Post by redsycorax on Nov 11, 2020 1:43:42 GMT
On Earth-867, there is no "United" States of America. The country was plunged into factionalism after an army-backed coup in 1867 removed US President Andrew Johnson from office and then introduced propprtional representation elections in 1890 to avoid a Democrat resurgence. Unfortunately, the proportional representation system utilised had no minimum representation threshold introduced, so both major parties fragmented into various constituencies, interest groups and political factions. Shortly afterward, so did the country itself. This had effects on the future development of metahumans on this world- the Waynes and Queens didn't hold onto their fortunes, so Batman and Green Arrow don't exist. Balkanisation means that there are a number of hegemonic large states and other, smaller ones. Kal-El's rocket landed in Oakland, where he was raised by a left-wing Jewish couple, because Jor-El and Lara had observed the backwardness and repression that existed in the New Confederate State of Kansas. There are other consequences. Without a federal Congress to administer it, the Southern states are poorer and more backward than in our own world, but the Northern states don't have the responsibility of helping support them. Barry Allen never became the Flash, because his midwestern state lacked the funding to administer a developed higher education infrastructure. On the other hand, in the prosperous Eastern American Confederation, Ray Palmer did make it to Ivytown University and become the Atom. Green Lantern was similarly able to inherit his power ring from Abin Sur, although Hawkman and Hawkgirl were directed elsewhere from Thanagar than Earth, and Professor Erdel never developed the spatiotemporal apparatus which transferred J'onn J'onnz to Earth from primeval Mars several billion years ago.
World War I (known as "The World War" here) lasted longer than in our world, with the result that it ended with both the Allied and Central Powers vitiated and a more equitable end. Germany withdrew from France and Belgium, was not forced to make reparations and the League of Nations was stronger here. The extreme poverty that radicalised Adolf Hitler and facilitated the emergence of political radicalism never happened here. Hitler was shot dead when an obscure right-wing nationalist sect tried to launch a poorly organised putsch in 1923, and the rest of what would have become the Nazi hierarchy perished in a Berlin shootout. Nor was Mussolini any more successful. Without Germany or Italy to assist it, the fascists failed in Spain. The Russias were marked with political instability after the collapse of the Tsarist regime in 1917 and a series of coups and counter-coups destabilised the former empire. Gradually, the world settled down into more or less liberal democracy in Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea. The pace of scientific change was faster here, too. While the balkanised patchwork of the former United States was never able to fund a unified space programme, although as Earth-867 never had a Nazi Germany or Holocaust, it enjoyed the scientific and aesthetic insights of six million Jews who would never perish here. It turned out to be the British Commonwealth which managed to land humans on the Moon in 1973, and then construct a lunar base, while France reached Mars first, while a joint effort made a landing within the seltzer-water seas of Venus. Nuclear fission reactors exist here, but there is no incentive to develop thermonuclear explosive devices- but one nuclear terrorist device has been used. Some societies are more equitable too- the British Prime Minister is Afro-Carribean, but some are not- France is a neofascist authoritarian state under the control of the National Front. As for the metahuman community, they organised themselves into international organisations, given the absence of a central American federal apparatus to enable their specific loyalties to a United States that no longer existed.
PANOPTICUS SATELLITE:
"And now for the BBC News. Miraclegirl intercepted a projectile fired at the Aristarchus Lunar Base today, and rapidly apprehended the cause- a white supremacist terrorist organisation, known as "White Space", which believes that only caucasians should be astronauts. Captain California assisted the Girl of Miracle in her case, given that the organisation is based near Vandenburg Spaceport in the Californian Republic. Illinois, the East American Confederation and the Pacifica Alliance all condemned the violence, while the New Confederate Bloc condemned what it called the 'persecution of Southron patriots. Our own Godiva and the Canterbury Cricket were knighted by King Charles today, and other recognition of metahuman heroism and valour may be reinforced as we near the Kings New Years Honours. In Australasia, the hunt continues for a ruthless mass murderer who targeted Brisbane with a 'dirty' nuclear device last month. The Tasmanian Devil and Tuatara have stated that they will not rest until they apprehend the terrorist in this case. Altogether, 70,000 people died in the Brisbane nuclear atrocity, comparable to the secessionist Western Muslim India Crimson Crescent attack on Bhopal in the 1980s..."
As the Global Guardians teleporter activated, Tasmanian Devil looked up from his copy of DNA. Godiva smirked:
"Caught in the act, Hugh?"
"Hey, I need some guy candy every so often when Jerry's away."
"Still no luck with the Brisbane nuke?"
