Post by redsycorax on May 14, 2024 2:30:31 GMT
It is now thirty years since a devastating nuclear war engulfed this United States, from which it still has to fully recover after the destruction of many of its major cities. On this Earth, the World's Greatest Heroes have have transmuted destinies. Superman and Wonder Woman were devastated when the loves of their lives, Lois Lane and Steve Trevor, died in the aftermath and midst of the nuclear holocaust- Lois from radiation poisoning, and Steve from a brave but futile attempt to save Washington from nuclear destruction. While Supergirl still arrived on Earth several years later and even grew to Superwoman and married Dick Malverne here, Clark and Diana are eternally alone, but still committed to the service of humanity. Batman and Nightwing still patrol Gotham City and Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle are married with a daughter, Helena, but Bat-Girl I (Bette Kane) and Commissioner Barbara Gordon of GCPD and Roy (Speedy) Harper didn't. Embittered, in his isolated Star City Autonomous Republic, Oliver (Obsidian Arrow) Queen grew into a ruthless tyrant. As time went on, Batwoman (Kathy Kane) grew estranged from Batman and bonded with Obsidian Arrow over his harsher methods of law enforcement and eventually, in 1970, she abandoned her Batwoman identity to join the man she loved in SCAR.
Ten years later...a new civil war threatens:
+++
CHEYENNE, FEDERAL DISTRICT:
"How did it come to this, Superman? Wonder Woman?"
"I don't know, President Peirce. We thought that by leaving Obsidian Arrow to his destiny and remoteness, eventually he'd see sense if we made certain that he recognised his power has limits."
"Don't make excuses for her, Superman. Scarlet Arrow is just as culpable for her acts of tyranny, brutality and authoritarian rule as her lover."
"You've changed, Princess. Once, you would have had a sunlit utopian vision of the world and optimism that women's equality would change things. And for the most part, it has."
"Even back in those days, Clark, I faced female examples of depravity and violence. Some of them, like Paula Von Gunther, still had the moral compass and depth of character to turn their back on the evil that they committed and sought redemption. However, I was never naive enough to assume that all women were capable of that."
"I still think you were right, Diana. Like Paula, Lex reformed in his turn, married Lana and they even had a daughter. Then he became the First Gentleman of the New American Union. My heart broke when he died saving you."
"I know it, and I will always cherish his sacrifice and courage. Which is why, President Pierce, we will never surrender our responsibility to defend what Lex died for."
"Kara?"
"It's bad news, Clark. Oliver's somehow weaponised and subverted your old Superman robots. They're pre-programmed to ... to kill any anomalous genetic specimens they encounter in the course of their blitzkrieg."
"How? How did he get to hack into them like that?"
"Assuming that it was Oliver and not Kathy..." Diana observed.
"Does it matter, Diana? Either way, it's outright anti-mutant genocide. I hate this. I hate the fact we're facing people who should have been our allies and fought for the same goals that we did. Was it the War? Or was that potential already in those two?" Superwoman exclaimed.
STAR CITY AUTONOMOUS REPUBLIC:
"It won't be long now, Kathy."
"Either way, Oliver. It should have been done long ago, but no, their precious Union had to 'safeguard' the abstract civil liberties and human rights of mutants above the rights of humans who are trying to resettle the wastelands and make it law-abiding territories for settlement and a return to prosperity, health and wellbeing... I'm sorry, I'm ranting."
"Kathy, nothing you say or do strikes a discord. It's been a privilege to have you fighting alongside me all those years. Bruce didn't know what he was losing when your principles forced the parting of the ways."
"I've never regretted it, Oliver. I was so pathetic, wasn't I? Simpering like a Batman in lipstick."
"I'm glad I was instrumental in allowing the real Katherine Kane to emerge- the disciplined, seasoned warrior."
"You needed someone. I believed in what you did, what you stand for, and I still do. And always will."
GOTHAM:
"Macbeth and Lady Macbeth?" Selina Wayne coldly remarked as she watched the ruler of Star City and his consort presiding over a kangaroo court:
"Ouch. Weird, though, isn't it, darling? If things had been different, I might have married Kathy..."
"To think we traded we traded punches before I reformed. If I'd known what she was going to turn out like, Bruce, I would have hit her harder. It might have knocked some sense into her."
"I think Oliver Queen may have had a role to play in all that, Selina."
"Actually, I agree completely with Diana on that, Bruce. Katherine Kane is totally responsible for her own actions. Female tyrants are equally culpable for their cruelty and sadism and she has no excuse for hers. And if Diana wants to put together a female posse to bring her to justice at the end of all this, count me in."
