Normally, when one of his good friends ran into trouble, the considerate Tony Stark would first mock them, and then use a tiny fraction of his massive fortune to solve their problems.
What can you do? That's the burden of being the man who topped People Magazine's 'Man of the Year' rankings for multiple consecutive years.
But after listening to Joey explain his current situation, Tony only had one thought:
"Can I still leave now?"
Seriously, Tony had secretly analyzed the radiation frequencies of the energy field surrounding Joey's body, and the results were unbelievable.
He had always assumed that someone like Joey—someone possessing immense power without acting arrogant about it—must come from a pretty decent world.
Who could've guessed this world had nothing to do with being terrible—
Because it was about to end.
The war that was about to erupt within the Solar System reminded Tony of a regional conflict between North America and East Asia back in the previous century.
In one especially brutal and decisive battle, both sides had used enormous amounts of high-explosive weaponry to fight over a strategic hilltop, literally shaving several meters off the mountain itself.
And now, Earth's side wasn't the attackers.
Nor were they the defenders.
They weren't even one of the nations involved in the conflict.
They were the ants living on that mountain.
"That's a little too pessimistic."
The moment Cyborg heard Tony's comparison, he instantly figured out which battle he was talking about from his internet browsing history.
Rubbing his metal chin thoughtfully, he added:
"I think we'd at least be squirrels on the mountain."
"...How is that any different?!"
After spending forever shortening a long story into a shorter story, Joey finally couldn't hold it in anymore.
Had Cyborg recently installed some kind of comedian plugin?
"Can you please say something useful for once?!"
"Useful, huh… ah! Got it!"
Cyborg slapped his forehead as an idea suddenly struck him.
"Why don't you go talk to your father again and see if the power of family can change his mind?"
Joey had never felt such speechlessness.
"...Do you seriously think that's possible?!"
The man had brought thousands of Kryptonian warships all the way across the universe and was absolutely determined to obtain the Anti-Life Equation hidden on Earth.
How could he possibly withdraw because of a few words from his son?
"Honestly, I think you should try it."
To Joey's surprise, Tony actually agreed with Cyborg's suggestion.
"You and your father are looking at this from completely different perspectives."
For the first half of Tony's life, he had believed his own father was the worst dad in the world.
Howard Stark's constant coldness and strictness had always seemed like proof that he didn't care.
It wasn't until Tony discovered the recordings his father had left behind—recordings that ultimately guided him toward perfecting the Arc Reactor—that he finally understood the truth.
Sometimes, fathers and sons simply fail to understand each other.
Tony himself had only recently realized that.
Unfortunately, his father was already gone.
"From your perspective, Joey, your father never participated in any part of your upbringing. To you, he's basically a complete stranger."
"But from his perspective, it's completely different."
"He watched you being born with his own eyes."
"To him, you aren't a stranger. You're his son."
"So go ahead and make unreasonable demands. Even if he can't fulfill them, he'll still have to seriously consider them."
"No. Absolutely impossible."
Joey rejected the idea without even thinking.
"This is not the Fast & Furious."
Cyborg immediately retaliated at lightspeed after hearing criticism aimed at his beloved movie franchise.
"What's wrong with Fast & Furious? Those movies are awesome!"
"Alright, alright, everybody calm down."
"This is a war meeting, not movie night."
After stopping Cyborg's nonsense, Tony looked toward Joey, who was clearly resisting the idea of meeting his father again.
With a single glance, Tony could already tell this guy had developed a serious psychological issue.
In simpler terms:
His mindset was completely messed up.
Right now, Joey simply had no idea how to face the alien father he had been separated from for years.
So he had instinctively chosen the easiest option—
Avoidance.
From a psychological standpoint, some things genuinely required time to process.
For example, Tony himself had spent more than a decade slowly untangling the complicated emotions between himself and his father.
Unfortunately, Joey only had a few dozen hours left.
There was no extra time for him to slowly figure things out.
"Time's running out."
"Since somebody rejected the plan-A me and Cyborg came up with, he'd better come up with a plan-B instead!"
"Of course I have one!"
"If you two hadn't interrupted my train of thought with Side Stories About Shangganling and Fast & Furious, I would've already explained it."
Joey shook his head hard, clearing away the noisy flood of useless information from earlier before turning toward Tony.
"Tony, I remember you mentioned time just now?"
"So let me ask you something."
"From the last time I saw you—after I dealt with the Amazons—to now, when you tracked me down again…"
"How much time passed for you?"
"Not long at all!"
The moment the topic shifted into one of his areas of expertise, Tony instantly became animated again.
"It only took me four months!"
As he said that, Tony Stark slightly raised his chin and looked proudly at the other two, practically wearing the words 'Isn't that amazing?' directly on his face.
Using only the tiny traces of residual energy frequencies Joey had left behind, he had managed to reverse-engineer a glimpse into the mysteries of spacetime travel.
There was no doubt about it—
That was genius among geniuses.
"What the—"
Cyborg was the first one to react in disbelief.
It wasn't the 'building a space time machine in a few months' part that shocked him.
Given the proper samples, he could've built one too.
No—
What shocked him was the timeline itself.
"Four months?!"
Hearing Cyborg's reaction, Tony's expression instantly collapsed.
"Don't tell me you could've built it even faster."
"No, Tony, this has nothing to do with how long it took you to build the machine! No wait—it does, but that's not the point!"
Cyborg was getting so excited he was practically speaking incoherently.
"You don't understand."
"From the moment Joey said the Amazons withdrew until today…"
"Less than one week has passed in our universe."
"Oh damn..."
Tony finally understood.
"The frames of reference between different universes aren't identical."
"There's no absolute reference frame connecting our two universes."
"Doesn't that mean…"
"It means the motion and decay of matter between our universes aren't synchronized."
Joey picked up the explanation naturally.
"In plain English, time flows differently between the two universes."
"And theoretically, it might even be possible for us to artificially control it."
After fully grasping the implications, Tony calmly adjusted the nonexistent tie on his chest.
"I'm ready to win the Nobel Prize in Physics."
"No—"
"I'm ready to rename it the Stark Physics Prize."
"You could rename it the Hawking Wheelchair Award for all I care."
Joey held up the pocket watch device in his hand for the other two to see.
"The important part is figuring out how to build a working machine in the shortest amount of time possible."
Hearing that, Cyborg and Tony exchanged a glance.
A new drone unit separated itself from Cyborg's body and floated forward, guiding Tony toward another section of the Watchtower.
"The lab's this way."
Fortunately, the words research, engineering, and machinery were hardly problems for the three people present—
Especially not for Tony Stark and Cyborg.