Author's Note – I do not own any of the characters, Marvel and DC do.
I know this chapter is posted earlier than planned, but the next few are coming together quite well.

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Chapter Three

Activation

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"Morning dad! Hi, mum!" Chris chirped as he bounced into the kitchen. Pausing to switch the television to one of the news channels, he started to rummage around the cereal cupboard as Lara followed him in.

"Clark. Raven." She said as she speared an apple on one of her claws, pulling it out of the fruit bowl and taking a bite. "Heard you were having new team, Clark. Why Raven not on?"

-"…New Krypton has announced that the one-hundredth new Kryptonian baby was decanted from its artificial womb yesterday, effectively tripling the Kryptonian population of the solar system. The adoptive parents have stated that they are delighted…"-

"I'm a reserve member." Mystique explained, picking up her empty plate and placing it in the dishwasher. "But with Morph on the team, my skill-set is somewhat redundant, not to mention rather under-powered compared to his, so for now I'm staying as leader and… heh… den-mother of the Brotherhood."

-"…the floods affecting southern Japan are finally receding and the Henshin Rangers have been congratulated for their aid in the rescue efforts…"-

"Ah, had wondered." Lara said as Chris placed a bowl of cereal on the table and started to eat. Taking another bite, she sat down beside Chris and glanced at the television.

-"…Bishop Simon Theophilous of the Church of Humanity yesterday delivered a speech on the perils of uncontrolled enhanciles and the threat that they pose to humanity…"-

Lara snorted in disgust at the image of the man on the screen, then returned her attention to the apple, finishing it off with a dozen neat bites, then expertly throwing the core into the rubbish bin.

"Am getting ready for school." She said as she rose from her chair. "Not want be almost late… again."

"That wasn't my fault!" Chris protested. "I didn't intend for my super-speed to activate and send us to Genosha before I could stop… at least Blink was kind enough to teleport… us… back...?"

Chris tailed off as he saw his parents staring at him.

"Aheheheh… havefunatworkgottagotoschoolbye!" He blurted as he grabbed Lara and the duo vaished in a blur of movement. Clark stared at the empty door for another few seconds, then he turned to look at Raven.

"I'll call Marko later and get the story from him." She laughed. "So, you ready for your day?"

Clark nodded as he swallowed the last bite of food, then he carried the plate to the dishwasher before pulling Raven into a hug and kissing her.

"I'll probably be bringing a couple of them back for tea."

"That's nice." Martha said as she entered the kitchen. "It's always good having guests who appreciate fine food."

Clark laughed, then pulled his mother into the hug. "Morning mom."

"Good morning, Martha." Raven added as they released Martha and she smiled up at her son and daughter-in-law.

"Well, off you go." She said, making shooing motions with her hands. "Go save the world and all that. You can tell us about the perils you faced later."

"I can tell you now." Clark sighed. "Diplomatic meetings and paperwork. Oy."

"Then go and try not to start any wars or get too many paper-cuts." Martha giggled, earning an eye-roll before Clark vanished in a burst of super-speed.

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"So," Clark said as he took his seat at the midpoint of the hollow three-quarter-circle briefing/meeting table at which the rest of his team were waiting, "Welcome to the first official briefing of the Protectors."

The others smiled, nodded or otherwise indicated that they were paying attention and Clark touched a control on the touchscreen surface of the table. A holographic representation of the solar system appeared in front of them with a number of tags of varying colors connected by lines to the planets.

"What are we looking at?" Patriot asked and Clark tapped a couple more controls to highlight the tags as he spoke.

"The tags outlined in bright green are super-teams which are co-ordinated with SHIELD's assistance. The dark green are independent super-teams, those who have chosen not to take advantage of the offer of support. Red are known hostile teams or organisations while yellow are those who are a potential threat. Blue tags are countries, nations and so on while grey are organizations of interest. The faster the blink rate, the higher priority the watchgroup have assigned it."

"Not many blinking tags." Patriot noted as the hologram slowly rotated. "So… watchgroup?"

"SHIELD, mainly, although several other intelligence agencies have supplied some specialists to help. Wakandan Intelligence supplied an entire group of analysts to help sift through the gathered intel… T'Challa, if I didn't say it before, you have my thanks for that." Clark supplied. "SHIELD has plenty of experience in running threat-assessment groups, so I asked Fury for a favor and he said yes."

"I suppose that if you save the world enough times, they decide that they may as well pay you back." Guardsman joked, causing several of the others to chuckle.

"I've also contacted Governor-General Zod, King Odin and several others for any possible threats from outside out system." Clark continued, the holographic image of the solar system shrinking and making way for several pictures. "The three most likely threats are the Kree, the Skrull and the Shi-ar, in that order. Zod was kind enough to provide copies of the datafiles he brought with him.

"The Kree are a race of humanoids. They have a stratified society ruled by their pure-bloods who are primarily identified by their blue skin. They are ruled by a millenia-old artificial intelligence known as the Supreme Intelligence, a bio-computer that has incorporated the minds of some of their greatest figures. There's a Kree religion that claims that the Supreme Intelligence is a deity, how this religion came about is currenlty unknown to us. It is known that the Kree are in a near-constant state of low-level war with their galactic neighbors, the Skrulls.

"The Skrulls are shape-shifters, although they resemble green-skinned humanoids in their resting state. Due to the fact that the Kree attacked them, the Skrull responded by re-organizing their entire civilization to become highly militaristic. For centuries, they managed to hold their own against the Kree until their war was forcibly ended… by the Kryptonians who were tired of both sides trying to seize their technology.

"The Shi'ar are also a humanoid race, although they have what we would call avian ancestry. It's notable that the Shi'ar have managed to remain fairly neutral between the Kree and Skrull empires. Although the youngest of the empires, the Shi'ar Imperium is also the most technologically advanced, although some of their technology does suggest that they managed to reverse-engineer Kryptonian technology.

