As the headquarters of the Justice League, the Watchtower's facilities were extremely comprehensive—almost anything required for 'superhero business' had a corresponding solution within this space station.
After obtaining consent from the surviving Batman, Cyborg took over the main control system—just like his counterpart in the previous universe—and brought the entire station back online.
Now, not only did Joey and the others have quantum entanglement communication, they even gained a teleportation system covering the entire solar system.
These functions didn't mean much to Joey, but they were hugely significant for everyone else.
At this moment, the Watchtower's detention area welcomed its second 'guest'—also a Kryptonian. Unlike the previous occupant, this one was alive.
Kara had been transported from Jupiter back to the underground Watchtower beneath Gotham by Starfire. Her condition still wasn't good.
Starfire's Green Lantern willpower construct blocked out sunlight; combined with simulated kryptonite radiation and the red sun lamps now covering the cell, Kara had almost no chance to heal her injuries.
Her clothes were still in tatters, and the exposed skin on her body was covered in burns left by Joey's heat vision.
Exposure to kryptonite radiation rapidly caused Kryptonian cells to undergo a reversion reaction; their bio-field would be drained within seconds.
And without the supply of a yellow sun, their cells became no different from ordinary organisms. Without the bio-field, rapid healing was impossible.
If she wanted to recover, she would have to rely on the same method as any normal lifeform—waiting for her wounds to slowly heal.
"Ow..."
Thrown into the cell, Kara curled up in a corner, pulling her cloak over her body. But the fabric brushing against her wounds made her eyes water from the pain.
Starfire frowned at the sight: "Should we maybe first..."
"Go get her some clothes, Starfire."
Seeing Starfire like this, Joey found an excuse to send her away.
This Tamaranean seemed a bit too peaceful now—she could even empathize with an extremely dangerous Kryptonian prisoner.
Being overly kind wasn't necessarily a good thing. Where had that reckless determination gone, the one she had when she tried to kill him before?
"Go on."
Joey knocked on the wall outside the laser-barred door and looked at the white-haired Kara curled in the corner:
"Whatever you were trying to tell me earlier, you can continue now."
Maybe Starfire had wanted to treat Kara's injuries first—her Green Lantern ring could easily do that.
But Joey had no such intention for now. Kara only looked fragile; for a Kryptonian, these injuries were nothing.
Under a red sun, Kryptonians were as weak as mortals—but even among mortals, there were differences.
The 'mortals' of Earth and the 'mortals' of Krypton were entirely different.
Krypton had extremely unique geological composition and a planetary core structure, giving it a gravity far beyond that of ordinary planets.
Simply put, this ultra-dense planet, with a size only slightly larger than Earth, generated gravity dozens of times stronger.
On top of that, before reaching civilization, Krypton possessed an extremely wild and dangerous primordial ecosystem.
For a species to survive, reproduce, and ignite civilization under such conditions meant that even the weakest individual among them far surpassed any human on Earth.
This cousin of his might have broken down earlier, crying uncontrollably, but in Joey's eyes, she was nothing like the previous Kara—neither physically nor mentally fragile.
"No, I'm not gonna tell you anything."
Seeing that Joey had sent away the more sympathetic Starfire, Kara knew pretending to be pitiful was useless. She simply threw off her cloak and walked straight to the cell door, meeting his gaze:
"All you need to know is what you should be doing right now—continue my mission, conquer Earth as soon as possible, and prepare it for the coming Kryptonian order."
"Earth—now or in the future—will never accept your so-called Kryptonian order."
Joey couldn't understand why she chose to reveal herself now. In a few days, when the Kryptonian army arrived, she could have coordinated from the inside and launched a surprise attack.
"What I'm more curious about is why you had those people come after me. Kryptonians are about to arrive—couldn't you just stay hidden a few more days?"
"Instead, you stepped out from the shadows and ended up a prisoner. You did all that pointless stuff—just to beat me up?'
"Isn't that reason enough?"
Kara hadn't acted impulsively—she had stepped into the open after weighing the balance of power.
Delivering Earth, this primitive planet, was far less important than reclaiming Jor-El's son— Kal-El.
Especially when that son was... extremely rebellious.