"I know better than to stand in your way when you go after something."
"Am I that much an immovable force of nature, then?"
"I just wish Clark and Diana had had the same chance at happiness and fulfilment that we've had. Instead of which, they had to watch the people they loved most in this world perish in front of them. And then, Lana falling for Lex ended that route for him as well. I think Steve was the love of Diana's life as well. At times, she seems lost without him by her side. Insofar as an Amazon Princess ever can be. She might hide it well, but every so often, she looks toward the horizon and she must be thinking of Washington and Steve."
"If anyone deserved that heartbreak less, it's Wonder Woman. And Superman, come to that."
WASTELAND PERIMETER:
"Ready, everyone?"
"I think so. Damn it, Kal, why did they go ahead and do this? It's genocide. Are we that much of a threat to them? Did they learn nothing from what the war did to this world? And how far are they willing to go to extend their insane ideology?" Superwoman sighed.
"I know, Kara, it's heartbreaking. But as you said, they crossed a line when they unleashed those killer robots. Dick?"
"Trouble, everyone. The exoradiation settings on the sensors are picking up hard kryptonite emanations from the midst of that robotic swarm on the horizon." Nightwing said from within his exoskeleton.
"In which case, Richard, you and I will take the vanguard. Damn it! Where did they secure enough kryptonite to outfit a robot swarm with it?"
"Diana..."
"No arguments, Clark. You and Kara are too necessary to the New American Union to risk your lives bringing them down."
"I hate this. There are so many anomalies in this, so many unexplained twists and turns. How? How are they able to do this?"
ELSEWHERE:
"Oh, Nightwing. You blind, hopeless ingenue. Did you honestly think that advanced scientific research and practice ended when Lex Luthor died? Enough. Now I get to watch them tear each other apart, their precious Republic and Union destroy one another and I take over after the end."
"Listen. That apparatus of yours, it's corrupted you. Or was it grief for her? Man, I feel it too. She was my mother. I still mourn her. Do you think she would have wanted to see you turn out like this?"
"That's irrelevant. She's dead. I came to terms with that. And I'm afraid that you can do little about that, trapped in that form, in that cage."
"Look, why are you doing this? The country was rebuilding. It was moderately at peace. But for some reason, you threw Oliver Queen and Katherine Kane a poisoned fruit and they bit hard into it."
"Enough. Don't mistake my remaining feeling for you as a sign of weakness. Time for your daily injection..."
"Please. It's not too late..."
WASTELAND INTERIOR:
'The Doom Patrol? But Niles, Rita, Cliff and Larry have been dead for years."
"Think about it, Diana. President Magnus was assassinated at the end of his term. Why? Who else does that leave as a superscientist?"
"You mean...?"
"Yes. Steven Dayton, Rita's widower."
"I...assumed he died during the war. No-one's heard anything from him in decades."
"Bruce told me he was concerned at the way Dayton behaved after the Brotherhood of Evil killed the patrol. He suspected that the overuse of Steven's Mento helmet was starting to cause neurological damage. It might not have damaged his intellect, but it could have disinhibited him sufficiently to appeal to Oliver and Katherine's cankered and disoriented moral compasses."
"Richard, that's brilliant! So do you think you can find the viral incursion that caused him to seize control of the Superman robots? And provide countermeasures? Excuse me, I'm needed below..." THe invisible plane dived down to intercept a killer robot swarm as it closed in on an isolated mutant settlement. Above her, Nightwing smiled as he finished work on one last algorithm:
"Way ahead of you, Princess. For a change. Uh uh, tin boy. Time for lights out..."
And with that, the countermeasure virus was let loose and the robot chassis' jerked as their triggering sequence was aborted and its control programme was erased. Then their artificial intelligences recognised what they had been forced to do and self-destruct sequences triggered within their minds. Their fiery eyes died to charcoal as they fell to the ground, lifeless, in their hundreds.
"Diana?"
"You genius, Richard Grayson! You've saved thousands of lives!"
"Not quite yet. With any luck, Bruce, Selina and Helena will have made it to the triangulated source of this carnage. The bunker beneath the ruins of Dayton Industries."
DAYTON INDUSTRIES BUNKER:
"It's over, Steven. Come quietly."
"How did you... no. It's not important. You won't kill me. Your precious, indelible code against killing." Mento snapped as Batman, Catwoman and the Huntress stood in the airlock.
