Post by redsycorax on Oct 27, 2020 1:42:36 GMT
Although some Earths have second and third generation metahumans, some are questioning their purpose given technological advances have marginalised their role in crimefighting, personal rescue and disaster relief. Earth-486 is one example of this process at work. Here, the sixties saw the effective end of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. On this world, Cuba did not have a successful socialist revolution and the Batista regime remained in power. There were no Soviet missiles placed provocatively in Cuba and consequently no Cuban missile crisis. JFK was never assassinated. The Vietnam War ended in an armistice akin to that of Korea, with South Vietnam safe from further communist incursion. Khrushchev succeeded in maize planting initiatives which increased the USSR's agricultural self-sufficiency and also managed to purge the Politbureau of his opponents- Podggorny, Brezhnev and Suslov. The elderly men ended up in Siberia, where none of them lasted long. With his position assured, Khruschev concentrated on liberalisation of the Soviet economy. He welcomed Alexander Dubchek's reform communism in Czechoslovakia, arousing the resentment of hardliners in East Germany, Poland and Hungary, but Russia exerted 'influence' on their domestic communist parties to remove them from power. Without overseas Soviet expansionism, the Soviet economy began to boom. The United States and USSR signed several comprehensive Strategic Arms Limitation talks and the United States accelerated its space programme. Richard Nixon never came to power, as Hubert Humphrey won the 1968 election, as did Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1976 and Geraldine Ferraro in 1984. The USSR played a constructive engagement role in the Middle East, leaning on allied states and avoiding confrontation with Israel. There was no oil crisis in the seventies. Instead, Apollo Ares 18 landed on Phobos, where it discovered an alien monolith, and Apollo Ares 19 landed in the Hellas basin. In the eighties, the Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer series explored Ganymede, Callisto and Europa's subterranean oceans and found life on all of them.
For Earth-486's metahumans, real-time ageing ensued. Superman and Lois Lane married in the sixties, as did Batman and Kathy (Batwoman) Kane. Dick Grayson abandoned his Robin career for university studies. Lois Lane Kent gave birth to a daughter, Lola Lane-Kent, who inherited her father's abilities and became Superlass. However, tragedy was to strike the House of El as Linda (Supergirl) Danvers contracted Virus X- by cruel misfortune, a variety immune to the defoliant effects of white kryptonite. Because Rokyn lacked traditional Kryptonian ethical conservatism about human cloning, Kara Zor-El was placed in suspended animation but also cloned, resulting in a blond Superlad (Kar-El). Because Superman and Batman had started their careers substantially earlier than other superheroes on Earth-486, one day, Lois Lane died, well into her eighties. Her grieving widower decided to abandon Earth, given its burgeoning technological development. Lola Lane-Kent took over as Superwoman, having grown to maturity. Shortly after, Bruce Wayne and Kathy Kane Wayne also passed away. Richard Grayson had long since abandoned his Robin identity, working for the United Nations. Other metahumans married and had children- Ray Palmer and Jean Loring had a daughter, Jane Palmer, who would later become the size-shifting metahuman Planck. Green Arrow gave up superheroics for philanthropy and social reform. Hal Jordan died in the line of Green Lantern Corps duty against the Weaponers of Qward and John Stewart succeeded him. Shayera and Katar Hol's marriage disintegrated and he returned to Thanagar, leaving her as Hawk. Wonder Woman's marriage to Steve Trevor also failed, leading her to return to Paradise Island. Aquaman was overthrown and assassinated by Atlantean separatist elements and sea travel became impossible in the Atlantic Ocean. Barry and Iris Allen had a daughter as well, Iris II- or Pace, given that she inherited her father's speedforce access. As the old Justice League became obsolete, Planck, Pace, Green Lantern, Hawk, Superwoman and Superlad formed a new Justice Collective.
SAN ANGELES, 2019:
"Still nothing, Kar?"
Superlad checked the cavernous canyons of the compound city of San Angeles megalopolis with his telescopic vision one more time. Then he saw it, the barest hint of motion:
"Got him, Lola. Yep. It's one of the bladers all right, and pursuing an android."
"Why do they do it, Kar? Pretend that the Halappavarson decision in the Cali Supreme Court doesn't exist and that they have some 'right' to kill replicants?"
"Which it does. We don't have to stand by and pretend androids aren't sentient beings with sentients rights any longer. Right. He hasn't stopped firing and that android is not a military interface entity. It cannot defend itself, which is where we come in..." Superwoman and her companion ascended, then swooped down on the melee almost half a kilometre before them. Superlad interposed himself betwerrn the android and a shot that would have killed her, and Superwoman grabbed the gun from the startled blader, twisting its barrel out of shape before melting it into an unworkable mass with her heat vision. She then stared at the blader: "Why were you about to commit a hate crime against that android?"
