After Thea "sent off" her guest, she immediately summoned Deathstroke and Poison Ivy, having them take three hundred mercenaries and rush to Switzerland in advance, to the Cult of the Cold Flame headquarters deep in the Alps.
As contact with A.R.G.U.S. grew more frequent, quite a lot of black-tech equipment was secretly requisitioned under the committee's name.
That's right—cautious as ever, Thea had made two sets of preparations. The probability of the other side being reasonable and answering every question was practically nonexistent.
What remained was beating them into submission. If they harbored resentment, then directly wipe them out. A group of cultists—no matter how you looked at it, they'd be no help whatsoever in Earth's future crises.
If their magic was lacking and attacks weak, then simply crush them.
If their magic was strange and hidden, then use black technology to forcefully push through!
Near the end of the workday, her assistant reported, "There's a gentleman named Barry Allen who wants to see you."
Thea didn't know that Oliver had already told Barry quite a lot about her. She only felt it strange he'd come to see her for no reason. "Let him in."
Three minutes later, the somewhat familiar Barry Allen greeted Thea. It had to be said—this man truly had charisma.
Not physical charisma, but his temperament was exceptionally outstanding.
Thea had seen quite a few superheroes. Barry's temperament was like that of a sunny, good-natured guy.
Different from Superman's sunshine. Superman had that radiant presence. In Luthor's own words, he was like God walking among humans—you'd never think he also ate, slept, chatted, or joked about trivial things. All you could feel was his all-encompassing presence.
Barry was much more approachable than Superman. After just a few sentences of casual conversation, the distance between them greatly reduced.
"I heard Ollie say you're responsible for the alien project. Is that true? Do aliens really exist?" Feeling the small talk was sufficient, Barry finally reached his main topic.
Thea was slightly startled. She hadn't expected him to focus on aliens. What if his passion got the better of him and he piloted an alien spaceship into space searching for his mother's killer—would this timeline still be salvageable?
She had to dispel this idea. Thea absolutely didn't want to face hundreds or thousands of Reverse-Flashes in the temporal cracks.
Thea rotated her office computer one hundred eighty degrees. "These are the seven alien races that have currently landed on Earth. I can't tell you where they're settled."
"Their bodily composition, blood concentration, living habits—we've done some rough statistics. You can take a look."
Barry Allen took the computer without even stopping to thank her and examined it carefully.
Though he couldn't compare with Batman or Luthor, his knowledge was broad, and reading the data posed no difficulty.
The more he read, the more he frowned. Barry felt these aliens were ridiculously weak. Judging from the data, some aliens' physical strength wasn't even as good as Earth humans. This was far from the flying-through-the-sky, burrowing-into-the-earth beings he'd imagined.
"Dr. Queen, do you think there could be a kind of alien that transcends physical constraints, moving like lightning?"
Thea waved her hand broadly. "You're friends with my brother—just call me Thea. As for your question, I can only say it's impossible."
"The body is fundamental. No matter how tiny a lifeform is—even microorganisms—they're still tangible. We live in a material world. This is the conclusion reached by countless generations of human scientists. Please don't question it."
Looking at Thea's serious expression, Barry—also a scientific researcher—felt deep respect. This was true scholarly bearing. For a moment, he felt he'd been overthinking things.
In truth, Thea was secretly complaining. As a magic user, she was impersonating a scientist and passionately extolling modern science's might. She had no choice—something like the Speed Force violated physical laws. Forget her explaining it; even if Newton were dragged out, he wouldn't make sense of it.
"As for the lightning you mentioned, that violates physical laws even more. 'Fast as lightning' is just a figure of speech. That speed is far too great—air friction alone makes it impossible. So the situation you described isn't caused by aliens."
"You need to have confidence. Aliens aren't stronger than us. The aliens currently on Earth—without our aid, not one would survive. Don't believe the nonsense in movies. You subconsciously place aliens in a dominant position. That's incorrect."
To completely extinguish Barry Allen's thoughts, Thea disparaged aliens to worthlessness. In her words, those hundreds of thousands of aliens were no different from refugees—give them food when you're happy, kick them a few times when you're not.
Barry was somewhat stunned. Aliens were really this weak? Though kind by nature, his identity as an Earth human still gave him pride. Hearing Thea praise Earth humans as invincible didn't provoke any resentment.
Feeling his doubts were resolved, he directly took his leave and departed.
After impersonating a believer in the Church of Science for half the day and successfully fooling Barry Allen away, Thea returned to handling other matters.
The European trip—she didn't know how many days it would take. Committee affairs could be handled anytime.
As for the few tough guys in Star City, she still needed to make preparations.
One portable energy-defense ring per person. Activating the switch could withstand one full M4A1 magazine or three rifle grenades.
Tommy returned poisoned and took the lesson to heart. Though he hadn't figured out where this divine blood and genetic optimization fluid came from, he obediently began the injections.
Afraid they might suffer severe injuries and she couldn't treat them in time, she also prepared one healing arrow for each. The arrow shafts contained large amounts of nutrients and a small dose of adrenaline. Poisoned, gravely injured—no matter what—stab themselves with one arrow. Complete restoration might be too much to say, but at least they could run back on their own.
Two days later, Thea activated the high-level invisibility spell on the Sword of Merlin and arrived alone in Switzerland, rendezvousing with Deathstroke and the others.
Papa Midnite ultimately couldn't resist the temptation of power and put on the imitation Lantern Ring.
Emotional energy helped him clear out excess magical impurities in his body. On the surface, his total magic seemed reduced by one-third, but in reality his magic application became far more flexible. Many witchcraft techniques that previously required finesse could now be cast directly. His strength had increased significantly.
"Not bad. How are our people doing?" Thea glanced at Papa Midnite, nodded in approval, then turned to ask Deathstroke.
Infiltrating other people's territory to kill and burn was Deathstroke's specialty. With many years as a mercenary, he'd heard about the Cult of the Cold Flame. In his view, these spellcasters were nothing special—especially since the men he brought this time were all elites with top-tier weapons.
Wearing his red-and-black mask, Deathstroke's expression couldn't be seen, but his voice brimmed with killing intent.
"All ready. We can set off anytime."
"Good. Then let's go. Remember—we're here to ask questions. Pay attention to etiquette." Thea pulled Poison Ivy and Papa Midnite into the invisibility field, then looked at the more than three hundred soldiers armed to the teeth outside the tent, five sets of mechanical exoskeleton armor, and two M270 multiple rocket launchers, and said with a hint of amusement.