Post by redsycorax on Feb 10, 2021 0:57:11 GMT
On many alternate Earths, the United States is a pluralist, democratic state with free elections and freedom of speech. But in others, its original ideals were compromised, corrupted or altogether discarded. On Earth-WM, Richard Nixon deployed Doctor Manhattan in the Vietnam War, winning it and riding the wave of popularity to have two Washington Post journalists murdered while investigating Watergate and remaining in power until the world came to the brink of nuclear war until New York was devastated by an apparent alien incursion. On Earth-28, President Charles Lindbergh instituted a fascist coup and sought to construct a global empire with the assistance of his Kryptonian pawn Exemplar, but his long term plans were frustrated by his cousin Antithesis, Kara Zor-El. This is another one of those darker timelines.
Earth-649 is a world where history turned sour in 1944. Following an accelerated nuclear development programme, President Roosevelt was able to produce several nuclear weapons and consequently, was able to demand the surrender of Germany and Japan later that year. When Hitler and the Japanese War Cabinet refused to do so, secret long-range bomber craft were deployed with their lethal cargo. Shortly after March 15 1944, their respective payloads were dropped on Tokyo and Berlin. Both cities perished in the resultant firestorms. Adolf Hitler was left alive but fatally wounded. His command structure was decapitated and so was the core of his Nazi Party. He died, degraded and filthy, screaming in pain, soiled and screaming for pain relief. Post-Nazi Germany surrendered promptly and the resultant War Crimes Trial sentenced Goebbels, Bormann, Goering and Himmler to death soon afterward. However, the destruction of the Imperial Capital had the opposite effect on Japan, outraged at the slaughter of their sacred emperor and royal family. They fought on and it took another eight uses of nuclear weapons to finally subdue the nation. By then, millions of Japanese were dead. To make an example of Japan, the US Navy enforced a global blockade. But although the United States had an initial monopoly on nuclear weapons, the USSR had been busy. It detonated its first nuclear weapon in Sakhalin in August 1945. Shortly afterward, it demanded territorial concessions from Europe and the United States. When they refused, Birmingham was incinerated. Thereafter, the USSR incorporated Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania into its engorged domain. Angered at this development, the US electorate voted for George S. Patton and his Freedom Party in 1948, and thereafter the United States slowly mutated into an authoritarian imperial society. A weakened Britain was absorbed into the United States, as was Canada, Mexico and much of Latin America. China suffered several years of civil war before it was eventually partitioned into Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist North and Mao's Communist South China. In 1950, China exploded its own nuclear device, angering Stalin, who evicted it from ComEcon. However, South China then proceeded to annex Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Infuriated, President Patton then annexed Australia and New Zealand. Worried, the remaining global powers decided to resist. But what of this world's metahumans? What of the Society for Science and Justice?
+++
1952:
"I can't believe this, Clark. You're saying that you agree with that madman?"
"I'm sorry we're having this conversation, Alan, but you need to realise that in this world, we have to be vigilant when it comes to the menace of international communism."
"What 'international communism?' Peking and Moscow are at each others throats. And frankly, I'm not sure that this arms race is good for America or the rest of the world."
"Look, Alan, we've been friends for years. I don't have any problems with your more constructive broadcasts when it comes to racial harmony and the president's action against the segregationists in the Deep South. But since Bruce was murdered by the Joker, we've been the core of the SSJ."
Green Lantern shook his head: "I don't like all this damned restriction of civil liberties and human rights. Granted, Patton has done some things right. He's no racialist, I'll give him that much, especially when it came to his decisive action in the South and sacking of Hoover when he tried to defy him. But Clark...identity cards? Checkpoints? Travel restrictions? Official secrets? Come on. This isn't the America we grew up in and defended from the Nazis and Japs."
A moment of pain passed Superman's face: "Alan, this conversation is getting pointless. I have to start my patrol shortly. Please, for Molly's sake, tone it down, huh?" As Superman took to the air, he reflected how strained meetings in what remained of the SSH. Losing Bruce to his insane adversary had been a major blow, although so had Diana's return to Paradise Island shortly after Steve Trevor was killed in Okinawa. Now only Jay, Kent Nelson, Alan, Shiera and himself were left. And for how much longer? Jay was talking about retirement now he'd married Joan. For that matter, he and Lois were dealing with their own concerns in Metropolis. Although she still supported him, the tone of the Daily Planet was growing steadily colder and his friendships with George Taylor and James Olsen had ended over disagreements about Superman's loyalty to the government.