"It's not my fault, lady. I have a war vet husband and a kid to feed. I need the money."
"What you're doing is now illegal, my friend."
"So you want them to move in undetected, take our jobs, leave us exploited and homeless-"
Superwoman raised her hand: "Look. I can understand the circumstances that forced you into this and I'm sorry that you're in this because of them. But your husband and child won't be any better off if you continue committing crimes against nonhuman sentients like this. Here, take this. It's a hypercred card, it can tide you over for the next six months. But that's contingent on you answering a few questions. Who sent you after this android?"
The blader hesitated before nodding and said: "Bryant. Harold Bryant."
Superlad and Superwoman exchanged glances: "Oh, great. He's in a lair with a wormhole to Rakhbat, near Proxima Centauri. We'd lose our abilities if we pursued him there."
"Is it worth asking Spacefleet to send a consignment of troopers out there?" Superlad asked, knowing what his older companion's reply would be.
"No, Kar. It's outside Terran Federation jurisdiction and things are tense in the Alpha C system as it is. Rann and Rakhbat are more or less constantly at each other's throats and the Federation has been ordered to keep out of there. Rann knows that Bryant is a sentiencidal maniac, but he can't be extradited from Rakhbat, whose values about artificial sentience are as backward as his is. Damn. We've hit a dead end."
"Not completely, Lola. At least we helped that ex-blader out of that deadend nightmare of his. What if his next run had been against a military echelon android and it'd killed him in self-defence?"
OBLIVION BAR:
Saul Constantine leant over a toilet and started throwing up. As the son of John Constantine and Zatanna, Saul had thought that he was staunch enough to witness what had happened to the Batman after the end of his life. In his twilight years, after the death of his long-time Kathy Wayne, Batman had become soured and embittered and abandoned some of his earlier scruples. He now killed supervillains and used firearms, as well as resorting to torture. With his growing extremism and estrangement from his former colleagues, it was perhaps inevitable that the childless vigilante would fall by the gun of his greatest nemesis, the whitefaced Joker. The two men opened fire on each other. As their spirits rose from their dead bodies, Saul witnessed hideous groaning from the shadows and then the pair were surrounded by razor toothed, spectral figures with dagger fingers. They closed into their quarry and despite their struggle against them, Batman and the Joker were dragging, screaming and in obvious pain, into the darkness of probable hell. His digestive process stopped regurgitating and Saul straightened. He walked out of the toilet and back to his parents. John looked sympathetic:
"The morning after the night before, our Saul?"
"I accepted Gemma's offer to check up on what happened to Batman. I wish I hadn't."
"Oh, you silly young bastard. What'd you do that for?"
"It was some form of quest. It was also probably warded heavily, which explains my stomach going into reverse. It was awful, Dad, Ma. Demons claimed Batman and the Joker. They were screaming and they were frightened of something. And the stench."
"I wish you hadn't, Saul. But you had to know sometime. Because at times, our world has some very dark corners to it."
JUSTICE COLLECTIVE SATELLITE:
"So, are you still seeing Saul Constantine, Jane?"
As Jane Palmer donned her neutronide infused uniform, she looked over at her BFF, Iris:
"Yeah. I know my folks don't approve, but he's got an edge to him. He's also quite useful when we come across darkmages."
"I think Kar-El and I are getting serious, too. It'd be interesting, marrying into Superman's family. I barely remember him, he left Earth when Mrs Kent passed away and left Lola to look after it in his stead."
"So you don't have any objections to him being a clone?"
Iris shook her head: "Human cloning's been around for about thirty years- longer than either of us have been alive. Clones are included in most countries antidiscrimination laws these days and I'm no bigot. And I'm the second generation of my family in contact with aliens, so that's not a problem either." The airlock blinked:
"That looks like Lola and Kar are back from that case in San An. Let's go and see what happened."
Superwoman watched the world below, wondering if this was how Aunt Kara had felt- the absence of plausible male metahuman suitors for her. Was Dad finding Mom, Lois Lane, just a fluke of nature and desire? She wondered if he was out there somewhere, celebrating the anniversary of their marriage, or whether he'd even resettled somewhere far away from Earth and his old memories. It was years since her father had been in touch, and she wondered what had happened to him sometimes. Back in the main meeting room, Kar-El was busy talking to Jane and Iris, particularly Pace. Well, good for him. Iris was the second generation of a metahuman family, they'd make a good pair if things got serious. Which was more than could be said about Planck and Saul. True, the younger Constantine wasn't as edgey as his father, but then even John was mellower these days. She suspected marriage and parennthood might have had something to do with that. Was this how it was going to be until she found someone like her mother had been to fill her life?
And then, abruptly, the Justice Collective's alarm sensors began to klaxon around them:
"Emergency. Emergency at Tombaugh Base Helium-3 Extraction Plant, Pluto. Javelin programmed for egress."
