Post by redsycorax on Sept 9, 2020 2:54:22 GMT
Some alternate universes diverge from others on the basis of historical detail. In the case of Earth-66, it was simple lack of twentieth century technological aptitude in some areas compared to others- this world has never developed jet aircraft, mastered nuclear fission or started a space programme beyond rudimentary satellite launches. Thus, there have been three global "Great Wars" that correspond to the First and Second World Wars (albeit against Kaiser Wilhelm's son Louis Ferdinand during its Second Great War) and then against the Holy Patriarchate of Russia in its 1950s. In this universe, Krypton never exploded and Kal-El and his wife Lyla Lerrol continue to live there in Kryptonopolis, almost oblivious to events on distant Earth, raising their chidren Van-El and Orna Kal-El. Brainiac was apprehended by Vidal of the Intergalactic Patrol and forced to relinquish his horde of shrunken cities, Lar Gand returned to Daxam and was celebrated for his feats of space exploration, Thomas Wayne overpowered Joe Chill in Crime Alley and prevented him from shooting his family and Bruce Wayne grew to adulthood never having his heart riven by the traumatic loss of his parents. Themiscyra is still secluded from the outside world, an Amazon island of paradise where men have never set foot.
It does have its own metahumans- Black Owl (Walt Walters) had been the second to assume the identity of that caped crimefighter, after Lieutenant Douglas Danville, his predecessor, was killed when a Kaiser German secret agent attempted to topple the Empire State Building in New York and valiant Danville died in the shoot out. Walters was widowed and more heartache would come to him during the course of the Third Great War when his sons, also superheroes Yank and Doodle, died in the final siege of Moscow in August 1969. Walters carried on regardless of his loss and was soon joined by others- Atomic Man, infused with the anomalous radioactive isotope Plutonium 186 with powers beyond earthly humans, and Fighting American, who was given transhuman abilities by a surgical mishap during his time as a soldier in the Second Great War, assisted by his mercurial partner, Speedgirl. Enlightenment was probably the paramount metahuman on Earth-66, due to his prodigious and intensive Buddhist training. Eventually, he attained the status of boddhisatva and relinquishing further progress along the Wheel of Karma, sought to use his paranormal abilities to assist humanity. Doctor Frost hailed from Arctica, the northern polar continent, and its hidden advanced civilisation.
It is now half a century after the Third Great War ended and five old friends are about to meet in a New York bar...
+++
As Walt Walters sat nursing a Land O'Smiles tm marijuana cigarette, he reflected on the decades that he had been in retirement. And, as ever, he felt pangs inside when he thought of his long-deceased sons and the bleak void in his life that had ensued ever since, coming home to the otherwise deserted Owls Eyrie. After a while, despite the presence of his fellow Superheroes Union of America friends, he decided he could take it no longer and finally hung up his cape. While he was the first, he was not the only one. Atomic Man suicided due to the fact that his radioactivity isolated him from the rest of humanity. Fighting American became increasingly conservative in his later years and became Whig Party Chancellor of the American Federation of States, and during his term of office almost blundered into a war with Indochine, the dominant power in South-East Asia, tried to ban cocaine, and bungled the Great California Earthquake recovery in '76. Roger Stephens was finally assassinated in 1980 during his re-election campaign. Back in 1972, Becky Burns, his former partner Speedgirl, had walked out of their former partnership. When he was assassinated, she took over Fighting American II, but a tabloid journalist had outed her secret identity. Public opinion was divided, given her estranged relationship with her former mentor; some thought she should be given the benefit of the doubt, while others questioned whether she shared the character flaws of her predecessor. Doctor Frost had retired back to Arctica during the conservative Stephens administration, returning after his death. Enlightenment had negotiated the best deal of them all, becoming a superhero icon of immaculate virtue and incorruptibility.
Abruptly, he caught sight of her: "Rebecca!"
"Walt! Oh, it's so good to see you after all these years."
"Well, we don't have much to do anymore, what with our old comrade's League of Boddhisatvas."
"I thought there'd be more of us here, though." Rebecca Burns looked around at the bar, aware and conscious of people's responses. That was the problem, what her predecessor had become and the acts that he'd committed while Federal Chancellor. People had expected more from Roger Stephens, but they were unaware of the depth of his psychosis and introspection. It would take a long time to win back her trust as Fighting American II.
"Gunther sent his apologies. He said there was urgent business up in Arctica." Walt said, filling a glass with non-alcoholic rose
"Presumably that means their border dispute with Russia. Things are getting tense up there." Rebecca sighed, distracted momentarily by the holographier.
"What a damned mess it all is. Why couldn't the world stay the way it was during the Aftermath? Things were better then." Walt said, handing the glass to her.
"That is a matter of conjecture." Abruptly, a ball of coherent energy and light materialised in the chair near them.
"Hugh Gilmore! Do you always make entrances like that, these days?"
As the outline firmed into Enlightenment, the former physician smiled:
"Did you really think I'd pass up a reunion with you, my old colleagues? Although not so old in your case, Rebecca."
"Flatterer. I'll have you know I'm seventy this year."
"How are Gavin, Peter and the kids?"
"Both of my husbands send their regards. As for the kids, you should see Marlene. She's almost finished her aquanaut training and she's about to be posted to the Challenger Seamount."
"It didn't seem so long ago I was babysitting her. Now she's a grown woman." Hugh remarked.
