The Hitchhikers guide to the Millma Verse
Note: As usual, I own nothing but the idea.
FanFiction/Twitter – The Millma Verse
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Note: I hope you've read the previous story, Kingdom Come, as this is a continuation of those 2 chapters. But if not, like all the Hitchhikers stories that came before, this world's plot will be easy to follow. And, if you thought Hitchhikers was being left out of our plans for Crisis, you are very wrong. I hope you enjoy (and apologies for the week's delay).
The Golden League Era
Kayla Lane was on Hero Earth, in their Sanctuary this time. She liked it here – well, on any worlds with Kryptonian Sanctuaries – as it was a home away from home. She could, of course, go to Prime and visit their still-living Krypton but preferred these Earthly places instead. In fact, she'd never actually set foot on Prime's Krypton, even if she had spent several months on their Earth covering their Kara's pregnancy.
Today, Kayla was being a bit of a tour guide – showing a small class of school children the Kryptonian Donkey habitat, amongst others. Or she had hoped.
She groaned when a portal appeared behind her, some of the school children gasping in shock or excitement as the familiar figure of Cisco appeared before them. On this world, kids were used to hero things going on anywhere and everywhere, so they weren't as shocked.
"Kayla, I need you!" Cisco stated, not even registering the class of children in front of Kayla or the Kryptonian Donkey habitat behind Kayla, who sighed at this
"One moment, kids – and you can pet the Bonkees, they don't hurt," Kayla stated in forced pleasantry to the kids, nodding to the teachers as she turned on her heel and grabbed Cisco, dragging him to the side and away from earshot. "Look, Junior, I love world hopping but a little warning next time – I'm teaching!"
"You teach?" Cisco paused at this, looking back at the kids in realization.
"Kara of this world asked me, well her son did anyway – he seemed to have double-booked," Kayla shrugged, "so can this wait?"
"How long will you be?" Cisco bit his lip at this.
"What's the rush?" Kayla paused. "It's not like any new worlds are going anywhere…"
"That's not quite true," Cisco sighed. "Lantern Earth is gone."
"Huh?" Kayla frowned at this. She knew of Lantern Earth of course. She had been on New Justice during the Nazi Invasion, after all.
"And so are Nazi Earth and SnowAllen! Something's happening to the multiverse and it's wiping out worlds. Lantern, SnowAllen and Nazi were part of a cluster and the only way to find out more about this is to visit another world in this cluster – I've located two that could be in the most danger and I have no idea if they're going to be wiped out today, tomorrow or next week. All I know, is that anti-matter is involved."
"Is this related to this Crisis thing?" Kayla asked. "The one that Monitor guy took loads of speedsters to talk about recently?"
"Has to be," Cisco nodded, solemnly. "Only the Monitor wasn't exactly forthright on what was going on according to my Barry. Prime Barry and New Justice Rae are–"
"Finding out more from the Speed Force, I know. You're not the only one who talks to the multiverse, don't forget," Kayla chuckled, looking back at the school group now who were petting the Bonkees. She groaned. "Urgh, Lyall's not going to be happy…"
"Lyall?" Cisco asked.
"My nephew – well, Kara's son here. Maybe Tora's free to take this over. His sister," she added this for Cisco's benefit as she turned on her heel, heading back to the school group.
-Hitchhikers-
The portal opened on the new world, to which Kayla and Cisco excited, but paused a second later at where they were.
"We're in the Fortress of Solitude?" Kayla turned to Cisco at this. "And I feel weak," she looked around, surprised – normally inside a Fortress of Solitude she still had her powers, but here she felt like she was back under the red sun domes of the Sanctuaries.
"I…?" Cisco frowned, just as the familiar robot of Kal-X came flying over to them.
"I did not detect a transport," Kal-X stated excitedly.
"Transport? We vibed here," Cisco pointed out to the robot.
"I wasn't informed that vibing worked from Elysium," Kal-X pointed out.
"Elysium?" Kayla frowned at the robot, then looked questioningly to Cisco, who shrugged.
"Kara Zor-El?" The robot stated, now looking to Kayla.