Green Lantern and Hawk materialised in the JC teleporter and ran for the Collective's mobile emergency shuttle as Superwoman and Superlad exited through the airlock, heading toward the fringe of the solar system, toward the ninth planet's almost imperceptible dot. Scouting ahead, Superwoman and Superlad's telescopic vision focused on the cause of the distant alarm. Superwoman activated her telepathic plug:
[Objective sighted. It seems to be Brainiac.]
[Which one? Skullhead iteration, or the humanoid variety?]
[This doesn't make sense, Lola. Helium 3 is downmarket for him, as is petty terrorism against a fuel processing depot. It's a common enough interstellar drive consumable and there'd be far more at Jupiter or the other gas giants insystem to bother with the minimal reserves at the edge of our solar system.] Kar-El telepathed.
[He's supposed to be a twelfth level AI, isn't he? That's not what the specs on his starship suggest, Lola. It's nowhere near the tachyon drive it used to have. At that speed, it'd take him several years even to get to Alpha Centauri from here. He looks like he's suffered a capability downgrade.]
[Is that possible? Did someone from Colu intervene and reduce his intellect, or was it something else? Kar? What does the Fortress Supercomputer say?]
[Apparently the latter. United Planets GalaxNet data shows that the current campaign of petty space piracy began five years ago, along with the reduced speed of his stardrive and reliance on Helium 3. Nothing from Earth to suggest an ulterior motive. Sinestro is in the Perseus Arm, Chronos is still imprisoned in 2489, and the Reverse Flash is trapped in the null-time continuum where John and Shayera left him last time they clashed] Pace interjected.
[We're nearly there...]
With its white and red mottling, the verdant colouration of Brainiac's habitual saucer starship was clearly visible. As for its occupant, something was clearly wrong. His green humanoid carapace was torn and discoloured, with his circuitry showing through it. His forcescreen was clearly also impaired. He snarled as he tried to fire his holers at the oncoming Justice Collective, but seemed in pain and bewildered as Superwoman and Superlad threw themselves at his forcescreen and it abruptly shorted out. In an instant more, they were within his starship. Superlad grappled with him as his eyes blazed with heat vision, only to relinquish his hold as Brainiac's skull caught alike and his already damaged carapace started to melt. The AI fell to the floor, ululating in what was either pain or terminal malfunction. In only a minute, it was still. The other Justice Collective members arrived as Superwoman was investigating the vessel's memory discs:
"Confirmed. This is the real Brainiac, or was. It seems as if... it encountered a Kryptonian out there and it did severe damage."
"Lola? Could your father have done this?"
"Not neccessarily. Many Rokynians have a vendetta against Brainiac because of what he did to Kandor. It may have saved them from the destruction of Krypton, but they had to spend years as a miniaturised bottled city. So, that might have something to do with what we see here."
"Why would Brainiac launch an attack on Earth in this condition?" Hawk asked
"For starters? He was malfunctioning and his intellectual capabilities were gravely reduced." Green Lantern replied.
"John? Train your ring on the damage. What does it tell you?"
"Blazes. Antimatter weaponry, akin to the ones that the Weaponers of Qward use? But that's impossible. The Guardians and Corps sealed off all remaining portals to the Universe of Anti-Matter. There's no way that they can access positive-matter universes like ours."
"So there's no chance that there could be a sleeper detachment here, John? Or that someone retrofitted their tech and used it against Brainiac?"
"The only adjacent interstellar empire that could do so would be the Khunds and the Corps intel states that they're currently fighting one of their civil wars over the Imperial succession. And we'd know if they'd violated interstellar treaty protocols by any intrusion into non-Imperial space."
"Then who else could have done this? Drax may have had a twentieth level intellect but he died years ago."
"Look, he's an interstellar criminal. He's committed genocide, he's terrorised whole planetary systems. I'm not going to mourn him." Superlad said, nudging the inert endoskeleton of the defunct AI with his foot.
"You're missing the point, Kar. Who or what could have done something to a significant threat level AI like that and what happens if we have to face it too?" Shayera said.
"Lola?"
"John. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"The Guardians just contacted me. A Corps expeditionary force found Sinestro's body... or what was left of it. Something overpowered him and killed him instantly. There wasn't even a final battle. And neither the Guardians or power ring analyses of the crime scene showed what had done it."
"This is unsettling. All of our oldest enemies, suddenly falling before something that weakens them or swats them aside like flies. What has that strength?"
As they surveyed the debris of Apokolips, a faint chill came over the Justice Collective. And their unease grew. Not even the coeval cosmic superpower of New Genesis was able to detect what had done this to New Genesis. And all the while, there was an inexorable blur headed through the cosmos, on a collision course with Earth.