"Is this a private party or can anyone join in?" A chill entered the room, largely due to their fourth guest's cryophysiology. Gunther Svenson was the mutant superhero known to the Warmer World as Dr Frost. Earth-66's placement of polar continents was inverted from that of many other Earths whose axial tilt and distance from the sun allowed polar ice caps. The Antarctic Ocean was wide open sea, while the Arctic Ocean was centred on a large partially frozen arctic continent. Centuries ago, Viking explorers had chanced on the continent and managed to eke a living, even when Earth-66's Little Ice Age closed in and cut off the polar continent from most of Europe, Siberia and North America. During the Second Great War, the female air ace Deborah Pryor, nicknamed "Midnight Angel" had been shot down as Kaiser Germany's fearsome naval fleet threatened Canada and the FAS. Gunther had rescued her, and learnt of the war raging across North America and Europe. Defying the Wigemoot, Arctica's Parliament, he had travelled to Philadelphia with her and joined the other members of the Superheroes Union of America. His habitual enemy was Ebullitio, native of a corresponding lost civilisation deep within the Australian desert. But this was before the discovery of longevity drugs in the early seventies and their widespread availability across the world. Earth-66's mammals had the ability to absorb embryos or fetuses back into their uterine cavities if the pregnancy was undesired, which meant that they were more gender equivalent than many other Earths. The FAS had already had eight female Chancellors, including the latest, Hillary Rodham. Thus, their global population was about three billion in extent. Gunther stayed with Deborah for the rest of her life, but when she died at eighty two, he returned to Arctica.
"It's good to see you again, Gunther, although I thought you weren't coming." Walt smiled.
"Rebecca, I was so sorry to hear about what happened to Roger."
"Don't be, Gunther. He'd become psychotic as he aged- one of the consequences of the serum that was used to save his life and transform him into a metahuman combat asset, as they call it these days. By the time he'd exploited his wartime career as Fighting American to gain the Chancellorship, he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. But long before that, I ended my time as his youthful companion. I hated what he became, but by then he wasn't listening to me. He wasn't listening to any of us."
"I still can't forgive him for what he did to Adam. I apologise if that offends the rest of you-" Enlightenment said slowly.
Rebecca closed her eyes as a tear escaped:
"I don't blame you, Hugh. I know I never will. Roger tricked him into releasing his energies in the middle of Moscow. Because of him, five million people died that day in August 1969. All right, so it ended the Third Great War. But Adam saw it up close. He thought all of the children had been evacuated out of the city, but they hadn't been. He was never the same afterward. When he committed suicide in '78, I was the first on the scene. I'll never forget the suicide note I found. When that assassin Sirhan shot Roger, I was almost relieved. It all came to an end before he could corrupt and distort the Federation any further."
"Walt, have you ever worn that blue outfit of yours since the days Adam was still with us?"
Walter shook his head: "Nope. People were starting to talk, wondering why I called myself 'Black Owl' when I wore a blue costume. It was necessary as a radiation suit while Adam was still around us. When we lost him, that necessity ended. Look, I may have been bitter initially about the Orthos, given what happened to Rich and Don during the Siege of Moscow and the fact that they were only nineteen when they died. But what Roger did to Moscow and the death of all those kids...god, I never wanted it to be at that cost."
"So many of us gone..." Rebecca said, gazing wistfully at the portrait of Richard and Don Walters, formerly Yank and Doodle, Black Owl's beloved sons.
AUGUST 12, 1969:
THIRD GREAT WAR (SIEGE OF MOSCOW):
As the biplanes flew lower over the long trenches outside the Imperial Patriarchate's capital, anti-aircraft strafing lit the night sky as Don and Rick Walters sheltered from the non-stop artillery bombardment of Allied positions. It had been long and hard, this time, from the moment that the Imperial Patriarchate of Russia slammed into Eastern Europe to try to save its 'brothers in Orthodoxy" in the Ukraine, Serbia, Greece and Romania from 'persecution' by the Catholic inhabitants of those countries, except "persecution" actually meant compliance with constitutional safeguards that insured religious freedom for all, regardless of their dominant past positions. The Russian Orthodox theocracy wasn't having any of that, and it had the armaments to back up its bellicose proclamations. The war had begun in 1965, with the British Empire, French Fourth Republic and Prussia pitted against the Imperial Patriarchate, its allies and conquests.
Conflict had changed little from the First Great War, apart from advances in medical technology and mechanisation. It was still largely waged in trenches, although shielding from close quarter bombardment had improved substantially. As jet aircraft had never been developed on this world, biplanes and dirigibles were visible in the skies above, in combat with each other. That said, satellite technology was more advanced now and assisted in relaying news about advances and retreats from soldiers on both sides of the war.
"Hello, Dad?"
"Are you keeping well, boys?"
"We're fine. We got some additional territory over the last week."
"Never mind that, Don. Are you fellows going to re-enlist when your tour of duty is over?"
"Yes, sir. We've decided to stay on until the bitter end."
"That could be years away, Rick. And bear in mind, your abilities aren't as strong as mine."
"Yes, Dad, but you participated in GW2. You've often told us about that time while we were growing up."
"And I didn't spare any of the details either. I saw friends die in front of me. Others were traumatised, blinded, had their legs or arms amputated. I didn't oppose your decision to join up, even if you were slightly under eighteen, but..."
"We've got to go now, Dad. Troop movement orders from the top brass."
PHILADELPHIA (FAS CAPITAL):
In Philadelphia, Chancellor Roger Stephens sat before the Quadrangular Office desk, running a hand through his greying hair. His days as Fighting American seemed so long ago now, as did the camaraderie and warmth of the forties. Now? Black Owl was the only one who would still talk to him, Rebecca hadn't been in touch for years and had abandoned her Speedgirl crimefighting career to study law at Harvard. Doctor Frost was back in Arctica, still locked in hostilities with Russia over ownership of polar resources and like Becky, Gunther had given up his crimefighting career, in his case to serve as a legislator in the Arctican Parliament. Hugh had retreated back to the Lamaserie of Tibet, intent on holy knowledge and spiritual matters.
