Disclaimer: I don't own Justice League, or Kingdom Come. Any, and all related characters are owned by Warner Bros., and DC Comics Entertainment.
Chapter 1 - Seeing Double
Earth Orbit - Justice League Watchtower
There is a flurry of activity aboard the Watchtower, as the station's technicians work feverishly to get the computer systems back up and running after the recent attack from Cadmus with their Ultimen clone army, and the Supergirl clone named Galatea. The core members of the Justice League are returning back to the station after defeating a merged Lex Luthor, and Brainiac to help with the clean up, and to survey the damage to the space station.
"*Hhhrrggh!* I-Ive got this! Get her out of there!" The strained voice of the armored super-hero, Steel calls out to the elder hero Wildcat, and the archer known as Green Arrow, as he lifts a large chunk of destroyed equipment off of a dark haired unconscious woman. Wildcat, and Green Arrow quickly grab an arm each of the woman's, and gently move her out of harm's way.
"Hang in there, Kiddo! We'll get you medical attention! Someone, get a stretcher!" Wildcat barks over at the other heroes, and the station's technicians. The Hispanic hero named Vibe returns a few minutes later with the station's EMT's, and they start securing the super-heroine Gypsy to a stretcher, and rush off to the medical wing of the Watchtower.
Steel collapses down on the floor breathing heavily with the missing pieces of his armor showing horrible bruising on his dark skin from his earlier clash with the clone Kryptonian. Supergirl is flying overhead, and sees Steel collapse and descends to land next to her fallen friend.
"Steel! Don't worry...I'll fly you to the med-bay!" Supergirl says in slight panic for Steel's condition, but Steel waves her off, and stands up on his own with some assistance from the girl of steel.
"I'll live, Kara...right now, it's more important to get the station's systems back up and running." Steel took a moment to catch his breath, and Kara glances up at him in worry. "We're only running on emergency power after using it all up to bring down your clone...the station will start to enter into Earth's upper atmosphere if we don't get the power back on." Kara's blue eyes went wide, and she looks over at the large triple re-enforced glass that shows outer space, and the Earth directly below the station.
Kara begins to walk Steel over to one of the high back chairs that the station's technicians use on the bridge. Supergirl gently lowers down Steel, who sighs in slight relief from taking the weight off of his sore legs. Steel looks around the room, and frowns at the amount of injuries that the League's heroes took at the hands of the Ultimen clones, and Galatea. Steel stares up at Kara with a serious look. "Do we have any idea how many League members are active on the station?"
Kara shakes her head in the negative with her long blonde hair swaying from side to side. "No, we don't. I saw a lot of Leaguer's that have injuries on the way here, but I've got no clue as to how many could help if worse comes to worse." Steel takes on a thinking pose while sitting, and rubs his chin with an armored hand.
"Watchtower Bridge!- Watchtower Bridge!- Come in! We have an emergency situation here in the engine room!" The gruff voice of the size-changing powerhouse Atom Smasher calls out over the loud speakers in the bridge area. Steel rolls himself over in his chair to one of the only working computer workstations. Steel presses several buttons, and flips a switch on the computer console. "Smasher, this is Steel...state the nature of the emergency!" The communication line fills with the noises of a fight going on, and yelling from some of the League members.
"We've got our hands full...look out, Fate!" Loud crashing is heard by the bridge crew, and the few heroes with them still on the bridge. "Your gonna think I've lost it, but there's an older version of Superman down here, and he's not too happy about Kara's clone being barbecued! Watch it..he's firing his heat vision..." The communication from Atom Smasher is abruptly cut off, and the station crew, and the Leaguer's are in shock at the news.
Steel is the first one to snap out of his shock, and spins his chair around and stares at Kara with a serious expression. "This sounds like it could be another incursion from a parallel Universe, like with the Justice Lords! Kara! I need you to get down there, and try to contain this other Superman while I round up some backup for you!"
Supergirl is already airborne, and nods quickly to Steel. Kara turns in mid-air, and flies so fast she is little more than a blur of motion to Steel's eyes. Steel turns back around in his chair to the computer workstation, and brushes off some of the damaged technology to find what he's looking for. Steel spots the emergency intercom that covers every section of the Watchtower, and presses the red button to activate it.