Hugh (Tasmanian Devil) Dawkins sighed: "I wish. No-one's sure who came up with this. It isn't those White Space nutbars Kara's just handled in Aristarchus, that's for certain- their concern is Earth orbit and beyond. It might be an allied group, but then Queensland's had a history of political instability since Joh Bjelke-Petersen engineered their secession from the rest of Australia in the seventies. The place is a basket case. The rest of the Australasian Confederation keeps well away from it. It's a hotbed of right-wing extremism, political corruption and organised crime."
"Jerry's operating undercover, right?"
"Has to. Metahumans and mutants are outlawed in Queensland."
"Why do we let tinpot regimes like that survive, Hugh?"
"Because if we took them down, where would it stop? What if some rightist English metas decided to launch a blitz against the Republic of Scotland? Or irredentist Canadians targeting Quebec? No. We have to respect their national sovereignty. End of story. Otherwise we'll end up triggering the sort of anti-meta/mutant hysteria that you see in the New Confederacy or the French National State. And that would compromise our international remit."
"I suppose you're right. Did you see Crimson Fox on France24 last night? When did Connie turn that rabid?"
"I didn't. It was too painful for me. She used to be a friend once. So, where are the others?"
"Ray's off supervising nanosurgery in Los Angeles. Kyle's on a mission to Gamma Draconis for the Guardians, dealing with seismic instabilities in one of the moons of Eskelytine that are endangering a heavily populated satellite colony there. Chad and Simon are dealing with an episode near the San Andreas Fault. Janissary is busy tracking down heroin traffickers in Turkey and Cedar is working with her. Afrikete, Senso and Tarantela are working together on rescue relief in the Maghreb Union."
PARIS:
"Connie, have you gone out of your mind?!"
"Non. Have you forgotten that accursed Bilal? What he did? My sister Genevieve died at his hands. So did one million innocent Parisians after he detonated that chemical weapon at the Arc De Triomphe"
"I'm not making excuses for Nightrunner and his turn toward Algerian Islamism. What he did was unconscionable. But Connie... as French Secretary of Justice, you've pardoned known supervillains like the Brain, Madame Rouge and Monsieur Mallet. They murdered Steve and Rita Dayton in cold blood. Added to which, those deportations..."
"I have a better idea, Madame Kent. Why do you not criticise Maat Shadid, Tahani, Mako, Yasemin Soze, all known Islamist terrorists who have attacked the French National State?"
"Oh no you don't, lady. I filed the story about what you did to Yasemin, the kangaroo court and her hasty execution. Yeah, she was a mercenary, but she worked for the pre-coup democratic French government before your Le Pen neofascists took power in '95-"
"Enough, Madame Kent! I refuse to answer any more of these groundless accusations. This interview is ended."
SAN FRANCISCO:
As the CMC Link cut out, Lois Kent sighed to herself. A moment later, Chad Kent had entered their San Francisco apartment after switching from his Superiorman identity in a downtown alleyway:
"Hey, honey. So how did the interview go?"
Lois shook her head: "Connie D'Aramis has changed, Chad. She brought up Nightrunner's turn toward radical anticolonial Islamism, but failed to mention that the banlieue that he grew up in is a Front Nationale cesspit and that he'd watched his father being shot and killed by a corrupt cop who later got let off manslaughter charges. I know that doesn't justify the "Red Tornado" chemical weapon tragedy, nothing can. I know that she lost her sister then and that explains her turn to the far right. But since then? Rigged facades of justice, often lethal deportations to France's colonial territories... she's become corrupted. Whether that's power or ideology, I don't know. She's come a long way from the days when she was Crimson Fox, and an honourable Global Guardian. Unfortunately, a long way down to the complete ethical and moral quagmire she's immersed in now."
"I know. The Global Guardians aren't what they were, sweetheart"
"Things seem to be growing further apart, at least here in America. I can't believe the NCB views good people like as villains, because of some strange creed."
"They haven't been the same since the Texan Schism and the Virginian War of Independence when it rejoined the EastAm. While they abolished slavery because of pressure from the Brits, they replaced it with a religious hierarchy instead. Abortion and suicide are illegal, homosexuality and drug addiction receive capital punishment and their lifespans are restricted due to the barriers against medical research."
"Then there's that creepy Reunificationist Party under Vandal Savage."
"Don't remind me. Thankfully, the ReUs are only strong in the NewCons, nowhere elsewhere in the former Union."
"Oh, Chad. I'm just lucky that you landed near San Diego, not somewhere like Little Rock or Baton Rouge. Who knows what you might have become?"
