When Li Jie hung up, he leaned back in his wheelchair and stared at the ceiling for a full five seconds.
"What happened?" Harleen leaned over from beside him. "What did Clark say?"
"He didn't." Li Jie sounded like a ghost. "Kara did."
"Kara?" Harleen laughed. "The regime killer?"
"Yes, and that's not all..." Li Jie drew a deep breath. "Clark's already left. Before he went, he entrusted Metropolis to his older cousin."
Harleen blinked, then burst out laughing.
"What are you laughing at?"
"I'm picturing it." Harleen's shoulders shook with laughter. "A Kryptonian girl who's barely an adult, looking after the house on her own for the first time. Then she gets excited, and all those skyscrapers in Metropolis..."
She raised a hand and mimed them collapsing.
Li Jie didn't laugh. He looked as though he had just swallowed a live toad.
"You know what the scariest part is?" he asked, his face scrunching up. "She's not just watching over Metropolis. Clark also asked her to keep an eye on Gotham while she's at it."
"..."
Harleen's smile froze. Then her eyes shifted, and she started laughing again.
"While she's at it?" she repeated, cupping Li Jie's face. "Looking after Gotham? Would that make you happy?"
"No..."
Li Jie shook his head wearily. "A... rebellious teenage girl with a drinking problem and overwhelming combat power... What if she gets drunk one night, flies the wrong way, and crashes into Wayne Tower because she mistakes it for a streetlight?"
"Wayne Tower is a streetlight."
"That's not what I meant!"
Li Jie rubbed his temples, feeling his blood pressure rise at a practically visible rate.
"The problem is, she's Metropolis's temporary guardian now. If something happens, not only will we have no backup, we'll have to send people to rescue her.