Hi everyone, we're continuing the adventure with Cyborg and Deathstroke.

Good reading!

Chapter 7: Deathstroke

Cyborg and Deathstroke had just appeared at the Watchtower. As Cyborg checked the controls, Slade Wilson stood guard, brandishing his gun.

"Vision, do you copy?" Cyborg called.

"Vision to Cyborg, copy that," Vision replied from the base of the Insurgency.

"That's it! Got control of the Watchtower teleporter." the machine hero informed him.

"Good, I'll let Batman know, Vision out."

"It can't be that easy…" Deathstroke said with his gun raised in front of him.

"When your Cyborg tried to hack my neural network, he exposed his security protocols." Cyborg clarified proudly.

"You stole his password." wondered the one-eyed criminal. "I'm actually beginning to like you."

And he walked away from the control center. Victor noticed him and said:

"Where you goin'? The plan was to stay…"

"I won't be long." Slade said, leaving the room.

Inside the Watchtower, Cyborg and Deathstroke weren't alone. Flash and Shazam watched the satellite screens. Both took advantage of their time alone to discuss their ways with the Regime. Flash and Shazam had both agreed to follow Superman without question, thinking they were doing the right thing. But the more Superman changed, the more they began to doubt the Regime.

"I don't know…" Shazam whispered hesitantly. "If he said it was okay, it was good enough for me."

"Yeah, I asked myself, «What if what happened to Lois, happened to Iris?»" Flash asked with a hint of pain in his voice as he mentioned his ex-wife.

Iris had been there for him when the Metropolis disaster happened. But since he accidentally killed super-villain King Shark, she had left him completely, not approving of the Regime of Superman. And he hadn't forgotten the boy in Australia who was demonstrating for a cause and Superman hadn't hesitated to use his super strength to paralyze him. The poor boy had become forced to eat with a straw. And Flash had been shocked to learn that the paralyzed young man was one of her fans. Was he really lost?

"It made sense at first." Shazam replied. "Bad people got what they deserved. But now?"

While discussing, they didn't notice Deathstroke placing landmines in different places.

"Superman's not actually gonna kill Batman. He's just bait. To catch the real Batman." Flash retorted, though he doubted that statement.

But Shazam didn't seem convinced.

"And then what? Remember what he did to Green Arrow?"

Flash didn't answer, not knowing what to answer. When the archer just wanted to talk to him and Superman killed him in a particularly gruesome way.

But his thoughts were interrupted when he noticed an anomaly on the screen.

"Something's not right. Teleporter's off-line!"

"Somewhere you need to go?"screeched Slade, manifesting himself a few feet away from them.

"How did…?" Flash exclaimed stunned.

Without thinking too much, he decided to grab him in super speed, but he accidentally stepped on one of the landmines Deathstroke had set up, triggering more mines which they hit him and the speedster fell into the hole. Shazam wanted to intervene, but like Flash; he too was hit and fell into the same hole. Amused as he had planned, Deathstroke fell into the hole where the two Regime had landed while confronting a confused Shazam who was trying to get to his feet.

"You're gonna lose, hero!" Slade said, facing Shazam.

With the bomb that had hit him, Shazam was still disoriented and struggling to find his bearings. Deathstroke took the opportunity to knock him out, without having to waste his bullets.

"Still just a kid," the one-eyed criminal said, looking at the unconscious Shazam on the ground with disdain.

Deathstroke reached the core of the Watchtower's reactor with triumph. He was finally going to be able to score a big blow to Superman's ego.

"S'payback time."

Just then, Flash painfully stood up, moaning, and saw his friend unconscious and realized who had attacked them.

"Deathstroke…"

Immediately, he disappeared at super speed to find the criminal.

Deathstroke was busy pressing the buttons on the control panel, then Flash came along, with a threatening look and grabbing him by the hand.

"Stop what you're doing!" he yelled at him.

Unimpressed, Slade replied haughtily:

"It's not what I'm doing…"

And he punched him in the stomach and in the face, pushing him back a little.

"It's what I've done."

Flash, panicked, realized that Deathstroke had tampered with the Watchtower's reactor to explode. He tried join it, but the old man managed to anticipate his movements, and didn't take long to knock him.