1953:
"He won again?!" Dick Grayson wadded the newspaper and propelled it into a trashcan. Alan placed a placatory hand on his shoulder:
"Happens sometimes, Dick. I'm as sorry about it as you are. It looks like the Republican vote collapsed after that sex and drugs scandal with Senator MacCarthy."
"But damn it all, Alan. I'm damned glad he's got Reverend King there as his vice president to balance things out, but those threats against Eleanor Roosevelt..."
"She would have made a fine president. She still might." Robin turned from the window and sighed:
"Look, Alan, we've been a team ever since that killer clown shot Bruce. But I'm nearly eighteen now and I start at Hudson U in the fall. I'm going to have to stop being "Robin the Boy Wonder" now and get on with building a life for myself. It couldn't last forever, could it?"
"I'll miss you, Dick. I think we all will. Bruce trained you well."
"I might return when and if the need arises. But, Alan? The government needs to keep us safe. You only have to look at the unrest in the Greater Anerican Commonwealth overseas."
"Not you too, Dick..."
1954:
"Inza and I can no longer remain here. The government's thaumaturgical investigations are crossing boundaries that cannot and should not be crossed, without fear of retribution from powers eldritch and unfathomable. I may be this world's supreme sorceror, but nothing benign can come of what I have seen in darkened corners of Washington. That Miskatonic University fiasco was almost a major catastrophe. Giovanni was reckless. I almost came to blows with him and his arrogant demeanour after his experimentation summoned that extradimensional entity."
"I'm sorry it's come to this, Kent, but I understand. I'm sure we're all grateful for your years of service." As the incandescent ankh sigil began to fade, Shiera looked sadly at the void:
"I wonder how Carter would have viewed all this?"
"We all miss him, Shiera."
1955:
"Alan!" As Superman alighted, Green Lantern lay inert and unmoving, his body riddled with wooden splinters, propelled at superspeed against him. Jay Garrick was almost a blur, accelerating toward a distant figure dressed in an inversion of his own colours- which meant that his old nemesis, the Rival, had been lured out of retirement and into activity once more. Superman then accelerated toward the remote confrontation, but Jay had intercepted his opponent long beforehand:
"All right, Clarriss. Who or what lured you out of retirement and how did you manage to recreate my superspeed formula?"
Edward (Rival) Clarriss laughed derisively: "I put an end to a suspected subversive, Garrick. And what's wrong with a patriotic act like that?'
"Because it's cold-blooded murder, you-"
"I did it on the orders of President Patton, Garrick. What do you think? Should Scott have been allowed to act as a demagogue, sheltering under the rubric of freedom of the media, continuing to preach subversion-"
The Flash tightened his grip on his Rival's throat: "Superman, take this offal into custody before I do something I regret."
"Come on, you." But in Metropolis, much to his horror, Police Chief Turpin had the Rival released the next day, because he was a 'national security operative.' Aghast, Superman read the official communique, Everything that the Rival had said to the Flash was absolutely true.
As Lois Lane opened her window, she was startled to see Superman on the sill:
"Come in, Superman? I've never seen you like this. What's the matter?"
"Green Lantern is dead, Lois. And seeing it happen, and the man released, showed me something that I've tried to ignore for years. That this country isn't the one I've grown up in and that life is precious. All too precious. So, I've come to tell you the truth- that, as you've always suspected, I am Clark Kent. And secondly, Lois Lane, will you do me the honour of becoming my lawfully wedded wife?"
In reply, Lois Lane flung her arms around him: "Oh darling, yes! At last!"
"There's...something else, Lois, and it may be a deal breaker. I'm going to relocate to Sweden. Will you come with me?"
Lois nodded: "Of course, Clark. The same newspaper chain that owns the Daily Planet has others under its aegis in Scandinavia. But Superman... what happened to Green Lantern?"
"Something that never should have, Lois. He was executed and his killer, an insane super-villain named the Rival, has been pardoned for his actions because Green Lantern was allegedly a 'subversive.' And it was performed under presidential orders."
"President Patton authorised this?! But Clark, Vice President King would have tried to stop him surely..."
"It's...no good, Lois. Truth, justice and the American way are dead in this country."
1958:
Shiera looked across the hall at Jay and Clark, with their respective spouses: "I can't believe it's come to this."
