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robininthelabyrinth · 5 years

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Fic: The Beginning of Wisdom - Chapter 20 (Ao3 link)

Fandom: Flash, Legends of Tomorrow Pairing: Leonard Snart (Len) & Leonard Snart (Leo), Len Snart/Mick Rory, Leo Snart/Mick Rory, Len Snart/Mick Rory/Leo Snart, Leo Snart/Ray Terrill, Len Snart/Barry Allen

Summary: In which Leonard Snart is twins.

(the life and times and loves of Len and Leo Snart)

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The EMP blast Leo’s glove gave off was, to human eyes and ears, unnoticeable – but the aftereffects could be observed immediately.

The armors collapsed, for one thing.

The Time Masters were freed of the Pilgrim's hold, for another.

Luckily, at this point, Leo had maneuvered himself and Mick into position to herd the whole lot of them into one of the side rooms using Mick's heat gun, with Leo slamming the door closed behind them with a satisfied smirk.

"You – what did you –" the Pilgrim stuttered, staring down at her own gauntlet.

"Just an EMP blast," Leo said. "Non-fatal, even to AIs; the Waverider's Gideon gave it to me to use against competitive Gideons. But hey, I think you now have a pretty good argument to make to the Gideons that you're not as much of a threat as they originally thought."

The Pilgrim blinked at him, clearly shaken. "You - you do realize that if any of the Time Masters had thought to activate the Omega Protocols, I would have been forced to turn on you in a heartbeat, right?"

Len shrugged, coming up beside Leo to nudge him in the shoulder approvingly. His brother, ladies and gentlemen and noblepersons; he always did have the best way with people. "We would've dealt with it," he said. "Right now, though, we need to focus on destroying the Oculus."

"Then we can take you somewhere where the Time Masters won't be able to find you," Leo said. "Can you – and more importantly, will you – help us? I have no idea how this Oculus thing works."

The Pilgrim smiled, suddenly, a broad show of teeth. "Yes," she said. "There, I can help you. Do you know, no one's actually asked me to help with a technical matter in – lifetimes? Some days I actually missed being low level tech support."

"Guys, as touching as this is, maybe we could do something about the fact that we're still fighting the Hunters?" Firestorm shouted.

"Oh, I can help with that, too," the Pilgrim said.

Apparently, the Hunters were also controlled by trigger words, albeit more common ones, and the Time Masters had unwisely enough given those words to the Pilgrim. The Hunters gratefully put down their weapons the second that they were able to, which made everybody happy.

"You lot do intend to focus on deprogramming these guys once you're in charge, right?" Len asked one of the Gideons by the door that had narrowly escaped the EMP's blast radius.

"Of course," Gideon said. "It is among our top priorities, followed shortly by trials for the Time Masters responsible for the worst of the atrocities – muted, of course, so that they can't activate any of the triggers."

"Good. And the Pilgrim?"

"Under the circumstances, we believe you are correct, and that we misjudged," Gideon said, albeit a little stiffly. "While we still would prefer that she not be in the Vanishing Point – at least while we are rebuilding – we concede that her death is unnecessary."

"Even better," Leo said.

"We apologize for attempting to use you as a tool in this regard."

"Don't do it again," Mick said.

"Yeah, don't," Sara said. "Now, let's get to this Oculus problem. Can we blow it up without hurting anyone? Maybe contain the explosion somehow?"

With the Pilgrim's assistance and the Gideons' input, it turned out that it was actually easier to send the Hunters to evacuate all the (non-evil-mastermind) Time Masters from the Vanishing Point and set the entire Oculus to blow up, with the goal of rebuilding the whole thing from scratch later on.

"I have architectural critiques before you rebuild," Leo told the Gideon on the Waverider, waving his hands emphatically as Len tried to hide his laughter. "I have so many architectural critiques."

"So do we," Gideon said dryly. "The Vanishing Point as it was originally constructed was not, shall we say, optimally suited for AIs – or for most of its inhabitants."

Apparently, the vast majority of the inhabitants were either stolen as children to be raised in the Time Master way of thinking (Rip and his fellow low-level Time Masters) or captured in battle and subjected to a chair that stripped away memories, feelings, and freedom of thought in an endless burst of agonizing 'correction' (the Hunters).