"Look at yourself, Steve. Rita was a friend. She wouldn't have wanted this. She loved you. What she wanted more than anything was to live a happy married life and raise Gar as your adopted child together."
"Do not bring my wife into this. Rita is gone. All that matters is subduing this world and uniting it under a practical if strict ruler."
"It's no use, Batman. That blasted Mento helmet of his has warped him and he's too far gone. Look, he's... he's too dangerous the way he is now. His machinations have killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of people already. It's tearing me apart to say this. He's all I have left of Rita, my mom, but he needs to be stopped." Garfield Logan, Beast Man, now trapped in his anthropoid form, said from a cage in the corner of the room.
"Please, Steven. Surrender. We don't want to hurt you..."
"No! You only think you've won! You haven't!" As Mento's face curled in an expression of sadism or insane delight, Huntress threw a batarang at Beast Man's cage. He yelled:
"Guys! He's got access to old USAF airbase locations. I think he's going to launch a flotilla at Cheyenne and the rest of the North American Union! Please! Don't stop me!" And then, tragedy was played out. Beast Man lunged for a startled Mento, who snarled in rage and set his adopted son's fur alight, but despite the pain as his fur and flesh seared, tears of grief in his eyes as he reached his treacherous, criminally insane foster father, Garfield Logan gritted his teeth and seized Steven Dayton's neck in his paws, and then there was the crack of bone and muscle as Beast Man broke Mento's neck. As he fell to the floor, death closing in, Beast Man whispered: "I'm sorry, Mom..."
STAR CITY AUTONOMOUS REPUBLIC:
By the time Superman and Superwoman broke into the SCAR presidential vault, Oliver Queen and Katherine Kane's bodies lay in each other's embrace, drained glasses of poisoned wine on the carafe alongside their bed.
"Oh, no. No. It shouldn't have ended this way, Kal. They didn't deserve this."
"I know, Kara. But the problem is, they were seduced into it. They allowed themselves to go down a dark path and convinced themselves that expediency and survival justified tyranny and dictatorship. Even if they were guyed into accepting it through Mento's psychological abuse, part of them wanted to accept it in the first place. And when the strings were finally cut, they were so dependent on their addiction to cruelty, brutality and unaccountable force that in the end, they were unable to survive without it."
"So it's over, is it? Kal, what did we win? Tell me that the loss of those two former heroes was worth it."
"No, Kara, I won't do that, because it's not. I wish there had been a better way too. And there'll be other serpents in this wounded Eden, but... the New American Union needs a league or society. Something to preserve justice and hope."
"'Hope.' I like that. The Hope Society."
"Or Justice League, Law Legion, whatever the others decide to call it. I wish I could believe Steven, Oliver and Katherine were the only threats that await humanity out there. But if they were there, there might be others. Yes, the Hope Society. Because we bring hope to others, allow people to dream that one day, peace and justice will reign here again..."
THE END [2.45 PM, MAY 16, 2024]
Ten years later...a new civil war threatens:
+++
CHEYENNE, FEDERAL DISTRICT:
"How did it come to this, Superman? Wonder Woman?"
"I don't know, President Peirce. We thought that by leaving Obsidian Arrow to his destiny and remoteness, eventually he'd see sense if we made certain that he recognised his power has limits."
"Don't make excuses for her, Superman. Scarlet Arrow is just as culpable for her acts of tyranny, brutality and authoritarian rule as her lover."
"You've changed, Princess. Once, you would have had a sunlit utopian vision of the world and optimism that women's equality would change things. And for the most part, it has."
"Even back in those days, Clark, I faced female examples of depravity and violence. Some of them, like Paula Von Gunther, still had the moral compass and depth of character to turn their back on the evil that they committed and sought redemption. However, I was never naive enough to assume that all women were capable of that."
"I still think you were right, Diana. Like Paula, Lex reformed in his turn, married Lana and they even had a daughter. Then he became the First Gentleman of the New American Union. My heart broke when he died saving you."
"I know it, and I will always cherish his sacrifice and courage. Which is why, President Pierce, we will never surrender our responsibility to defend what Lex died for."
"Kara?"
"It's bad news, Clark. Oliver's somehow weaponised and subverted your old Superman robots. They're pre-programmed to ... to kill any anomalous genetic specimens they encounter in the course of their blitzkrieg."
"How? How did he get to hack into them like that?"
"Assuming that it was Oliver and not Kathy..." Diana observed.
"Does it matter, Diana? Either way, it's outright anti-mutant genocide. I hate this. I hate the fact we're facing people who should have been our allies and fought for the same goals that we did. Was it the War? Or was that potential already in those two?" Superwoman exclaimed.
