Chain 206: DC EU

Chain 206: DC EU

Location: 28,000 BCE
Age: 31
Identity: Drop-In
Drawbacks: [+200] The Long View, How Did This Get Here

[Free]      Early Warning
[100/1200]  Let's Have A Clean Fight
[500/1200]  Command Key
[1100/1200] Kryptonite Blade (Prismatic Saber)
[1200/1200] Import: Demona and the Conspiracy

Amusing, my saber has now taken on a faint greenish tint. Bet this would do some damage if I ran into any Kryptonian problems. If I could light it without, you know, having the damned thing have the same effect on me that it would on a Kryptonian. Let's hear it for the local laws of physics, everybody.

Ending up this far in the distant past is a thing that is probably a terrible idea for a great many reasons. You see, this far back, we've gone past what written history exists and are deep in the Paleolithic period. I found it rather interesting, in truth - Atlantis hadn't sunk yet and were a major power, the Amazons were doing their thing, and humans were split into a number of assorted tribes that were largely nomadic. After all, farming didn't really exist this far in the past, so it's a hunter-gatherer lifestyle for everybody, and most of the tribes hadn't spread beyond Europe, Asia, and Africa yet. And writing... well, that's a nice thought, but there really is no such thing. Most tribes had those who handled the oral tradition. And the Gods, while they were not the grand powers that modern mythology presents them to be, were very much present.

As I said, a fascinating thing, especially to be there and witness firsthand. I was an obvious outsider but nomads were far from unknown in this world, Demona didn't bother with a human form and was pretty much accepted anyway, the Conspiracy spread themselves to the winds to see what the world had to offer. And there were far more people than I would have ever expected, but the world itself was different too. Megafauna, untamed wilds... the Amazons and the most daring of men tamed wild horses, but by and large they remained very much wild. Metal working... well, man's weapons were stone. Stone age, after all. The weapons of the Amazons and Atlantis were different metals, and while they were more advanced, they would still find parity in combat.

Everything changed when Steppenwolf attacked.

It wasn't the earth-shattering event that one might have thought. He came from the stars in ships - it would seem that Apokolips' technology was in its infancy this far back, but Steppenwolf himself? I would have rather fought Darkseid, to tell the truth. The parademons they employed were more akin to viral zombies than the technologically enhanced parademons I was already familiar with, but when he landed, Steppenwolf poured many forth. Perhaps he attacked because Earth was too primitive to fight him off at that time, but warnings were sent out in advance. I warned the Atlanteans that he was coming, Demona warned the Amazons, and the Conspiracy called on the tribes of man and their gods; a Green Lantern was witness to the ship touching down and attempted to help as well.

There was no glory to be had in that battle. It lasted for days on end, and though we'd united every race on Earth to fight at the appointed time, it was still a very near thing. I truly am not kidding - short of using enough force to crack the planet, I fought Steppenwolf on equal terms and still needed the aid of the gods to stop his first assault. All the races fought the hordes of parademons, bronze and iron and stone clashing with far more advanced and terrifying weapons. But victory was eventually earned through the blood of those who failed, the Mother Boxes were separated... and I faded into the background, watching. Or at least, that's what I had expected.

Things were largely calm, though the Conspiracy did as they often do. In an era where the gods exist and actually answer prayers, another coming about is no rarity, considering the first the local gods knew of me was just prior to the battle against Steppenwolf, and so they didn't concern themselves overly much. I became known in some circles, though only among the tribes of man; the Amazons and Atlanteans had their own gods and kept them, but considering some of the things that the other pantheons got up to... it is probably not a particular surprise that some would turn toward an alternative, even if they kept things quiet. And so I began to gather followers, slowly but surely.

Things progressed. The local progression of technology was slow, of course, and though the Amazons largely mirrored man's advancements, the Atlanteans surpassed them and pushed their limits before they became more insular and withdrawn... right up to the sinking of Atlantis. With the aid of their cultural snobbery, they eschewed the surface for the oceans in the belief that they were better than the surface dwellers, and life there was better, down where it's wetter, under the sea. After all, their food supply had primarily been sea-based farming and fishing, so it was easy enough to adapt; crops of the type that are prevalent in the modern era simply weren't there yet.

Time progressed, as it does. While I was present in the intervening years, it was not in any capacity as any sort of leader, and though the Conspiracy had their cults, they were really rather small and took only a token amount of attention. A great deal of my time for many years was spent in space - the universe here is a very big place, after all, and there was much I wished to see and do even in this relatively primitive era. Civilizations that were unknown in the modern era had risen and fallen in this period, and they too were interesting.

