Four years ago, Radiation Lab 1, Lexcorp research facility, on a world far away…
Lex Luthor turned the key, and popped the latch of the lead-lined case delivered from The White Portuguese. A green glow filled the room and washed across Lex's skin like a wave of ecstasy. The green crystals made him practically giddy, and yet, they also brought a sense of melancholy over the room.
"It's almost a shame…" He whispered as he removed the largest chunk from its' foam-lined home. "My weapon of deliverance finally arrives after our potential foe has been vanquished at someone else's hands."
The harsh, even lighting of the lab flickered, and switched off, replaced by red emergency lighting that left shadows in practically every corner of the room.
"Seems a little convenient for you, regardless." A deep, gruff voice growled from the shadows.
Luthor dropped the crystal back into the case, and turned frantically to find the source of the voice.
"How the hell did you get in here?" Lex demanded as he ripped off his jacket and assumed a fighting stance.
"You know how." The Dark Knight snarled as he appeared to grow out from the shadows like a creature of pure darkness.
Lex shouted a loud kiai as he stepped in and whipped a vicious spinning back kick at Batman.
The Dark Knight glided through the shadows of the lab into the arc of the kick, and grabbed Lex's leg as though it were handed to him. The monstrous Caped Crusader slung Lex over his shoulder by his leg alone, and slammed him chest-first into the lab's floor. Lex barely had a chance to turn his head before he made contact with the tile. The impact knocked the air out of his lungs, even as he forced himself to expel the air, and would've shattered his teeth if he hadn't turned his head. As it stood, his ribs were bruised, if not cracked or broken.
Batman turned Luthor onto his back, and straddled his chest, rolling one knee on the billionaire's left arm, and stomping on the other with his right boot.
"A Lexcorp research team just happens to wake up a creature capable of killing Superman. S.T.A.R. Labs ran the genome, and it came back as Kryptonian in origin." Batman said coldly as he withdrew something from his utility belt with machine precision, and fitted it onto his right glove. "Then you expedite a delivery of Kryptonite from India right before his boys put on the capes. It doesn't take someone like me to say that might be just a little bit convenient."
"Despite appearances," Lex said between labored breaths. "I didn't have anything to do with that creature. It demolished my upstate facility, and wreaked havoc on Metropolis. Given the choice, I very much would have rather it stayed asleep! The Kryptonite is merely insurance, Batman! You should be familiar with the concept. Humanity will have to stand against the next General Zod alone. We can't rely on a man of steel to snap his neck this time."
Batman growled in disgust at Luthor's evasions, and punched Luthor in the forehead, hard. Luthor felt a hard metal object, bite into his skin, but gritted his teeth, and only let out a sharp hiss in response.
"Consider this a warning." The caped crusader said in a harsh whisper. "If you even think about harming a hair on those boy's heads, I'll break every bone in your body."
Batman stood up, and melted back into the shadows.
Lex stood up, and scanned the room.
Batman was nowhere to be found.
He rubbed his forehead, and limped to a mirror. In his reflection, he saw that the object Batman had put on his glove had been a knuckle-duster molded into the shape of the Bat emblem on his chest.
"It'll fade over time." Batman said from the shadows. "Consider yourself lucky. Next time, I'll bring a blowtorch."
The lights flicked back on, and Batman was gone.
Four years later, at Arkham Asylum
Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon met Batman and Superman at the admittance entrance of the hospital. Batman had both Joker and Quinzell bound to gurneys and muzzled, then loaded into the back of a heavy-duty prisoner transport van, much to the dismay of the two clowns, who struggled and made muffled sounds of vicious protest.
"Where'd you find them?" Gordon asked as Superman and Batman unloaded the two clowns from the van.
"They tried pulling an armored car heist with John Corbyn." Superman said as he lifted Joker from the van, and passed the gurney off to an orderly, as Batman did the same with Quinzell.
Gordon let out a whistle.
"That's bold even for the Joker." He said. "Haven't seen them do something like that since…" Gordon trailed off, leaving the implication in the air.
Superman smirked.
"Since the last time I was away?" He asked, finishing Gordon's thought.
Gordon nodded.
"I think you're the only one who's capable of describing his own death in such casual terms." Gordon replied. "Some of the toughest guys I know are still brought to tears by what happened."
Superman shrugged casually as Joker and Quinzell were led away into Arkham in the background.
"I guess I'm just the eternal optimist." Kal replied. "Maybe if I'm casual about it, everyone else will feel a little better."