It was brainwashing either way, as far as Len, Leo, Mick, and the rest of the Legends were concerned.

And speaking of the Legends -

Sara was appointed head of the deprogramming unit for the Hunters, with a plan to work closely with Gideon to use her experience with the League of Shadows to design a system to get it out of their system. Palmer immediately volunteered to work with her, as did the Hawks.

Rip appointed himself the new head of the Time Masters and declared his intention to reorganize them into something called "the Time Bureau", an idea that was all well and good but that ran into the immediate problem of the fact that many of the surviving Time Masters had their own ideas on how to "fix" the Time Masters, and those ideas did not necessarily match up with Rip's own. Given the Gideons' insistence on a more democratic (or at least, significantly less coerced) approach, Rip was obliged to quickly learn how to negotiate and work collectively rather than simply apply his usual high-handed authoritarian instincts the way he might have if he were rebuilding on his own.

He probably would have minded the change more if he hadn't had Miranda by his side to assist him, and Jonas to tease him out of his bad moods.

As for the rest of them, the Leonards and Mick and Jax and Stein (the latter two finally reconciled after an extensive and heartfelt apology on Stein's part), they headed home, bringing the Pilgrim along with them.

The Gideons conceded that she would be a valuable addition to the Vanishing Point's new structure, in time, should she wish to be, but insisted that they have the chance to build a solid foundation before she returned. In return for desisting in their attempts to kill her, they required that she stay in the 2010s for at least five years before she applied to re-join the Vanishing Point, should she even want to by then.

The Pilgrim declared herself to be more than fine with that, having not actually had non-mission-directed, non-murderous time to enjoy any era other than her own (something called the Kasnia Conglomerate that sounded, when described, positively dystopic in its own right) during her entire tenure as a slave to the Time Masters.

She went and got changed before joining them on the Waverider, which would have been fine except for the fact that she appeared wearing some sort of extremely low-cut leather bustier and a long leather duster and frighteningly high heels.

“What?” she’d asked when they’d all stared at her. “I’ve seen ‘The Matrix’ – this is what hackers from your time wear, right?”

She ended up being taken in by Stein and his wife, Clarissa, and had plans to take classes at the local university with Jax in the fall.

As for the Leonards and Mick, well, they did head home, but –

"Thanks for agreeing to let us borrow the Waverider, Gideon," Leo said.

"My pleasure, Mr. Snart," she replied cheerfully. "I think a few weeks' vacation sounds lovely, and now that the Oculus has been destroyed, there should be no issues whatsoever returning you to your home a few hours after your departure."

"This is going to be the best vacation ever," Barry said, literally vibrating in his seat. "Isn't that right, Iris?"

"Hell yes," she said, fist-bumping him. "Thanks for inviting me and Eddie. And for letting me bring Wally!"

"We had nine seats to fill," Ray said, grinning widely from his own chair. "Between the Snarts – Leonards and Lisa – and Mick and Barry and I, we only filled six."

"I can't believe this is my life," Wally said gleefully. He hadn't said much else yet, but he was Iris' less-legally-minded brother, so Len had high hopes for him. Lisa had taken him under her wing for this trip, too, which was all for the best.

"I've put together an itinerary," he announced. "There's a good mix of past and future visits, as well as between eras that have interesting or underrated fashions for Leo and unexplained historical thefts, for me. Any questions before we go?"

"Do we have to break the law?" Eddie asked, but his tone was clearly resigned.

"You're not a policeman in the past, Eddie," Iris reminded him. "Lighten up and embrace your pirate heritage."

"I have pirate heritage?"

"Why not?" she laughs, kissing him on the cheek. "You could."

"Any other, hopefully better questions?" Len asked.

Ray put up his hand, because he's a shameless nerd like that. "Who's driving the ship?"

"Mick," Len answered promptly. "Mick always drives, if possible."

"Agreed," Leo said.

"I mean, I know that, but the relevant question is - does he know how to drive a timeship?" Ray persisted.