ATLANTA:
In the provisional capital of the New Confederate Bloc, the Supremacy sat around a table. Backlash, Blind Faith, Iron Rebel, Inferno and Shrike sat uneasily with the others, given their White Power League origins in the lower South. They didn't really trust each other, although truth be told, Shrike and Eliza (Trajectory) Harmon were having an affair with one another, unknown to his colleagues. Inferno was also secretly gay. Neroli Barlow (White Lightning) sighed as she tried to bring the meeting together, but the old WPL membership was as usual, fractious, even though white women had had the franchise since 1930 in the Bloc. Leon (Frostbite) Carver treated the White Power League with open disdain and disgust, particularly given Iron Rebel's drinking problem, given that he was a fervent evangelical Christian and black university graduate. He had his suspicions about Inferno as well. Carrie and Jon Levine (Redwing and Prester John) hated the WPL and were alienated from Southron society. If push came to shove, Neroli could be sure of Leon and Eliza, but neither the WPL or the two Levines. She was no anti-Semite, but judging from lapses in their nonverbal behaviour, the Levines were probably crypto-liberals. At least they seemed to hate the WPL contingent more than the more mainstream conservative Supremacy members and placed their reservations about NCB society apart from working to protect those of the more mainstream members. Carla (Darkstar) White tried to stay out of it, as a North Carolina representative of an interstellar police force, whose work took her offworld frequently. However, the WPL suspected her of collaboration and treason because of that. Her strong friendship with Jaime Reyes (Texas Beetle) and Renee Montoya (Question) might have had something to do with that. Roboman (Cliff Steele), Zookeeper (Sam Register), Travis Clavinger (Bloodhound), Anton Arcane, Jack Verde (Green Cigarette) and the Miami Del Toro vampire cabal were all more or less noncommital. Hell, Bloodhound and Green Cigarette would have probably gone bad if the world had been a little different and only hung around for the Supremacy paychecks that came their way.
At times, Neroli was deeply worried about what would happen if the loose alliance of metas were forced into battle with other contingents of Americans. Would their divergent moral compasses and political philosophies drive them apart altogether?
LINCOLN, EAC:
The Supremacy had their counterparts to the northeast. In the Eastern American Confederation, the more prosperous New England states had well-established metahuman champions of their own, and in fact it could be said that there was a metahuman arms race between the two rivals for domination of Lower North America. There was bitterness at having to let the former Confederate states go when the Union had won a war to keep them within the United States. But after the coup that deposed Andrew Johnson and the subsequent disintegration of the United States, the New Englanders had turned their backs on their former renegade contingent and let them leave. The Differentiation had led to tensions as a consequence. Many of the NCB states went through periods of intense gerrymandering, political corruption and bankruptcies, and the exodus of African-Americans left the NCB almost bereft of inexpensive labour. By 1940, there were almost no African-Americans left south and west of Virginia. The NCB tried to market itself as a trade-union-free free enterprise zone, but without Northern money for reconstruction, stagnation occurred in many NCB states, apart from Texas, which discovered petroleum reserves at the turn of the century and prospered as a result.
The Twelve consisted of representatives of each of the original colonies. Spectralman (Jim Corrigan) hailed from New Jersey, Doris Zuel (Giantess) was a denizen of Connecticut, Atlantean (Arthur Curry) regarded Maine as his adopted home, while Airstryke (Will Kavanagh) was a mutant from Maryland who was a skilled airborne warrior. Nuke (Jason Rauch) was from Michigan, empowered by a malfunctioning experimental fusion reactor. Icewoman (Louise Lincoln) was a New Yorker, while Maria (Virago) Alton was a native of Philadelphia. Android Matt Tyler had been constructed in Rhode Island and was the latest iteration of Hourman. Elsa Merlin was the widow of Mark Merlin, a self-styled 'supernatural detective' who lived at Mystery Hill, Vermont. Vanessa Van Helsing (Staker) was the sole survivor of Night Force, a paranormal intervention organisation formerly based in the southernmost EAC state, Virginia. Jefferson Pierce (Lightning Bolt) was the Twelve's chair, a teacher who lived in Colombia, formerly Washington DC, capital of the former United States which had long since attained statehood. Vanessa Kapatalis (Swan) was an another airborne mutant, based in the EAC capital, Boston.
"Why do we even put up with the repeated incursions of Supremacy metas into EAC territory and airspace, anyway?" Virago asked her companions.
"Because there are cases which require co-ordinated activity. And because some boundaries do not follow convenient national borders." Elsa replied.
"I agree with you, Maria, we're far too soft on them." Swan added her support to the discussion.
"And so do I. The NCB is allowed to get away with far too much. It's bad enough that they have reps on the Global Guardians now."
"Hey now, Carla, Renee, Cliff, Carrie and Jon are at least tolerable. They ain't all crackers." Airstryke interjected.
"Carla and Renee, I trust. It's a matter of time before Carrie and Jon get fed up with the repression inside the NCB and defect. Things can't be easy for them as Jewish metas. Don't ask me about Leon." Jeff Pierce sighed.
"I'd gladly declare war on the del Rios if they came north of the border." Vanessa said, given the animosities between her family and every example of homo myotis they encountered.
"I mean, Leon is black. The NCB had to be forced to give up slavery after the Disintegration. What is he doing serving a regime like that?"