"No, but let's say yes for simplicity," Kayla chuckled, used to being confused with her twin by now.
"And Francisco Ramon," Kal-X turned its head to Cisco now, who glanced to Kayla. "Why have you returned to Earth at this time?"
"Returned to Earth?" Cisco paused at this.
"When did Kara – I mean, I – leave?" Kayla frowned at this, catching on quickly.
"Kara Zor-El left to Elysium 18 months ago," Kal-X stated, confusing both Cisco and Kayla even more. "She left with the meta humans for the new meta human home world, along with New Krypton and New Daxam. She sometimes come back. Mostly to see Diana, but I was not informed she would be coming today."
"Oh," Kayla frowned at the little robot, "I'm just visiting… do I need a reason?" it seemed unusual for Kal-X to be so persistent like this.
"No, however there is a battle ongoing within Metropolis between the Golden League and the Justice League," Kal-X stated. "Have you returned to assist?"
"There are two Leagues?" Kara looked back to Cisco at this, who looked still shocked.
"I didn't really look to this world before we came over – I was slightly too distracted by the destruction of the other worlds," Cisco defended.
"Kal-X," Kayla turned back with a sigh to face the robot. "Thank you for your assist; Cisco and I will head to Metropolis and check out this ongoing battle."
"Very well," Kal-X gave a small nod before retreating to where he'd come from.
"Okay," Kayla turned on Cisco again. "World deaths notwithstanding, I think a little bit of research wouldn't go amiss, next time!" She snapped, Cisco going pale at this. "But let's head to their Metropolis. See what we can do with these Leagues."
"We can't interfere," Cisco pointed out quickly.
"I had no intention to. Now come on," Kayla stated as Cisco nodded, opening up a new portal as the pair moved through.
-Hitchhikers-
Kal-X's mention of an ongoing battle had made Kayla think of something big, like New Justice's war of their own Justice League with the League of Assassins, or Prime's battle on Krypton she'd heard of, but she hadn't expected it to be so… small. Well, as small as a battle between a goddess and a few vigilantes could be.
Wonder Woman was alone in her fight, but was holding up well against a Cyborg, two male vigilantes and even Sara Lance. This confused both Kayla and Cisco, but they decided to hang back, watching from the top of the roof they'd landed on while Wonder Woman knocked down the two male vigilantes with one swing of her sword.
Sara had her bo staff out, but Diana whipped it out of her hands with her Lasso as Cyborg sent a blast at her, but using her gauntlets, Diana reflected the blast back at Cyborg, sending him flying.
"Retreat!" It was one of the male vigilantes who called this, already running away.
"I will not, Red Robin!" Sara called as she tried again against Diana, but the other vigilante jumped in.
"Now! Green Arrow demanded it!" The vigilante who wasn't Red Robin demanded, jumping on a bike himself.
"Nightwing…" Kayla could hear Sara growl at the other vigilante, but Cyborg had swept down to grab Sara. She stopped the Cyborg as Diana held her sword to Sara's throat now.
"I do not want to hurt you," Diana stated, her voice sympathetic as Sara glared at Wonder Woman.
"I know you won't," Sara replied. "We came here to stop Deathbolt, and ask, again, for you and your League to join with us," Sara stated coolly.
"The Golden League is everything the Justice League should be. What you are doing is wrong. You killed Deathbolt instead of imprisoning him. We do not kill," Diana stated.
"Killing the bad guys is the only way to stop them," Sara countered.
"Your ideals are flawed. Go now before I call for reinforcements to remove you from this city!" Diana hissed as Sara nodded to the cyborg, who picked her up and they flew off, out of the city.
Diana sighed now; Kayla saw that as her opportunity though and jumped from the building, landing with ease next to Diana, who was surprised at the Super's appearance.
"Kara?" Diana smiled though as she put away her sword and rehung her lasso to her belt. "You dyed your hair? It looks good."
"Actually, I'm not really, but… what was going on here?" Kayla asked confused by this show of affection. She got on well with a multiverse of Wonder Woman, but not this well.
