"The Geiger counter's practically about to explode,"
Batman said from the cockpit as he watched the helicopter's radiation monitor spike higher and higher. He silently estimated the radiation levels at the center of the battlefield before glancing back at the seemingly insane Superman once more.
"And you're still planning to go down there? If your theory's wrong, I'm not risking my life collecting pieces of your corpse. I'll bury an empty coffin instead."
"I can't just stand back and watch Diana get killed!"
Joey, standing inside the helicopter's passenger bay, was far beyond the point of appreciating Bruce's attempt at dark humor. He pounded on the cabin door loudly and shouted over the roar of the engines:
"Just open the damn door and lower the rope already!"
The ground below was far too unstable for a safe landing now.
Joey would have to rappel down himself.
Amid the deafening thunder of engines and spinning rotors, Batman silently maneuvered the helicopter downward from high altitude.
Fortunately, after sensing Joey's arrival, Doomsday's overwhelming urge to destroy everything seemed temporarily suppressed.
As though the sole purpose behind all the slaughter had simply been to find Joey.
Otherwise, one sweep of heat vision would have been enough to send both Bruce and Joey straight into the afterlife.
Batman opened the side door and lowered the descent line.
Then, after watching Joey awkwardly struggle with the rappelling harness for several seconds, he finally spoke in a low voice after a long silence.
"I'll admit it. You're braver than I originally thought."
Superman's courage had never come solely from his invulnerable body.
More often, it came from the willingness buried inside him to throw himself into danger for others without hesitation.
Defeating an entire universe with a body of steel was not necessarily courage.
But risking your life with nothing except flesh and blood—
That unquestionably was.
"Oh, shut up."
Joey himself couldn't tell whether this was bravery or just stupidity. Batman's praise did little to ease the anxiety clawing at him inside.
He only knew one thing:
Diana could not win this fight.
"If I'm wrong, I'll try to convince Diana to run," Joey said grimly. "But you need to be ready to deal with the aftermath alone."
Batman nodded once.
He understood.
Once Joey reached the ground, Bruce would immediately abandon the area and fly the helicopter away.
That had been the plan they agreed upon during the flight over.
Without equipment, Batman was effectively useless in a battle on this level. Under no circumstances could he recklessly charge in alongside Joey.
If one person on the team insisted on acting on emotion, then someone else had to remain cold and rational.
Batman still possessed one final contingency plan.
One that might—possibly, theoretically—be capable of stopping Doomsday.
The method itself was mature and repeatable.
But only in Bruce's original universe, where he already possessed the necessary research, technology, and infrastructure.
Recreating it here would require enormous amounts of time and resources, rebuilding everything from scratch step by step through endless trial and error.
How many failures it would take...
Whether it could be completed before Doomsday destroyed Earth...
And what catastrophic side effects it might create afterward...
All of those variables remained unknown.
Still, unreliable as the plan was, it sounded far more reasonable than sending a powerless Superman into a face-to-face meeting with Doomsday while enduring radiation levels approaching thousands of roentgens.
As the helicopter descended lower, the rotor wash scattered the smoke blanketing the battlefield.
Even before completing his awkward descent, Joey caught sight of Wonder Woman below—
Covered in blood.
Half-kneeling in a pool of crimson.
"Diana!"
Thrown off balance, Joey failed to land properly on the uneven ground during the final moment of his descent and tumbled awkwardly across the dirt.
Fortunately, even without his body of steel, Joey's physical condition was still far beyond that of an ordinary human. The fall merely left a bit of dust on his suit.
"Joey?!"
Hearing Joey's voice through her haze of pain, Diana's spirits lifted for an instant. Then she watched him trip face-first after rappelling down from the helicopter, and immediately realized just how dire the situation truly was.
"Have you lost your mind?!" she shouted. "Your powers haven't returned! Did you come here just to die?!"
One of the main reasons she had chosen to remain here with the Kryptonite sword and fight Doomsday herself—aside from stopping its indiscriminate slaughter—was to keep the monster from reaching Joey too quickly.
And now Joey had delivered himself straight to its doorstep.
"No, no, Diana—I've already figured out a solution!"
Joey gave Wonder Woman a confident smile.
"But this plan only works if you're not here. Can you still fly? You need to get outta here first—I promise I will deal with Doomsday!"
"You don't actually know whether your plan will work, do you?"
Losing the Lasso of Truth did not mean Wonder Woman had lost her ability to distinguish truth from lies. She could tell immediately that Joey was simply trying to get her away from the battlefield.
By now, the radiation tormenting Diana had pushed her close to her limit. The subconscious anxiety and agitation brought on by radiation poisoning finally found an outlet.
"You suicidal idiot!" she snapped angrily. "Now both of us are going to die here!"
Under Doomsday's fixated gaze, Joey felt every hair on his body stand on end, but he still shook his head.
"Who said we're definitely going to die?! I came here because I'm at least fifty percent sure this will work. That's still better than your ten-percent chance of survival!"
"ROAR!!"
While the two were still arguing, Doomsday—whose eyes had been locked onto Joey with overwhelming hunger the entire time—finally moved.
With a thunderous roar, it leapt into the air in an instant, vaulting straight over Wonder Woman and lunging directly at Joey.
"No!"
Severely wounded, Diana was incapable of mounting an effective response. The only thing she could do was hurl the Kryptonite sword she had been clutching tightly the entire time—even after her right hand had been completely pierced through—toward Doomsday's back.
As for Joey, he had no time to react at all. The movements of Kryptonians and Amazons alike far exceeded the limits of his now-human reflexes.
To him, it felt as though he merely blinked once and Doomsday's clawed hand, lined with razor-sharp bone spikes like Wolverine's talons, was already right in front of his face.
With the force behind that punch, Joey would likely be spread unevenly across the hundred square meters behind him within the next tenth of a second.
"BOOM!"
And yet, the instant Doomsday unleashed the full-force blow that should have pulverized the creature it most desperately wanted to rip apart and devour, it was suddenly blasted backward instead with a heavy impact.
Joey remained standing exactly where he was.
Completely unharmed.
As though Doomsday's punch had somehow struck itself instead.
"...Just as I thought."
Joey, who hadn't even had time to feel fear before Doomsday was inexplicably sent flying away, finally let out the breath he had been holding.
The conclusion he had desperately pieced together with nothing but an ordinary human brain had finally been proven correct.
"The Helmet of Fate never actively separated your fate from mine."
Joey looked toward the disoriented Doomsday and spoke softly.
"It was me who rejected you."