History books in the 25th century contained no records of Grodd's past. The Reverse-Flash, having lost his prophetic advantage, was utterly baffled. He spent the next few days monitoring news from surrounding cities, but there were absolutely no reports related to any ape-caused disturbances.
Where on earth did Grodd go? This question would linger in the Reverse-Flash's mind for many years.
Where did Grodd go? Thea had dragged him straight to an alien planet...
At this point, Grodd's body wasn't yet as massive as it would become in the future, but his mind-control abilities were already unmistakably evident. However, after days of military experimentation, he was filled with intense hostility. Thea wasn't some saintly monk; she had no time to help him work through his anger. The solution she came up with was to let him vent it out.
She found a planet with a very low civilization level. The natives seemed to have evolved from insects and wielded only stone weapons. Grodd, now two meters tall and possessing mind control, easily wiped out a settlement.
"This is fun!" Grodd communicated via telepathy.
"If it's fun, keep playing. I'll come pick you up in a few days." Thea also possessed telepathic abilities, though using them didn't come as naturally to her as it did to him.
Leaving Grodd to wreak havoc on the aliens, Thea returned to Star City to give an exclusive interview to the Daily Planet.
Dressed in a black blazer paired with black flared trousers and pointed high heels, wearing plain glasses, she exuded a quiet and dignified aura. No one would associate her with the person who, just ten minutes ago, had thrown an evil psychic gorilla out to slaughter primitive aliens.
"Hello, Miss Queen. I'm Lois Lane, and this is my assistant, Jimmy Olsen. Thank you so much for accepting our exclusive interview amidst your busy schedule."
Wearing a white shirt and beige coat, the black-haired Lois Lane was very professional. She didn't seem angry about Thea using her father's name to decline the interview previously. After introducing herself, she introduced the young photographer beside her, Jimmy Olsen.
Thea nodded in acknowledgment. Fellow student Clark Kent was still traveling the world searching for his personal worth; it would be some time before he put on those dorky glasses and went to work at the Daily Planet.
The meeting was pleasant enough, but after just a few sentences, Thea knew they definitely wouldn't be friends. Their personalities were too different. Perhaps Laurel Lance or Barbara Gordon could chat with her, but for Thea, it was impossible.
The interview process was depressing. Lois Lane's questions were extremely sharp. Right off the bat, she threw out questions about the dark history of Queen Consolidated's rise—unpaid wages, shoddy goods, disregarding state and city laws and regulations—a whole laundry list of issues. Those who knew better knew it was an exclusive interview; those who didn't would think it was a struggle session.
Is this little brat here to pick a fight?! If it weren't for her dad being a General in the Department of Defense and her future boyfriend-husband being Superman, the grass on this reckless fool's grave would be three feet high by now!
But with the photographer still shooting on the side, throwing a fireball or having Deathstroke fly over to chop her down wasn't appropriate. Thea could only patiently deal with the various questions.
Wasn't it just passing the buck? The workers were temporary hires; the shoddy goods were from downstream contractors. As for state laws and regulations? We are a global conglomerate; we only respect the Federal Constitution. Thea poured out her grievances, handling the questions by avoiding the substantial and dwelling on the trivial.
"Miss Queen, the outside world is generally puzzled by the merger of Queen Consolidated and the Merlyn Global Group. As far as I know, there isn't much business interaction between your two families, and there isn't much overlap in operations. What facilitated the union of your two families?" Lois Lane, unsatisfied with many of her answers, finally threw out a heavyweight question.
What could Thea say? That it was a gift from her dad? That definitely couldn't be said. That the few people controlling the nation's lifeline behind the scenes wanted her to deal with LexCorp? That couldn't be mentioned either.
Fortunately, she was prepared for this question. Starting from the traditional friendship between the two families, she rambled on about a new era and adapting to new changes, talking in circles for a long time without really saying anything. However, she didn't completely talk nonsense; Thea dropped a piece of news at the very end of the interview.
"In the near future, we will integrate the technological achievements of the two original groups to launch a tech product that concerns every ordinary household."
"Can you reveal in advance what field it's in?"
"I can only say that everything is still in the laboratory testing stage, but it will be available soon. It is a medical product."
Lois Lane's pen, which was taking shorthand, paused. Are you kidding me? Isn't Queen an energy company and Merlyn a shipping giant? How can two such unrelated companies produce a cutting-edge medical breakthrough after a merger?
Facing Lois Lane's slightly suspicious look, Thea chose to ignore it. She was helpless too. Queen Consolidated's urban development would play a significant role in future wars, so that could be kept. New energy development required many experiments and was still in small-scale application. Merlyn's shipping business was definitely a sunset industry, reaching a critical period where immediate transformation was necessary—one of the reasons Malcolm let go so readily was that it was too much trouble.
Leaders of other conglomerates looking for new economic growth points could only travel around the globe, trying to find a new product to reverse the decline. Thea's advantage over them was that the area she could choose from was much larger—she could run around the entire universe! Seeing something good, she could just grab it and "borrow" it. Those aliens weren't going to run to the US Supreme Court to sue her.
She inadvertently found a widely applicable body repair device on a planet inhabited by intelligent life. She brought the product and the manual back to Earth. The Ring could translate the manual's text, and Gideon could analyze the device's principles. Processing of preliminary samples had already begun.
The lifeforms on that planet were very fragile, and their bodies often needed repair. Usually, they would scan their bodies in a standard, healthy state. If injured or sick, it was like a computer's one-click restore: cut off the excess parts, fill in the missing ones!
Earthlings certainly couldn't do that, but the alien repair technology was genuinely excellent. Used in surgery, it would save a lot of time. The patient would lie inside a two-meter-long capsule for a scan, while external personnel controlled the incision, debridement, and suturing—the whole process was incredibly efficient. It was perfectly suited for American citizens living in dire straits, visited daily by alien villains, where bombs and poison gas flew together, and fire danced with black mist.
Sending away Lois Lane, who had scooped a big news story, Thea went to the group's Applied Sciences Division. With the merger of the two groups, there were hundreds of researchers. After a few months of initial adjustment, these research types who only knew how to work in labs were actually the first team to integrate.
Dr. Hoffman was still in the Red Room, so Thea called over the Deputy Director. "Are there any issues with the operation of the Medical Pod?"
The Deputy Director was a student brought up by that old man Hoffman and had inherited his serious and rigid style. "Everything is going smoothly. The vital signs of the recruited clinical trial subjects are good. We can begin the first surgery with the Medical Pod at any time."