The Kryptonian fleet arrived at Earth more than a full day ahead of schedule.
Batman wanted to say the sudden appearance of the Kryptonians had caught them completely off guard—
But in reality, no matter when the Kryptonians arrived, they would always be caught off guard.
Whether the Kryptonians came one day earlier or one day later honestly made very little difference.
What truly made the timing catastrophic was that they had shown up at the worst possible moment imaginable:
Superman had vanished somewhere in deep space.
And the only person capable of helping locate him, Cyborg, had just completely crashed.
Cyborg was like the only lion roaming a small open grassland.
As the undisputed king of Earth's internet, he had grown careless, overconfident, and dangerously inexperienced when it came to cyberwarfare against enemies on his own level.
From the perspective of Kryptonian AI, Cyborg casually surfing through cyberspace was basically equivalent to sprinting naked across a battlefield full of machine-gun fire.
Not cracking him over the head at least once would've been disrespectful to that level of recklessness.
The ambush in cyberspace genuinely caught Cyborg off guard.
Especially because at the exact moment the attack began, more than half his processing power had already been allocated toward calculating coordinates for large-scale teleportation.
He had no choice but to temporarily surrender control of the global network.
Every internet-connected device on Earth received the exact same message.
Within only a few minutes, the AI used Cyborg himself as a bridge to fully integrate and process the entire information flow of Earth's internet.
The incomprehensible Kryptonian symbols covering every screen twisted and transformed into local languages depending on the region.
But the meaning remained identical everywhere:
"Where is Kal-El?"
The entire internet exploded into chaos.
People across the world immediately began asking:
Who the hell is Kal-El?
The people of Earth only knew the name Superman.
They didn't know any of Joey's real names.
Batman suddenly remembered something that was profoundly unfortunate to remember at a time like this.
Technically... there's another Kal-El aboard the Watchtower right now.
There was another one, or rather, another body carrying that identity currently inside the station.
And if some kind of misunderstanding happened right now...
The misunderstanding was going to become absolutely catastrophic.
Ding.
After switching fully over to his organic brain to fight back against the AI intrusion, Cyborg finally regained control of both his own body and the Watchtower systems.
"I've got two updates."
"One bad news, and one even worse news."
Even now, Cyborg somehow still had enough energy left to joke around.
"The first bad news is that Joey's signal disappeared again. Precision teleportation to his location is basically impossible now."
"The second bad news is that an AI exploited my guard being down and invaded every network on Earth. I managed to retake control of the Watchtower, but—"
Before Cyborg could finish speaking, the nearby teleportation platform suddenly began humming violently as abnormal light erupted from the array.
"But they've already found us."
Batman instinctively reached toward his utility belt, preparing to pull out the anti-Kryptonian ring he had developed several days earlier—only to grab empty air.
He suddenly remembered that he'd lent the damn thing to Superman less than twenty minutes ago.
Now Batman finally understood the same frustration everyone else in this universe constantly felt.
There were too many variables here.
And never enough preparation.
Monday: Superman crisis.
Tuesday: Battle in Gotham.
Wednesday: Evil Kara attack.
Thursday: Funeral.
Friday: Helmet of Fate Disaster.
Saturday: Doomsday.
Sunday: Kara escapes, Superman disappears, and Kryptonians arrive at Earth.
This universe was genuinely fucking cursed.
The light of the teleportation matrix slowly faded.
Several uninvited figures now stood upon what had moments earlier been an empty platform.
Jor-El, clad in retro-style armor made from a metallic material nearly identical to Kara's battle suit, slowly stepped down from the platform.
His heavy metal boots echoed dully against the floors of the Hall of Justice.
"I didn't expect a primitive planet like this to possess technology originating from Apokolips."
Several fully armed Kryptonians behind him immediately spread out in formation, guarding him from all directions.
Long ago, Batman's own Superman had described the father he never met countless times.
A warm and compassionate man.
Someone who cared deeply for all living beings.
And in Clark's exact words—"a man with a heart of gold."
Now that Batman had finally met another version of Jor-El in person...
He was absolutely certain this one did not possess a heart of gold.
What he had instead was a heart of steel.
Though Jor-El appeared elderly, with white hair and beard, the overwhelming sense of power radiating from him—and the unmistakable authority of a born ruler—could not be faked.
Batman had only ever felt this sort of dangerous presence from a handful of individuals before.
His 'father-in-law' Ra's al Ghul.
Darkseid, ruler of Apokolips.
And very few others.
"Interesting equipment."
"But your implementation leaves much to be desired."
After effortlessly reverse-engineering the teleportation system and infiltrating the Watchtower, Jor-El narrowed his eyes and calmly studied the platform for quite a while before offering criticism from the perspective of a scientist.
"You should construct a final physical authentication terminal similar to an Apokoliptian Mother Box."
"Otherwise situations like this become inevitable."
"Anyone capable of deciphering the teleportation frequency can come and go freely."
"That said..."
"By the standards of an undeveloped world, you natives have achieved something astonishingly sophisticated."
"No wonder my son chose to protect this planet."
"...Thanks for the compliment."
Batman already knew perfectly well that the Watchtower's teleportation technology had indeed been reverse-engineered from Apokoliptian Mother Box systems.
But if humanity currently possessed the industrial capability to casually mass-produce Mother Boxes, they wouldn't be standing here barely daring to breathe in the presence of a handful of Kryptonians.
