Deathstroke The Terminator stopped in front of an imposing structure and glanced at his phone, making sure that was the right place. The coordinates did not lie, so he continued on.
He noticed three armed men in front of the massive gate and his intention was to ignore them. He would have done so if he hadn't had three spears pointed in his face, irritating him.
"Strip off all your weapons." stated one of them. "It's protocol."
Deathstroke stared at them impassively. "Shove protocol up your asses. If you want to go home alive I strongly suggest you get your fucking spears out of my face in less than three seconds." he threatened them in a low, dangerous voice.
To his petty satisfaction he saw them begin to shake like leaves. They looked at each other and immediately moved to the side, allowing him to pass. Slade smiled from behind his mask and advanced.
"Wise decision."
He entered the building and found a long corridor in front of him. So he advanced at a slow and confident pace, noticing some active cameras that were recording and ignoring them.
At the end of the corridor was a massive steel door and he stopped. He knocked twice, as they had established on the call, and waited patiently. It took a maximum of ten seconds before the door opened.
Deathstroke found himself facing a dark-skinned man, more than six feet tall, dark hair, brown eyes colder than steel itself, broad shoulders, a square jaw, strong, rugged features, he had three large visible scars on his face but above all a very massive and sturdy build.
If Slade were not the deadliest mercenary in the world he probably would have been intimidated.
The man gave him a nod and moved to the side, allowing him to enter. Slade did not return the nod and moved forward, entering the room and looking around. It was a huge dark-colored room, mostly empty, and in the center was a huge table where many super-villains were gathered, although the only ones Slade recognized were Lex Luthor accompanied by his faithful assistant Marcy, Brain and his trusty gorilla Mallah who was holding his usual machine gun -fucking protocol, Slade thought with a mental scoff-, Ocean-Master and Black Manta. There were six other super-villains, however, who he did not recognize, including the man who let him into the room.
The number of super-villains involved was very worrying and so the type of them: they all seemed very dangerous in one way or another, and Slade had a very bad feeling.
He stared at the man from earlier who flanked him and who had a slight smirk on his lips. "Greetings, Deathstroke. I am Vandal Savage and I hold the position of leader of the Light. Please, take a seat." he pointed to the table where two chairs remained empty, one of which was the one at the head of the table.
Deathstroke then sat down on the other, sure that the one at the head of the table was reserved for Vandal Savage. He was flanked on the left by an attractive black woman who had some sort of tiara on her head -the only female supervillain, Slade noted- and on the right by Black Manta. The mercenary glanced around again, aware that all eyes were on him and ignoring them, and then stared directly at Vandal Savage.
"A brief introduction would be appreciated." he said, leaning back in his chair in a position that exuded casualness but danger.
He did so not so much for comfort but more to make it clear that no one could mess with Deathstroke The Terminator, no matter who the fuck you are.
"Of course." Vandal Savage nodded and began the introductions.
The woman at his side was Queen Bee. The albino gorilla -even more robust and taller than Mallah himself- was Ultra-Humanite and from his head visibly protruded a brain and wearing a red-colored harness, a belt carrying golden bullets and a huge gun. The man wearing sunglasses and looking like an ordinary person was Zviad Baazovi. There was also a pale youth-looking boy named Klarion who had two horns sticking out of his head and in his lap was an orange cat with black stripes and red eyes named Teekl. Finally, the pale bald man whose brain was visible through a transparent dome was Psimon.
Then of course there was also Lex Luthor, Brain and Mallah, Black Manta and Ocean-Master who he already knew.
Slade was already beginning to think that the Light was not a two-bit organization.
The super soldier nodded at the end of the presentation. "So what would be the goal of the Light?"
"I welcome the question." Vandal Savage smiled, crossing his hands on the table like a true leader, and began to explain. "You know, Deathstroke, I have literally so many thousands of years. I have been alive since what you consider 50.000 B.C. or so. I have seen and experienced countless wars, extreme natural phenomena, thousands of cities and civilizations destroyed and other thousands resurrected, plagues and other diseases, and much more. History unfolded in this way quite naturally, with no one slowing down or preventing necessary events that have enabled mankind to come to this day with all the resources, technologies and knowledge available and more.
"But with the advent of the Justice League this is no longer possible." Vandal Savage narrowed his eyes menacingly. "The so-called "heroes" are slowing down and blocking the human evolutionary process. They are protecting humanity from crimes, natural disasters, tragedies and wars, factors necessary for the evolution of the human species. Human beings need catastrophes of all kinds to happen and alone try to find a solution to counter them.
"Our goal is to make everyone see the Light, meaning how the Justice League is hindering the evolution of humanity as they protect it from necessary factors. So we are going to join forces to accelerate the evolution of humanity so that Earth taking its rightful place at the center of the cosmos."
Slade remained silent, mentally contemplating all that he had just heard. He already found so many reasons why their goal was crazy and stupid that he did not even know where to begin.
The mercenary had already heard and witnessed many plans about how to dominate the world, destroy it or other such crap. But this goal, while definitely original, was probably the strangest he had ever heard.
Of all the possible reasons for killing heroes as personal glory, money, conquering or destroying the world, this was definitely the craziest and stupidest ever.
Get rid of heroes because they are preventing human evolution by protecting Earth from catastrophic events? So that after their deaths Earth can take a central role in the entire cosmos?
Seriously? What the fuck?
For obvious reasons Deathstroke kept his real thoughts to himself and merely nodded. "Interesting. Very original goal."
Vandal Savage smiled. "I know."
"So you would like to kill the heroes so that humanity can evolve in such a way that Earth can assume a centering role in the entire cosmos, right?"
"That's right."
"I note that you have hired many super-villains."
