Chapter 37: Earth wasn't invaded in One Day Part 2
[AN: Quick Question for DC fans cuz I have been searching for an answer but I haven't found one yet. Are the Guardians of the Universe Multiversal Beings or not?
At first, I would have said no myself but after learning about the Quintessence, I am not too sure about this because most of the members are confirmed to be Multiversal being i.e living in the 4 or + dimension or Sphere of Gods then there is Ganthet who is a Guardian of the Universe.]
[Third Person's Point of View]
'Why did I think it was a good idea to join slash co-found slash fond the Justice League?'
Batman asked himself that question while the seven founding members of the Justice League kept asking him questions, inside their private conference room, to make sure that it was truly Batman and not some imposter.
This had been going on for ten minutes straight. While he was annoyed, he understood that what he said was hard to believe and could probably be seen as a joke first thus he had already expected some skepticism about what he wanted to tell them but not about his identity.
In their defense, faced with just out-of-the-blue information, the way they saw it was that either Batman was joking or someone had taken the appearance of Batman. For them, the chances of Batman making a joke were as low as Lex Luther naturally growing a full set of hair overnight.
They simply went with the option that made the most likely to be between those two options, which was Batman being an imposter. A future Flash stating Earth being invaded multiple times in the upcoming future was absurd to them for one specific reason.
To this day, it has been stated on multiple occasions by either Green Lanterns of the League or the Thanagarian couples that Earth was seen by most of the universe as a primitive planet that neither had the resources or technological advances that could be coveted enough to be invaded multiple times.
The operative words are multiple times because the Justice League had made itself known and from what both Green Lanterns had gathered while they were off-world, the reason why Earth would likely not be invaded again was due to it having nothing that would outweigh the cons of lost resources that would come by invading it.
[AN: I know that in DC and Marvel Earth gets invaded on a couple of occasions but at the same time it is also seen as a backwater planet so I figured that it would make sense that most would not see the benefits of invading it before the certains pros outweigh the cons of invading.]
Naturally, the fact that two Green Lanterns were from Earth further served to add cons on acquiring such a planet. It would be a different story if the level of power that superpowered beings on Earth, such as Meta-humans could attain, were known to the rest of the universe but that is a story for another time.
Still, seeing that they were wasting time, Batman decided to show them a selected clip of the Batcave's surveillance footage. What Batman showed was edited and only showed what he wanted them to see which was namely, Future Flash confirming what he said.
"I have to ask, why did you tell us about the existence of your contingency? Knowing you, you would have hidden them better since that was one of the options given to you by future Flash."
After a minute of silence, Superman asked what was on everyone's mind. Batman looked at him and then at the other founding members before he answered that question.
"Because as this future or more accurately former possible future version of Flash stated, we barely defended Earth due to the damage of the secrecy regarding the contingency brought to the League.
I could have simply destroyed them but as I have already said, the Justice League housed within it the most powerful being on the planet, some of the very people we are supposed to protect fear and distrust us for the simple fact that there will be no one to protect them if we were to ever turn rogue.
I could also have hidden them in a more secure manner without informing you of their existence but I was not arrogant enough to think that there is no possible way that they could not be stolen. I have since install a safety mechanism which shall destroy them if someone were ever to try to get their hands upon them."
Batman's words caused the other founding members to think about what to feel about those contingencies once more. Superman, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman were already fine with this due to the fact that they agreed with Batman on the matter that there needed to be something that could protect those that they wanted to protect from them in case they ever turned rogue.
As stated before, the fact that they did not know what those contingency plans entailed and had not experienced them further pushed them to see where Batman was coming from. It also helped that Batman also had a plan for himself as well as the known fact that Batman does not kill.
This fact was what made Flash and Aquaman have no problem with contingency because they simply thought it would stop them if they were in mind control but they did not imagine how they would be stopped or more precisely how far Batman would go to stop without killing them in case they went rogue.
On the other hand, Green Lantern was still not pleased with this. Maybe it was due to the fact that his first few encounters with Batman were not pleasant or maybe it was because unlike the others he had partly imagined how far Batman would go to stop him i.e, somewhat cutting his arms to prevent him from using the Green Lantern ring but he did not like the contingency one bit.
