"Ugh!"
Jor-El had only just stood up when he failed to dodge in time and took Joey's punch directly to the face, staggering backward with stars flashing in his vision as though he were about to collapse.
Kara immediately rushed forward and caught her uncle before he could fall.
"What are you doing, Kal-El?! He's—"
After hesitating for a moment over her wording, she finally added:
"...your father!"
Joey raised his fist again as if preparing for another swing.
"What, does Krypton not have a concept of a rebellious phase?!"
Kara quickly grabbed onto him with both hands, desperately trying to stop the father and son from escalating things any further.
"Kal-El, calm down!"
What should have been a touching father-son reunion had somehow devolved into an absurd farce of family violence.
And somehow, that only made the already tense atmosphere even stranger.
The guards behind Jor-El immediately shifted into aggressive stances.
Cyborg and Hawkgirl likewise prepared themselves for combat, while Batman frowned silently and took one discreet step backward.
If a fight broke out, he was absolutely leaving first.
Back when Bruce himself had faked his death, the Bat-family fighting over a single cape had only resulted in half of Wayne Tower getting destroyed.
But when the Clark Kent from his own universe had actually died for a while, the ones fighting over Superman's cape had practically demolished half of Metropolis.
Bruce had only been in this universe for a week.
How the hell had things escalated this badly already?
With nothing left besides a single Watchtower and no real foundation to stand on, Batman was beginning to feel a very real sense of urgency.
If he started building anti-Kryptonian armor from scratch... would it still be in time?
Faora moved again like a phantom slipping through shadows.
With a twist of her wrist, the dagger hidden along her arm slid forward into her hand.
This time, however, the blade was not crackling with the dangerous purple energy of the Pain Matrix.
That weapon was far too dangerous.
She merely intended to teach this young man a lesson—to make him show the most basic level of respect toward his biological father, the Supreme Chancellor of the Kryptonian Empire.
Long before the death of High Priest Ro-Zar, leader of Krypton's High Council, Faora had already been feared across Krypton as the ruthless right hand of Jor-El, leader of the Sword of Rao.
Compared to most Kryptonians, her frame was relatively small and slender.
But her movements and personality were cold, vicious, and merciless.
Born to be both warrior and assassin, she moved faster than anyone present could properly react.
By the time Joey—still tangled up with Kara—noticed her approach, the dagger was already inches from his shoulder.
For a Kryptonian, the outer shoulder was considered a relatively safe target.
A stab there could temporarily cripple part of the opponent's offense without actually threatening their life.
Clang!
The expected sensation of flesh and bone being pierced never came.
The moment the dagger struck bone, the impact instead exploded into the sound of metal colliding against steel.
After enduring torrents of Green Lantern beams not long ago, injuries like this no longer even registered as pain to Joey.
At this point, he honestly did not know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Pain was supposed to be proof that a living creature was still alive—its final warning system.
So what exactly was he now?
With a casual swing of his arm, Joey blasted both Faora and the still-stunned Kara backward at the same time.
The sheer force shattered the dagger, leaving only half the broken blade embedded in his shoulder.
"Faora? I already told you—there is no need to concern yourselves with what stands before me—"
Jor-El suddenly hissed in pain.
After finally steadying himself, he lowered the hand covering his face.
A dark bruise was already forming around his right eye.
Joey's punch had absolutely not held back.
At that moment, Jor-El looked at Joey.
Even though the punch to the face still hurt badly enough to make his teeth ache, it could not hide the delight in his eyes.
"It really is you, Kal-El... my son!"
The young man standing before him was absolutely not the counterfeit from another universe currently lying unconscious somewhere inside the Watchtower.
Jor-El only needed a single glance to confirm that with the certainty of a scientist.
He carefully stepped forward and pulled the broken dagger fragment from Joey's shoulder.
The wound immediately began healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Jor-El was now completely certain.
The son before him was the ultimate Kryptonian creation spoken of only in ancient myths.
That was what he thought internally.
But when the words finally left his mouth, they became something else entirely.
"Look at you," Jor-El said softly. "You've grown into such a resilient warrior. If your mother could see you now, she would be so proud."
Joey immediately caught the hidden implication in those words.
After punching Jor-El to vent the rage he still felt over Starfire's injury, he knew he could not simply turn hostile now.
"...If?" Joey repeated quietly.
"You left Krypton far too early," Jor-El replied. "There are many things you will need time to accept."
He wiped at the corner of his eye before lightly patting the S-shaped crest on Joey's chest.
The symbol of the House of El.
One of the greatest noble lineages on Krypton.
And yet even that emblem of supreme honor had failed to prevent tragedy from descending upon his family.
"To me, your mother Lara was a strong and courageous woman," Jor-El said. "Kal-El... that was the name she gave you in the final moments of her life."
"A severe hemorrhage after childbirth left me powerless to save her. She did not survive."
"And you became the most precious thing she left behind in this world... the greatest legacy she left to me."
"At the time, Krypton was already approaching the brink of destruction, and I still had not found a true solution to stabilize the planet's core."
"So I had no choice but to send you away."
"I know all of this must feel unfamiliar to you. You may not even know whether you should feel grief."
Seeing Joey momentarily frozen in place, Jor-El slowly opened his arms and pulled him into an embrace, gently patting his back.
"But it's alright," he said quietly. "The twenty years we both lost... we can slowly make up for them together."
Held in Jor-El's arms like that, Joey's expression tightened.
His bloodline connection left him with a faint, indescribable sorrow over the death of his biological mother—
Even though, to him, she was still essentially a stranger separated by twenty years and hundreds of light-years.
But what truly troubled him was something else entirely.
How much of Jor-El's seemingly heartfelt confession had actually been true?
Because at the very least, one thing still made no sense.
Nothing in that story explained why the Kryptonian half inside Joey was not normal.
Why it was not simply Kryptonian—
But Doomsday.
And Kara's attitude toward Jor-El was equally telling.
As his niece, she was clearly afraid of him.
So why was someone like Jor-El treating him alone with such warmth?
Was it really just because he was his biological son?
...Well.
To be fair, that actually was a pretty convincing reason.
Joey did not want to spend the very first day of reuniting with his father already calculating and testing him.
But right now, he did not really have a choice.
So perhaps he should test just how much influence this 'son' truly had over Jor-El.
Did the man genuinely love him?
Or was he, just like Joey himself, merely playing the family card?
"...Father."
Joey finally asked the question that had been bothering him ever since returning to Earth.
"What exactly are you searching across the planet for with those cloaked ships... and why are you keeping all of us stalled here?"