"Being a good Christian man, I imagine." Giantess commented, as she repaired her uniform.
"Or Eliza. And why is she carrying on with Shrike, given his WPL past?"
"Or Inferno. I know what you mean, though, Jeff. I mean, he's obviously gay- and I should know. So what the hell is he doing serving a regime that executes lesbians and gay men if they catch them doing the deed?" Airstryke interjected.
At which point, the Global Guardians electronic klaxon went off and the Twelve scrambled for their teleporter alcove.
GLOBAL GUARDIANS SATELLITE:
"Come to order, please! As most of you know, the primary item on the agenda is the nuclear attack on Brisbane which destroyed that city and cost an estimated 70,000 lives." Superiorman looked out over the rows of seats and sighed. He hoped that there wouldn't be awkwardness here. However, inevitably, there was:
"Chad. The assailants were the White Space neofascist group and they're based in the New Confederate Bloc. They have been apprehended. The Supremacy shares your horror and revulsion at what happened, but this is for our respective national governments to resolve, not a Guardians issue." White Lightning responded.
"Oh, really? Is the Supremacy unanimous on that? Even the former WPL members?"
"As you are fully aware, Sunburst, the Baltimore Accords confine the former White Power League elements within the Supremacy to New Confederacy borders. I don't care for what you're insinuating."
"Certainly, the people of Japan share the anguish of the good people of Australia feel at this desperately sad hour. If there is anything that the Asian members of the Guardians can do in Brisbane, Hugh and Jeremy, you only have to ask."
"Thanks for the offer, Takeo, and we certainly do appreciate it. I'll let you know what Canberra and Wellington have decided after the Coalition of Australasian Governments meet tomorrow."
But Virago took up Sunburst's question: "Look, Neroli, I know that you're no racist, but you've got to admit, the Bloc does have problems with white supremacist groups."
"That's a gross overgeneralisation. I have never faced anything like the sort of prejudice and bigotry that existed in the past. The New Confederacy has changed."
"Why don't you ask Prester John and Redwing about just how enlightened your regime actually is?" Vanessa retorted.
"That will do, all of you! Kara, what's the next item of business?"
Miraclegirl cleared her throat: "The Kingdom of Hawaii is developing tachyon-chroniton vehicles. It may become the first Terran nation to establish interstellar travel. Unfortunately, that particular technology may have side-effects. Temporal flux instability may weaken the inviolability of the timestream, resulting in potential transtemporal interventions from unwanted characters."
"And by unwanted characters, I take it you mean the Temporal Intervention Force?"
Kara nodded: "Yes, exactly, Takeo. As you're aware, there's an Iron Barrier of Time preventing the Guardians from travelling further uptime than Black Barax's 76th Century Kikago headquarters. We suspect a cabal of newly recruited temporal renegades is gathered there and may use the temporal flux instability to attack the twenty first century. The most probable assailants that the Guardians will face in that contingency are the aforementioned Black Barax (7532), CI Negative (2637) and DMane (6946)."
"But wouldn't intervention mean that their particular alternate futures never happen?"
"And what about supportive uptime figures? Like Anti-Lad in 7474?"
"The problem is that their intervention may be part of the existing timeline itself and therefore, there is no paradox." Kara explained.
"But my point still holds. If we have a toehold uptime ourselves, why not use it?"
"That's a point. Wildfire from the Legion of Superheroes is still active in 7474 and has his own Legion of Metasapients active around him- Membrain of Hykraius,a telepath; Graft, Shape and Shift of Durla, a metamorph; Nervosa of Bismoll, a hypervore; Phase of Bgztl, an extradimensional spectrohuman; Magno and Lode of Braal, whose inhabitants have magnetic capabilities; Triad III and Triplicate of Carggg, who possess their species ability to materialise physiological duplicates from subspace; and Anti-Lad himself, who can replicate the abilities of his team-mates." Superiorman noted.
"Chad, you and Kara have a power advantage."
"True, but we only know about the LMS through reputation. The barrier is still there. We weren't able to breach it and nor could Mon-El, Laurel Gand or Ultraboy in the thirty first century."
AEROCIT: CE 7474:
"So we cannot intervene?"
"Yes. I hate it just as much as you, Trip, but the historical record is plain to see. The Global Guardians do not survive the next assault by the Temporal Intervention Force. The Iron Barrier of Time similarly obstructs retrospective time travel access from our century to the present. "
CE 2020:
"Superiorman. There's a massive vortex forming above the Pacific Ocean. I think this is it."