Which left Adam, Atomic Man. On a panel, Stephens pressed a button which led to the descent of heavily leaded glass around his desk. He was now safe from the potentially fatal radioactivity of his old ally. Damn it all, though. If that damned Trinity test had worked out the way that it was supposed to back in '44, he wouldn't have to do this. Who knew, perhaps on some alternate Earth, the test had succeeded and an alternate FAS had dropped functional nuclear fission bombs on German cities like Stuttgart or Munich? But no, on this world, artificial nuclear fission still remained elusive as ever, whether within reactor energy format or explosive devices. And due to his unfortunate accident, Adam Manning was the only nuclear deterrent available to humanity. Stephens wanted an end to this war- the endless military stalemate after Moscow's outskirts had been reached in '67, the terrorist acts from Ortho fifth columns in the eastern FAS coastal cities and states and the growing clamour of the radical antiwar movement at the universities. The Legislature and Supreme Judiciary hadn't been particularly co-operative when it came to Mercer v Hargreaves, which had shot down his attempt to ignite a moral panic over recreational cocaine use, judging that the Merriwether precedent that had been devised for marihuana in the twenties now also applied to other narcotic substances, damn their eyes.
"You wanted to see me, Mr Chancellor?"
Secure behind his leaded screen, Stephens nodded:
"I'm sorry it's had to come to this, Adam. It's about the Imperial Patriarchate. We have no choice left now."
Behind his obsidian mask, Adam Manning nodded: "Fourteen million lives, after these past few years. Worse than the Second Great War."
"You do realise what I'm asking you to do, old friend?"
"Protect our Federation from the avarice and ambition of the saboteurs and dissidents, sir. And nullify military and strategic targets in the Patriarchate."
"Through utilising your formidable induced fusion capabilities, Adam. There will be casualties."
Adam Manning shrugged: "They must have known it would come to this as surely as we did, sir."
"At least they evacuated their children beforehand, which makes it easier." Stephens lied to his old comrade.
"How large a blast do you want me to generate, sir?"
"The Atomic Energy Research Unit calculates fifty megatons will be sufficient, Adam. And thank you. As ever, I can depend on your loyalty and patriotism to defend our country. It's sad that heroism is all too rare in today's Federation. Right. We'll drop you in from one of the higher atmosphere dirigibles and you will ignite fission at three hundred feet above the Kremlin Palace."
"Sir, yes sir."
MOSCOW, AUGUST 12, 1969:
[The ignition of a fifty megaton nuclear device has only been undertaken once on Earth-33/Prime- it was the Tsar Bomba, the largest hydrogen bomb ever ignited, on October 30, 1961- Ed] When Adam Denning detonated his nuclear fission capability above Moscow, the effects were instantaneous and dramatic. The fireball was eight kilometres in diameter, and reached sixty five kilometres into the sky above the ignition point. At its fiery core, a deadly dose of 500 REMS surged out, devastating the bodies and dooming any men, women and children within a greater radius to death from fatal radiation within a month. The fireball blinded anyone who was looking directly at it. At nine kilometres distance, all concrete and brick buildings were demolished, including the regimental headquarters where Don and Rich Walters were involved in logistical work, calculating the final drive on the Patriarchate. Within a twenty kilometre radius, residential buildings collapsed, injuries were widespread and so were fatalities. A firestorm started in commercial and residential facilities and there were no emergency services left to put it out. Within seconds, about six million of Moscow's seven million inhabitants were either incinerated, blinded, had received third degree burns, were buried beneath fallen buildings, or mortally or severely injured by exploding debris, fuel or shards of glass. Even as far out as sixty kilometres, fatal third degree burns were recieved. As well as six million Muscovites and ornate baroque Russian Orthodox cathedrals, a million Allied troops perished within the effective radius of Atomic Man's detonation. And with that carnage and atrocity, the Third Great War ended.
The incineration of Moscow was visible nearly one thousand kilometres away, from Archangelsk in Northern Russia, to Brest in Byelorussia, and Oral in Kazakhstan. But it wasn't only the lands of the Imperial Patriatchate that witnessed that wanton, brutal destruction. Even Helsinki in neighbouring Finland saw the blast, a mere eight hundred and ninety five kilometres away.
PHILADELPHIA, F.D, AUGUST 12, 1969:
In the Quadrangular Office, Chancellor Roger Stephens laughed away to himself, pouring himself a stiff whiskey. Well, they'd all gotten what they wanted, hadn't they? The war had ended, no more American and Allied lives would be sacrificed. Shame about the million Allied soldiers within the blast zone who had perished. As for all of the noncombatant Muscovites, those damned Ortho bastards had only themselves to blame for what had happened- they should have evacuated their people long before this. The existence of Atomic Man had been common knowledge since 1961, on both sides of the confessional curtain. The insane mass murderer felt no regret or remorse for the act that he had facilitated. While one wishes that Stephens monstrous act was attributable to malevolent alien psionic control, third party narcotic addiction, or other excuses, none have been found. Which made that act all the more horrific, given that it was born of his own volition, conscious intention and coldblooded strategic calculation and realpolitik.
And on that bleak day, Earth-66's innocence and wishful thinking about the metahumans in its midst was lost forever as Moscow burnt, a city of charnel houses and broken bodies.
1970:
The Whig Party had long stood for the rule of law, original interpretation of constitutional documents, protection of minority rights, property rights, social order and the creation and maintenance of large infrastructure projects, reason and moral constraint. Because of the chaos and anarchy that had now befallen the Imperial Patriarchate capital, the destruction of property and the sheer absence of moral constraint evident in the action of the Chancellor, the Whig Party disendorsed him as its candidate for executive office. American cities burnt as aggrieved students and workers declared their outrage at the Chancellor's malevolence. In return, the iron fist of martial law descended on the Federation and the 1970 mid-terms for Legislature elections were postponed.
Predictably, though, the Chancellor found a political vehicle suitable for his purpose- the opportunist Populist Party, which dumped its perennial Chancellorhood candidate, Richard Roberts. The Populist Party were formerly a quite marginal political party, dedicated to the supremacy of singleton humans with a single consciousness against the ascendant multiple personality movement. As a result, Chancellor Stephens adopted their agenda and tried to stack the Supreme Judiciary.
Becky Burns was visiting Walt Walters when the fawn official envelope arrived, informing him of the death of his two sons in the Moscow firestorm. He collapsed onto his knees, to be embraced by Becky, also weeping.