I had a great deal of time on my hands though, and with Hyperion was cloaked within the solar system, I slowly upgraded its systems as I'd been trying to do for some time. It was a project I didn't expect to complete, honestly, due to the scarcity of the appropriate resources trickling in from what I'd managed during my stay on Auriga and the greater galaxy from there, but it was enough to finish its upgrades. In addition to that... well, I'd been using stock Pantheon troopers for too long, and so I upgraded them as well. A little Dust can go a long way, it would seem, not to mention building their frames out of mithrite and glassteel. Properly stored, it seemed I could fit a great many of them in the warehouse, so long as I was careful.

My work on all of that coincided roughly with when the Amazons took sanctuary in Themyscira, more than twenty thousand years after my arrival in this universe. Ares, of the Greek pantheon, betrayed the rest of the gods and slew them. And not just his own pantheon; he took on every Earthly pantheon that existed. He was deluded enough to decide he would strike down every god, take his place as the one and only god on the planet, taking their power for his own, wiping the slate clean, and being all-powerful. Though it was rather fortunate that he was wounded in the final battle against Zeus, and spent millennia asleep and recovering before he once more was able to turn his attention toward humanity. His long term goal? Use man's desires for war to wipe them out.

In the intervening years, however... all the other gods had fallen silent and disappeared. No longer answering their prayers, there was only one that they prayed to who did, and abruptly I found the number of my followers increasing by leaps and bounds. Ares' fight with the other gods had taken place across the world and caused calamitous damage, and humanity's numbers had been reduced to less than ten million in total. But I helped them, splitting myself into a multitude, and then separating that multitude into different aspects to aid and live alongside humanity. What civilization had existed by then had been wiped out, so I helped humanity begin civilization anew.

And in so doing, I completely derailed what human history might have been.

It was quite nice to see the advancement of humanity. Perhaps Ares was a bit perplexed at humanity's development of runic magic alongside their sciences, but I had an unprecedented opportunity to see how far my uplifting program could take a society, even if I gave it out at a more gradual pace due to the lower population. But farming, education, elegant systems of writing, learning HOW to learn and then turning it toward the discovery of the building blocks of the universe... it was rather entertaining to see.

The tools that my aspects used became religious artifacts - wands, talismans, tomes, and so forth - and they tried to teach the lessons I wanted humanity to learn. To treasure what they had, to find brotherhood with each other and live by each others' happiness rather than their misery. There were no religious wars fought in my name, as I outright would not permit it, but the cat was long since out of the bag when it came to being worshipped, and I appeared to answer my followers and in times of dire need. I didn't pretend to be omnipotent and infallible, even though I had a great deal of power. And of course, I'm not obligated to answer every prayer, not by any stretch of the imagination.

Oh, the tribes of man - or rather, the nations of man - still fought. At first with rune-enhanced bronze, then glowing swords, and finally with elegant bolt casters and cannon, and eventually developing firearms that needed no runes but could yet still be enhanced by them. There were periods where empires rose and fell, but it seemed certain standards were usually maintained, even if the history books had biases toward believing otherwise. Rome didn't fall in a day, after all, no matter what some would claim about barbarians sacking it. But history has something of an inertia, and even with periods of anarchy, things remained on track; certain wars still happened no matter how bizarre the inciting incident or of family betraying each other, though the means might differ. Certain empires rose that otherwise might not have, and certain nations persisted staved off devastation only to fall to the Black Death centuries before it would have otherwise ravaged Europe. As the centuries stretched on, my aspects made less appearances, though this was a humanity that often had those with unusual abilities. Those who chose to focus on it were able to use magic as well, thanks to a bit of influence, but it hardly gave undue advantages to most.

Ares still tried to subvert humanity's wars where he could, once he was able to influence humanity again, and my last few centuries there were fraught with warfare. A particularly notable incident occurred in Europe, where he seemed convinced he could claim a final victory over humanity. This of course would not succeed, but it was bad enough that it brought Diana of Themyscira forth to find and defeat him. In time, I revealed myself to her (and there was a very brief battle due to mistaken identity), and we agreed to work together toward that end. It was not easy for her, but she came into her own; Ares knew what he had to use to counter me, and had I worked alone, he would have slain me outright. But instead, she and I dealt finishing blows together on him before parting ways.