"Kara, with me. The rest of you, prepare for localised incursions." But while kryptonite and magic were the only things that could afflict Kryptonians and injure or kill them in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, other vulnerabilities had arisen in the interim five millennia. And in a hideous argosy of white antienergy, Earth's greatest heroes ceased to exist. Perhaps if there had been more resolute international institutions in place, perhaps as a result of prior international conflict, the Global Guardians would have been able to achieve their goals and objectives more readily. But Earth-867 was not a world where that had happened in its past. As a consequence, the Temporal Intervention Force and its enslaved legions of servile humans and aliens scoured the planet clean of resistance. And as a consequence, when the Great Crisis swept the multiverse several years later, there was no-one left on Earth-867 to resist its deadly incursion. As millions screamed and the triumvirate in control of the TIF turned their heads toward the threat engulfing their enslaved world, all that it ever had been and ever would be was enshrouded in a blinding pall of white and it passed from existence.
After that, there was nothing in its cosmos. Nothing lived, laughed, fought or loved.
THE END
World War I (known as "The World War" here) lasted longer than in our world, with the result that it ended with both the Allied and Central Powers vitiated and a more equitable end. Germany withdrew from France and Belgium, was not forced to make reparations and the League of Nations was stronger here. The extreme poverty that radicalised Adolf Hitler and facilitated the emergence of political radicalism never happened here. Hitler was shot dead when an obscure right-wing nationalist sect tried to launch a poorly organised putsch in 1923, and the rest of what would have become the Nazi hierarchy perished in a Berlin shootout. Nor was Mussolini any more successful. Without Germany or Italy to assist it, the fascists failed in Spain. The Russias were marked with political instability after the collapse of the Tsarist regime in 1917 and a series of coups and counter-coups destabilised the former empire. Gradually, the world settled down into more or less liberal democracy in Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea. The pace of scientific change was faster here, too. While the balkanised patchwork of the former United States was never able to fund a unified space programme, although as Earth-867 never had a Nazi Germany or Holocaust, it enjoyed the scientific and aesthetic insights of six million Jews who would never perish here. It turned out to be the British Commonwealth which managed to land humans on the Moon in 1973, and then construct a lunar base, while France reached Mars first, while a joint effort made a landing within the seltzer-water seas of Venus. Nuclear fission reactors exist here, but there is no incentive to develop thermonuclear explosive devices- but one nuclear terrorist device has been used. Some societies are more equitable too- the British Prime Minister is Afro-Carribean, but some are not- France is a neofascist authoritarian state under the control of the National Front. As for the metahuman community, they organised themselves into international organisations, given the absence of a central American federal apparatus to enable their specific loyalties to a United States that no longer existed.
PANOPTICUS SATELLITE:
"And now for the BBC News. Miraclegirl intercepted a projectile fired at the Aristarchus Lunar Base today, and rapidly apprehended the cause- a white supremacist terrorist organisation, known as "White Space", which believes that only caucasians should be astronauts. Captain California assisted the Girl of Miracle in her case, given that the organisation is based near Vandenburg Spaceport in the Californian Republic. Illinois, the East American Confederation and the Pacifica Alliance all condemned the violence, while the New Confederate Bloc condemned what it called the 'persecution of Southron patriots. Our own Godiva and the Canterbury Cricket were knighted by King Charles today, and other recognition of metahuman heroism and valour may be reinforced as we near the Kings New Years Honours. In Australasia, the hunt continues for a ruthless mass murderer who targeted Brisbane with a 'dirty' nuclear device last month. The Tasmanian Devil and Tuatara have stated that they will not rest until they apprehend the terrorist in this case. Altogether, 70,000 people died in the Brisbane nuclear atrocity, comparable to the secessionist Western Muslim India Crimson Crescent attack on Bhopal in the 1980s..."
As the Global Guardians teleporter activated, Tasmanian Devil looked up from his copy of DNA. Godiva smirked:
"Caught in the act, Hugh?"
"Hey, I need some guy candy every so often when Jerry's away."
"Still no luck with the Brisbane nuke?"
Hugh (Tasmanian Devil) Dawkins sighed: "I wish. No-one's sure who came up with this. It isn't those White Space nutbars Kara's just handled in Aristarchus, that's for certain- their concern is Earth orbit and beyond. It might be an allied group, but then Queensland's had a history of political instability since Joh Bjelke-Petersen engineered their secession from the rest of Australia in the seventies. The place is a basket case. The rest of the Australasian Confederation keeps well away from it. It's a hotbed of right-wing extremism, political corruption and organised crime."
"Jerry's operating undercover, right?"
"Has to. Metahumans and mutants are outlawed in Queensland."
"Why do we let tinpot regimes like that survive, Hugh?"
"Because if we took them down, where would it stop? What if some rightist English metas decided to launch a blitz against the Republic of Scotland? Or irredentist Canadians targeting Quebec? No. We have to respect their national sovereignty. End of story. Otherwise we'll end up triggering the sort of anti-meta/mutant hysteria that you see in the New Confederacy or the French National State. And that would compromise our international remit."