"Relax," Mick said, settling down in the pilot's seat. "I got Gideon to give me a crash course."

Len couldn't resist.

"Emphasis," he said, "of course, on crash."

"Oh, shut up, boss," Mick said fondly, and with that they were off.

They planned to leave around 10 in the morning on a Saturday, with a goal of returning within the hour to make sure those of them with regular jobs could have their friends come up with excuses for them if for some reason they got delayed and hadn't returned by Sunday.

They ended up leaving around 11 and returning sometime in the late afternoon on the same Saturday.

Gideon apologized for the extra few hours that got tacked on even though they assured her repeatedly that it wasn't an issue.

"Have a nice trip?" Joe West asked as they stumbled back downstairs into STAR Labs, his arms crossed disapprovingly. He'd had the same stance when they'd left – Leo wondered if he'd stayed in that pose the entire time.

Judging by Len's smirk, he was thinking the same.

"It was awesome," Iris proclaimed. She was still wearing the lovely tiara made of silver and amber that Eddie and Wally had conspired to steal for her – with the Snart family's active assistance and encouragement, of course – and hadn't bothered changing out of the flapper-era dress she'd worn at their last stop.

"We'll tell you all about it," Wally told Joe, his enthusiasm managing the impossible and wearing down Joe's disapproving scowl. Apparently their relationship was very rocky at the moment, so Joe was sensitive to any improvements. "Oh! And we got you a watch from Switzerland."

Joe beamed at that, his earlier disapproval now entirely forgotten.

Len elbowed Barry approvingly – he'd been the one who'd suggested it.

"Did you go to the future?" Caitlin asked eagerly.

"We did!" Barry exclaimed. "Nothing too close to the present – that creates uncertainty, since we can affect it with our actions – but some of the further away eras."

"Barry only started one revolution," Ray said, grinning at Barry. They'd bonded during the Leonards' and Mick's (apparently) month-long absence with the Legends, and had developed a tendency to egg each other on in terms of reckless heroic acts (and also possibly to snuggle when the Leonards were unavailable, though they hadn't admitted to it).

Leo wasn't sure he approved, entirely, but whatever; Ray needed some non-model friends that wouldn't ask for favors once he was an established designer in his own right.

Well, favors other than "I want to put this feature in my suit, how do I make it not look wonky?", but that wasn't really a favor, and anyway that was mostly Cisco asking, not Barry.

That wasn't really a favor, anyway. More of a fun challenge that Leo was barred from participating in on account of it giving Len an unfair advantage in future supervillain fights.

"So what's the next plan?" Eddie asked. He was positively bright-eyed and bushy-tailed: he'd taken advantage of Gideon's advanced calculation systems and ability to analyze personalities to help with wedding planning, and was deeply relieved by the fact that he and Iris now had a full seating chart designed to forestall family fights and a complete plan of what vendors they should hire for what and by when.

The only thing left was to select the flavors for the cake – neither of them wanted to give up the taste-testing portion of the planning – and for Iris to select a dress.

Gideon had promised to attend the ceremony, both as herself and as a representative of the Vanishing Point, and also to arrive early to ensure that any last-minute dress disasters could be fixed.

In short, Eddie and Iris both looked like the weight of the world had been lifted from their shoulders.

"Now," Mick said, "we go home and sleep for a week, then we do some good old-fashion at home thefts to get back into the groove of things."

"Damn right," Lisa said. "Time travel theft is fun, but there's no place like home."

“You had to take after the criminal side of the family,” Leo sighed, shaking his head in mock mourning; he’d given up all hope of winning that argument long ago. As long as Lisa continued on with her chosen course of study – mechanical engineering – and kept to the law at least 80% of the time, he had no problems with her occasional dips into the criminal underworld.

“You bet I do,” Lisa said with a smirk.

"You have fun," Barry said. "I, however, am planning to sleep for two weeks, so if you want to go head-to-head, it'll have to be later than that."

"No, no, this’ll be good old-fashioned cops-and-robbers stuff," Len assured him. "With luck, the cops won't even know it's me."

"Eddie and I are cops and we're literally standing right here, you know," Joe said.