In a remote bunker, Atomic Man gazed at his hands and tried to will himself to disintegrate. He woke up screaming most nights now. He was docile, not wanting to kill anyone else after what he had been duped into doing in Moscow, for which he blamed himself. Alighting on the cracked and jagged sidewalk after his deed, he witnessed the charred flesh and bones of a small child. He knelt and reached down to hold it in his arms, but it broke and dissolved into radioactive dust. In all the years after, he never ventured beyond the confines of the bunker, not wishing human contact in an act of self-imposed exile. Speculation and conspiracy theory swirled about his current whereabouts.
1978:
In distant Whiteland, a US territory purchased from Denmark, Atomic Man finally succeeded in his quest for oblivion, after he realised he could accelerate his level of half-life quiescence. Nine years after the Moscow attack, he finally did so, and throughout the successive evening, his body steadily turned to lead, until enough had made the transmission to end his consciousness. Half an hour thereafter, the metamorphosis affected his respiratory system as well. After eight years, Chancellor Stephens was still in place, exhausting a range of Vice-Chancellors, male and female, in his wake. He spoke warmly of the sacrifices that Adam Dunning had made since he originally became Atomic Man, but made only brief mention of the destruction of Moscow and the six million lives lost in that wanton act of slaughter. In a bar, Gunther's eyes met those of Walt, Hugh and Becky:
"It has to be done."
"I cannot participate in any intentional act of ending another's life." Hugh said, with reluctance.
"Which means you won't. Even with all your power as Enlightenment, you won't." Walt said bitterly, turning away from his former SUA colleague.
"And nor can I. There would be reprisals and while I would gladly do so, I cannot condemn my countryfolk to occupation and repression under Stephens' avarice and absence of mercy."
Walt sighed: "I can understand that at least, Gunther. Well, Becky? Will you help me?"
Becky looked up, her eyes red with tears and sleeplessness: "I'll go one better than that, Walt. You don't have to lift a gun. I will carry it out."
"Are you sure? I wasn't going to ask you-"
Becky looked up at the ceiling and said, in a broken voice: "Don and Rich. I'm doing it for my childhood friends. I'm doing it because that damned man was my companion and better than all of you, I know his achilles heel. I deliberated long and hard with this, but I can't see any other way out of Roger's tyranny. It has to be me. Rich and Don...wouldn't have wanted you to throw your life away to end it, Walt, and I don't, either."
"Becky... what did I do...what did any of us do... to deserve such a truly loyal and selfless friend like you?"
Becky smiled wanly: "During GW2, all of you befriended an orphan girl who suddenly found herself in your midst. All of you provided me with a home and friendship that has endured over the last decades. It's time I paid that back."
+++
PHILADELPHIA, F.D:
In the Quadrangular Office, Chancellor Roger Stephens, dictator of the Federation of American States for the last ten years, stared balefully at the young woman who had materialised in the centre of his office, holding a gun pointed directly at him. He scowled and pressed a button, to no reaction. He did so over and over again, until he looked up at the impassive Rebecca Burns:
"So it's you, is it? They talked you into this act of treachery."
"They didn't have to, Roger. And it's no good trying to activate your office defences or call in your Federal Guard from outside the office door. Hugh won't kill you directly, but he did insure that you can't summon anyone else to do your dirty work for you."
"And this is how you repay me for taking you in and providing you with a family?"
Becky nodded: "Roger, you need help. Hugh thinks that taking the Human Metamorphosis Serum all those years ago had unforeseen consequences. It's driven you mad and disinhibited you. You have innocent children and adolescents shot. Under your dictatorship, the Federation has tried to subdue the Mexican Union and ABC Confederacy to the south, and nearly blundered into war with the Indochinese Confederation. There was famine in Franklin. Your negligence led to a forest firestorm that destroyed the whole of Ames. Midlands and Freemont's wheat crop were consumed in that infernal dustbowl because of overfarming in '73. New Guernsey, Alderney and Temperance were devastated in Hurricane Elizabeth. Millions of people have died, both inside and outside the Federation."
"They're jealous of me, Rebecca. Don't you realise that? Apart from Hugh, who won't do anything to block his own selfish way to Nirvana, I am the strongest person in the FAS. With great power comes great responsibility."
Becky shook his head: "You haven't shown any, Roger. You've carried on like some medieval despot. You've seduced, abandoned and betrayed the country that you once served alongside me. I kept hoping, you'd come to your senses one day, step down and make voluntary amends for your crimes. But you haven't. Because the Roger Stephens I once know, my mentor, friend and protector, is dead. He's been dead for years."
"You never used to have to justify your actions, Becky. Do you really want to do this?"
A tear escaped her eyes: "I have to, Roger. Because I know as well as you do that if I don't carry this through, and put down this gun, you'll call in your guards and have me shot."
"Well, you are committing treason right now. I won't lie to you."
Becky nodded: "I'm not your protege Speedgirl anymore, Roger. I'm a woman. No, you're not lying to me. You're either lying to yourself, or the HMS has turned you into this psychotic martinet."
"Then kill me. I won't beg f-" In the middle of his sentence, Becky fired her pistol. His eyes widened as he realised that even given his prodigious speed and strength, the bullet was faster than it should be and was tracking him, modifying its trajectory as it bore inexorably down on him. In a fraction of a second, it made skin contact and bored through his heart, which shot blood and muscle over the oak desk and stars and bars of the FAS flag behind him. He slumped to the floor, his mouth still open, his eyes still wide. Perhaps he hadn't thought Becky was going to fire.
From outside the White Palace's environs, the sound of shouting and escalating gunfire was heard as the Second American Revolution began around her. Becky Burns knelt alongside the man who had once been her friend and mentor and closed his eyes. Half an hour later, Enlightenment, Black Owl and Doctor Frost walked into the bloodstained office and a decade of repression, avarice, negligence and torture ended forever.