"I suppose you're right. Did you see Crimson Fox on France24 last night? When did Connie turn that rabid?"
"I didn't. It was too painful for me. She used to be a friend once. So, where are the others?"
"Ray's off supervising nanosurgery in Los Angeles. Kyle's on a mission to Gamma Draconis for the Guardians, dealing with seismic instabilities in one of the moons of Eskelytine that are endangering a heavily populated satellite colony there. Chad and Simon are dealing with an episode near the San Andreas Fault. Janissary is busy tracking down heroin traffickers in Turkey and Cedar is working with her. Afrikete, Senso and Tarantela are working together on rescue relief in the Maghreb Union."
PARIS:
"Connie, have you gone out of your mind?!"
"Non. Have you forgotten that accursed Bilal? What he did? My sister Genevieve died at his hands. So did one million innocent Parisians after he detonated that chemical weapon at the Arc De Triomphe"
"I'm not making excuses for Nightrunner and his turn toward Algerian Islamism. What he did was unconscionable. But Connie... as French Secretary of Justice, you've pardoned known supervillains like the Brain, Madame Rouge and Monsieur Mallet. They murdered Steve and Rita Dayton in cold blood. Added to which, those deportations..."
"I have a better idea, Madame Kent. Why do you not criticise Maat Shadid, Tahani, Mako, Yasemin Soze, all known Islamist terrorists who have attacked the French National State?"
"Oh no you don't, lady. I filed the story about what you did to Yasemin, the kangaroo court and her hasty execution. Yeah, she was a mercenary, but she worked for the pre-coup democratic French government before your Le Pen neofascists took power in '95-"
"Enough, Madame Kent! I refuse to answer any more of these groundless accusations. This interview is ended."
SAN FRANCISCO:
As the CMC Link cut out, Lois Kent sighed to herself. A moment later, Chad Kent had entered their San Francisco apartment after switching from his Superiorman identity in a downtown alleyway:
"Hey, honey. So how did the interview go?"
Lois shook her head: "Connie D'Aramis has changed, Chad. She brought up Nightrunner's turn toward radical anticolonial Islamism, but failed to mention that the banlieue that he grew up in is a Front Nationale cesspit and that he'd watched his father being shot and killed by a corrupt cop who later got let off manslaughter charges. I know that doesn't justify the "Red Tornado" chemical weapon tragedy, nothing can. I know that she lost her sister then and that explains her turn to the far right. But since then? Rigged facades of justice, often lethal deportations to France's colonial territories... she's become corrupted. Whether that's power or ideology, I don't know. She's come a long way from the days when she was Crimson Fox, and an honourable Global Guardian. Unfortunately, a long way down to the complete ethical and moral quagmire she's immersed in now."
"I know. The Global Guardians aren't what they were, sweetheart"
"Things seem to be growing further apart, at least here in America. I can't believe the NCB views good people like as villains, because of some strange creed."
"They haven't been the same since the Texan Schism and the Virginian War of Independence when it rejoined the EastAm. While they abolished slavery because of pressure from the Brits, they replaced it with a religious hierarchy instead. Abortion and suicide are illegal, homosexuality and drug addiction receive capital punishment and their lifespans are restricted due to the barriers against medical research."
"Then there's that creepy Reunificationist Party under Vandal Savage."
"Don't remind me. Thankfully, the ReUs are only strong in the NewCons, nowhere elsewhere in the former Union."
"Oh, Chad. I'm just lucky that you landed near San Diego, not somewhere like Little Rock or Baton Rouge. Who knows what you might have become?"
ATLANTA:
In the provisional capital of the New Confederate Bloc, the Supremacy sat around a table. Backlash, Blind Faith, Iron Rebel, Inferno and Shrike sat uneasily with the others, given their White Power League origins in the lower South. They didn't really trust each other, although truth be told, Shrike and Eliza (Trajectory) Harmon were having an affair with one another, unknown to his colleagues. Inferno was also secretly gay. Neroli Barlow (White Lightning) sighed as she tried to bring the meeting together, but the old WPL membership was as usual, fractious, even though white women had had the franchise since 1930 in the Bloc. Leon (Frostbite) Carver treated the White Power League with open disdain and disgust, particularly given Iron Rebel's drinking problem, given that he was a fervent evangelical Christian and black university graduate. He had his suspicions about Inferno as well. Carrie and Jon Levine (Redwing and Prester John) hated the WPL and were alienated from Southron society. If push came to shove, Neroli could be sure of Leon and Eliza, but neither the WPL or the two Levines. She was no anti-Semite, but judging from lapses in their nonverbal behaviour, the Levines were probably crypto-liberals. At least they seemed to hate the WPL contingent more than the more mainstream conservative Supremacy members and placed their reservations about NCB society apart from working to protect those of the more mainstream members. Carla (Darkstar) White tried to stay out of it, as a North Carolina representative of an interstellar police force, whose work took her offworld frequently. However, the WPL suspected her of collaboration and treason because of that. Her strong friendship with Jaime Reyes (Texas Beetle) and Renee Montoya (Question) might have had something to do with that. Roboman (Cliff Steele), Zookeeper (Sam Register), Travis Clavinger (Bloodhound), Anton Arcane, Jack Verde (Green Cigarette) and the Miami Del Toro vampire cabal were all more or less noncommital. Hell, Bloodhound and Green Cigarette would have probably gone bad if the world had been a little different and only hung around for the Supremacy paychecks that came their way.
