Su Ming knew about the Sea Trench Country, where the residents are notoriously unfriendly. Although he had crossed over too early to see the personal movie of "Sea King," he had learned about this place from the comics.
In simple terms, the Ancient Atlantis City was split into several pieces and submerged into the sea, with one piece falling into the trench.
The lightless environment of the deep trench, combined with the harsh living conditions, drove these residents completely insane.
Under the influence of the external environment, they evolved into another terrifying appearance.
Of course, from human aesthetic standards, the enormous eyes, sharp teeth, and claws of deep-sea creatures are quite terrifying.
Moreover, these Atlanteans became estranged from everyone, constantly in a state of frenzied hunger, which was quite problematic.
This completely severed the possibility of normal communication; even language was something they abandoned.
In the deepest parts of their memory, however, there remained the glory of the Atlanteans, but this was only evident in their avoidance of the possessor of Poseidon's Trident, while growing doubly frenzied in attacking the target the weapon pointed to.
Podeidon's Trident now resided in the capital of Atlantis, in Poseidonis City, the city of Arthur and Mera, which floated on the sea surface.
Generally, Atlantis also referred to this capital, inheriting the ancient name.
Arthur called himself the King of Seven Seas, but in reality, the underwater kingdom consisted of only six, as the Arctic Ocean was completely a blank. Even though Atlanteans were physically strong, they could not live long in icy water.
If he guessed correctly, once Mera sensed something amiss, she would immediately grab Poseidon's Trident to defend her people.
This meant that Su Ming had no reliable means to deal with the Sea Trench Race.
He had to rely on the weapon in his hand to carve a bloody path through the Sea Trench Race, which had undergone a secondary mutation due to poison water.
But what was up with Night Shadow and Alice zoning out during the mission?
They were seasoned heroes and had fought many battles, especially Black Alice, who was a girl whose killing spree even made Wildcat and Death Shooter feel sick.
But what was happening now?
Su Ming wasn't a god; he couldn't understand or control everything, and now the two girls were acting very unprofessionally, likely adding complications to the mission.
He communicated his intentions to Blue Demon by patting him on the shoulder, while he and Daniel protected the Warlock on either side.
There was no choice; this was the fate of a warrior.
He thought Eve, who was parasitized by a symbiote, would not need protection, but it turned out worse than before.
Perhaps it was psychological, but the seawater here seemed noticeably darker than in other places, and even Su Ming's goggles couldn't see clearly at a slightly farther distance.
The only visible things were jagged sea-bottom rocks and irregularly shaped strange corals.
And this was just at the entrance of the trench; what lay below was completely unknown.
So far, they had only encountered sporadic attacks from marine creatures; the main act, the Sea Trench Race, hadn't appeared.
Su Ming heightened his vigilance. If things didn't go well, he would settle for a less than perfect location.
...................
A bit earlier, in Poseidonis.
The morning sun shone upon this city, its shell-like multi-colored spired buildings emitting unique radiance.
Atlanteans stepped onto the streets to start a new day.
Indeed, as an undersea race, they practically had no desires or wants as long as there was fish to eat.
Houses were provided by the state, clothing, and daily necessities too; they didn't even have the concept of money.
Whether building houses or seeking food, these were communal efforts. When there was work, everyone worked; when it was time to rest, everyone rested together. That was the rule of Atlantis.
And now, Atlantis had received sponsorship from Batman, gaining enough land food and new clothes, so the whole city was on holiday.
That morning, as people woke up, they discovered a newly built amusement park beside the city, in an Egyptian style.
They had never been to Egypt, let alone seen pyramids or temples, and this was immensely attractive to the Atlanteans.
With idle people and a fresh amusement park, naturally, they wanted to play.
To fit the Atlantis style, Barry constructed the amusement park with half of it submerged underwater, leaving a note on a stone tablet saying it was a gift from the Justice League to the people of Atlantis.
Perhaps it was strange to write "Deathstroke's gift," so he used the name of the League instead.
Atlanteans started reveling, swimming to the new amusement park, ready to spend a day of leisure there.
A child was complaining to his mother, expressing his dislike for the sunshine and dry air on land, while his father, from the water, called him down to join the fun at the park.
"The ocean hasn't left us, see, it's right by our side."
"But Dad, the color of the sea seems..."
And then, his father let out a scream, as if something had grabbed his foot from underwater and dragged him into the purple sea.
And others, crazily began to flee from the purple sea water, but in those opaque waters, it seemed as if something was constantly capturing them.
