"Come on, Hal," Ben said. "Help me haul the sub up. I'll use Upgrade to repair the internal surveillance footage."
In Upgrade form, Ben had no face—just a green ring on the top of his head. When he spoke, the ring pulsed with green light, and his voice carried a faint synthetic electronic timbre.
Superman was heading out with Batman to recruit Aquaman, so the obvious choice for heavy labor was—unfortunately for him—Green Lantern Hal Jordan.
"I'm not your hired help," Hal snapped.
He still followed anyway.
At this point, the strategic discussion was basically done. The enemy wasn't going to pause, and if the League wanted to prevent a full-scale war between Atlantis and the surface world, they had to move immediately.
Batman waved Superman over as well. "Superman and I will go invite Arthur. If it goes smoothly, we'll rendezvous in Atlantis. Victor—send us near Arthur's home."
Superman didn't object. Batman had a talent for rubbing other heroes the wrong way, and Barry's description painted Aquaman as extremely powerful. To prevent a confrontation before a conversation, Superman—League "public face" and professional de-escalator—agreed to accompany him.
Cyborg opened a Boom Tube, and the two stepped through.
Meanwhile, in the base's submerged cavern, Hal used green construct machinery to lift the recovered nuclear sub off the cavern floor.
Ben immediately "merged" into the submarine—Upgrade-style.
"Interesting," Ben muttered as he sifted its systems. "The surveillance system was deliberately damaged and wiped. I can only reconstruct fragments."
As his possession completed, the submarine's systems effectively became "modifiable" under his influence. He began restoring what had been deleted.
"Got it," Ben said a moment later, extracting the recovered footage onto a separate USB. "According to the internal surveillance, this sub was attacked a week ago. Everyone onboard was killed."
He detached from the submarine and headed back to the conference room with Hal.
Hal looked genuinely shocked on the way. "No way… and the U.S. didn't notice for an entire week?"
Ben's best guess: the earlier Darkseid crisis had hammered military infrastructure—bases attacked, comms degraded, systems overstretched. In open ocean, if a hacker hijacked the signal, ten minutes could be enough to steal the platform. After that, impersonating the crew over comms would be disturbingly feasible—until the sub returned to port.
Back in the conference room, Ben handed the USB to Cyborg.
"Victor—send a copy to Batman."
"Already done," Cyborg replied after a quick upload.
Then Cyborg projected the reconstructed footage in the room. The enemy team moved with discipline—fast, coordinated, and clearly working from a plan.
Ben's eyes narrowed as the audio played.
He realized the voices sounded… too familiar.
"Victor," Ben said, "compare the voice to the 'distress recording' we received."
Cyborg ran the waveform analysis. He found subtle edits—tiny splices and modifications.
When he restored the altered sections, the conclusion became unavoidable:
It was the same recording.
Ben exhaled slowly. "The recording was bait. They wanted to lure us to that submarine."
The Atlanteans they fought inside the sub weren't "the real op." They were likely disposable pieces—meant to inflame emotions and frame the next step.
Ben's tone sharpened. "Victor—check the location of the Atlanteans we tagged."
Cyborg zoomed the projected map.
"No movement," he said.
That confirmed what Ben had been afraid of.
"By my estimate, they should've woken up by now and been heading back toward Atlantis," Ben said. "If their location hasn't changed… they're probably dead."
Hal frowned hard. If their "trail" was gone, the League was back at square one: how do they find Atlantis?
Shazam tried to contribute, leaning forward. "If we can't go straight to Atlantis… maybe we start with the pirate who works with their king?"
Cyborg pulled up the footage again.
Barry, watching closely, suddenly fixated on one figure—someone who stood out. In the Flashpoint world, he'd seen that silhouette among Aquaman's forces.
"Ben," Barry asked, "do you recognize this guy?"
Ben didn't hesitate. "That suit—if I'm not mistaken—that's Black Manta. One of Aquaman's core villains."
Now they finally had a lead.
To accelerate things, Cyborg bit the bullet and connected to the internet, brute-forcing an OSINT sweep with his near-quantum processing capacity.
It hurt.
Data slammed into his mind like sensory overload—screeching noise, too many images, too many threads at once. But he forced focus.
"Found him," Cyborg said at last. "David Hyde. Codename: Black Manta. A bounty hunter on the high seas. He's worked for multiple illegal groups—terrorists and pirates included."
Hal finally smiled, the first real relief in a while.
"Add 'fish-people' to his client list," Hal said.
And with that, the investigation snapped into a concrete direction.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 80)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 80)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 80)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter35)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter35)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter35)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter35)
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