At times, Neroli was deeply worried about what would happen if the loose alliance of metas were forced into battle with other contingents of Americans. Would their divergent moral compasses and political philosophies drive them apart altogether?
LINCOLN, EAC:
The Supremacy had their counterparts to the northeast. In the Eastern American Confederation, the more prosperous New England states had well-established metahuman champions of their own, and in fact it could be said that there was a metahuman arms race between the two rivals for domination of Lower North America. There was bitterness at having to let the former Confederate states go when the Union had won a war to keep them within the United States. But after the coup that deposed Andrew Johnson and the subsequent disintegration of the United States, the New Englanders had turned their backs on their former renegade contingent and let them leave. The Differentiation had led to tensions as a consequence. Many of the NCB states went through periods of intense gerrymandering, political corruption and bankruptcies, and the exodus of African-Americans left the NCB almost bereft of inexpensive labour. By 1940, there were almost no African-Americans left south and west of Virginia. The NCB tried to market itself as a trade-union-free free enterprise zone, but without Northern money for reconstruction, stagnation occurred in many NCB states, apart from Texas, which discovered petroleum reserves at the turn of the century and prospered as a result.
The Twelve consisted of representatives of each of the original colonies. Spectralman (Jim Corrigan) hailed from New Jersey, Doris Zuel (Giantess) was a denizen of Connecticut, Atlantean (Arthur Curry) regarded Maine as his adopted home, while Airstryke (Will Kavanagh) was a mutant from Maryland who was a skilled airborne warrior. Nuke (Jason Rauch) was from Michigan, empowered by a malfunctioning experimental fusion reactor. Icewoman (Louise Lincoln) was a New Yorker, while Maria (Virago) Alton was a native of Philadelphia. Android Matt Tyler had been constructed in Rhode Island and was the latest iteration of Hourman. Elsa Merlin was the widow of Mark Merlin, a self-styled 'supernatural detective' who lived at Mystery Hill, Vermont. Vanessa Van Helsing (Staker) was the sole survivor of Night Force, a paranormal intervention organisation formerly based in the southernmost EAC state, Virginia. Jefferson Pierce (Lightning Bolt) was the Twelve's chair, a teacher who lived in Colombia, formerly Washington DC, capital of the former United States which had long since attained statehood. Vanessa Kapatalis (Swan) was an another airborne mutant, based in the EAC capital, Boston.
"Why do we even put up with the repeated incursions of Supremacy metas into EAC territory and airspace, anyway?" Virago asked her companions.
"Because there are cases which require co-ordinated activity. And because some boundaries do not follow convenient national borders." Elsa replied.
"I agree with you, Maria, we're far too soft on them." Swan added her support to the discussion.
"And so do I. The NCB is allowed to get away with far too much. It's bad enough that they have reps on the Global Guardians now."
"Hey now, Carla, Renee, Cliff, Carrie and Jon are at least tolerable. They ain't all crackers." Airstryke interjected.
"Carla and Renee, I trust. It's a matter of time before Carrie and Jon get fed up with the repression inside the NCB and defect. Things can't be easy for them as Jewish metas. Don't ask me about Leon." Jeff Pierce sighed.
"I'd gladly declare war on the del Rios if they came north of the border." Vanessa said, given the animosities between her family and every example of homo myotis they encountered.
"I mean, Leon is black. The NCB had to be forced to give up slavery after the Disintegration. What is he doing serving a regime like that?"
"Being a good Christian man, I imagine." Giantess commented, as she repaired her uniform.
"Or Eliza. And why is she carrying on with Shrike, given his WPL past?"
"Or Inferno. I know what you mean, though, Jeff. I mean, he's obviously gay- and I should know. So what the hell is he doing serving a regime that executes lesbians and gay men if they catch them doing the deed?" Airstryke interjected.
At which point, the Global Guardians electronic klaxon went off and the Twelve scrambled for their teleporter alcove.
