It was a good gun—excellent performance in every aspect.
But the person holding it… Thea kept studying Harley Quinn, wondering whether she should snap her neck or just shoot her in the head.
Forget it.
A woman is still a woman—no need to make things hard for each other.
Maybe she was salvageable.
Thea dropped the idea of killing Harley outright and silently exerted her mental power to try brainwashing her.
But for the first time ever, her foolproof spell encountered resistance.
Harley actually fought back against her psychic intrusion.
Now that was new.
Thea increased her power output. At first, the magic slipped in smoothly—but a moment later, a violent wave of mental backlash slammed into her. The two forces clashed evenly.
In the end, Thea withdrew her magic, afraid she might accidentally fry Harley's brain with the struggle.
This lunatic actually held her ground through sheer insanity.
Thea had never seen something so… un-magical.
Her curiosity rose.
But Harley's face twisted in agony. The mental battle inside her head must've been excruciating.
If she could resist, then Joker's mental resistance must be even stronger, right?
Thea sighed.
Fine. One free pass today.
She'd find a few mental patients in Star City to study when she got the chance.
She flipped the gun and knocked Harley out with the butt of it.
Freeing Damian from his ropes, she tossed Harley's gun to him. "For self-defense."
Then she contacted the Batcave.
"Barbara, the kid is safe. What's Batman's status? Does he need backup?"
Before Barbara could respond, Batman's voice cut in:
"Just head back. I'm almost done!"
Gunshots and the sound of fists hitting flesh echoed through the comm link.
Clearly, he wasn't "almost done" at all.
Ah, the eternally prideful Batman…
If he said he didn't need help, fine.
His relationship with Joker was too complicated anyway.
Thea slung Harley across the back of her board and turned to Damian.
"Kid, you afraid of heights?"
"You—you! Don't look down on me! My grandfather is the Demon's Head!"
Despite being impressed by her bizarre abilities, Damian still grumbled in indignation.
"Yeah yeah, I know. Get on and stand still. Don't move."
Thea cut off his bragging and placed him in front of her.
Demon's Head, my ass—if he didn't have the Three-Palace Demon behind him, I'd have taken him apart long ago.
With that thought, she took Damian and slowly flew out of the plant.
The sight of corpses everywhere startled Damian.
"You're really my father's ally? He doesn't kill."
Each corpse bore a fatal, precise death wound — no hesitation in the execution.
Already undergoing training with the League of Assassins, Damian recognized a clean kill.
But he couldn't understand how Thea killed them — no blades, no blood splatter, nothing left behind.
"I'm not his subordinate, and I'm not from Gotham. He doesn't control me."
Thea didn't bother explaining her bloody history here — the seven-in, seven-out massacre at Arkham, the piles of bodies, the screams.
Batman didn't say much back then either.
If he sent her to save someone, he clearly accepted her methods.
And besides, she didn't kill everyone.
The unconscious, named villain was still strapped on the back of her board.
Once they left the factory, Thea cast an air shield on Damian to protect him from the wind while flying at high speed.
As for Harley — her body seemed tougher than the average human anyway. She'd survive.
The board was fast. In just twenty minutes, they were back at the Batcave.
Hearing Batman was still "finishing up," Thea handed Harley over to Barbara. Whatever happened next to Harley was their business.
Thea changed back into her regular clothes and borrowed the Batcave's network to quickly deal with some work.
As the CEO of Queen Industries, she rarely had free time.
Everyday nonsense piled up endlessly.
To avoid disappointing Moira, she forced herself to keep working.
Luckily, her divine upgrade massively boosted her intellect and perception. She handled official matters in fragmented moments, barely cutting into her training.
Six-year-old Damian might be mentally mature, but being suddenly dropped into an unfamiliar environment surrounded by strangers was unsettling. He clung to composure but remained tense.
Barbara was focused on Batman's fight.
Jason Todd saw Thea return and hid as far away as possible. Neither of them bothered with Damian.
Old Gordon, on the other hand, fussed over him like a grandfather—
"Are you hungry? Want some water?"
—much to Damian's irritation.
Then he saw Thea in her civilian attire — a sleek, elegant urban beauty — and froze.
He didn't want to admit it, but he was stunned.
She was beautiful.
Slowly, he walked over to her, pretending to glance casually at the documents on her laptop.
"You're an employee of Wayne Enterprises? You're… very diligent."
Thea almost laughed.
"For the last time — I'm not your father's subordinate. My company may not be as big as Wayne Enterprises, but the gap isn't that large. Not just anyone can hire me."
"…Do you accept being hired?"
Damian asked quietly.
Thea paused, finally turning her full attention on him.
What was this kid implying?
"You want to hire me? I'm not exactly short on money—"
Her words were cut off by urgent footsteps.
"Thea! Come quickly! She fell into a chemical acid vat!"
It was Batman's voice — tense, shaken, unlike his usual calm.
Something enormous had happened.
Thea snapped her laptop shut and rushed over.
The moment she reached him, the smell hit her — a harsh, corrosive chemical stench.
Batman's suit was stained with unknown substances, but he didn't care.
His entire focus was on the woman in his arms.
The broken, melted figure…
Talia?
Thea glanced at Damian trailing behind.
His fists were clenched so tight his knuckles turned white, his little face stiff as he fought desperately not to cry.
Talia?
Thea looked again.
Though the chemical burns were severe, she could still faintly recognize the woman who had once battled her for eighty rounds.
"Thea, she's badly hurt. Can you keep her alive?"
Batman was completely unhinged. His usual calm vanished. He kept injecting syringe after syringe into Talia, trying to keep her heart beating.
"Let me."
Thea pushed him gently aside and activated the Eye of Horus to its fullest, scanning her body for every toxic and corrosive substance destroying her systems.
What she saw was grim.
A storm of chemicals was eating through Talia's body.
If Batman hadn't been pumping her full of stabilizers nonstop…
She'd already be dead.