Amanda then launched into an extensive explanation, saying Earth was a Level 3 civilization and Krypton was Level 8—leaving plenty of room for these people to speculate.
The old folks' hearts went cold. They asked the same questions repeatedly—not just about Thea and Diana, but also Superman and Batman. While these superheroes maintained secret identities and stayed busy, they were somewhat maintaining these elders' power, which was reassuring.
But Earth's evil scientists worried them immensely. The most prominent was naturally Luthor from this incident. Vast wealth plus a brilliant mind had nearly destroyed Earth.
However, to counterbalance superhero power, they tacitly agreed not to mention executing Luthor. Even uncontrolled intelligence was something they wanted to keep as a trump card.
Amanda soon left the room. Several more people entered for questioning, including the current President.
Unlike video conferences, face-to-face questioning revealed much more.
"What should our next response be?" After the questioning, the elder turned to the others.
"Absorb the Queen family into our circle. Moira wants to be President? Let her. As long as she joins us, her daughter and the daughter's confidant can work for us." The old woman presented an idea she'd long considered.
Everyone fell silent. The presidency held no attraction for them, but accepting a new family meant carving out significant interests from their respective domains, which made them reluctant.
Of course, they had another option: absorb Bruce Wayne into this circle. Batman's true identity wasn't hard to discover; they just had more concerns.
Moira was a politician who could communicate with them, enabling interest exchanges. Batman was purely a superhero—if he objected to certain things and flipped the table, the consequences would be severe.
Whether to deal with superheroes or superhero mothers wasn't a difficult choice.
Sexism played a role too. Not knowing about Thea's various enhancements to her mother, they generally felt middle-aged woman Moira was easier to handle than Batman, who knew 127 fighting styles.
As they reached preliminary agreement and departed, Thea—watching the live video through military networks—felt quite pleased.
As she'd once told the "non-existent" Sebastian, without family and friend constraints, doing bad things would be far too easy.
Different technological levels made humanity's current methods an open book to her. Gideon had long controlled military network permissions. During this Doomsday battle, Gideon had rewritten some of Red Tornado's code. This military prototype now answered to her.
These power brokers thought their actions were covert. In reality, from the meeting's start, Thea had been silently watching.
The result matched her estimates. With herself, Diana, and possibly Green Arrow as heavy weights, Moira's ascent now faced no obstacles. Barring major scandals, the White House would definitely need to prepare a bedroom for her in two years.
Over the next few days, Thea was swamped with miscellaneous matters.
Metropolis had suffered heavy damage again. Previously, at least Luthor Corp shared the burden. Now she was the only major corporation left.
Money had long lost meaning to her. Though she didn't need to stand on a mountaintop shouting about recognition or becoming Hokage, ordinary citizens' gratitude generated willpower she urgently needed.
It was the same routine as previous years: no housing, build housing; no food, distribute free food; injured people received the best treatment.
Oliver essentially left the construction group she'd assigned him on autopilot. Thea didn't stand on ceremony, directly commandeering construction teams to build emergency housing.
Metropolis citizens had experience. Whether from Superman's battle with Zod eighteen months ago or subsequent "small-scale" battles targeting Superman, including this three-women-versus-Doomsday fight, many had hidden in basements at the first sign of trouble. After sunrise, they emerged. Mostly property damage.
Some sharp-eyed people thought Thea resembled the sword-wielding woman from that day, but she neither confirmed nor denied. She wasn't thick-skinned enough to stand in the spotlight accepting everyone's worship. Diana also disliked disrupting daily life. Both chose low profiles.
Supergirl wanted to show off but was lectured by Superman—something about hiding identities, living normal lives. The poor girl pitifully returned to school with her dorky glasses.
Before Luthor was transferred to a secret facility, Thea decided to visit once.
Wearing prison garb with a shaved head, Luthor seemed more spirited than before, sitting energetically in his cell awaiting something.
"You're looking well." The invisible Thea simply walked out.
Luthor wasn't surprised by her sudden appearance. He even looked behind her and pursed his lips. "Superman doesn't have that ability. Is this your divine race's power?"
She'd only intended to check on him, but she hadn't expected new information. Thea's tone intensified. "Divine race? Why specifically use that term?"
Their eyes met. Luthor pondered long before speaking. "I'm not you—I don't have many alien friends. I only deduce from known clues."
Thea nodded, signaling him to continue.
"There's a divine race in the universe—or two?" Luthor carefully watched Thea's eyes but found nothing. "One side provided me with much of Doomsday's key technology. If I'm not mistaken, you're from the other side? I just can't understand why you're focused on Earth. What do you need here?"
Thea fell silent. Through guesswork and speculation, Luthor had constructed something close to the truth from mere fragments of information. This man's intelligence was truly extraordinary.
As for Luthor calling Thea part of a divine race—she knew her own situation. She was quite pleased with that.
After consideration, this wasn't unspeakable. She spoke: "Earth's significance is enormous, far beyond imagination. As for the divine race matter, I can only say you're correct. There are indeed two divine races. We call them New Gods. One is righteous, one evil. The evil New God likely taught you that knowledge."
"You do know quite a bit. Why did they teach me to create Doomsday?" This question had long puzzled Luthor. Initially, he thought they had ill intentions, but no matter how he verified, the knowledge was genuine, and Doomsday was created as expected.
Beyond landing himself in prison, Luthor saw no benefit to them. Without any clues, his high intelligence was useless. Having caught Thea, this "insider," he had to ask.