The world that Kal-El landed on, one in which he grew up as Clark Kent, was not one that some might have recognized. The Republic of Hesperia, bordered on the north by Vesperia, encompassed much of the North American continent. (Amerigo Vespucci's influence in naming the continent remained a constant in this world, even if the America and Canada had different names.) Gleaming spires stretched dozens of stories into the sky in the larger cities rather than brutalist rectangles. It was a much more advanced world... a world of twelve billion souls, one that travel within the solar system, but that had seen an explosion in the last century due to the development of rocketry and other technologies during the Great War; the increased connectivity between people led to less conflict and more peace.

Kansas was still Kansas. Flat. Isolated. Bound to occasional cyclones. But... with the visible manipulation of nature at times, Clark Kent's developments inspired perhaps a bit less paranoia, and Martha Kent's prayers warranted my visit in person, a thing that I was known to do but still rarely did. I briefly muffled his senses and kept them toned down to a reasonable level, before I accompanied him and his mother home, to sit down and talk with both of his parents and speak of his birthright. That he would one day be the most powerful person on the planet... but not now, not when he wasn't prepared. I gave them the Ben Parker talk - you all know the one, "with great power comes great responsibility". But then... this was a world where he was not the only extraordinary person, just one with the potential to outshine all the others.

(The last time I'd done an in-person visit was not terribly long before, for a young man named Bruce Wayne, whose parents had just been slain - I'd kept a policy not to resurrect the dead except under extreme circumstances, but I ensured that the orphan would find justice. And as I am not heartless, I gave him the chance to say goodbye to them postmortem. Easy to do when you have an afterlife for the souls of the departed to go to, after all.)

And years later... oh, Metropolis. Ohhh, Metropolis. A quick teleport into the sky while Superman is hanging there, a time dilation field, and eye contact.

"Hello, Clark. It's been a while."
>"I- oh! Wait, did you stop time?"
"Not exactly, but I slowed it down immensely. We're not out in the real world, we're just in your mind, so we have a bit to chat. I've been keeping an eye on you, son, and I have to say I'm very proud of who you've become."
>"...uh, thank you."
"So let's get down to business. A lot of people are calling for help around here, and... to be honest, this is an extraordinary event. But... this is going to be your show. I'm going to be in the background - I do my best work there, after all - but I'm not going to get in your way. I already know you're here to help, and you're the best man for the job. A super man, if you will. Just try to keep the collateral damage down where you can, and I'll keep everyone on the ground safe."
>"Wait a minute. Was that a pun?"
"Maybe. Also, when you get the chance... do me a small favor and point out that they've got the technology to terraform Venus, would you?"
>"They do?"
"Mm. I promise I'll explain later, though."

And things went essentially the same as they might have, although the Kryptonians who attacked were plagued with system errors where they should not have, because it turns out that this vengeful deity has the key to their systems and is downloading quite literally their entire database. The battle did not have quite as much collateral damage as expected, both because I asked Superman to tone it down a notch, and because of my interference, and well, Zod still refused, and Clark still snapped his neck. The remainder, however? They weren't happy about going to Venus, not really. They had picked Earth because it was already near-perfect for them. But considering they'd arrived with hostility, that the local technology was not quite as harmless as expected, that people realized they couldn't handle magic... and that perhaps one in fifty humans were accomplished magi in one respect or another, with one in ten having notable aptitude for their chosen talent?

They were happy to go to Venus after we all had a talk about it being a great misunderstanding. Though Zod got to hang out in the gray boringness of Purgatory because he wouldn't change his mind, the other Kryptonians were happy to have a home again, even if the terraforming efforts would be gradual. Trade was established with Earth, though for the time being it was rather one-sided in their favor with structures being provided for them to place in the Venusian clouds - the Kryptonians handled the heavy lifting.

