(All characters owned by DC, rated MA due to violence)
They just handed power to them! It was unconstitutional, it was unheard of, but it happened.
Brainiac had teamed with Despero and Queen Bee in an attempt to enslave the planet. They destroyed the US Government with a nuclear strike, leaving the designated survivor, Senator Pete Ross, as suddenly the new President. The JLA defeated them but the damage had been done and Pete had neither the will nor the drive to rebuild a broken country. So he handed the reins to Superman as he stepped down.
He tried to say no, but the crowd chanted his name and being always one of the people he accepted. The beginning of the end. He asked his fellow league members to help him bring America back from the brink of tragedy. Few say no to Superman. Those who did were left behind as he used the marvellous technology of his home world and the dozens of other planets in the galaxy to bring Earth into the forefront of the 21 st century.
In that time it went from President to dictator to tyrant to overlord. Similar to Robert Mugabe’s rule of Zimbabwe, he started with the right intentions but power corrupts. Superman was the same, and each election nobody else even stood meaning he continued as President.
Then the Legion of Doom tried to oust the League, led by my grandfathers. They failed, but they hurt him and the League…I feel that if they had done nothing we wouldn’t be where we are now.
It was 2034 when they struck. It was a massacre on both sides. Villains tend to play for keeps; heroes who don’t know they’re villains do the same. Flash and Impulse were the first to fall on the “heroes” side, a tactical strike to take out the fastest first. Black Adam paid with his life for killing them. Wonder Woman had always had a soft spot for Wally and his death unleashed her after years of quiet. The sound of thunder as she decapitated him blew windows apart for miles.
My grandfather and Batman mixed it up for the last time, two old men playing dress up. Batman won the battle but lost the war, breaking his own code of killing as he ripped Joker’s throat out with a tiger strike. My grandfather supposedly died trying to continue laughing through the gaping hole in his neck.
My other grandfather took on Superman, which lasted longer than anyone expected. Deathstroke could hold his own, but Superman was in a whole other class. Which is why he cut him down to size with several well placed bullets made of kryptonite. He would’ve finished him if Hawkman hadn’t interfered. The man from Thanagar got a bullet to the brain instead of the kryptonian and Deathstroke was torn in half like a newspaper then incinerated to ashes. Hawkman lives on as the cloned army of our oppressors.
Black Canary was gutted by Cheetah, Black Lightning killed Weather Wizard, Doctor Phosphorous melted Nightwing, Bane impaled Supergirl with Katana’s sword…the fighting was brutal with no quarter given, no mercy shown
After the battle, Superman took issue with the fact that the JSA were nowhere to be found. He demanded an explanation from Mr Terrific. What was said was never documented but people say a lightning bolt hit building and only Superman emerged from JSA headquarters with the helmet of Nabu, the glove of Horus and Thunderbolt’s magic pen. Mr Terrific’s T-spheres were incorporated into Martian Manhunter’s secret police.
As time went by things changed, not for the better. Countries willing relinquished rule to the League, those that didn’t were quickly dealt with. Green Lantern took issue with this when the Great Ten stood in up in defiance and the August General In Iron reminded Hal Jordon on how far he had fallen. Hal refused to enter China. Superman tore Hal’s arm off and beat him to death with it and took his ring. China fell after that.
Aquaman tried to set up a counter group and for his sedition, was hurled into the sun. Titles of heroes and villains soon became null and void, just them and us. You were either with the League or not. Or not didn’t usually last very long.
They did do some good: Mr Freeze and Captain Cold’s technology prevent the polar ice caps melting, Red Tornado provided decent rainfall to Africa, Wonder Woman’s purple ray was mass produced into hospitals to cure all bar the most terminal of diseases…but a cage is still a cage no matter how shiny and bright it appears.
Occasionally there have been flare ups. Blasts from the past who decide to rock the boat; Gorilla Grodd, Solomon Grundy, Shaggy Man even the Spectre. All were dealt with harshly. Grodd now lies at the feet of Superman and Wonder Woman’s thrones in the White House. Grundy and Shaggy Man reside in the Phantom Zone. Spectre was bound into a diamond, like Eclipso was eons ago, and the diamond along with all the kryptonite on earth dumped into the super massive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way.
The League stands strong with Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman’s brain, Martian Manhunter, Zachary Zatanna, Cyborg, Firestorm and Starfire. Add that to the seemingly endless photocopying of Hawkmen and we’re ants fighting elephants.
My name is Jay Slade Quinn. Batman Quinn, my father was the son of Harley Quinn and the Joker. My mother Rose Wilson was the daughter of Deathstroke. I am the Deranger and possibly the last hope this planet has. I am the head of silent revolution; we have to be silent because gods watch our every move. Code Red is my second in command, my fiancée and a vital cog in the running of the revolution. We can’t trust phones, the internet…we can barely trust the people we talk too thanks to the psychic intangible shapeshifter who runs SHADE which has been the downfall of many a revolution…including the deaths of my parents! We meet in person, face to face and ready to fight and ready to run.
I am on route to Keystone City where there is some open defiance. A vigilante calling herself Escrima is taking out Hawk patrols and making the city hers. It could be a ruse to get me there, along with the others in the one place but there’s something about the way SHADE agents talk about her makes me think she’s the real deal. If she keeps it up Superman may step out of his White House to shut her down…which would make my plan of kidnapping his son all that much easier. I don’t want to hurt an innocent kid, but to stop his tyrant parents I’d drown the little puke in a vat of chemicals and play skipping games with his entrails!
From the journal of Jay Slade Quinn aka Deranger
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