On the rooftop, 'Batman' slowly closed his eyes as he watched Magneto prepare to unleash his wrath and tear all of Gotham apart with his powers.
He was not giving up. On the contrary, he was using the mental network that Reid had established among them to send a message to the King of Atlantis, who was currently locked in battle with Namor near Gotham's coastal waters.
'Arthur, it's time.'
...
At the same time, Aquaman, who had been fighting Namor for a long time in the ocean while pretending to retreat, smiled faintly.
Facing the Talokan king's forceful thrust of his golden trident, he caught the weapon effortlessly with one hand, his grip unshakable.
"Alright," Aquaman said with a grin. "We've played enough. Time for a change of scenery."
"What?!" Namor's eyes widened in shock as he tried to wrench his weapon free, but no matter how much strength he summoned, it remained locked in his foe's grasp like an immovable mountain.
"Your strength... how can it be..." he stammered.
"Heh." Aquaman only chuckled, the sound low and confident.
He was Arthur Curry, the Aquaman, a king of the seas whose strength was not limited by water, strong enough to move continental plates. Even if he was not the most noticeable among the Justice League, he was not someone a Mayan-based Namor could ever hope to match.
"Let's go," Aquaman said, and with a sweeping motion of his trident, he summoned an unimaginable force.
In an instant, a colossal tsunami surged upward from the depths, rising higher and higher until it dwarfed Gotham's tallest skyscrapers.
The sight was apocalyptic.
...
From his lofty position high in the city, floating even above the Wayne Tower, Magneto could not miss the monstrous wall of water racing toward the coast, blotting out the horizon.
"What madness is this? How could a tsunami form near Gotham?" He growled, momentarily stunned.
Abandoning his manipulation of the magnetic field, he instinctively tried to escape the tsunami's range. For someone of his power, evading a wave—even one of this magnitude—should have been easy.
But just as Magneto began his escape, two figures exploded out of the churning wall of water like cannonballs, their powerful frames slicing through the air.
They were shirtless, muscular, trident-wielding warriors whose bodies seemed carved from stone, and they slammed into the mutant with devastating force.
"ARGH!!" Magneto cried out in agony.
The metal armor that shielded him from bullets crumpled like paper under the sheer impact. The tremendous shockwave traveled through the armor, ravaging his aging body from within.
The mutant leader, now bleeding heavily, spiraled toward the ground along with the two warriors.
Boom!
With a deafening crash, the earth split open into a massive crater. Just before hitting the ground, Magneto gathered all his strength to pull more metal around him, forming a huge iron ball to shield himself. It barely saved him from being crushed by the fall.
...
From the side of the twisted metal cocoon, Namor crawled out, visibly shaken. Looking at the massive tsunami behind Aquaman, his face turned pale.
After so many years of fighting, he had never realized that this King of Atlantis possessed such terrifying control over water. Combined with the power Aquaman had just shown to overpower him, he realized the terrible truth: the Atlantean king had never truly fought him at full strength.
"You... you were holding back all this time?" Namor asked hoarsely, staring at Aquaman.
The King of Atlantis gave a casual, almost mocking smile as he twirled Poseidon's trident through his fingers.
"Isn't it obvious?"
This was not Reid's order. In fact, after throwing Aquaman and the Atlanteans into the sea, he had rarely interfered with their affairs.
Because within all the knowledge Reid had gathered, there was almost nothing about how to build an underwater civilization. So he had simply let go, allowing Aquaman and Mera to act on their own.
And following his queen's advice, Aquaman had ended up playing this long game of house with Namor for years.
He had only ever used enough power to appear evenly matched with his opponent, making the Talokan king believe that with technology and the strength of his people, he could gain the upper hand in a war against Atlantis.
This misunderstanding also kept him from gathering his forces to launch a full-scale assault.
Simultaneously, it gave the Atlanteans the precious time they needed to establish themselves in this unfamiliar world, while also sparing them from heavy casualties.
But that game was over now.
Following 'Batman's' suggestion, it was time to wipe out half the mutant forces and the entire kingdom of Talokan.
"Bastard!" Namor roared.
As Aquaman struck, Gotham's skyscrapers were almost completely wiped out by the tsunami. Even the Wayne Enterprises headquarters was now submerged under the raging sea.
Panic consumed the city.
Even the hardened Gordon and Harvey found themselves paralyzed by despair. If they could still place their hopes on 'Batman' before, now, faced with this sudden natural disaster, it truly seemed like Gotham might be destroyed.
But just then, a group of human-like creatures who could move freely underwater suddenly surged up from the deep sea. They carried the drowning citizens and transported them onto rooftops that were still above water after the tsunami, rescuing as many ordinary people as they could.
Soon after, the people from Wayne Enterprises and Stark Industries reacted quickly too. They began using inflatable boats to rescue civilians wherever possible.
Tonight was a disaster aimed at the mutants. But for the ordinary citizens of Gotham, everything that happened was even more tragic.
...
Meanwhile, atop the flooded ruins, 'Batman' surfaced, drawing a long breath. He could see his role-play percentage drop rapidly; however, he did not care. He had long realized that role-play percentage was just a meaningless number. If he truly let it dictate his actions, he would only end up bound and helpless, leading himself to destruction.
Thinking that Aquaman was probably still fighting Namor, 'Batman' quickly equipped himself and dove back into the water. In an environment like this, he could not waste any time.
....
Underwater, Namor gritted his teeth as he raised his trident once more, his eyes burning with fury. This was his last desperate strike—a final attempt to defeat Aquaman and turn the tide of battle in his favor.
Around him, the fully armed Atlanteans had already surrounded him. Namor knew exactly what this meant. He understood that if the Atlanteans were moving at such a scale, and the Talokan people remained still, it could only mean one thing.
He glanced at Mera beside Aquaman, who clearly looked weak.
He might be the last Talokan warrior left.
So, he could not afford to lose.
"Die, Arthur!" He shouted, his voice thick with anger as he swung his trident with all his might, aiming it straight at Aquaman. But the attack was effortlessly stopped with just one of the Atlantean king's fingers.
"You will pay for your arrogance!" Namor spat, struggling uselessly against the unyielding force.
"I came prepared too!"
As if in answer, several giant sea beasts burst through the Atlantean defenses and charged toward Aquaman. Their massive jaws opened wide, ready to tear him apart.
Pain and blood followed, but not Aquaman's.
It was Namor's.
The hand that held his trident was bitten clean off by the very sea beasts he had called for help, swallowed into their stomachs.
In front of him, Aquaman closed one eye slightly. Subtle, undetectable waves of mental energy rippled from him, constantly affecting the brains of the sea creatures.
Namor had miscalculated again. He could communicate with marine life and win their support, but Aquaman did not need communication. His ability allowed him to control the minds of sea creatures directly.
Even in this domain, Namor was no match for the comic book version of Aquaman at his peak.
He had lost. Completely.
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