"Put down your weapon, let's talk!" X2
"You put yours down first!" X2
"Let's put them down together!" X2
...
Su Ming was helpless, whatever the two of them did was synchronized, eerily so.
Clearly, he was just an ordinary person from an Otherworld Earth, not the real Deathstroke. What was up with this mysterious synchrony? How much had he been influenced by the real Deathstroke, to the point that even his way of thinking was the same?
"No, it's because I've never had life-or-death experiences with others; being a thug before was more like a life of confusion, never having dealt with truly dark matters. Thus, I relied on Deathstroke's experience, adopting his mindset and methods. I am still myself, at least now I have a clear and objective understanding of my identity."
While thinking this through, Su Ming also dropped his weapon.
"Clank clank....."
Both long sticks were decisively thrown into the rain, soaked with the rooftop's filth. The two stood facing each other, the heavy rain flowing down their masks like small waterfalls.
"Speak!" X2
Seeing that they once again spoke the same words at the same time, Su Ming promptly fought to break free from the influence of Deathstroke's mindset, raising his hand, and used the other hand to press down on the palm.
"Stop, stop, let's not play this telepathy game anymore; it's the creepiest thing I've ever experienced. I'll speak first, okay?"
"Fine by me." The person opposite visibly breathed a sigh of relief, at least now they could communicate.
"I'm a mercenary, codename Deathstroke, real name Slade, but you can also call me Su." Su Ming briefly described his background, unable to discern which parallel world he was in, so he couldn't understand any other settings.
"Interesting, I'm also a mercenary, codenamed Deathstroke, real name Cindy." The person opposite uneasily touched their helmet.
Unlike other masked men, Deathstroke's black and yellow gear is a warning color like a bee, and his identity is not secret at all. Everyone knows Slade is Deathstroke, a legend in the mercenary realm.
Thinking about it, if things were kept mysterious, how would there be business? At the very least, future clients with financial power need to be able to locate you.
"What's going on? Did the military once again use my blood for clones?"
Su Ming knew of Deathstroke's military past, and that his genetic modifications came from the military. Not to mention, in the DC World, clones are everywhere, with plenty of entities possessing cloning technology.
"No, I think we're not related by cloning. The person who transformed me biologically has long been dead, and there's only one dose of the enhancing potion."
The Deathstroke who called herself Cindy felt around the lower right edge of her mask, lifted it off from the back.
Su Ming was taken aback; this Deathstroke who called herself Cindy was actually a woman.
She had short golden hair and a stern yet beautiful face, a typical visage of an American beauty. The only pity was that her right eye was covered with a black eyepatch, seemingly blind.
Su Ming couldn't comprehend; she looked only in her twenties, not at all an old lady.
For a female version of himself, she should be over fifty, right...
With this thought in mind, he also felt around under his mask; indeed, he found an inconspicuous latch. Pressing and sliding it aside, he removed his helmet.
Cindy from across was also shocked, clearly unable to understand what was happening either.
Su Ming looked down; though the rain obscured the details in the puddle, he could still make out his youthful appearance: short golden crew cut hair, handsome with a rebellious face, a faint stubble, and a black leather eyepatch over his right eye. He felt it; there was no eyeball under the eyepatch, undeniably inheriting the body of a young Deathstroke.
Here's the issue: in the old stories, Deathstroke's right eye was shot blind by his wife, and in the New 52 World, poked blind by Batman's son, Damian. But no matter how you slice it, a twenty-something Deathstroke should still be a solitary grunt in the army.
What's going on with this timeline? How did I become blind?
"A man? You're a man?" Cindy's expression was calm, but her tone hinted at disbelief.
Su Ming was equally vexed; a female Deathstroke was what didn't make sense here, right?
"Is a man so strange?"
"A man as strong as you is very rare; among superpowers, I only know of the 'Hero'."
Cindy walked beneath the gigantic 'W' emblem of Wayne Group, fished out a cigar, lit it, and started smoking, feeling the need to ingest some nicotine to ponder this baffling situation.
Su Ming walked over, the two of them no longer inclined to fight. Their individual questions had morphed into a shared puzzle. When Cindy reached for the pocket with the cigars, Su Ming also had a small cigar box on him. He pulled one out too, and they stood together, silently puffing clouds of smoke.
Upon hearing Cindy mention Hero, he more or less figured out which world this was.
It's one of the many parallel worlds in the DC Universe, Earth 11, a world ruled by the Amazon Race, where both super villains and superheroes are female versions.
Batman becomes Bat Heroine, Superman becomes Supergirl, Sea King becomes Sea Queen, The Flash becomes Flash Heroine, Steel Bone becomes Steel Girl... The Joker becomes Jester, Penguin Man becomes Penguin Lady, Two-Faced Man becomes Two-Faced Woman, and Shadow Warrior Alliance becomes Shadow Dancer Alliance.
The key point is, those originally female celebrities remain women. Harley Quinn is still Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy is still Poison Ivy, Black Canary is still Black Canary, but they've transformed from couples or partners with the original superheroes or super villains into best friends...
This bizarre world, who knows how it was created, but the DC Editor Department certainly had an open mind.
In any case, in this world, men's status has always been lower. It was only in modern times that concepts of gender equality emerged, but typically it's women managing careers outside while men handle the household. There's no helping it if the world's top leadership is Amazon, and they're all women, so government officials are also women, possessing greater strength and authority compared to men.
The only peculiarity is that the original Wonder Woman in this world turned into a man, called Hero, and is the only known male superhero.
However, having been raised by Amazons since childhood, Su Ming found him very peculiar. Can you imagine Wonder Woman's costume worn by a muscular man...?
In Su Ming's eyes, he couldn't even converse with a man dressed like that.
"Cindy, who is by my side, seems to be the real Deathstroke of this world, while I might have brought the body of that Deathstroke from another parallel universe, and due to passing through the world's barrier, affected by temporal fluctuations, I became younger."
He immediately formulated a hypothesis in his mind, and at present, the likelihood of this hypothesis seems high.