigate the smuggling of a priceless skull.

• Mindy returned to her Safehouse after taking down three Drug Dealers and thought about how Dave Lizewski had retired after severe injuries.
• Mindy recalled recruiting Fabio Mendoza as a sidekick, his death in an ambush while trying to save his brother, and her revenge against the Hounds Gang.
• Mindy accepted that Paul had abandoned her and considered working alone rather than continuing to search for a sidekick.
• Big Daddy's voice encouraged Mindy to form a Superhero team and keep enjoying her work.
• Mindy read that a priceless skull had been smuggled into New York and rode toward the docks to investigate.

Su Ming sent Deadpool to Sepulk with a message for Adjutant, then headed with Hermione to LaGuardia Airport to search for records about the stolen skull. After Hermione stopped three men tailing them and Strangle extracted information from one, Su Ming took the group to find a taxi and gather more intelligence.

• Su Ming told Deadpool to deliver a message to Adjutant in Sepulk and ask her for the latest monitoring results.
• Hermione joined Su Ming, and he explained that Strangle could search airport shipping records for suspicious cargo.
• Hermione stunned three men who had followed them into an alley, and Su Ming ordered Strangle to extract information from the one left conscious.
• Su Ming took money from the men and had three of the girls change into their clothes.
• Su Ming led the group to catch a taxi, saying taxi drivers could provide useful information for money.