>"You promised to explain."
"And I shall. You aren't foolish, you likely understand that they're of the same race as you, though you are as much a child of Earth."
>"And they bear the same weakness to this mineral, Kryptonite, as me."
"As do I, yes."
>"I never would have thought... are you one of us as well?"
"No, I'm no Kryptonian. I am as far beyond you as you are beyond humans, my young friend, but it is the inherent nature of that element and the universe itself. Just as you can hear everyone if you listen - their hopes and dreams, their cries for help - I hear the same, around the world. I have for thirty thousand years. But I won't be here forever."
>"So... that's why people don't just get whatever they want from you, isn't it."
"Well, my work is visible but I usually am not, save for exceptional circumstances - more is attributed to me than I actually do. Think of it like a parent trying to raise a child and teach them independence. Certainly, a parent will try to guide their child. Give them advice, step in when something horrible happens. But they can't be there all the time. I never pretended to be omnipotent, merely... potent. And frankly, you have the potential to do as much good in the world as I, if in different ways. Centuries ago, I was far more active than I am now."
>"What do you mean?"
"The world is changing. There are going to be new threats coming, and I won't be here much longer, though I'd ask that you keep that quiet for now. That's why I've dialed it back so much. With a handful of exceptions for natural disasters... my direct intervention is relatively rare. Usually people help each other. The Batman in Gotham helps the innocent in that city, playing up the dark avenger angle, for instance. And he's far from the only one. When I leave this world... it will be in the hands of heroes like you."
>"With everything people think of you... they are going to have trouble accepting that you're gone."
"Unavoidable, but when people call out in the night, heroes will be there. I've spent centuries getting mankind to believe in itself, to reach beyond their grasp. And it's under those conditions that the world has become what it is. I've seen many worlds... but this one is one I'd be proud to call home, were I just a man."
>"What about all that you do to help people?"
"The answer to that is, expect to see some interesting breakthroughs in the next decade. After all, science and magic have brought humanity this far, it should be no surprise that they can replicate most of what I do, if on a smaller scale. Be seeing you, Clark."

Luthor was, of course, still an idiot. He tried to pit Superman and Batman against each other, but... well, it's a different world. The major players were the same, and often of the same mindset, but Batman was no killer. In a world where magic and metahumans aren't truly rare, they played to the expectations Luthor had, only to turn it on him when he least expected it. Sadly, Doomsday still became an issue as he'd somehow hijacked a visiting Kryptonian vessel, but there were more people here helping fight him, even if Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman were leading the battle - including other Kryptonians. Superman still sacrificed himself, unfortunately, and Lex Luthor... well, he's no twelfth level intellect, and his plot armor had run thin. Bringing about something like Doomsday? He was remanded to Kryptonian justice. No after-credits scenes for this Joker in Luthor's clothes, ding ding.

Superman's return was... a little differently done. There was no massive worshipping of him as a godlike hero, just the seeming apex of what people aspired toward, and while it was known that he was wounded it wasn't known that he was seemingly killed. The Justice League took shape a lot more rapidly, and it was found that his body wasn't completely dead, only mostly. By this point I was pretty much hands-off with most of the plot, and he was brought back in a somewhat different way that still involved humanity's rediscovered Mother Box and the contributions of the other heavy hitters of the League, thanks to Batman. Things went the same from there, largely, until the battle with Steppenwolf.

The heroes handled the parademons, the evacuations, they separated the Mother Boxes and subsequently shattered them. I fought Steppenwolf in single combat for the first time in thirty thousand years, all my power amplified, the might of a world of faithful empowering me. The city that we fought in was all but destroyed, but I gave no ground, not this time, not when the only others around weren't the simple tribes of man but an uplifted and united humanity. The battle against him ended rather differently - sure, unsheathing the prismatic saber damaged me, but this is a blade that has been refined over the millennia to end gods, old or new. Oh, I'd learned much about this multiverse in my millennia here. A great deal indeed. I knew now why my initial foolhardy attack against Darkseid failed, all those years ago. Why a bullet that should have immediately destroyed him, even as an avatar, failed.

I did not fail this time; though the weapon weakened me, it rendered Steppenwolf vulnerable as well, and his death was a very final act. Perhaps the only reason I survived, instead of burning my last remaining opportunity to avoid death, was the empowerment I found myself enjoying. Far more than I expected. Far more than I'd experienced from Ares, or any other.

Still, in the aftermath, I was wounded and weakened. I knew my end in this world was near, and I had preparations I'd laid out; this was the perfect time to enact them. Mankind knew, they felt my absence, but also a newfound freedom. I hadn't shackled mankind but I'd guided them to this point, and now they were the masters of their own destiny. And my parting lesson would be remembered as well - no matter how powerful we may think ourselves, we're so very small, in the end. And the universe is so very big. For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.

I merely hoped, as I departed their world for the next along my chain, that I would be remembered fondly by them. Perhaps someday I'll have the opportunity to find out.