Summary AU!: Eighteen years ago, the wolf goddess, Lupa, adopted the demititan son of Atlas. Out of the five years, she adopted the clone of Superman. She raised the two as her own, turning them into something more. Something the world needs now more than never
Five hours later, Viribus and Atsáli reunited with lighter spirits. But was almost immediately crushed by the heavy weighted clothing Lupa summoned upon them.
"Six tons per limb. Eight tons on your torso" Lupa spoke coldly, making them flinch, "it will increase two tons every hour. For the next six hours, you will complete all tasks without question abd without fail. Am I clear?"
"Yes, Mother!" The two spoke loudly, their bodies already straining just for standing up straight.
She made them run up and down the mountain near their new camping grounds twenty times before forcing them to create dens for the pack.
She then had them be literal chew toys for pups of the pack. It was thanks to Atsáli's durability and Viribus reflexes that they survived for so long.
The two were now doing hand stands with boulders balanced on their feet. Lupa had been called away by Olympus twenty minutes ago, so now was the perfect time to catch up with one another.
"So...you don't...want to...talk about it?" Viribus grunts out, with sweat pouring down his dirty face.
"There is...nothing... to say" Atsáli growls out, not fairing any better, "we didn't...do...any-"
"No...not the goddess" Viribus grunts as he forces himself to do a push up, "Superman..."
"..." Atsáli doesn't say anything. Instead he forces himself to rise to his finger tips, "I'm...not...him...he's not...my...father"
"He doesn't...want me...so..." Atsáli forces himself to walk forward, "I'll be...my own man"
Viribus nodded at his brother's words, understanding his reasonings. It sounded like his own resolve. The son of Atlas follows after his brother saying, "And I will...help you grow"
There was a flash between the two, and Lupa was there, in her wolf form. She makes no comment, but the two brothers get the message. With great effort, they follow the mother towards the middle of the camp grounds, their bodies far surpassing their limits.
When Lupa stopped walking, she looked back at the duo struggling to keep there composure under the weight. She saw the fires in their eyes and looks away.
"You may rest now" Lupa says, "Put the boulders down"
The brothers let the large rocks roll away before falling to the ground, panting heavily. The weight of their clothes disappearing.
"You both fought well" Lupa says, "you served Olympus with honor and represented the pack"
"However, you two are treading dangerously on a line even the gods wouldn't dare cross" Lupa continues, "you didn't break the Ancient Laws, but finding loopholes doesn't mean there are no consequences. Just nothing too severe"
"How is this a loophole?" Atsáli asked as he and sat up.
"Gods interfering with mortals" The goddess says as she took a seat next to them, "Everytime they do, disasters follow"
"What do you suggest we do, Mother?" Viribus asks as he watched the sunset, "How do we fix a disaster without causing a disaster?"
Lupa remained silent for a moment, trying to chose her words carefully. What she was about to say could lead the world down an either good path, or a bad one.
"By living up to your legacies" the goddess says, shocking the two brothers. They had spent their whole lives trying to be their own person. Why try to be like there fathers now?
"Romulus and Remus" Lupa clarified, "sons of Mars. They built Rome from the dirt and made turned it into the greatest civilization the world has ever known"
"Most of Olympus think this is a horrible idea; the son of the general of the Titanomarchy, blessed with his father's strength running the world with a clone of the Man of Steel and the Apex Predator of the human race by his side. Personally, I thought so too" Lupa said bluntly.
Viribus and Atsáli couldn't help but feel hurt by the comment, but listened on.
"But then I had to remember your not like any of them. Viribus, you are prideful, but you put family before that. Not many heroes have with so much pride do that. Atsáli, you try to push past your limits everyday, but not for personal gain. It's to help your brother when necessary. Traits of good leaders that even the gods couldn't ignore when I pointed it out"
"Mother?" Atsáli asks nervously, "are you asking us to...create another Rome?"
"Oh Hades no" Lupa scoffs, making the two boys relax. The way she spoke sounded like she wanted it so.
"I'm ordering you to make the dream you wished for a reality" Lupa says, shocking the two once more, "Make a better tomorrow. A better Rome"
Viribus and Atsáli look to one another, having a silent conversation. As proud as Lupa was of her sons, she hated it when they do that. Even she doesn't know what their saying.
