Royal internal vendetta, family members in opposition—influenced by Earth's film and television dramas, everyone easily analyzed some of the inside story. They exchanged glances, seeing the same intention in each other's eyes: save her!
Leaving Lois in this desolate wilderness made Superman uneasy. But protecting her safety while bringing his girlfriend along at superhuman speed—neither he nor Diana had that ability.
The big burden fell to Thea again. Who told her to have so many tricks?
She constructed an aircraft and headed straight for the distant location with Lois aboard.
Fifteen hundred kilometers was but a moment for them. They arrived at the battle scene almost simultaneously.
The princess called Starfire occasionally turned back to attack her pursuers. Her palms fired some kind of green energy shockwave. However, she seemed injured—her steps were chaotic, her aim extremely difficult. She was being pressed step by step, clearly about to be defeated.
Four idle parties descended from the sky, leaving everyone somewhat puzzled. Without super-vision and super-hearing, they'd thought this was an abandoned planet. They hadn't expected to encounter intelligent life.
Thea and Lois sat in the constructed aircraft—all yellow and glowing. They couldn't tell what it was.
Superman and Diana's attire was very conspicuous, especially Diana holding shield and sword—automatically making the pursuers associate her with certain backward civilizations.
Several leaders exchanged cold smiles. In their minds, these four who'd descended from the sky were probably natives of this planet—primitives with some strength but no understanding of technology.
Not far away, Princess Starfire's thought process was similar. She urgently shouted, telling the four to run quickly.
Language barrier aside, Superman still judged from behavior patterns that the one telling them to flee was good, while the group raising technological weapons behind were bad.
Nothing more to say—fight! His perfectly good battle had been interrupted, leaving him somewhat frustrated. Running into these oblivious fools, there was even less need to show mercy.
However, he still exercised restraint, not even using thirty percent of his true strength. Diana was equally annoyed by the pursuers' looks and rushed forward with displeasure.
When Thea wanted to help, she discovered the enemies were already lying all over the ground. The two had played around and knocked down all the pursuers. Amidst the wailing on scene, only Princess Starfire remained standing.
Starfire removed her helmet, revealing red hair and orange skin. Ignoring her skin color and judging by Earth aesthetics, this woman was quite a beauty.
She chattered on at length. Thea translated two sentences before quickly discovering this princess talked far too much—repeating and re-questioning constantly. She got annoyed. You all learn it yourselves!
Using the ring's language function, she projected Tamaran's language entries and vocabulary in 3D in the air, letting the two scholars learn on the spot.
Superman and Diana exchanged glances, seemingly finding this quite interesting, and began memorizing simultaneously.
Facts proved Superman's father's far-sightedness. The abilities of the all-purpose Kryptonian were simply incomparable. Even compared to specialized Kryptonian scholars, none learned as fast as he did. Tamaran language, considerably harder than Earth languages—Superman mastered it fluently in under thirty seconds.
Diana relied on Athena's blessing of wisdom—not that she was Athena herself. Though she studied with full effort, she was still over two minutes slower than Superman.
Though slower, mastering an alien language in two minutes still made Lois's jaw drop. She felt the gap between herself and Clark was somewhat large.
"You don't also learn things super fast, do you?" While Superman and Diana went to question Starfire, she quietly asked Thea. The current Thea was approachable, her whole being seemingly filled with hopeful light—completely different from the cold arrogance during interviews. Two different people. Honestly, Lois found this version much easier to deal with.
Vaguely understanding her meaning, Thea smiled lightly. "I don't have such powerful learning ability. From undergraduate to PhD took me a full five years."
Lois nodded quietly after hearing. Though five years from undergrad to PhD is also exaggerated! But it's still within my acceptable range.
Superman didn't deliver finishing blows to the grounded enemies. Starfire was also a typical justice-oriented person, equally unwilling to kill her own people. After Superman invited her to temporarily stay on Earth, she thought it over and agreed.
With the fight interrupted, no one felt like continuing. Thea directly opened a portal home. After simply helping Princess Starfire settle into lodgings, everyone said their goodbyes.
"Something on your mind?" Diana asked quietly after everyone had left.
"A bit. Someone I don't know whether to call friend or enemy left me a message. I need to help him out." Thea's expression was somewhat gloomy.
Knowing she didn't want to elaborate, Diana didn't press. The two kissed lightly. "Come back soon."
Thea nodded, put on the yellow ring, and flew directly out of the atmosphere.
Reaching an uninhabited planet, she finally opened the ring's communication channel.
A human-sized 3D projection appeared—it was Sinestro.
Feeding energy steadily, the projection began speaking.
"Thea Queen, by the time you see this image, I will no longer be in this world. Working with you, though unpleasant, wasn't annoying."
The projection paused, as if the original recorder's emotions had fluctuated.
"I don't know who will strike me down—the Guardians, Hal Jordan, or someone from the Yellow Lantern Corps. Everything is unknown. I've experienced glory, was once watched by thousands, was the kind of hero the Green Lanterns believed in. Now I'm considered a traitor, a tyrant."
"These are all trivial matters. I only know I must protect my home planet Korugar. That is a responsibility higher than my life, higher than everything."
"The Yellow Lantern Corps is shrouded in fear. When I'm no longer in this world, their existence will destroy my home planet. Help me... help me watch over Korugar. From today, the Yellow Lantern Corps is yours. Arkillo and Lyssa Drak will both pledge loyalty to you. They can control fear—elite soldiers. Watch out for Mongul's son. He's ambitious but mediocre, yet wildly ambitious. My departure will certainly give him opportunities."
"I never misjudge people. I know you'll help me."
The image closed completely. Thea snorted coldly with displeasure. Sinestro asking for help yet maintaining such a high posture—from beginning to end, not even a thank you. However, he truly understood Thea. This testament-like entrustment—she really couldn't refuse.
Strange. If he was no longer in the world, why hadn't those ring portions returned to her? Had they been directly destroyed, or had someone tampered with and seized them?
Her first suspect was the Guardians—those little blue men who'd lived countless billions of years. Their power was unfathomable. Hard to say whether they were secretly manipulating things behind the scenes.