EPILOGUE:
The Supreme Judiciary acquitted her of treason, murder and manslaughter and the verdict was met with cheering crowd outside. Thereafter, the former members of the Superheroes Union of America met for drinks and socialising each anniversary of the assassination of Chancellor Roger Stephens. Becky Burns fell in love, married the two men she loved and had children, and over time, the nightmares about what she had to do faded into quiescence and silence. Over time, new metahumans appeared and took their place as guardians of Earth-66. And although, during each occassion, the conversations were elliptical and oblique, each of the men and that woman knew what they had done and that there was no other way. But they were not stone-cold murderers and each of them mourned the circumstances that had led them to take the life of their former friend.
THE END.
It does have its own metahumans- Black Owl (Walt Walters) had been the second to assume the identity of that caped crimefighter, after Lieutenant Douglas Danville, his predecessor, was killed when a Kaiser German secret agent attempted to topple the Empire State Building in New York and valiant Danville died in the shoot out. Walters was widowed and more heartache would come to him during the course of the Third Great War when his sons, also superheroes Yank and Doodle, died in the final siege of Moscow in August 1969. Walters carried on regardless of his loss and was soon joined by others- Atomic Man, infused with the anomalous radioactive isotope Plutonium 186 with powers beyond earthly humans, and Fighting American, who was given transhuman abilities by a surgical mishap during his time as a soldier in the Second Great War, assisted by his mercurial partner, Speedgirl. Enlightenment was probably the paramount metahuman on Earth-66, due to his prodigious and intensive Buddhist training. Eventually, he attained the status of boddhisatva and relinquishing further progress along the Wheel of Karma, sought to use his paranormal abilities to assist humanity. Doctor Frost hailed from Arctica, the northern polar continent, and its hidden advanced civilisation.
It is now half a century after the Third Great War ended and five old friends are about to meet in a New York bar...
+++
As Walt Walters sat nursing a Land O'Smiles tm marijuana cigarette, he reflected on the decades that he had been in retirement. And, as ever, he felt pangs inside when he thought of his long-deceased sons and the bleak void in his life that had ensued ever since, coming home to the otherwise deserted Owls Eyrie. After a while, despite the presence of his fellow Superheroes Union of America friends, he decided he could take it no longer and finally hung up his cape. While he was the first, he was not the only one. Atomic Man suicided due to the fact that his radioactivity isolated him from the rest of humanity. Fighting American became increasingly conservative in his later years and became Whig Party Chancellor of the American Federation of States, and during his term of office almost blundered into a war with Indochine, the dominant power in South-East Asia, tried to ban cocaine, and bungled the Great California Earthquake recovery in '76. Roger Stephens was finally assassinated in 1980 during his re-election campaign. Back in 1972, Becky Burns, his former partner Speedgirl, had walked out of their former partnership. When he was assassinated, she took over Fighting American II, but a tabloid journalist had outed her secret identity. Public opinion was divided, given her estranged relationship with her former mentor; some thought she should be given the benefit of the doubt, while others questioned whether she shared the character flaws of her predecessor. Doctor Frost had retired back to Arctica during the conservative Stephens administration, returning after his death. Enlightenment had negotiated the best deal of them all, becoming a superhero icon of immaculate virtue and incorruptibility.
Abruptly, he caught sight of her: "Rebecca!"
"Walt! Oh, it's so good to see you after all these years."
"Well, we don't have much to do anymore, what with our old comrade's League of Boddhisatvas."
"I thought there'd be more of us here, though." Rebecca Burns looked around at the bar, aware and conscious of people's responses. That was the problem, what her predecessor had become and the acts that he'd committed while Federal Chancellor. People had expected more from Roger Stephens, but they were unaware of the depth of his psychosis and introspection. It would take a long time to win back her trust as Fighting American II.
"Gunther sent his apologies. He said there was urgent business up in Arctica." Walt said, filling a glass with non-alcoholic rose
"Presumably that means their border dispute with Russia. Things are getting tense up there." Rebecca sighed, distracted momentarily by the holographier.
"What a damned mess it all is. Why couldn't the world stay the way it was during the Aftermath? Things were better then." Walt said, handing the glass to her.
"That is a matter of conjecture." Abruptly, a ball of coherent energy and light materialised in the chair near them.
"Hugh Gilmore! Do you always make entrances like that, these days?"
As the outline firmed into Enlightenment, the former physician smiled:
"Did you really think I'd pass up a reunion with you, my old colleagues? Although not so old in your case, Rebecca."
"Flatterer. I'll have you know I'm seventy this year."
"How are Gavin, Peter and the kids?"
"Both of my husbands send their regards. As for the kids, you should see Marlene. She's almost finished her aquanaut training and she's about to be posted to the Challenger Seamount."
"It didn't seem so long ago I was babysitting her. Now she's a grown woman." Hugh remarked.
"Is this a private party or can anyone join in?" A chill entered the room, largely due to their fourth guest's cryophysiology. Gunther Svenson was the mutant superhero known to the Warmer World as Dr Frost. Earth-66's placement of polar continents was inverted from that of many other Earths whose axial tilt and distance from the sun allowed polar ice caps. The Antarctic Ocean was wide open sea, while the Arctic Ocean was centred on a large partially frozen arctic continent. Centuries ago, Viking explorers had chanced on the continent and managed to eke a living, even when Earth-66's Little Ice Age closed in and cut off the polar continent from most of Europe, Siberia and North America. During the Second Great War, the female air ace Deborah Pryor, nicknamed "Midnight Angel" had been shot down as Kaiser Germany's fearsome naval fleet threatened Canada and the FAS. Gunther had rescued her, and learnt of the war raging across North America and Europe. Defying the Wigemoot, Arctica's Parliament, he had travelled to Philadelphia with her and joined the other members of the Superheroes Union of America. His habitual enemy was Ebullitio, native of a corresponding lost civilisation deep within the Australian desert. But this was before the discovery of longevity drugs in the early seventies and their widespread availability across the world. Earth-66's mammals had the ability to absorb embryos or fetuses back into their uterine cavities if the pregnancy was undesired, which meant that they were more gender equivalent than many other Earths. The FAS had already had eight female Chancellors, including the latest, Hillary Rodham. Thus, their global population was about three billion in extent. Gunther stayed with Deborah for the rest of her life, but when she died at eighty two, he returned to Arctica.