"So where were you?" Gordon asked. "Last I heard, the Justice League was fighting some squid monster, and then you and it vanished."
"It pulled us through to a different world." Superman said. "Not just one of the ones we know about, an entirely different Earth."
Gordon's eyebrows raised curiously.
"A different Earth?" He asked. "Like what? Alternate versions of you guys, the president, me?"
Superman shrugged.
"Not really." He said. "More like the same general planet, some people like us, but a completely different scene. Evil heroes run amok, vigilantes and government agents fighting them, fake and real supervillains, and villains pretending to be heroes. It didn't look good over there… But I'm planning on going back."
"Let us know before you leave." Gordon said. "It'll give us some time to prepare."
Superman nodded as he hovered a few inches above the ground, and Batman boarded the Batmobile.
"You can count on it, commissioner!" Superman said, before he and Batman departed for the Watchtower.
The Flatiron Building, on a world far away…
Hughie looked up the stairs to the roof as Billy took off into the sky with a snap as Kimiko flipped through the channels on the television one by one, until she found a channel with static.
She motioned at Frenchie to do something about it.
"What do you expect me to do?" Frenchie asked as Hughie tapped his foot on the floor with the speed of a metronome at a Dragonforce concert.
"What you did with the door!" She signed to him.
Frenchie shrugged.
"I do not know how I did that!" He protested.
"Figure it out, please?" Kimiko asked.
Frenchie sighed, and lamented as he gave Kimiko's hair a tussle, and she clapped her hands in celebration.
As Hughie's foot-tapping threatened to wear a hole in the floor, he contemplated what to do… Until he concluded that he also needed to see his dad.
"I'm heading out, too." Hughie said as he walked over to the elevator and pushed the call button.
"And where the hell are you going?" Marvin asked.
"To see my dad." Hughie said. "I haven't seen him… Since the mission. Since before Superman left. He's probably worried sick."
Marvin sighed, then looked at Frenchie and Kimiko, then dug in his pocket for the keys to the van.
"Alright, I'll drop you off, as long as these two," Marvin said, gesturing to Frenchie and Kimiko as Frenchie tinkered with the cable box attached to the television. "Can stay out of trouble while we're away."
"No need." Hughie said as the elevator dinged, and the doors opened. "I'll be back in a flash."
Before the trio could react, Hughie was in the elevator, and the doors closed.
Marvin let his keys drop back into his pocket, and turned around with an exasperated sigh as Frenchie punched a number combination into the cable box, and Kimiko's face lit up as the television static flickered and disappeared, replaced with the face of James Gandolfini.
"What the hell are you doing?" Marvin demanded.
Frenchie looked around sheepishly as Kimiko pulled him in for a tight hug.
"She wanted to see what was on the television." He replied. "Now we have free HBO."
Marvin groaned, and rolled his eyes in contempt.
While in the elevator, Hughie punched his address into Google Maps, and plotted the best courses on foot, and by car, just in case.
This is either going to be really fun, or really scary… Hughie thought to himself. Guess it's best to take it… Relatively slow.
When he'd run around earlier, he's gone… Slowly. He'd stopped every few feet to scan the sky and ground for Billy. This was going to have to be different.
Once on the ground floor, he exited the elevator, and did some stretching in the lobby. Perhaps more than was necessary as he stalled himself from exiting the front doors in what amounted to his underwear, even as he reminded himself that, this was New York, and people did far stranger things on an hourly basis at the longest stretch. When he'd run earlier, he was still on the adrenaline high he'd gotten from controlling it for the first time, and the panic of what might have happened to Butcher. This… He had some time to think about what he was about to do, and the scale of what he was considering.
Once he'd built up his confidence enough to take off, Hughie left the building, turned toward his house… And felt time slow down around him as he walked away from the Flatiron building at what would've looked to an outsider like a breakneck pace, if they could've seen him to notice.
Hughie weaved in and out of the path of pedestrians, and traffic, and, in an instant, was outside his house. As he, to any outside appearance, flickered into existence outside the building, Hughie felt his hair stand up on end like static flowed through his veins… And then settle back down as his sense of time faded back into line with the rest of the world.
Surprisingly, his bare feet were completely unscathed from his high-speed trip through New York City, like the static that covered his body created some kind of shield around him…
I'll have to keep that in mind. He thought to himself.
Hughie unlocked the door, and entered.
"Hughie?" His dad, Hugh Sr., asked from inside the living room. His dad jumped up from the couch and ran into the foyer.
