Chapter 38: Alternate.
There were many universes throughout the multiverse, some of them the same from the one that we know, and others rather different from the one that we knew. In this universe, there were many changes. Many meetings did not happen, while some did. There were different choices that have occurred in life, and lead to people taking up very different steps towards what they assumed to be their destiny.
There was a fine line between choice and destiny, and to some that line was crossed with mad glee. This was the case of this universe's version of Lex Luthor, who had ascended to the highest office of the land. Lex Luthor was the President of the United States, the first ever third party candidate to win. The American People over the past several years had grown rather agitated with the same old politicians in the two major parties, so they tried another choice.
There were threats from the two major parties, some veiled, some more blatant to get Lex Luthor shut down before the election. An election he funded with his own money, and did not accept donations. It was an election he was determined to win on his own two feet. Yet, showing astounding bravery in the face of adversity, Lex Luthor would not back down. Over the first two years of his term, he had single handily eliminated the national debt, put more people in jobs than any other president in history, and gave increased health care benefits to people.
It was all at a price however. Despite the newfound goodwill and optimism in the United States, Luthor still had his share of enemies, both inside the country and outside. There had been at least one shot fired at him, and several more assassination attempts had been foiled before a single shot could be fired. Yet, President Luthor stood tall, and his popularity ranking continued to sky rocket.
For even the most hardened men, the pressures of public office could get to them, and Lex found this out the hard way. He had succumbed to the pressures, and many vices were indulged in. He also felt his temper shorten, and when other countries messed with the greatest country in the world, Lex had gotten trigger happy.
Two countries had tried to ignore what Lex had told them. Several good Americans had died for their freedom, and now they decided to defy him. Truly they should be able to understand that he had their best interests in mind. Lex would not have anything to do with that, so he sent several high range weapons. It wiped out several villages, and for some reason, this was considered controversial. Congress had called for Lex to cease his attacks, but he was the President, and they were beneath him.
A twisted smile appeared on Lex's face, when he realized that the Flash had been caught in the crossfire. It was one less do-gooder to deal with. The Fastest Man Alive was not fast enough to dodge one of his long range weapons. His chief advisor, Harrison Radcliffe, had given him the advice to take the fight to the League at this level.
There were many things that came with the office of the President of the United States. One of the biggest things was the power, and the knowledge that the citizens of one of the greatest countries in the world were serving him. They were sheep who had voted him into office, and had forgiven them when he offered them promises.
Promises he did hold up his end of the bargain on, unlike many of his predecessors. Lex would not be a liar, like those who had preceded him. It was only a shame that he had two terms to work with, but six more years could allow him to arrange to bypass that pesky limitation and overturn that Constitutional amendment. He would rule the American People like a king.
It also offered him a vast wealth of knowledge to be used at his disposal. Including the ability to look up the information of all of the heroes, and find out their secret identities. This fact forced the heroes to play along with Lex at several points, although Lex knew when to pick his spots wisely.
Running a country was much like running a business; it was all about taking risk and opportunity. Lex had managed to get this country running again, and now he would settle an old score. Despite the fact that they had stood together, side by side, neither had trusted the other. Superman was someone who Lex still loathed, and now was the perfect opportunity to strike him where it hurt, in the heart.
The saying went that home was where the heart was, and Lex's eyes narrowed, when he grabbed the phone, a sadistic expression on his eyes, and tapped on it, smiling. He prepared to give the order.
"Send our long range missiles to Smallville, Kansas, and blow it off the map," Lex ordered in a crisp voice. A slick smile appeared on the President's face after he gave this declaration.
It was hard to believe that Superman was in fact Clark Kent, a mild mannered reporter. It was a shame, because Lex always thought that Kent was a standup kind of guy, but since he was Superman, that made them enemies. Lex waited for the explosion to go off, and Smallville to be a moment of the past. Superman was halfway across the world, dealing with a crisis that Lex manufactured.
Superman would not be saving the day this time. Lex kicked his feet up on his desk, and just watched, and waited. Soon, he would deal the crushing blow to Superman's heart. Lex's eyes widened, and his mouth widened. Suddenly he snapped, and had another one of his episodes that he had been having ever since becoming President.
"If you can only see what a success I've become now, Dad!" Lex yelled to himself in a crazed voice, looking up at the ceiling. "Lionel, do you hear me? I'm about to save the world, and make sure nothing threatens it again!"
A twisted grin appeared over Lex's face, and he folded his arms. He waited for the end to come, and what an end it would be.
Kara Zor-El existed in this world, but things had changed much from the world we knew. She had gone to Vegas, but she did not meet the man of her dreams, for Harry had never gone. All she got was a stern lecture from her cousin, and she was stuck on the farm for two more years, before she was of age, and could leave, to make her own journey in the world.
