Aside from those earlier brief flickers through reality like a dragonfly skimming water, this was Joey's first true visit to this world.
And the world's welcoming gift to him was a car falling from the sky.
Honestly, that wasn't so bad.
Certainly better than Europe erupting into wars between descendants of the Old Gods, Africa turning into Planet of the Apes, or the Americas collapsing into anarchic warfare with casualties in the hundreds of millions.
Thinking that, Joey gently lowered the battered old sedan back onto the ground.
An elderly white-haired man shoved open the slightly deformed car door and stepped out.
"Thank you for saving me, young man!"
"I've never seen you in any New York newspaper before. New around here?"
"Yeah. I really am new here."
Gradually adapting to the discomfort caused by the temporal distortion effect, Joey looked at the energetic old man and simply smiled lightly.
"No need to thank me."
"You should thank yourself for wearing your seatbelt."
Far away from the other universe, Joey suddenly felt like the crushing weight on his shoulders had temporarily become less suffocating.
What if he had started out in the right universe from the beginning?
"You're not like the others..."
The old man pointed at his own face, then at Joey's, carefully organizing his words.
"You know... hiding your identity and all that?"
"Hah. A mask would probably just make people afraid..."
Just as Joey was about to explain why Superman should never be a masked hero, another thunderous roar exploded from a nearby district, instantly drawing his attention.
Joey knew this world wouldn't actually be peaceful either.
Of course his welcome ceremony wouldn't consist of only a flying car.
"You all should get away from here."
Joey slowly rose into the air, warning everyone nearby to evacuate before preparing to fly toward the source of the sound.
"What's your name?"
The old man looked at the red cape fluttering behind him in midair and shouted:
"I oughta know who saved me!"
"You can call me..."
Having already locked onto the source of destruction with his vision, Joey vanished into the distance in the next instant, leaving behind only his name:
"Superman."
No matter which universe it was, there were always idiots arrogant enough to believe they could control powers that never belonged to them in the first place.
And inevitably, they always burned themselves alive playing with fire.
For example, there happened to be a perfect example rampaging through Queens, New York right now.
A mutated being enhanced by Hulk serum had become a completely uncontrollable killing machine.
If Joey remembered correctly, the creature was called Abomination—a crude imitation of the Hulk.
Even so, a monster like this was far beyond what modern New York civilians could handle.
Long before Joey arrived, that entire district had already become a battlefield.
As Abomination's massive body smashed through buildings and burst onto the streets, venting his destructive urges against everything around him, the situation instantly spiraled out of control.
Large numbers of soldiers and police officers riding armored infantry vehicles and helicopters pushed against the fleeing crowds, trying to stop the rampaging monster.
Police pistols.
Assault rifles.
Autocannons.
Armor-piercing rounds.
Even rockets.
An endless storm of firepower poured onto the three-meter-tall monster.
Yet every attack barely even scratched him.
Humanity's most advanced steel and firepower meant absolutely nothing before the current Abomination.
Growing irritated, Abomination leapt dozens of meters in a single bound and crashed directly into the military firing line.
"Boring!"
The sharp bone spikes protruding from his arms and shoulders sliced effortlessly through the alloy armor of an infantry fighting vehicle, cleaving the driver and gunner inside cleanly in half.
Covered in blood, he raised his head and roared toward the sky:
"WHERE IS HULK?!"
Abomination had originally been a super-soldier cultivated by the military.
He had once participated in the operation to capture Dr. Bruce Banner—the original Hulk himself.
The outcome had been obvious.
He had lost horribly.
Now, obsessed with obtaining even greater power, he had stolen Hulk serum and injected it into himself, mutating into an 'ultimate lifeform' even stronger than Hulk.
At this moment, all he could feel was his ever-growing desire for slaughter.
Hearing the screams around him, Abomination casually hurled aside a nearby old Ford sedan before ripping a massive chunk of concrete directly out of the road beneath it.
With a single throw, the giant 'pebble' smashed a distant M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle into scrap metal.
As a flawed copy of the Hulk, some instinctive connection deep within him told him that Hulk was nearby.
These ordinary weapons couldn't harm him at all.
He knew only Hulk himself could satisfy the savage battle-fury raging inside him.
"Come out!"
"Give me a real FIGHT!"
At this moment, Dr. Bruce Banner was being held under military supervision inside a distant helicopter, observing the battle remotely.
In the past, he could never understand why anyone would pursue a power capable of destroying an entire city because of the slightest spark of anger.
That was why he had spent years desperately trying to remove Hulk from his body.
And now, thanks to suppressants, he had finally succeeded.
He had lost the ability to transform into the Hulk.
