It was no exaggeration to say that very few superheroes had happy families. Superman, Batman—could they be considered pure of heart? What about Green Arrow? Thea even felt she could be included in that list!
The old Wizard Shazam felt he had found his heir. Through a simple ritual, he handed over the divine power entrusted to him by the gods—along with the burden of protecting the world he had imagined himself—to a kid with no real-world experience.
No life lessons were imparted. Thea suspected the old man himself didn't have much life experience, nor did he teach the use of magic. As a result, Shazam could only swing his fists and brawl with Superman. In short, the old Wizard didn't care about anything. Like checking a box on a list, he shoved a bewildered Billy Batson out the door.
After that, Billy Batson acted like a kid let loose, cheerfully showing off everywhere. His immature mind led him to do a pile of stupid things, getting carried away until he drew Black Adam's attention.
Billy, never learning his lesson, recklessly shared his divine power with his friends. He even granted power to his pet, a tiger from the zoo.
A tiger that could use magic. Thea didn't know what the gods thought of this scene, but she felt it was a colossal joke.
Absorbing that abused divine power for myself... I'm practically doing a public service, Thea thought. Billy Batson was just a child; the burden of protecting the world was not something he could bear.
Thea felt she had never been so righteous. She ordered Poison Ivy to maintain contact with Billy Batson and collect as many voice samples as possible.
Carrying quite a few gene samples, Thea traveled to a planet somewhat similar to Earth. If Deathstroke was responsible for the black-ops intel on Earth, then Faora was in charge of information in the nearby star systems.
During the days following General Zod, Faora had been responsible for contacting various aliens and collecting resources. Now, Thea tasked her with gathering intelligence and building their own force.
Faora was extremely skilled at these things. Grodd had also sent many mind-controlled soldiers from the planet he dominated. Coupled with Faora's high-tier combat power, she had already established a foothold on nearby planets.
"Clone an Earthling?" Faora took the gene sample, a bit puzzled. But her character never questioned orders; she only executed them.
"Collect deep-sea behemoths within our sphere of influence; I want to run some experiments. Also, gather some plants to send to Poison Ivy on Earth."
Earth's sea beasts couldn't be touched for now, but Thea wondered if alien sea beasts could also be controlled by the scepter.
The task Thea gave Faora was the heaviest. The range of materials to collect spanned from artificially synthesized clean energy to plants, animals, and rare metal deposits.
Thea herself possessed abundant knowledge of Kryptonian gene modulation. The modified cloning device was fully adapted to human physiology. Unlike Lex Luthor, who needed ten years to clone Superman because Superman's genes were too powerful, Billy Batson was currently just an ordinary human.
Thea's standards were low. She didn't need the clone to have high intelligence; she just needed it to be able to shout "SHAZAM" when the time came.
"The clone doesn't need intelligence. The voice reproduction must meet the standards of the samples sent by Poison Ivy. The higher the match, the better," Thea instructed Faora again before turning back to Earth.
...
"Earth-aligned mana is really hard to find."
The Shazam matter was a long-term plan. Thea had another imminent issue to solve: her own earth-affinity problem.
Achieving full affinities, absorbing massive amounts of mana, and becoming a god in one fell swoop—that was her goal. Lacking one element always felt incomplete.
Originally, she had no leads. But seeing the Trident, combined with her memories and many records, she had found her target.
That was Diana's half-brother, the Hercules of human mythology. According to various ancient texts, he was undoubtedly an Earth-aligned deity.
Hercules hadn't fallen in the Twilight of the Gods; instead, he was trapped in a different dimension. The key to opening that dimension was the Trident.
Ten thousand years ago, Atlantis on land allied with the Greek Gods to fight against the First Born (descendants of ancient giants). They joined forces to drive the First Born into a desolate dimension. But the enemy resisted fiercely. At the critical moment, Hercules walked into that world and closed the door from the other side.
This hero of humanity, this warrior of Olympus, chose to sacrifice himself. His ideals were absolutely noble, and his purpose was great.
But ten thousand years had passed. Fighting alone against numerous First Born in that dimension, his mind had fallen into madness. The noble ideals no longer existed; only hysterical madness remained.
In Thea's mind, the plan was simple: Form a party, pull the boss, start the raid, absorb divinity.
Thea felt that if she called enough people, it wasn't impossible to brute-force Hercules. But now, with Diana's relationship in the mix, this matter became difficult.
From "kill him" to "capture him and restore his sanity," the difficulty level jumped up several steps instantly. Thea would have to spend countless favors to get this done. At the very least, she had to call Martian Manhunter, who usually stayed on the sidelines, to help.
In the original timeline, a doctor studying Atlantis stole the Trident and opened the seal. Thea didn't plan to interfere with this event. When Hercules was released, the First Born sealed with him would all escape. The implications were too great; no single hero's reputation could shoulder that kind of fallout.
Thea instructed Deathstroke to find that archaeology doctor, secretly provide financial support, accelerate his research speed, and encourage him to excavate more Atlantean ruins.
The gene serum formulated for her parents had entered the late testing stage. Deathstroke found many loyal subordinates to inject it. The response was excellent; everyone who injected it felt reborn.
"Any side effects?" Thea asked Deathstroke beside her. Through the monitor, they were watching a mercenary injected with the serum performing a truck-lifting act.
Thea didn't care how much power this thing could bring to humans. Longevity and zero side effects—that was her positioning for the serum.
"No symptoms of side effects seen so far. Everyone's mental state is about the same as before, except for some excitement and insomnia," Deathstroke answered cautiously, weighing every word.
Thea looked at his expression and spoke casually. "Afraid these people will surpass you? Don't worry. These are just the basic serums. I've already prepared a few bottles of the advanced formula. If they show no side effects, you can inject it too. The serum's effect will directly override the Mirakuru you injected before."
"Your leadership position won't change. I trust you very much. After all, you're my brother's 'friend', right?"
Thea laughed and walked out of the basement, leaving a speechless Deathstroke behind.