"You're fired!"
With just one casual sentence over the phone, the president stripped Cyborg of his position as National Security Advisor, replacing him with the returning Captain Atom.
The official reason, of course, was that Cyborg had acted without authorization—deploying his drones and preparing to cross the Atlantic into Europe for rescue operations.
But the more likely reason was simple: compared to Cyborg, Captain Atom felt more like 'one of his own' to the president.
"Son of a bitch..."
What else could Cyborg even say at this point?
After firing him, the president revoked all of Cyborg's permissions at the Detroit industrial center—control over drone units, access to production lines, procurement authority, everything...
Not that it really mattered. In a world run by the internet, anything connected to the network was effectively under Cyborg's control anyway.
Still, the attitude stung.
The president had always been... something else—running a country like a spoiled rich kid running a company, making decisions entirely based on personal preference. If one day he got himself shot in the head because of his reckless behavior, Cyborg wouldn't even be surprised.
As for Captain Atom—he wasn't exactly the brightest either. After being screwed over by the president once before, he still took the job again...
"Couldn't you at least wait until I left before saying I'm not the brightest?"
Standing beside Cyborg, Captain Atom heard the muttering and sighed. Even he had no idea what kind of insane move their president might pull next. He wiped imaginary sweat from his forehead:
"I'd love to refuse, but I'm a soldier. The president is still the president—I don't exactly have the option to say no."
"What do you think he's going to have us do next?"
Cyborg replied irritably, "Wonder Woman and Aquaman have already ended the war, but the Justice Society of America I put together hasn't been disbanded yet! Next..."
"Next, I'd like to take over the Justice Society of America."
Joey and Wonder Woman descended from the sky, interrupting the conversation as they looked down at the two men.
"The group you put together does look like a circus—but there are still a few useful people in it."
Cyborg immediately diverted energy into all his weapon systems, ready for combat.
"I knew you aliens wouldn't be satisfied after stopping the war."
"Hey, easy!" Captain Atom raised a hand and pressed down Cyborg's arm cannon, stepping in as a mediator.
"Superman! You saved me from the Atlanteans—I haven't even had the chance to thank you yet."
"You can't blame Cyborg for reacting like this. You're an alien just walking straight into our territory, talking about taking over our military forces—and you've brought Wonder Woman with you, who literally invaded Britain. Who's going to accept that?"
Captain Atom would.
Because if a fight broke out in a city like Detroit, the casualties would be catastrophic.
Even if the other guy started insulting the president's entire family on the spot, Captain Atom would still smile and go along with it—
Anything to defuse the situation and move it somewhere safer.
"So, where's your cousin? My wife Angela also wants to thank you for saving me from the Atlanteans."
"Maybe we could have dinner together sometime?"
That was a pretty standard American courtesy—inviting coworkers or friends and their families over for dinner.
But for Joey—who had just driven his cousin Kara off Earth—
Those words hit a lot harder than intended.
"Good news is, there's less than a week until my family shows up at your doorstep."
Joey knew what Captain Atom said was just polite talk, so he chose not to take it to heart:
"Bad news is..."
Cyborg picked up the sentence:
"The bad news is they're coming to invade us, and you and your cousin are their advance force."
In the real world, Cyborg was limited by his physical body, but in the cyberspace formed by networks, he could do almost anything.
Back then, he had secretly copied most of the undeciphered data extracted from the spacecraft at S.T.A.R. Labs, dedicating a large portion of his processing threads to running decryption on servers. Only recently had he managed to extract some key information.
That was one of the main reasons for his intense reaction toward Joey—he had learned the true purpose behind 'Superman' and 'Supergirl' appearing on Earth.
"Shazam!"
Thunder and a shout echoed from afar—this was Billy Batson and his friends responding to Cyborg's call, transforming and rushing in to provide support.
With lightning and storm, Shazam arrived instantly from Fawcett City in Minnesota. He then raised a hand to stop Cyborg's hostile move:
"Don't always point guns at people, Cyborg. Superman just stopped an earthquake a few hours ago that could've destroyed all of Western Europe. You should at least hear him out."
Even without the Wisdom of Solomon, Shazam could tell that Superman's group wasn't here to start a fight.
Joey got straight to the point:
"You decrypting the files yourself saves me a lot of time explaining everything. Cyborg, I need your help to find and assemble a superpowered army—within six days… no, within three."
Joey knew how ridiculous it sounded—like organizing a bunch of street thugs to fight a professional army—but it was almost the only option left.
Earth's conventional military couldn't even handle the Amazons and Atlanteans. Expecting them to face Kryptonians on the front lines was unrealistic.
The technological level of Earth in this universe was roughly the same as what Joey knew from both his lives, and the gap between them and Kryptonians was enormous.
Give Joey seven years—or seventy—and he might be able to help humanity struggle against it. But seven days? At best, they could handle damage control.
"So you can use this force to suppress other people on Earth?" Cyborg refused immediately. "I'd rather die than help an invader oppress my own people."
Joey finally snapped:
"It's to protect humanity from the Kryptonian army that's about to arrive, you dumbass!"
To be fair, Cyborg's suspicion was understandable. No normal person would believe a Kryptonian would help humans fight his own kind.
That was exactly why Joey needed Cyborg to organize the metahumans. It wasn't just because of his abilities or his firm stance—it was because of Joey himself.
If Joey personally tried to organize a resistance against the Kryptonian army, the chances of success would be even lower than a Kryptonian fleet crashing during warp travel.
Simple reason—he belonged nowhere.
Once the conflict between Earth and Krypton became public, humans would see Joey as a Kryptonian, while Kryptonians would see him as a human.
What was he supposed to say?
Even though I was born Kryptonian, I'm basically human now?
Who would believe that?