Finally, the day dawned when they did witness it. Lola's brow furrowed: "My father and Batman's old opponent, the so-called Composite Superman?! But Joseph Meach died in 1967, over half a century ago, and Xan, the second Composite Superman, died from the same disease that killed his father. It can't be him."
On the face of the apparent Composite Superman, a malignant grimace split the bifurcated, halfmasked face of the amalgam being:
"Did you honestly think that a being with the abilities of the entire Legion of Super-Heroes would perish so easily? Enough. I have eliminated most of the leading threats to my domination over this galaxy. The Khund and Dominator Empires lie in ruins. Sinestro and Brainiac are dead. It is time for you to perish, half-breed!" With that, he transformed Superwoman's heart to brown kryptonite, the version fatal to descendants of Kryptonians. As she fell, Kar-El surged forward, only to encounter a precautionary antimatter forcescreen forged by Brainiac 5's replicated intellect. Pace was next to fall, as the replicated ability of Element Lad transmuted the elements that had charged her body with superspeed into something harmless. She combusted and was burnt to a crisp. As Planck tried to use her abilities to counteract the effects, Green Lantern protected the remaining three Justice Collective members behind a shield:
"H-he killed them. Just like that. How can we fight an enemy like that?"
"Jane, your size contraction capability won't work against him. He has Shrinking Violet's Imskian capacities to match that, remember? And he doesn't have kryptonite or lead vulnerabilities, or any sense of morality to combat them, unlike the late Joe Meach. And at a guess, his abilities are permanent, unlike those of the original or second Composite Supermen. Don't you, Clark?"
As he discarded the half-Batman mask he wore, the Composite Superman laughed:
"I'm impressed, Stewart. What gave me away?"
"My power ring. You have a Kryptonian medical condition, Xarxas, don't you?"
"And what if I do? I can control it. When I discovered that I was infected, I remembered that I'd placed the Legion statuettes that had empowered Meach and Xan on a remote world orbiting a pulsar on the fringes of this galaxy. I flew there and re-empowered myself."
"Except none of the invulnerabilities that you possess are proof against a Kryptonian virus. It originated under a red sun, so Mon-El's paralleled abilities wouldn't shield you. And despite Brainiac 5's prodigious intellect and deductive talents, it would take you time to replicate the virus in a laboratory- which you don't have. Clark, you're dying. And you've lost any tangible connection to humanity."
"Enough, Stewart. Only you, the Thanagarian and the Atom's daughter stand in my way. And this time, I will not let weakness and sentiment blind me. Look at you. I have killed my half-breed daughter and the pitiful gender-reversed male Supergirl clone. If they fell so easily-"
"One problem with that, mate." A tall blonde young man materialised, sigils and signs blazing around him:
"Ah, the Constantine whelp."
"Saul, get back! He's too p-"
"Ah ah. He may have inherited the abilities of the LSH from those bloody statuettes, Jane love, but at a particular stage of its development. Abraxas necros morituri!"
The Composite Superman snarled as he tried to accelerate toward his new opponent. But it was to no avail. His arms closed around a hologram.
"Abraxas Necros Morituri!" Saul Constantine intoned a second time, as the Composite Superman pivoted and sent deadly shafts of heat vision in his direction.
But again, Saul Constantine eluded apprehension, as he rematerialised behind Green Lantern's shield. And then he spoke the Enochian phrases clearly one final time.
"Abraxas Necros Morituri!" With that, the Composite Superman cried aloud and clutched his face. The spell had removed the Composite Superman's longevity, which paralleled that of Brainiac 5, as well as his intellect, as well as his Daxamian and Kryptonian invulnerabilities and control over Element Lad's Tromite matter transmutation capabilities. In seconds, his face became deeply lined as he fell to his knees, and then aged beyond mortality itself. His flesh and blood decohered into dust and ash as a now-empty costume pitched into the Martian soil.
Which left the Justice Collective's survivors watching on. Green Lantern cleared his throat:
"Saul, we have a favour to ask..."
"Nah, mate. I'd like to oblige and resurrect Pace, Superwoman and Superlad. Really, I would. But Death and Destiny of the Endless get a little proprietorial about that, and those spells have thaumaturgic limits placed on 'em, so some mad necromancer bastard doesn't reconvene and send off some undead army against the rest of us."
"In that case, after we make sure our friends have the funerals they deserve...will you join the Collective?"
Constantine nodded: "Yeah, your team needs a mage, I can see that. I don't know what Dad'll say, but I know Mum'll be rapt. Okay, then."
Hawk gazed at the two corpses:
"Can the Project provide us with another Superlad clone?"
Planck shook her head: "No, I can't live with that. It's treating Kar like a plate of meat, to be reheated at will."
Hawk sighed: "But without Superwoman, we need a Kryptonian class meta to help protect us. I know you have moral scruples about cloning, Jane, but it's for the greater good."