"Hi, dad!" Hughie said as his father pulled him in tight for a hug.
"I was worried sick!" His dad whispered into his ear. "Where the hell were you?" He asked as he let Hughie go. "I went by Bryan's and they hadn't seen you since the crash at the store!"
"I uh… Started a new job, after that." Hughie said sheepishly. "We've been busy lately, I'm sorry I didn't call."
His dad smiled in response.
"That's good to hear." He replied as he gave Hughie a once-over. "What's up with the outfit? And where are your shoes?"
"They're, uh-" Hughie paused as he realized how odd he must have looked. "Outside, they're dirty."
"Ah." His dad said, not even picking up on the hesitation. "Good idea! So, tell me about the new job!" He said as he walked over to the kitchen. "How's the new boss? What are you doing?" He asked as he poured a cup of coffee for Hughie, who took the mug, and took a sip… Then strode quickly to the fridge to grab a carton of milk as his stomach rumbled. That run must have taken a lot out of me. Hughie thought to himself as he set the milk and coffee mug on the counter, and retrieved a tall glass from the cabinet. Hughie dumped the coffee into the glass and filled the rest up with carton of milk, much to his dad's bafflement.
"It has its' moments." Hughie said as he took a sip of the coffee-flavored milk. "It's a, uh…" He hesitated, trying to figure out how best to explain his new situation without giving away too many details. "Government subcontractor. Handling superhuman affairs, overreach, that kind of thing."
His dad's face lit up as Hughie guzzled the milk/coffee mixture.
"Congratulations!" He said enthusiastically. "That's awesome! That's the kind of thing you always wanted to do!"
Hughie thought back to pulling the trigger on Translucent… And an involuntary shiver crossed his body.
"Not exactly." He said softly. "But like I said…" He paused as he remembered pulling the trigger on the Sonic Cannon, sending the monster soaring through the portal into the black hole beyond, and rescuing people from the collapsing building. "It has its' moments."
"Everything has its' ups and downs, I guess." His dad replied. "Do you need something to eat?"
Hughie nodded as he reopened the fridge, and grabbed a loaf of bread, a block of cheese, a case of sliced turkey, and a head of lettuce from inside.
"How are you holding up, after Robin?" His dad asked as Hughie went about assembling a sandwich or twelve.
"Not great." Hughie said as he retrieved a jar of mayonnaise from the fridge, and bottles of ketchup and mustard as well. "But hey, life goes on, I guess. I tried to find answers, I tried to find closure, but what I'm doing now… I think that's the best way to handle things. I'm helping people and holding people who hurt others accountable."
His dad's eyes boggled as Hughie finished assembling a sandwich that would've made Shaggy Rogers jealous, and carefully toted it into the living room and sat down on the couch. Normally, he'd have rather done anything but sit on the couch watching TV with his dad, but now… It was all he wanted to do. It was something small and normal. It was a little piece of the time from… Before.
"Hey, they announced they're making a movie about that new guy who showed up." His dad said as he sat down on the couch next to Hughie. "Do you want me to look out for tickets for it?"
Hughie paused as he was about to take a bite of his sandwich.
"I already had front row seats for it." Hughie replied with a sly grin.
A look of disbelief washed over his dad's face as Hughie took a gigantic bite of his sandwich.
"You're pulling my chain!" He exclaimed.
Hughie shook his head as he chewed and swallowed.
"Not a word of a lie, I was there almost every step of the way." He said. "I was at the bowling alley when he first appeared, I was at Believe, I was there for the facility showdown, the terrorist attack on downtown, and I even helped Superman get home."
His dad's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"Is that-" His dad began.
"All part of the new job." Hughie finished, proudly. "And that's just the start. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we're going to change a few things around here."
The Remington Steele rerun on the television went to commercial, and the ad for the American Hero show began to play… And Hughie had an idea. An idea that'd occurred to him before, but seemed better and better the more he considered it.
"Hey dad?" He said as he finished the last bite of his colossal sandwich. "You should come to the American Hero tryouts."
"Really?" He asked. "Hughie, those tickets are expensive."
"I'll buy the ticket for you. Front row seat." Hughie replied. "Something big is going to happen there, and I want you to see it first hand."
His dad shot him a quizzical look.
"Trust me," Hughie said with a grin. "This is gonna be good."
"Alright, I trust you, son." His dad replied with a cautious smile. "Anything for my wee Hughie."
Vought Tower: 99th floor, Homelander's room.