"But it has. Patton has cancelled the forthcoming election and has declared martial law."
"We have to do something. Anything. This cannot be allowed to stand."
"He's aimed kryptonite missiles at Scandinvia, Shiera. If I try to break in and apprehend him, I'll be struck down where I stand."
Lois sighed: "Luthor. It's Alexei Luthor, isn't it? Patton pardoned him as well as Charriss?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so. And he's been busy designing new weaponry for the... Democratic Republic of America, as it now calls itself. Jay?"
"I wish I could do the same, Clark buddy, but Charriss is a scientist. He's increased his overall velocity and it nearly matches mine now. He'd intercept me before I got anywhere near the White House."
"What is it, Clark?"
"Kent sent me a message, Lois. Apparently, Patton 'should' have died in December 1945, due to an automobile accident in Germany when his car collided with a truck."
"But that would be easy to avoid. It'd only be a matter of braking in time to avoid the collision."
"Apparently, it was a compression fracture, broken neck and spinal injury. He died from pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure. But not on this world."
Lois looked at the others: "Is there any way we can check Patton's medical records and cross-match them?"
Clark trained his telescopic and x-ray vision on the distant military medical files at Arlington, Virginia: "There seem to be anomalies there. Because Patton was apparently at death's door, but then made a startling recovery and was soon back in the field, supervising the occupation of postwar Germany."
"So...what if this isn't George R. Patton? What if it's some doppelganger?"
"You fool. I told you to plausibly falsify those records. But you couldn't get that right, could you?"
"Mr President, Doctor Luthor, please, give me one more chance-"
Alexei Luthor grinned sadistically, brought up his gun and fired. Mark Erdel clasped his chest as a crimson stain began to spread from a heartwound, then slid down the wall. Abruptly, a metamorphosis began. as the simulacra of George R. Patton began to twist and contort into something altogether alien:
"Wretched fool! I've been trapped here ever since that incompetent teleported me off the surface of Mars and isolated me on this primitive backwater."
Luthor laughed: "Just as well you did, General Blanx. You and I succeeded. We've managed to exile the Kryptonian, his interfering reporter piece of skirt and the speedster. Even if the fools have finally worked out that you're a Martian shapeshifter. you match the Kryptonian's power profile. You won't be easy to topple."
"I'm glad we collaborated, Luthor. You are wasted on this world. Are you still considering my offer?"
"It has merit, General. But give me time..."
"With that idiot Stalin still alive, I'm not sure whether we have that."
1960:
"I did it, Clark. Look at what we've found." Lois spread photographs out before the group.
Jay grimaced: "What is that?"
"A white Martian. There were two subspecies on the planet, and they fought a war which devastated the planet. I'd heard rumours about a Doctor Mark Erdel and his teleport experiments, and-"
Lois took up the story: "I managed to do some black ops undercover stuff and tracked down Erdel's last known whereabouts. Or rather, his rotting corpse in a derelict deserted house in Gotham. Clark suspected that the white Martian masquerading as Patton would otherwise detect me with its psionic abilities and visual and auditory powers, so we took precautions."
"Clark?"
"His name is General Benn Blanx, a white Martian warlord and tyrant, and genocidal bigot. Mars doesn't have any inbound interplanetary craft left, so it couldn't send any retrieval vehicles. In any case, it's a ruined world, incapable of supporting any civilisation akin to those on Earth."
"But if he's collaborating with Luthor as these photographs suggest, what else is happening?"
"There's something else, Clark. I've seen this before. When I was accelerating through the USSR en route to a disaster relief operation in India. It's exactly the same energy configuration that surrounds Josef Stalin."
Lois nodded: "That would explain a lot, like the USSR's sudden accelerated technological development and its overseas expansionism. And why Stalin- or the Martian that replaced him- didn't die in May 1953 or thereabouts as intelligence reports claimed at the time, from a cerebral haemorrhage and artherosclerosis. Or rather, he did, but the creature that replaced him was intent on carrying on the war that destroyed Mars here on Earth."
"So how can only two of us stop him from doing that, Clark? Can even we prevent a nuclear war, which is the way things are heading?"