"Urgh, White Canary and her cronies followed a rogue meta human to this city, they killed him before I could stop them… you saw the aftermath," Diana sighed.
"Why would they kill him?" Kayla asked, shocked – it seemed to be multiversal law that you never killed unless there was no other option, and surely three vigilantes and a cyborg was enough to stop a meta human without needing to kill them.
"Because they can… wait, you said you weren't really Kara…?" Diana frowned, just as a portal opened beside Kayla and Cisco came out. "Oh, hi Cisco," Diana nodded, and Cisco blushed at this.
"We're not from this world – or the apparent meta world," Kayla filled Diana in at this, who frowned now. "We're actually from the multiverse."
"Oh," Diana's eyes went wide at this.
"Yeah, there's a danger to the multiverse and I wanted to come here to see if there was anything that we could do…" Cisco said.
"Don't tell me the Justice League are going to expand their escapades to the multiverse?" Diana sighed.
"Yeah, see, usually the Justice League do good…" Cisco pointed out.
"Not this one. Not anymore… come on, I'll take you to Clark where we can talk," Diana smiled, jumping to the air as Kayla grabbed Cisco and followed her.
-Hitchhikers-
They landed in front of the the familiar building that was the Daily Planet, and Kayla couldn't help but smile as she recognised the familiar workplace of Clark Kent. She always enjoyed seeing her cousin – no matter what face he wore.
Entering the lobby, the image of 'Clark Kent – Editor in Chief' adorned the space behind reception, next to the familiar image of his predecessor, Perry White. This Clark though, didn't have the faces Kayla knew, but instead looked like someone else she knew well enough…
The multiverse was an unusual thing, Kayla had long since found out – one mutated strand of DNA meant someone familiar could look totally unrecognisable, or have different powers, or even be born with a twin; that was how come there were few Kaylas around but plenty of Karas. It was also the reason why the Kal-El she knew had at least three different faces, all familiar but none the same. That was why it wasn't a complete shock when Kayla saw a fourth variation on her cousin looking at them from the poster…
"Why is Ray Palmer posing as Clark?" Cisco whispered into Kayla's ear as they entered the elevator, Diana pressing the button for them to go up – it seemed regular to the people of Metropolis and the denizens of the Daily Planet to see superheroes in full costume wandering the streets and offices as no one seemed to bat an eyelid to the appearance of Wonder Woman and her two friends. Indeed, they waved pleasantly at her as the elevator doors closed.
"Clark is Editor-in-Chief?" Kayla, however, asked Diana once the trio were alone in the elevator.
"Yes," Diana stated simply.
"How did that happen?" Kayla couldn't help but ask. Clark was never one to look openly for promotion, and from what she knew of him, Perry White wouldn't give up his job in a hurry.
"Because everyone else died," Diana explained, a little sadly as Kayla took that in.
"What?" Kayla asked.
"The Joker. He thought it would be a fun trick to rig this building with toxic gas that killed everyone," Diana stated as Kayla and Cisco gasped, just as the elevator doors opened, to reveal the familiar open office. "Clark couldn't help any of them," Diana continued as they walked past cubicles and towards what was now Clark's office. "He went into isolation after that…" she knocked on the door.
"I saw you coming," came the familiar voice of, indeed, Ray Palmer, as Diana smirked and opened the door. "And I heard you explaining things – why do you need to tell Kara and Cisco history they already know? Well, I assume Cisco knows, he is good friends with Barry and Rachel, after all."
"We're not from this world," Kayla spoke up quickly, smirking at the man in glasses who sat behind the desk with a tablet in hand. She noticed many plaques on the walls; all former Daily Planet workers, all who must have died with Lois – her plaque was directly behind the desk, and significantly larger, Kayla noted.
"Interesting," this world's Clark stated, putting the tablet down and sitting up. Diana closed the door behind them before walking beside Clark.
"Hey, have you heard of a man called Ray Palmer?" Cisco, however, couldn't help but ask.
"Yeah sure. He's Atom in our Golden League," Clark smiled at this.
"Do you and he ever… I dunno… think you look alike?" Cisco asked.