Kara had adopted the Earthly alias of Linda Danvers, after a girl that had died in her arms when Supergirl had failed to save her. No matter what, no matter how hard she tried, with her great powers, there were going to be sometimes where she could not save the day. It was a never ending reminder of what happened, and what could happen. She was powerful, but not omniscient.
Right now, there were many people who had been hinging on her to save the day. Linda stepped forward, her eyes widened. She was dressed in business attire, with her hair tied back, and stockings, wearing a pair of high heels. She stared at the screen, and wanted to scream. Lex had launched more of his sadistic weapons, and they were pointed right towards Smallville.
The Kents were there.
Linda was left with a dilemma, she could either bolt to Smallville, save the Kents, but leave everyone else to perish, or she could try and stop the missiles remotely. She had the knowledge to hack into computers, and had to try. She had three minutes; surely she could redirect them safely.
Her role as an intern for the President had given her an opportunity to slip bits and pieces of information to her cousin and his teammates. Even if she had to deal with the disgusting overtures of Lex, who obviously had a sick obsession of trying to get into her panties. Thankfully, she managed to avert that.
Right now, Linda bit her lip, and continued to hammer away on the keyboard. She tried to get in. Surely, there was something that would allow her to stop these missiles before they struck and blew Smallville off of the map. Her breath was getting heavier, and heavier. The palms were getting clammy, and her hands shook. She blinked over and over again, and tried to get in. The missiles were getting closer and closer to impacting Smallville, and she continued to breath in and out heavily.
'Think, Kara, Linda, whoever you are, just think,' Linda thought to herself, and she blinked. She was getting rather flushed. 'No, that's not it, damn it, that's not it, I'll give Lex credit, he's a crafty bastard.'
The time continued to tick up, and Linda felt herself continue to try and hammer into the system, trying to deactivate the missiles, divert them, redirect them back to the source, whatever she did, she could get to them.
There were thirty seconds to detonation, and Linda continued to type into the system frantically.
Twenty, Nineteen, Eighteen, Seventeen, Sixteen.
Linda tried something, but there was no way inside. The blonde Kryptonian felt like she wanted to yank her hair out, frustration mounting as she grew more impatient.
Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two.
For a brief second, Linda thought she got it.
She let out the breath that she was holding.
Then it overrode her signal, and the missiles impacted right into Smallville.
"NO!" Linda yelled, and she ripped the computer out of the wall, and threw it into the wall. That was about all that she could do at that point, and her breathing became more and more heavy. The blonde Kryptonian rocked back and forth, crazed, and absolutely mad, and not to mention frustrated, she was very frustrated.
This anger was to cover up one certain point, and that was that no matter what, she had failed. Her failure was something that would eat way at her for some time to come. Linda closed her eyes, the Kents were always so nice to her, and then they were gone. Evaporated just like everyone else in Smallville.
She could have saved them, yet, she had to save everyone.
Once again, the greatest lesson of a heroine was hammered into her head.
No matter what, one couldn't save everyone, and the deaths of the Kents would be forever on her conscious.
If she could get her hands on Lex, their deaths would not be for nothing. Linda would assassinate the president.
She stopped, and saw her cousin fly past her in the hallway. Suddenly, Linda felt deflated, and defeated. Kal would not allow her to kill Lex, he was too morality minded to do so. Even if all of Smallville had been blown to dust, he would not do that.
Superman did not kill, no questions about it.
Lex waited oh so patiently in his office. It was a calm and tranquil wait, almost like an inmate on death row who has long since accepted his fate. He tapped his fingers on the desk, clicked his pen, and hummed a merry tune. Almost right on cue, the sounds of body guards getting smacked around outside greeted Lex, and Superman burst through the door to face him.
"I was wondering when you would show up," Lex remarked in a cool, calm, and rather tranquil voice.
"The game's up, Lex," Superman told him, bold and fierce as ever.
Lex's face contorted into a slight smirk, and he hovered his finger above the desk. Superman grabbed his hand to block it.
"We've been through this, what would you say, about twenty or thirty times, Kal-El?" Lex asked him a bored voice. He showed no fear, this was the big blue boy-scout, and there was really nothing that the Man of Steel would do to him. "And the result has been the same every single time."
"You murdered the Flash," Superman told him in a cold voice.
Lex just had a smile cross his face.
"You know, he should have ducked, but I guess he's not the fastest thing on Earth after all," Lex remarked, and Clark shifted towards him, his eyes narrowed in sadistic fury. "So, tell me, Kal-El, or would you prefer the name, Clark?"
