As Bobby slowly closed the distance, Deathstroke kept shifting positions to evade his attacks.
If he had been fighting Captain Cold instead, hiding behind the ice like this would've already gotten him killed several times over. But clearly, while Bobby's powers might be stronger than Cold's gun, his control and precision with cold-based abilities were still lacking in comparison.
Even though he kept releasing waves of icy air, he still couldn't land a direct hit on Deathstroke. The bridge was gradually filling up with ice, yet the mercenary always found just the right foothold to stay safe and out of range.
But little by little, as he kept dodging, Deathstroke started to notice something—his reactions were starting to dull. A moment of carelessness and a part of his armor got completely frozen.
It wasn't critical, but according to his own calculations, he should've been able to avoid that last attack cleanly.
He tried to dodge again. The result was the same. He wasn't injured, but another section of his suit got hit and frozen solid.
'So that's it. Looks like the mutant school actually has a decent plan for their students' abilities.'
By now, Deathstroke had figured it out. It reminded him of a tactic Captain Cold once used against the Flash.
After getting thrown in prison by the superhero, the former spent every day thinking about revenge. When he got out, his first idea was to attach a cyclotron to his gun, creating a custom weapon that could strip the Flash of his speed.
But during the break-in to modify the gun in a lab, a security guard stormed in. Captain Cold fired the half-finished weapon and discovered it had an even better effect than expected.
Absolute zero.
He had accidentally created a gun that could unleash absolute zero temperatures. Even the Flash, with all his speed, couldn't avoid being brought down by it once his motion was slowed by the extreme cold.
And Deathstroke wasn't even close to being as fast as the speedster.
Bobby couldn't release true absolute zero cold yet, but the theory behind it held up. The surrounding temperature had dropped so low that even the mercenary's enhanced reflexes couldn't keep up. It was only a matter of time before the next blast hit him directly.
On the mutant's end, something clicked in his mind. He seemed to pick up on Deathstroke's hesitation and recognized what he was thinking.
The fear he'd felt just moments ago had now turned into a rush of revenge-fueled excitement.
Laughing, Bobby yelled, "Looks like you figured it out too! The Professor told me a long time ago that if my cold gets strong enough, I can slow people down. At first, I couldn't do it. But now, I can. I will definitely beat you!"
With that, the mutant launched an even more aggressive assault.
As the temperature kept dropping, Deathstroke's movements grew slower and heavier, until he could no longer dodge at all.
"Alright, I'll admit it. That bald guy named Charles really does know his stuff. Most people wouldn't come up with a combat strategy like this."
Realizing he could no longer avoid the cold, Deathstroke simply stopped moving. He even reached into his pocket and casually pulled out a small box of matches.
"Oh?"
Seeing this, Bobby sneered. "Matches? Are you kidding me? It's at least minus 90 degrees out here. Without that armor, you'd already be an ice sculpture. You think that's going to help you now?"
Tiny ice crystals floated through the air on the light breeze. The mutant looked around at his handiwork, feeling truly satisfied for the first time.
"Now, just give it up and die!"
As he spoke, Bobby unleashed another blast of cold air at Deathstroke, freezing him into an ice statue in an instant.
But just as the mercenary was about to lose consciousness, he struck the match in his hand, producing a tiny flash of flame.
And the very next second, along with the ice sculpture that had been Deathstroke, a blinding white light exploded across the bridge—followed by a searing heatwave reaching over a thousand degrees Celsius.
"Ahhh!!"
Bobby screamed in agony.
His frozen form was incredibly tough. Deathstroke's guns and twin blades couldn't leave a mark. Even his grenades would freeze solid before they had a chance to explode. But all that toughness meant nothing when the temperature got high enough—the mutant's frozen body became his greatest weakness.
When the light finally faded, all the ice that had covered the Kane Bridge had completely melted.
Deathstroke, who had been frozen moments before, had survived thanks to the thick layer of ice Bobby had created with his earlier attacks. It insulated him just enough to hold on. His armor was completely destroyed, and his body was badly burned, but he could still move.
In front of him, the once arrogant mutant was now barely holding together. His arms, legs, and torso had melted under the extreme heat, leaving him in a horrific, half-liquid state.
Now, he was desperately trying to re-freeze the water into his solid form. But after pushing himself so far, he no longer had the strength to pull it off.
"Wh...why...?"
Bobby barely managed to get the words out. He didn't understand. The mercenary had been right in front of him the whole time, so when did he set up this deadly trap?
The opponent had deliberately stopped resisting, allowed himself to be frozen, just to use his own ice as a shield to survive the blast.
"White phosphorus," Deathstroke said as he stepped forward. "It's a substance that ignites at room temperature and burns at over a thousand degrees. You were flooding the area with cold air without any control, filling it with ice crystals. That gave me the perfect cover to scatter powdered phosphorus. If you hadn't lowered the temperature enough to keep the phosphorus from igniting, I might've actually been in trouble."
His tone was almost kind, like a teacher explaining something to a student. But he gave the mutant no time to respond. Stopping in front of the boy, he raised his foot and brought it down hard.
The already fragile ice body shattered under the blow.
And just like that, Bobby the Iceman was dead.
"Sigh... another close call. Just because I can barely hold my own against these guys doesn't mean they have to keep putting me through stuff like this every damn time," Deathstroke muttered to himself as he strode toward the Wayne Manor.
...
Not long after the mercenary left, Peter arrived at the scene.
"This is..."
He stared at the soaked bridge. There hadn't been any rain that night, yet water pooled along the surface, running in cold, silent streams. He didn't understand it, and didn't try to either.
He moved forward, his boots splashing into the puddles.
Unknowingly, he was stepping through the last remnants of the comrade he had come to rescue, Bobby.
...
At almost the exact same moment, as Peter began rushing toward the far end of the bridge, Lorna stood before Wayne Manor.
What she saw was a mansion completely overgrown with thick, dense plant life.
"Wayne Manor... when did it get so green?"
She shook her head, pushing the question aside. Without wasting another thought on it, she summoned metal to swirl protectively around her and began walking step by step into the estate.
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