Huh?
For a moment, Deathstroke's mind went blank. It took a long time before he realized his auditory system wasn't malfunctioning. He glanced at Thea's face again. That's right... This appearance was exactly the same as the one appearing in various news media. As Thea's heroic rescue of Metropolis's citizens hit the news, the number of people who knew her shot up at a terrifying rate. Her face was all over newspapers, magazines, and online media.
"You are Oliver's sister?" Deathstroke asked, still somewhat uncertain.
Thea nodded. "That's right."
Deathstroke didn't speak; he lowered his head in contemplation. How did Oliver describe his sister back then? Kind, cute, obedient, innocent, and pure?
He couldn't help but tilt his head and look at Thea again. This witch in front of me doesn't have a damn thing to do with any of those words, does she?
He remembered Oliver vowing to protect his family, to protect his sister... But does this guy really need your protection? If the Earth blew up in the next second, she'd probably be the only one still standing...
Deathstroke, who had seen much of the world, couldn't help thinking one step further. Oliver definitely doesn't know his sister's capabilities. Compared to how deeply Thea hides herself, Oliver is as naive as a little white bunny. He was stranded alone on a desert island while Thea inherited the family business... Was there some hidden story behind all this?
Thea didn't know about his wild speculations. Since she'd already shown him her true face, there were some things she could finally tell Deathstroke. She spoke half-truthfully, "I went to Lian Yu to look for you that day. Unfortunately, I was delayed by some matters. By the time I got back on the island, you had already left one after another."
Hm? That was a lot to take in all at once. Deathstroke's shrewd brain spun a few times before he understood. "The person in red on Lian Yu that day was you! You were the one who took Shado!"
In his anger, the suggestion spell almost failed to suppress his emotional outburst. Deathstroke's sword was half-drawn, but his consciousness was still affected by the magic, and he automatically calmed down.
"What? Still thinking about Shado? Your daughter is about the same age as her, isn't she..." Thea sneered.
"Hmph..." Deathstroke snorted heavily. Looking back after all these years, Shado had just been a beautiful ornament in his heart. It had been pure male possessiveness, a far cry from love. If Thea hadn't mentioned her today, he would have forgotten all about her.
The two quickly moved past the old days and focused on the present.
Deathstroke might look big and rough, but he was actually frighteningly smart. Several thoughts flashed in his mind. Taken together with Thea revealing her identity, he quickly connected the dots.
"You are competing with Luthor? You think he's the one who put out the contract on you?" Having seen too many methods of these rich people, Deathstroke guessed the answer without much effort.
"Luthor's the most likely, but it could be someone else." Thea spoke indifferently. She didn't care about threats; Earth's weapons had almost no effect on her. Her only weakness was her family. If she took the gloves off, no matter how high Luthor's IQ was, he wouldn't survive a single blow from her.
"I know Lex Luthor. This man is too smart. Even if you have superpowers, you cannot underestimate him."
"Don't worry. I can roughly guess Luthor's mindset. His brilliance made him, and it'll be what destroys him. He is too arrogant; he thinks he can control everyone's fate. Hmph, it's just because I stole his thunder. In a few days, he will find his nemesis."
Thea's words were a bit cryptic. Deathstroke didn't fully understand, but he wasn't one to get to the bottom of things. "What do you need me to do? Infiltrate his inner circle to pass messages?"
"No need to do that specifically; just let nature take its course. Luthor doesn't trust anyone; there's no need to waste your time. Your task is to continue rooting deeply into the underworld and understand all the dark corners of this world."
Thea thought for a moment. "You can accept the mission to kidnap me. Just put on a show and fight a bit. As for Luthor, use other channels to post a mission on him too. Dead or alive."
These rich people have nothing better to do than act out plays for others to see! As a mercenary, Deathstroke grumbled internally about this, but he still agreed.
Three days after their conversation ended, Thea was attacked. In the following days, she encountered two more consecutive attacks. During the third attack, Deathstroke personally took action but was repelled by John Diggle, who was wielding a simple freeze gun.
Thea was attacked, and Luthor didn't have it easy either. He was attacked by gunmen four times within a week. The last time, the mercenary Deadshot, who had once fought alongside Thea against the Enchantress, couldn't resist the temptation of money. He took action personally, sniping at Luthor's long-haired head from a distance, but the bullet was blocked by a layer of transparent energy shielding.
The underworld subsequently withdrew both missions simultaneously. Both sides had exposed some technology-side equipment. As to whether it was active or passive, only they knew.
Luthor, just as Thea predicted, quickly shifted his gaze. Ordinary business wars really didn't interest him much. He set his sights on the superhero who had recently risen in Metropolis: Superman. The two were still destined to end up on a collision course. Because of the Superman-Zod battle, the spaceship had destroyed his iconic tower. His conceit mixed jealousy, dissatisfaction, and fear with hatred.
As for Thea, because she was too busy and "certain people" signaled her to stop while she was ahead, she took the hint and withdrew the bounty. She poured all her spare energy into studying the Kryptonian Genetic Configuration Map.
"Vast" and "bottomless" barely began to describe the data set. In the movie, Luthor sneaking around and creating Doomsday using Zod's corpse was simply nonsense. The odds of finding the Ancient Kryptonian Super-Biological Cell data invented by scientists in such a massive amount of data were less than one in ten billion.
Thea searched for Doomsday's data with a clear purpose. Gideon, coordinating with the supercomputer, took a full two days to find it in an inconspicuous corner.
Luthor was very smart, possessing a so-called 9th-Level Intellect, but that referred to his IQ. But when it came to sheer processing power, he couldn't even begin to compare to an AI.
Obviously, a higher-level figure had intervened to influence his judgment. If nothing unexpected happened, this mastermind was Darkseid's uncle, Steppenwolf.
The opponent definitely didn't teach Luthor the knowledge of Doomsday just because Luthor had a trustworthy face. There were layers upon layers of hidden agendas here. Thea couldn't see the opponent's intent for the moment. Among mortals she could steamroll almost anyone, but in the eyes of the New Gods, she still didn't quite measure up.
She needed to plan early. Kill Luthor directly? First, Luthor wasn't easy to kill. Second, if Luthor died, there would be others; there was a whole company of mad scientists on Earth. What was coming would come regardless; it wouldn't be stopped by one man's death. Thea didn't want to run away either; she wanted to see just how tyrannical these New Gods were.
Instructing Gideon to pull up all data regarding Doomsday, she wanted to study it carefully to see if there were any flaws she could exploit—or even a way to bring Doomsday under her control.