They couldn't see, but the Atlanteans tainted by the purple sea water were almost instantly transformed into alien monsters, growing fins or webs and their skin would turn into a grotesque red and green.
A one-meter-eight strong man would instantly transform into two-meter-eight, with scales and explosive muscles growing all over his body.
The child's father transformed into a red-skinned sea monster, suddenly leaping out from underwater, lunging towards the mother and child, spewing bizarre, incomprehensible language.
"Ah!!!"
The child's mother screamed, unable to accept the tragic transformation of her lover, while many around began to flee for their lives, chanting the god's name of Poseidon, hoping he could save them.
Poseidon would not come, he never cared about the life and death of mortals, land people, undersea people, all the same.
Back when Primordial was slaughtering in Olympus, Poseidon was soaking in the sea and showed no intention to intervene, even knowing those who died were his relatives.
Furthermore, now Poseidon is actually dead, unable to hear the cries for help brought by the waves from his believers.
But someone could hear, hearing her citizens screaming at the shore.
A water curtain suddenly rose from the shore, like a giant dragon the water column flushed those mutated ones back into the sea.
Red-haired Mera, fully armed, appeared at the seaside.
She wore a golden crown, green scale armor, and held a silver double-edged axe-shaped trident.
When fighting she depended on superpowers, but it's better to have a weapon in hand than none, right?
The Sea King's Trident was taken by Arthur, and Poseidon's Trident was a treasure stored in the temple that she didn't want to touch, so she picked up the weapon of 'Sea Lord' Om.
However, a petite woman wielding such a heavy weapon seemed a bit odd.
"Everyone! Leave the coast!"
Her water control ability could temporarily protect Atlantis City, but as an underwater ancient city, it had no city walls.
Those mutated fish-men were attacking the city from different directions, she could only lead the residents back to the Royal Palace District, at the highest terrain level 'Third Tier'.
But Atlantis's buildings have never been waterproof, in another hour, the whole city would be submerged.
For the first time she felt fear of the seawater.
She sought the advice of her advisors and guards, but they all had no solutions, this was a planet-level crisis, Atlantis alone couldn't support it.
"No matter what the cost, I must save my people."
Mera decided to contact the Justice League.
Her relationship with the Justice League was mediocre, because those people were clearly standing with Arthur, referring to her as the Sea King's wife, as if they didn't even know her name...
Mera had some problems with emotional management, she usually appeared elegant, beautiful, gentle, and weak.
But when injured or emotionally suppressed, she would enter a berserk state, with endless anger in her heart that could even attract a Red Lantern Ring.
And before meeting Arthur, she was originally the queen of the Mysterious Sea Region—X Waters, a very strong-willed woman, firm in her decisions, hardly changing herself because of others.
But now, she must contact the Justice League.
.......................
Batman at that time was still arranging rescue matters, every hero he knew, he sent them out to save people around the world.
As the steadfast Titan Squad, they were naturally no exception.
But after Nightwing got shot, the Titan Squad apparently had no one to lead them, Damian in Batman's view was far from qualified, so Batman had forced him to go into hiding.
Just like Su Ming forced Gordon to take refuge, temporarily stored in a safe place.
Now the Titans were temporarily under the command of Starfire during the operation.
Starfire actually had no command skills, this alien princess loved to play, and was rather carefree, not very suitable for leadership.
But the current operation was simple, just do as Batman says, she only needed to ensure the team members didn't run around.
When they were preparing to set off, a former teammate returned, having heard the assembly order of the Justice League, originally attending college on land, he rushed to the Hall of Justice.
He was 'Sea Storm' Gass, had once gone by the code name 'Young Sea Hero', a sidekick of the Sea King, and prince of the underwater kingdom 'Idilist'.
Idilist used to be part of Ancient Atlantis City, and now is still an affiliated country of Kingdom of Atlantis.
Gass since childhood followed Arthur in seeking justice, only he was no longer young, he gave up the title of Young Sea Hero to the son of Black Manta from Earth 16, Jackson Hyde.
The Main World's Black Manta was a super villain, but his son from Earth 16, an Other Plane being, was truly a good lad.
When Gass arrived at the Hall of Justice, learned of Nightwing being shot, all Idilist people in the water turning into fish, and his brother-like Arthur was missing...
Gass believed the longer they delayed, the more severe the situation would become, he couldn't stand Batman's slow-moving plan anymore, he planned to lead the Teen Titans to save the world.