"Me and Ray look alike?" Clark looked to Diana, who chortled at this. "I honestly don't see it."
"Really?" Cisco asked, genuinely surprised at the reaction.
"Shut up," Kayla hissed, stepping on Cisco's foot at this and causing Diana and Clark to laugh. "You mentioned a Golden League?" She looked to Diana.
"People who understand in our ideals," Diana stated as Clark stood and moved around the desk, changing the tag on the window of the closed door from 'free to talk' to 'do not disturb'.
"After the Joker's attack," Clark stated, moving back to the desk, and sitting on it, gesturing for Kayla and Cisco to sit in the guest chairs, "I went back to the Fortress of Solitude. I had been in the Justice League, well, what it was back then. I don't know how long I had been held up in my own sorrows, but Diana blew down the door one day and dragged me kicking and screaming back into the world."
"It needed to happen," Diana spoke up and Kayla had to smile at that, although still caught up in Lois's death. It was hard to image a world without Lois Lane.
"The Joker was killed by Batman," Clark sighed. "My old friend went against his own ideals to take vengeance on what couldn't have been controlled – but with Superman out of the picture, many more vigilantes entered the Justice League, and they lost their way."
"I had been back on Themscyria," Diana spoke up. "I returned to find a much different World of Man. I confronted Bruce, reminded him of what the Justice League once was, but before he could do anything, Bruce died, and Oliver Queen took leadership of the Justice League. I might have waited too long to get Clark back. Kara had landed after Clark left and I chose to take care of her in Clark's absence. I thought he would come back on his own, but when Kara and her husband left on their own, I knew I needed to get Clark back."
"Turns out this New Justice League liked what they had become and had the support of the government behind them," Clark added. "We couldn't stop Oliver or convince those in his League to return to the old ways so we did what we thought best – restarted our Justice League to counter theirs, to stop badness before they killed it."
"We had to give the world hope once more," Diana smiled. "Hope that the heroes of this world are there to protect them, not to control them."
"Even in the darkness, hope cuts through," Clark stated, smirking at this as Diana grinned at him.
"That's… wow," Kayla wasn't sure what else to say on this.
"That's how the Golden League was created," Clark nodded. "I came back to the Daily Planet, was offered the Editor-in-Chief position, and used that to spread positive information on the Golden League. It worked well."
"Got a Pulitzer for it too," Diana spoke up.
"Nice," Kayla smirked. "Well-deserved."
"Dare I ask about your world's Kara and Cisco?" Cisco asked, raising his hand like a schoolboy.
"What about them?" Clark turned his attention to Cisco now.
"Your little robot, Kal-X, said they lived off-world?" Cisco stated. "Elysium?"
"You've been in the Fortress?" Clark frowned at this.
"We arrived there," Kayla glared at Cisco at this, who reddened now. She looked back to Clark. "Why did I feel weak there?"
"Kryptonian tech," Clark stated simply. "When I went into seclusion, I wanted to feel human – it was nice to keep a place that made me feel that way. An even after I came back as Superman, I wanted that human connection, so I kept the tech on. I'm sorry it weakened you. I wasn't to know."
"It's fine," Kayla waved this off. "I'm used to it."
"You are?" Clark frowned at this.
"Urm, the metas?" Cisco spoke up, interrupting Kayla about to explain the Kryptonian Sanctuaries across the multiverse.
"Oh yes, Elysium… it's a long story." Clark started, looking to Diana at this.
"Our government had hundreds of meta human kids they said were unwanted by their families – forced them into military service to make up for raising them," Diana explained. "Rachel Garrick, Cisco, and many others were a part of that." Cisco eyes widen at that.
"When Rachel Garrick got injured, Barry and Kara managed to get to her. Showed her the truth of her life. She led the meta humans in a revolution," Diana continued. "They were actually fighting pretty well. Might have overtaken the government but then the Kryptonians and Daxamites showed up. The meta humans had captured an arc that Krypton sent with DNA samples from the government along with Superboy. In exchange for the DNA back they were offered to leave this world with them and have their own planet terraformed for them. They accepted and left."
