Multiverse: Deathstroke

Chapter 290: Ch.289 Rebirth

Chapter 290: Ch.289 Rebirth

The black waves churned, the sound of squelching and slurping filled the air as Su Ming watched with a blank expression while his symbiote, Stranglehold, devoured the unfamiliar Hydra agent.

From what this blue-gloved figure had said, Su Ming deduced that his true enemy was likely Kang the Conqueror.

The King of Kings—that was his title. The megalomaniac had adorned himself with all the prestigious titles of conquerors throughout history.

But in a way, this revelation made Su Ming breathe a little easier. The Marvel Universe was filled with beings who could manipulate timelines. If his enemy had been someone like Jaspers, a powerful mutant, that would have been a real problem.

As for Kang, though... he had his weaknesses.

It was likely that Kang, hoping to avoid complications, had sent Namor's fragments directly to Su Ming. But now that Su Ming had identified Kang's presence, pretending not to notice was out of the question.

Kang the Conqueror had taken control of countless temporal nodes. If others' timelines grew like trees, his spread like spots, expanding outwards.

He could carve out a segment of time from the broader timeline, alter it, and claim it as his own—like sawing off a branch from a tree.

This effectively meant that he continuously created parallel worlds, and these universes fell under Kang's dominion.

In the comics, he ruled over numerous timelines but always found himself struggling with the one where the Avengers operated, hence his constant meddling.

The biggest issue was that there were countless versions of him across those timelines. Killing one still left thousands more—each a version of him in a separate timeline.

Su Ming had no intention of being a compliant subject under Kang's rule.

It seemed that he now had to take on the role of an Avenger, battling a future tyrant over an entire world. It was thrilling, to say the least.

"Not done yet? Does he taste that good?"

He walked over to Stranglehold, watching it writhe. The scene was utterly gruesome.

A pair of large, blank eyes emerged from the black cocoon, and Su Ming could sense the symbiote's message: the thing it was devouring was far from appetizing.

It looked human, even smelled human, but it tasted like wood.

"Biological synthetic, probably synthesized from artificial protein on a production line. Just make do and have a bite." Su Ming patted the symbiote's form. If they weren't on a battlefield and if it hadn't proven its worth, he wouldn't be encouraging its habit of eating people.

The symbiote sent back a sense of disappointment, spitting out what remained of the blue-gloved figure—now reduced to bleached bones. Strangely, the gloves remained intact, reverting to their original form.

They seemed to be valuable; after all, they could shapeshift earlier. Su Ming picked up the gloves.

He then used the Godslayer to strike the corpse's head.

On one hand, this would prevent Kang from reviving the creature or reading its memories. On the other, he was curious about the structure of its brain.

Inside the skull, he found a small white orb—not made of metal or plastic but of an unidentifiable material.

"Hmm, could this be some kind of CPU? Or maybe the 'soul' it mentioned? Better keep it."

After thoroughly inspecting the area and erasing any traces of his presence, Su Ming turned and headed for the nearby street corner, ready to do what he did best:

Disappear into the darkness.

...

Beneath the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, a secret facility had been transformed into an underground factory. Countless massive tank-like structures lined the room, filled with green liquid and crisscrossed with tubing.

In the dimly lit space, the only light came from the tanks, of which there were hundreds.

Suddenly, the water in one of the tanks began to churn violently, as if something inside were struggling. In a sudden burst, a figure leapt from within, entirely naked.

The figure gasped for breath, coughing heavily, then slowly began to regain composure.

Climbing out of the tank, he groped around in the darkness and found clothes in a nearby cabinet, along with a pair of blue gloves.

He dried his hair, donned the Hydra emblem, and was back again. Now, he needed to report on the situation in Paris to the Great Supreme.

...

LMD (Life-Model Decoy), a device from the future S.H.I.E.L.D.

It was designed to create replicas identical to their original, or to reintroduce the original's memories into a duplicate after the original's death, allowing them to continue their mission.

It's said that when Nick Fury became the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., he hid in a safe house, sending out LMDs in his place.

On that day alone, six of his LMDs were destroyed in succession, putting him under immense pressure.

Hydra hated him for that.

Of course, Kang the Conqueror modified this technology to allow it to be constructed with the limited industrial capabilities of this era.

This entire factory was filled with spare bodies for Blue Glove, and everything he experienced was synchronized here as a data backup.

Every detail, from what he ate to how spicy or sweet it tasted, was recorded.

This information was so granular that even Kang couldn't be bothered to sift through it all. That's why Blue Glove needed to come back regularly to deliver reports in person, summarizing the truly important intel.

Kang also had his reasons. To him, this was a game, and he enjoyed the 1940s aesthetic—Führers, military uniforms, war machines, and the like.

He even took pleasure in mimicking a certain leader's style of speech.

The small orb that Su Ming found in Blue Glove's skull wasn't just a processor; it was a data transmission device.

The moment the previous Blue Glove died, it uploaded all of its brain's information to a server in this facility. The server then activated a new body, transferring Blue Glove's memories into it.

Now Blue Glove was alive again, albeit with fresher skin and an empty stomach, intestines, and bladder—essentially identical to the one before.

He tapped his head in frustration, realizing that he had been ambushed by a "native" and couldn't even put up a fight. Not only had he lost a body, but he had also misplaced the weapon granted by the Conqueror—the shapeshifting gloves.

However, altering events that had already transpired was risky, especially in a modified timeline. Going back to change the past again carried risks that outweighed the loss of a single body.

It was better to use this opportunity to go into hiding, letting Deathstroke think he was dead.

For now, he needed to report everything to the Conqueror.

...

Meanwhile, Su Ming was hiding in the bell tower of Notre-Dame Cathedral, meeting up with his allies. He showed them the little item he had recently picked up.

"What is this? A candy?" asked Secret, sniffing the small white orb. All she could detect was a faint metallic scent. She wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue in confusion.

Timewarp glanced at it but shook her head quickly. She was just an ordinary young woman, and this object meant nothing to her.

Voyager, however, took it and examined it closely, his battle-hardened face betraying a look of surprise.

"I've seen something like this before."

As a companion of Cable, he had traveled to the 39th century. These kinds of devices had always existed and were constantly evolving.

Su Ming took off his helmet, lit a cigarette, and offered one to Voyager and Blast: "What is it?"

"It's a signal transmitter. I've seen similar devices in the heads of Sentinel robots. This one is much more refined, though—much smaller—but the design and materials are almost identical."

Voyager took the cigarette, trying to recall everything he could. Yet many memories were blurred, altered by the rewritten history of the mutant apocalypse.