A-Trains' eyes were glued to his phone as he constantly refreshed the page. The search page had two words, "Stormfront" and "Nazi" and none of the desired results. The only news he saw regarding his Nazi ex-teammate was that she got her ass kicked by two supe terrorists. Scratch that, she and Homelander were beaten. That was the major takeaway in this. While the idea of Stormfront and Homelander getting their asses kicked was cathartic to A-Train, that was not what he wanted. As long as Stormfront was alive, he had no chance of getting back into the Seven. He tried to think of a reason as to why Hughie and Starlight haven't leaked his findings regarding Stormfront to the press.
"What the fuck, Campbell?" He angrily muttered to himself.
Were they dead? He would have expected to see news regarding that, but Homelander getting his ass kicked would drown that out.
He heard someone open his door, and saw that it was The Deep.
"Hey." The Deep greeted.
A-Train faked a smile at his former teammate.
"You saw the news regarding Homelander, right?" The Deep asked him.
"No? What?" A-Train asked, his interest actually piqued.
"You heard about that other team that stopped those terrorists?" The Deep asked. "The terrorists that beat Homelander and Stormfront."
"What team?" A-Train asked, sounding genuinely surprised. He had only read that Homelander was defeated, and that was it.
"They called themselves the Justice League of America. Look it up." The Deep explained.
A-Train obliged and saw that his idiot cohort was telling the truth.
"I was thinking that we could join them. Because the Seven is pretty much Homelander, and after that, we can tell Vought doesn't want Homelander." The Deep informed A-Train of his plan.
A-Train looked at the Deep incredulously.
"You really think Edgar wants to get rid of Homelander?" A-Train questioned him.
"Yeah. I mean, you really think Edgar didn't have a plan for Homelander?." The Deep looked around and started to whisper confidently. "They clearly hired these guys to get rid of him. We should join them." He added. "Their name doesn't have a number, so there's more space to join them."
A-Train pondered The Deep's theory. On one hand, it sounded utterly ridiculous. If Vought had someone stronger than Homelander, why wouldn't they use them in the first place? However, if the Seven, was at risk of being phased out then perhaps he'd need to find a new wagon to hitch on. A new opportunity and a chance to wipe away his debt.
"Sounds like a good idea." A-Train said with a smile on his face. A conceited one, unbeknown to the Deep.
"I don't think the kid is with any of them." Butcher told Becca.
"Goddammit." Becca muttered as tears slowly poured from her eyes from stress and frustration.
Billy looked at his wife, concerned.
"It'll be alright. He'll pop up somewhere." Butcher said.
Butcher took note of her grief. He had never seen Becca so emotional during their time together. Despite the horrible circumstances of his conception, she clearly loved the kid. He felt a part of himself regret his deal with Edgar. While the rest of him tried to snuff that out to no avail.
"You told me there are cities that don't even exist. We are in one of them right now." Becca told him.
"I know. Becca, look at me. We no longer have to worry about that cunt looming down on us." Butcher told him. "We are safer here." He added.
While he did not trust any of the supes here, he decided that old saying "Better the devil you know…" was not an option.
That was until he heard screams not far from them. A crowd of people was running towards them… No running away from something. Butcher threw his wife and himself out of the path of the stampeding crowd.
They landed in the bushes. After the crowd ran past them. Butcher looked up and saw what caused them to run.
It was a monster that had no skin, but rather muscles. Muscles that were oddly enough purple. There were also solid white lines around his body that mimicked a leotard. The creatures' eyes were small and pitch black. Its teeth looked like that of a lamprey. In its hands was a young man struggling to escape its grip. The monster's hand began to glow as Butcher saw the man dissolve into a lifeless husk before his very eyes.
"We need to move, now." Butcher whispered to his wife.
They began to crawl away from the monster. Until they saw a shadow loom over them.
They looked around and saw the creature standing over them. They both grabbed their pistols and shot the creature to no avail as it appeared to be bulletproof.
"I need more." It told the couple as it reached out to grab them.
Suddenly, a cold, strong gust of wind instantly froze the monster into a block of ice. Almost instantly, Billy and Becca were in the air, slung over the shoulder of their rescuer. She appeared to be female, judging by her long, blonde hair. She had a cape resembling Superman's with a golden logo that matched it.