"Aunt Alura gave me a teleport in case I needed it," Clark said. "It's how Kara comes back sometimes."
"Can I… go there?" Cisco asked.
"Hey!" Kayla cut him off. "We're here because of Crisis."
"Crisis?" Clark frowned at this.
"There's an event coming," Kayla informed him. "We don't know all the details yet, but three worlds in our multiverse have gone because of it – this world, and one more, are in danger."
"That's not good," Clark stood at this. "I think the Fortress would be the best place to find out more information – it looks like you can visit Elysium after all, Mr Ramon."
-Hitchhikers-
Cisco had vibed them to the Fortress this time – it saved on flying and using the key, after all – and none were surprised when Kal-X reappeared, only to be shooed away by Clark.
"Transport for Elysium is through there," Clark pointed to an archway that led deeper into the Fortress.
"I think you better wait on that," Kayla was the one to speak as Cisco had been about to move. "You know more about the multiverse than any of us, you should look into this destruction first."
"I don't even know how to use Kryptonian tech!" Cisco pointed out as Clark now stood at a podium which looked like something out of Star Trek.
"You know your Sci-fi though," Kayla pointed out as Cisco rolled his eyes, but it seemed Clark had taken the lead as he pushed a few buttons – suddenly a holographic figure appeared up before them. A familiar face.
"Uncle Jor!" Kayla grinned; at least her uncle's face wasn't different here.
"How may I help the Golden League today?" The man stated, looking between the four in front of him.
"Oh, we use this place as HQ for the Golden League," Clark quickly answered the questioning look from Kayla and Cisco. "Each member can transport in here. Anyway, dad," he turned his attention to the patient hologram. "Do you know anything about an upcoming Crisis of the multiverse?"
"No," Jor stated instantly. "While the multiverse has long-since been proven, a crisis involving the entirety of it is unknown."
"Well, that wasn't helpful," Cisco rolled his eyes but stopped at the look from the other three. "Sorry."
"How else may I be of help?" Jor asked pleasantly.
"You're the one who detected this," Kayla rounded on Cisco though, "you should know more about it!"
"Actually, yeah I do," Cisco stated, looking to Jor now a sudden spark of excitement behind his eyes. "Hi. Erm, Mr El… Can your programming detect anti-matter waves?"
"The Fortress of Solitude is equipped with the best technology Krypton had to offer at the time of its demise. It can detect all types of radiation throughout the known universe." Jor supplied.
"That's great, but can you detect anti-matter waves?" Cisco persisted now, focused.
"Yes. However, there are no unusual current traces of anti-matter detected," Jor stated.
"That's good then," Cisco stated, thoughtfully before noticing the looks. "Anti-matter is a thing that exists in all universes anyway – it's as regular as normal matter – but what destroyed Lantern and the others was excessive waves of anti-matter. Clark," he turned to Clark at this. "You use this place as base for the Golden League, you said?"
"That's right," Clark nodded.
"We have this system… it's how all the worlds in our multiverse interact… if I could install it in this Fortress, I could connect to the information Jor has and any sudden spikes in anti-matter would alert me to give you guys an early warning to… well, either protect your world or run," Cisco stated.
"We would never run," Diana spoke up.
"But if it comes to it…" Kayla voiced, thinking of her own past – she had chosen flight, rather than fight, and had lived to tell the tale.
"Where would we go?" Clark was the one to ask this.
"Any other world connected to our system, any world that is safe," Cisco stated.
"It sounds like a wise option," the hologram of Jor spoke up. "To protect the legacy of Krypton, to move to another world, if only temporarily, would be beneficial."
"But this world…" Clark spoke up.
"Save as many people as possible," Diana and Kara spoke as one, looking at one another, an understanding between the pair of them.
"So, can I set up?" Cisco asked. "Do you have any Earth tech interfaces?"
"Urm, dad?" Clark asked, the hologram giving a little smile as he looked to Cisco.
"We have Earth computers set up over there, I have integrated them into my own technology and will easily be able to adapt your own to keep you updated on the detection of anti-matter waves," Jor stated.
