To verify his theory, Sebastian deliberately started a small disturbance on the street. He was arrested and taken to the police station. The result shocked the officers and terrified him—the police database had no record of him whatsoever.
He provided additional information, asking the police to search for his parents. The result was the same. His parents existed, but they had no record of him as their child. At least, not in police records.
Finding someone with absolutely no documentation in modern society was quite unusual. Many officers gathered to observe. Sebastian recognized several of them, but none recognized him. His heart grew increasingly desolate. He acted insane at the station for two days, leaving behind what might become an urban legend about a time traveler, before being transferred to Star City Psychiatric Hospital.
This minor incident became water-cooler gossip at the Star City Police Department. Before long, word reached Thea's ears. She merely smiled. Who could imagine this man had once planned to run for mayor? No one remembered him. In everyone's memory, Sebastian Blood didn't exist. Everything he'd said or done—except for Thea and himself—no one knew this person's past. All traces of his existence had been erased from the source by reality-warping power.
The cost was a week of headaches and dizziness for Thea. Erasing just one ordinary person had made her miserable. This technique, which she'd named the Erasure Eye, couldn't be used lightly again—at least not in the current stage.
Star City returned to tranquility. No one remembered any Sebastian. Several outstanding individuals vying to inherit Star City's mayorship had already begun covert negotiations and exchanges. Star City's prosperous economy and stable security meant they could reap impressive achievements without doing much. No one could resist that temptation.
Naturally, Star City's prosperity bred crime. After the Brick gang's self-destruction, a new criminal codenamed "Count Vertigo" rose in Star City. He manufactured massive quantities of hallucinogens and flooded the market, causing the city's crime rate to spike noticeably within a single week.
When Felicity invited Thea out for coffee, she only briefly mentioned it before dropping the subject. With Green Arrow's team now so well-equipped, a small-time Vertigo wasn't worth discussing.
"How's Sara doing these days? She seems much tougher than I remember," Thea had to remark.
The day she'd gone to find Green Arrow, she'd been startled. The shooting club had gained two more female members. Laurel's sister Sara Lance had finally returned to Star City, and with her came the Demon's Head's younger daughter, Nyssa al Ghul.
Talia's iron-fisted rule had driven Nyssa and Sara into hiding abroad for two years. Yes, these two ladies had that kind of "intimate" relationship. Missing her sister and father, with nowhere else to go, Sara had brought Nyssa back to Star City.
Because of Thea's intervention in the past and with future-Sara's participation, this timeline's Sara had never encountered Oliver on Lian Yu. When they met, they fought fiercely for quite a while before realizing they'd once been jogging partners.
In their confusion, old feelings seemed to rekindle between them. This enraged the Demon's Head's daughter: "You can't steal Sara from me!"
Their emotional entanglements were beyond complicated—chaos didn't begin to describe it. Compared to their intricate relationships, Count Vertigo was merely a minor nuisance.
As an outsider, Thea found it messy. As an insider, Oliver found it even more chaotic. The siblings occasionally chatted about it, but ultimately they'd have to resolve it themselves.
---
That day's purification of the Leviathan had increased atmospheric magical content. Combined with Central City's particle accelerator explosion, mysterious substances in the air were rapidly multiplying. Thea could sense abnormal turbulence beneath the calm surface. Bad things could happen at any moment.
On a peaceful afternoon, as Thea finished her day's work and prepared to go home, an urgent phone call interrupted her plans.
"Get to Gotham quick—Superman's gone mad!" The caller was Barbara Gordon. The other end sounded like a demolition site, thunderous crashes echoing continuously. Without time to think, Thea donned her Godkiller armor and, consequences be damned, flew straight toward Gotham at full speed.
Under her maximum velocity, Gotham appeared before her eyes in moments. Half a city block lay in ruins. Ordinary citizens fled desperately while street gangs seized the opportunity to loot. Police helicopters and news choppers filled the air—the former maintaining order, the latter fearlessly broadcasting breaking news.
But the most eye-catching sight was Superman himself, intermittently airborne in his blue suit and red cape, his eyes blood-red.
On the ground, constantly engaging him in combat, was Batman wearing armor that looked like a bulky robotic suit. The heavy armor provided tremendous defensive capability, and various high-tech equipment gave it formidable offensive power as well.
But caught off-guard with zero preparation, even wearing this anti-Superman armor, Batman was being thoroughly beaten.
What was happening? Just days ago, he'd been worried about Lois. Superman couldn't have turned dark this quickly, could he?
Seeing Batman about to collapse, Thea had no time for questions. She flew down and intercepted Superman's killing blow.
The overwhelming force sent her flying over ten meters. Superman was simultaneously knocked back two meters. In pure strength, they still had a gap, but not a large one.
"What's going on? Can someone explain?" Thea drew the Godkiller sword, its brilliant radiance clashing with Superman.
"His chest—something there is controlling him," Batman's damaged armor distorted his voice.
Only then did Thea look at Superman's chest. His suit had always concealed any details, but now she could see something was wrong.
Beneath the fabric, a dark purple plant had attached itself. Four tentacle-like appendages continuously drained his life force while the plant's main body emitted sound waves similar to mental attacks. Through some peculiar resonance, it affected Superman's brain.
Black Mercy. Thea recognized it immediately—she'd encountered this parasitic plant before while helping Poison Ivy catalog exotic specimens.
Seeing it was one thing—dealing with it was another. The plant itself had no combat capability, but through long evolution, it possessed a damned symbiotic defense system. If forcibly removed, Superman's survival rate was less than one in ten thousand.
How had Supergirl resolved it in the original timeline? Thea dealt with Superman's attacks while trying to remember.
The broken plant could hardly completely control a Kryptonian. Different life levels—like ants unable to control humans—it couldn't fully control Superman either. At least not completely.
This relieved Thea. This kind of externally-induced darkness was much easier to handle than Superman subjectively turning evil.
A fully rational Superman who held back would be formidable. A Superman who abandoned all moral restraints would be catastrophic. But this puppet version, controlled by an alien parasite, couldn't even access a fraction of his true power.
The only regret was that the plant's control over Superman made him immune to many mental control spells. This left Thea only able to fight him with her great sword. The situation was temporarily deadlocked.