"It's okay. I got you." She told them, trying to calm them down.
"Put us down!" Butcher demanded.
They were put on the ground and got a better look at her. She appeared to be in the same age range as Hughie and Annie. She wore a blue long-sleeve shirt and a red skirt that reached her knees and matched her thigh-high boots. Her eyes were a unique shade of blue. She was wearing the same symbol as Superman did. Her cape differed as there appeared to be a golden trim on the sides. Butcher's attitude seemed to do little to aggravate her, judging by the expression on her face.
Butcher overheard the civilians commentating on what was happening. There he heard that the young woman was known as "Supergirl."
Supergirl fired a beam of heat vision at a nearby lamp pole and grabbed it before it fell. She flew back to the park with her improvised weapon in hand.
"What just happened?" Becca asked her husband.
Supergirl flew back to where the Parasite had been frozen and saw that he had just managed to break out of the ice.
"Jones, make this easier for yourself and surrender." She sternly told him as she flew above him.
"The power of the sun, just what I need!" Jones roared as he stared at Supergirl with starved eyes
"Sorry, but I think you've had your fill!" Kara replied before hitting him with the lamp pole. Knocking him back a couple yards.
However, the Parasite was far from a pushover and swatted at her next attempt. Knocking the pole out of her hand. He leaped into the air after Supergirl, but she dodged him. Knowing Parasites' powers, Kara decided to forgo physically hitting him. As well as using her heat vision in case he managed to absorb it. Instead, she blew a gust of air to send him down faster. The Parasite made a small impact crater when he landed before getting up. He let out a roar of anger before grabbing the solid rock beneath his feet and throwing it at her. However, the rock missed Kara, but soon Kara saw where it was heading towards a nearby building. Kara flew towards the rock and caught it. It was there when Kara saw why he threw the rock. The Parasite tackled Kara by jumping through the rock and managed to grab her. Slowly, Kara felt her powers slipping away as The Parasites' grip tightened and grew stronger. Thinking fast, Kara, headbutts Jones, causing him to let go of her. His hands go to his forehead to ease his pain before he is punched up in the air. The Parasite landed in the park.
Kara looked around to use something against Jones until she saw it was not that far from her. An idea began to hatch. Supergirl flew up in the air, and, sure enough, Jones did as well. She estimated that he would only be able to fly for a minute, considering he only managed to grab her for a couple seconds. Jones began to chase after Supergirl. She flew above the skyscrapers to keep him from destroying any property. All while keeping count at the forty-second mark, Kara descended to where she planned. Jones followed her, but soon found out the hard way when he landed on the freshly laid asphalt. Supergirl used her heat vision to further liquify it at his feet, submerging his ankles. Parasite roared in pain, but soon found he could not break free. As Kara used her cold breath to freeze it entirely. Parasite tried to break free, but was losing energy fast. Not a moment later, the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit arrived to detain him.
Mother's Milk saw Star City's airport, which looked fairly advanced despite the littering and graffiti. He was on his way when he heard someone say.
"Hey, man, can ya hand me a dollar." Said a young man in trashed clothes.
"Sorry, I don't have change." He answered.
"The guy asked nicely." Another one said, and three more came along. "What's your problem, don't you have any social conscience?"
"Nice backpack he got there."
They started to surround MM, but before doing anything, he punched the nearest one on the chin and fell instantly, spitting blood. Two jumped on his back as the punched thug got up.
"Heer cruacked ma' fuckling teef!" He barely said, spitting blood. "Fuck, ma' tlongue!"
MM was overpowered, three guys over him holding him down, the wounded thug grabbed a piece of wood from the floor and was ready to bash against MM's head. Suddenly, the piece of wood flew out of his hand. It was stuck on a wall with a green arrow.
"Aw, gar jammit!" He said as he realized what was about to happen.