"Finale's coming'... and you've got a front row seat." he declared to the unconscious speedster.

Slade found Cyborg at the control center.

"We gotta get moving."

Alarmed, Cyborg realized a failure in the satellite's reactor.

"What did you do, Slade?" he exclaimed in anguish. "The reactor's gone critical."

Not shocked, Deathstroke just replied:

"First rule of warfare. Take out command and control. This satellite's the key to Superman's Regime."

"Damn it!" Cyborg snapped angrily. "You've jeopardized the entire mission!"

"Superman's my priority, not your Batman." the one-eyed criminal objected.

Immediately, the machine hero hastened to contact the members of the Insurgency.

"Cyborg to Vision. Vision, do you copy?"

"Vision to Cyborg, yes, copy that. Something's wrong?" said the voice of the Avengers' android.

"Yeah, we have a big problem. Send me to Batman, I need to talk to him!"

"Got it!"

Once Cyborg could speak to Batman, he hastened to tell him about the unforeseen in their plan:

"Batman! This is Cyborg! We have the Watchtower, but we've got a problem. The reactor's gonna blow!"

"Can you stop it?"the Dark Knight asked him in communications.

"It's a runaway. You have ninety minutes." Cyborg retorted.

"We're almost in position. Batman out."

Immediately, Cyborg bustled into the controls of the Watchtower.

"I'll have to teleport everyone off…"

Then a Lex Luthor hologram appeared on the control panel, as Victor hurried with the controls.

"Nice work, gentlemen," greeted the bald man from the Uprising.

"Got my hands full, Luthor. What do you want?"Cyborg said still struggling with the control panel.

"I need Deathstroke."Luthor's holographic image replied.

"For what?"asked Slade.

"I've learned that Ferris Industries has prototype technology that may allow me to re-weaponize Batman's Kryptonite. I need you to bring it to me."

This time Cyborg lifted her head from the Watchtower controls and eyed Luthor suspiciously:

"Does Batman know about this?"

The image of Luthor shook his head.

"No. He would have insisted on using the weapon himself. I need to do it. Batman is the face of the Insurgency. If he dies, it dies with him."

Cyborg was stunned. He knew he was in different dimension, but seeing Lex Luthor sacrificing himself to save Batman was inconceivable. He wasn't sure he had heard correctly.

"Lex Luthor risking his life to save Batman… I wanna believe it…" he declared incredulously.

"Send over the coordinates," Slade replied.

Meanwhile, Batman was making his way through the sewers to be able to reach Stryker Island. Wanda and Green Arrow followed him. The Dark Knight launched the communication:

"Harleen. Get your people in position. Occupy any law enforcement you can."

He knew that the chaos caused by the Joker Clan would be effective in holding back the Regime's soldiers, allowing the heroes to rescue the other Batman.

Outside a prison cell, Harleen responded by communication, keeping a Joker captive in a dungeon:

"Yessir, Bats! I'm on it!"

And she cut the call, while Joker sneered at Harleen.

"Yessir, Bats! Can I pick up your dry cleaning, too? Wax the Batmobile?"

Haleen was tempted to free her Mr. J. Once again, she allowed herself to be manipulated by him. Despite years of fighting alongside the Insurgency, the Joker's influence on her had never really left her.

Finally, she ends up opening the cell allowing the Clown Prince to get out of jail.

"Ahhh... Freedom!" said the Joker, stretching.

"He's gonna kill me…" Harleen muttered, lowering her head in shame.

"I'd worry less about him...Sweetums." answered the Clown, catching the chin of the young woman with a sharp blow. "Let's go!"

And she watched him walk away from the cell with annoyance.

In another universe, Superman and The Flash were checking out the Cosmic Treadmill from which Cyborg had disappeared not long before.

"I can probably fix it," said the speedster. "But I don't know how long it'll takes. Parts of the control panel were designed to work with Cyborg's neural implants."

"We have to keep trying, Barry." said Superman worried about his friends in the other world. "This may be their only way home."

At Ferris Industries, Wonder Woman of the Superman's Regime had joined Killer Frost who were monitoring monitor screens.

"Make this quick, Frost. I'm needed at Stryker's." said the Amazon dryly to the young ice woman.

