After a brief chat, Lena stood to take her leave. As she pushed the door open, she nearly walked face-first into another young woman.
Neither knew the other, but the good-natured Lena still greeted her.
The two nodded to each other and passed by. Only then did Thea look toward the person at the door, somewhat surprised. "Kara? Need something?"
The troubled Supergirl looked back at Lena walking far away before slowly entering the office.
She looked around for quite a while, leaving Thea completely confused.
Not knowing what medicine she was selling, Thea sat calmly in her chair and waited.
Today Supergirl had come in regular clothes. Whether it was the Martian Manhunter, Superman, or even her adoptive mother—all demanded she keep a low profile. Low-key to the point where the consequence was her fashion sense was absolutely terrible. Even a several-thousand-dollar dress of excellent quality looked utterly tacky on her.
"Thea..." Supergirl removed her glasses and looked around, making sure the environment was safe before speaking softly.
Thea crossed her legs, waiting for her to continue.
"...Look at my ears?" After clenching her fists and making several efforts, Supergirl finally managed to speak a complete sentence.
Thea watched her sweep her hair aside, revealing her pale earlobes. Completely baffled—what was she supposed to be looking at?
Seeming to realize her behavior was a bit absurd, Supergirl explained somewhat embarrassedly, "That... that... I don't have pierced ears."
Seeing her keep touching her ears, Thea couldn't help touching her own. Why was she bringing this up out of nowhere?
"Oh my gosh, why don't you understand!" The girl grew a bit anxious. "I want to get them pierced, but... but... Earth's tools don't work..."
Holy crap. Thea finally understood! With all this beating around the bush, how was anyone supposed to know what she meant? So she wanted to get her ears pierced—she truly hadn't expected Kryptonian steel bodies had this kind of trouble.
Facing Supergirl's pitiful gaze, Thea scratched her head.
Divine bodies didn't have this problem. She could freely control every muscle and automatically generate ear piercings. Diana could do the same.
But she genuinely didn't know how to operate on Kryptonians.
She first contacted Faora, who was currently managing work at the Alien Trade Consortium, vigorously developing commerce.
The female adjutant initially thought it was something major. Hearing it was this kind of problem, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. However, she'd gotten her ears pierced on Krypton when she hadn't yet absorbed yellow sun radiation and her body was only slightly stronger than Earth humans—completely lacking Kara's current problem.
Kara had left Krypton at only twelve years old, still quite young, so she'd missed the best timing.
Now Faora couldn't think of any good solution either.
Thea went to ask Superman. Brother Clark didn't need ear piercings, but how did he handle that face full of stubble? Thea happened to call and ask.
"Shave it with heat vision?" Getting this answer, Thea was momentarily awestruck. To come up with this method, Superman must have spent considerable time training.
Thea hung up the phone and told Supergirl somewhat uncertainly, "Try heat vision! Control the temperature using mirror reflection!"
Facts proved that Supergirl was indeed a remarkable warrior. She picked up all combat-related abilities instantly.
Unfortunately, heat vision could only shave beards. Trying to pierce holes in her body—too much heat and the mirror couldn't withstand it; too little and it had no effect whatsoever.
Thea tried her own gaze next, but the effect was minimal. She was afraid that with one careless effort, she'd obliterate Supergirl's ear entirely... that sin would be enormous.
"Let's go hard. Come with me." The office wasn't suitable for such extensive work. Thea pulled Supergirl to Themyscira. Diana also heard the news and came to watch the excitement.
"Adamantium drill bit, paired with an electric drill I've added a bit of Speed Force to. Lie down here—let's try!" Thea rolled up her sleeves, put on a cap and mask, donned a white lab coat, and held the drill like a mad scientist, signaling Supergirl to lie down.
Looking at the gleaming drill in her hands, Supergirl saying she wasn't scared would be a lie. But thinking how everyone else could wear earrings and studs while she couldn't, she gritted her teeth and endured it!
Kara lay down on the stone like going to the execution ground. Thea swept up her hair, made some adjustments, aimed at her ear, and drilled down.
It had to be said—after advanced-tech modification, this drill had quite high Speed Force conversion efficiency. Combined with the inherently maximum-hardness adamantium drill bit enhanced with durability and sharpness enchantments, she still had a thirty-percent chance of drilling an ear hole...
However, reality gave her a harsh blow. The Speed Force stolen from Reverse-Flash spun frantically. Debris flew everywhere from the drill bit. Supergirl howled.
Thea thought something had happened and hurriedly stopped. Only after asking did she learn—it was just too noisy!
Sealing Supergirl's five senses and ignoring her bitter expression, Thea took the drill and went at it fiercely.
After drilling for three minutes, she finally stood up awkwardly.
The adamantium drill bit had worn away completely! Under ultra-high-speed rotation, it had turned entirely to powder. Pulling the dusty Kara upright and blowing the adamantium powder off her face, Diana and Thea looked at each other. Kara's earlobe remained small and smooth—not even a trace.
"Perhaps adamantium lacks toughness. We could try something sturdier and more resilient—dragon fangs?" Master forger Diana suggested.
A quarter-hour later, only half the dragon fang remained, while Kara's desired ear hole was still nowhere in sight. The girl seemed to know she'd caused trouble for the two big sisters and shrank her neck, not daring to speak.
Diana held her elbow and tilted her head, thinking for a long while before pulling out a dark green slender sword. "Hermes's Caduceus Blade. Even among divine artifacts, it ranks at the top, containing a trace of spatial properties."
"Good!" Thea cheerfully accepted it. Without consulting the girl's opinion, one sat on her body while the other held down her feet. From a distance it looked like they were doing something improper as they worked Kara over again.
They exhausted the two goddess sisters into sweating profusely. Perhaps that trace of spatial properties worked—they finally saw some effect. A small hole appeared in Kara's ear.
However, they celebrated too early. Before the three could even rejoice, they saw her ear hole instantly close up.
Thea's eyes went straight with anger, panting heavily. "You... you! You're forcing me to use kryptonite, is that it!"
Kara wanted to cry too. It's not like I can help having such strong healing abilities.
Kryptonite could only be talk.
Unlike Superman with his complete worldview and life philosophy who could resist kryptonite's invasion through willpower and conviction to some degree, Kara Danvers was just a young girl. What willpower did she have?
The moment Thea took out kryptonite—before even making contact—she went limp on the ground, turning into a rag doll.
If there was direct skin contact, wouldn't the poor girl die instantly?
"I'll just use my holy sword then! It can permanently wound Doomsday—piercing your ear should be quite easy!" Thea said, drawing her holy sword with a flourish.
Did it need to be such a big production? Kara looked at the gleaming greatsword, her liver quivering.
Diana gave her lover an exasperated look. "That sword isn't easy to control precisely, is it? Any scientific methods?"
"Right, right, scientific methods!" Kara nodded frantically like a pecking chicken. She was afraid the holy sword would slice her entire ear off...