"Brilliant!" Cisco grinned, moving toward where Jor had pointed, extracting a familiar USB drive from his pocket at this.
"Thanks dad," Clark stated politely as the hologram nodded and disappeared.
"You certainly have shaken up the status quo of our world in the short time you've been here," Clark stated to Kayla, chuckling at this.
"Yeah, we tend to do that," Kayla stated, looking over at Cisco who was by a computer now. "I have to ask though… going back to the Justice and Golden Leagues… Well, you seem to have met some sort of stalemate?"
"Yes, well, while the Golden League is still standing, there's hope that those in the Justice League will see sense. And so long as the Daily Planet, with the help of CatCo, produce articles and features on the positives of the Golden League and negatives of what the Justice League do, then one day, maybe, the Justice League will be a thing of the past," Clark stated to this, a look of longing in his eyes now. "Maybe if we could clean up the government too. The support the Justice League has from the government had kept them going, after all."
"Well, I hope so too," Kayla stated. "Just… don't give up hope on those in the Justice League. Oliver Queen, Sara Lance… all of them, there is good there, they can do good. I know it's possible."
"I never give up hope," Clark stated, a steely look in his eye at this.
-Hitchhikers-
Kayla was back on Hero Earth. She hadn't been gone as long as she'd thought and had returned in enough time to re-join the class to show them their final animal, relieving Tora of the work – it had to be said that that girl, the daughter of Kara and the Kryptonian Da-Ver, was hot-headed and really wanted to do hero work, while her family were quite against it… but that was a story for another day.
Now though Kayla had taken the time to isolate herself and put the information on her latest expedition to the multiverse in her journal, now sitting in the Kang pen – an animal similar to Kangaroos, albeit with short ears, longer snouts and no pouch.
Something big is coming, Kayla stated, dramatically. Three worlds have been destroyed by what is being advertised as the biggest threat this universe has faced: Nazi Earth, Lantern Earth and SnowAllen Earth. Because of this, Cisco and I went to visit another world we thought was in danger, but so far it seems okay.
Clark looks like Ray Palmer there though, Kayla chuckled as she wrote this, although he doesn't see the resemblance. But there are two Leagues fighting against each other – the Justice League and the Golden League. The Justice League is the bad one though but has many familiar faces. It's sad, but maybe one day members like Oliver and Sara will see the light and stop killing baddies for the sake of it.
There's also a meta human world over there, called Elysium, that homes, well, meta humans – Cisco went there after returning me back to Hero – Rae is a leader there. Which isn't unusual. She has a robotic hand apparently, which is interesting. This is all according to the text I just got from Cisco, Kayla looked back at the phone now and laughed at the latest message. And now Cisco wants to call this world 'Kingdom Come' due to its familiarity to a comic he likes. I don't see why not.
She put the pen in her mouth to hold as she quickly replied to Cisco's text before turning her attention back to the journal.
This Crisis though… it sounds bad. I mean, three worlds already. Cisco didn't do research before we went to Kingdom Come, so I've told him to take some time before we go to the next world, but that will be in a few days. We need to find a way to get early alerts to anti-matter spikes, as that's the warning sign to Crisis. I wonder why though? What does anti-matter have to do with it all? I never was too into science back on Krypton. Oh well.
With a sigh, Kayla closed her journal and looked up. One of the Kangs was leaning over her now, seemingly reading what she had written, and it licked her face. She laughed as she stood.
"Hello you. Find Kingdom Come Interesting?" she asked the animal, who gave her a nod before hopping back to its own. "You know, I don't need a Kang but I could do with a pet …" she added to herself, a little more thoughtfully as she tucked the journal under her arm and headed to the exit of the enclosure, deciding to find Kara.
Post-chapter note 1: And that's it! I hope you enjoyed and I'm sorry we destroyed Nazi and SnowAllen too, but our Crisis will be different to the shows… heh. Also, as mentioned at the start, there's a 2-part prequel story to this, Kingdom Come, so please check it out and review if you haven't already.
As usual, for this story, please REVIEW.
Karry Beta and Master OUT!