Yet now, facing Abomination's challenge and the countless innocent civilians in danger, Bruce suddenly began to understand the importance of possessing power.
At that moment...
He realized he needed the Hulk.
Dr. Banner volunteered immediately, shouting at General Ross, who was commanding the operation on-site:
"Let me down there! Only the Hulk can stop him now!"
"No!"
Betty immediately objected.
As Banner's former lover and research partner, she knew exactly what condition he was in.
At this point, whether Banner could even transform into the Hulk again was completely uncertain.
"You'll die, Banner!"
"I'm sorry, Betty. I know this is irresponsible and makes absolutely no scientific sense, but..."
Banner chose the fastest possible method to awaken the Hulk inside himself.
He opened the helicopter door, shut his eyes tightly, and leapt from a thousand-meter altitude.
"Somebody has to do it."
"...?"
The expected sensation of falling never came.
Confused, Dr. Banner opened his eyes and discovered himself hovering motionless in midair.
Behind him came a slightly teasing voice:
"An innocent man falling dramatically from a helicopter..."
"So what's this supposed to be? A Pinochet helicopter ride?"
Joey held onto the falling Dr. Banner and gently placed him atop a nearby low-rise building.
Then he lightly exhaled a breath downward.
Below them, Abomination—who had been raging through the streets crushing everything in sight—instantly froze solid under the extreme cold, becoming an enormous ice sculpture trapped in place.
Only then did Joey finally relax a little.
According to the normal version of events Joey remembered, this battle should have ended with Bruce Banner falling from the sky, transforming into the Hulk upon impact, and eventually subduing Abomination after a fierce fight.
But now Joey didn't dare take that risk.
That was why he prioritized catching Banner over stopping Abomination.
After all, in the previous Earth, according to the normal timeline, Barry Allen should have regained the Speed Force after being struck by lightning and repaired the entire universe.
Instead, Barry had died instantly beneath that lightning bolt.
Then after Old Batman's series of desperate gambles, the poor guy ultimately ended up without even a corpse left behind.
"And who are you supposed to be?"
Dr. Banner stared at the young man wearing a red cape and blue-and-red uniform, his mind filled with confusion.
"Another military super-soldier?"
"No, I'm Sup—"
CRACK!
Before Joey could finish explaining, Abomination shattered the ice imprisoning him.
At last, he noticed Joey and Dr. Banner standing nearby, his eyes immediately filling with murderous excitement.
"So there you are, Banner!"
Seeing this, Joey sighed softly.
This poor bastard had originally been nothing more than another military experiment.
And now he had injected himself so full of drugs his skull practically looked pointy.
Capturing and defeating the Hulk had been his unfinished mission.
Even though the serum had already fried most of his brain, that obsession still remained.
"Easy there. We can solve this peacefully."
At this moment, Joey genuinely didn't want to fight anymore.
He had already endured an incredibly rough couple of weeks.
Couldn't he at least get a moment of peace?
Unfortunately, Abomination clearly disagreed.
He interpreted Joey's restraint as weakness.
With a furious roar, he launched himself directly at Joey in a massive leap.
Honestly, his appearance didn't even feel unfamiliar to Joey.
He looked like a less handsome version of Doomsday.
Well, whether it was Doomsday or Abomination, they were basically the same thing anyway.
Time to teach him a lesson.
Joey stepped in front of Dr. Banner protectively and threw a punch directly at the airborne Abomination.
BOOM.
A dull explosive sound echoed through the battlefield.
More than half the people observing the battle instantly felt their innocent little hearts suffer catastrophic emotional damage.
"WTF—!"
Behind Joey, Dr. Banner involuntarily screamed.
Then his stomach suddenly lurched violently.
Bending over, he vomited up the two Mexican tacos he'd bought that morning from a food stand outside the university.
"Y-You... BLURGH..."
It wasn't just Banner.
Even Joey himself froze completely in place.
Looking at his blood-covered fist, then at the chunks of flesh and scattered gore painting half the upper floors of the surrounding buildings crimson, Joey let out a genuinely shocked exclamation of his own:
"...Shit."
Joey genuinely had not intended to kill Abomination.
His original goal had simply been to give the guy a perfectly calibrated concussion-grade but medically survivable punch to the head.
Now, having only just arrived in this universe, Joey suddenly realized something very important:
He had entered yet another paper-thin world.
At least for now, this universe didn't have hordes of nearly unkillable Amazons, Atlanteans, Kryptonians, Tamaraneans, Lanterns, Doctor Fate-level beings, or Doomsdays running around everywhere.
Next time he attacked something...
He absolutely needed to correct his habits.
He could no longer fight with the same total lack of restraint he'd developed in his previous world.