Superman grimaced; Lex had done his homework, and had uncovered his secret identity.
"All it took to fool everyone was a single pair of glasses," Lex remarked crisply. An impressed look crossed his face. "Both ingenious and simple."
Lex turned and looked Superman in the eye, much like someone meeting an old friend for the first time in a long time. The pause was lengthy, before Lex spoke.
"So tell me, Clark, how are the folks?" Lex asked, but then he snapped his fingers and looked Clark directly in the eye. "Oh, that's right, I regret to inform you that Jonathan and Martha Kent, along with the rest of Smallville, have perished. It was a nasty explosion. But look on the bright side Kal-El, if it was your parent's wish to get cremated, I saved you a bundle on that."
Clark reached over the desk, and snatched Lex by the lapels of his jacket. Lex just once again looked merely bored, and shook his head.
"Let's face it, Kal-El, you couldn't kill me, so don't pretend you have it in you," Lex remarked, sounding more bored by the second.
"I could shut you down right now," Superman replied.
Lex offered him a dry chuckle, and looked Clark dead on in the eyes, with icy fury.
"Yes you could, but you won't," Lex told him, and the doors opened. Batman, the Martian Manhunter, Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman all joined the party. "There are about five or six different ways for you to defeat me, but they all involve lethal force. Which isn't what you're going to do, because you're too good for that, aren't you?"
Lex poked Superman right in the chest, in the center of the Big Red "S". Superman's eyes glowed red, but Lex once again showed no fear. The worst that could happen was Superman was going to break a few bones, send him to prison, but he'd be back on the street within the next twenty four hours. That dance had been something that had gone on since the very beginning of their dynamic.
"Isn't that right, Clark?" Lex whispered to him, and he prepared to reach underneath the desk to blow up the White House with all of them inside. If his term as presidency was going to end, Lex was going out of the White House with a bang. "The glowing eyes don't scare me…"
Heat vision cut through the air to cut Luthor off, and the rest of the Justice League looked on in horror. They stood there, and Batman took half of a step forward, but stopped himself. After all Luthor did, his sympathy was lacking. It was almost like there was some kind of compulsion holding them in place. The heat vision burned Lex Luthor to a crisp, and he screamed out in horror, while he spontaneously combusted.
"Consider yourself impeached," Superman said coldly, and he turned around, to see the rest of the League around him, looking at him, mouths agap and eyes widened.
"It…I don't know what to say," Wonder Woman said, finding her voice.
"It had to be done," Batman replied in a resigned voice.
"After everything that happened, Lex deserved it, and then some," Hawkgirl added in a somber voice.
Superman stepped forward, and was shocked. He had never considered taking a life, even as diseased as Luthor's. However, something about it felt liberating. For the first time in his life, Kal-El was completely free. The humanity forged by the Kents died with their death, and the Kryptonian stepped forward, towards the hallway. His cousin was waiting for him, mouth open in shock. Her eyes widened, and she turned around.
Her cousin did it, he actually did it. While she often lectured Clark about not being so soft with criminals, the fact that he actually did something seemed so weird. Linda Danvers looked out into the sky, and no doubt before too long, they would make a stir about the death of the President. The League might have to fight their way out of here.
Superman hovered above the ground in a funk. A figure stood in the shadows, and crossed his arms, looking at the Man of Steel with intense green eyes. His face was mostly obscured, even if Kal-El could see who he was. The Man of Steel just gave a stoic nod, and a serious expression crossed his face.
"You were right all along, and I should have listened. I kept trying to redeem them, but it cost me my parents, and also the Flash died."
"It is always better late than never, Kal-El," a voice said, calm and collected, as if nothing could rattle him. "Today begins the dawn of a new age, where the world will change for the better. It will be an ever lasting peace and utopia, and your team will be at the heart of it. Crime will be abolished, and everyone will be safe. Some people might not agree with the actions, but certain things must be done for the greater good."
"I understand that more now than ever before," Clark told him.
Today was the first of many steps where the world would be changing. Today, the Justice League would transform into the Justice Lords, and the world as they knew it would never be the same ever again. The man in the shadows stood, and waited, the vision he started in his world, the aspirations he had, would soon come full circle.
All it took was the sacrifice of every single magical user in the world, other than him, to accomplish his moment of triumph. They all died, and soon he would achieve his vision throughout the entire world, and eventually a greater multiverse.
The world was in the palm of his hand.
A lot could happen in a period of two years, and that was the case with this world. The world on the surface looked like a sparkling utopia. The air was clean, the water was cleaner, street crime was pretty much non-existent. Not one piece of litter had been dropped on the street. People could leave their doors unlocked at night without any fear of someone breaking and entering. Children played in the park, dogs barked happily, and people walked down the street, with wide smiles on their faces.
