Joseph had been clinging to the hull of the Thanagarian Star Cruiser for what felt like two days. His anti-gravity field was the only thing keeping him tethered in the void, and the constant effort of maintaining it had left him mentally drained. He'd never used his powers this long.
He'd always been arrogant. Ever since gaining powers, he'd believed he could pull off anything. Steal from high-security targets with no training just because he'd recently acquired an A.I. in his head. Win against two veteran sidekicks after only weeks of training. Even challenge a League of Shadows assassin without backup from the A.I., on two different occasions. Arrogant didn't even begin to cover it.
Why had he thought he could play hero and stop the cruiser? Why did he keep throwing himself into these impossible situations? This was the arena all over again.
The arena. That memory burned.
He remembered the winged Aellan warrior he'd been forced to kill. Her last words had been her cursing him. At the time, he'd dismissed it. But maybe... maybe it stuck. Maybe it followed him through the stars.
But screw curses.
He wasn't ready to die. There was still so much he hadn't done, hadn't learned. Kori's face flashed in his mind. He couldn't give up—not like in the arena. He had someone to live for now. Someone he had to get back to. He just hoped she wasn't awake and worried by his disappearance.
Arrogant or not, he had the power to back it up. He hadn't lost before—and he wasn't about to start now.
Then, space twisted around him—and suddenly snapped back to normal.
Joseph released his grip, sighing in relief… until that relief curdled into horror.
Red energy beams slammed into the cruiser. It melted like wax and broke apart in fiery chunks, pulled down toward a nearby planet by gravity.
He hovered alone, adrenaline surging as exhaustion vanished. He took in his surroundings.
Below him loomed a red-and-blue planet surrounded by a cracking shield. Probably Thanagar.
Above it, two gargantuan motherships—each hundreds of miles long—dueled in orbit, exchanging massive beams of energy. One targeted the planet's shield. The other trying to intercept and counterattack.
Hundreds of thousands of smaller ships swarmed in the chaos—some sleek and gray with red beams, others bulkier and silver-gray with yellow counter-fire. Some ships were barely 100 feet long. Others stretched past 1,000.
Just as he pieced that together, sixteen darker gray ships—probably Gordanian—ranging from fighters to corvettes, turned their attention on him.
The cruiser pilot had dropped him right into the heart of a warzone.
Red beams lashed out. Joseph dodged instinctively, heart pounding. He'd seen what those beams could do. The Star Cruiser had been laced with Nth metal—and it still melted. While he could absorb energy, he could still get hurt.
If this energy was hot enough to liquefy Nth metal, it could cook him alive before he absorbed it. And even if one alone couldn't, enough of them would.
Dodging wasn't enough. A beam from a smaller ship clipped his back, tearing through his suit. It seared like Klarion's magic—jolting pain across his spine.
He grunted, twisted mid-air, and forced himself to focus.
Enemy ships closed in, herding him into a kill zone. Was it because of Paran Dul's armor?
He blocked what he could with his armor suffused with Nova Force, granting them more resistance to energy as they glowed gold. But the blasts still scorched him. His defenses wouldn't last forever.
Defense wouldn't win this.
It was time to go on the offensive.
Joseph had always been able to manipulate the Nova Force—to scale it, temper it. He usually kept it non-lethal, less hot and more concussive, out of respect for the League's code. Even against monsters like Byth Rok he hadn't fully gone all out.
But this wasn't Earth. And he wasn't up against people who could be reasoned with.
There were thousands of Gordanian ships. One mistake, one stray hit at the wrong moment causing him to lose focus, and he'd be vaporized. He wasn't holding back.
A burning white-gold beam lanced from his eyes, carving through the Gordanian squadron. Ships split apart, spiraling into fireballs.
These hotter beams took way more energy. But the cost was worth it.
Half of them were gone in seconds.
Without missing a beat, Joseph gathered the wreckage with his anti-gravity field and launched it at Mach 2 toward the rest.
That gave him a bit of a headache. He would only use his anti-gravity for flight then.
Explosions bloomed. Shrapnel rained.
For a brief second, he almost felt pity. Then he remembered what the Gordanians had done. To him. To Kori. To entire civilizations.
The Gordanians were monsters. Intergalactic slavers. Their society revolved around warfare and conquest, serving the Citadel Empire with brutality and zero empathy.
The Thanagarians weren't saints either from what he'd overheard in the arena. Their empire had grown through conquest after the discovery of Nth metal. They were warlike, imperial, ruthless. But Joseph had seen Hawkman and Hawkwoman on Earth. They had empathy. They had fought to protect. Maybe not all Thanagarians were beyond saving.
The Hawks had definitely been cleared by the Lasso of Truth and Martian Manhunter's telepathy or two relatively new aliens wouldn't have been able to join the Justice League within two months, so he'd believe in them—for now.
He'd try to fight on Thanagar's side. Not because he cared what happened to them—but because, if nothing else, they could be negotiated with and helping them might be the ticket back home. Attempting to negotiate with a Gordanian would have him enslaved, again.
Let the two slaver empires destroy each other. Maybe the galaxy would be better off. But if Thanagar fell too fast, Joseph might never make it back to Earth. And from the looks of it, even with Nth metal tech, Thanagar was being outgunned. The Citadel had existed longer, had more soldiers, more ships, and Psion-enhanced weapons capable of melting Nth metal like butter.
His thoughts were interrupted as another wave of beams tore through the sky. More Gordanian ships closed in.
Joseph gritted his teeth. Time to give them hell.