Jump 379: Injustice

Jump #379: Injustice
>Two of Swords (Peace): Refusing to be ruled by negative emotions. Strife brought to a close through clarity of mind and restraint of force.
>Location: Gotham City
>Race: Human
>Identity: Drop-In
>Faction: Insurgency
At least that much has not changed.
>Time To Kick My Ass (Free, Drop-In)
It occurs that I did not explain my perk choices previously. This shall be rectified immediately: at least none of the nonsense here will catch me by surprise.
>Moral High Ground (Free, Insurgency)
Having the moral high ground is almost as important as convincing everyone that I hold the moral high ground - as long as I can highlight what my enemies do wrong, I can draw attention to that and hide my own shortcomings. If any.
>Incorruptable (800, Insurgency)
There's something wrong with this world. I refuse to allow myself to be twisted as many have been.
>Mother Box (500, Insurgency)
It appears that my Mother Box has been upgraded to full spec.
>LexCorp (100, Insurgency)
CruxCorp is always expanding.
>Extreme Durability (0)
300 bonus points for powers? Sold. I need to be able to survive Superman punching me, just in case. I don't get to take the superpill, after all.

I'm back in- what?

I feel a hand on my shoulder and open my eyes, to see Gaia looking back at me. Back in the warehouse, at the very beginning of the jump. "You lost yourself for a moment," she tells me, and I nod to her with a grimace. Lost in possible futures. Lost... in more ways than one.

No more. There are two approaches that can be taken here. Light and heavy. But I saw what would happen with the light approach. Now we go for heavy.

I leave the warehouse and immediately scry, and teleport to, the Joker in custody at Gotham Prison. Batman is startled into silence mid-sentence, the Joker less surprised, and I've not bothered to change my attire - I'm still dressed in my civvies from Gods And Monsters, not even a domino mask.

As Batman begins to ask me why I'm there, Superman crashes through the wall, dead set on the Joker. I react instantly thanks to precognition and enhanced speed, grab him by the throat, pirouette, and slam him into the floor - and the only reason that worked is that it caught him utterly by surprise. "You, stay," I tell him - lifting my head, looking to the Joker. "You would escape and kill again," I say as I point at him. He grins and opens his mouth to speak, but with a twitch of my hand, a blackthorn wand appears and an emerald spark jumps between us.

Both heroes' eyes widen, Batman because he sees the Joker fall, Superman because he hears his heart stop. And then Batman does a double-take at the wall that Superman crashed through, seeing it intact again. Another twitch of my hand sees the wand disappear down my sleeve. I stand, taking a step back from a shocked Kryptonian and an angry man in hockey pads. And as they round on me, I speak.

"Allow me to tell the two of you what has happened: I have acted as the hand of justice incarnate and restored Metropolis. No one outside this room knows that anything odd happened today, and the Joker just died of a heart attack brought on by the weight of his realized sins." Or at least, as far as 'thou shalt not kill' Batman knows. Let's not split hairs. "What he did would have earned him the death penalty, Batman, and without intervention he would have escaped to kill again in the same way no matter your actions. I think we can agree that this is unacceptable." This earns me a grudging nod, so I continue talking. "Superman, your wife is alive and well, as is your pal Jimmy Olsen."

"Now if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have to derail the plans of an imp, and I swear that if either of you decides to take over the world before I get back I will take it back and rule it with a velvet fist." And before they can ask "what the fuck is the jumper smoking?", I've apparated away, and am pulling out my Water Mirror.

A Scottish Terrier answers.

"Hello, sir."
>"Hello. You are not one of mine?"
"No, I'm from outside, though I knew You. You are aware that Your spirit of vengeance has been subverted?"
>"Unfortunately. My policy is non-interference."
"I understand. I won't take up any more of Your time."
>"Good luck, son."
"Thank you, sir. Be well."

And when talking to someone of His status, you give respect.

This means, however, that all of this bullshit did NOT come from the Source, otherwise the man upstairs would have warned me off. Which set me off on my own quest - while Superman starts pulling his shenanigans, I'm trying to track down Boston Brand and the Phantom Stranger. And once I found them, we tracked down the Spectre - possessed by Mister Mxyzptlk. He tried to raise weapons against us and was dismayed to find his blade stopped by my own. Between the three of us... Mxyzptlk was extracted, and then run through by the Spectre's blade in an ironic turn of events. After that... well, I sent the Spectre with Boston Brand and the Phantom Stranger to Arkham, to restore Frank Corrigan and bring the Spectre back to who he had been.

This all wrapped up a year and a half after I had arrived. After this... I pulled out the Resurrection Stone and gave it a few turns, and summoned up Kyle Rayner.

"Shit. I knew I forgot someone."
>"Uh, what? Should I know you?"
"Not exactly. Hey, I know you're kind of dead, but do you mind if I go to Oa and resurrect you?"
>"Uhhhhhh. What???"
"Sorry, I'm sort of from another universe and I have special dispensation to play fast and loose with the local physics. Includes the afterlife."
>"I guess?????"
"HOW do you speak with so many question marks?"
>"How are you talking to a dead man!?"
"... good point. Uh. Blue lantern, I hoped SUPER hard?"
>"When you bring me back to life, will you share whatever it is you're on?"
"It's melange, and absofuckinglutely."