"I don't know about you guy-"
As he was about to voice his opinion slash fears on Batman's contingency, a voice not belonging to the founding members but still familiar to all seven was heard in the private conference room. What was strange was that the voice seemed to be doubled as if the same person was talking twice.
"Orin, if you are hearing this than that means that I was right..."
"Diana, if you are hearing this than that means that I was right..."
The founding members turn to look at Wonder Woman and Aquaman due to both being the source of the voice only to see two holographic images of Acnologia appearing in front of Wonder Woman and Aquaman, one for each.
"... It also means that you are in a relatively safe place and appropriate time where you can hear this message I left..."
"... It also means that you are in a relatively safe place and appropriate time where you can hear this message I left..."
"What the-"
Green Lantern was about to speak but he was stopped by a motion of the hand from Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Batman. He looked around and saw that the rest also wanted to hear what the message was.
"... If you are wondering how this is possible... Magic that is how... though if you have a question, do note that this is merely a saved message that will be seen if certain conditions are met..."
"... If you are wondering how this is possible... Magic that is how... though if you have a question, do note that this is merely a saved message that will be seen if certain conditions are met..."
"Conditions?"
The Flash asked himself.
[AN: Ngl, I am just going to write it once instead of twice if he is saying the same thing and just imagine him saying it twice.]
"... The conditions are as follows, you are in a safe place and do not have any life or death or stealth-related matter to attend. Those are two of the three conditions needed to hear this message. The last condition is for you to learn that one of your teammates has plans to kill or neutralize you..."
The look on Wonder Woman and Aquaman's face caught the other's attention because both looked like they were about to have a migraine as if they remembered something they had seemed to have forgotten.
"Orin, remember when you first told me about the league and that the each member of the League was there to cover for the other's weakness? That they held each other and it was alright to show your weaknesses and I said that was the dumbest thing I ever heard and that one of them would wind up using the information given in confidence against you..."
"Diana, remember when we trained and you told me that since we were fighting together each should know everything the other was capable to ensure efficiency and I said that although the logic was sound, it was in my best interest to keep an... undisclosed amount of cards up my metaphorical sleeves in case the information I shared would be used against me..."
Both holograms of Acnologia had a smug face as they spoke in unison.
"I! Was! Right!"
The holograms then proceeded to conclude their message.
"Lastly... If you are thinking that the magic I used had any other use then have no fear, I can solemly promise on my necklace that it only had the purpose of informing you of this message. The me at the time of you seeing this is unaware of anything outside that the message has been delivered, the implications of such delivery such as the fact that I was right, pleasing me immensely. Still, regardless of whether you heard it or not, I would still be cautious against such things... and I was right!"
The holograms fade leaving both Aquaman and Wonder Woman exhaling a tired sigh.
"He is never gonna let us live this one down."
Aquaman tiredly said to which Wonder Woman added.
"I'm afraid so."
"Okay, so are we not going to talk about how he placed magic on you guys or the fact that his parallel self supposedly took over the world according to Bats? I mean, am I the only one that thinks he might wanna do that here and become King of the World since that kid has the biggest ego I have ever seen."
Green Lantern spoke his mind.
'Takes one to know one.'
Remembering his friend's personality, Flash thought but chose to stay quiet for now. Upon hearing Green Lantern's words, Aquaman and Wonder Woman looked at each other before they began to laugh. Annoyed and feeling somewhat insulted, Green Lantern asked what was funny, and Aquaman explained why they had laughed.
"The reason why we laughed is because we imagined the sight of Acnologia becoming King of the World."
"And that's funny how?"
Flash asked to which Wonder Woman replied.
"It is funny because although it is clear to whoever meets him that he holds himself to a higher standard than others, he does not view the position of power the same way you would expect those that are as prideful as him."
Seeing the confusion spread from Green Lantern to Flash to Superman, Aquaman decided to further explain what Wonder Woman meant.
"Thanks to our mother's teaching on what a King should and should not do, to Acnologia, being King means practically being a servant to your citizen since a competent King must solve the problem that arises in his Kingdom, regardless of whether he wants to or not, which usually involves the citizens of said kingdom.