"It'll be years before he's mature enough to join us, though." John Stewart gathered the bodies of Superwoman and Superlad into his arms and the others prepared to take their leave of Superman's body.
"What about..." Hawk looked at the empty uniform of the Composite Superman.
"We may have to live with what we've just done, but there's no reason why the rest of the world can't remember Superman the way he was, before his distance from humanity turned him into ...that." Green Lantern said, as he torched the uniform with his ring.
"All right, then. I'll serve until the next Kar-El clone is old enough to join the Collective, but after that, I won't be part of this."
"Understood. Thank you, Jane." And with that, the Justice Collective left Mars and the memories that would forever accompany them, about the sad necessity of what they had had to do and the death of a legend, whose exact circumstances could never be uncovered.
And so, Earth-486 remained a world of peace, security and rapid technological advance. And what had happened on Mars was lost in the shrouds of mortality and time, left unwritten and unrecorded.
THE END
For Earth-486's metahumans, real-time ageing ensued. Superman and Lois Lane married in the sixties, as did Batman and Kathy (Batwoman) Kane. Dick Grayson abandoned his Robin career for university studies. Lois Lane Kent gave birth to a daughter, Lola Lane-Kent, who inherited her father's abilities and became Superlass. However, tragedy was to strike the House of El as Linda (Supergirl) Danvers contracted Virus X- by cruel misfortune, a variety immune to the defoliant effects of white kryptonite. Because Rokyn lacked traditional Kryptonian ethical conservatism about human cloning, Kara Zor-El was placed in suspended animation but also cloned, resulting in a blond Superlad (Kar-El). Because Superman and Batman had started their careers substantially earlier than other superheroes on Earth-486, one day, Lois Lane died, well into her eighties. Her grieving widower decided to abandon Earth, given its burgeoning technological development. Lola Lane-Kent took over as Superwoman, having grown to maturity. Shortly after, Bruce Wayne and Kathy Kane Wayne also passed away. Richard Grayson had long since abandoned his Robin identity, working for the United Nations. Other metahumans married and had children- Ray Palmer and Jean Loring had a daughter, Jane Palmer, who would later become the size-shifting metahuman Planck. Green Arrow gave up superheroics for philanthropy and social reform. Hal Jordan died in the line of Green Lantern Corps duty against the Weaponers of Qward and John Stewart succeeded him. Shayera and Katar Hol's marriage disintegrated and he returned to Thanagar, leaving her as Hawk. Wonder Woman's marriage to Steve Trevor also failed, leading her to return to Paradise Island. Aquaman was overthrown and assassinated by Atlantean separatist elements and sea travel became impossible in the Atlantic Ocean. Barry and Iris Allen had a daughter as well, Iris II- or Pace, given that she inherited her father's speedforce access. As the old Justice League became obsolete, Planck, Pace, Green Lantern, Hawk, Superwoman and Superlad formed a new Justice Collective.
SAN ANGELES, 2019:
"Still nothing, Kar?"
Superlad checked the cavernous canyons of the compound city of San Angeles megalopolis with his telescopic vision one more time. Then he saw it, the barest hint of motion:
"Got him, Lola. Yep. It's one of the bladers all right, and pursuing an android."
"Why do they do it, Kar? Pretend that the Halappavarson decision in the Cali Supreme Court doesn't exist and that they have some 'right' to kill replicants?"
"Which it does. We don't have to stand by and pretend androids aren't sentient beings with sentients rights any longer. Right. He hasn't stopped firing and that android is not a military interface entity. It cannot defend itself, which is where we come in..." Superwoman and her companion ascended, then swooped down on the melee almost half a kilometre before them. Superlad interposed himself betwerrn the android and a shot that would have killed her, and Superwoman grabbed the gun from the startled blader, twisting its barrel out of shape before melting it into an unworkable mass with her heat vision. She then stared at the blader: "Why were you about to commit a hate crime against that android?"
"It's not my fault, lady. I have a war vet husband and a kid to feed. I need the money."
"What you're doing is now illegal, my friend."
"So you want them to move in undetected, take our jobs, leave us exploited and homeless-"
Superwoman raised her hand: "Look. I can understand the circumstances that forced you into this and I'm sorry that you're in this because of them. But your husband and child won't be any better off if you continue committing crimes against nonhuman sentients like this. Here, take this. It's a hypercred card, it can tide you over for the next six months. But that's contingent on you answering a few questions. Who sent you after this android?"
The blader hesitated before nodding and said: "Bryant. Harold Bryant."
Superlad and Superwoman exchanged glances: "Oh, great. He's in a lair with a wormhole to Rakhbat, near Proxima Centauri. We'd lose our abilities if we pursued him there."
"Is it worth asking Spacefleet to send a consignment of troopers out there?" Superlad asked, knowing what his older companion's reply would be.