GLOBAL GUARDIANS SATELLITE:
"Come to order, please! As most of you know, the primary item on the agenda is the nuclear attack on Brisbane which destroyed that city and cost an estimated 70,000 lives." Superiorman looked out over the rows of seats and sighed. He hoped that there wouldn't be awkwardness here. However, inevitably, there was:
"Chad. The assailants were the White Space neofascist group and they're based in the New Confederate Bloc. They have been apprehended. The Supremacy shares your horror and revulsion at what happened, but this is for our respective national governments to resolve, not a Guardians issue." White Lightning responded.
"Oh, really? Is the Supremacy unanimous on that? Even the former WPL members?"
"As you are fully aware, Sunburst, the Baltimore Accords confine the former White Power League elements within the Supremacy to New Confederacy borders. I don't care for what you're insinuating."
"Certainly, the people of Japan share the anguish of the good people of Australia feel at this desperately sad hour. If there is anything that the Asian members of the Guardians can do in Brisbane, Hugh and Jeremy, you only have to ask."
"Thanks for the offer, Takeo, and we certainly do appreciate it. I'll let you know what Canberra and Wellington have decided after the Coalition of Australasian Governments meet tomorrow."
But Virago took up Sunburst's question: "Look, Neroli, I know that you're no racist, but you've got to admit, the Bloc does have problems with white supremacist groups."
"That's a gross overgeneralisation. I have never faced anything like the sort of prejudice and bigotry that existed in the past. The New Confederacy has changed."
"Why don't you ask Prester John and Redwing about just how enlightened your regime actually is?" Vanessa retorted.
"That will do, all of you! Kara, what's the next item of business?"
Miraclegirl cleared her throat: "The Kingdom of Hawaii is developing tachyon-chroniton vehicles. It may become the first Terran nation to establish interstellar travel. Unfortunately, that particular technology may have side-effects. Temporal flux instability may weaken the inviolability of the timestream, resulting in potential transtemporal interventions from unwanted characters."
"And by unwanted characters, I take it you mean the Temporal Intervention Force?"
Kara nodded: "Yes, exactly, Takeo. As you're aware, there's an Iron Barrier of Time preventing the Guardians from travelling further uptime than Black Barax's 76th Century Kikago headquarters. We suspect a cabal of newly recruited temporal renegades is gathered there and may use the temporal flux instability to attack the twenty first century. The most probable assailants that the Guardians will face in that contingency are the aforementioned Black Barax (7532), CI Negative (2637) and DMane (6946)."
"But wouldn't intervention mean that their particular alternate futures never happen?"
"And what about supportive uptime figures? Like Anti-Lad in 7474?"
"The problem is that their intervention may be part of the existing timeline itself and therefore, there is no paradox." Kara explained.
"But my point still holds. If we have a toehold uptime ourselves, why not use it?"
"That's a point. Wildfire from the Legion of Superheroes is still active in 7474 and has his own Legion of Metasapients active around him- Membrain of Hykraius,a telepath; Graft, Shape and Shift of Durla, a metamorph; Nervosa of Bismoll, a hypervore; Phase of Bgztl, an extradimensional spectrohuman; Magno and Lode of Braal, whose inhabitants have magnetic capabilities; Triad III and Triplicate of Carggg, who possess their species ability to materialise physiological duplicates from subspace; and Anti-Lad himself, who can replicate the abilities of his team-mates." Superiorman noted.
"Chad, you and Kara have a power advantage."
"True, but we only know about the LMS through reputation. The barrier is still there. We weren't able to breach it and nor could Mon-El, Laurel Gand or Ultraboy in the thirty first century."
AEROCIT: CE 7474:
"So we cannot intervene?"
"Yes. I hate it just as much as you, Trip, but the historical record is plain to see. The Global Guardians do not survive the next assault by the Temporal Intervention Force. The Iron Barrier of Time similarly obstructs retrospective time travel access from our century to the present. "
CE 2020:
"Superiorman. There's a massive vortex forming above the Pacific Ocean. I think this is it."
"Kara, with me. The rest of you, prepare for localised incursions." But while kryptonite and magic were the only things that could afflict Kryptonians and injure or kill them in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, other vulnerabilities had arisen in the interim five millennia. And in a hideous argosy of white antienergy, Earth's greatest heroes ceased to exist. Perhaps if there had been more resolute international institutions in place, perhaps as a result of prior international conflict, the Global Guardians would have been able to achieve their goals and objectives more readily. But Earth-867 was not a world where that had happened in its past. As a consequence, the Temporal Intervention Force and its enslaved legions of servile humans and aliens scoured the planet clean of resistance. And as a consequence, when the Great Crisis swept the multiverse several years later, there was no-one left on Earth-867 to resist its deadly incursion. As millions screamed and the triumvirate in control of the TIF turned their heads toward the threat engulfing their enslaved world, all that it ever had been and ever would be was enshrouded in a blinding pall of white and it passed from existence.
After that, there was nothing in its cosmos. Nothing lived, laughed, fought or loved.
THE END