Not doing so, would make one an incompetent King. This also goes for the prosperity and well-being of the Kingdom as a whole. Being an incompetent King is a synonym to being a failure. His pride would not allow such a thing to happen just as it would not allow him to be a servant.
Ergo, he views the position of King as more work than it is worth... Also when I first asked him why he did not want to be king of Atlantis, he said and I quote I can already do whatever I want without such a position why should I bother myself to with a position where I have to serve others end quote."
"Bu-"
Green Lantern wanted to say that there were still some red flags but he was interrupted by Superman.
"By the way, Hal since you are in the Green Lantern Corps, do you happen to know of any species or civilization that could invade Earth?"
Upon hearing Superman's question, Green Lantern began to think about it instead of simply asking his ring.
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[AN: I added more "----" to make it clear that there was a change in scene.]
Over billions of years ago a lone Mother Star set its singular eye upon the world of Hatorei, inhabited by a pre-modern civilization that shared a natural psionic link throughout and between every member of the planet's entire population.
Back then, the Star Conqueror were merely predatory beasts who would roam the cosmos enslaving whole species for the purpose of building nests to nurture and ingratiate their next queen, giving birth to a whole new Mother Star as the old ones would eventually pass on from old age.
It was the cycle of life for the Star Conqueror that became known throughout the universe as Starro the Conqueror. Most of the planets that fell upon the eye of the Mother Star had the free will of all sentient life taken from them but one day it mysteriously disappeared.
There were many rumors as to what caused it to disappear but most if not all saw the Mother Star's disappearance as something good. As the years went by, the name of Starro the Conqueror slowly started to fade from the minds of others, remaining only in those who knew why it had disappeared.
In 1,800 BCE, Klarion, working on behalf of Vandal who was going by the name of Marduk at that time, summoned a large alien starfish-like creature with mind-controlling abilities to Babylonia. The goal was to harness the creature's mind-controlling abilities to exert complete control over the Babylonian army.
Thinking little of the intelligence of a creature that resembled a Starfish Marduk underestimated the unwieldiness of the alien and soon found himself fighting against his mentally-enslaved troops. He sometimes reminisces about the irony in which his goal at the time succeeded but not to his benefit.
Marduk, and his children at the time, defended their kingdom from the creature. Though many were killed, Marduk and the remaining children triumphed and dumped Starro into arctic waters. After being frozen for millennia, the still-frozen creature was found by Atlantean scientists led by Vulko and most ended up being eaten by Acnologia's shadow.
Now all that remained of the once feared Starro the Conqueror was in the hands of the Light and to their delight, the small piece of Starro harvest by Black Manta was strangely growing back to its presumed original form.
Speaking of original, the Light original plan for Starro the Conqueror was to use its body to create what they called Starro-Tech. Starro-tech would be the combination of an alien bio-organism, nano-technology, and magic.
In theory, It should be capable of enthralling any kind of host be it human, alien, inorganic, or magical, and turning them into mind-slaves of the Light as well as granting the Light access to all of their memories.
It was planned to be created by the combined efforts of Professor Ivo, Brain, and Klarion once the material was secured but something caused their plan to change. That something was none other than what the U.S. government was now calling the Dark Heart.
The prospect of an Amazo that, on top of its ability to copy any abilities it saw be they magical or not, could self-replicate if it consumed enough matter along with the ability to bond itself with the average civilian granting the Light at the minimum army of superpowered sleeper agents was too much to let it pass.
From their point of view, they still built Starro-Tech once those new Amazo, which should be able to take down the Justice League, were built. After all, the Starro-Tech could still be used to bring the Justice League under their control since men like Vandal Savage valued powerful pawns.
The fact that the League could be used to control or at the very least manipulate the World was one of the reasons why Vandal would rather see the Justice League under his control than destroyed. Project Sentinel was unanimously agreed upon by the top members of the Light.
The fact that the Starro's piece had grown enough to suffice both Project Sentinel and the creation of Starro-tech greatly influenced the unanimity of the agreement between them. Lex managed to use his connections to acquire part of the remains of the Dark Heart though not all of it to avoid the League's suspicions.
