The Blue Lantern ring hovering overhead chose him as expected. The young man became the first Blue Lantern member and named himself "Saint Walker."
Watching her chosen Blue Lantern leader kowtow and bow to Thea, practically wanting to kiss her shoes, Ganthet and Sayd were speechless. Hey, young man, you seem to be pledging loyalty to the wrong boss!
Thea put on quite the performance, skillfully combining divine majesty with benevolence. Saint Walker's family was moved to tears. Just when she'd help one person up, another would kneel down—quite the busy scene.
"Goddess, please save our planet!" Saint Walker still didn't realize the two oddly-faced little blue men beside him were his actual bosses. Not bothering to examine the ring's functions, he focused entirely on begging Thea to save his people.
"Your ring can gradually improve the environment and save your people," Ganthet finally found an opening after standing like a wooden post for ten minutes, speaking urgently.
Only then did Saint Walker glance at them, his expression clearly saying, "Who are you?" Honestly, he didn't really trust Ganthet. Having received Thea's hope emotion, he felt naturally drawn to her and turned to Thea for her opinion instead.
The two little blue men nearly coughed up blood. Thea didn't let them suffer too much embarrassment and observed carefully.
The planet's core was severely damaged, beyond any hope of saving. Even she, a goddess, had no solution, let alone a Lantern ring.
But facing the family's expectant eyes, she cast a spell out of thin air. Her eyes flashed with strange light as she finally placed a complex seal deep into the planet's core.
"I've sealed the severely damaged core. This planet's apocalyptic disaster has been delayed by approximately one thousand years. You'll have plenty of time to migrate." When Saint Walker's family heard the planet was saved, they gave her another round of collective worship.
Being with such purely good people was quite comfortable. Thea stayed on this planet for three more days.
Saint Walker finally realized the ring's existence, but the two lofty Guardians couldn't offer much constructive advice on using it. They treated Lanterns as tools—why would they research how tools fight?
Eager to master the power to help his people, Saint Walker turned around and asked Thea for help again.
"Ring usage tips?" Faced with Saint Walker's question, Thea was a bit surprised. Do I have experience with ring usage? I have tons of experience! I've trained hundreds of ring users!
She touched Saint Walker's forehead and copied the idiot-proof Lantern ring usage guide for him. Saint Walker didn't know Thea had prepared this in advance and felt overwhelmed with emotion, believing the goddess was truly omnipotent!
Two days later, old Ganthet couldn't take it anymore. The Goddess of Fortune's charm was too high! Saint Walker's worship of Thea was growing rapidly every day. In another two days, the subordinate he'd chosen would probably be pulled over to her side.
Even though he knew speaking first would put him at a disadvantage, he decided to be direct with Thea.
"Your Highness, what exactly brings you to this planet?" Old Ganthet's words implied: Aren't you just passing through? If you have business, hurry up and go take care of it!
Thea coughed lightly and gave her old speech: "You know about Amway? I mean, do you know this universe is about to face catastrophe?..."
She went through the whole spiel she'd already given countless times, repeating it word for word.
Originally she'd only planned to recruit Blue Lantern, but now it seemed she could pull in two more helpers. Thea went straight to the closing statement: "The world needs your help."
After speaking, she stared intently at Ganthet with an expression that said she'd camp here until he agreed! The little old man thought it over—if Darkseid conquered this universe, he wouldn't escape either. He finally nodded in agreement.
Thea was delighted. As an ancient race, the Guardians' strength was no joke—she'd experienced it deeply during that ten-on-one beatdown a few days ago. Their individual strength was slightly weaker than Superman's, but the gap wasn't large.
Both sides reached an agreement: when Darkseid arrived, Ganthet and Sayd would lead Blue Lantern into battle. As she was leaving, she remembered her original purpose: "Do you know about the Green Lantern Corps' Mogo?"
The little old man gave her an annoyed glance. I was only exiled, not memory-wiped. How could I not know?
He sullenly nodded, indicating he knew.
"Uh, actually I think Mogo, as a planetary consciousness, isn't very suitable for wearing the courage green light. A courageous planet? How odd is that? Don't you think Blue Lantern would suit her perfectly?"
Seeing old Ganthet's attention caught, she continued: "If we absorb Mogo into Blue Lantern, Saint Walker and his people's future planetary problems would also be solved. Isn't this killing two birds with one stone?"
About poaching his former colleagues, old Ganthet thought for only one second before agreeing.
His only condition was that he'd be the one to handle it.
Thea looked at him with a half-smile. This old guy was eager to restore his reputation in front of Saint Walker. Helping Saint Walker solve his future worries would certainly earn loyalty, and the price was naturally facing his former colleagues' fury.
Thea didn't want to completely break with the Green Lanterns anyway—maintaining universal order was important business, and this universe couldn't do without the Green Lantern Corps. Now with Ganthet this "traitor" taking the heat up front, she could be more comfortable.
What followed went smoothly. Ganthet took Saint Walker to meet Mogo. The submissive planetary will had no idea the Guardians were having a split. Faced with Ganthet's recruitment, she thought it was just an internal personnel transfer! Without hesitation, she gave up the green ring and put on a blue one.
Thea had originally prepared to have Mogo wear two rings, but unfortunately the Guardians' control over Green Lantern was too strict. To sever Green Lantern's hold on Mogo, Ganthet could only have her wear one Blue Lantern ring.
The result wasn't bad. The hope emotion suited her better anyway. After just a few days of simple contact, she became good friends with the pure-hearted Saint Walker.
Thea's cosmic journey finally came to a pause. She'd found all the reinforcements she could—Red Lantern and Orange Lantern were both villains, no need to recruit them. She headed straight back to Earth.
After being away for nearly half a month, Earth's atmosphere had grown increasingly tense.
Large-scale material movements always left traces—being discovered was inevitable.
Later, the higher-ups stopped hiding it, just hadn't made any official response.
"Botanists mysteriously missing for forty-five days."
"Plumbers and welders in high market demand, potentially next year's new employment choice."
"Numerous film company stocks plummet, suspected mastermind behind global scheme."
Various news media cautiously probed. Discovering the government had no reaction, they grew bolder. Many speculations slowly approached that terrible truth.
Shortly after returning to Earth, Batman invited her to the Batcave. He said he'd caught something in the New World that closely matched the Apokolips parademons Thea had described earlier.