STAR CITY AUTONOMOUS REPUBLIC:
"It won't be long now, Kathy."
"Either way, Oliver. It should have been done long ago, but no, their precious Union had to 'safeguard' the abstract civil liberties and human rights of mutants above the rights of humans who are trying to resettle the wastelands and make it law-abiding territories for settlement and a return to prosperity, health and wellbeing... I'm sorry, I'm ranting."
"Kathy, nothing you say or do strikes a discord. It's been a privilege to have you fighting alongside me all those years. Bruce didn't know what he was losing when your principles forced the parting of the ways."
"I've never regretted it, Oliver. I was so pathetic, wasn't I? Simpering like a Batman in lipstick."
"I'm glad I was instrumental in allowing the real Katherine Kane to emerge- the disciplined, seasoned warrior."
"You needed someone. I believed in what you did, what you stand for, and I still do. And always will."
GOTHAM:
"Macbeth and Lady Macbeth?" Selina Wayne coldly remarked as she watched the ruler of Star City and his consort presiding over a kangaroo court:
"Ouch. Weird, though, isn't it, darling? If things had been different, I might have married Kathy..."
"To think we traded we traded punches before I reformed. If I'd known what she was going to turn out like, Bruce, I would have hit her harder. It might have knocked some sense into her."
"I think Oliver Queen may have had a role to play in all that, Selina."
"Actually, I agree completely with Diana on that, Bruce. Katherine Kane is totally responsible for her own actions. Female tyrants are equally culpable for their cruelty and sadism and she has no excuse for hers. And if Diana wants to put together a female posse to bring her to justice at the end of all this, count me in."
"I know better than to stand in your way when you go after something."
"Am I that much an immovable force of nature, then?"
"I just wish Clark and Diana had had the same chance at happiness and fulfilment that we've had. Instead of which, they had to watch the people they loved most in this world perish in front of them. And then, Lana falling for Lex ended that route for him as well. I think Steve was the love of Diana's life as well. At times, she seems lost without him by her side. Insofar as an Amazon Princess ever can be. She might hide it well, but every so often, she looks toward the horizon and she must be thinking of Washington and Steve."
"If anyone deserved that heartbreak less, it's Wonder Woman. And Superman, come to that."
WASTELAND PERIMETER:
"Ready, everyone?"
"I think so. Damn it, Kal, why did they go ahead and do this? It's genocide. Are we that much of a threat to them? Did they learn nothing from what the war did to this world? And how far are they willing to go to extend their insane ideology?" Superwoman sighed.
"I know, Kara, it's heartbreaking. But as you said, they crossed a line when they unleashed those killer robots. Dick?"
"Trouble, everyone. The exoradiation settings on the sensors are picking up hard kryptonite emanations from the midst of that robotic swarm on the horizon." Nightwing said from within his exoskeleton.
"In which case, Richard, you and I will take the vanguard. Damn it! Where did they secure enough kryptonite to outfit a robot swarm with it?"
"Diana..."
"No arguments, Clark. You and Kara are too necessary to the New American Union to risk your lives bringing them down."
"I hate this. There are so many anomalies in this, so many unexplained twists and turns. How? How are they able to do this?"
ELSEWHERE:
"Oh, Nightwing. You blind, hopeless ingenue. Did you honestly think that advanced scientific research and practice ended when Lex Luthor died? Enough. Now I get to watch them tear each other apart, their precious Republic and Union destroy one another and I take over after the end."
"Listen. That apparatus of yours, it's corrupted you. Or was it grief for her? Man, I feel it too. She was my mother. I still mourn her. Do you think she would have wanted to see you turn out like this?"
"That's irrelevant. She's dead. I came to terms with that. And I'm afraid that you can do little about that, trapped in that form, in that cage."
"Look, why are you doing this? The country was rebuilding. It was moderately at peace. But for some reason, you threw Oliver Queen and Katherine Kane a poisoned fruit and they bit hard into it."
"Enough. Don't mistake my remaining feeling for you as a sign of weakness. Time for your daily injection..."
"Please. It's not too late..."
WASTELAND INTERIOR:
'The Doom Patrol? But Niles, Rita, Cliff and Larry have been dead for years."
"Think about it, Diana. President Magnus was assassinated at the end of his term. Why? Who else does that leave as a superscientist?"
"You mean...?"
"Yes. Steven Dayton, Rita's widower."
"I...assumed he died during the war. No-one's heard anything from him in decades."
