"Whatever the enemy is planning, all I know is he deliberately drew Superman away. Metropolis is in serious danger right now. I don't have much time—I need to get back immediately." Thea pointed at several monitors in the Batcave. The images showed Metropolis already experiencing city-wide blackouts, with massive amounts of power being siphoned to a single location. Thea suspected that was probably Lex Luthor's underground base.
Her reasoning was flawless. Even if Superman woke up right now, he'd tell Thea to go back and protect the city.
Everyone present except Poison Ivy was a superhero—they all completely understood this choice.
"Let me do it. We're..." Lois volunteered, but she wasn't sure if she should mention her relationship with Superman.
Thea decided immediately: Lois would do it. As for having Batman wake Superman—that image was a bit too disturbing. Entering someone's consciousness space would inevitably mean sharing plenty of secrets. Short of Earth's total destruction, Batman would never open his mind and let others read his thoughts.
Leaving Poison Ivy behind to help, Thea said her goodbyes and flew back to Metropolis alone.
With Superman in this condition, she couldn't count on him to fight Doomsday. As for Batman? Making an ordinary human tag along would be cruelly unfair.
On the way, Thea contacted Diana and Supergirl. With the three women's combined strength, they could fight their way through even Apokolips, let alone deal with a Doomsday they were prepared for.
In such a high-profile setting, fighting bravely under her true identity to earn all of humanity's trust and harvest willpower—that was the main reason she'd ignored Luthor's little schemes for so long.
Entering Metropolis airspace, she found she still had some time. She dismissed her Divine Aegis armor, put away her holy sword, and scanned continuously for anything unusual.
Evening was approaching. The massive power shortage had plunged the city into darkness. People on every street corner were calling the police for help. Some sensitive citizens, sensing the calm before the storm, had hidden in their homes clutching firearms.
Before long, Thea found signs of a battle at the city's edge.
Both sides were nearly wiped out. One side wore military uniforms—active-duty soldiers. The other was a lone "weak" woman: Mercy, Luthor's secretary.
Miss Secretary was truly fierce. An ordinary human with no abilities or enhancements had single-handedly taken down nineteen fully armed U.S. soldiers. Her injuries were mainly from grenade shrapnel that had torn into her abdomen. Heavy blood loss slowed her down until she finally took bullets and fell.
When Thea arrived, she found Mercy had been shot at least six times, but still had a faint breath left.
"Was it really worth sacrificing so much for Luthor?" Thea couldn't understand. With Mercy's looks and abilities, she had it all. As a modern woman, she'd somehow developed the loyalty of an ancient death-sworn warrior. It actually moved Thea a little.
Unfortunately, Miss Secretary was already on death's door and couldn't possibly answer her questions.
Thea sighed a few times. If this were some random old person lying in a pool of blood, she'd have walked right past. But Miss Secretary's looks were genuinely exceptional, with an excellent figure too. Letting her die here seemed like a waste.
Looking deeper inside, she sensed Doomsday's birth was still a little ways off. Thea helped Miss Secretary up and teleported her back to her laboratory first.
She placed her in the top-tier high-tech medical pod she'd previously used to treat Killer Frost. The pod sealed, initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation, massive blood transfusions, and only then began extracting shrapnel and suturing wounds.
Still, Miss Mercy's injuries were too severe. She was just an agile ordinary human—making it to the point where Thea could treat her already showed extraordinary vitality.
Thea didn't rush to wake her. She set the sleep program and sank the entire medical pod underground. The battle with Doomsday would bring another catastrophe to Metropolis. This laboratory wasn't safe.
If the coming battle exposed the laboratory to public view and dangerous experimental data and samples fell into ordinary people's hands, that would be extremely troublesome.
She backed up massive amounts of data and sank the most dangerous samples deep underground—things like Mongul's cells, Doomsday's cells, and Kryptonian cells.
Only after ensuring there were no loose ends did she return to the previous area to continue searching for Luthor's trail.
The corpses of military soldiers and various mercenaries along the way served as signposts. Thea headed deeper into the underground base.
Her speed was tremendous. Many people only saw a flash before she vanished from sight.
Looking at the experimental equipment and documents scattered everywhere along the way, Thea had to admit—excavating such a massive underground project, plus all the rare materials and equipment—Luthor had really spared no expense.
And with this much commotion, claiming the military and government didn't know would be a joke.
Just the fact that the military had arrived on the scene even before her proved they'd long had an understanding. Whether they came to reap the rewards or stop Luthor's evil deeds would depend entirely on who emerged victorious.
After bursting through the largest battlefield at high speed and entering the deepest part of the base, Thea finally found her target: Mr. Luthor, who'd lost even more hair recently.
Standing across from him was another old acquaintance: General Lane. Of course he was here too.
Of course, these powerful figures weren't here alone. Beside Luthor stood a nearly two-meter-tall hulk. Under Thea's super-vision, the man's entire body was a metal skeleton with a sizable chunk of kryptonite positioned at his heart. This was Metallo, one of Superman's archenemies.
Beside General Lane stood a tall robot, completely red with a large "T" emblazoned on its chest and a blue cape flowing behind. This was the superhero Red Tornado.
Thea only glanced casually, but the military's black tech was genuinely impressive. This guy's synthetic skin was quite well-made. Whether it was an AI was hard to say, but it seemed to sense Thea's gaze and turned to look at her with a stern expression.
"Well, well, both of you are here. My house has a blackout—mind telling me what's causing it?" The heiress made no attempt to hide her presence. She stepped out openly and asked a completely irrelevant question.
"Dr. Queen arrived quite quickly. Is everything alright with Superman?" General Lane didn't appreciate her humor, but Luthor didn't seem to mind. He greeted her cheerfully, even asking after Superman's condition like an old friend.
Uh... Thea glanced at General Lane beside her. She didn't dare mention that his daughter was currently in Superman's dreamscape, waking up her sleeping prince.
"Oh, such genuine affection." Luthor analyzed something from her subtle expression and nodded lightly, saying things General Lane couldn't understand. "But Dr. Queen, your behavior today is quite strange. Standing here so brazenly—you don't plan to keep hiding behind the scenes anymore? Like your female companion, are you also an ancient deity left behind to guard Earth?"
Luthor's tone remained light, carrying equal parts mockery and genuine curiosity.