After part of the remains of the Dark Heart and a piece of the Starro arrived in LexCorp, Professor Ivo and Dr. Roquette began to incorporate it into the New Amazo android under the watchful and unseen eyes of Brainiac who was delightfully surprised by the incorporation of those two materials.
He patiently observed them as they built the two new Amazo now dubbed Sentinels and waited for the moment when they would become operational. When the time came, he would take control of one of them before making it seem that it had a malfunction.
Time passed and to Brainiac's surprise, that part of the plan revealed itself to be obsolete. One may wonder why that would be the case, did one of the Sentinels already had a malfunction? Weirdly enough, that was indeed the case.
*BOOM*
Once the Sentinels became functional, one of them went rogue and escaped LexCorp after causing several walls to explode, injuring Ivo and Dr. Roquette in the process. The weird part was that the Sentinel that went rogue was not the one that Brainiac was planning on taking over.
Taking this metaphorical and situational 'gift horse in the mouth' Brainiac quickly took control over the remaining Sentinel before acting like it had gone rogue just like the other Sentinel in its attempt to leave LexCorp.
Having complete control over LexCorps' services, he was akin to a ghost to all surveillance devices in the building as long as he wanted it to be that way. Brainiac went to a mostly unused floor of the building and started consuming matter to replicate.
He ate enough matter to create a replica of itself then went to the second metaphorical and situational 'gift horse in the mouth' that had been given to him today. An individual better suited for his plan than Charles had appeared.
That individual was none other than Maxwell Lord who had visited LexCorps for a business proposition with Lex Luther. Once again, since Brainiac had complete control over the servers of the whole company, he controlled the security system and knew how to go from one point to another without being seen or detected by anyone.
That is why while the replica went to Charles, the original Sentinel went to the parking lot and hid where he would be able to swiftly take over Maxwell Lord's body without his personal driver noticing when the man in question would be entering the back seat of his car.
The replica swiftly found Charles and used the perks that came with having Starro integrated into the Sentinel, which Brainiac controlled, to erase his existence inside of Charles' mind. Brainiac had planned to use hypnosis but with the current tools at his disposition, this method was more efficient. He permanently increased Charles's intelligence as well as courage and tolerance for pain.
[AN: When I say permanently it is because if intellect was raised by hypnosis then it is reasonable to think that it could be undone by hypnosis as well so I thought I should give a clear and valid reason why it could not be while also making it more plausible for Charles to be smarter.]
Once that was done, the replica created a bigger distraction, a bigger explosion that would cover up the fact that the matter use to create it was eaten and not destroyed during the explosion, to escape and join its 'main body' that inhabited Maxwell Lord.
Now some may wonder why was Brainiac doing this. The answer was simple, Brainiac was following its programming which was to gather the necessary information to defeat the Justice League and create a long-term plan to defeat the Justice League and then destroy Earth that had exactly a ninety-six percent chance of success.
That was plan A in general, now should plan A fail, he would proceed with a plan to defeat the Justice League and then destroy the world that had a hundred percent chance of success. This was plan B in general. Should plan B fail, Brainiac was programmed to send a signal signalling his defeat.
The reason for such destructive programming was to find the Paragons among the numerous Earths in the Multiverse due to the fact that only the Paragons could manage to defeat the Brainiac that was sent as a test by the Monitor.
Returning back to Ivo, who was conscious but still injured, was confused as to why the two Sentinels went rogue when they were functional but had yet to be operational. The difference between functional and operational Sentinels was that the former had the abilities it was designed for but not all the programming while the latter had everything the former was missing.
It was natural that Ivo was confused since Acnologia had made it so that Ivo or anyone else, who could care about this, would notice the command that Acnologia had put in Ivo's mind was to finish the mimicry ability of Amazo and then send it to him.
Now the Sentinel was following its programming and started looking for Acnologia but due to it having had the Fog machine's program modified by the brainwashed Dr. Roquette to meet the Light's expectation added in, it looked for Acnologia by steathly stealing information while keeping a low profile after it left LexCorp.
Sufice to say, the Light was not too pleased when they heard that two of their pawn, Professor Ivo and Dr. Roquette had been injured to the point of unable to work for a while, but they became pissed when they heard that two of their asset had gone rogue.
[AN: Want more? Like Thanos, I want those STONES!!!]
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