If Brainiac, whose main body was still deep in the cosmos, knew that Superman's father-in-law held it in such high regard, it would probably laugh until lubricant leaked out.
Thea didn't know what was wrong with the old man when his face suddenly turned deathly pale. She waited a few seconds, saw that he wasn't about to faint, and finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Right now, this ship is only one of many vessels it scattered across the vast universe. Its main body is still deep in space. If we seize this ship, we must intercept its outgoing communication signals. Do you understand what I mean?" Thea explained her intent.
The old man had just caught his breath—he didn't understand a damn thing.
Seeing the blank look on his face, Thea could only explain again.
"Artificial intelligence is really that powerful?" the old man asked uncertainly.
"Yes. All high-tech planets in the universe prohibit the development of artificial intelligence. I remember mentioning this to you at the Department of Defense, didn't I? We must intercept this ship's signals immediately. This step cannot be done by machines—it must be done manually, by hand, and it has to be covert. I need all hackers under military control to handle this. We can't use civilians. This must remain classified."
Only then did the old man roughly understand Thea's strategy. He figured it wouldn't be difficult—he'd already mobilized the garrison, so mobilizing a few detained hackers was hardly an issue.
After sending the old man off, Thea kept the government officials outside busy as well. Power was rationed, food and drinking water were distributed according to need—in short, everything was handled strictly according to disaster-response procedures.
Only then did Thea finally take the group of scientists, including Luthor, to tackle the anti-atomization problem. Several scientists initially refused to accept her leadership, but she stunned them by rattling off piles of theory. Luthor could at least understand forty to fifty percent; for the others, understanding ten percent already counted as having a solid theoretical foundation.
Copying The Atom's theory was fine, but applying it in practice still required overcoming many obstacles. The Atom's suit only atomized himself. It was impossible to issue everyone a suit now—everything had to be simplified based on the existing theory.
And even after returning to Earth, how to restore Metropolis to its original state would still be a major problem confronting Thea.
They worked through the entire night and finally settled on a final plan. During this process, Luthor contributed quite a few ideas. At critical moments, he was actually someone very reliable.
By dawn, the blueprints were finally completed. The scientists were utterly exhausted. Even Luthor's brilliant brain couldn't withstand an entire night of nonstop work—he lay on the floor staring blankly at the ceiling.
"These people are really in terrible shape. Tsk." Thea hadn't rested all night either, but her physical attributes were a thousand times higher than those of ordinary people. She could maintain this level of exertion for a year without rest. That was precisely why she could study so many fields at once and still achieve results in each of them.
Leaving the scientists to rest, she went outside alone to organize the collection of materials.
"You with the glasses—collect three sets of everything on this list."
"You, the bald guy in the corner—take two people and dismantle the transmitter on the rooftop across the way."
Several high-ranking officials were resting, and no one present dared disobey her orders. Countless personnel were dispatched to gather supplies.
Fortunately, Metropolis was an international metropolis. In a crisis, no one wanted to make things difficult for themselves. All requisitions and reallocations would ultimately be paid for by the government.
Thea herself didn't stay idle. She directed technicians to install equipment, debug circuits, and write control systems.
To avoid drawing suspicion, she took a half-day break midway and handed on-site operations to Luthor, who had recovered somewhat. In this world—and even in the neighboring Marvel universe—anyone who relied on technology, hero or villain alike, built their own equipment if they didn't want to expose their trump cards. All of them possessed outstanding mechanical fabrication skills.
Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne, and even Tony Stark next door were all like this. Drop any of them into some backwater country, and they'd easily qualify as top technical specialists—their mechanical expertise was well above proficient.
Thea enjoyed a good sleep. When she woke up, more than half of the equipment had already been assembled.
"Has the ground beneath our feet been drilled through?" Thea asked Diggle. Anti-atomization absolutely couldn't be carried out inside the glass dome—they had to go outside.
But they couldn't just punch through the dome at will either. The external atmosphere wasn't suitable for human survival. Even a small breach would doom tens of millions of people.
Thea's solution was to construct a massive sealed chamber at the very center of the city, then drill downward from inside—piercing through Metropolis's ground and the table where Brainiac placed its "collections."
This kind of work was Queen Group's specialty. Construction teams from across the city were requisitioned, working nonstop for a full day and night.
"The ground beneath us is drilled through, but that table still needs a bit more…" Diggle replied with a wry smile. Tens of thousands of people working in shifts, battling a single table for an entire day and night—something he never would have imagined just a day earlier.
Still uneasy, Thea went to inspect the site herself. From her perspective, it was a terrifying sight—like drilling a bottomless hole into the earth. But those in the know understood that it was really just boring a tiny hole through a wooden table.
Drilling the passage and assembling the anti-atomization device took another full day.
That night, Thea delivered another televised address. The gist was simple: the equipment was ready, and anyone willing to fight aliens to the death could report to the Daily Planet building to sign up.
At first, the citizens were thrilled to hear that the equipment was finished. But Thea's next words instantly cooled everyone down.
Are you kidding? The first people restored were supposed to fight aliens to the death? In movies, aliens looked like idiots—but in reality, no one was stupid. Aliens were definitely stronger than Earthlings.
Half a day passed. In a city of this size, only a dozen people signed up. No one fought for the chance to be restored first. Everyone preferred to let others risk their lives fighting aliens.
This suited Thea perfectly. A chaotic civilian population wouldn't follow orders anyway—sending them out would just be feeding them to the grinder. They were better off staying inside the glass dome.
She selected three hundred people from the military, the bodyguards of various dignitaries, and A.R.G.U.S. agents. With Thea leading the team, they would form the first group to go out.
Thea subtly signaled Poison Ivy and the others to blend into the crowd; she didn't bring them along on this mission. Her Eye of Horus had already confirmed that there was only a single tracked robot on the ship. In a fair fight, even Deathstroke could cut it down—there was no real danger outside.
This operation was largely for show. General Lane had provided twelve hackers at once, all mixed into the three hundred personnel. Their mission was to manually intercept any signals transmitted by the ship.
"Everyone, take care!" Three hundred people boarded three C-17s and flew from the tunnel opening toward the surface.