With Grodd dead, the apes whose intelligence had been artificially elevated under his influence quickly regressed back into beasts and scattered in all directions.
Joey was about to use his heat vision to pick off a few apes hidden among them—those clearly different from the rest—but Kara reached out and covered his eyes.
She gently tugged at his cape. Though she said nothing, Joey understood what she meant.
He brushed her hand aside and used his vision to precisely burn through the skulls of those hidden among the herd.
"Look with your own eyes. Their brain structures are completely different from the others. Letting them go would be a danger to the locals."
"I know… but they can think like we do. I'm not sure what we're doing is right…"
Kara's reasoning made Joey sigh helplessly. This Kryptonian really thought like what people would call a saint—but true saints don't survive in war.
"Listen, Kara. Don't be misled by what that ape said. In war, both sides fight for survival and their own interests. To those involved, there's no right or wrong—only sides."
Joey had understood this long ago. And he understood even more clearly what role people like them could play.
"A war's course and outcome can determine the fate and lives of tens of thousands—even hundreds of millions. People like us can easily change that course and decide those fates based on our own preferences."
Joey had thought about this countless times before. With just a thought, he could erase every injustice he had ever witnessed in his previous life—but he had never been sure whether he should.
Was his sense of justice truly the one humanity needed?
If the world were a train, then the world he came from—though chaotic—was still on its tracks. Humanity had always been like that.
But this world had already derailed. And now that the Flash was dead, if he didn't catch that runaway train, everyone on board would die.
His version of justice might not be perfect—but why not try? Things couldn't get worse than they already were.
After the two of them completely crushed Grodd's army, the freed survivors were gathered together by remaining resistance fighters. They were half-naked, emaciated—mostly tribal people from Central Africa, abducted by Grodd's forces as mobile food supplies.
One tribesman with intricate facial markings rushed forward, knelt before Joey and Kara, and began chanting something Kara couldn't understand.
"What is he saying?"
Joey translated for her. "He says you're a savior sent into the world by the god Morpheus."
African mythologies had long since fragmented beyond recognition. Joey had no idea which pantheon this Morpheus belonged to.
But it didn't matter.
After observing for a moment, Joey used his heat vision to pierce the ground. Pressurized groundwater burst upward, forming shallow pools for the survivors to wash themselves.
Then Kara carried over supplies from Grodd's convoy to feed them.
Joey gathered weapons and fire-starting tools for their self-defense.
Grodd was dead, and his empire would soon collapse—but that didn't mean Africa would find peace.
Just like before, the deserts and savannas would see another cycle of slaughter. Only this time, the conflict would shift back from apes versus humans… to humans versus humans.
The only constant was war.
Joey needed to deal with other regions before these survivors inevitably began fighting each other.
---
The British Isles.
At first, the war between Wonder Woman and Aquaman had been confined to their own domains. The Amazons and Atlanteans had not yet brought their blades into the human world.
But everything changed when Themyscira sank beneath the sea during its war with Atlantis.
The Amazons were an all-female warrior race—the last descendants of the Greek gods left in the mortal world. With their homeland gone, they had no choice but to enter the world of men.
When these displaced Amazons arrived on the shores of Britain aboard Greek warships, Wonder Woman went to London to negotiate, hoping to secure a place for her people to settle.
But for Britain, such a request sounded all too familiar.
Today you ask for land. Tomorrow you prepare to expand. The day after, you'll be sitting on the throne in Buckingham Palace.
Wonder Woman found their reasoning… reasonable.
So she drew her sword.
Human armies were no match for Amazon blades. Though their ships appeared to be wooden triremes, they were enchanted by Olympian magic—impervious to modern steel warships.
Faced with such overwhelming power, entire military units surrendered. In less than twenty-four hours, the Amazons had conquered all of Britain.
From 10 Downing Street, Diana delivered a speech declaring Amazon sovereignty and renaming the British Isles 'New Themyscira.'
Joey arrived just in time to witness it.
After finishing her speech, Queen Diana ordered her subordinates to expel the media, then leapt into the sky toward Joey's position.
The invisible jet had already detected the intruder.
Yes—while they sailed across the seas in wooden ships, the Amazons also possessed the world's most advanced invisible aircraft—not just radar-invisible, but optically invisible as well.
While Diana was still speaking, Artemis had already drawn her sword, standing atop an invisible jet's wing and engaging Joey midair. By the time Diana arrived, the battle was nearly over.
As one of the Amazons' finest warriors, Artemis far surpassed Joey in combat skill.
But there was one problem—she was too slow.
Whether flying or sprinting, even using the invisible jet as a stepping platform, she couldn't touch him at all.
Joey simply exhaled a breath, freezing her sword into brittle metal. With a light strike, he shattered it, then pulled her off balance with the broken blade.
"Stand down, Artemis."
Wonder Woman, having watched the latter half of the fight, knew Joey had only been toying with her companion and decisively ordered Artemis to withdraw.
"What is your purpose here?"
Diana drew the Godkiller and pointed it at Joey. Forged by the god of forge, it could cut matter at the subatomic level. She had seen enough arrogant men like him.
"If you're here like other men—to persuade the Amazons to withdraw—you're wasting your time. The Amazons will never give up the land they depend on for survival."
With Themyscira gone, they had nowhere left to retreat.
As stated before—this war was not about right or wrong.
Only about sides.
---