As a Green Lantern Corps member, when you are on patrol in a sector of space and encounter a Kryptonian, how do you determine whether they are evil?
Very simple: strike first. If they strike back, they are Kryptonians with malicious intent. If they do not retaliate, then they are simply evil Kryptonians skilled at disguise.
This is the iron law of Universe Sector 2828 in the Vega Nebula.
Not without reason—most inhabitants of this sector have just endured the second dark age in nearly ten thousand years: the second 'Kryptonian Great Expansion.'
Unlike the one ten thousand years ago, when Kryptonians were relatively mild and only expanded by establishing colonies on primitive worlds, using trade as the primary means of interaction and resorting to force only when trade influence failed…
The current Kryptonians advance with warships. For civilizations that dare to resist them, they never hesitate to use force.
The Kryptonian homeworld's core has become unstable and could explode at any moment. They urgently need new territory and survival space for their species.
After hearing Green Lantern squirrel Chip's explanation, Joey suddenly felt as if the world had turned upside down, everything becoming unfamiliar once again.
If what this squirrel Lantern said was true, then all his previous plans for Earth would have to be completely rewritten.
He had spent so much effort making the Amazons and Atlanteans submit to him, even relocating Atlantis's capital from the ocean floor to the surface.
Then he would use these two factions, along with humanity, as three balancing powers over the world, preventing humanity from being the only group opposing him.
After that, he would gradually start from protecting third-world nations, subtly eroding legal and administrative authority by resolving local conflicts step by step, until most of the planet's population regarded his actions as legitimate.
But now everything was different—humans might willingly accept an alien orphan leading them toward a better future.
However, any sane mind would never accept being ruled by an alien whose homeworld still existed.
It was a simple matter of standpoint.
No—this wasn't even the time to think about that!
When Joey had previously seen Kryptonian sunstone technology, he had already been puzzled: how could such an advanced civilization manage to trap itself on a single planet?
Now it seemed his suspicion had been correct. Krypton had not been destroyed yet, and in order to survive, the Kryptonians had paid any price necessary.
And the destination of both his and Kara's ships had been set to Earth—so was Earth that 'price'?
Joey asked Chip:
"Your Corps is supposed to protect the weak and punish the strong. How can you tolerate this?!"
Chip only gave a bitter smile. The Green Lantern Corps did protect the weak—but Kryptonians were simply too strong.
"We've tried. But this is the first time in nearly ten thousand years that Kryptonians have expanded beyond M-class star systems. We simply cannot match them in places like the Tamaran system!"
The Battle of the Tamaran system was the most disastrous defeat in the Green Lantern Corps in a century. Chip had arrived from Sector 1014 when the war was already nearing its end.
He heard that even an Oa Guardian had personally brought a superweapon of the Corps into battle—but it still wasn't enough to stop the collapse.
Chip never even made it into the system before receiving the order to retreat.
In the final moment, he saw hundreds of Green Lantern rings flying out of the Tamaran system, while messages announcing the deaths of Lanterns echoed across the universe. The entire Corps presence in that system had been annihilated.
Even someone as battle-hardened and determined as Chip could not hide his fear when recalling it.
"After that, the Guardians forbade direct engagement with Kryptonian forces. They needed to redirect resources toward more urgent threats."
"This time, when our four-person patrol saw you alone in deep space, we thought we could capture you and extract intelligence."
"We didn't expect there to be a Kryptonian this powerful—our elite squad of four couldn't stop you."
Joey felt that being a Green Lantern was essentially a suicide job. Going head-to-head with Kryptonian forces in the Tamaran system didn't sound like an order any sane commander would give.
Roughly 80% of stars in the universe are M-class stars—the red suns Kryptonians are accustomed to. Yellow stars like Earth's sun are rare, only about 5–15%.
Unfortunately, Tamaran's system was illuminated by a bright star, even more radiant than Earth's sun.
Joey could imagine the kind of power Kryptonians could unleash under such conditions, especially in organized military fleets.
It wouldn't matter if there's hundreds of Green Lanterns—even if Darkseid led Apokolips' army there, they would likely still struggle.
The Green Lantern Corps clearly could not be relied upon. They had already suffered a crushing defeat in the Tamaran system. If Kryptonian fleets entered the Solar System, they would not intervene.
Fortunately, Kara was still on Earth and could hold things off—for now.
Wait. Kara…
Shit!
Joey threw the three Green Lantern rings back to Chip and flew toward Earth at his fastest speed, without looking back.
He suddenly remembered many things. When Kara first heard he had a human name, she had reacted with anger.
Unlike him or Superman Clark Kent—who had grown up on Earth and always had Earth names and Earth lives—Kara Zor-El had lived on Krypton for over a decade before her parents sent her to Earth.
Joey also remembered the two damaged data crystals Kara had taken. They likely contained critical information about Krypton's current state.
Krypton had been on the brink of destruction when their ships left—but somehow, the Kryptonians had found a way to halt that process.
If those crystals contained such information, or even allowed communication with Krypton…
Would Kryptonians, now spreading across the cosmos, ignore Earth?
Or worse than conquest—Tamaran had been completely wiped out, leaving only Starfire as the sole survivor. If Kryptonians arrived on Earth, what would happen?
On one side: her home of over ten years.
On the other: a primitive world that had once imprisoned and studied her for over a decade.
What would Kara choose?
Joey thought again of the crystals—and of her unusually low mood days earlier.
At the time, he had been too focused on subduing the Amazons and Atlanteans and shaping Earth's future to notice her distress.
He had assumed that newly awakened super-senses naturally caused emotional turbulence—that she would adjust with time.
Now it seemed that the least perceptive one… was him.
His red cape drew a crimson line through space. Crossing light-years took only a breath for him. In Earth's atmosphere, he could never move this fast—such speed would create catastrophic winds capable of devastating the planet.
When Joey arrived, Earth looked peaceful from afar.
He turned his gaze and saw Kara pacing outside the Fortress of Solitude.
He descended and stood before her.
Kara, sitting absentmindedly at the entrance, finally noticed him and snapped back to clarity.
"Kal-El, where have you been?! A woman asked me to give you this."
Joey looked at the card in her hand.
A tarot card.
From his perspective, it was the upright Death.
Tarot cards could be used for divination. Joey recalled that in this world, there was at least one master of destiny who used tarot—Madame Xanadu.
And Death, in tarot symbolism, was not necessarily literal death. It often meant transformation, endings, and rebirth.
What was ending? What was changing?
Joey didn't believe in such mystical nonsense. He had even crushed Doctor Fate's helmet without hesitation.
He took the tarot card and put it away. If he could carry the shattered remains of the Helmet of Fate, why fear a single card from Madame Xanadu?
There was no need for detective games under the nose of a Kryptonian.
So Joey asked directly:
"Kara, those two crystals—were they really broken?"
Kara, seeing Joey ask such a question, naturally realized she could no longer keep it from him. The conflict in her heart brought tears to her eyes:
"I… I was going to tell you later, Kal-El. The crystals contain the mission we were sent to this planet for."
"You should have told me earlier! What did they say?!"
Kara had always been kind-hearted and willing to distinguish right from wrong.
But when it came to Krypton, she had to admit Joey had been right. There is no right or wrong… only sides.
"They said… we came to this planet carrying a sacred mission."
Unnoticed by anyone, the tarot card changed once again.
It became the upright Fool.