An arrow with a cylindrical head hit the criminal on the cheek and he was knocked out. MM looked up, and there was Star City's hero, the Green Arrow. Wearing a hat just like Robin Hood's, wearing tights and boots of two colors, green and darker green, the man with a blonde goatee shot an arrow on the ground and ziplined down as the three thugs tried to run. The Green Arrow let off the zipline and, before his feet touched the ground, shot three arrows simultaneously and knocked them all out. The Green Arrow gave his hand to MM to get up, he reluctantly accepted.
"Thanks." MM said as he measured the Green Arrow. "How the fuck doesn't his hat falls off?" MM thought.
"Just so you know, Star City is usually nicer to people new in town." The Green Arrow started to collect from the ground the arrows he shot. "People don't realize how much these cost. I'm not made of money. Look at these." Green Arrow took one of his arrows from his quiver and gave it to MM. "Does this look cheap?"
"Hm, no." MM said, sort of weirded out by the behavior. "Hold on, how do you know I'm new in town."
"You're carrying a backpack, and one could easily assume you're coming from the airport." The arrow MM held shot gas into his face causing him to pass out. "Also, the League sent me the profile of some wanted criminals from your Earth." The Green Arrow takes his arrow back from MM's hand. "Works every time." He stated proudly.
Leaving the Flash Museum, Annie told Hughie.
"I don't like this. I don't trust Butcher. He acts like he knows it all, but he's just as clueless as us."
"Hey," Hughie held Annie's arms. "I know it's weird and scary, but we just need to stay alive. You saw the museum; they have all sorts of portals here. We're going home and…"
Hughie felt a sudden hit of wind against his face, less than a second, and noticed some speed blur taking Annie away. He immediately heard a motorcycle crashing where Annie had been standing.
"Annie…" Hughie stared at his hands as if he expected to find himself still holding her arms.
"Hey." Somebody patchedHughie's shoulder, and he saw a young speedster wearing yellow next to Annie. "Your girlfriend nearly got hit. You're welcome."
"Second Kid-Flash, original Impulse." Answered a disturbed Hughie.
"Cool, you paid attention to the tour."
Hughie felt a lasso around his body and was pulled to the museum's roof. There he sees other civilians and Annie is brought to him by Kid-Flash at super-speed. A young blonde supe in red used her lasso on him.
"Stay here. We need names and identities afterward to be sure everybody is safe."
The two superheroes left the roof and started a fight against a group of supervillains, each wearing rainbow colors.
"Fuck me." Remarked Annie.
Back in Gotham City, Frenchie and Kimiko had managed to find a forger. He was Italian-American and had a rather large nose. Frenchie thought he looked familiar, but that was not important at the moment. He looked relatively young, probably at most thirty years old, and because of this, Frenchie realized he was being scammed. Namely because of their pictures.
"What do you mean this I'm trying to scam you?!" The forger defended himself.
"In what way does this resemble nous?" Frenchie asked, completely irritated.
He showed the guy their fake IDs. Frenchie looked to be completely bald.
"So what? Just shave your fucking head!" The forger told him.
"What about her?" Frenchie said, showing him Kimiko's ID.
Her image had hair, albeit much bushier.
"Take her to a salon or somethin'!" The man told him.
"I'm not paying for this merde.." Frenchie said.
He pulled out his gun.
"You'd better reconsider, Pierre." He told Frenchie.
Kimiko stepped in quickly, knocking the gun out of the forgers' hand before lifting him in the air, and pinning him against the wall. All with one arm.
"Jesus Christ!" The man yelled in terror.
"Now, what were you going to do?" Frenchie coyly questioned him.
"I'm sorry, man, I don't wanna fuck with a meta!"
"A what?" Frenchie asked, confused with the terminology.
"A meta? Y'know, the chick has powers."
"Don't you mean a supe? As in super-abled?"
"What? No, meta, as in meta-human."
Frenchie smiled and put out a notepad and took notes.
"It's incroyable." Frenchie said as he wrote this new piece of information. "Now, about those ID's." Kimiko started pressing the forger tighter against the wall.
"Alright! Alright! I can get you a better ID at my apartment! It's just upstairs! Just put me down!" He pleaded.
"Bien, put him down, mon coeur." Frenchie told Kimiko, which she obliged.
