(W2 note: this story tells an alternative version of what could have happened in Titans chapter 2)
Hello. Prepare yourself, because you are about to be shown one of the best kept secrets in the history of existence. I as it's guardian will be your guide in the amazing superdimensional construct called Hypertime.
What is Hypertime, you may ask?
As you may know, there are many parallel Earths, existing in each of their own universes. But these Earth are constantly changing. Time is like a river, with a nearly infinite number of alternate timelines branching off. Most of the time, these alternate timelines go off on their own and never intersect with the main timeline.
On occasion, the branches return, feeding back into the main timeline, sometimes permanently, sometimes temporarily. Thus, history can sometimes change momentarily and then change back. Because alternate timelines have been "splitting off" from the main flow for as long as it has existed, vast numbers of very different versions of any given character or situation can exist. If characters from a very different Hypertimeline move into another, this accelerates the process of change, causing more noticeable changes to the timeline.
Any decision, any act there has ever been and will be, creates new timelines. One person can be responsible for six different ways to doom his world. An example could be this young man from Earth RC1:
Victor Stone is a young man turned half machine due to bad luck. You may know him as a hero. But little does anyone know, not even Victor himself, that he could be the destruction of his people.
San Fransisco, in a world that could have been...
“You sure he is out cold?” Mammoth asked, as he placed the unconscious Cyborg on a table.
“What? You afraid he’s going to wake up and kick your ass? AGAIN?” Gizmo grinned to his large friend.
“He had help, and you know it…” Mammoth groaned, as he picked up some rope.
“What are you doing, idiot?!” Psimon yelled, when he entered the room.
“… Tying him up?”
“Oh yes, ropes are surly the Achilles Heel for superhumans with a strength limit around 20 tons! Pluck him into the machine!”
Mammoth groaned as he putted Cyborg inside some kind of device, while Gizmo plucked a few wires on the metal body. “Good. Now gentlemen... and lady,” Psimon said with a smile, as he waved a hand toward a table. “please take a seat.”
"So boss..." Shimmer said calmly as she sat down at her seat. "What's the use of bringing our arch enemy to our secret headquarters?"
"A fair point." Psimon said with a chuckle. "Do you have any idea the hardware that Cyborg is capable of?" Shimmer shook her head however Gizmo raised his hand in excitement.
"It's fantastic!" He yelled. "The most powerful Electronic Device on the planet! With the possibility of controlling the entire world!"
"Correct Gizmo." Psimon said. "However... you're thinking too big. Let's start small. What will benefit the Fearsome Five more in the long run?"
"Blackmailing the Government?" Nano asked with a sigh.
"Too big."
"… Winning the Lottery?" Mammoth asked.
"Too small. Yet close!" Psimon said with another chuckle.
"Then what is it?!" Shimmer yelled as she stood up. She wasn't in the best of moods after her previous encounter with Cyborg the last week. Psimon cleared his throat as he smiled.
"We're going to use Cyborg to bankrupt every single weapons company on the planet." Psimon said with a chuckle. "Everyone from WayneTech to Lexcorp... Psimon says we're going to make a LOT of money."
Later...
"Hmm. Still no contact..." Roy muttered as he knelt in front of the rooftop access door. What usually would be the sound of Police Frequencies from his Com Device had been replaced with the sound of silence. Whatever the oaf Mammoth and Gizmo were doing to Cyborg seemed to be affecting Roy's contact with CADMUS and Green Arrow. With the exception of the Police and maybe that Bunker kid, Roy was on his own.
"Waller. If you can hear me I'm starting the rescue mission. Backup from the Cops is inbound and I'm currently searching for Cy-"
KLICK!
"-Borg..." Roy turned to see a grey being strapped to a large metal support. Roy drew his bow as he advanced towards the Metal being. "Vic Stone?" Roy asked carefully. The robot's head nodded slightly.
"...how did you find me?" Cyborg asked as his chest and eye lit up bright red. "Be... behi-"
"Behind you." A voice growled from behind Roy.
FWIP!
Roy turned and fired his arrow directly behind him. The Mammoth growled as it splintered against his chest. He lunged forward as Roy ducked out of his way and rolled to the side.
"Gonna crush you runt!" Mammoth growled as he stood up to his full size.
"Not if you can't catch me!" Roy yelled as he ran towards the exit firing another arrow at Mammoth for good measure. Mammoth grunted with anger as he started to lumber forward his feet causing cracks in the floor beneath him. Roy slammed the staircase door behind him before sprinting up the stairs. "Waller!" He yelled as he panted for breath. "If you can hear me I need-"
KRASH!
