When he turned the scientist in front of him to ash, Joey once again felt that long-lost surge of blood rushing through his veins—just like he had back at the G-Men Manor.
The surrounding soldiers pulled their triggers. Green particle beams shot from their rifles, and within those beams Joey saw a substance utterly unfamiliar yet instinctively recognizable to his body—the last remnants of Krypton: kryptonite.
The entire core section of this research base had practically been custom-built for Kryptonians.
But no matter how advanced the weapons were, the ones wielding them were still human. Even the most dangerous weapon had to actually hit its target.
Joey vanished in a blur, evading the first round of attacks. Before they could react, he swept his heat vision across the entire laboratory, reducing every living thing inside to ash.
Deep down, he desperately wanted to tear them apart one by one with his own hands—but the condition of the person in his arms wasn't good. He had to suppress that urge.
Carefully clearing a path upward with heat vision, he flew straight up until he broke back onto the surface.
The memorial built in Metropolis more than a decade ago collapsed with a thunderous roar and sank into the earth. From the massive cavity left behind, Joey burst out, cradling the Kryptonian woman in his arms.
He spared only a brief glance at the panicked crowd around him before flying straight into the sky. A Kryptonian biofield enveloped them both as Joey broke through the atmosphere and headed toward the Sun.
As they drew closer to it, the woman's condition gradually improved. Her dull, withered golden hair regained its vibrant color. Though her body remained thin and frail, she at least began to regain consciousness.
Unsure whether Kryptonians had any kind of protection against overexposure, Joey decided it was better to be cautious. He immediately turned back with her and returned to Earth, landing in the Arctic.
She opened her mouth and spoke a string of strange words in a language Joey had never encountered before.
"I never expected it would be you who saved me, Kal-El."
To Joey's astonishment, he could understand her—and could even respond instinctively in the same language.
"You've got the wrong person. My name is Joey Joseph Kent. The Kal-El you're talking about definitely isn't me."
Kal-El was Superman's Kryptonian name. And there were countless Supermen across different universes. Joey himself had come from another universe—how could he possibly be the one she meant?
Looking at the Kryptonian girl who was steadily regaining her vitality, Joey ventured a bold guess.
"I bet you have a name I'd recognize."
"Kara Zor-El. I'm your cousin. Oh… you don't know…"
Kara looked at Joey, still holding her, her face filled with disbelief.
"You've already grown this big."
Kara Zor-El—cousin to Superman, Kal-El. Supergirl. Another Kryptonian survivor who escaped after Krypton's destruction.
The story she told Joey was almost identical to what he already knew. Kara's father, Zor-El, had set the same coordinates and sent Kara to protect her infant cousin, Kal-El.
But Kara had just landed and hadn't yet adapted to Earth's environment when she was captured and held in a dark, windowless laboratory for over a decade. She never expected that the one to rescue her would be the grown-up Kal-El.
Joey also hadn't anticipated that in this universe, the one who landed on Earth would be her, not Superman.
But none of that mattered—this universe was destined to be destroyed sooner or later.
Kara broke free from Joey's arms. Now, bathed in sunlight, she had almost fully recovered—Kryptonians were truly a remarkable species.
"How have you been all these years? The last time I saw you, you were just a newborn..."
Kara's words left Joey somewhat at a loss. It was like having a completely unfamiliar relative drop by, claiming she once held you as a baby, while you had no memory of her.
"There's a huge misunderstanding here. I'm definitely not the Kal-El you're looking for. Just call me Joey."
After more than a decade of captivity, Kara wasn't exactly warm toward the locals. She stomped her foot lightly, and cracks spread across the thick ice beneath her like a spiderweb for several meters.
"Is that your Earth name? You even went and got yourself an Earth name?"
Joey could understand her emotions. If he had been treated like that, he would only be even angrier than she was.
"A name is just a label. You're free to call me whatever you like."
Kara looked Joey up and down at his ordinary clothes and let out a soft sigh. "All right, Joey. Maybe that's better for you."
"There should also be a Kryptonian ship that came with you."
Joey reminded her. The ship was probably still in the Star Laboratory. He needed it. "I can help you get back what belongs to you."
"Ugh!"
Kara suddenly clutched her ears and dropped to her knees in pain.
Joey knew what was happening. Perhaps the earlier close exposure to sunlight had overcharged her. Now her super senses were activating—she could hear almost the entire planet.
"Focus. Close off your mind. Don't let their suffering affect you. You're completely different from them."
"Oh God! You've been able to hear it all this time?"
Tears streamed down Kara's face as she teetered on the brink of collapse. Like Joey, she could hear what was happening across the entire Earth—the pleas and wails of billions of humans facing separation and death, just like Krypton in its final moments.
Of course Joey could hear it. He heard it even more clearly than Kara.
At that very moment, in Africa, a silverback gorilla named Grodd had unified all the apes and was slaughtering local humans; Wonder Woman, Diana, was leading the survivors of Themyscira after its sinking to launch an armed landing on the British Isles; and Aquaman was forging a superweapon capable of completely annihilating the surface dwellers.
"You have power like a god—why didn't you do something?!"
Faced with Kara Zor-El's accusation, Joey merely tossed out a single sentence before turning to leave:
"Because none of this matters."
He was going to find Kara's spacecraft, obtain the technology aboard it, and figure out how to fix his mistaken time travel.
"Wait, Kal-El!"
Kara bent over and barely managed to grab his ankle. The voices of hundreds of millions echoed in her mind, nearly robbing her of her balance.
"Have you ever seen the crest of the House of El? It represents—"
"I know. It represents hope. But this planet has no hope left!"
Joey turned back impatiently, cutting off her lecture.
"It was the people of this planet who locked you in a sunless dungeon and experimented on you for nearly twenty years, yet you still care whether they live or die. I admire your morality."
"But someone will fix all of this. When that time comes, the people you're talking about will either never have died—or never have existed at all. Just as I said before—none of this matters."
"No, Joey. All of this matters."
Kara finally managed to adapt to the cacophony. Though she was still gaunt, she straightened herself as much as she could and looked at him.
"You can hear them too. Then you should know they're different from those people. I despise your indifference."
"If you're unwilling to do these things, I respect your choice. But I'll do it myself."