The man fixed his collar angrily, muttering under his breath for a bit as Frenchie and Kimiko followed him. Said apartment looked just about as dirty as they paint on the walls looked chipping, the wood looked old, and a pungent aroma was in the air. Frenchie took notice of a door to his right. It looked to be about three to four stories high.
"Hey! Don't go in there! We got a resident who doesn't like to be disturbed." The forger told him.
Frenchie took note of what he had said. Sounded something a supe used. He turned to Kimiko.
"Plus tard." He whispered into her ear. She nodded.
The forger lived on the top floor.
"I just want to make it clear. None of you are with the Bat, right?" The forger questioned him.
"No, fuck Batman." Frenchie told him.
"Good, that's what I like to hear. Cocksucker threw my uncle in Blackgate for twenty years when he first started out. Ruined everythin' by taking out Falcone and Maroni! Now you got freaks like The Joker runnin' around cause of him!" The Forger told them, his anger was palpable.
"The IDs." Frenchie said.
"Yeah, whatever. Come inside." The Forger told them.
Like everything else in the apartment. It was filthy with clothing strewn everywhere. As well as, a couple of beer cans scattered around the floor. It took some time, but the Forger managed to get them what they needed.
"That's about five hundred dollars." The Forger said.
Frenchie handed him a wad of cash. He looked through it earlier before meeting with the man. He assumed his wallet was loaded with cash like the others. Frenchie actually took the time and was surprised to see that it had 10 hundreds, 8 fifties, 15 twenties, and 20 tens.
Frenchie and Kimiko left the guys apartment and headed downstairs. That was when Frenchie took note of the door that the forger told him. He hoped that the resident of said apartment was a supe enacting some distrubed fantasy. A fantasy he could exploit as per usual. When he tried to open the door it was locked.
"Kimi." He told Kimiko who walked over to him.
She tore through the door as though it were plywood and saw that there were a set of steps. They walked down the steps and a sound echoed. As they got closer it sounded like singing. An operatic duet from the sounds of it. They got to the door and realized the other voice was singing along to a recording, albeit offkey. Kimiko opened the door and the singing was interrupted by a squeal. Frenchie looked at the perpetrator. He was a large, rotund man wearing a pig mask holding a bloody knife. He wore a buttoned shirt stained with blood and a red bow tie with a black apron covering it.
The entire room looked like the set piece of a horror movie, with the tile floor covered in grime and blood. Up on the ceiling were cages with plenty of would-be victims hanging on for dear life. Their skin was pale and the hair on some began to grow white. All of their eyes were stained by frightened tears. In the center of the room was the poor unfortunate victim, whose entire body was covered in stitches. Attached to their face was a porcelain doll mask. Frenchie looked at this, his eyes completely open. He was expecting to find something depraved, but he was not expecting this.
Professor Pyg let out a snort.
"Pyg can fix you." He told Frenchie and Kimiko while brandishing. "Pyg can make you perfect." He added.
Suddenly, Frenchie was grabbed by more doll mask-wearing individuals. He screamed as he tried to break free. Kimiko freed herself quickly. She snapped the neck of one before punching a hole through the stomach of the other.
Pyg cried out in despair at the loss of his two dollotrons. He ran over to their corpses, cradling them in his arms like a parent would their own child.
"Get them!" He ordered the rest.
Frenchie and Kimiko went up the stairs, not even looking back. Frenchie reasoned the Police would discover this in no time.
Homelander stood in front of the mirror, looking at his chest. The wound was extensive, every time he touched it, something weird happened… pain. It was the first time he had ever felt that in his entire life. He stared with anger and resentment. His lips were shaking, as if he was about to cry, when he was interrupted by Ashley opening the door and immediately taking the extra suit next to him.
"What?"Asked Homelander.
"You better come outside. Those guys are in front of the Seven's Tower."
"Who?"
The Justice League of America hovered above the Seven's Tower, blurred by the sun and standing almost majestically over the corporate building. Batman, Aquaman, and the Flash stood upon a base made of green energy. Once Homealnder is reunited with Queen Maeve and Stormfront on the rooftop, they land in front of them.
"We apologize for any disturbance." Says Wonder Woman. "We don't mean any form of disrespect against your Earth's rules. We'd just like to have a meeting."
