Thea had tried talking her mother out of the presidency before—if the stress was too much, just step down.
But things had gone too far for that now. Nobody dared laugh. You think you can do better? Be my guest. President of the United States had to be the most dangerous job in the entire universe.
"This is happening across the cosmos. Earth is just catching the spillover." Facing her mother's anxious expression, Thea spoke with roughly seventy to eighty percent confidence.
The Third Army. If she wasn't mistaken, that was exactly what these blue creatures were called.
They were the Guardians of the Universe's latest creation, built in the name of "cosmic peace."
The Manhunters had been the First Army—robots that followed preset directives and massacred Sector 666, teaching the Guardians that machines couldn't be trusted.
The Green Lantern Corps was the Second Army—sentient wielders channeling emotion as a weapon. But in the Guardians' eyes, the Green Lanterns' greatest strength was also their fatal flaw: emotion.
Too free, too unruly, treating the Guardians' orders like scrap paper. Hal Jordan was exhibit A.
A living force with no independent thought, existing solely to serve the Guardians—that was the so-called Third Army.
The Third Army sounded terrifyingly powerful, but in reality it was just a setup for the First Lantern's entrance. In the original timeline, Nekron had annihilated the First Lantern in an instant. Now Thea would have to handle it herself. At least the battle would take place in deep space—Earth wouldn't be caught in the crossfire.
"Don't panic—it's not a big deal." That was what she told her mother. The handful of creatures on Earth was well within the Justice League's capability. If the public asked questions, just blame it on a rogue metahuman.
As for her mother's personal safety—publicly, A.R.G.U.S. agents had her covered. Behind the scenes, Deathstroke and Poison Ivy were on watch. Thea also had Kanto assign two Shadow Assassins for additional protection. With that kind of security detail, there was genuinely nothing to worry about.
Thea teleported to the Justice League headquarters and found they hadn't been idle. Batman had captured one of the assimilated creatures and was already mid-autopsy.
"The brain has transformed into a new type of matter. No heart. The eyes show signs of activity, but brainwave fluctuation is nearly nonexistent—impossible to determine whether any thought process exists." Batman had just finished the dissection as Thea walked in. Even though Superman offered to use X-ray vision, Batman had insisted on running his own examination.
"I've contacted several factions across the cosmos. This disaster has minimal connection to Earth—it's almost entirely an interstellar problem."
Batman asked coolly, "And?"
Thea blinked. "And what? This is the Green Lantern Corps' problem. It has nothing to do with Earth. Relax."
"But I've calculated that if these things are left unchecked, every living being in the universe will be extinct within three months."
"Which is why Earth is yours to handle, and I'll resolve the situation within two days."
With that, Thea left Earth and returned to Odym, the Blue Lantern homeworld.
The fighting here dwarfed anything on Earth. The Third Army was pressing a relentless assault. The Yellow Lanterns, Blue Lanterns, and Indigo Tribe were huddled together in a desperate defense, and as time wore on, the momentum had long since shifted. The enemy was endless; the defenders' energy was draining. Defeat was only a matter of time.
As Thea touched down, a silent ripple of black energy swept outward. To the Goddess of Death, the Third Army was nothing more than toys—countless ants beneath her power.
Numerous as they were, it didn't matter.
A casual lift of her hand, and these hollow husks—barely any soul, almost devoid of thought—collapsed in waves.
"Where's Ganthet?" She scanned the area and found no sign of her target. She turned to Saint Walker.
Saint Walker delivered unwelcome news. "Ganthet and Sayd have both returned to Oa."
Running off again. These little blue men were relentless. Thea had no choice but to head for Oa—only to find that not only Ganthet and Sayd, but the rest of the Guardians had vanished as well. Meanwhile, the Green Lantern Corps was being hammered by the Third Army.
She beat back a wave of attackers, told the Lanterns they could retreat to Odym if they wished, and made it clear she didn't particularly care whether they listened.
Where had the Guardians gone? Standing alone in the void of space, Thea scratched her head in frustration.
The Ankh could teleport her anywhere, but only if she knew where to go. These little blue nuisances could be hiding in any godforsaken corner of the universe. Without precise coordinates, even the most powerful teleportation was useless.
Fortunately, her time studying under Batman had taught her to leave contingencies.
Guardian H'ruba was under her control. Hidden within his memories was the First Lantern's seal location—all she needed was the coordinates and she could teleport straight there.
But whether the coordinates were wrong or she'd pulled a false memory, she circled the empty void for ages without finding anything. Forget a seal—there wasn't even a pebble.
He planted a fake memory in his own head? She arrived at that conclusion somewhere between exasperation and disbelief.
She teleported to the Ruichi homeworld and began reading the memories again.
Her abilities had grown considerably. She was a major player now—her reading speed and precision had multiplied several times over, and she quickly identified the problem. The Guardian's memories were riddled with contradictions. But this creature had lived for eons, and the sheer volume of experiences made inconsistencies easy to miss if you weren't paying close attention.
Nothing to do but keep reading.
Thea was thoroughly annoyed. She'd told Batman she'd wrap this up in two days, and instead the Guardians had gone to ground, leaving her with world-shattering divine power and nobody to use it on. The frustration was maddening.
Irritated or not, she had to take it step by step. She threw herself into the memory extraction without pause. Meanwhile, both Earth and Odym saw a series of unremarkable skirmishes.
...
A Green Lantern ring meant nothing to Thea anymore—she wouldn't bother bending down to pick one up off the ground. Too much effort on the lower back.
But for some people, a ring like that could change everything. A ticket straight to the top of their lives.
Simon Baz. An Arab-American who'd been singled out more times than he could count because of the way he looked.
Pulled out of his car by police and searched during routine traffic stops.
Hauled away by armed officers for questioning at airport terminals.
Subjected to unprovoked glares on public transit.
In short, as an Arab-American, he'd grown up in a perpetually hostile environment. Later, aliens invaded repeatedly—the dead rose, Rao descended, one catastrophe after another. Compared to all that, the two towers his fellow countrymen had hit didn't seem like such a big deal anymore.
But none of that changed his day-to-day reality. The aliens came and went, the dead crawled back into their coffins, and life moved on. Not for him. He still needed a job. He still needed a paycheck to eat.
The man had spectacularly bad luck. He casually stole a car, got two minutes of joy out of it, and was immediately chased by dozens of police cruisers and multiple helicopters.
During the pursuit, he discovered the trunk was packed with explosives. With the Third Army rampaging across the universe and the Pentagon on maximum alert, the situation drew attention from every conceivable agency.
Local military, National Guard, CIA, FBI, A.R.G.U.S., the Extraterrestrial Affairs Committee—agents from every branch descended to apprehend this supremely unlucky man.