Disclaimer: I own nothing of the DC Universe
New World 1.1
April 13, 2015
The Batcave
To the outside world the batman was never unsettled, always calm and collected with the knowledge and ability to defeat any threat at any time at his leisure. The truth was that he had been unsettled by many things over his hero career and just kept others from seeing it including his closest friends and his own extended family. He dealt with it mostly by creating contingency plans for every possible scenario including if any hero was mind controlled or went rogue. While others would call him unnecessarily paranoid, he called it being properly paranoid, any scenario that could be conceived of was worthy of being planned for as if was an absolute certainty.
He stared intensely at the image before on him on the bat computer.
John Grayson aka Mazahs
He was the first hero of the world first appearing in Sudan nearly thirty years ago preventing a mass kidnapping of two hundred teenagers by a terrorist group. After he had saved them, he started intervening in certain crisis events, paramilitary groups and environmental issues in Africa, the Middle East, and South America.
The hero of Africa and the leader of the hero team, the Kingdom. They didn't operate in single cities like most of the Justice League but all over the continent. They fought everything from corrupt governments engaging in ethnic cleansing to muggings on the street making them more beloved than the Justice League in Africa. The Kingdom was composed of eight members including Mazahs. The Kingdom was as far as Batman could determine made up of fine heroes who would be more than welcome in the League.
It was Mazahs that was the central problem.
The Defender of Africa
The First Hero
The Protector of Children
Batman refused to trust him for multiple reasons.
The first was he didn't trust Mazahs's backstory. He claimed he was from an alternate dimension where he was a hero that fought a criminal organization known as the crime syndicate for years. He managed to defeat them, but his world was destroyed in the result. He landed on batman's earth because of his final battle with them.
The idea of a permanent organization of supervillains operating to take over the world had been troubling to hear especially since usually such groups fell apart due to infighting between the members.
While Batman had managed to confirm Mazahs was from an alternate dimension his story seemed too clean, it established him as a hero who valiantly fought against the forces of evil and lost everything. A perfect story to gain admiration and sympathy from people. On the surface when the league heard his story it sounded completely legitimate, but Batman's finely attuned detective instincts told him something did not match up.
The second was his willingness to kill people. Mazahs had demonstrated in the past he would end supervillains if they became too much of a threat to the public safety. So far, he had limited his murders when they could be shown to be justified from a legal point, but Batman knew it was only a matter of time before he started murdering anyone who committed a crime. Once a hero started murdering people it was only a matter of time before the individual started killing everyone. The league had attempted to bring him in for it before, but it had led to an international incident. The League had been forced to back off and return home in defeat.
The third was the sheer amount and level of power of the man. His base power was the same as Shazam's given Mazahs was his universe's analog of Shazam. This put him in the upper levels of power making him an enormous potential threat to the world. It would require a full league mobilization to stop him if he went rogue. Even then Batman was not optimist considering Mazahs gained the powers of the people he murders adding additional powers to the man's arsenal or increasing the strength of the powers he already had making him even more powerful than ever.
The fourth reason was the sheer number of connections he had all over Africa, South America, and the Middle East. The people loved Mazahs and the Kingdom, seeing them just as greater than the Justice League and even Superman. Mazahs had his fingers in everything from dozens of individual countries militaries, scientific research, and development and most dangerous of all politics.
Batman and his fellow heroes were in many cases involved in militaries and science and he was willing to tolerate it, not to mention it would be massively hypocritical to judge someone else on it. It was not so much the ties to militaries and science that bothered Batman as so much the involvement in politics. Metahumans should not be involved in politics.
He typed into the Batcomputer Union of Africa established and clicked on the first video.
There were hundreds of reporters from every corner of the globe gathered in front of the doors of the newly established headquarters of the Union. On a large platform overlooking the crowd and thousands of spectators stood representatives of twenty-three countries across Africa.
At the podium stood the President of Nigeria Olusegun Yar'Adua.
"Citizens of Africa. I am blessed to be here today to officially announce the formation of the Union."
Almost at once the spectators screamed out loud cheers and the representatives all clapped fiercely and proudly.
"For many years we have been divided over politics, faith, language and so much more that it would take all day to list them all. Unfortunately, none of us here have the time available." The man smiled at his little joke.
There were polite laughs from the representatives and the crowd.
The Nigerian president took a more serious expression as he continued speaking "The divisions between us are significant but pale in comparison to the knowledge of the greater threats out there in the universe. Over the last two decades my colleagues and I have worked together to bridge out countries together so we can emerge stronger and unified. As we have learned
Batman paused the video.
The creation of the Union was a monumental political and economic state. Upon its formation it became one of the most powerful political blocks in the world. On the surface the formation and politics talks of the Union had in the timeline of geopolitics happened in the blink of an eye. That was a red flag to Batman. As the head of a major corporation, he had to deal with politics from the local to federal level and he knew how difficult it was to accomplish anything without greasing some palms.
It was too much of a coincidence that Mazahs had almost always appeared at the right time at the right place. The man's speeches of unity and the values of survival, knowledge, power, and domination spoke a brutal survival of the fittest mentally where morality played no part in society. The man had played a significant role in the formation of the Union that warranted suspicion.
Batman leaned back into his chair and let out a breath. He was a cautious man by nature. It was what allowed him to be a world class hero. He lived by the motto always be prepared for the worst. That didn't mean he wanted the worst to happen.
He honestly hoped he was wrong but it was best to be ready for the potential storm.
0-0-0-0-0
March 3, 1999
Logan Animal Sanctuary, Qurac
Marie Logan kissed her son on his little baby cheek and carefully sat him down in the crib. She looked down on his sleeping face with a soft smile. She loved her little boy so much, grateful she decided to start Sanctuary in Qurac rather than somewhere else as she likely would have never met his son's father.
A strong pair of arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her close to a broad very muscled chest. The man was wet from the shower, any other day she would be annoyed at him for getting her clothes wet but now she was in a excited mood.
"Any hot water left?" she asked simply enjoying the closeness.
John nuzzled his face into her neck, lying a soft kiss on her neck and check. Marie bit her lower lip.
"Logan asleep?" he asked her.
"Yes"
She could feel his smile as he turned her head around and locked his lips with her.
"There's enough for us both" finally answering her original question.
She smiled as he picked her up in his powerful arms and headed to the shower.
So, this is a series of one-shots where a SI comes to the Dc Universe and becomes a villain instead of a hero. I read a lot of stories of people coming to the DCU and become heroes but if they were forced to become a villain? The DCU is a horrible place even for the heroes.
The Kingdom is a team of heroes in the actual comics. They were created by Batwing Writer Judd Winick.