1962:
On Earth-649, it wasn't Cuba that provided the fuse to the powderkeg in 1962, as Blanx' abilities had enabled the survival of the Batista regime in that area of the Democratic Republic of America. However, the same could not be said for the English Channel, now a heavily militarised area, with the Channel Islands a prominent source of contention. Because of ancient enmities, Blanx/Patton and "Stalin" were determined to see this to the bitter end, and thus it would unfold. Over Sweden, a kryptonite-laden electromagnetic pulse would have neutralised Superman, had he still been living there. Lois' dissident sources were as good as ever, though, and forewarned, he wasn't there on that day. Instead, he swooped down on Moscow, much to the surprise of "Stalin' and "his" KGB guards, and punched his way into the Kremlin. At the same time, Jay Garrick intercepted as many of the Soviet, American and Chinese ICBMs as he could, before he accelerated backward through the time barrier. through a chroniton shield that had prevented such transit before. He arrived several years in the past...
1945:
In Copenhagen. Garrick's exit from the time barrier caused a teleport malfunction, resulting in the agonising death of Ben Blanx, who was unable to materialise on Earth as had been the case before history shifted. With Blanx now dead, General George S. Patton died from his motor vehicle accident after suffering compression fracture, broken neck and spinal injury. He passed away from consequent pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure a fortnight later, mourned by his comrades in arms. With the Erdel experiment in 1945 a failure, it was never replicated in the Soviet Union and Bel Juz was never plucked from her refugee vessel as it prepared to launch from the devastated, dying Martian surface in 1952. Stalin died from his cerebral haemorrhage and artherosclerosis in May 1953. The nightmare world of Patton's ascendancy was no more.
EPILOGUE:
However, things didn't return to exactly the configuration that might have existed before Patton and Stalin twisted their world's history. Hal Jordan volunteered for USAF service in Vietnam and died in combat from anti-aircraft artillery. On distant OA, the Green Lantern Corps would have to find others to assume the burden of service, although Abin Sur didn't die in a starship crash on Earth. Guy Gardner was similarly entangled, which left John Stewart Earth's eventual Green Lantern. The chemical accident in Central City that altered Barry Allen's molecular biology led to his death, instead. Ray Palmer was killed in a break-in to his Ivy Town laboratory and never became the Atom as a result.
Thus, in 1985, it was only Superman, Jay Garrick, Batman II (Dick Grayson) and Wonder Woman who were on hand to confront the Crisis on Infinite Earths. They fought valiantly, but to no avail. As Superman held Lois Lane-Kent before the roiling clouds of antimatter coursed over them, he wondered if he'd done the right thing. If he'd given in to Blanx and Bel, could this have been averted somehow? But no, that would have taken a step too far into the dark. And thus, the world's greatest heroes of this Earth perished- but perhaps they had averted something immeasurably worse.
THE END
Earth-649 is a world where history turned sour in 1944. Following an accelerated nuclear development programme, President Roosevelt was able to produce several nuclear weapons and consequently, was able to demand the surrender of Germany and Japan later that year. When Hitler and the Japanese War Cabinet refused to do so, secret long-range bomber craft were deployed with their lethal cargo. Shortly after March 15 1944, their respective payloads were dropped on Tokyo and Berlin. Both cities perished in the resultant firestorms. Adolf Hitler was left alive but fatally wounded. His command structure was decapitated and so was the core of his Nazi Party. He died, degraded and filthy, screaming in pain, soiled and screaming for pain relief. Post-Nazi Germany surrendered promptly and the resultant War Crimes Trial sentenced Goebbels, Bormann, Goering and Himmler to death soon afterward. However, the destruction of the Imperial Capital had the opposite effect on Japan, outraged at the slaughter of their sacred emperor and royal family. They fought on and it took another eight uses of nuclear weapons to finally subdue the nation. By then, millions of Japanese were dead. To make an example of Japan, the US Navy enforced a global blockade. But although the United States had an initial monopoly on nuclear weapons, the USSR had been busy. It detonated its first nuclear weapon in Sakhalin in August 1945. Shortly afterward, it demanded territorial concessions from Europe and the United States. When they refused, Birmingham was incinerated. Thereafter, the USSR incorporated Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania into its engorged domain. Angered at this development, the US electorate voted for George S. Patton and his Freedom Party in 1948, and thereafter the United States slowly mutated into an authoritarian imperial society. A weakened Britain was absorbed into the United States, as was Canada, Mexico and much of Latin America. China suffered several years of civil war before it was eventually partitioned into Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist North and Mao's Communist South China. In 1950, China exploded its own nuclear device, angering Stalin, who evicted it from ComEcon. However, South China then proceeded to annex Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Infuriated, President Patton then annexed Australia and New Zealand. Worried, the remaining global powers decided to resist. But what of this world's metahumans? What of the Society for Science and Justice?