To this day, Kara still believed what she did earlier was simply correcting Kal-El in advance.
From her understanding of Jor-El, he would almost certainly not like a son who preferred playing in the mud with a primitive civilization.
"Especially when that son was now determined to stand against Krypton.
Even if his resistance was insignificant compared to the Kryptonian army, the idea of the most powerful figure of the House of El clashing with his own son on the battlefield over a primitive planet would be humiliating to every Kryptonian.
She had undergone three years of military training and was equipped with a specially designed Kryptonian combat suit. No matter how you looked at it, she shouldn't lose to a Kryptonian brat who grew up in a primitive world and had never received any training.
And in truth, she hadn't lost. During their fight, she had held back at every turn, and the final loss of control resulted in the battle ending with his death.
Unfortunately, Kal-El carried a great secret—one that made it nearly impossible for him to truly die, and one that could very well disgrace Jor-El.
It wouldn't be enough to shake Jor-El's rule, now at its peak, but it would certainly damage the authority he held like a radiant king.
Jor-El's urgency to reach the solar system was likely not for such a trivial place as Sector 2814. In terms of value, the sector containing Thanagar far surpassed Earth.
Thinking this, Kara looked Joey up and down through the laser bars of the cell. Under the red sun light, she no longer had the ability to see through his DNA.
But she noticed Joey was doing the same—her cousin was examining her inch by inch.
Seeing this, she made no effort to hide anything. She pulled her cloak behind her, straightened her posture, and deliberately exposed the parts of her body left uncovered by her torn clothing:
"So you're this interested in my body? How disgusting."
Joey could only silently turn his gaze away. He had merely been checking for any internal injuries that might require immediate attention.
Seeing him avert his eyes, Kara's expression sharpened. Of course she knew her cousin wasn't that kind of person.
He carried that kind of DNA within him, yet had lived this long without succumbing to bloodthirsty madness—he had to be someone of high character.
Seizing the moment, enduring the searing pain of the laser grid, she thrust her hand through the gap in the barrier and grabbed Joey by the hair, yanking him violently toward the cell.
The laser barrier crackled against his hair and skin, but for Joey—only partially within the red sun's influence—it was barely noticeable.
Joey knew Kryptonians were dangerous, but Kara's earlier act of feigning weakness had not been entirely ineffective. He had let his guard down.
With half his body under red sun radiation and the other half unaffected, it felt like half his brain was drunk—his strength was wildly unbalanced.
As Joey was still trying to carefully control his strength to avoid tearing Kara apart in an instant counterattack, a burst of sparks flashed—and he was dragged straight into the cell.
Having forced Joey into the same space as her, Kara revealed a triumphant grin.
Grabbing the base of his cape, she rolled with the momentum and hurled him into the inner wall of the cell, smashing a massive dent into it.
As mentioned before, Kryptonians were a species that evolved from a primitive era to a spacefaring civilization under gravity dozens of times stronger than Earth's.
And they did so under a red sun.
"Fucking—"
Joey had been under immense pressure lately, and every now and then, he would let slip some rather harsh language.
But this time, he caught himself before launching into a full-blown verbal assault on her entire lineage.
Given how closely related they were, most of those insults would have circled back and hit him instead.
"Now just hold on, I don't want to hurt—"
Kara had no intention of wasting time talking like Joey. While she taunted him, she gave him no chance to respond:
"Not focused enough, Kal-El!"
Before Joey could fully get up, Kara dashed forward and drove a flying knee into him, knocking him flat again.
The cell alarm blared, but Kara didn't care. Right now, all she wanted was to vent her frustration. Whether she could escape could wait until after she was done beating him.
If Jor-El truly had done what he was once accused of, then theoretically, her cousin could not be killed.
And if he couldn't die—then she could beat him as much as she wanted.
Kara pinned Joey down with one knee on his chest, then straddled his waist.
Raising her hands—already torn and burned from crossing the laser barrier—she clenched them into fists and began raining blows down on his face.
Now both of them were fully under red sun radiation.
And this was Kara's domain.
She could finally teach her foolish cousin a lesson about life:
"Round two—you stupid brat!"