The Watcher Uatu had seen many strange and extraordinary things over the course of his existence.
He had witnessed countless bizarre creatures.
He had even once seen a frog lift Thor's hammer.
But this?
This was something entirely new.
From Joey's corpse, a brand-new consciousness was awakening and taking control.
First came a layer of bony armor, thick enough to withstand the freezing temperatures and radiation of deep space.
Then, growing from that skeletal shell, came a series of hollow structures resembling propulsion thrusters.
Just as Uatu was puzzling over how such organs could possibly function, faint points of light began to glow from within the openings.
Under the illumination of that eerie light, Joey's body slowly began to accelerate.
Toward the Sun.
A carbon-based organism that could grow a reactionless propulsion system directly out of its own body?
Even someone as knowledgeable as Uatu felt that this was becoming suspiciously unscientific.
But what fascinated the Watcher most was not the creature's bizarre biology.
It was the emotion it carried.
Hatred.
Hatred toward the entire material universe.
A loathing so intense it seemed to wish to devour every form of existence alive.
Uatu had encountered emotional signatures like this only in a handful of exceptionally unusual universes.
And even then, none had ever been as pure as this one.
The monster born from the corpse of a fallen hero was now slowly making its way toward the Sun.
Vacuum offered no resistance.
Even with such a low-power reactionless propulsion system, reaching sunlight would not take very long.
Considering the biological characteristics of the body's original owner, once it reached sufficient solar radiation...
The consequences for the Solar System—and perhaps the entire universe—would likely be catastrophic.
But what did any of that have to do with a Watcher?
Uatu thought to himself.
He was a Watcher.
He had taken an oath.
Observe.
Never interfere.
With infinite multiverses came infinite paths leading to destruction.
The moment one allowed oneself to interfere out of misplaced compassion for a single universe, sooner or later one would become entangled in all of them and never escape.
Having convinced himself once more, Uatu let out a long sigh and turned his gaze away.
He could not bear to witness the world's final outcome.
Soon afterward, the bone-covered object entered the Solar System and finally touched the outermost rays of sunlight.
[Superman, open your eyes!]
Half-asleep, Joey felt as though a thousand-lumen spotlight had been aimed directly at his face.
He immediately opened his eyes.
"Who turned on the lights? Turn them off!"
As consciousness returned, the bony shell and propulsion structures covering his body instantly decayed and crumbled away.
They disintegrated into drifting ashes, as though they had never existed at all.
With Joey's life signs restored, the light of life within Ultraman reignited as well.
After hesitating for a long while, Lipiah finally asked about what had just happened.
[...Do you remember what happened just now?]
"The part where the Alien Zarab blew himself up?"
The moment he woke up, Joey had immediately rushed to the Sun and taken a quick lap around the corona to recharge.
Now feeling completely refreshed, he grinned.
"See? Villain self-destructions may look dangerous, but they're actually perfectly safe."
[I disagree.]
Lipiah had realized there was a gap in Joey's memory.
When Joey lost consciousness, Lipiah had also lost permission to observe the outside world through their shared body.
But even so, during that period, he had sensed something.
Something immense.
A terrifying darkness had been invading this body.
[Now that I think about it, when Zarab self-destructed, we were much farther away from the Solar System.]
"Well, it was a pretty powerful explosion."
Joey already had more than enough problems on his plate and had no interest in digging into the abnormalities surrounding his body.
He simply intended to brush off Ultraman's concerns.
"Maybe it was just an aftereffect of the blast."
[The more powerful a person becomes, the harder it is to resist the darkness within. You remind me of a young man I met while pursuing the cosmic fugitive Yanakargi.]
Every individual could have secrets of their own.
Even a giant of light as socially inept as Lipiah understood that much.
Still, he felt obligated to offer a warning.
[Like you, beneath the light of hope on the surface, he concealed a darkness without bottom or end. I only hope that, like him, you will always preserve the light of hope within your heart.]
"The 'young man' you're talking about..."
Joey raised an eyebrow.
"You don't happen to mean another Giant of Light like yourself, do you?"
Able to embody both light and darkness.
Joey had a pretty good idea who Ultraman was talking about.
"Forget it. Let's focus on the important stuff first."
Although Zarab's explosion had left his head spinning, Joey hadn't forgotten what he had originally set out to do.
"I only wanted to take a quick trip and exterminate some multiversal pests. How the hell did things end up like this?!"
For some reason, before he had even managed to wipe the Inheritors out across the multiverse, he had already gotten beaten up in this universe first.
As the two exchanged veiled remarks about the Doomsday lurking within Joey's body and subconscious, a massive spacecraft rose from Earth and interrupted their conversation.
It was the Marveller.
Leopardon's spaceship form.
The moment Joey flew through the ship's airlock, he immediately spotted Tony carrying a wrench and a handful of screws, wandering around the vessel while enthusiastically tapping and inspecting every corner.
At the moment, Tony looked exactly the same as he had when he first saw the Watchtower.
If Takuya Yamashiro hadn't still been sitting in the cockpit, he probably would have already started tearing off panels for research.
"Stop messing with that stuff, Tony! We're obviously in the wrong universe!"
Grabbing Tony by the shoulders, Joey nearly shook the armor apart.
"According to Peni and that pig, the Inheritor family might already be fighting the Spider-Army in Universe 2099. We need to get there immediately!"
"Exactly! Which is why Mr. Stark integrated an interdimensional transit module into my ship."
From the distant cockpit, Takuya Yamashiro flashed Joey a thumbs-up.
"There's no way I'm sitting out something this important!"
Spider-Men across the multiverse were being hunted down and slaughtered one by one.
For this universe's Spider-Man, Takuya Yamashiro, that was obviously unacceptable.
Without hesitation, he joined the battle against the Inheritors.
Privately marveling at just how catastrophically unlucky the Inheritors had become, Joey suddenly found his vision engulfed in white once again.
Supaidaman had activated the newly installed dimensional-jump system.
"Marveller, activate!"
"In my father's era, flying cars had already been invented. In my era, Stark Industries developed limitless clean energy..."
Amid the turbulent currents of space-time, Tony squeezed into the pilot's seat beside Takuya Yamashiro, still enthusiastically imagining the bright future of the year 2099.
"It's hard to imagine what incredible achievements people in 2099 must have accomplished!"
From Tony's perspective, Universe 2099 was essentially the future of his own era.
Naturally, he imagined a world steadily progressing toward something better.
Technological advancement would improve quality of life.
Improved quality of life would lead to greater stability and public safety.
"So tell me..."
Tony leaned back thoughtfully.
"Would a world like that even need Spider-Man anymore?"
Sitting against the wall nearby, Joey said nothing.
He simply smiled.
After all, he didn't have the heart to shatter Tony's dream.