+++
1952:
"I can't believe this, Clark. You're saying that you agree with that madman?"
"I'm sorry we're having this conversation, Alan, but you need to realise that in this world, we have to be vigilant when it comes to the menace of international communism."
"What 'international communism?' Peking and Moscow are at each others throats. And frankly, I'm not sure that this arms race is good for America or the rest of the world."
"Look, Alan, we've been friends for years. I don't have any problems with your more constructive broadcasts when it comes to racial harmony and the president's action against the segregationists in the Deep South. But since Bruce was murdered by the Joker, we've been the core of the SSJ."
Green Lantern shook his head: "I don't like all this damned restriction of civil liberties and human rights. Granted, Patton has done some things right. He's no racialist, I'll give him that much, especially when it came to his decisive action in the South and sacking of Hoover when he tried to defy him. But Clark...identity cards? Checkpoints? Travel restrictions? Official secrets? Come on. This isn't the America we grew up in and defended from the Nazis and Japs."
A moment of pain passed Superman's face: "Alan, this conversation is getting pointless. I have to start my patrol shortly. Please, for Molly's sake, tone it down, huh?" As Superman took to the air, he reflected how strained meetings in what remained of the SSH. Losing Bruce to his insane adversary had been a major blow, although so had Diana's return to Paradise Island shortly after Steve Trevor was killed in Okinawa. Now only Jay, Kent Nelson, Alan, Shiera and himself were left. And for how much longer? Jay was talking about retirement now he'd married Joan. For that matter, he and Lois were dealing with their own concerns in Metropolis. Although she still supported him, the tone of the Daily Planet was growing steadily colder and his friendships with George Taylor and James Olsen had ended over disagreements about Superman's loyalty to the government.
1953:
"He won again?!" Dick Grayson wadded the newspaper and propelled it into a trashcan. Alan placed a placatory hand on his shoulder:
"Happens sometimes, Dick. I'm as sorry about it as you are. It looks like the Republican vote collapsed after that sex and drugs scandal with Senator MacCarthy."
"But damn it all, Alan. I'm damned glad he's got Reverend King there as his vice president to balance things out, but those threats against Eleanor Roosevelt..."
"She would have made a fine president. She still might." Robin turned from the window and sighed:
"Look, Alan, we've been a team ever since that killer clown shot Bruce. But I'm nearly eighteen now and I start at Hudson U in the fall. I'm going to have to stop being "Robin the Boy Wonder" now and get on with building a life for myself. It couldn't last forever, could it?"
"I'll miss you, Dick. I think we all will. Bruce trained you well."
"I might return when and if the need arises. But, Alan? The government needs to keep us safe. You only have to look at the unrest in the Greater Anerican Commonwealth overseas."
"Not you too, Dick..."
1954:
"Inza and I can no longer remain here. The government's thaumaturgical investigations are crossing boundaries that cannot and should not be crossed, without fear of retribution from powers eldritch and unfathomable. I may be this world's supreme sorceror, but nothing benign can come of what I have seen in darkened corners of Washington. That Miskatonic University fiasco was almost a major catastrophe. Giovanni was reckless. I almost came to blows with him and his arrogant demeanour after his experimentation summoned that extradimensional entity."
"I'm sorry it's come to this, Kent, but I understand. I'm sure we're all grateful for your years of service." As the incandescent ankh sigil began to fade, Shiera looked sadly at the void:
"I wonder how Carter would have viewed all this?"
"We all miss him, Shiera."
1955:
"Alan!" As Superman alighted, Green Lantern lay inert and unmoving, his body riddled with wooden splinters, propelled at superspeed against him. Jay Garrick was almost a blur, accelerating toward a distant figure dressed in an inversion of his own colours- which meant that his old nemesis, the Rival, had been lured out of retirement and into activity once more. Superman then accelerated toward the remote confrontation, but Jay had intercepted his opponent long beforehand:
"All right, Clarriss. Who or what lured you out of retirement and how did you manage to recreate my superspeed formula?"
Edward (Rival) Clarriss laughed derisively: "I put an end to a suspected subversive, Garrick. And what's wrong with a patriotic act like that?'