"Attention! Attention! This is Steel currently located on the station's bridge! We have an omega level emergency happening in the engine room, and Supergirl needs immediate backup! All Leaguer's who are class six, and above are to go and assist Supergirl in containing a possible parallel Earth Superman! Use extreme caution when confronting this threat!" Steel presses the red button again to cut off the intercom systems, and stares wearily out the re-enforced windows to look at the Earth, "Please...hurry back. We need you now more than ever!"
Watchtower - Engine Room
"How...how did I get here? The last thing I remember was battling Captain Marvel in the skies, and avoiding his magical lightning attacks!" The older version of Superman thought to himself, as he cradles a badly injured Galatea in one arm, and uses his heat vision to keep the other costumed individuals at bay while he attempts to sort out where he is. This older version of Superman has white hair on the sides of his head, and a dark blue, and red costume with a gold belt buckle, and a dark red flowing cape. The 'S' symbol on his chest has a more updated design with black on the inside around the 'S' instead of the normal yellow.
The older Superman takes a second away from guarding the fallen Kryptonian to look down at her burned, and still sizzling body. The older Superman stares back at his opponents with an angry frown, and his eyes start to glow a blazing red. "I want to know who it was that hurt this Kryptonian woman, and I want to know now!" Older Superman shot beams of his heat vision at Atom Smasher, and Doctor Fate, who barely dodges out of the way in mid-air from getting hit.
Doctor Fate begins to chant, and his gloves glow with mystical energy. "We need to put an end to this pointless encounter!" Fate shouts out, and fires mystic bolts down at the older Superman. He turns around, and uses his back to shield Galatea's body from further injury, and groans in slight pain from the blasts. Older Superman disappears with Galatea from his attackers using his super speed, and they are almost out of the engine room, before he has to dodge out of the way of a heat vision blast by an unknown attacker.
Older Superman stares up at Supergirl, who has her arms crossed over the S shield symbol on her chest. "Whoever you are, I want you to put her down and surrender!" Older Superman uses his telescopic vision on Supergirl, and frowns with a look of contemplation. "I'm not in my own Universe. This is a parallel Earth, and you are the Supergirl of this reality." Supergirl blinks, and starts descending down to the floor of the engine room. "Didn't you know this before? Aren't you some alternate Superman hell bent on controlling everyone on Earth like the last one?"
Older Superman shakes his head in the negative, and stares down at the woman in his arms. "Controlling everyone? That's rich, young lady. On my world, that is exactly what I and the rest of the Justice League were fighting against when I somehow ended up here." Supergirl raises a blonde eyebrow, and then holds out her right arm when Atom Smasher, and Doctor Fate were about to attack the Older Superman.
"How do we know that we can trust you?" Older Superman has a knowing grin on his face, and that causes Kara's eyebrow to start twitching. "If you're anything like the Kara from my world, then you'd know to use your super-hearing combined with your x-ray vision as a type of lie detector."
"Okay..do you plan on taking over Earth, and enslaving the population?" Supergirl uses her super-hearing, and x-ray vision in combination and waits for his response.
"No. I just want to return home to stop a rogue Captain Marvel who is being controlled by the Lex Luthor of my world." Supergirl listens to his steady pulse, and can see that his heart rate hasn't increased. She stops using her super-senses, and nods over to the Older Superman.
"Its a start, but you're still going to have to put her down, and back away." Kara says with a bit of an edge in her voice. Older Superman stares at Supergirl with determination in his eyes, and shakes his head.
"This woman reminds me of my own cousin, Karen. I don't want to see her suffering like this. Can I at least take her to your medical bay for treatment to get her stabilized?" Supergirl takes a moment to consider Older Superman's words, when the lights within the engine room go dark and the Watchtower begins to shake causing the tech equipment in the room to start falling over onto the floor.
"Kara! We've just lost all power, and that includes life support! The Watchtower is leaving Earth's orbit, and entering the atmosphere! We're going to crash down!" Kara staggers slightly from the shaking, and the artificial gravity is no longer working. The League members, Older Superman, and the unconscious Galatea are floating in the air. "We need to stop the station from crashing! If we hit a populated area...it would cause massive casulties! Fate, your with me!"
Kara is about to leave the Engine room, when Older Superman stops her with his hand out in front of her. "What are you doing?! I've got to get out there!" Older Superman shakes his head in a disapproving manner, and passes Galatea over to Supergirl who scrunches up her face in distain.