Still, just because Batman could restrain himself from escalating tensions didn't mean everyone else present possessed the same level of self-control.
"You murderer!"
Now that Koriand'r had once again come face-to-face with Jor-El and the bloodstained armor that had once slaughtered countless members of her people.
The scars buried deep within her heart could no longer be suppressed.
Emotion overwhelmed reason once again.
The Green Lantern ring projected a blinding kryptonite beam that illuminated the entire hall.
The shattered remains of Tamaran resurfaced in her mind.
The fire of hatred ignited both her body and soul, causing her to radiate light and heat like a newborn supernova.
Before anyone in the hall could even react, the blade formed in Starfire's hand had already reached Jor-El's throat.
She had thought she could stay rational but without Joey present, standing alone before this nightmare dragged out of her past, she simply could not remain calm.
All she could do was scream hysterically:
"Die, you monster!"
Faced with Starfire's frenzy, Jor-El appeared almost motionless, as though frozen in place.
He simply stood there and allowed the sword made of kryptonite radiation to stab toward his vital point.
"—!"
Just as Starfire's surprise attack was about to land, she suddenly realized she felt no sensation of piercing flesh.
Instead, the entire right side of her body abruptly became strangely light.
One of Jor-El's guards had somehow appeared beside her without anyone noticing.
She had short black hair, vicious eyes, and a blade extended from her arm—a blade now stained with orange-red blood.
Starfire's blood.
Only then did Starfire feel the numb, burning pain erupting from her right arm.
Her entire arm had been severed cleanly above the elbow.
The woman even lifted the severed limb afterward and waved it tauntingly in front of her.
"Oh—thank you, Faora."
Only now did Jor-El finally seem to emerge from the dazed stillness he'd been in moments earlier.
Completely calm, he thanked the bodyguard beside him before finally recalling Starfire's identity.
"A Tamaranean on Earth?"
"Interesting."
"I thought we've wiped out every last one of your kind."
Hearing those casually spoken words, Starfire could no longer tell whether the feeling surging through her was terror or humiliation.
Blood poured endlessly from the stump of her severed arm as dizziness overwhelmed her senses.
She collapsed to the floor.
The Green Lantern aura surrounding her body and the natural Tamaranean energy radiating from her vanished almost instantly, leaving her completely defenseless.
Faced with genuine Kryptonian executioners like these, Starfire felt as though she had returned to that helpless night long ago.
Her mother stuffing her into the only escape pod capable of hyperspace travel—sending her alone into the endless darkness of space.
The escalating agony made her breathing increasingly ragged as her consciousness began to blur.
Starfire let out a muffled groan and clenched her teeth tightly, desperately trying not to scream in front of the people she hated most.
"If it hurts, then scream."
"There's no shame in it."
A faint violet arc of electricity flashed across Faora's blade as she raised it toward Starfire's neck.
The next strike would decapitate her.
"There's no need to endure it anymore."
"Because very soon, you'll be free of all suffering."
Bzzzt—
"Let her go!"
Several dozen meters away, a cannon barrel extended from Cyborg's body.
A kryptonite missile had already been loaded and locked onto the Kryptonians present.
"Don't try to intercept it. Even if you stop it, it can still self-detonate."
Hawkgirl—who had been sulking in the medical wing while looking after the injured—also rushed into the hall wielding her Nth metal mace.
"Wait!"
Batman, who had only just managed to stop shielding himself with his cape from the heat radiating off Starfire moments earlier, finally stepped forward to halt the rapidly escalating conflict.
Honestly, the situation evolving from civil discussion into mutually assured slaughter had not surprised Batman nearly as much as it should have.
Just as he had already learned in this universe: too many variables and not enough preparation.
There was no choice but to adapt.
But there was still room for negotiation here.
Especially regarding Starfire's identity.
Batman immediately realized there was still leverage to use.
"Jor-El, you can't kill that Tamaranean, because—"
"Stand down, Faora."
"I pardon the Tamaranean."
Jor-El raised a hand, interrupting both Batman and Faora simultaneously.
"And like the others, your responsibility is simply to watch my back."
"I do not require any of you standing in front of me."
"Remember that next time."
"Yes, sir."
Faora immediately lowered her head in alarm and retreated behind Jor-El once more.
Jor-El then looked down at Starfire, who was still struggling to remain conscious while kneeling before him.
A violet spark flickered from his fingertip.
Instantly, the unbearable agony wracking her body vanished.
The Pain Matrix.
Another technology originating from Apokolips.
After nearly a decade of experimentation, Jor-El had begun integrating it into certain standard Kryptonian weapons.
Like Faora's blade just now.
Anyone cut by it would experience their sense of pain amplified thousands of times over in a matter of seconds.
For Tamaraneans, whose powers were fueled directly by emotion, such an overwhelming negative state could easily become fatal.
Jor-El glanced thoughtfully at the unconscious Starfire for a brief moment but quickly suppressed whatever thoughts had surfaced.
The Tamaranean was not the reason he had come here.
He had risked traversing Phantom Space to reach this primitive planet for one purpose only: to recover the most important thing he had ever lost.
"Good."
"Now we can finally have a proper conversation."
"I have questions."
"And you have answers."
He paused.
Then his cold gaze swept across everyone present.
"So..."
"Where is my son?"