"Oh ho ~"
Lois Lane —Earth 3— emerged from beneath the desk with a satisfied smile. She used a finger to brazenly wipe the corner of her mouth, licking it slowly, as if she were in no hurry at all.
"I heard our green friend is doing quite well with the new girl," she commented in a mocking tone.
Axel adjusted himself calmly, showing no surprise whatsoever.
"Huh? So J'edd J'arkus got himself a partner," he replied with calculated indifference. "Good for him. Maybe that way his species will stop being on the brink of extinction."
There was no mockery in his voice. Only a cold, almost administrative analysis.
Shakira.
One of the many women Axel had rescued in Skartaris. She possessed the ability to change shape and transform into a cat; a power that, according to what he had learned, was linked to the Red Force.
Before, that concept would have been completely foreign to him.
Not now.
How did a man who barely knew the DC universe end up mastering that knowledge?
Thanks to his brother, Axel went from ignorant to expert.
By learning more about his brother's romantic history, he understood why his brother felt so proud of dating Kate Kane.
Superwoman was her identity.
"Interesting," Axel murmured to himself.
"Speaking of repopulating species," Lois said as she straightened up and walked toward the window, "J'edd mentioned he found a living green Martian while patrolling Mars."
Before she even finished the sentence, she was already gone, flying off.
"Hm?" Axel murmured, a slow smile forming on his face. "A green Martian…?"
He calmly fastened his pants.
—Tsk… tsk… —he clicked his tongue in amusement—. This woman always leaves without saying goodbye. Sometimes I think that if it weren't for the fact that she wants to have my child, she wouldn't even speak to me.
When he awakened the rest of the summons, just as he had done with the first girls, he barely altered their memories. He only made them loyal and added a bit of shared history and romance and all that. For example, she believed she would give him the chosen child and everything that implied.
He smiled faintly.
"If I'm not mistaken, that Green Martian is Miss Martian."
It was excellent news.
Green Martians were lethal creatures. Powerful enough to compete with Kryptonians.
"And it won't be long before she awakens," he added, recalling the unconscious body he had found on Mars some time ago.
…
Temporary Base — Dinosaur Island
Inside a sealed room, Axel and Lois watched in silence.
Diana, on the other hand, did not hide her unease. Her eyes were fixed on the blue-and-white-haired woman lying on the bed.
This woman… Diana thought with unease. She makes me feel an immense danger.
"If only you knew," Axel murmured. He had already consulted his brother and discovered this woman's identity. She was not from this universe—the daughter of the most powerful being in existence, created with the sole purpose of killing her father.
A DC version of Gamora, Axel thought after hearing her story.
"Where am I?"
Her eyes opened.
A deep, intense, noble… and terrifying red.
The woman looked around with genuine confusion.
"Is this a room? Then… who am I?"
A chill ran down Diana's spine. Not even standing before Axel had she felt something like this.
There was power in that woman. Sealed power… but absolute.
Her gaze shifted toward the two Amazons present.
"Interesting," Axel thought, noticing she wasn't pretending to be disoriented. Perhaps something had caused her memory loss—maybe the same reason she had crashed onto Mars.
"Are you… our daughters?"
Axel, who had been helping her sit up while considering the implications of her amnesia, froze.
M-Mother!?
The Amazons reacted instantly, tense, restrained only by Axel's explicit order not to attack.
"Do you truly remember nothing?" he asked with forced calm.
The woman frowned. Something inside her reacted to Axel's aura… not with fear, but with recognition.
"No," she replied slowly. "I was sleeping… and then I woke up."
She lifted her gaze.
Her red pupils fixed on Axel with unsettling clarity.
It was not the gaze of a prophesied destroyer.
It was vulnerable.
She leaned against him without thinking, listening to the rhythm of his heartbeat. The sound calmed her.
Axel embraced her.
It was obvious there was monstrous power within her, but for now it slept. Sealed.
"Amnesia…?" he murmured.
Axel narrowed his eyes.
The crisis is resolved… for now. But… how did she reach Mars?
He gently stroked her long blue hair.
"Your name is Grail," he said firmly. "And from today onward… we are a family."
Axel acted quickly. He would be a fool not to seize the moment. What would happen when she regained her memory? It didn't matter—he would deal with that in the future. Who knew? Perhaps she would never remember.
"Grail…?" she repeated softly.
The name echoed within her.
When she looked up, she saw Axel's ambitious smile… and still, she nodded.
Even though her mind was empty, her instinct screamed that she should remain by his side.
That he could protect her.
That he could carry whatever it was that pursued her.
And Axel understood it in that moment.
Originally, he had considered eliminating her.
Now…
He would take advantage of the opportunity.
Fate had just handed him another weapon.