Thea left space for the mother and son to talk, walking outside to browse through the global intelligence Gideon had collected.
While they treated the injured, their opponents weren't moving slowly either. Such massive forces couldn't be assembled in a short time, but they were ruthless enough—directly dispatching a small squad of about a hundred to attack the surface.
These were all suicide troops whose purpose was to sacrifice their lives to ignite the flames of war between both sides.
When their warship first emerged from the sea, many citizens eagerly took photos, thinking it was some kind of game show. It wasn't until these Atlantean soldiers exited the warship and prepared to shoot the onlookers that they realized the danger.
By luck—or perhaps the attackers' misfortune—their first landing site was Gotham.
The citizens of Gotham, though unfamiliar with energy weapons, saw these strangely dressed people assume shooting stances and reflexively dodged.
As members of Gotham's extended family, even ordinary citizens seemed unusually good at dodging. Batman could slip past bullets—and even Omega Beams—like it was nothing...
The suicide troops fired frantically for quite a while, then were dumbfounded to discover they hadn't killed a single person—only a scattered few were injured.
Were surface dwellers all this formidable? Shadows fell over the suicide troops' hearts. Of course, they hadn't come here on a death wish, but rather bearing lofty virtues—at least from their perspective.
When the small squad departed, the Elder Council had boasted about conquering America in three days and subjugating the entire world within a month, returning Earth to Atlantean embrace. Now it seemed this goal might have some difficulty.
Before they could shake the dread, a vast shadow flew toward them—something that would haunt them for a long time to come.
As someone who only slept one hour per day, Batman saw strange forces entering his city and immediately opening fire without a word. He promptly drove his Batplane to the scene.
Joining forces with Batgirl and the third Robin, the three gave the hundred-plus people a thorough beating.
Death was off the table, but severe disability was inevitable. Seeing this, Thea secretly felt fortunate. Batman's no-kill principle could be vexing at times, but occasionally quite useful.
"Arthur, an Atlantean squad landed ten minutes ago. They've been neutralized." She hurried to report this "good news" to the Aquaman family.
Aquaman was somewhat dumbfounded—partly surprised by their opponents' speed, partly sharing similar thoughts with his hundred-plus crippled kinsmen: Were surface dwellers really this fierce?
"No one died. As you might know, Batman intervened to stop them." Thea thought to herself: not only stopped their evil deeds, but these people would likely spend their future lives in wheelchairs—if the ocean floor had wheelchairs.
"I must visit Batman. Their forces will keep coming in waves. Humanity needs to prepare."
Thea felt very frustrated now. Coordinating between superheroes and the government—that task undoubtedly fell to her.
Resisting their military forces required time. Aquaman's mother recovering required time. Even returning to Atlantis to set things right required time.
Numerous forces were already en route to the surface. Even if orders were changed now, there might be those obsessed with achieving merit who'd refuse to obey commands.
Thea could only first coordinate and establish humanity's defensive line. If this war inevitably required some deaths, they absolutely had to be Atlantean deaths.
After checking the Queen's injuries once more—her constitution was quite robust, but residual toxins suppressed her recovery speed—optimistically, she'd need most of a day to recover enough to return and reclaim power.
This wasn't a game. Even with health restored to full, people couldn't instantly recover! Healing spells had an upper limit. Cell growth speed couldn't be too fast—that was determined by objective laws.
The Aquaman couple had cell phones too. Thea instructed them to maintain contact at all times before teleporting herself to Gotham.
She'd visited the Batcave countless times, yet she still disliked its gloomy environment.
What puzzled her even more: no matter when she came to the Batcave, Batman always wore that outfit. Seriously, wearing a cowl in your own home—who was it for? Keeping that Kevlar suit on all day, even going to the bathroom would be troublesome...
Batman had grown accustomed to the young miss calling him and leaving at will.
He was currently studying Atlantean energy weapons. His peripheral vision glanced at Thea. "Are these enemies also connected to you?"
Thea loudly proclaimed her innocence, rattling off the entire situation front to back. But seeing Batman's expression, she knew how pale and powerless her explanation was.
"Atlanteans..." Batman had also investigated Aquaman. He even had a replica Black Manta wetsuit. He wasn't uninformed about this underwater nation.
"Anyway, that's how it is. These people..." Thea looked at the suicide troops Batman had knocked out with heavy-duty anesthetics. "These people need to be returned later. Don't go too far."
Thea's words amounted to doing her duty and leaving results to fate. Batman wouldn't give up research materials at hand. Given his personality, he'd definitely test all the Atlanteans' parameters—how much heat they could withstand, what pressure, how long they could survive in a vacuum, then measure their magnetic fields and resonant frequencies and such.
Leaving the Batcave, she went to the Kansas farm next. Superman was home with his pregnant wife. Hearing Thea's description of the situation, Superman directly stated no problem—neither harming Earth people nor killing Atlanteans, this job he could handle without pressure.
Next, Thea went around like a whirlwind visiting numerous superheroes and national leaders. Three Helicarriers, ten giant mechs, and eighty small mechs all entered combat readiness.
Atlantean advance forces had already departed from the deep sea.
Two submarines cruising in the Atlantic had suffered their attacks, but fortunately Superman arrived in time and rescued the submarines.
War clouds hung over the entire globe while ordinary citizens remained unaware.
"Rio de Janeiro, the Florida coast, Caracas... all reported enemy landings."
"Front-line forces fully assembled."
"Mech forces ready."
Numerous intelligence reports converged at the Pentagon. General Swanwick wore a sour expression as he deployed defenses. His expression looked even grimmer now. The President had basically given up, making no effort to salvage his reputation. Hearing about undersea invaders, he didn't ask for details—without a word, he hid in the basement and pushed everything onto the Department of Defense.
In a private phone call to the Secretary, the President was quite forthcoming with delegating authority, stating that even if they lost the war and needed to sign a surrender agreement, they could sign his name. He completely disregarded any historical condemnation. Just one condition: don't disturb him!
Such empty reputation—he'd long since set it aside!