All the while, there was a calm and tranquil voice speaking to every single one of them. There were loud speakers set up in every single major city across the nation, with Metropolis being no exception. The voice spoke to them, as people went along about their normal day, with bright smiles on their face.
"Remember, a bright and happy attitude, free of bitterness and hostility is the key to a positive and productive lifestyle. There is no need to fear, crime is no longer a factor. All of you should thank your lord and savior, Harry Potter. He has allowed you to live in this perfect world, and you should take time out of your busy day, to thank him, to pay tribute to this visionary. Harry Potter and the Justice Lords have allowed you to be safe, and secure. He is your best friend, and to him, you are all his children."
The calm and tranquil voice continued to drone.
"Harry Potter is always watching over you, for your own protection. He will always be there, beside you. Kindly stand by, and await a message from your savior, and the greatest hero the universe has ever seen."
A pause was made, before Harry Potter's voice echoed for all to hear.
"We have come a long way in this world, and I thank you all for your cooperation. Let go of your physical desires, and understand that this is only to be done for your everlasting protection. Freedom is a false idol, and it must be sacrificed for you to be safe and secure. Yet, there are those who wish to destabilize our perfect world. If you see anyone attempting to resist what is just, then please report them to any Lighting Squad your city. They are here to help you, they are your friends. The world will be perfect, but only you can allow it. Those who still hope to resist what is just and true will be punished like disobedient children. All who assist will be remembered and thanked. You all sleep safely in your beds, thanks to my efforts, the efforts of the Justice Lords, and my Lighting Squad, and know this to be true."
Harry paused, and then concluded.
"Remember, I'm always watching over you, for you are my children."
There were many nods of content throughout the city, but one guy turned around. He saw the statue of Harry Potter at the village square, looking at them with bright eyes.
"What the hell is this, are you people going to just stand there, and let him dictate what we do?" demanded the man, and he turned around to face the people, who backed away from him like he was carrying some kind of disease that they did not want to catch. "Mr. Perfect World is stripping away our civic rights, and making you into his drones. Are you going to take it, and are you going to stand up and…"
A blast of laser fire cut off the man in mid-speech. True to form, Lord Potter's enforcer drones were right on schedule. They had targeted anyone who had destabilized the utopia that he had built with extreme prejudice, and right now, the man who had spoken out had played a nice little game of dodge the laser fire.
"Alright, sorry, sorry, Potter is good," the man said, holding his hands in the air.
"Your statement lacks sincerity," one of the enforcer drones stated in monotone.
"You must be punished," another enforcer drone stated.
"All who are in rebellion will be re-orientated," the third drone replied.
The town square citizens all backed up, and held their hands up, to indicate that there was no way they were fighting these enforcer drones.
At that moment, a girl flew through the air, faster than a speeding bullet, and had knocked out two of the Enforcer drones with heat vision, and then blasted the third one with a pulse of magical energy from her hand. They blew up immediately, and a cyclone kicked up where she flew in circles.
Kara Zor-El of this Earth now had officially adopted the name Linda Danvers, and cut her ties to the House of El and her cousin permanently after what had happened. At first, she stood by the Justice Lords. They killed criminals which was warranted. Lobotomizing the patients at Arkham was something that Linda was not sure about, but went with it.
When they started to take away the freedoms of the people, like freedom of religion, freedom of press, and freedom of speech, that is where Linda drew the line. She had ditched the moniker of Supergirl, and had a new moniker, Matrix.
Her bright blue eyes burned with absolute fury in the air. The golden hair she wore had been tied back in a ponytail, to prevent it from whipping it into her face when flying. Her high cheekbones, and rosy lips gave her a vision of beauty. The silver t-shirt she wore hugged around her torso lightly, showcasing her well-developed breasts, and it just stopped about three inches below them. On the shirt, there was a red "S" on it still, but it was scratched out, due to her divorcing herself from her cousin and all he stood for. Her taut stomach was on display.
The skirt snugly hugged around her hips, and flapped in the breeze. Linda wore no panties underneath, she found it was much easier to fly without them. One could get a hint of her lovely rear underneath the skirt. Her legs were as long and beautiful as ever, adorned with white stockings that fit snugly around her legs. She wore no shoes of any kind.
The Lighting Squad moved out, and Matrix spun around in the air, kicking them in the face. They were a bit distracted from looking up her skirt, and she continued to pivot. The blonde Kryptonian grabbed the stun gun, and jabbed it a bit below the belt into one of the Lighting Squad members.