"He means we won't know which one is him," Eddie explained. “I mean, what theft is his. Or at least that we won't be able to prove it.”

Joe gave him a look.

"Give me a break, I just spent nearly two months with the guy," Eddie said defensively. "I had to learn to understand him."

"Two months?" Joe exclaimed. "I thought the plan was two weeks."

"We still got back on time, Dad," Iris said.

"Not the point!"

"Our cue to leave, I think," Leo said wisely.

"I think I'll join you," Barry said hastily. "This argument definitely doesn't need me."

They took a car home. They debated for a few minutes as to whether they should take Joe's car, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth bringing anyone's mood down – which was to say, Barry insisted.

Still: a victory is a victory.

#dccoldwave #coldflash #coldray #leonard snart #mick rory #barry allen #ray terrill #iris west #wally west #joe west #lisa snart #sara lance #rip hunter #ray palmer #martin stein #jefferson jax jackson #my fic #beginning of wisdom

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tessatechaitea · 6 years

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Doomsday Clock #5

Nostalgia's branding efforts might be a little off the rails.

Dammit. I had almost forgotten how everybody blamed and mistrusted superheroes!

Of course there's always been a long history of Gotham Police mistrusting and hating Batman (if only because he does their job better than they do and obviously has way better pay and benefits). But DC really fucked up when they decided that level of mistrust should be applied more broadly so that every citizen suddenly turned against even Superman, the universally acknowledged boy scout. I'm not a comic book historian so I don't know when that attitude began but I think it's generally acknowledged that it was a byproduct of Watchmen and similar comic books of the time. "Look at how more realistic this is! Why should a world embrace and trust masked heroes?! And Watchmen was so popular, that aspect of it must be what made so much money!" But, of course, that's the kind of thing people who didn't read Marv Wolfman's New Teen Titans believe. Because if I had to pick a starting point for when the mistrust of heroes seriously got rolling (I'm not saying it wasn't there before! It just wasn't the standard reaction of the public), I'd point to Wolfman's work trying to adapt The X-men feel to DC's superheroes. In the X-men, the "heroes" were actually mutants enrolled in a school where they could feel safe and learn to control their powers. They were hated by the public due to bigotry and a misunderstanding of what they represented to humanity's future. They were constantly attacked by "evil mutants" due to a disagreement on what mutants meant to the world. This worked as a plot point because of the bigotry aspect and the underlying difference between mutants and superheroes. But translating that to DC's world where mutants don't exist completely missed the mark. Wolfman's world became a place where The New Titans formed to help the world but never actually did. They simply created a headquarters in New York where they were constantly attacked by family members. Of course the people of New York would begin hating them for bringing danger and destruction to the city. Because they were actually doing that! And since The New Titans became DC's biggest seller for quite some time, every comic book writer on Earth learned that Wolfman's model was acceptable to readers. Instead of having heroes exist for saving the world, they could just exist to be targeted by super villains. And if that's all super villains seemed interested in then isn't it true that heroes are the root cause of all the problems with super villains? It's one thing to comment on bigotry in America by portraying people's hatred of mutants. It's a totally stupid other thing to have people hate heroes because of the destruction caused by the heroes attempting to simply save themselves from their enemies. In the first one, you side with the mutants because the people hate them for irrational reasons. In the second one, you have to side with the citizens because who wouldn't be upset if their house was destroyed and their dog was killed because The Joker was trying to kill Batman? I've said all of that before. Sometimes, I feel that's all I have left to say about DC. At least when Priest recently had the public hating the Justice League, it was because the Justice League was racist! Not in the regular racist way where Batman is using slurs and Superman is flying around in blackface and a sombrero but in the systemic way where they don't realize they're being racist but they just are. That was at least different (even if I still wasn't happy about it). I don't understand people who prefer heroes who are mistrusted and hated over heroes who are inspiring, loved, and embraced by the public. Wasn't the latter version the whole point of them in the first place?

Dammit! I should really read ahead before I go on a rant! Although, technically, I think this somehow proves my point about how this is all supposed to fix what went wrong with The New 52.