"The Shi'ar Imperium is actually a multi-species organisation with the Shi'ar generally acting as the linchpin that keeps it from fragmenting. Although it started off as a highly expansionist militaristic society, it has transitioned to being an economic co-operative with a strong military to protect it. As Krypton removed itself from intersteller affairs, it was the Shi'ar who took over as keepers of the peace, expanding to not only the areas Krypton had once controlled, but several of the dwarf galaxies nearby. Going to war against the Shi'ar is generally seen as a losing proposition."

The others were silent as they absorbed the information and Clark gave them a moment before triggering the next stage of the briefing.

"Other possible threats are many and varied. Gah Lak Tus, the world-eater, Brainiac, formerly of Krypton, the Eternals, the list goes on. Fortunately, it's a huge galaxy, so chances are that they'll never come here, but…"

Clark stopped as the briefing holograms blinked out to be replaced by a holoscreen showing a bearded man in dark blue bodysuit and a black trenchcoat stepping through a glowing portal hovering in the middle of a park. A moment later, another man joined him, this one clad in a black-and-grey bodysuit, his eyes covered by red goggles while his hood boasted batlike ears.

"…but inter-reality first contacts are our responsibility." He sighed, motioning for the others to join him as he rose to his feet. "Control, location of the new arrivals, please?"

The image shifted slightly and Sedara nodded.

"Washington monument. Everyone ready?"

Clark looked at his team. Patriot had un-slung his shield while Morph had turned into a young Japanese girl. As Clark raised an eyebrow in query, Morph was suddenly encased in a very familiar transparent articulated force-field.

"Morph, Guardsman and I take the front." Clark stated. "Patriot, Black Panther, go wide and flank them. If they try to attack us, take them down from behind. Sedara, stay back with Lady Briton, use your portals to contain the fight if it comes to that. Briton, empathic scans, but don't try anything intrusive yet. We don't know if they're telepathic and I don't want you struck down because you pushed too hard. Sedara… do it."

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"Why are we even bothering with this? We could have simply destroyed the machine."

"Patience, Batman." The trench-coated figure replied calmly. "And look around you. The people here are watching, but not running. They don't look scared, merely… cautious. We could learn a great deal from this place."

"While Metropolis remains unprotected." Batman grumbled. "Superman! Look!"

"I see it." Superman replied as a rectangular energy field flashed into existence less than fifty meters away. As they watched, seven people almost erupted from the energy plane, two of them breaking off to circle round while two others stayed where they had appeared, the odd doorway vanishing behind them. The other three walked forwards and Superman raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Odd, the middle one… he looks a bit like Jor-El from the records…"

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"We gotta change channel!" Bobby shouted as he sprinted into the main entertainment room of the Xavier Institute. "Clark's on!"

Grabbing the remote he switched to the news and everyone turned as the reporter spoke.

"…and here comes the team led by Clark Kent, here to make contact with these new arrivals. Who the two new people are, we still don't know, but with Superman here with his team on their first true mission together, the strangers obviously do not pose a threat any more."

"Whoo!" Jubilation Lee cheered. "Go Clarkie!"

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"Interesting. It would appear that their leader is named Superman too."

"And how the heck did you work that out?" Batman growled as he turned, trying to keep the shield-bearer in view.

"News reporter over there." Superman replied. "Cute thing, reminds me somewhat of Miss Lane. Stay by the portal, I'll go and talk to my counterpart."

"Dammit, Hernan!" Batman snapped as the Kryptonian flew forwards.

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"Okay, stay here." Clark said quietly. "It would seem that he's an alternate me and wants to talk one-on-one. Incidentally, the one with him is Batman."

"Another mixed-up world." Morph sighed as he dismissed his protective armor and shifted into Cyclops' form, the comm-device projecting an energy screen to restrain his constant optic blasts, then he shifted again into Storm's form. Seeing Guardsman looking at him quizzically, he gave an embarrassed shrug.

"Forgot for a moment that Kryptonians aren't affected by direct X-gene powers." (s)he explained sheepishly. "However, enough lightning can stop anything."

"Ah."

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Superman blinked as the Japanese girl turned into a taller man, then into the form of a white-haired dark-skinned woman even as his counterpart flew forwards to meet him. Landing gently, he waited for the caped man to land before him.

"Welcome to planet Earth, Reality-stream Alpha." The caped Superman said. "I am Superman, also called Kal-El or Clark Kent. May I know your name, unless you have a secret identity to maintain?"

"You may call me Hernan." The bearded Superman replied. "You chose to reveal your name to the world?"

"I was outed by someone seeking to turn public opinion against me." Clark shrugged. "It backfired on them quite spectacularly. The school I occasionally teach at more than doubled in size."

"And this is your team?" Hernan asked, looking round.

"We call ourselves the Protectors." Clark supplied. "We're one of many dozens of teams in the solar system, we often train together and back each other up. We even share a centralized emergency response center to help us do our work more efficiently."

"Interesting." Hernan mused. "Batman and I were about to try and recruit some heroes to rebuild and expand our Justice League after Wonder Woman returned to New Genesis to sort out certain issues she had with her grandfather."

Clark blinked. "Wait. What? Okay, I can see we'll need a new designation for your reality-cluster, because what you just said does not sound like a normal Justice League reality."

"…normal?"

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Author's Afternote – Hernan is from an official DC Elseworlds, 9Justice League: Gods And Monsters) but his Batman is not Bruce Wayne, but rather Kirk Langstrom while Wonder Woman is Bekka, one of the New Gods.
The Protectors needed a nice, easy mission to start with. Harder missions will come…