More enforcer drones showed up, when she was done.
"Great, more robots to smash," Matrix said, a smug smirk spreading across her face after she said that.
Everything came to life, and with it, the voice of Harry Potter
"I don't know why you persist to resist, my dear Kara."
"I'm not your dear anything, you monster!" Matrix yelled at him, and blew up two more of his enforcer drones.
"Don't be so dramatic, love," Lord Potter told her in a crisp voice. "It is not like there would be anyone else out there for you. There is no one like me like me, and it would be hard to deny that you feel a certain physical pull towards me."
Matrix gritted her teeth, she hated him, but he was attractive, physically at least. It was a shame that he was rotten to the core.
"I can never love someone like you!" Matrix fired back.
Harry hummed, and paused, calm as could be, before he responded.
"You will love me, my precious angel," Lord Potter stated. "You will learn to love me, or your life will be a rather barren one. By the time that it is over, you will be begging to have me, and naturally you will be accepted into my heart. Every ruler needs a queen, and you are the perfect one."
"You are evil, worse than Zod!" Matrix yelled, her face contorted with anger, and her fists clenched off to her side.
There was a bit of a dry chuckle given by Harry, and he decided to enlighten his bride to be on a few facts.
"I'm not worse than Zod, and there was one common thing different between myself, and Zod. He failed, whilst I will succeed in my plans. I do admit that he was a visionary in many ways, but a fool in others. And I will make sure there will be none who will oppose me. Your resistance is weakening, and you can't keep up the fight alone, my love."
"Stop calling me that!" Matrix shouted, angrily blasting the statue with heat vision.
"I only say it, for it is true," Lord Potter said. "You shall be mine, and we will rule over everything together. All will be at our feet, eating out of my hand. You are a goddess, and deserve nothing less, and most certainly these mortals should cater to you, and not vice versa."
The Enforcer Drones showed up, and Matrix decided to beat a hasty retreat. She would need more time, but what the world needed was a hero.
Thankfully her shape-shifting abilities had allowed her to blend into the crowd. That was one good thing about that monster experimenting on her, she did get a few new powers, and soon he would be taken down by the monster he created.
Matrix just needed time to regroup, and meet up with the rest of the resistance. All while doubling around to make sure she was not being followed by any of Lord Potter's flunkies.
There were many lessons Harry Potter learned throughout his life. For one, don't wait for someone to do something right, but rather do it yourself. There were times throughout his life where if he waited for those in authority to do something correct, and just, he would have been dead many times over.
Harry also learned something about the false idea of freedom. It was quite elementary; it was a wonder why anyone had not figured it out before.
Freedom allowed people to make choices.
Some people when given the opportunity to make a choice often tended to make the wrong choice.
Those wrong choices lead to people committing a crime.
Those crimes led to innocents being killed.
Therefore, Harry came to one conclusion, and that was he needed to watch over all people, and make their choices for them. He trusted that he would make the right one. They were incapable of making the right decision, as it had been proven time and time again. Harry had grown with power for very simple reason.
He had found a way to travel throughout the vast multiverse and slaughter alternate versions of himself. The sacrifice had enabled him to perform a ritual that would increase his power. Lord Potter stood on the precipice of godhood, all he needed to do was step forward, and take that next opportunity. Keep destroying alternate versions of himself, and it would also enable him to have his ideal woman to rule by his side.
Presently, Lord Potter oversaw a communications satellite being put into orbit. Soon the satellite would extend his will throughout the entire world, and he would tighten his control. The world would know his message, and would be bent to his will. They must all be taught to obey, like the children that they were. A smile appeared on his face, soon they would live in a perfect world, with him and Kara ruling and watching over them all.
Kara would come around eventually, when she realized that it was meant to be between the two of them. It was not like he had given her much of an option with the experiments performed on her. The experiments did have that one loophole, which Harry endeavored to close with the full sale destruction of every single version of himself throughout the vast universe.
The next universe was an interesting one. It appeared that unlike many of the universes, this Harry was in a relationship with his version of Kara, actually two versions of Kara.
Lord Potter felt a small swell of pride at his alternate self for achieving that feat. It was a shame that he must die. Although someone would naturally have to comfort the widows, and Lord Potter felt himself to be ideal for the job. The more, the merrier, after all.
The Justice Lords was still called the Justice League, and existed as well. This might potentially be a problem, but solving problems was what Lord Potter did. He prepared for battle, and to figure out what to do.
It was time to pay his friends a visit. They had been doing a wonderful job in helping keep the peace, but it was time for them to understand who was in charge. They were merely figureheads, but Lord Potter was the one that ran the show.
To Be Continued in the Next Arc "Lords."