Black Manta was an ordinary human, but with the tech gear he'd developed himself, his combat effectiveness underwater rivaled Aquaman's.
Green Arrow had also joined the squad. Oliver had his underwater armor and didn't need a bow—his close-quarters skills were martial-artist caliber, which meant he could at least contribute something to the fight.
"These worlds are deformed and broken. Do not bring sympathy onto the battlefield—please remember that." Daniel gave them this parting warning before they left.
The four entered the teleportation array together.
The moment they stepped through, a wall of seawater slammed into them like a battering ram.
Fortunately, they were no amateurs. All four dove beneath the surface and began tracking the Drowned.
Water World. This entire realm had been swallowed by the ocean—ninety-nine percent of it was nothing but sea.
Thanks to their earlier skirmishes, Aquaman had left a unique tracking mark on the Drowned. It was a divine power embedded by the Trident of Poseidon itself, utterly impossible to scrub away with technology.
The four swam at breakneck speed, exchanging no words, and soon located Bryce Wayne's hiding place.
It was still Gotham—except this one lay at the bottom of the ocean.
Bryce waited for them, utterly at ease. She wore a metal mask with her left eye completely removed and replaced by a cybernetic implant designed for underwater vision. The mask's craftsmanship was crude, and years of saltwater corrosion had left a faint layer of rust across its surface.
Below the mask, only her nose and chin were visible. Even those scraps of exposed skin were covered in scars. The right cheekbone had an unnatural divot where a chunk of flesh was simply missing. Every trace of feminine softness had been stripped from her entirely.
"Heh heh, Aquaman..." She spoke underwater through some kind of specialized vocal apparatus, audible to all of them.
"I've already killed one Aquaman. You'll be the second!" She raised the trident in her hand. The weapon was somewhat battered—the original Aquaman's trident had refused to acknowledge her, so she'd gotten creative and retrofitted it with her own technology.
The result was a weapon that was half divine artifact, half tech rig.
"Surrender. We've entered this world in force—you can give up and enjoy life under the sun." Aquaman was still making one last attempt at diplomacy.
"Hah? Surrender? What do you know! You think I chose to live underwater? You think I enjoy having these filthy Atlantean cells inside me? I was forced into all of this!"
"My world is savage and rotting. I spent my entire life fighting to make it better! I thought that was an achievable goal, but I was wrong. This is a lower-tier world—there's nothing here. No sunlight, no hope, not before and not ever. All that exists is blood feuds and rage!"
"This world was always destined to sink and be destroyed!"
Aquaman was somewhat puzzled. She clearly already knew the truth of what was really going on. He figured this should make persuasion easier and said with a measure of gravity, "I respect your efforts, but there are limits to what any one person can do. Come back with us—leave this world behind."
The corner of Bryce's mouth curled into an unsettling arc. She swung her trident, and the surrounding seawater suddenly compressed inward toward all four of them.
Damn it! Her hostility was blindingly obvious, and all four cursed under their breath. Apparently no Batman from any universe could be swayed by words alone.
Black Manta, who'd been on guard from the start, burst free of the current first. Even without a single superpower, he showed zero fear. Gripping his specially forged water-splitting spikes, he thrust straight at Bryce's face.
"Hm? An ordinary human?" She caught his spike on her trident, and her cybernetic eye scanned him. The result stunned her—an unpowered human, fighting her in the deep ocean?
They traded a rapid flurry of blows. Black Manta held nothing back, going all-in from the first strike. His twin water-splitting spikes were everywhere at once, and Bryce, wielding her longer weapon, found herself forced onto the defensive.
The moment she showed an opening, his helmet began charging. One second later, twin red laser beams fired.
This time Bryce was ready. She spun her trident in a full arc, blocking both beams dead-on.
At the same time, Aquaman and Mera closed in. Green Arrow hung on the periphery in his underwater armor, barely contributing.
Aquaman and Black Manta—these old "friends"—were fighting side by side for the first time. Their coordination was rough, to say the least. They were practically operating independently. Coordination? Nonexistent.
Mera could only assist by manipulating the currents, pressuring Bryce and creating openings for the other two.
Unfortunately, Bryce had put herself through a series of modifications so brutal they defied description. She'd grafted Atlantean bloodline and hydrokinetic abilities onto herself.
Both sides fought for control of the water. In raw talent, Mera was undeniably superior.
But Bryce was ruthless—to her enemies and to herself. She'd forcibly rewritten her own genetic code, consolidating the hydrokinetic abilities of dozens of individuals into a single body. Against that kind of aggregate power, Mera was outmatched.
Dragging a massive volume of seawater with her, Bryce swept her trident sideways, generating a small vortex. She then drove the water outward in a lateral wave that sent Black Manta flying.
In water control, she outclassed Mera. In combat skill, she outclassed both the unpowered Black Manta and Aquaman, who'd grown up guarding a lighthouse.
The two tridents clashed—slashing, thrusting. After just two exchanges, Aquaman caught three clean punctures through his shoulder, leaving transparent holes all the way through. That battered, half-divine half-tech trident carried some kind of special property. An unknown substance seeped into the wounds, severely impairing his natural healing in seawater.
Fortunately, Green Arrow had been hovering nearby the whole time.
As a martial artist, Oliver could hold his own against Batman for dozens of exchanges even with melee weapons. Fighting underwater was a bit awkward, sure, but the fundamentals of combat didn't change.
Bryce, Aquaman, and Black Manta all relied on the sharpness of their weapons to damage their opponents. Oliver drew two straight blades from his armor while the suit channeled energy into them, enough to resist the divine trident's power.
Oliver's expression hardened as he pulled Aquaman out of danger. One blade caught the trident; the other stabbed straight at Bryce's left hand.
"Impressive." The Drowned murmured in approval, then reversed her trident, using the shaft to parry his blade. At the same time she opened her mouth wide and spewed a massive cloud of black liquid—like ink—directly at the group.
"Fall back!" Aquaman warned.
Oliver, Mera, and Black Manta each pulled away to a safe distance.
The ink was the Drowned's signature ability. It contained countless tormented souls—though for Bryce, a strict materialist, souls didn't exist. In her mind, the ink held nothing but the psychic imprints left behind by the dead.
These imprints could convert the living into the Drowned's thralls. Both offensive and defensive, Bryce had used this very technique to single-handedly annihilate her world's Atlantis.