So, next stop: Oa.

I dropped in while the Guardians are mid-talk with Hal Jordan, and thanks to the magics of... uh, magic, suddenly there's a naked Kyle Rayner next to me. Which, of course, freaks out EVERYONE, and I spend the next five minutes explaining that no, I'm not the second coming of Nekron, yes, this really is Kyle Rayner, and Kyle would you please just tell them what happened. Also smacking Hal Jordan upside his head. Repeatedly. Because if I try hard enough, one of these concussions are BOUND to drive some sense into his idiotic brain.

Also, I get the Guardians to stand down and use some jumper-level negotiation on them, the results of which meaning that they're permitted to hang out on Earth and fight crime, but Lanterns are generally meant to focus on the REST OF THE SECTOR AND NOT JUST ONE PLANET UNLESS THERE'S A YELLOW LANTERN THERE. In return, Earth matters get handled by Earth, including the Superman crisis. Which means nobody's going to kill Mogo, hooray. Also Sinestro is an intergalactic murderer and Hal Jordan had absolutely no reason not to apprehend him, but that will be dealt with in due time.

I thanked them for their time, sent Sajuuk the command to begin, and started racing back to Earth. Per Hal, the Regime was already taking shape - they'd taken over "rogue governments", including the United States because they dared to act against Superman. Sajuuk remained safely on in the Oort cloud, while launching its attack via hyperspace portals so it would appear it came from the far side of the moon.

The hard way, incidentally, involves an army of magitech automatons being assembled by Sajuuk. Their combat suite is programmed to look like Green Lanterns', largely hard-light constructs and directed energy weapons. And each of them is powered by a sliver of synthetic Green K in an arc reactor.

Now, over the centuries, I've had enough time to refine them. I've made certain by now that I can tune the automatons to any level of realism I want, and I've tuned it to maximum while invoking the appearance of widely varied species. In addition to that... I send human-looking LMDs as well, with widely varied superpowers emulated via technology, all human in appearance. A mixed force if ever there was one - a seeming strike between an insurgency and the Guardians of the Universe.

The actual Insurgency uses it as a chance to make their own strike, giving the illusion of a coordinated assault. The Yellow Lanterns pull back to populated areas, and instead of engaging, the pseudo Green Lanterns flatten the Hall of Justice and throw the Watchtower down from orbit, forcing its landing outside Smallville, Kansas. At Superman's order, the Lantern Corps masses and attacks there, with Superman at its head.

When I get to Earth, it's to a battlefield of Yellow Lanterns and Green Lantern lookalikes, and it's been pretty much a rout - dead LMDs and pseudo-lanterns everywhere. Some Yellow Lanterns are down, but most are celebrating their victory. Among them, Superman. Who had been on video with a yellow lantern ring, murdering Dinah Lance after being shot with a Kryptonite bullet.

I land, face exposed but body clad in a Blue Lantern outfit, and look to him. "Oh hey, Clark," I greet him easily.

He looks at me warily and approaches. "You."

"You remember what I said before?"

"What-"

I lift a hand and tap into powers that I seldom use. Photokinesis. It's harmless, of course - I twist the sunlight for a mile around to the wavelength of a red sun. Coupled with the shards of synthetic green K across the battlefield, it works to begin draining his powers rapidly. "It's not Kryptonite, red light isn't going to kill you, but I'm sure you feel your power waning. You'll be merely a man soon. A man with a fancy ring, sure-"

And then, after a momentary pause, a yellow comet streaks forward toward me. "You-- how could you!"

I clench a fist as Superman plows into me, bracing. Super Anchoring - between that and the ability to withstand strikes from even this man, I am an immovable object. And then I'm surrounded by a blue aura, and I swing a fist downward, striking him in the chin, sending him reeling. "Your ring runs on fear, Clark. A billion people are watching us right now. They saw you help murder a thousand Lanterns and metahumans. But they're still watching, and they just saw me come in... and fracture your jaw. You know what's stronger than fear?"

Eight more blue flares suddenly appear on the battlefield, my companions charging in to keep the rest of the Yellow Lanterns away from the main event, while I lock my eyes on Sinestro - the coward hovering nearby, not attacking quite yet. "Hope," I pronounce soundly. "And suddenly, there's a billion people who see you murderers, and are hoping that you get what's coming to you."

In the meantime, in the distance, Dinah Lance stirs and loses one of her contact lenses into the dirt. Improbably, it continues transmitting everything live - while Doctor Fate takes her before she can expire from her wounds, to another world.

Superman brings himself to his feet, and even in his weakened state, he isn't holding back. If I hadn't been made durable enough to survive, I'd be burning extra lives by now. But... he initially chose to attack instead of retreat. Now it's too late to fall back - he's committed. He keeps swinging, and while he connects, his blows are less effective. He's trying to respond, but I've been making sure to keep hitting that point in his jaw. It was a hairline fracture, but now it's full-blown. Now he's spitting blood and teeth. Still fighting, using heat vision on me and depleting his precious solar energy stores rapidly, but what damage he does I regenerate from rapidly.