"Please, let me help. This is a job for Superman." Older Superman smiles at Kara, and puts a hand on her shoulder. Kara is surprised by this, but doesn't move his hand away from her shoulder. Older Superman smiles down at Kara, and then disappears from the engine room with blinding speed.
"Kara, are you there?!" Supergirl blinks, and shakes her head. "Yes, Steel I'm here! What's our current situation?" The communication system is silent for a moment, and then Steel speaks in a worried voice. "The Station's coming in hot, and it's picking up speed...wait...the other Superman is in the Javelin hangar bay, and he's opening up the hangar doors with his bare hands! He's gone now...moves so fast I couldn't see where he went."
The Watchtower entering the atmosphere causes gravity to return on-board the station, and everyone slams down hard on the floors of the station except for those Leaguer's who can fly.
"I don't believe what I'm seeing, Kara! This other-world Superman is lifting the entire space station, and is moving us to a large area. He's using his heat vision to clear cut the forest of trees ahead of us, and is lowering us slowly down to the ground!"
All of the space station's crew, and the active Leaguer's feel a large *thoom* under their feet, and that the station has stopped moving. The station's crew start cheering loudly, and some are hugging each other in happiness, and relief that their still alive. The Leaguer's do the same, and Green Arrow takes off his green hat, and wipes the sweat pouring down his forehead.
"That...was too close for comfort." Everyone on the space station's bridge nods their heads at Green Arrow in agreement. "Martian Manhunter to Watchtower! Come in, Watchtower!" The worried voice of J'onn J'onzz comes in through the communication system.
"J'onn...This is Steel, it's good to hear your voice! What's your ETA to the station?"
"We are directly outside of the station...and we are in a standoff with another parallel Earth Superman. This one is older, and from what we witnessed vastly stronger than our Superman." Steel hears an angry huff in the background, and assumes it's their Superman.
"Listen, J'onn...that Superman saved all of our lives when he could've left us all to our deaths...that has to count for something. I don't think this Superman is the same as the Justice Lord version. He even protected the clone of Supergirl from harm without getting her backstory."
The communication line goes quiet, and then Steel hears the voice of the Batman entering into the communication. "We'll deal with this 'other Superman'. I want everyone on board to work on repairing the systems in the Watchtower to get it back in orbit. Batman, out."
Outside the Watchtower
A Javelin Mark 5 is parked 50 feet away from the Watchtower where the hull of the space station is still super hot from re-entry into the atmosphere. The original seven members of the Justice League have surrounded the Older version of Superman, who has his large muscular arms crossed over his chest. He has a look on his face that is almost unreadable to the Justice League members.
"I'm feeling nostalgic looking at a younger version of myself, and all of my other friends. My name is Kal-El of Krypton. You probably realize that I'm from a parallel Universe, but the reason I'm here is a mystery to me. My Justice League was battling the forces of a super-powered madman called Magog. I was fighting a brainwashed Captain Marvel, when he sent magical lighting raining down on my head. The next thing I know, I'm looking at someone who is identical to my cousin Karen twitching on the floor with third degree burns all over her body. You can see why I'd be upset." Superman walks up to his older version, and stands face to face with him in a stare down.
"Do you mean harm to the Earth, or it's people? If you're like the Justice Lord version of me, we're going to have a problem." Superman has a stern expression, and folds his arms over his chest.
Older Superman looks at the assembled Leaguer's, but Superman notices that he is staring longer at Wonder Woman than any of the others. "No, Son. I just want to return to my world, and help my friends beat Magog, Luthor, and anyone else who thinks that power gives them the right to harm the innocent." The Supermen spend a few minutes in their stare down, until this Earth's Superman extends his right hand to his older counterpart.
"Thank you for saving our people on-board the Watchtower. We'll help you in any way we can to get you back home. In the meantime, on behalf of the Justice League...I'd like to welcome you to our Earth, Kal-El." Kal smiles over at Superman, and extends his left hand to give Superman's right hand a firm handshake.
Almost all of the other original members of the Justice League have small smiles on their faces, and looks of relief that this meeting didn't turn into a fight like the last time. The only one who isn't smiling is the Batman, who has a frown on his features, and is giving the Bat glare to the Older Superman. "I might need to use this sooner than I anticipated." Batman has a dark gloved hand in one of the compartments of his utility belt, and there is a faint green glow emanating from within.
Chapter 1 Complete! Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought of the chapter in a review, and if you want me to continue this story! :D