The best way to learn is to have someone to measure yourself against. Shado had a good foundation, plus being an adult, she grasped various knowledge—especially some Eastern martial arts—very quickly. Damian's strength lay in his high starting point; his physical fitness was increasing every day. Whether it was Ra's al Ghul, Batman, or Thea, their martial arts could be said to be passed down from the same lineage. Everyone trained him along the same line, so he absorbed their teachings extremely quickly; he was catching up to Shado at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Alright, take a rest for a while..." Thea interrupted their sparring match. On the surface, Shado still held the advantage, but Damian had quite a few strange tricks. He could maintain a stalemate within thirty moves; past thirty moves, he couldn't hold on.
"Thea! Come look quickly!" Felicity's shout interrupted their teaching session.
Just as Thea was about to reply, her personal phone rang. Picking it up, she saw it was her old acquaintance, General Lane. Answering the call, before she could even make a sound, the old general on the other end roared like a machine gun, "Please come to the Department of Defense at the fastest speed! Immediately! Right now! Fastest speed!"
The old general hung up right after speaking, but in that short communication time, she could hear the other side was extremely noisy, like a vegetable market, with countless voices discussing and arguing.
"What happened?" Thea muttered in a low voice. General Lane's dream of becoming Secretary of Defense had been shattered; perhaps his reputation for human experimentation was truly too bad. The one who took over as Secretary was a General who had commanded multiple US military campaigns, General Swanwick.
"An unidentified flying object is approaching Earth! Queen Consolidated's satellites have already detected the opponent entering lunar orbit." Fortunately, Felicity provided the answer.
Aliens are coming? Thea's first reaction was that aliens were coming to demand an explanation from her. Things like "borrowing" the medical pod, throwing an evil gorilla out to plague other people's planets—she had truly done quite a few "good deeds" recently.
But how is that possible! Thea coughed twice, instructed them to watch the house, then put on the Yellow Lantern Ring and flew alone toward the Department of Defense.
Entering the Secretary's office, she found there weren't many people, but Thea knew them all. The new Secretary, General Swanwick, several generals led by Sam Lane, as well as Amanda Waller and the Martian Manhunter disguised as the Director of the D.E.O.
"What's the matter?" Everyone in this room knew her identity, so Thea took off her mask and asked the new Secretary sitting at the head.
The new Secretary was a black general. Thea had never spoken to him before. When he opened his mouth, his voice was extremely powerful, without any sloppiness.
"Five minutes ago, a ship from an extraterrestrial civilization entered lunar orbit. They demanded we hand over an alien hiding on Earth. I think you are the person on Earth who understands aliens best. How do you think we should respond?" General Swanwick had a bit of a headache. Running into this kind of mess right after taking office couldn't even be described as mere bad luck. Fortunately, he knew of Thea and hurriedly called her over to give ideas.
Thea scratched her head a little. There are too many aliens on Earth; which one are you looking for? Not to mention distant ones, there was one standing right in this room!
She chose her words carefully. "Mr. Secretary, did the other party say which planet they are from? Do they have a name?"
Several people in the room recalled for a moment. "The opponent didn't say which planet, only mentioning that the leader is called General Zod." It was her old acquaintance Amanda who answered her question.
General Zod... Thea inexplicably let out a long breath. This definitely isn't coming for me. She wanted to ask the Martian Manhunter for his opinion, but the Pentagon, including many important buildings of A.R.G.U.S., was installed with black technology products that prevented X-ray vision and mind control. Her telepathy was completely ineffective here.
Thinking about it, there didn't seem to be anything she couldn't say. "I've heard the name General Zod. He should be a Kryptonian. Krypton is 27.1 light-years away from Earth. Their planet exploded more than 30 years ago. Some say the planet's lifespan ended, some say high-level artificial intelligence invaded, and others say the Entropy of Krypton caused the big bang..."
Thea was counting on her fingers, listing several reasons for Krypton's destruction for him, but the black Secretary hurriedly interrupted her. He didn't care who blew up the opponent's planet; he only wanted to know how high their military force was.
"Miss Queen, your knowledge is truly extensive; I am very gratified... but what I want to ask is, does the opponent have thoughts of conquering Earth?"
"As far as I know, General Zod was a stubborn pro-war faction member back on their planet. He has conquered and destroyed many civilized planets, believing in the law of the jungle. He is a battle-hardened general who's won more than his share of wars." Thea didn't hide it and said what she knew.
General Swanwick's heart went cold halfway upon hearing this. Because he dealt with Iraqis and Afghans using the law of the jungle himself, putting himself in their shoes, it wasn't hard to guess the opponent's thoughts.
His mind was in knots, but he still pretended to be very calm. "Can we negotiate with them? We don't have to achieve anything, but at least we should make our stance clear."
Thea pursed her lips. What intentions? Isn't it just surrendering? Pretending to be righteous, she said, "I'm willing to make a trip, but you'd best send someone with me too. I can only act as a driver and translator; I can't represent the country."
Holy crap! You make too much sense. The high officials in this room, usually representing this and that, all shrank back now that it was time for them to represent the country.
Are you kidding! Running straight onto an alien spaceship to negotiate? Even their ashes wouldn't come back, right? Those who usually clamored about how powerful they were all lost their voices, each lowering their head, terrified of being called upon to go to their deaths.
General Swanwick also had a headache. The President had already hidden in a bunker, handing full authority over external affairs to him. He still had to command the scene; logically speaking, he shouldn't go.
His gaze scanned the room. No one dared to meet his eyes. A.R.G.U.S. and the D.E.O. weren't qualified to represent the country either. After several thoughts, "I will go with you."
"Secretary, don't!"
"Secretary, please reconsider!"
Several people advised him softly, but not a single person shouted "I'll go!" Each pretended to be extremely worried, but their originally tense bodies all relaxed.
Even Thea looked at him sideways. Without exchanging blows, she wasn't sure if she could deal with those few Kryptonians, but running away was no problem. Whether it was the Power Armor, the Lantern Ring, or opening a portal, she could definitely escape.
But all of this highlighted the courage of this new Secretary. The severity of the situation forcing him into a corner was one aspect, but his own decisiveness was another.
However, running away with this guy would be very troublesome. Thea glanced unobtrusively at the Martian Manhunter and found this guy pretending as if nothing was happening. Actually, teaming up with him plus Superman, they could definitely go hard against the Kryptonians for a round. But looking at him, he seemed unwilling to expose his identity.
"Do I need to wear a spacesuit? Do you think I need to bring a pistol?" The Secretary was almost giving his last words. While asking Thea, he instructed his secretary that if he didn't return, to give the items in his office to his wife.