"No, Kar. It's outside Terran Federation jurisdiction and things are tense in the Alpha C system as it is. Rann and Rakhbat are more or less constantly at each other's throats and the Federation has been ordered to keep out of there. Rann knows that Bryant is a sentiencidal maniac, but he can't be extradited from Rakhbat, whose values about artificial sentience are as backward as his is. Damn. We've hit a dead end."
"Not completely, Lola. At least we helped that ex-blader out of that deadend nightmare of his. What if his next run had been against a military echelon android and it'd killed him in self-defence?"
OBLIVION BAR:
Saul Constantine leant over a toilet and started throwing up. As the son of John Constantine and Zatanna, Saul had thought that he was staunch enough to witness what had happened to the Batman after the end of his life. In his twilight years, after the death of his long-time Kathy Wayne, Batman had become soured and embittered and abandoned some of his earlier scruples. He now killed supervillains and used firearms, as well as resorting to torture. With his growing extremism and estrangement from his former colleagues, it was perhaps inevitable that the childless vigilante would fall by the gun of his greatest nemesis, the whitefaced Joker. The two men opened fire on each other. As their spirits rose from their dead bodies, Saul witnessed hideous groaning from the shadows and then the pair were surrounded by razor toothed, spectral figures with dagger fingers. They closed into their quarry and despite their struggle against them, Batman and the Joker were dragging, screaming and in obvious pain, into the darkness of probable hell. His digestive process stopped regurgitating and Saul straightened. He walked out of the toilet and back to his parents. John looked sympathetic:
"The morning after the night before, our Saul?"
"I accepted Gemma's offer to check up on what happened to Batman. I wish I hadn't."
"Oh, you silly young bastard. What'd you do that for?"
"It was some form of quest. It was also probably warded heavily, which explains my stomach going into reverse. It was awful, Dad, Ma. Demons claimed Batman and the Joker. They were screaming and they were frightened of something. And the stench."
"I wish you hadn't, Saul. But you had to know sometime. Because at times, our world has some very dark corners to it."
JUSTICE COLLECTIVE SATELLITE:
"So, are you still seeing Saul Constantine, Jane?"
As Jane Palmer donned her neutronide infused uniform, she looked over at her BFF, Iris:
"Yeah. I know my folks don't approve, but he's got an edge to him. He's also quite useful when we come across darkmages."
"I think Kar-El and I are getting serious, too. It'd be interesting, marrying into Superman's family. I barely remember him, he left Earth when Mrs Kent passed away and left Lola to look after it in his stead."
"So you don't have any objections to him being a clone?"
Iris shook her head: "Human cloning's been around for about thirty years- longer than either of us have been alive. Clones are included in most countries antidiscrimination laws these days and I'm no bigot. And I'm the second generation of my family in contact with aliens, so that's not a problem either." The airlock blinked:
"That looks like Lola and Kar are back from that case in San An. Let's go and see what happened."
Superwoman watched the world below, wondering if this was how Aunt Kara had felt- the absence of plausible male metahuman suitors for her. Was Dad finding Mom, Lois Lane, just a fluke of nature and desire? She wondered if he was out there somewhere, celebrating the anniversary of their marriage, or whether he'd even resettled somewhere far away from Earth and his old memories. It was years since her father had been in touch, and she wondered what had happened to him sometimes. Back in the main meeting room, Kar-El was busy talking to Jane and Iris, particularly Pace. Well, good for him. Iris was the second generation of a metahuman family, they'd make a good pair if things got serious. Which was more than could be said about Planck and Saul. True, the younger Constantine wasn't as edgey as his father, but then even John was mellower these days. She suspected marriage and parennthood might have had something to do with that. Was this how it was going to be until she found someone like her mother had been to fill her life?
And then, abruptly, the Justice Collective's alarm sensors began to klaxon around them:
"Emergency. Emergency at Tombaugh Base Helium-3 Extraction Plant, Pluto. Javelin programmed for egress."
Green Lantern and Hawk materialised in the JC teleporter and ran for the Collective's mobile emergency shuttle as Superwoman and Superlad exited through the airlock, heading toward the fringe of the solar system, toward the ninth planet's almost imperceptible dot. Scouting ahead, Superwoman and Superlad's telescopic vision focused on the cause of the distant alarm. Superwoman activated her telepathic plug:
[Objective sighted. It seems to be Brainiac.]
[Which one? Skullhead iteration, or the humanoid variety?]
[This doesn't make sense, Lola. Helium 3 is downmarket for him, as is petty terrorism against a fuel processing depot. It's a common enough interstellar drive consumable and there'd be far more at Jupiter or the other gas giants insystem to bother with the minimal reserves at the edge of our solar system.] Kar-El telepathed.
