Thea answered them one at a time. "First: those two almost certainly crossed before the seal went up. The Anti-Monitor was badly wounded at the time, and when he sealed the cross-dimensional routes, from his subjective timeframe it was an instant. But on that plane, the aberrant celestial phenomenon that accompanied the sealing could easily have stretched over several days. So there was a gap during the process—and in that window, ordinary humans could slip through to our side."
"To send our companions across, we need to crack the seal without tipping off the enemy. That's where I'm stuck."
"As for how they got here—honestly, I don't think it matters. We're about to invade them anyway. Why does their delivery method matter?"
Batman fixed her with a long, hard look. "I think you should tell us. Better to deal with hidden risks up front." You were the one shouting a while back about no secrets within the League, forcing me to expose my identity, right? I remember that crystal clear. So come on—loud and proud, share your own secrets!
Superman agreed on principle. Diana, after a moment of thought, also wanted it on the record—the Valkyrie's reasoning being that more heads were better than one. Maybe Thea had missed something; the group could work on it together.
Thea scratched her head. "It's a pain. Gonna take some time. I need to go grab two people."
Batman signaled for her to go ahead. No problem. Time's the one thing I've got plenty of right now.
Thea teleported out and was back in the Hall of Justice within half an hour.
Two people beside her now. A man and a woman.
She introduced the blond man in military uniform first. "A lot of you will probably recognize this gentleman: Steve Trevor, Deputy Commander of A.R.G.U.S. The artifact we're about to discuss is currently in A.R.G.U.S. custody."
Then she gestured to the woman. "This lady—Barry's met her. Madame Pandora. She's been alive on Earth for several thousand years. A living legend."
She nodded at Steve to open the case he'd brought.
Superheroes had a solid reputation; Steve didn't worry about security here. He unlocked the metal case and, wearing heavy protective gloves, lifted out a gleaming golden skull.
"Damn it, you didn't warn me! This is what he brought?!" Pandora—still a little high-strung—whipped out both pistols, looking ready to fight nonexistent enemies.
Thea calmed her down. She was safe here. No Seven Deadly Sins. No old wizard. That was all ghosts of her own making.
Steve was thrown too. He'd half-expected this woman to make a grab for it. He planted himself in front of the skull like a protective mother hen—though carefully avoiding direct contact with it.
The League members tensed. But unlike the Teen Titans' reckless brats, this crowd was past the hot-blooded phase. They watched Pandora calmly, staying on guard.
"It's a bit of a long story," Thea said. "Let me summarize." She pointed at the golden skull, ignoring Batman's investigative stare.
"Thousands of years ago, this thing fell to Earth. As best I can analyze it, it's effectively a coordinate beacon. Earth-3 should have something like it on their end—the two items pair up to open a channel."
"What did you say?!" Before the League could react, Pandora lost it. She couldn't believe it. She stabbed a finger at the skull. "That thing is a coordinate beacon?!"
Pandora's mental state in this timeline was leagues better than in the original—she'd stopped being eaten alive by guilt over releasing the Seven Sins. But this? This she couldn't swallow. The artifact that had buried her under thousands of years of anguish turned out to be a GPS marker.
Thea thought it was ridiculous too, but facts were facts. The Earth-3 crew had clearly been out of their minds. A coordinate beacon—could you maybe have been a little less flashy? Disguise it as a rock. Toss a rock through. That works! If you're worried your evil butler wouldn't find it, slap a homing signal on it. If you can pull off cross-dimensional teleportation, surely you can manage a locator, right?
But no, these geniuses went with a gaudy, menacing, solid-gold skull. Then, in their haste—maybe they overshot—they dropped it on this Earth thousands of years in the past, where a dim-witted Shazam wizard spotted it. Pandora had been stuck carrying the blame for it ever since. Her bitterness was bottomless; now that she knew the truth, the bile nearly came up.
Desperate cases called for drastic measures. Thea had to spell it out. "This thing is just a coordinate beacon. It has no other function whatsoever. I can guarantee that. Everything the wizard Shazam told you was subjective paranoia he invented."
Then she reached for the skull. Steve yelled, "Careful—it warps minds!"
Thea ignored him. She picked it up. A few pounds, lightweight. Bigger than a normal human skull, with a reddish glow pulsing faintly in the eye sockets.
The thing radiated sinister energy. No wonder Old Shazam had flagged it as trouble.
He wasn't the only one. Across the centuries, the skull had passed through many hands. Great mages—especially the evil ones—had studied it relentlessly, convinced there was a secret locked inside. None of them ever found anything. But a piece of technology, sitting under the research of a parade of dark sorcerers, naturally absorbed residual magic. Over the centuries that accumulation reached the point where it could actually warp the minds of ordinary people.
Thea casually wiped away the magical residue. "It's built to emulate a Mother Box. Functionally slightly different, but very close. It's absolutely a piece of tech."
Batman got the signal that it was safe to handle. Without a word, he took it and started examining it.
A long while later, he looked thoughtful. "The technology in here is extremely advanced. I won't crack it alone—not quickly."
Thea clapped once. That was his problem now. Getting in through the seal without alerting the Anti-Monitor would be nearly impossible via magic or divine power. A pure tech approach—silent, invisible—was probably the way.
Steve watched the League members pass the golden skull around like a game of musical chairs. His expression flickered. "Miss Queen, this object—"
"Commander Trevor, I'll brief the President personally. This is just the beginning. We'll need cooperation from several fronts going forward."
Citing the President was enough. Steve, patriotic as ever, capitulated immediately.
Once Pandora heard they were heading to Earth-3, she declared herself in—her righteous indignation intact. She wanted to go settle the score with the people who had blighted her entire life.
The tech-oriented heroes started working on the anti-teleportation problem with Batman. On her way out the door, Thea called back to him. "Have Alfred ready. I expect the Pentagon will be summoning him soon."
"You want the military involved?"
"Obviously. It can't just be the twelve of us, can it? That world has a government too. Without military cooperation, we'll exhaust ourselves and still not cut through the numbers. Not just the military either—every hero faction. Justice League International, the all-female Justice League, the Dark Justice League that Madame Xanadu is putting together, the Teen Titans, even the Suicide Squad and the Outlaws. I'm pulling them all in."