As Mjolnir came hurtling across the horizon and flew into Thor's hand, a bolt of lightning descended from the heavens.
The disheveled drunkard transformed in an instant.
His ragged clothes vanished, replaced by magnificent scale armor befitting the Norse God of Thunder.
The Destroyer Armor had always been nothing more than armor.
It was only at its strongest when following the will of its true master.
Under Thor's thunderous strike, it failed to endure even for a moment.
Mjolnir, itself forged from Uru metal, smashed through the Destroyer as easily as a hammer shattering a glass ornament.
And this time, after having been repeatedly damaged and regenerated under Joey's attacks, the armor finally showed no signs of restoring itself again.
This entire farce had ultimately been a test Odin designed for his stubborn son.
Fortunately, after all of Joey's efforts hammering the lesson into him—both figuratively and literally—Thor had finally come to his senses before any large-scale casualties occurred.
Perhaps that was also thanks to the subtle influence of Future Joey in Thor's past, combined with Joey's final reminder in the present.
Whatever Odin's original goal had been, Joey had likely helped him achieve it even more effectively.
"Thank you, Superman."
Now once again acknowledged by Mjolnir, Thor stood proudly in the sky, casually spinning the hammer by its handle.
Gone was the lost, drunken vagabond from before.
As a god born extraordinary, Thor had spent only a few short days living as a mortal, yet had finally understood lessons he had failed to grasp over thousands of years.
A single decision made by a god could determine the life or death of countless ordinary people.
Because of that, power demanded restraint.
"You've helped me out of trouble yet again."
If Joey hadn't been busy holding up half a skyscraper, Thor might have rushed over and given him a crushing bear hug just like when they had parted ways a thousand years ago.
As Joey was considering how to safely relocate the severed upper half of the building without causing further damage, another familiar portal suddenly opened.
A golden doorway shimmered into existence, blood-red light flickering within.
"Again?"
No sooner had Joey spoken than two figures emerged from the portal.
A man and a woman.
Members of the Inheritors.
Dressed in crimson trench coats and white hunting attire, they immediately drew a hunting knife and a whip from their waists and hurled them toward the floating Thor.
"Die, red cape!"
Two of the Inheritors' strongest, proudest, and hungriest hunters had already suffered humiliating defeats in this universe.
And both had become strangely reluctant to discuss exactly what happened.
Curious, the Master Weaver had been ordered to open a portal to this remote universe.
The young twin hunters, Brix and Bora, had come personally to see what kind of person this mysterious red-caped figure really was.
"What fascinating creatures."
Thor had no idea who they were, but his hands weren't idle.
Raising Mjolnir, he called upon his divine power.
"I know not when we became enemies."
"But there is no reason to spare darkness that willingly walks into my path."
BOOM!
Thunder exploded across the sky.
The two newly arrived Inheritors—and even the weapons they had thrown—were instantly reduced to ash.
Thor didn't know why they had attacked him.
But with a single glance, he had seen their true nature.
Creatures of darkness and evil.
The sort that fed upon the souls and suffering of ordinary beings.
The kind where killing nine out of ten still meant you probably missed a few.
And on top of that, they had dared attack Thor Odinson, heir to the throne of Asgard and God of Thunder.
At that point, diplomacy was no longer necessary.
Heavy thunderous violence was fully justified.
"They probably came in with a 'see red cape, attack red cape' mindset."
Still supporting the upper section of the Empire State Building below, Joey immediately figured out what had happened.
"And you happen to be wearing a red cape too."
He glanced toward Thor floating high above.
"Actually, you're even more noticeable than I am."
Whether it was the two nameless Inheritors who hadn't even managed to introduce themselves before being vaporized...
Or Morlun and Daemos before them...
Their luck really couldn't have been much worse.
Not every being in the multiverse was as easy to bully as the ever-kindhearted Spider-Man.
And the Inheritors were clearly not a particularly united family either.
They definitely didn't have some kind of Forever Family group chat where everyone stayed in touch.
If they did, they probably should've shared information about what their enemies looked like—especially the ones capable of killing them instantly.
"I would very much like to help you deal with these dark creatures that keep pursuing you, but unfortunately, we must part ways here."
After instantly annihilating two members of the Inheritor family, Thor used Mjolnir to contact Heimdall, guardian of the Bifrost, ordering him to open a passage back to Asgard.
He was certain Superman didn't need his help.
And right now, the changes taking place in Asgard worried him far more.
"You and I both know that we will meet again."
"Forgive me, but I must return to Asgard immediately and deal with my brother... and the chaos he's caused."
Both in the past and now, Thor had often wondered whether everything had started because he had asked Superman about the future.
After learning that Loki would one day betray him, a thorn had remained lodged in his heart for a thousand years.
Now, with Mjolnir once again in his hand, his thoughts felt clearer than ever.
Just as Joey knew much of Thor's future, Thor likewise knew much of Joey's.
Both the good parts.
And the bad.
Though from one perspective their friendship had only just begun, when their eyes met, both men understood the same thing.
Across different points in time, they had reached the same conclusion.
Neither of them would ask.
Neither of them would seek answers.
An aurora-like phenomenon illuminated the skies above New York.
And the God of Thunder who had descended upon Midgard returned once more to Asgard.
Leaving only Joey and Starfire behind.
Particularly Joey.
"You asshole!"
"The least you could've done was help evacuate the people inside the building before leaving!"
Then something occurred to him.
The appearance of those two Inheritors had been far too casual.
Even if they weren't afraid of death, they wouldn't have shown up simply to die for no reason.
Realizing this, Joey turned eastward.
Toward Queens.
Toward the temporary hideout where Peter Parker and the three Spider-Men from other universes were staying.
"...Fuck."
---
If someone claimed that finding a safe place to set down half of a skyscraper weighing hundreds of tons was already difficult enough, then they had clearly never examined the internal structure of the Amazo Core.
In Tony's original estimation, things should have been straightforward.
After all, Cyborg had provided both technical documentation and a complete core before leaving.
Reverse-engineering the operating principles and reproducing the design shouldn't have been particularly difficult.
Or so Tony had thought.
Only after dedicating himself to studying it did he realize how absurdly optimistic he'd been.
This intelligent machine—capable of self-programming and perfectly imitating any superpower—had undergone who knew how many generations of self-evolution.
Now, looking at the original design documents alongside the finished core, Tony felt like someone trying to understand the workings of a nuclear fission power plant using nothing but blueprints for an Industrial Revolution steam engine.
Technically, both systems boiled water.
But you couldn't expect an eighteenth-century scientist to understand how plutonium-239 could be used to generate steam pressure for a turbine.
"I've been limited by the technological level of this era..."
Tony muttered to himself.
For the first time, he finally understood how his father must have felt whenever he said those words.
Fortunately, he wasn't Howard Stark.
A challenge like this couldn't stop the great Tony Stark.
So what if there was a tiny technological gap?
A gap of a few centuries?
He'd catch up within a month or two.
Boom!
The sealed doors of the laboratory were violently ripped open.
Joey burst through them using brute force.
His urgent shout instantly interrupted Tony's train of thought.
"I'm borrowing your lab, Tony!"
Without looking up from the Amazo Core analysis, Tony frowned.
"For what?"
"Is it more important than the Amazo project?"
"Portal construction."
"Starfire needs to return to her original universe to recharge her Lantern Ring."
"And I—"
Already fully suited up despite carrying no weapons, Joey clenched his fists and rolled his shoulders.
"I need to go to a new world, the year 2099."