"Because it's cold-blooded murder, you-"
"I did it on the orders of President Patton, Garrick. What do you think? Should Scott have been allowed to act as a demagogue, sheltering under the rubric of freedom of the media, continuing to preach subversion-"
The Flash tightened his grip on his Rival's throat: "Superman, take this offal into custody before I do something I regret."
"Come on, you." But in Metropolis, much to his horror, Police Chief Turpin had the Rival released the next day, because he was a 'national security operative.' Aghast, Superman read the official communique, Everything that the Rival had said to the Flash was absolutely true.
As Lois Lane opened her window, she was startled to see Superman on the sill:
"Come in, Superman? I've never seen you like this. What's the matter?"
"Green Lantern is dead, Lois. And seeing it happen, and the man released, showed me something that I've tried to ignore for years. That this country isn't the one I've grown up in and that life is precious. All too precious. So, I've come to tell you the truth- that, as you've always suspected, I am Clark Kent. And secondly, Lois Lane, will you do me the honour of becoming my lawfully wedded wife?"
In reply, Lois Lane flung her arms around him: "Oh darling, yes! At last!"
"There's...something else, Lois, and it may be a deal breaker. I'm going to relocate to Sweden. Will you come with me?"
Lois nodded: "Of course, Clark. The same newspaper chain that owns the Daily Planet has others under its aegis in Scandinavia. But Superman... what happened to Green Lantern?"
"Something that never should have, Lois. He was executed and his killer, an insane super-villain named the Rival, has been pardoned for his actions because Green Lantern was allegedly a 'subversive.' And it was performed under presidential orders."
"President Patton authorised this?! But Clark, Vice President King would have tried to stop him surely..."
"It's...no good, Lois. Truth, justice and the American way are dead in this country."
1958:
Shiera looked across the hall at Jay and Clark, with their respective spouses: "I can't believe it's come to this."
"But it has. Patton has cancelled the forthcoming election and has declared martial law."
"We have to do something. Anything. This cannot be allowed to stand."
"He's aimed kryptonite missiles at Scandinvia, Shiera. If I try to break in and apprehend him, I'll be struck down where I stand."
Lois sighed: "Luthor. It's Alexei Luthor, isn't it? Patton pardoned him as well as Charriss?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so. And he's been busy designing new weaponry for the... Democratic Republic of America, as it now calls itself. Jay?"
"I wish I could do the same, Clark buddy, but Charriss is a scientist. He's increased his overall velocity and it nearly matches mine now. He'd intercept me before I got anywhere near the White House."
"What is it, Clark?"
"Kent sent me a message, Lois. Apparently, Patton 'should' have died in December 1945, due to an automobile accident in Germany when his car collided with a truck."
"But that would be easy to avoid. It'd only be a matter of braking in time to avoid the collision."
"Apparently, it was a compression fracture, broken neck and spinal injury. He died from pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure. But not on this world."
Lois looked at the others: "Is there any way we can check Patton's medical records and cross-match them?"
Clark trained his telescopic and x-ray vision on the distant military medical files at Arlington, Virginia: "There seem to be anomalies there. Because Patton was apparently at death's door, but then made a startling recovery and was soon back in the field, supervising the occupation of postwar Germany."
"So...what if this isn't George R. Patton? What if it's some doppelganger?"
"You fool. I told you to plausibly falsify those records. But you couldn't get that right, could you?"
"Mr President, Doctor Luthor, please, give me one more chance-"
Alexei Luthor grinned sadistically, brought up his gun and fired. Mark Erdel clasped his chest as a crimson stain began to spread from a heartwound, then slid down the wall. Abruptly, a metamorphosis began. as the simulacra of George R. Patton began to twist and contort into something altogether alien:
"Wretched fool! I've been trapped here ever since that incompetent teleported me off the surface of Mars and isolated me on this primitive backwater."
Luthor laughed: "Just as well you did, General Blanx. You and I succeeded. We've managed to exile the Kryptonian, his interfering reporter piece of skirt and the speedster. Even if the fools have finally worked out that you're a Martian shapeshifter. you match the Kryptonian's power profile. You won't be easy to topple."
"I'm glad we collaborated, Luthor. You are wasted on this world. Are you still considering my offer?"
"It has merit, General. But give me time..."
"With that idiot Stalin still alive, I'm not sure whether we have that."
1960:
"I did it, Clark. Look at what we've found." Lois spread photographs out before the group.