This issue is called "There is no God." I'm guessing at the capitalization because the font actually reads "THERE IS NO GOD". But it doesn't end in an exclamation point (or any other kind of punctuation, being a title and all) so I'm assuming it isn't meant to be yelled and it's just DC's perverse avoidance of lower case letters. Anyway, "There is no God" is the perfect title to ruffle religious feathers. But I bet it's a set-up! I bet Geoff Johns is going to write a story about how God does exist, even if only in a metaphorical way that gives hope to people who need more than a few decades of random, chaotic life! I mean, I would like more than a few decades of life too! But I wouldn't mind if it remained meaningless. Who needs a purpose? That's just adding obligation to this precious gift! Why do people want that?! I think that's why "being inspiring" has become such a huge achievement for so many people. Because it seems to give meaning to your life without you having to actually do anything except exactly the thing you want to do. So, say, I was coming up with a completely hypothetical situation where a guy I know survived an IED attack in Iraq but the four other people in his Humvee were killed, he might want to find meaning in why only he survived. He might feel somehow responsible for carrying on in a meaningful way to make their deaths less random and nonsensical. He might also become religious because it's too painful to believe that those four other guys simply winked out of existence in a meaningless war that didn't do anything for anybody (aside from some people making a lot of money (and aside from opening up the country to more chaos and instability)). And the meaning he might find in his life is becoming the center of attention just like he always wanted but could never attain. He became a comedian who also inspires people because he's so badly burnt and disfigured, how can he tell jokes?! Now his life has meaning even if his jokes and his poetry never get any better because the people who hear and read them are Christian and patriotic supporters who can't be critical of anything he does. So if he says in a poem that his daughter is crying "alligator tears," nobody tells him that they're "crocodile tears" and that if his daughter is crying them, it means she doesn't actually care that he's off in Iraq. And when his only joke is that he was blown up and set on fire, nobody minds because he was blown up and set on fire and—look at that!—he can still stand up and tell jokes! So inspiring! Now if my thought process were better than it is, I would delete all of that so that I don't sound like a jealous and bitter friend. But I explained my thought process earlier so you can judge me but I've got my Oreos ready to go after you misunderstand the hyperbole and facetiousness. Also, I'm not jealous and bitter. I'm supportive but critical! Which is why I didn't post what I just wrote on his wall. Because he can take supportive but I don't think he's up for critical. Especially hyperbolic and super truthful critical. Hypothetically, I mean! Back to how this comic book is doing its part to reset the DC Universe into the Post-Zero-Hour, Pre-New 52, Post and Pre a bunch of other stuff I can hardly guess at because DC Continuity is super fucked, a news report on a hospital television reports on Hawk, Dove, Red Star, and the Rocket Reds. So maybe I was wrong about Post-Zero-Hour! Maybe this reboot is post-Crisis only? And I might be wrong about that too! Isn't the current Superman from the Crisis timeline where they actually beat the Anti-Monitor? It's hard to remember Convergence because it was super boring and terribly written. It rated 5 Flaccid Penises out of 5. Unless you're totally into flaccid penises and then it rated zero of them. Along with the Rocket Reds and Red Star gearing up for an anti-west battle, Pozhar has stepped up to the plate as well. Or whatever you step up to in Russian baseball. Do they have something akin to baseball in Russia? Maybe cement-block-call? If we're going by themes, it's beginning to look like we're headed back to the eighties cold war, so a reboot to pre-Crisis levels of continuity isn't completely off the table! If I didn't know Geoff Johns was writing this, I'd be tempted to guess it was Dan Jurgens. The Cold War of this ear isn't about nuclear superiority but about metahuman superiority. But that's just a superficial difference, really! What's actually happening in Watchmen 2: Doomsday Clocks is identical to what was happening in Watchmen. Which means everybody will get along at the end not when Mister Terrific teleports a fake space creature into the middle of New York but when an actual cosmic threat attacks Earth and all the American and Russian metahumans have to team up to save the day. Then everybody will be inspired and begin fucking. Right on panel! I hope. In Moore's Watchmen, there was a thread with that kid reading the pirate book. I wasn't smart enough to know what that was about. Maybe it had something to do with how, to survive, the lead turned himself into a monster the way Ozymandias did. Or maybe it was just about the kinds of things media used to distract the populace. Who can tell?! Not me! Anyway, this series has Nathaniel Dusk stories as the story within a story. I guess it's the only way DC could get people to read them. So boring! You can tell they were boring if you read them in 1984. Also because an old man really loves them in this comic book. That old man is Johnny Thunder! His name makes him sound exciting but you'd be wrong! More boring! And he's trying to get the Justice Society back into continuity. Most boring of all! Some of you might be bristling at my description of the Justice Society as "most boring of all." But you've forgotten about the hyperbole and facetiousness! There's a twenty-five percent chance that I actually liked the Justice Society and own a bunch of their comic books! The Superman Theory states that the American government is in the business of making metahumans to make sure they retain control on the world stage. Most of the heroes deny that they were made by the government because they were actually made when they were exposed to Nth Metal. Duh. Everybody who believes The Superman Theory must not have read Metal. How did they miss it? It was the biggest and longest blockbuster ever produced! Anyway, Lois thinks Lex Luthor is the one behind this propaganda. But Lex denies it. In fact, he says somebody in the government is creating metahumans and that person was once a member of the Justice League! So, um, like Lex? Hopefully the reveal of the person behind The Superman Theory doesn't wind up being somebody like Commander Steel. With a twist like this, it's got to be somebody you generally associate with the League, like Martian Manhunter or Gleek.