The Light leader nodded. "In this way, the Light has many spheres of influence in many fields: business with Luthor, politics with Queen Bee and Baazovi, oceans with Black Manta and Ocean-Master, science with Brain, magic with Klarion, technology and intelligence of Ultra-Humanite and finally psychic powers of Psimon.
"I also asked the League of Assassins to join the ranks of the Light but its new leader, Talia Al Ghul, refused, saying she wanted to remain in neutral territory." Vandal Savage shook his head disappointedly. "It is unfortunate that Talia staged the coup and killed her father. I'm sure Ra's would have very willingly joined the Light and we would have had many more resources at our disposal, such as some of the most dangerous assassins in the world."
Slade raised an eyebrow behind his mask. Apparently Talia had also received an invitation to join the Light but she directly declined.
Shortly he and Dick would have a talk with her on this subject.
And still the super-villains -and most likely the heroes as well, always if they knew about it- thought that Talia was directly responsible for Ra's death instead of Renegade.
This was a good thing since Light would keep its distance from Renegade, uninterested in him and underestimating him.
And so Slade would secretly enjoy seeing Light's plans stopped by Renegade.
Deathstroke nodded again. "With all of them then why extend the invitation to me as well?" he asked even though he already knew the answer.
"Obviously because you are a world-renowned expert assassin and the deadliest and most dangerous mercenary in the world. With you at our side, the Light will have its direct main executioner."
"You want me to kill heroes." affirmed the mercenary with amusement.
"Not only that. You will also be sent on several missions to retrieve some resources we need. You will be an important member of the Light, Deathstroke."
"You are already assuming that I will accept the invitation to be part of the Light, Vandal Savage."
The leader tilted his head slightly to the side, his gaze unreadable. "Will you turn down the greatest opportunity of your life to be part of an organization like the Light?"
Deathstroke uttered a mocking verse, ignoring the dirty looks he received from the other supervillains. "As you well know, I am not interested in world domination and other such crap. My only interest is in completing any contract I accept and anything that brings me any form of personal benefit. So if I were to join you what would be my advantages?"
"Are you serious? We are offering you domination and control of the whole world without heroes and you want more personal benefits?" taunted Lex Luthor.
"Then you take care of killing heroes, Luthor." huffed the mercenary casually shrugging his shoulders. "Looks to me like I'll be the one who has to do the hardest work."
"Not really." Vandal Savage intervened with a growing smirk. "We have other ways to kill heroes among the magic, technology and science we possess. So we don't actually need you."
Deathstroke was silent for a few seconds before slowly turning his neck and staring Vandal Savage deadly in the eyes. "I hope for your sake you didn't bring me here just to waste my precious time." he stated coldly, a note of threatening warning in his voice.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw some super-villains shudder, which made him meanly pleased. Vandal Savage merely smirked, which instead annoyed him. "Intimidation has no effect on me, Deathstroke. Not after I have lived many thousands of years."
"I will only tell you once more. Why did you invite me here when you don't really need me?"
"Because we need a heavy hitter and your reputation precedes you. You are the most dangerous and deadly mercenary in the world and the best assassin of all. You have never failed a contract. Your skills as a strategist are envied by all. You would be a very important and valuable resource for the Light."
"Flattery will get you nowhere." affirmed the super soldier impassively. "And I'm not an idiot. You just want someone to throw under the bus in case any of your plans fail. You want me to kill the heroes so that they will focus exclusively on me while you and your little friends without worries organize the final plan to kill them all. Whether I survive or not is not important to you: my hypothetical death will only be a side effect for you."
The other supervillains stared at each other with wide, shocked eyes and also the leader of the Light showed genuine surprise. Deathstroke huffed and stood up causing the chair to back up noisily and turn around, the heavy sound of his footsteps as he advanced toward the exit without adding anything else.
"Wait!"
Slade had a smirk between his lips and turned, crossing his arms and meeting Vandal Savage's gaze. "I advise you not to waste any more of my time."
An irritated flash crossed the older man's face before it quickly disappeared. "I admit that I underestimated your deduction skills and I deeply apologize for that." he began in a mock friendly tone of voice, implicitly admitting that Slade was right earlier. "We will change our plans. We will not use you as a distraction for the Justice League. We will kill all of them. Together. With all our resources.
"I didn't lie before when I said you would be an indispensable resource for the Light. We really need an assassin like you. We were planning to recruit Sportsmaster or Cain but they are not as skilled and experienced as you. We need the best assassin in the world."
Deathstroke tilted his head slightly, pretending to ponder the situation. "I will agree to join the Light with some conditions."
There were noises of protest and indignation in the background but they were silenced when Vandal Savage raised a hand. "Go ahead."
"I will not be your puppet. If I notice that you intend to use me as a bait for heroes I will abandon immediately and seriously consider killing you all."
"That will not happen." he reassured him.
The mercenary nodded and continued. "If I accept the missions you want to send me on and I come across any heroes I will not kill them. I will fight against them and defeat them but I will not kill them otherwise we go back to the previous point. We will kill them with whatever plan you have in mind but we will do it together and kill the whole JL."
The leader of the Light nodded. "Certainly."
"We will negotiate the amounts I will earn for each of my missions. After all, they will decrease my contracts and I am a professional mercenary."
"Fair enough."
"Finally, I want to be constantly briefed, even on the smallest details. I will have to be a full-fledged member of the Light and that means always being up to date."
"Is that all?" asked Vandal Savage. Deathstroke nodded and the leader extended a hand, a smirk between his lips. "I accept all the conditions.
"I welcome you to the team, Deathstroke the Terminator. I am pleased to announce you as an official member of the Light."
The mercenary accepted the handshake and returned it firmly, a smirk hidden by his mask.
"It will be a pleasure to work with all of you."