"Smart girl." Thea had no idea why Steppenwolf was spouting such nonsense—all that bluster was completely unnecessary. She simply shook her head to indicate she didn't know.
"My sister is still young, you—" Luthor started, but Thea had already left.
Since Luthor wasn't entirely detestable, Thea abandoned her plan to acquire LuthorCorp wholesale after leaving the secret prison. Instead, she opted for a strategic acquisition of key departments.
LuthorCorp's situation was dire. Its liquid assets had long been drained, the chairman had committed unforgivable crimes, and the Cadmus Project—Luthor's pride and joy—had been seized by the government under twenty-six charges, including treason and crimes against humanity.
The government made grand promises about returning some of the seized assets to the Luthor family once the facts were established. Anyone with half a brain knew that was complete nonsense.
When Thea proposed acquiring portions of LuthorCorp, Luthor's mother frankly acknowledged defeat, and the two quickly hammered out an agreement.
All departments related to high-tech and new energy were bundled into Thea's acquisition, while his mother and younger sister received desperately needed funds, sparing them the tragedy of selling their home and living in hotels.
Both parties were in a hurry to complete the transaction before the government and numerous business rivals caught on.
In just three days, they finalized the deal. Thea acquired half of LuthorCorp's assets at slightly above fire-sale prices—and most of it was in the highest-tech divisions.
How his mother and younger sister would handle the vultures circling for their blood was no longer Thea's concern.
She rapidly integrated the resources, working her people to the bone as they completed departmental restructuring and new employee placement at breakneck speed. As the head of the world's undisputed number-one high-tech corporation, Thea finally launched the new plan she'd been plotting for so long.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the plan I've specifically developed for our corporation's future. To address the increasingly frequent global crises, Queen Consolidated will integrate the world's technological elite and leverage humanity's numerical advantage to create the ultimate human weapon for this new era."
As she spoke, Thea signaled her secretary to distribute the proposal to the department heads, naturally including her top lieutenant Felicity.
The secretary had nowhere else to go after Thea cured her, which was when Thea learned she'd been loyal to Luthor personally, not his family. With Luthor locked away for at least a few years, espionage was a non-issue. By the time he got out, Thea would be operating on an entirely different level—the secretary's betrayal would be meaningless.
She openly hired Ms. Macy, and the secretary slipped right back into her old role. Within two days, she'd edged out Thea's previous secretary. Thea didn't abandon her loyal subordinate of several years, though—she found her a management position in a department with real authority.
Ms. Macy now efficiently distributed documents to everyone in the conference room.
"Pacific Rim Initiative?" The department heads were somewhat stunned. The title was ambitious, to say the least.
Thea let them read while she explained. "We'll pool our current resources to build giant mechs—eighty meters tall, fifteen hundred tons, nuclear-powered, equipped with electromagnetic weapons, missiles, devastating physical weaponry, and even nuclear armaments when necessary."
"As for piloting the mechs, we'll leverage humanity's greatest advantage: our numbers. Each mech will be operated by two or three drift-compatible pilots, their neural patterns linked through the Drift to control these behemoths."
"We'll recruit pilots globally, matching and screening data, while we develop the first-generation prototype mech in-house. I expect to conduct initial testing in one month."
"Any questions?" Thea finished her overview.
Everyone in the conference room was a technical expert from the corporation, representing Earth's highest level of R&D capability in many ways. Thea's giant mechs didn't exceed current technology by much, but once operational, they would create an enormous stir.
Thea's superhero identity was somewhat half-hidden—those who knew, knew, and those who didn't were skeptical. This plan, however, came from an ordinary human perspective. Once they cracked a few technical challenges, Earth's massive population might actually give humanity a proper weapon.
"Ordinary people can control such massive robots?" Felicity asked after the meeting adjourned.
The former hacker had always been helpless against cool tech, and her eyes were practically glowing now.
"Of course! This is the best weapon I could think of!"
The announcement sent ripples across every major power. Just two hours after she announced the plan, several interested parties had already obtained the full proposal.
...
In a mansion steeped in history, several elderly men convened another meeting. "That doctor is accelerating her timeline."
This wasn't hard to see. Thea's steps had become obvious—she was aggressively pushing human civilization forward, regardless of whether people were ready.
The old men grimaced. "Looking at the plan itself, this is a good thing. If successful, we could escape our dependence on superheroes. I think... we should support it."
A dignified middle-aged man spoke up.
"Only mega-corporations or major powers can build something this massive."
"Something this large has zero stealth capacity, eliminating any possibility of private or illegal construction."
The group analyzed it from their respective positions and miraculously discovered that the Pacific Rim Initiative posed no threat to their interests—it actually offered several benefits.
Since it benefited them, their political instincts kicked in. "Support her!"
Over the next month, Thea and the entire corporation worked themselves ragged. Initially, several corporations with ulterior motives sent commercial spies to investigate cautiously, but they soon discovered Thea wasn't hiding anything at all. They stopped acting like villains and openly sent representatives to observe.
Queen Consolidated went all-in this time, building the manufacturing facility directly on the outskirts of Metropolis.
A sea of funding poured in. Thousands of tons of steel formed the primary materials as a massive steel monster gradually took shape.
Between Thea's own armor-crafting abilities and the technological reserves from her corporation and Luthor's side, she had no fear of outsiders watching the giant mech's construction. All the core technology was in her hands. From the outside, it was just an oversized toy.
Imposing her will through sheer force—that was Thea's current approach. Aside from a handful of nations, no one and no organization could compete with her in this field.
Her plan was simple: integrate global resources and build fifty of these giant mechs. That would give humanity the basic capital to engage in interstellar dialogue.
Otherwise, trying to negotiate with aliens using F-22s was simply inappropriate.
Whether humanity enters the space age or faces the Darkseid War in the future, people shouldn't be mere spectators, cowering on the sidelines while superheroes fought to the death and praying to unknown deities. They should contribute their own strength.