"I've discovered anomalies." Frost explained.

"«Like tears in the fabric of space-time»" Diana replied, reciting what she had heard. "I got your message. Get to the point."

Killer Frost pointed to the screens that displayed raised images of different locations in the cities of Gotham City and Metropolis.

"I think these are places where the duplicates arrived." Frost explained. "This one may be the source of the transfer."

"The Insurgency," Wonder Woman retorted contemptuously.

"On the other hand, as far as that Maximoff girl and her thing are concerned," Frost said. "The anomaly that brought them to our world is very different from the duplicates. I can't prove it, but it's as if the source of the anomaly is supernatural or mystical."

"Maximoff would be a witch?" the Amazon asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow.

"That's a more than likely theory. And I don't believe Batman brought them in. Either Maximoff and this thing came here on their own, or they accidentally came to our world. I spotted their heat signature two miles from Gotham City. But it's just a theory."

"Superman doesn't want theories," Wonder Woman snapped. "He needs facts! Why did you come to me with this?! Send the coordinates to Flash. He can confirm theory faster than anyone."

The Princess of the Amazons walked away, while Frost sent a message to The Flash advising him to go to the coordinates of the anomalies that had appeared in their world.

"Done," she assured. "Is there a…"

Turning around, she noticed with amazement, Slade Wilson who had just tied up Wonder Woman with her own lasso.

"Nice detective work... but you're too late." the old, one-eyed criminal muttered mockingly to the Ice Woman.

Caught off guard, Killer Frost quickly tried to freeze Slade but he knew all of her moves as her attack patterns were fairly straightforward for him. The moment she attacked again with her ice powers, Slade hit her with his sword, causing her to stun for a moment. The next thing he did was toss the sword into the air and shoot her using his fire bullets that he had prepared to counter her. Then he turned and kicked the end of his sword, stabbing her in her chest. Finally, he made a quick fire on her and brought her down. For an ordinary person she would have been dead but thanks to her abilities and Superman's pill she was simply unconscious.

"Too easy," Deathstroke replied triumphantly. "Your tactics are one-dimensional."

"Yes. They are." said the voice of Wonder Woman behind him.

He whirled around and saw Diana of the Regime walking towards him, with her own lasso in her hand. She had managed to free herself.

"I knew your lasso wouldn't hold you for long." Slade answered unabashedly.

Deathstroke shot her but she twisted her bracelet to repel the bullets and used her Lasso of Truth to disarm him.

"You were offered amnesty, Deathstroke." she snapped at the criminal, picking up her lasso. "You should have taken it."

"And miss my chance to battle Superman's rebound girl?"Slade said with amusement.

"How dare you?" Diana roared with hatred and aggression. "I am an Amazon!"

The two then began exchanging punches. Slade managed to get past her and grabbed her fist the moment she attacked him.

"An obsolete race with predictable techniques." scolded Deathstroke, still amused.

He pushed her aside, retorting defiantly:

"Give me a real challenge. Surprise me!"

After regaining his sword, Slade managed to be on par with Wonder Woman and used the rage of his enemy to enjoy her movements. After a few punches, he managed to disarm her sword and knocked her out in the back of the head as she was about to strike him in the face.

"I'm not impressed!" he said with disdain.

Then he entered the Ferris Industries warehouse and found a room full of technological weapons. One of them caught his attention.

He then called by communication:

"Cyborg... I've got it. Send me to Luthor."

Still at the Watchtower, the machine hero answered him, while trying to maintain the reactor, while his friends freed Batman.

"Roger that. Hope it was worth it. (Then he called the leader of the Insurgency.) Batman... You ready? We're down to forty-five minutes."

In the sewers, Batman walked with Wanda and Green Arrow with him.

"We're in position," replied the Dark Knight. "Commence assault."

"Then it begins!" Wanda replied determined to go fight the Regime to save the prisoner Batman.

At the Watchtower, Cyborg contacted his other allies.

"Vision, we're commencing the assault as planned! Good luck!"

"Roger that," replied Vision by communication. "Vision out."

Thank you for reading and reviewing.

And this is it! Until next chapter, our heroes will going at Stryker Island to rescue the other Batman! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and that I was able to introduce a bit of Vision and Wanda, although it was brief.