Despite Amanda's confident explanation, Thea's face showed nothing but disbelief.
Are you kidding me? That was the purifying light from Excalibur, the Sword of Victory and Oaths—the supreme holy sword of Celtic mythology! And now you're telling me some human scientist used technology to capture a trace of that light?
This wasn't ordinary light in any traditional sense. This was the light of wisdom, the light of will. What kind of absurd technology could possibly capture something like that?
She'd originally planned to brush Amanda off, but now Thea's curiosity was genuinely piqued. Something this bizarre demanded investigation.
Amanda needed Thea's knowledge to help her subordinate, and Thea wanted to see this extraordinary scientist for herself. The two quickly reached an agreement and headed to A.R.G.U.S. headquarters.
Waiting to greet them were Lyla Michaels and a Black man—Mist, a doctor covered in pale green mystical tattoos and wearing a bright red cape. He stood there like a sculpture, his expression solemn and humorless, not even acknowledging Amanda, his direct superior, much less Thea, a stranger.
Acting like some kind of master, Thea thought with amusement. His supposed ability to "reflect all magic" was a joke to her. Any spell with real power would break through it. Still, he was A.R.G.U.S.'s problem, not hers, so she kept her opinions to herself.
"It's here." Lyla led them through a series of turns to a door. Pushing it open revealed a room even darker than before. "Can't see your hand in front of your face" was an understatement. Thea judged that his assimilation with light was accelerating for some unknown reason.
"Save... save me... this thing is consuming me..." A middle-aged man's voice drifted from within, faint and ethereal, as if speaking from under a blanket.
Thea quickly backed away. Amanda and the others, not understanding what was happening, hurried after her.
She didn't stop until they'd walked several hundred meters. Looking back at the distant room, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Is it going to explode?" Amanda had to ask.
Thea blinked, realizing they'd misunderstood. She laughed. "No, it won't explode. I don't know exactly what he did, but your doctor's condition is somewhat my fault. If I get too close, his assimilation accelerates until he completely transforms into a beam of light."
"No one can help him—he'll have to save himself. Have him design a light-generating suit for himself to absorb energy from. After that, he should stay in dark rooms as much as possible."
"So what do we do now?" Amanda asked.
"Use your highest-powered searchlights on him. When the light energy in his body accumulates to a certain level, his body will restore balance. Don't worry—he'll be fine. I've got to go!" Thea said casually.
On her way back, she kept marveling at how strange this was. The unlucky guy who'd absorbed the Excalibur's light was undoubtedly Dr. Light.
Thea was genuinely curious about how he'd managed to collect such extraordinary radiation. Was this another sign of Heracles's "great age" arriving?
Realizing her purification mission had triggered a chain reaction of consequences, Thea suspected the A.R.G.U.S. incident wasn't isolated. Similar strange events might be happening elsewhere to other people, things she hadn't noticed. Sitting in her office, she instructed her AI:
"Compile all the unusual incidents from the past few days."
Gideon searched quickly, rapidly collecting hospital records, traffic reports, forum posts, news articles, and rumors.
Thea scanned through them rapidly, dismissing irrelevant cases one by one. Then one piece of news caught her attention.
Three days ago—two hours after Thea's light pillar—meteorologists reported that North Atlantic currents had been disturbed. The previously calm ocean surface had accumulated energy, which transformed into a torrential downpour when it reached the eastern U.S. coast. A thunderstorm struck Metropolis.
A well-known radio host, Leslie Willis, had stubbornly insisted on taking a helicopter for live coverage that day. The violent storm destroyed the helicopter. In that critical moment, Superman intervened and saved her.
Unfortunately, her luck was terrible. After Superman pulled her from the aircraft and landed on the ground, lightning struck Superman. He reacted quickly—within a tenth of a second, he pushed her away. But he hadn't noticed the power line at their feet. The lightning from above traveled through the cable and struck the host anyway.
Clark, being struck by lightning, was completely fine—no blood, no dimensional travel, nothing. But Leslie Willis didn't have his constitution. The shock rendered her unconscious, and she was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital.
Heh. Thea shook her head with a bitter smile. She'd truly become a butterfly this time. One flap of her wings at the Azores, and here in America—a thunderstorm.
Her instincts told her this woman wasn't dead. She'd had no vital signs at the time, but her body was simply readjusting itself.
A.R.G.U.S. had Dr. Light under tight watch, making him difficult to approach. But this woman? No such problems. With some careful training, she'd make an excellent subordinate—someone who could control and absorb electricity on a massive scale.
Thea picked up her phone and instructed Deathstroke to retrieve the woman's "body."
Half an hour later, Thea saw her target. The condition was... pretty bad. Her entire body was carbonized, with tattered clothes barely clinging to her. Her hair had turned completely white. The people handling the corpse hadn't been careful—just a cursory wipe. From what remained, you could barely tell this had been a woman.
"This person has special qualities? Though she looks thoroughly dead. I've watched her show—it was pretty good. Shame." Deathstroke leaned against the table.
Thea had watched this woman's show too. To attract attention and cater to the market, Leslie Willis had made a career of creatively insulting Superman. Many people—like Thea—secretly watched. She suspected Batman watched too, and Lex Luthor was a devoted daily viewer. While ordinary citizens were hard to track, this woman had earned herself a place in the minds of both superheroes and villains.
From society's perspective, this woman was vulgar and mercenary, willing to do anything to advance her career. She definitely wasn't a "good person" in the traditional sense.
But if you thought about it, you could understand her desperation. Coming alone to a cutthroat place like Metropolis to make money and build a career, with no credentials or work history—who would hire her? After weighing her options, she'd chosen radio hosting.
Next came choosing her angle. The show needed a hook. Her specialty was mocking and ridiculing others. But who could she ridicule? Thea? Luthor? Half an hour later, she'd be stuffed in a sack at the bottom of a river. She couldn't afford to insult the powerful.
But Superman—equally famous yet unable to retaliate—fit perfectly. The show was an instant hit. Willis had found her golden ticket and couldn't stop riding that wave... until today.