When they broke eye contact, Viribus rose to his feet. Atsali followed after, stretching their body's out.
"I raised you as my own" Lupa says as they took off their shirts, revealing their wolf tattoos, "Taught you how to lead battles and command armies, tactics to build and destroy empires. Are you both ready to use that knowledge to change the world? To be the next Romulus and Remus?"
After what felt like an eternity, the brother's gave their answer. The sky was now set to night and stars slowly revealed themselves.
"No" Viribus says as his tattoo began to glow silver, "we will be better"
"We will make the world a safer place" Atsáli continues with confidence, his tattoo glowing gold, "Where everyone will look forward to a better tomorrow"
"And be ready for a battle when necessary" Silver rings flash around Viribus' iris'.
"So the casualties will be less than the one caused by this war" Gold rings flash around Atsáli's.
Snarls escape their lips as they drew upon the magic they were blessed with. The forest seemed to reacted to their steadily rising power. The ground rumbled slightly, the trees shifted by the wind they generated. The wolves nearby were getting riled up by their power, feeling the urge to howl. But the two that causes this wouldn't let them. Not yet.
Even Lupa was feeling the urge, but nowhere near as strong as the others. She wondered what these two were doing. There was no full moon, and the power they were generating was nowhere near as strong as when they fought Darkseid. But it was definitely growing stronger than Dionysus, the weakest of the Olympians.
It wasn't like that a month ago.
"This day marks the birth of a new empire" Atsáli says.
"The Empire of Wolves!" Viribus howls, letting his power reach its current peak. Atsáli follows after, howling into the night sky. Their signature auras surrounded their person.
Their howls and their power seemed to have echoed across the entire West Coast. Because for one split second, no, a sixth of a second, every living creature looked up to the sky. Mortals felt a spark ignite inside them, but they couldn't explain what it was.
Metahumans felt the spark and clutched their hands as they felt their power react to it. They had suddenly felt the urge to become stronger, whether it was for good reasons, or bad.
Demigods, demigoddess, and descents especially stopped what they were doing. They had the urge to unleashed a battle cry. If they didn't have a signature battle cry, they'd scream out the first thing they could get their hands on.
Gods all around the world looked to the sky with interest. Most turned away seconds later, pretending not to care. Others chose to check up on it on their own time.
The world felt that everything was about to change.
Inside his cave, the Dark Knight stares intently at the large screen in front of him.
One would say he was so wrapped up with what's in front, he didn't noticed a man dressed in red and blue floating up to him.
"You're late" Batman says, not taking his eyes off the screen.
"Sorry, some of us work for a living" Superman chuckles sheepishly, "I'm surprised you let me through the front door"
"Alfred suggested it" Batman says, "he...recommended for me to not go out on patrol tonight"
Superman couldn't help but look at his ally with amusement in his eyes. World's Greatest Detective was grounded by his butler.
"You know why your here" Batman says, ending Clark's good mood. His eyes were now narrowed.
"He's not my-"
"He has your DNA" Batman interrupted, typing in a few keys. Two windows pop up on the screen showing DNA strands on both of them. One was labeled Superman while the other was labeled Atsáli.
"Where did you even-"
"Hair strands from the boy. Your blood from the edge of tye shield he hit you with. Had to isolate it from the amount of parademon blood and wolf hair on it, but there is a match"
The Man of Tomorrow huffs in annoyance. He still couldn't wrap his head around this. He couldn't have a son, he just couldn't!
"He also happens shares your back story"
"What does that even mean?"
"An orphan forced onto a world with godly powers, with no memory of who he is or where he came from" Batman states as he typed in a few keys, "he was raised on only one ideology; to be better than you. I noticed the way he stared you down. Part of him wanted to fight you, because he was programmed to. But something happened. Something erased his programming"
A few seconds later, a video feed pops up on the screen, showing a van driving out into the woods.
"The time and location says this happened along the borders of Alaska. Date is November 5th, 2014. Five years ago" Batman states as they continued to watch the feed.
The van comes to a stop and the occupants kick out what appeared to be a young man dressed in what appeared to be a white body suit. More men soon piled out the van
"A solar suit" Superman says, instantly recognizing the suit and who was wearing it, "what are they-"
BLAM!*
Superman flinched at the sound of a gunshot. He saw the bullet hit the clone in his forehead. His shock turned to horror as the man unloaded four more bullets into the young man's body.
