Of course, although the warning issued by the Helmet of Fate sounded unimaginably severe, to Joey right now it felt almost irrelevant.
Matters concerning forces beyond the universe itself were simply far too distant for him at the moment.
If he had to describe the feeling, it was like a dead pig no longer fearing boiling water.
Right now, all he could do was deal with the crisis directly in front of him. As for whatever catastrophe came afterward… that would have to wait until later.
Holding Wonder Woman in his arms, Joey flew over Gotham City within mere seconds, only to suddenly realize another problem.
Earlier, Cyborg had mentioned that the Watchtower's core systems had suffered a catastrophic shutdown because of timer conflicts within the system clocks.
Which raised a terrifying question.
Did those failed subsystems include one particularly critical containment system?
The communication line reconnected, and Cyborg's anxious voice came through once again.
"Superman… your, uh…"
"No need to say it," Joey let out a long sigh. "I get it."
"She's standing right in front of me."
Joey had said earlier that a dead pig wasn't afraid of boiling water.
But what he'd been experiencing recently wasn't boiling water anymore.
It was one basin of lava after another.
During the earlier system-wide malfunction, the red sun prison inside the Watchtower had shut down as well.
Kara Zor-El was free again.
Using nothing but raw physical strength, she had literally punched through one of the weakened structural sections of the Watchtower, burrowed her way upward from thousands of meters underground, shattered through newly repaired concrete roads, and soared past the shadows cast by Gotham's skyscrapers before once again standing beneath the light of the sun.
Now she stood atop the tallest skyscraper in Gotham City, staring at Joey from several miles away.
For Kryptonians, that distance was no different from standing face to face.
A teleportation portal opened nearby as Hawkgirl—now restored to her physical body—and Starfire, who had been recovering her strength, appeared beside the escaped prisoner.
Kara inhaled sharply and exhaled a freezing gust that instantly encased Hawkgirl in ice. Before her Nth-metal warhammer could even come into play, both she and the weapon plummeted from the sky together.
A massive Kryptonite net manifested by Green Lantern constructs had barely begun closing around Kara before a blast of heat vision split it cleanly down the middle.
Then Kara clapped her hands together.
The resulting shockwave and deafening sonic blast swept over Starfire, leaving her ears ringing violently and temporarily throwing her off balance while also forcing the newly airborne Hawkgirl backward once again.
The aftershock of that single clap completely pulverized the rooftop beneath Kara's feet, including the enormous LED sign that read Wayne Casino, a display that had reportedly cost millions to install.
"What kind of suicidal little bastards are wrecking this place now?!"
The Penguin, who had been anxiously waiting inside the top-floor office for news regarding Thomas Wayne, barely had time to react before collapsing roof buried him beneath the rubble.
Grunting in frustration, he used his cane to pry open a gap and crawled his way out.
Fortunately, the Penguin's short, round physique actually protected him from serious injury. Aside from being covered in dust and absolutely furious, he was mostly unharmed.
"This property belongs to Thomas Wayne! You idiots think your skulls are bulletproof or something?!"
"…Oh, fuck me."
The moment Penguin looked up and finally understood what was happening on the rooftop, he instantly stopped talking about Wayne family property rights.
His stubby little legs moved faster than anyone thought possible as he bolted toward the emergency stairwell.
"Pardon me, ladies! Goodbye!"
After briefly forcing back Starfire and Hawkgirl, Kara—still dressed in casual Kryptonian homewear—made no attempt to flee the scene.
Instead, she turned toward Joey in the distance, her eyes filled with open provocation.
Her lips moved slightly.
Even across several thousand meters, Joey could still hear every word she said.
"Looks like your day's already been miserable enough. Want me to make it even worse?"
Under the sunlight, Kara's strength was recovering rapidly.
Joey could see it clearly with his super-vision.
If they wanted to capture her again, the sooner they acted, the better.
"Starfire, Hawkgirl, stand down. Let her go!"
Over the comm channel, Joey stopped the two women from pursuing Kara before turning to Cyborg.