"It's good to see you again, Gunther, although I thought you weren't coming." Walt smiled.
"Rebecca, I was so sorry to hear about what happened to Roger."
"Don't be, Gunther. He'd become psychotic as he aged- one of the consequences of the serum that was used to save his life and transform him into a metahuman combat asset, as they call it these days. By the time he'd exploited his wartime career as Fighting American to gain the Chancellorship, he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. But long before that, I ended my time as his youthful companion. I hated what he became, but by then he wasn't listening to me. He wasn't listening to any of us."
"I still can't forgive him for what he did to Adam. I apologise if that offends the rest of you-" Enlightenment said slowly.
Rebecca closed her eyes as a tear escaped:
"I don't blame you, Hugh. I know I never will. Roger tricked him into releasing his energies in the middle of Moscow. Because of him, five million people died that day in August 1969. All right, so it ended the Third Great War. But Adam saw it up close. He thought all of the children had been evacuated out of the city, but they hadn't been. He was never the same afterward. When he committed suicide in '78, I was the first on the scene. I'll never forget the suicide note I found. When that assassin Sirhan shot Roger, I was almost relieved. It all came to an end before he could corrupt and distort the Federation any further."
"Walt, have you ever worn that blue outfit of yours since the days Adam was still with us?"
Walter shook his head: "Nope. People were starting to talk, wondering why I called myself 'Black Owl' when I wore a blue costume. It was necessary as a radiation suit while Adam was still around us. When we lost him, that necessity ended. Look, I may have been bitter initially about the Orthos, given what happened to Rich and Don during the Siege of Moscow and the fact that they were only nineteen when they died. But what Roger did to Moscow and the death of all those kids...god, I never wanted it to be at that cost."
"So many of us gone..." Rebecca said, gazing wistfully at the portrait of Richard and Don Walters, formerly Yank and Doodle, Black Owl's beloved sons.
AUGUST 12, 1969:
THIRD GREAT WAR (SIEGE OF MOSCOW):
As the biplanes flew lower over the long trenches outside the Imperial Patriarchate's capital, anti-aircraft strafing lit the night sky as Don and Rick Walters sheltered from the non-stop artillery bombardment of Allied positions. It had been long and hard, this time, from the moment that the Imperial Patriarchate of Russia slammed into Eastern Europe to try to save its 'brothers in Orthodoxy" in the Ukraine, Serbia, Greece and Romania from 'persecution' by the Catholic inhabitants of those countries, except "persecution" actually meant compliance with constitutional safeguards that insured religious freedom for all, regardless of their dominant past positions. The Russian Orthodox theocracy wasn't having any of that, and it had the armaments to back up its bellicose proclamations. The war had begun in 1965, with the British Empire, French Fourth Republic and Prussia pitted against the Imperial Patriarchate, its allies and conquests.
Conflict had changed little from the First Great War, apart from advances in medical technology and mechanisation. It was still largely waged in trenches, although shielding from close quarter bombardment had improved substantially. As jet aircraft had never been developed on this world, biplanes and dirigibles were visible in the skies above, in combat with each other. That said, satellite technology was more advanced now and assisted in relaying news about advances and retreats from soldiers on both sides of the war.
"Hello, Dad?"
"Are you keeping well, boys?"
"We're fine. We got some additional territory over the last week."
"Never mind that, Don. Are you fellows going to re-enlist when your tour of duty is over?"
"Yes, sir. We've decided to stay on until the bitter end."
"That could be years away, Rick. And bear in mind, your abilities aren't as strong as mine."
"Yes, Dad, but you participated in GW2. You've often told us about that time while we were growing up."
"And I didn't spare any of the details either. I saw friends die in front of me. Others were traumatised, blinded, had their legs or arms amputated. I didn't oppose your decision to join up, even if you were slightly under eighteen, but..."
"We've got to go now, Dad. Troop movement orders from the top brass."
PHILADELPHIA (FAS CAPITAL):
In Philadelphia, Chancellor Roger Stephens sat before the Quadrangular Office desk, running a hand through his greying hair. His days as Fighting American seemed so long ago now, as did the camaraderie and warmth of the forties. Now? Black Owl was the only one who would still talk to him, Rebecca hadn't been in touch for years and had abandoned her Speedgirl crimefighting career to study law at Harvard. Doctor Frost was back in Arctica, still locked in hostilities with Russia over ownership of polar resources and like Becky, Gunther had given up his crimefighting career, in his case to serve as a legislator in the Arctican Parliament. Hugh had retreated back to the Lamaserie of Tibet, intent on holy knowledge and spiritual matters.
Which left Adam, Atomic Man. On a panel, Stephens pressed a button which led to the descent of heavily leaded glass around his desk. He was now safe from the potentially fatal radioactivity of his old ally. Damn it all, though. If that damned Trinity test had worked out the way that it was supposed to back in '44, he wouldn't have to do this. Who knew, perhaps on some alternate Earth, the test had succeeded and an alternate FAS had dropped functional nuclear fission bombs on German cities like Stuttgart or Munich? But no, on this world, artificial nuclear fission still remained elusive as ever, whether within reactor energy format or explosive devices. And due to his unfortunate accident, Adam Manning was the only nuclear deterrent available to humanity. Stephens wanted an end to this war- the endless military stalemate after Moscow's outskirts had been reached in '67, the terrorist acts from Ortho fifth columns in the eastern FAS coastal cities and states and the growing clamour of the radical antiwar movement at the universities. The Legislature and Supreme Judiciary hadn't been particularly co-operative when it came to Mercer v Hargreaves, which had shot down his attempt to ignite a moral panic over recreational cocaine use, judging that the Merriwether precedent that had been devised for marihuana in the twenties now also applied to other narcotic substances, damn their eyes.