Homelander sat on the couch in his room, in front of the television. In front of him was an empty Blu-ray case labeled "test footage: SH" and a packet of headshots, test photos and stats of the actors Edgar had suggested for the part of Superman in the new movie.
The names meant nothing to Homelander. Human actors had never been that important to him. They needed a team on set and in post to mimic a fraction of what guys like him were capable of. Now, for the first time, he was actually paying attention to them. He scrutinized every candidate down to the slightest change in gait, expression or pitch of voice. He remembered everything about Superman. Every word, every nuance, every expression was burned into his brain. Even the way the suit rested upon the man of steel's godlike physique was taken into account. If one thing was wrong, he flipped past the actor.
"It's not an 'S.'" Each of the actors said. "On my world, it stands for hope."
Antony stood opposite of each of them. He was human, but he was a good enough likeness for Homelander to project himself into the scene.
He skipped past Hoechlin. He had the look in the face, but he was too short.
He skipped past Routh. He was too friendly-looking. He was almost perfect otherwise, but he couldn't picture him with the fury he'd seen Superman project in…
In the fight against that creature, right. He thought. How the hell did it get the drop on me, anyway?
John shook off the doubts and continued his viewing.
He skipped Corenswet. His delivery was too flat, too even. It didn't betray the nuances of what Superman had said… Or how he'd said it. He was almost physically what was needed, but it wasn't quite there, and he was definitely a board decision. John didn't want to give the boards that kind of satisfaction.
He lingered on Welling. He had the look, the nuance, the presence, the height. But something was missing. Just… Something. John wasn't sure what it was. He was nearly there. He was perfect for it, but there was one more actor in the packet before he was through.
"It's not an 's.' On my world, it stands for hope."
Homelander almost started at the sound. It was… Perfect. In many ways. There was so much to it that he couldn't articulate most of what made him latch onto this performance, but he knew one thing that made it work above all else.
John absolutely hated Cavill on first sight. The way he wore the suit, the hair, the way he spoke, it itched at him the way Superman did. Exactly the same way.
The scene cut from their first meeting to their conversation about Krypton.
"Did you ever learn the name of our home world?" Cavill asked as Superman.
"No." Antony replied. "My dad broke me out of the ship with a fire ax. By the time he got the fire out, the onboard computer was shot."
Terrio and Goyer rewrote the conversation to take away the pauses and slow points at the request of the studio… But it was close enough that John was echoing it in his head without missing a beat.
"It was Krypton." Cavill said as Superman. "It was twenty-seven-point-one light years from Earth. For generations, the population was engineered, inseminated, gestated, and born artificially. Everyone who was born had a purpose, except for me. I was the first natural birth in over four-hundred years. Born without limits. You were probably made for a purpose that didn't require a large build… But that doesn't mean you have to be limited by yourself. The only way to know what your limits really are, is to push yourself until they break. You're pretty good as you are. If you set your mind to it, you can get even better."
Homelander picked up his phone and dialed Edgar. Those last few lines were inventions of the writers… Mostly. But they were in the right spirit. He could picture Superman saying exactly that right now.
"Yes?" Edgar answered.
"It's Cavill." John said. "He's the one."
"You're sure?" Edgar asked. "The studio is leaning towards Corenswet or Routh, they think they'll win us an extra ten percent of the female demographic."
"Cavill will get you that and more." Homelander replied coldly. "He's the one. He makes me hate every word he says, he has the look, and he has the voice."
"He's British, you know that, right?" Edgar interjected.
Homelander sighed.
"Well, I guess you're either perfect or you're not Superman." Homelander said. "Without cutting a hole in the universe, I think British might be as close as we can get."
"If that's your final decision, I'll make sure he gets the good news." Edgar said.
"It is." John said, hanging up.
He ejected the disc, and turned off the Blu-ray player.
The television switched over to the news on its' own.
Goddamn smart TV. John thought as he reached for the remote, but froze as he was about to switch it off.
"This alarming footage comes to us from Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil." A reporter said over footage of a leaking dam. "This dam is meant to hold waste and wastewater from the nearby mine, but the Tale S.A. mining company has insisted that they have the situation under control, but have declined to take any precautionary measures. If the dam collapsed, the toxic sludge it contains threatens to engulf not only the mine and its' headquarters, but also to bury nearby farms and villages, and contaminate the Paraopeba River, which supplies most of the region's water."