Homelander measured Superman, almost laughing at his suit "My number one fan apparently." he thought. Batman seemingly created an uncomfortable atmosphere of intimidation against all of them. Yet, this moment was broken when Ashley loudly answered Diana.
"Sure! Mr. Edgar already authorized a meeting the moment we saw your footage, very impressive! Please come in."
The Justice League and the Seven are sitting at the main table altogether. Homelander was the only one standing, his hands behind his cape, looking on edge. Wonder Woman informed the Seven.
"We understand you all must have lots of questions."
"Just one." Replied Homelander. "Where is my son?" He added in an authoritarian tone of voice.
Hearing that, the Martian Manhunter apologized.
"We did not know that was your child, I apologize. I don't usually make mental varredures in these sorts of situations. The crowds seem to find it quite intrusive..."
"You know what I find intrusive?" Interrupted Stormfront. "A flash popping in my head while I'm passed out. I already know what Ryan looks like, thank you very much. Now, you heard Homelander, where is Ryan?"
Superman decided to join in the conversation.
"We don't know. I'm very sorry, but that's the truth. I can perfectly understand why you're concerned, but the threats we might face in this reality are still unknown. We want to earn your trust, and…"
"Who the fuck are you guys?" Maeve questioned. "No, everybody is concerned about this kid, but I want to know about the crazy devil-thing that showed up. What was that? And the magician, and Homelander being defeated, tell me, what the fuck was all that? Who the fuck are you, and why have we never heard of any of you."
Silence took the room, just for a few seconds.
"We are the Justice League of America." The Batman spoke. "We are the main group and five out of seven founding members of the Justice League Unlimited, a private global defense initiative extending to Justice League International, Justice League Dark, Justice League Europe, Batman Incorporated, and Young Justice. We protect the world against any super-powered threat regardless of origin. I'm Batman, and these are Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter. I'll assume I don't have to say who is who."
"And how exactly we never heard of any of you?" Homelander asked.
"Because we come from an alternative Earth in the multiverse, 'Earth-One' you may call it."
"That's a whole load of bullcrap." Mocked Maeve. "You expect us to believe this. Stop playing. Can you tell me how they hurt Homelander…"
"You least know what happened to him?"
As Homelander interrupted, Batman noticed something interesting. It seemed like he was motivated by the subject of his defeat being brought up. Batman could see microexpressions of shame the moment Queen Maeve said the words "...he hurt Homelander…". Stan Edgar interrupted the meeting.
"That's enough. I heard enough. Homelander, Stormfront, and Queen Maeve, please, you are all excused. This is clearly a fabricated story and a waste of time."
"You would know about fabricating stories, wouldn't you?" Pronounced Superman as he got up and confronted Edgar. "Biggest man in the world leading the biggest company doesn't even need superpowers, right?" Superman crossed his arms, and Edgar could feel a sense of familiarity when Superman spoke.
"Do I know you?"
"Close enough."
"I really liked Breaking Bad." Said the Flash, and the whole room got awkward. "You know, because he looks like Gus. Have you seen that statue on the outside? Looks just like that dude from Supernatural, like, wow… I'm sorry, guys, can we just show them the portal and finish this?"
Batman pressed a button on his belt, and a vast portal opened right in the middle of the Seven's conference room, as if the room expanded to the other side of the portal, which looked like a space station. Edgar recomposed his posture as it seemed he was wrong. Homelander is the first to walk through the portal carelessly, followed by Stormfront. Superman announced to Maeve, Ashley, and Edgar.
"Please, you're all welcome. It's safe. We usually travel with teleportation, but we agreed it would disturb you."
Once inside, all the visitors looked around, trying to find how they made what looked like something too sophisticated for their movies. Ashley gasped, as she saw Earth through the window.
"We're in space." She says.
"Not your space, sorry." Replies Flash. "That is our home. It's Earth-One. You're in our universe."
Batman comes to them with a man wearing a blue and red uniform with an atomic symbol on the suit's forehead."Now that we proved our story, meet the Atom. He's the man who's going to wake up Black Noir." He said.