"You wanted to see me, Mr Chancellor?"
Secure behind his leaded screen, Stephens nodded:
"I'm sorry it's had to come to this, Adam. It's about the Imperial Patriarchate. We have no choice left now."
Behind his obsidian mask, Adam Manning nodded: "Fourteen million lives, after these past few years. Worse than the Second Great War."
"You do realise what I'm asking you to do, old friend?"
"Protect our Federation from the avarice and ambition of the saboteurs and dissidents, sir. And nullify military and strategic targets in the Patriarchate."
"Through utilising your formidable induced fusion capabilities, Adam. There will be casualties."
Adam Manning shrugged: "They must have known it would come to this as surely as we did, sir."
"At least they evacuated their children beforehand, which makes it easier." Stephens lied to his old comrade.
"How large a blast do you want me to generate, sir?"
"The Atomic Energy Research Unit calculates fifty megatons will be sufficient, Adam. And thank you. As ever, I can depend on your loyalty and patriotism to defend our country. It's sad that heroism is all too rare in today's Federation. Right. We'll drop you in from one of the higher atmosphere dirigibles and you will ignite fission at three hundred feet above the Kremlin Palace."
"Sir, yes sir."
MOSCOW, AUGUST 12, 1969:
[The ignition of a fifty megaton nuclear device has only been undertaken once on Earth-33/Prime- it was the Tsar Bomba, the largest hydrogen bomb ever ignited, on October 30, 1961- Ed] When Adam Denning detonated his nuclear fission capability above Moscow, the effects were instantaneous and dramatic. The fireball was eight kilometres in diameter, and reached sixty five kilometres into the sky above the ignition point. At its fiery core, a deadly dose of 500 REMS surged out, devastating the bodies and dooming any men, women and children within a greater radius to death from fatal radiation within a month. The fireball blinded anyone who was looking directly at it. At nine kilometres distance, all concrete and brick buildings were demolished, including the regimental headquarters where Don and Rich Walters were involved in logistical work, calculating the final drive on the Patriarchate. Within a twenty kilometre radius, residential buildings collapsed, injuries were widespread and so were fatalities. A firestorm started in commercial and residential facilities and there were no emergency services left to put it out. Within seconds, about six million of Moscow's seven million inhabitants were either incinerated, blinded, had received third degree burns, were buried beneath fallen buildings, or mortally or severely injured by exploding debris, fuel or shards of glass. Even as far out as sixty kilometres, fatal third degree burns were recieved. As well as six million Muscovites and ornate baroque Russian Orthodox cathedrals, a million Allied troops perished within the effective radius of Atomic Man's detonation. And with that carnage and atrocity, the Third Great War ended.
The incineration of Moscow was visible nearly one thousand kilometres away, from Archangelsk in Northern Russia, to Brest in Byelorussia, and Oral in Kazakhstan. But it wasn't only the lands of the Imperial Patriatchate that witnessed that wanton, brutal destruction. Even Helsinki in neighbouring Finland saw the blast, a mere eight hundred and ninety five kilometres away.
PHILADELPHIA, F.D, AUGUST 12, 1969:
In the Quadrangular Office, Chancellor Roger Stephens laughed away to himself, pouring himself a stiff whiskey. Well, they'd all gotten what they wanted, hadn't they? The war had ended, no more American and Allied lives would be sacrificed. Shame about the million Allied soldiers within the blast zone who had perished. As for all of the noncombatant Muscovites, those damned Ortho bastards had only themselves to blame for what had happened- they should have evacuated their people long before this. The existence of Atomic Man had been common knowledge since 1961, on both sides of the confessional curtain. The insane mass murderer felt no regret or remorse for the act that he had facilitated. While one wishes that Stephens monstrous act was attributable to malevolent alien psionic control, third party narcotic addiction, or other excuses, none have been found. Which made that act all the more horrific, given that it was born of his own volition, conscious intention and coldblooded strategic calculation and realpolitik.
And on that bleak day, Earth-66's innocence and wishful thinking about the metahumans in its midst was lost forever as Moscow burnt, a city of charnel houses and broken bodies.
1970:
The Whig Party had long stood for the rule of law, original interpretation of constitutional documents, protection of minority rights, property rights, social order and the creation and maintenance of large infrastructure projects, reason and moral constraint. Because of the chaos and anarchy that had now befallen the Imperial Patriarchate capital, the destruction of property and the sheer absence of moral constraint evident in the action of the Chancellor, the Whig Party disendorsed him as its candidate for executive office. American cities burnt as aggrieved students and workers declared their outrage at the Chancellor's malevolence. In return, the iron fist of martial law descended on the Federation and the 1970 mid-terms for Legislature elections were postponed.
Predictably, though, the Chancellor found a political vehicle suitable for his purpose- the opportunist Populist Party, which dumped its perennial Chancellorhood candidate, Richard Roberts. The Populist Party were formerly a quite marginal political party, dedicated to the supremacy of singleton humans with a single consciousness against the ascendant multiple personality movement. As a result, Chancellor Stephens adopted their agenda and tried to stack the Supreme Judiciary.
Becky Burns was visiting Walt Walters when the fawn official envelope arrived, informing him of the death of his two sons in the Moscow firestorm. He collapsed onto his knees, to be embraced by Becky, also weeping.
In a remote bunker, Atomic Man gazed at his hands and tried to will himself to disintegrate. He woke up screaming most nights now. He was docile, not wanting to kill anyone else after what he had been duped into doing in Moscow, for which he blamed himself. Alighting on the cracked and jagged sidewalk after his deed, he witnessed the charred flesh and bones of a small child. He knelt and reached down to hold it in his arms, but it broke and dissolved into radioactive dust. In all the years after, he never ventured beyond the confines of the bunker, not wishing human contact in an act of self-imposed exile. Speculation and conspiracy theory swirled about his current whereabouts.