Jay grimaced: "What is that?"
"A white Martian. There were two subspecies on the planet, and they fought a war which devastated the planet. I'd heard rumours about a Doctor Mark Erdel and his teleport experiments, and-"
Lois took up the story: "I managed to do some black ops undercover stuff and tracked down Erdel's last known whereabouts. Or rather, his rotting corpse in a derelict deserted house in Gotham. Clark suspected that the white Martian masquerading as Patton would otherwise detect me with its psionic abilities and visual and auditory powers, so we took precautions."
"Clark?"
"His name is General Benn Blanx, a white Martian warlord and tyrant, and genocidal bigot. Mars doesn't have any inbound interplanetary craft left, so it couldn't send any retrieval vehicles. In any case, it's a ruined world, incapable of supporting any civilisation akin to those on Earth."
"But if he's collaborating with Luthor as these photographs suggest, what else is happening?"
"There's something else, Clark. I've seen this before. When I was accelerating through the USSR en route to a disaster relief operation in India. It's exactly the same energy configuration that surrounds Josef Stalin."
Lois nodded: "That would explain a lot, like the USSR's sudden accelerated technological development and its overseas expansionism. And why Stalin- or the Martian that replaced him- didn't die in May 1953 or thereabouts as intelligence reports claimed at the time, from a cerebral haemorrhage and artherosclerosis. Or rather, he did, but the creature that replaced him was intent on carrying on the war that destroyed Mars here on Earth."
"So how can only two of us stop him from doing that, Clark? Can even we prevent a nuclear war, which is the way things are heading?"
1962:
On Earth-649, it wasn't Cuba that provided the fuse to the powderkeg in 1962, as Blanx' abilities had enabled the survival of the Batista regime in that area of the Democratic Republic of America. However, the same could not be said for the English Channel, now a heavily militarised area, with the Channel Islands a prominent source of contention. Because of ancient enmities, Blanx/Patton and "Stalin" were determined to see this to the bitter end, and thus it would unfold. Over Sweden, a kryptonite-laden electromagnetic pulse would have neutralised Superman, had he still been living there. Lois' dissident sources were as good as ever, though, and forewarned, he wasn't there on that day. Instead, he swooped down on Moscow, much to the surprise of "Stalin' and "his" KGB guards, and punched his way into the Kremlin. At the same time, Jay Garrick intercepted as many of the Soviet, American and Chinese ICBMs as he could, before he accelerated backward through the time barrier. through a chroniton shield that had prevented such transit before. He arrived several years in the past...
1945:
In Copenhagen. Garrick's exit from the time barrier caused a teleport malfunction, resulting in the agonising death of Ben Blanx, who was unable to materialise on Earth as had been the case before history shifted. With Blanx now dead, General George S. Patton died from his motor vehicle accident after suffering compression fracture, broken neck and spinal injury. He passed away from consequent pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure a fortnight later, mourned by his comrades in arms. With the Erdel experiment in 1945 a failure, it was never replicated in the Soviet Union and Bel Juz was never plucked from her refugee vessel as it prepared to launch from the devastated, dying Martian surface in 1952. Stalin died from his cerebral haemorrhage and artherosclerosis in May 1953. The nightmare world of Patton's ascendancy was no more.
EPILOGUE:
However, things didn't return to exactly the configuration that might have existed before Patton and Stalin twisted their world's history. Hal Jordan volunteered for USAF service in Vietnam and died in combat from anti-aircraft artillery. On distant OA, the Green Lantern Corps would have to find others to assume the burden of service, although Abin Sur didn't die in a starship crash on Earth. Guy Gardner was similarly entangled, which left John Stewart Earth's eventual Green Lantern. The chemical accident in Central City that altered Barry Allen's molecular biology led to his death, instead. Ray Palmer was killed in a break-in to his Ivy Town laboratory and never became the Atom as a result.
Thus, in 1985, it was only Superman, Jay Garrick, Batman II (Dick Grayson) and Wonder Woman who were on hand to confront the Crisis on Infinite Earths. They fought valiantly, but to no avail. As Superman held Lois Lane-Kent before the roiling clouds of antimatter coursed over them, he wondered if he'd done the right thing. If he'd given in to Blanx and Bel, could this have been averted somehow? But no, that would have taken a step too far into the dark. And thus, the world's greatest heroes of this Earth perished- but perhaps they had averted something immeasurably worse.
THE END