"Teleport me back. And prepare the medical equipment—Diana's body was hit with a massive dose of radiation. She needs treatment immediately."
"That was the weakest she's been this entire time! Why would we let her leave?!"
Unlike the relatively calm Starfire, Hawkgirl—who had just suffered a setback in her first battle after regaining her body—was visibly furious.
"Once you put Diana down and free up your hands, the three of us could've taken your cousin down without much trouble at all!"
After placing the still-unconscious Wonder Woman into a medical life-support pod and watching the pain-tightened lines on her face relax slightly as the system stabilized her deteriorating cells, Joey finally turned to face Hawkgirl's accusation.
"There's no point. Even if we go through all the effort to lock her up again, what exactly do we gain from it?"
Fighting a Kryptonian who had absolutely no intention of holding back under a yellow sun was simply too reckless.
Joey still remembered their last battle. The shockwave from a single punch collision had lowered Alaska's permafrost layer by several centimeters.
If they fought in Gotham now, the resulting casualties would be impossible to estimate.
The city's entire infrastructure department would probably lose its collective mind too.
Hawkgirl swung her warhammer violently through empty air to vent her frustration, clearly not finished arguing.
"You had the ability to stop her and chose not to! If she escapes and hurts people again, who's taking responsibility for that?!"
Honestly, Joey just felt exhausted—physically and mentally.
The last thing he wanted right now was another massive argument with a teammate he barely even knew.
Especially when she seemed determined to pick a fight on purpose.
As far as Joey was concerned, Hawkgirl had been killed once already, and now she clearly carried some personal resentment toward 'Superman.'
The problem was that he wasn't that Superman.
Deep breath. Deep breath.
"I think what Superman means is that Gotham is still an extremely densely populated city. If a fight breaks out here, civilian casualties are inevitable."
Batman appeared soundlessly outside the medical bay doorway. After dealing with his deeply problematic parents, he had immediately rushed over.
"You should spend more time adjusting to your restored body, Hawkgirl. Fighting Kryptonians while piloting an unfamiliar body isn't wise."
"Oh, and you adapted pretty quickly yourself."
Seeing that Batman wasn't siding with her either, Hawkgirl immediately redirected her anger toward him like she'd swallowed gunpowder.
"Found yourself a new partner already, huh?"
Although Bruce's Batsuit contained a lead-lined inner layer, Joey still caught the subtle changes through sound alone.
Batman's heart rate had increased by at least fourteen percent, and his blood pressure had probably jumped another ten points.
Honestly, Bruce Wayne's emotional control was absurdly good.
Joey was pretty sure that if someone kept deliberately hitting his emotional weak spots like this, he'd have punched them already.
Despite the irritation clearly building underneath, Batman's outward expression remained completely calm.
He understood exactly why Hawkgirl's temper was so explosive right now.
What had happened to her over the past few days had been horrific.
Not everyone could suppress the darkness inside themselves at all times.
Not even Batman.
"That's enough. This isn't the time for this."
Starfire gently grabbed Hawkgirl before she could continue escalating things.
Her Tamaranean abilities activated subtly, taking away part of Hawkgirl's grief and anxiety.
"Don't forget the situation we're in."
Watching Starfire drag Hawkgirl away from the medical bay, Joey immediately felt noticeably lighter.
Not because Hawkgirl had stopped yelling at him.
But because Starfire had been nearby.
…Did Starfire glance at him oddly before leaving?
Joey shook his head.
He didn't have time to start getting paranoid right now.
Just as Hawkgirl had pointed out earlier, Kara—an overly proactive Kryptonian infiltrator—was never going to sit around quietly after escaping confinement.
There were still two days left.
More than enough time for her to accomplish certain things that mattered deeply to her.
Like the clean up work she had mentioned before.
Fortunately, Starfire had been cautious when preparing clothes for Kara earlier.
Without the tracker hidden inside them, Joey honestly had no idea how he'd ever locate a Kryptonian capable of flying across the universe at will.