1978:
In distant Whiteland, a US territory purchased from Denmark, Atomic Man finally succeeded in his quest for oblivion, after he realised he could accelerate his level of half-life quiescence. Nine years after the Moscow attack, he finally did so, and throughout the successive evening, his body steadily turned to lead, until enough had made the transmission to end his consciousness. Half an hour thereafter, the metamorphosis affected his respiratory system as well. After eight years, Chancellor Stephens was still in place, exhausting a range of Vice-Chancellors, male and female, in his wake. He spoke warmly of the sacrifices that Adam Dunning had made since he originally became Atomic Man, but made only brief mention of the destruction of Moscow and the six million lives lost in that wanton act of slaughter. In a bar, Gunther's eyes met those of Walt, Hugh and Becky:
"It has to be done."
"I cannot participate in any intentional act of ending another's life." Hugh said, with reluctance.
"Which means you won't. Even with all your power as Enlightenment, you won't." Walt said bitterly, turning away from his former SUA colleague.
"And nor can I. There would be reprisals and while I would gladly do so, I cannot condemn my countryfolk to occupation and repression under Stephens' avarice and absence of mercy."
Walt sighed: "I can understand that at least, Gunther. Well, Becky? Will you help me?"
Becky looked up, her eyes red with tears and sleeplessness: "I'll go one better than that, Walt. You don't have to lift a gun. I will carry it out."
"Are you sure? I wasn't going to ask you-"
Becky looked up at the ceiling and said, in a broken voice: "Don and Rich. I'm doing it for my childhood friends. I'm doing it because that damned man was my companion and better than all of you, I know his achilles heel. I deliberated long and hard with this, but I can't see any other way out of Roger's tyranny. It has to be me. Rich and Don...wouldn't have wanted you to throw your life away to end it, Walt, and I don't, either."
"Becky... what did I do...what did any of us do... to deserve such a truly loyal and selfless friend like you?"
Becky smiled wanly: "During GW2, all of you befriended an orphan girl who suddenly found herself in your midst. All of you provided me with a home and friendship that has endured over the last decades. It's time I paid that back."
+++
PHILADELPHIA, F.D:
In the Quadrangular Office, Chancellor Roger Stephens, dictator of the Federation of American States for the last ten years, stared balefully at the young woman who had materialised in the centre of his office, holding a gun pointed directly at him. He scowled and pressed a button, to no reaction. He did so over and over again, until he looked up at the impassive Rebecca Burns:
"So it's you, is it? They talked you into this act of treachery."
"They didn't have to, Roger. And it's no good trying to activate your office defences or call in your Federal Guard from outside the office door. Hugh won't kill you directly, but he did insure that you can't summon anyone else to do your dirty work for you."
"And this is how you repay me for taking you in and providing you with a family?"
Becky nodded: "Roger, you need help. Hugh thinks that taking the Human Metamorphosis Serum all those years ago had unforeseen consequences. It's driven you mad and disinhibited you. You have innocent children and adolescents shot. Under your dictatorship, the Federation has tried to subdue the Mexican Union and ABC Confederacy to the south, and nearly blundered into war with the Indochinese Confederation. There was famine in Franklin. Your negligence led to a forest firestorm that destroyed the whole of Ames. Midlands and Freemont's wheat crop were consumed in that infernal dustbowl because of overfarming in '73. New Guernsey, Alderney and Temperance were devastated in Hurricane Elizabeth. Millions of people have died, both inside and outside the Federation."
"They're jealous of me, Rebecca. Don't you realise that? Apart from Hugh, who won't do anything to block his own selfish way to Nirvana, I am the strongest person in the FAS. With great power comes great responsibility."
Becky shook his head: "You haven't shown any, Roger. You've carried on like some medieval despot. You've seduced, abandoned and betrayed the country that you once served alongside me. I kept hoping, you'd come to your senses one day, step down and make voluntary amends for your crimes. But you haven't. Because the Roger Stephens I once know, my mentor, friend and protector, is dead. He's been dead for years."
"You never used to have to justify your actions, Becky. Do you really want to do this?"
A tear escaped her eyes: "I have to, Roger. Because I know as well as you do that if I don't carry this through, and put down this gun, you'll call in your guards and have me shot."
"Well, you are committing treason right now. I won't lie to you."
Becky nodded: "I'm not your protege Speedgirl anymore, Roger. I'm a woman. No, you're not lying to me. You're either lying to yourself, or the HMS has turned you into this psychotic martinet."
"Then kill me. I won't beg f-" In the middle of his sentence, Becky fired her pistol. His eyes widened as he realised that even given his prodigious speed and strength, the bullet was faster than it should be and was tracking him, modifying its trajectory as it bore inexorably down on him. In a fraction of a second, it made skin contact and bored through his heart, which shot blood and muscle over the oak desk and stars and bars of the FAS flag behind him. He slumped to the floor, his mouth still open, his eyes still wide. Perhaps he hadn't thought Becky was going to fire.
From outside the White Palace's environs, the sound of shouting and escalating gunfire was heard as the Second American Revolution began around her. Becky Burns knelt alongside the man who had once been her friend and mentor and closed his eyes. Half an hour later, Enlightenment, Black Owl and Doctor Frost walked into the bloodstained office and a decade of repression, avarice, negligence and torture ended forever.
EPILOGUE:
The Supreme Judiciary acquitted her of treason, murder and manslaughter and the verdict was met with cheering crowd outside. Thereafter, the former members of the Superheroes Union of America met for drinks and socialising each anniversary of the assassination of Chancellor Roger Stephens. Becky Burns fell in love, married the two men she loved and had children, and over time, the nightmares about what she had to do faded into quiescence and silence. Over time, new metahumans appeared and took their place as guardians of Earth-66. And although, during each occassion, the conversations were elliptical and oblique, each of the men and that woman knew what they had done and that there was no other way. But they were not stone-cold murderers and each of them mourned the circumstances that had led them to take the life of their former friend.
THE END.