A thousand images flashed in Homelander's head. He considered everything he possibly could.. He knew what the risks were, he considered what the benefits might be…
And then he threw all of that out the window, because he knew what Superman would have done in his place.
He shut off the TV, and slammed a hand onto the building's red alert button, broadcasting a klaxon throughout every floor and basement in the tower.
He stepped outside his room, and grabbed a PA handset from the security station near the door.
"Members of The Seven, we have a priority mission in Brumadinho, Brazil." He said over the PA to the entire building. "There's a dam in danger of collapsing, and lives to be saved if it does. Suit up, and get to the launchpad. A-Train and I will get you to the site."
Homelander hung up the handset and strode confidently to the helipad, his cape billowing in his wake as the four other remaining members of The Seven poked their heads out of their rooms. A-Train, Noir, and Starlight were in their uniforms. (Starlight was clad in her original outfit, not the new one.) Maeve was buck naked except for a sheet.
"You're seriously putting us to work in Brazil?" She asked groggily.
"Dead serious." John replied without skipping a beat. "Now suit up, we have a mission."
The elevator dinged behind them as Maeve shut her door. Behind it, John could hear a rummaging of clothing.
Stan Edgar emerged from the elevator, a blaze of fury on his face.
"You don't have authorization to deploy in Brazil!" He exclaimed from across the hallway. "What in the blue hell do you think you're doing?"
Homelander stopped in his tracks, and turned only his head to address Edgar.
"Saving lives." He retorted, then turned the rest of his body to follow. "If I wait for authorization, that dam will already be breached, and hundreds of people will die tonight alone. I can't just stand by and let that happen!"
"If you don't abide by international agreements," Edgar said sharply. "You threaten not only to cause an international incident, but also to terminate our deal with the military that you were so gung-ho about."
"Fuck the military." Homelander replied, striding towards Edgar. The statement, the reaction caused an immediate wave of shock to pour across The Seven, and Starlight gripped her phone in anticipation of sending a message to Hughie and Butcher. "You really think that Superman would let a little thing like that stand in his way?"
Edgar's gaze threatened to bore a hole directly in Homelander's skull.
"You're no Superman." He retorted coldly. "More and more, you look to me like bad product."
John groaned, and rolled his eyes.
"Listen, if you want to try and stop me, go ahead." He replied. "The only man who can wouldn't be on your side."
Edgar shook his head in resignation.
"Well, I hope you know what you're getting yourself into."
A genuine smile crossed John's face involuntarily.
"You know, I really don't." He replied as Maeve emerged from her room in full armor. "And I kinda like it that way."
Homelander turned to the other four members of The Seven.
"No new girl?" He asked.
The others could only shrug in response.
He sighed, but squared his shoulders, and stood as tall as he could.
"Unfortunate, but I think we can handle it. You with me?"
Whatever he's up to… This is exactly what I signed up for. No more scripts, no predicted saves. And if he goes off, we need someone to hold him off… At least until Hughie and Butcher can get to him. Annie thought to herself.
Starlight was the first to nod in the affirmative.
"Yeah, I'm with you." She replied.
"Me, too." Maeve said in agreement.
Noir shrugged, as though to say "Whatever" in response.
A-Train nodded hesitantly, but nodded nonetheless.
"Then let's go!" Homelander exclaimed, and turned towards the helipad, the others following him closely. "A-Train, I have Maeve and Noir. You take Starlight."
When they got out to the helipad, Maeve wrapped her arms around Homelander's neck, and John and Noir joined hands, then took off into the sky.
A-Train appeared to freeze briefly as his eyes flickered back and forth, like he was doing mental math in the air. Then, he took a deep breath.
"Alright, I'm going to hold onto the back of your head to keep you from getting whiplash." He said. "Put one arm on my shoulders, the other around my chest, and I'll brace your abdomen. Don't let go until we get there, got it?"
Annie nodded in response, and wrapped her arms around A-Train. He braced her stomach and head, and they took off for Brazil. His heart pounded like a jackhammer between her arms, even for as fast as he moved.
Author's Note:
Apologies for the late posting. I've been working on things that come a bit later in the story. Between summaries of scenes, script dialogue and full prose, future content for this story is up to around twenty thousand words, and it's not even all finished yet. Every time I started working on the story, I'd have an idea that I'd have to put somewhere else in the timeline and then I'd forget what I was doing or where I was before lol. I'm also still working on MDCU with Kevin, beta-ing some of his works, and working on an entirely original story as well, so be sure to check those out when the time comes!