[He's supposed to be a twelfth level AI, isn't he? That's not what the specs on his starship suggest, Lola. It's nowhere near the tachyon drive it used to have. At that speed, it'd take him several years even to get to Alpha Centauri from here. He looks like he's suffered a capability downgrade.]
[Is that possible? Did someone from Colu intervene and reduce his intellect, or was it something else? Kar? What does the Fortress Supercomputer say?]
[Apparently the latter. United Planets GalaxNet data shows that the current campaign of petty space piracy began five years ago, along with the reduced speed of his stardrive and reliance on Helium 3. Nothing from Earth to suggest an ulterior motive. Sinestro is in the Perseus Arm, Chronos is still imprisoned in 2489, and the Reverse Flash is trapped in the null-time continuum where John and Shayera left him last time they clashed] Pace interjected.
[We're nearly there...]
With its white and red mottling, the verdant colouration of Brainiac's habitual saucer starship was clearly visible. As for its occupant, something was clearly wrong. His green humanoid carapace was torn and discoloured, with his circuitry showing through it. His forcescreen was clearly also impaired. He snarled as he tried to fire his holers at the oncoming Justice Collective, but seemed in pain and bewildered as Superwoman and Superlad threw themselves at his forcescreen and it abruptly shorted out. In an instant more, they were within his starship. Superlad grappled with him as his eyes blazed with heat vision, only to relinquish his hold as Brainiac's skull caught alike and his already damaged carapace started to melt. The AI fell to the floor, ululating in what was either pain or terminal malfunction. In only a minute, it was still. The other Justice Collective members arrived as Superwoman was investigating the vessel's memory discs:
"Confirmed. This is the real Brainiac, or was. It seems as if... it encountered a Kryptonian out there and it did severe damage."
"Lola? Could your father have done this?"
"Not neccessarily. Many Rokynians have a vendetta against Brainiac because of what he did to Kandor. It may have saved them from the destruction of Krypton, but they had to spend years as a miniaturised bottled city. So, that might have something to do with what we see here."
"Why would Brainiac launch an attack on Earth in this condition?" Hawk asked
"For starters? He was malfunctioning and his intellectual capabilities were gravely reduced." Green Lantern replied.
"John? Train your ring on the damage. What does it tell you?"
"Blazes. Antimatter weaponry, akin to the ones that the Weaponers of Qward use? But that's impossible. The Guardians and Corps sealed off all remaining portals to the Universe of Anti-Matter. There's no way that they can access positive-matter universes like ours."
"So there's no chance that there could be a sleeper detachment here, John? Or that someone retrofitted their tech and used it against Brainiac?"
"The only adjacent interstellar empire that could do so would be the Khunds and the Corps intel states that they're currently fighting one of their civil wars over the Imperial succession. And we'd know if they'd violated interstellar treaty protocols by any intrusion into non-Imperial space."
"Then who else could have done this? Drax may have had a twentieth level intellect but he died years ago."
"Look, he's an interstellar criminal. He's committed genocide, he's terrorised whole planetary systems. I'm not going to mourn him." Superlad said, nudging the inert endoskeleton of the defunct AI with his foot.
"You're missing the point, Kar. Who or what could have done something to a significant threat level AI like that and what happens if we have to face it too?" Shayera said.
"Lola?"
"John. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"The Guardians just contacted me. A Corps expeditionary force found Sinestro's body... or what was left of it. Something overpowered him and killed him instantly. There wasn't even a final battle. And neither the Guardians or power ring analyses of the crime scene showed what had done it."
"This is unsettling. All of our oldest enemies, suddenly falling before something that weakens them or swats them aside like flies. What has that strength?"
As they surveyed the debris of Apokolips, a faint chill came over the Justice Collective. And their unease grew. Not even the coeval cosmic superpower of New Genesis was able to detect what had done this to New Genesis. And all the while, there was an inexorable blur headed through the cosmos, on a collision course with Earth.
Finally, the day dawned when they did witness it. Lola's brow furrowed: "My father and Batman's old opponent, the so-called Composite Superman?! But Joseph Meach died in 1967, over half a century ago, and Xan, the second Composite Superman, died from the same disease that killed his father. It can't be him."
On the face of the apparent Composite Superman, a malignant grimace split the bifurcated, halfmasked face of the amalgam being:
"Did you honestly think that a being with the abilities of the entire Legion of Super-Heroes would perish so easily? Enough. I have eliminated most of the leading threats to my domination over this galaxy. The Khund and Dominator Empires lie in ruins. Sinestro and Brainiac are dead. It is time for you to perish, half-breed!" With that, he transformed Superwoman's heart to brown kryptonite, the version fatal to descendants of Kryptonians. As she fell, Kar-El surged forward, only to encounter a precautionary antimatter forcescreen forged by Brainiac 5's replicated intellect. Pace was next to fall, as the replicated ability of Element Lad transmuted the elements that had charged her body with superspeed into something harmless. She combusted and was burnt to a crisp. As Planck tried to use her abilities to counteract the effects, Green Lantern protected the remaining three Justice Collective members behind a shield:
"H-he killed them. Just like that. How can we fight an enemy like that?"