Roy stopped as he stepped onto the rooftop.
"-backup..." He muttered as Psimon and Gizmo blocked his path.
"Roy Harper..." Psimon said with a slight smile. "Psimon says 'Jump'." He nodded towards the edge of the rooftop as Roy stood up.
"No!" Mammoth yelled as he stepped up the staircase and onto the rooftop. "I want him!" Psimon sighed as Mammoth stepped in Roy's path before gripping his arm.
"Let... go..." Roy gasped as he gritted his teeth. Part of his brain was still fighting Psimon's control.
"Hell no." Mammoth replied.
Krack!
Roy screamed in pain as he felt his wrist snap beneath Mammoth's giant paw. Psimon started to chuckle. Roy continued to gasp as he stifled his anger.
"Let's see you play Robin Hood now!" Mammoth looked very satisfied.
"I'll... kill you!" Roy snapped as he tried to smash Mammoth with his fist.
"Not today Kid." Mammoth muttered as he raised Roy over his head and threw him off the rooftop. Mammoth chuckled as he watched Roy fall to the streets below.
"This is the San Fransisco Police Department!" The Police Commissioner yelled from below. "Surrender now or we have permission to use Lethal Force!"
Thud.
Roy noticed that he hadn't splatted on the ground. He looked down and found himself on what looked like a purple pillow.
"Hey Arsenal, I got the police AND I saved your life! What did I tell you, eh?" Roy looked up to see Bunker hovering above him with a smile.
"... My hero..." Roy groaned as he lay back.
"Simon Jones, you are under arrest. Put your hands in the air." A dozen of policemen were pointing their weapons toward Psimon and the others on the rooftop.
"Why, of course... Lieutenant Cameron." Psimon raised his arms. "Oh, but would you and your colleges be so kind to shoot your partners?"
Psimon laughed as he made several of the Policemen point their guns at each-other. Their faces filled with confusion and terror.
And then they gunned each other down.
"Dios..." Bunker gulped, as the Fearsome Five turned their attention toward him and the barely conscious Arsenal.
A few minutes later, after Bunker and Arsenal's death...
"Heh, that was fun." Mammoth washed his hands clean for blood. "We should kill superheroes more often."
"Once I turn this baby on, we won't have to lift a finger for the rest of our life." Bunker placed the finishing touch on the machine with Cyborg attach to it.
"You get rich if you want to, Shorty. I would just get bored."
"We can discuss this later, AFTER we get loaded!" Shimmer said impatiently. "Turn it on, Gizmo!"
Psimon was quite satisfied. Soon, he would have all the money he needed to start planning his revenge against the Brain Trust. With that much money an his incredible powers, no one could stop him. He would crush anyone who opposed him.
All of those plans. All for nothing.
As Gizmo turned the machine on, it didn't start hacking into WayneTech. Instead, Cyborg woke up, and the machine morphed around him. The Fearsome Five watched in horror, as they realized that they apparently never really fought Cyborg. He was WAY more powerful than he had appeared in their previous encounters.
And he was merciless.
A few days later, in the headquarter of CADMUS...
"You got some nerves, breaking into my facility."
Amanda Waller had a gun aimed at the not-robotic part of Cyborg's face.
"Give me ONE good reason to WHY I shouldn't kill you, now!"
"First of all, you are not even sure that a bullet would do the job. Secondly, you realize that if I can break into the most advanced government facility in the US, then I must have some skills."
"... Alright..." Waller finally lowered the gun. "What do you want?"
"I'm here because I want to work for you. In Belle Reve, to be specific. The problem with meta-criminals is, that they all eventually escape from whatever prison facility they are placed in. I offer to make sure that they stay locked in."
"Do you realize that you ask me to place an awful lot of trust in you, young man? I've been assassinating terrorists before you could go to the potty without help."
"Maybe, but this is the age of meta humans. The terrorists don't need to get the material to bomb Washington anymore. They ARE the bomb. Just give me one month to prove that I can keep Belle Reve under control."
"You have anything to back up those words?"
"How about a computer system so powerful that I could hack into CADMUS and find you? One so powerful that I know all about your shady projects, including Task Force X? I even know about HIVE, in fact, I have found them and can give you the whole organization on a silver plate."
"..."
"All I ask in return is a shot as the new prison warden of Belle Reve."
".. Alright, I will give you one WEEK to prove yourself. If you can't, then I will kill you for national treason, and rip your robotic body apart, getting as many weapons as I can."