"Bruce told me he was concerned at the way Dayton behaved after the Brotherhood of Evil killed the patrol. He suspected that the overuse of Steven's Mento helmet was starting to cause neurological damage. It might not have damaged his intellect, but it could have disinhibited him sufficiently to appeal to Oliver and Katherine's cankered and disoriented moral compasses."
"Richard, that's brilliant! So do you think you can find the viral incursion that caused him to seize control of the Superman robots? And provide countermeasures? Excuse me, I'm needed below..." THe invisible plane dived down to intercept a killer robot swarm as it closed in on an isolated mutant settlement. Above her, Nightwing smiled as he finished work on one last algorithm:
"Way ahead of you, Princess. For a change. Uh uh, tin boy. Time for lights out..."
And with that, the countermeasure virus was let loose and the robot chassis' jerked as their triggering sequence was aborted and its control programme was erased. Then their artificial intelligences recognised what they had been forced to do and self-destruct sequences triggered within their minds. Their fiery eyes died to charcoal as they fell to the ground, lifeless, in their hundreds.
"Diana?"
"You genius, Richard Grayson! You've saved thousands of lives!"
"Not quite yet. With any luck, Bruce, Selina and Helena will have made it to the triangulated source of this carnage. The bunker beneath the ruins of Dayton Industries."
DAYTON INDUSTRIES BUNKER:
"It's over, Steven. Come quietly."
"How did you... no. It's not important. You won't kill me. Your precious, indelible code against killing." Mento snapped as Batman, Catwoman and the Huntress stood in the airlock.
"Look at yourself, Steve. Rita was a friend. She wouldn't have wanted this. She loved you. What she wanted more than anything was to live a happy married life and raise Gar as your adopted child together."
"Do not bring my wife into this. Rita is gone. All that matters is subduing this world and uniting it under a practical if strict ruler."
"It's no use, Batman. That blasted Mento helmet of his has warped him and he's too far gone. Look, he's... he's too dangerous the way he is now. His machinations have killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of people already. It's tearing me apart to say this. He's all I have left of Rita, my mom, but he needs to be stopped." Garfield Logan, Beast Man, now trapped in his anthropoid form, said from a cage in the corner of the room.
"Please, Steven. Surrender. We don't want to hurt you..."
"No! You only think you've won! You haven't!" As Mento's face curled in an expression of sadism or insane delight, Huntress threw a batarang at Beast Man's cage. He yelled:
"Guys! He's got access to old USAF airbase locations. I think he's going to launch a flotilla at Cheyenne and the rest of the North American Union! Please! Don't stop me!" And then, tragedy was played out. Beast Man lunged for a startled Mento, who snarled in rage and set his adopted son's fur alight, but despite the pain as his fur and flesh seared, tears of grief in his eyes as he reached his treacherous, criminally insane foster father, Garfield Logan gritted his teeth and seized Steven Dayton's neck in his paws, and then there was the crack of bone and muscle as Beast Man broke Mento's neck. As he fell to the floor, death closing in, Beast Man whispered: "I'm sorry, Mom..."
STAR CITY AUTONOMOUS REPUBLIC:
By the time Superman and Superwoman broke into the SCAR presidential vault, Oliver Queen and Katherine Kane's bodies lay in each other's embrace, drained glasses of poisoned wine on the carafe alongside their bed.
"Oh, no. No. It shouldn't have ended this way, Kal. They didn't deserve this."
"I know, Kara. But the problem is, they were seduced into it. They allowed themselves to go down a dark path and convinced themselves that expediency and survival justified tyranny and dictatorship. Even if they were guyed into accepting it through Mento's psychological abuse, part of them wanted to accept it in the first place. And when the strings were finally cut, they were so dependent on their addiction to cruelty, brutality and unaccountable force that in the end, they were unable to survive without it."
"So it's over, is it? Kal, what did we win? Tell me that the loss of those two former heroes was worth it."
"No, Kara, I won't do that, because it's not. I wish there had been a better way too. And there'll be other serpents in this wounded Eden, but... the New American Union needs a league or society. Something to preserve justice and hope."
"'Hope.' I like that. The Hope Society."
"Or Justice League, Law Legion, whatever the others decide to call it. I wish I could believe Steven, Oliver and Katherine were the only threats that await humanity out there. But if they were there, there might be others. Yes, the Hope Society. Because we bring hope to others, allow people to dream that one day, peace and justice will reign here again..."
THE END [2.45 PM, MAY 16, 2024]