Deathstroke arrived quickly. After receiving his target, he asked no questions and went solo to capture the man.
Half an hour later, Thea met the audacious mayoral candidate Sebastian Blood in her lab. Deathstroke's sudden strike had clearly terrified the man.
Though he tried to stand, his legs trembled like leaves in a storm. After several failed attempts, he gave up.
"Mr. Blood, do you recognize me?" Thea sat in a chair wearing a sleeveless black dress, hands folded in her lap, asking with mild curiosity.
Sebastian glanced at Deathstroke standing beside her—built like a bear, dual swords on his back, bloodstains still visible—and his stomach lurched. He wanted to say he didn't recognize her.
But thanks to Thea's widespread fame and his preliminary investigation, combined with what he'd been doing half an hour ago, he'd have to be brainless not to connect the dots.
With bitter resignation and an ingratiating smile, he said, "I know you. Dr. Thea Queen—I've seen your photos. You're... you're more beautiful than any photograph."
Thea returned an elegant smile, though her words were ice-cold.
"You've been investigating me. Trying to find something to attack my mother with. Smearing your predecessor to elevate yourself—that was your plan, wasn't it?"
Sebastian weighed his options internally before giving the slightest of nods.
"Perhaps in your mind, I'm just a small-time figure, a symbol, a weapon to use against your political enemies. Am I right?"
This time Sebastian didn't dare nod. He saw Deathstroke drawing his blades. The law couldn't save him now. Neither could voters. Only self-preservation!
"I was just momentarily curious. I meant absolutely no disrespect..." Sebastian's hands waved frantically, trying to add conviction to his words.
Unfortunately, Thea completely ignored his gestures. "You were trying to destroy my family relationships. Mayor? President? Ask my subordinate—he'll tell you whether I care about those things!"
Deathstroke had no time to answer the prisoner's question. He was examining their surroundings. As Thea's anger grew, the lab floor trembled slightly. Something like static electricity filled the air, crackling against papers and furnishings.
"A filthy politician. Even calling you a politician is flattering. Even the FBI doesn't dare investigate what you tried to uncover. And you had the audacity. I see from your computer records that you even contacted several media outlets. Ha!"
Thea laughed at her own words. This presumptuous fool whose life had never intersected with hers—who could have imagined he'd nearly accomplished something with profound global consequences?
A casual flick of her finger. Before Sebastian understood what was happening, an invisible force slammed him to the ground. His view was limited to Thea's high heels and the chair. The mysterious and eerie method made his heart race. He'd apparently uncovered something extraordinary today. The question was whether they'd spare his life.
Thea spoke as if addressing him yet also talking to herself. "If you'd exposed my background publicly, my mother and brother would face endless scrutiny. My family would shatter. You definitely considered that, right?"
"But you couldn't have known—if I lost my family's constraints, if I truly cut loose..." Thea trailed off, letting the implications hang in the air. "Democracy? You have no idea what kind of world you almost created."
The room temperature visibly plummeted. Sebastian felt his breath turning to mist. He wanted to curl up, but the invisible force stretched him into a spread-eagle position, unable to move.
"There are versions of this world where even Superman falls," Thea said quietly. "Where one bad day changes everything. If I wanted, I could paralyze global military networks. Nuclear annihilation isn't just fiction. The superheroes all have weaknesses—they couldn't stop me. Humanity would race toward destruction. And it would all be because of you."
"Mr. Sebastian Blood, do you understand that you—an insignificant nobody—briefly held the power to determine all of humanity's fate?"
Thea observed his confused eyes. "You know nothing. No higher authority ordered this. No secret backing. You're just an annoying, pathetic worm. Your existence is meaningless. You can disappear now."
Thinking Thea was about to kill him, Sebastian understood little of her previous speech, but he grasped that she was acting now. He struggled desperately, but it was useless.
Just as despair consumed him, he suddenly found himself floating. Then he met Thea's emerald eyes.
Prismatic light rippled through her gaze, as if some cosmic power was tearing through reality itself. Something invisible cut through the void around him. Sebastian didn't know how long it lasted—it felt like a year, yet also like an instant. Then he felt his mobility return.
The terrifying woman was rubbing her temples. The bear-like muscular man looked at him with confusion. On reflex, Sebastian didn't think twice—he bolted.
Back in the crowded streets, he felt like a lifetime had passed. Why had they let him go? Were they playing some cat-and-mouse game? He didn't know. He only knew he had to run.
Getting in a taxi, he discovered he had no money. His phone, credit cards, everything was gone. Through smooth talking, he convinced the driver to take him to Star City, promising double the fare.
But arriving in Star City, Sebastian was dumbstruck. His campaign office had become residential housing. He called his most capable assistant—the person claimed not to know him.
Sensing something bizarre, he went to his criminal organization's hideout. He wasn't entirely innocent—he'd gathered some unsavory characters into a small gang to handle matters he couldn't be publicly associated with.
The hideout's situation mirrored his campaign office. Same environment, but completely different people.
Using his familiarity with the area to escape the taxi driver, Sebastian fled back to his residence.
Climbing through the window, he found it was no longer his home. Different layout, different furnishings, photographs of strangers on the walls. Sebastian felt like he was losing his mind.
Initially, he thought Thea had extensive resources and numerous operatives, that she wanted to cut off all his escape routes, making him unable to live or die.
But repeated failures planted a terrifying thought: everything he'd done seemed illusory. Had she somehow erased his "existence"?