One week later...
"Alright, Stone... I'm impressed."
Waller had entered the prison warden's office. If it could actually be called an office anymore. There was no longer any kind of furniture in the room. And the four walls was now cowered by TV-screens.
"Hello, director Waller. Like what I've done to the place?"
"Well, you have prevented eight prisoners from breaking out, as well as stopping two riots. None of the guards has been killed, and the prisoners are-."
"Hold that thought!" Cyborg turned his attention toward one of the screens, as he saw the prisoner known as Goldface was caught by a pair of gigantic tentacles coming out of the walls.
"... And I see that you have updated the prison's mechanic equipment."
"Not just that. I have fused my hardware brain with the prisons mainframe computer. With the upgrades I've given Belle Reve, I'm not just guarding the prison. I AM the prison."
Months later...
What had happened to the super criminals?
That's what all the newspapers had asked, since the amount of crime committed by metas had fallen drastically. Almost none o the known faces had been seen for so long now, and whenever a new villain appeared, he then got arrested and that was he last one herd from him.
Belle Reve was the most successful prison in the world. Several kinds of new damper tech had been installed in order to keep the prisoners in check, no Mather if their powers were science or magic based. Prison breaks was something you could count on happening at least once a week. But not anymore. Prisoners came in, and you never saw them again. And forget about breaking INTO Belle Reve. In fact, only one man could actually manege to get in.
"Hello, Batman."
"Hello, Cyborg." The Dark Knight became visible to the normal eye inside Reve's control room.
"You are the first man to ever enter my prison without me noticing it. I'm impressed."
"The suit that I'm wearing right now is equipped to operate along the full electromagnetic spectrum. It senses what's being used to detect it and reacts accordingly. I needed to test it, so since I needed to talk to you, then why not today?"
"And you are not just here to show me your new toy, right?"
"I want to talk to you about your work here, and how you could expand, so to say. You have Reve under total control, but it's not the only meta prison in the country. Blackgate and Iron Heights still have prisoners getting out from time to time. Not as often as Reve used to, but it's still a problem."
"What do you suggest we do about it?"
Batman handed Cyborg a couple of blueprints.
"I call it Brother Eye. I need your help to build it."
One year later...
The Batcave was in ruins now.
The butler laid dead at the entrance. And now his master was about to be killed.
"You... damn monster..." Batman was gasping, as Cyborg was strangling him with his metallic hand. "Killed... Superman... destroyed... Metropolis..."
"And I couldn't have done it without your resources. Thank you, Batman. The Technis race had great use of Brother Eye."
"... Go.. to... H-"
CRACK!
Cyborg dropped Batman. He was dead. One out of many fleshling who were going to die.
5 years later...
The being once known as Victor Stone was done scanning the area. There was no longer any life to be detected in Midway City.
"Technis-hybrid-5, have all humans in the area been (terminated/killed/destroyed)?" One of the Technis soldiers asked.
"Yes, there are no more life to be found here. We must report to the mothership."
"Taking over this planet when faster than originally calculated. By being in control of that prison facility, you managed to trap 10 percent of the meta-humans, making it easier to (terminate/kill/destroy) them. And with the satellite, the so-called Superman was quickly taken care of."
"Regrettable that it was destroyed. But at least the meta known as Icon died in the process. He was the only real problem left for the Technis. Now we just have to wait, and the planet will be ours."
"And you still feel nothing for your former (species/race), Technis-hybrid-5?"
"No. The humans had to be (terminated/killed/destroyed/eliminated). Flesh creatures are unable to (understand/comprehend) us, and they have to be dealt with. Especially this race. Earthlings are illogical and violent creatures, and that they discovered the meta-gene only made them worse."
................
You must not judge Victor Stone too harshly. You see, his father used a newly discovered type of metal to build the robot body that saved the life of his only son. He knew that the steel was symbiotic, so it that way could fuse with his flesh, becoming perfect replacements for his lost limps.
But what he didn't know was that the metal was intelligent, and that it by the software in Victor's new computer brain slowly corrupted him, so that he would eventually betray his race making it easier for the Technis to take over the planet.
When the Fearsome Five tried to use Victor for their sinister means, it speeded up the process. It killed Victor's humanity.
But thanks to the bravery of a time-traveling speedster, this can still be prevented. But only if the heir to the title as "the fastest man alive" can remember why he crossed time and space to begin with.
That was all for now. Next time, I will show you how the relationship between a brother and sister can mean everything in a battle against evil incarnated.
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