Chapter 1: Loosened Hope
The night was cold, almost chilling to my bones as I walked back into that fortress, only to see old memories and triumphs with a friendship that was said to last forever. However, As I walked past the aisles and hallways, I came upon a person I had never met before, he was rather young and brash, but also weakened. As I attempted to help him, he vanished.
"Still fall for the holograms?" A figure wearing a black and silver traditional hero outfit with a cloak and an Omega insignia on her chest told that to me as I approached her.
"Claire, there needs to a reason why you've been acting like this."
"Acting like what?" She asked as she hovered toward me.
"Leaving the American Protectorate, working directly for the government, and helping in their task to round up powered individuals; either imprisoning or outright terminating them."
"You act like this is sudden, you know this has been on my mind for a while."
"Not when you were the leader of the Protectorate, you believed that there were better ways in taking care of metahumans and powered people."
"But I was very naive then, Ash, you need to understand that because of what happened last year, I need to commit to protecting those who can't fend for themselves by any means necessary now."
I don't know what came over me, but when I heard her say that, I punched her with all my might and knocked her through several walls. I was worried that the place might have collapsed due to the shockwave given by my punch and the fact that Omega Warrior went through many columns and walls.
"What makes you think that this makes anybody safe!" I yelled at her as I looked for something to hold on to as she came back at the speed of sound and hit me back. She was obviously holding back, considering I'm still here talking to you.
"Do you even know how many people were killed because of that incident? Millions! do you even understand that? Do you really understand how big of a loss that is, or is Lady Liberty too much of a soldier to understand collateral damage!"
I got back up from the blow but decided not to continue the fight. "What happened in Missouri has left us all distraught, Barrier is hiding in an island off of Bermuda, Aeroraven is doing the best she can to take care of public relations, Rush has been helping rebuild what's been destroyed, and-"
"And none of that is doing anything to help out in the long term! We still have too many people abusing their powers and killing more people than we can save! Can't you see, we need to find a way to take care of them and see if they can commute with everyone else, or be thrown out to never be a menace again!"
Seeing how there was no way to change her mind, I left the fortress and went off to Bermuda. As I flew, I noticed several birds off in the distance, dropping like flies. I knew, something was about to confront me. Only a few seconds later, A hooded man flew up at me and threw me into the ocean. He then hit me with a beam that could have disintegrated buildings, luckily I was able to deflect it with my gauntlets, flew right up to him, and kicked him in the gut hard enough to knock him out.
After that odd fiasco, I went to the island off of Bermuda and saw a house that was a white construct made by him. I approached the house and before I could knock, the door opened and entered the building. Inside I saw constructs of photos, paintings, and a statue of a man with the sorrow of a bringer of the apocalypse. I continued down a hallway and saw a construct of a plant that was put on the edge, almost able to fall off, when I tried to move in proper place, I realized it was fused in place.
"I see you came back for the plant," I heard him say, he wasn't wearing his usual hooded overcoat and gloves.
"I came back to talk about how we can take care of this disaster."
"Omega Warrior is official about what she's doing?"
"I'm afraid so Jonathan, it's almost as if she's been brainwashed."
There was a moment of silence in the room and I noticed that Jonathan was depressed about the event that caused all of this to happen.
"We did what we had to Jo-"
"And that wasn't enough, we weren't able to save those people, from the likes of that madman. The worst part is, he's still alive, and probably plotting again."
"How do you know he's still alive?"
"I saw him get out of the atomic fire, without a single burn or cut on his body or clothing."
Jon was starting to get angered by remembering that, and I tried my best to calm him down but, he couldn't hold it in anymore and caused a large explosion a few hundred miles away from that island. I decided to take my leave but also left a communicator on the table. As I left, I went to the old watch tower of the Protectorate and found a homeless man residing there, he wore a duster and a fedora, he was also pointing a .38 special at me until he had a good glimpse of who I am. I noticed he was holding something in his other hand as he ran off. I decided to follow him through dark alleyways and corners until I finally got him trapped.
"I won't harm you, but you need to show me what you have in your other hand," as I told him that, he pointed his gun at me again and fired. I deflected it with one of my gauntlets and grabbed him by the collar of his coat and he quickly gave me what he was hiding, it was a plasma castor that used to be in commission a few years ago, it was probably stolen but he then told me something that has haunted me for years to come.
"You're not the only one investigating what's going on with the government's round ups. But if I were you, I'd take whatever evidence you've got, and get out of this country, people are losing their trust for the Protectorate. I hope you have some way to make sure you're safe from the government's newest weapon, your former leader." After he said that, he quickly ran off into the dark alleys and disappeared into the shadows.
And he was right, what was there for me to do at this point, the country's getting close to committing civil war, and we have no way to divert it at this point. We are only counting down the days left until everyone will be at each others throats, and countless civilians to be killed in the crossfire.
A/N: So yeah, this is the other alternate universe I'm going to be working on, yeah, it's a bit complicated, (in case you didn't see the title) and enough so that I really can't start at the very beginning, but in any case, I think you have figured out the this universe's Justice League of America is known as The American Protectorate. I also have a list of all members in case there are any confusions with their parallels.
Omega Warrior/Vala-Lo/Claire Remmingway-Superman
Outfit: Same as Superman's, minus the underwear, but with a black and silver color scheme and a full cloak with the same symbol as her chest insignia, she also wears goggles that help out with her hear vision and a mouth cover to help amplify or muffle her super screaming.
Abilities: Super strength, super speed, heat vision, super breath, super durability, superhuman reflexes, and flight
Lady Liberty/Ashley Temple-Wonder Woman
Outfit: a red, white and blue jumpsuit with indestructible gauntlets that extend as gloves and bright blue combat boots
Abilities: Flight, super strength, super speed, and enhanced reflexes
Barrier/Jonathan St. Francis-Hybrid of Green Lantern and Dr. Manhattan
Outfit: Black hooded overcoat with a face wrap, gloves, and boots
Abilities: Atom manipulation (He makes his constructs by manipulating atoms together and can even achieve nuclear fusion doing so) and gravity manipulation (It's how he can fly himself and others)
Aeroraven/Christina Agnes-Hawkgirl
Outfit: A standard soldier uniform
Abilities: Enhanced durability, flight from her wings, hawk vision, and slight super strength
Rush/Alex Barry-The Flash
Outfit: Orange full utilitarian body suit with a special visor to help her see when she goes super fast.
Abilities: Super speed, super healing, super reflexes, super vibrating, enhanced strength, and super fast thought processes
In the meantime, there will be others who will join their ranks and become true heroes for what will come.