"What a waste" the man says, cocking the hammer to his gun, "it can't even take normal bullets"
However, before the trigger was pulled, a howl echoed through the night. More howls soon join in, making the men look around nervously. The video feed was then cut off, but not before snarls and screams echoed were heard.
"The feed was cut as soon as my drone crossed the border" Batman says as he exits out the feed, "The next day, four men were killed by the worst wolf attack recorded in history. The two who survived are still in critical conditions"
"Where are those men now?" Superman asks. He now had some questions about his clone. And since he doubted the youngling wanted anything to do with him, he figured the men responsible would have answers.
"Still in critical condition" the Dark Knight repeated, "my guess is that they were cursed. The van was destroyed, but I managed to trace it back to where it came from"
He types in a few more keys before a familiar hourglass symbol appeared.
"CADMUS" Superman growls out, "I should've known. Luthor's been investing heavily into CADMUS' research for a few years now"
Batman raised an eyebrow at the Man of Steel. He was surprised that he knew where Luthor put his money.
"What?" Superman asks sheepishly, "I'm a reporter. It's my job to know these things"
The two looked at each other in silence before one asks the other, "Ms. Lane?"
Superman hung his head, smiling fondly, "Ms. Lane"
The Man of Steel suddenly perked his head up. He looks up into the distance, eyes narrowed and glowing slightly. But groaned slightly, the entire cave was lined with lead, making it impossible to see with his x-ray.
He turned to question where the Caped Crusader git so much led, he saw him looking in the same direction he was looking for a split second before breaking out of his trance.
"What did you hear?" Batman asks, sounding more aggressive than he wanted to. The Man of Steel could also hear that his heartbeat picked up slightly before going back to the nearly silent pattern he's use to hearing.
"Howling" Superman responded, "But there's something different about it. I think I should go check it-"
"GREAT TEA ON A SILVER PLATER" a British voice exclaimed behind the heroes, followed by the sound of dishes falling and breaking.
They turned to see an embarrassed Alfred holding a hand over his mouth, with broken dishes right in front of him.
"My apologies, gentlemen" the butler says, "I didn't know what came over me"
"That howling" Superman realised, "there was something different about it. You both felt something because of it"
"Can you track it?" Batman asks, rising from his chair.
"No. It only lasted for a few seconds" Superman frowns, "I couldn't pinpoint an exact location since I couldn't really...see it"
Batman silently scolded himself, slightly regretting reinforcing the cave with led.
"What are you going to do now?"
Superman remained silent for a moment. Batman thought he was tracking the howl with some secret Kryptonian power, but was proven wrong as he turns to glare at the screen. His eyes now red with anger.
"I'm going to have a talk with Lex" The Man of Steel says as he slowly floats towards the exit, "what he's done is inhumane"
Batman says nothing as he sat back in his chair. He looked back to the screen and typed in a new sequence.
A video feed of the son of Atlas fighting Darkseid appeared on screen, while a pop up screen displayed his DNA. Half of the strand was covered in what he could only explain as gold.
Another video feed appeared with a group of three literally appearing out of the shadows with a massive greek statue in toe. The DNA samples he collected in that one appeared the same as Viribus'.
Another feed showed a young man with raven black hair exiting the Hudson River without a single drop on him.
Another of a boy and a girl touching a wall with hieroglyphics, the symbols lighting up at their touch. Another of a girl transforming into a horse fly.
A few more feeds appeared on the screen, showing teenagers of all ages doing the impossible while being chased by massive animals and odd looking people all over the globe.
"Hmm" Batman narrows his eyes before condensing all the footage into one folder. He types in a new sequence, one he's used multiple time before getting up to go out on patrol.
Alfred, who was cleaning up his mess from earlier quickly starts protesting, "Master Bruce! What did we just discuss?!"
"FOLDER: DEMIGODS; UPDATING" the computer's A.I echoed through the now empty cave, "NOW RUNNING DATA THROUGH THE COUNTER MEASURES PROGRAM"
*DING!*
"TWO COUNTER MEASURES HAVE BEEN MADE"
*DING!*
"SEVEN COUNTER MEASURES HAVE BEEN MADE"
*DING!*
"THIRTEEN COUNTER MEASURES HAVE BEEN MADE"