Sinestro finally comes from the sideline after killing more pseudo-lanterns and attempts to use yellow constructs against me as I slug it out with Superman and I split my attention as easily as anything - I can sense him, I can sense his constructs, and my ring projects blue constructs to counter him as long as is necessary until someone can pull him off of me. The fact that I'm doing this while seemingly ignoring him enrages him and he redoubles his efforts, before Ceci and Haruka both grab him and drive him about a hundred feet into the dirt of the battlefield.

"I told you that if you took over the world I'd take it back, Clark," I tell him, the battle slowly turning from a slugfest into something giving me superiority, his yellow ring growing more feeble as the fear worldwide fades. He tries to answer, but is unintelligible, and I knock out another tooth, sending him to the ground. He tries to clench his fist, to project a yellow construct, but I stomp on his hand, breaking his metacarpals, and I bend down to pluck the ring off.

"Vigilantes are tolerated because they do what the police can't during peace, what the military can't during war. Heroes are celebrated because they are symbols to the people that those with power can be better than jackbooted thugs. They are not judge, nor jury, nor executioner," I tell him, stepping back as the yellow constructs fade. The ring tries to escape before I crush it in a fist, leaving an irregular ruined ingot to fall to the ground. "You act as police, and you turn a criminal over to be processed lawfully. You act as the military, and you stop an invasion using necessary force. You act on governments' behalf. You let the world govern itself and step in only when needed. You do not kill. You do not usurp governments."

I reach down, roughly grabbing Superman's shoulder and forcing him to his feet. He takes a half-hearted swing at me and I return the favor by socking his nose. "You are exiled to the phantom zone. Return to this world at your own peril. But first-" and with that, I grab the front of his costume with my fist, and with a little help from telekinesis I tear the insignia off. "You are a disgrace to the House of El, and do not deserve to wear this symbol. Especially after beating the Green Arrow to death."

And with that, I invoke the Kaleidoscope, and Superman fades into grayscale and disappears. While I've been doing that, the battle has been joined by others - Wonder Woman chief among them. She and Sinestro face me, warily, while my companions and the pseudo-lanterns are engaged with the rest of the rabble.

I dust off my hands and look up to the battlefield, a grin on my face. And with a wave of the stick that abruptly appears in my hand, Sinestro is disarmed - literally - the hand with his ring falling to the ground as he looks on in shock, his gold armor fading and disappearing as he clutches the wound with his remaining hand.

I grin at Diana, and incline my head. "Use that lasso on yourself, and clear all doubts that what you've been doing is not the Amazon way. Go back to Themyscira, Diana." I'll not bore you with the details, but she didn't. Even when she had the rope around herself, she kept trying to rationalize what she did - but then kept answering herself with the truth. It was a nasty, nasty feedback loop, one that she was reeling from all the way to Paradise Island. Of course by then the battle had ended, the remaining Yellow Lanterns who had evaded capture escaped to space, while the pseudo-Lanterns delivered the captives to Oa. Sadly, the unarmed Sinestro was among those who escaped.

After the dust settled, we established an interim government, working to return the world to its people. Sure, the League had set the groundwork for a One-Earth Regime, but the United Earth government that formed was quite nicer in how it did things, and most nations joined and still kept autonomy. It doesn't hurt that the political landscape had been wiped nearly clean by the nascent Regime, either.

The Justice League was well and truly dead, but the Legion of Superheroes rose from their ashes - supported by the global government.

There were threats that were dealt with, of course, after that - the Society rose and was rapidly decimated because cranial bombs are so overdone this year, and Gorilla Grodd was executed. Supergirl was brought into the fold and worked tirelessly to restore the emblem she wore as a symbol of hope.

The Phantom Zone split open five years to the day that the Legion was established, and the Legion met the exiles from the Phantom Zone in their finest hour. Kal-El and Dru-Zod working together... the Tyrant and his General as they called themselves, Superman having fully given himself over to dictatorial madness, encouraged by another power-mad Kryptonian. A frightening sight to say the least, even if they were weakened. And yet, Kara managed them both, and they were defeated and locked away. Supergirl had become Superwoman and stepped easily into her role as the Legion's commander.

Brainiac arrived shortly after, the opening of the Phantom Zone somehow engineered by him, but he was completely unprepared for a unified front. Nor was he expecting someone to seize brief control of him with technopathy, systematically cripple his control, and disassemble his work. The cities he had briefly taken were restored, and others were given a place on Earth and elsewhere in the universe. Meanwhile, I got a great deal of exotic technology to pick apart at my leisure at a later time.

I've never been happier that nothing sapient can stay in the warehouse when I'm not there, though. I thought I'd gotten all of Brainiac's stuff sorted, and then when I closed the door, a few unexpected things were spat out.

This is why you always use protection when you interface, kids!

(Also, Superwoman and Lois Lane fell in lesbians with each other. I swear that woman has a Kryptonian fetish...)