"Jane, your size contraction capability won't work against him. He has Shrinking Violet's Imskian capacities to match that, remember? And he doesn't have kryptonite or lead vulnerabilities, or any sense of morality to combat them, unlike the late Joe Meach. And at a guess, his abilities are permanent, unlike those of the original or second Composite Supermen. Don't you, Clark?"
As he discarded the half-Batman mask he wore, the Composite Superman laughed:
"I'm impressed, Stewart. What gave me away?"
"My power ring. You have a Kryptonian medical condition, Xarxas, don't you?"
"And what if I do? I can control it. When I discovered that I was infected, I remembered that I'd placed the Legion statuettes that had empowered Meach and Xan on a remote world orbiting a pulsar on the fringes of this galaxy. I flew there and re-empowered myself."
"Except none of the invulnerabilities that you possess are proof against a Kryptonian virus. It originated under a red sun, so Mon-El's paralleled abilities wouldn't shield you. And despite Brainiac 5's prodigious intellect and deductive talents, it would take you time to replicate the virus in a laboratory- which you don't have. Clark, you're dying. And you've lost any tangible connection to humanity."
"Enough, Stewart. Only you, the Thanagarian and the Atom's daughter stand in my way. And this time, I will not let weakness and sentiment blind me. Look at you. I have killed my half-breed daughter and the pitiful gender-reversed male Supergirl clone. If they fell so easily-"
"One problem with that, mate." A tall blonde young man materialised, sigils and signs blazing around him:
"Ah, the Constantine whelp."
"Saul, get back! He's too p-"
"Ah ah. He may have inherited the abilities of the LSH from those bloody statuettes, Jane love, but at a particular stage of its development. Abraxas necros morituri!"
The Composite Superman snarled as he tried to accelerate toward his new opponent. But it was to no avail. His arms closed around a hologram.
"Abraxas Necros Morituri!" Saul Constantine intoned a second time, as the Composite Superman pivoted and sent deadly shafts of heat vision in his direction.
But again, Saul Constantine eluded apprehension, as he rematerialised behind Green Lantern's shield. And then he spoke the Enochian phrases clearly one final time.
"Abraxas Necros Morituri!" With that, the Composite Superman cried aloud and clutched his face. The spell had removed the Composite Superman's longevity, which paralleled that of Brainiac 5, as well as his intellect, as well as his Daxamian and Kryptonian invulnerabilities and control over Element Lad's Tromite matter transmutation capabilities. In seconds, his face became deeply lined as he fell to his knees, and then aged beyond mortality itself. His flesh and blood decohered into dust and ash as a now-empty costume pitched into the Martian soil.
Which left the Justice Collective's survivors watching on. Green Lantern cleared his throat:
"Saul, we have a favour to ask..."
"Nah, mate. I'd like to oblige and resurrect Pace, Superwoman and Superlad. Really, I would. But Death and Destiny of the Endless get a little proprietorial about that, and those spells have thaumaturgic limits placed on 'em, so some mad necromancer bastard doesn't reconvene and send off some undead army against the rest of us."
"In that case, after we make sure our friends have the funerals they deserve...will you join the Collective?"
Constantine nodded: "Yeah, your team needs a mage, I can see that. I don't know what Dad'll say, but I know Mum'll be rapt. Okay, then."
Hawk gazed at the two corpses:
"Can the Project provide us with another Superlad clone?"
Planck shook her head: "No, I can't live with that. It's treating Kar like a plate of meat, to be reheated at will."
Hawk sighed: "But without Superwoman, we need a Kryptonian class meta to help protect us. I know you have moral scruples about cloning, Jane, but it's for the greater good."
"It'll be years before he's mature enough to join us, though." John Stewart gathered the bodies of Superwoman and Superlad into his arms and the others prepared to take their leave of Superman's body.
"What about..." Hawk looked at the empty uniform of the Composite Superman.
"We may have to live with what we've just done, but there's no reason why the rest of the world can't remember Superman the way he was, before his distance from humanity turned him into ...that." Green Lantern said, as he torched the uniform with his ring.
"All right, then. I'll serve until the next Kar-El clone is old enough to join the Collective, but after that, I won't be part of this."
"Understood. Thank you, Jane." And with that, the Justice Collective left Mars and the memories that would forever accompany them, about the sad necessity of what they had had to do and the death of a legend, whose exact circumstances could never be uncovered.
And so, Earth-486 remained a world of peace, security and rapid technological advance. And what had happened on Mars was lost in the shrouds of mortality and time, left unwritten and unrecorded.
THE END