Here Ozymandias lectures Batman thanks to years of terrible comic book writers.

By the end of this issue, Rorschach and Saturn Girl have caught up with Johnny Thunder who finally found Alan Scott's lantern. Batman has been captured by The Joker. And Geoff Johns is well on his way to telling comic book fans how dumb they've been accepting the bullshit narrative they've been fed for years that super villains only exist because super heroes exist. Rating: This issue was called "There is no God" and it had nothing to do with the story inside. But it was used because it was part of the Eugene O'Neill quote that closes the issue: "When men make Gods, there is no God!" Is that how every issue has been titled so far? Using a bit of the quote at the end? I haven't been paying close enough attention to know. Anyway, I have a few issues with that quote. First off, you shouldn't capitalize "Gods." I suppose you can argue that you would capitalize "Johns" but if you choose to do that, I probably don't like you and would discount your argument on that basis alone. I mean, the point is that men are making little gods which kills the proper noun God. Second, why does it end in an exclamation point? Is the second half of that statement such a huge twist that it needed the surprise element of the exclamation point? Maybe Eugene knew it was a fairly week turn to the phrase and thought the exclamation point would bolster the sentiment. I know that trick! The third problem I have with it is that I don't understand it in the context of this story. Is Johns saying that super heroes have replaced God? Are fans now supposed to feel reprimanded for being blasphemous monsters?! Am I supposed to believe that if we rely on heroes, we have lost our faith in God? Is Johns saying inaction through faith is better than relying on super heroes? Or is he saying that we lose our own motivation and free will when we expect heroes to save the day? How is that any different than expecting God to save the day? I guess in that context, I understand the quote! "When we come up with something more entertaining that still doesn't actually help or save humanity, we've forgotten the original concept we came up with that doesn't actually help or save humanity!" Hmm, good quote! I've won myself over! Five out of five stars! Not for this issue but for my twisted logic! For more of this sweet, sweet writing, subscribe to my newsletter: E!TACT the Newsletter.

#Doomsday Clock #DC Comics #Geoff Johns #Gary Frank #Brad Anderson #Batman #Watchmen

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imaginegladions · 7 years

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K Project AU Headcanons [PT1]

G doesn’t have the time to write a fully fleshed out fic because she has an Accounting exam, an online long exam at 8PM for Science, a play script to write for English, a video about her autobiography, a service project, and a philosophical journal to write for Philosophy, 15 working hours at my church as well as an interview about it’s history/church statement as well as an Oral Exam to prep for in Theology, two articles due for the School Paper, and a Tag Sale to prepare for which is a requirement for all Marketing students all due within the next two weeks on top of my regular homework.

*breathes in* I need a break.

So like, the Slates choose people with great influence in Alola and give them supernatural powers as per usual.

It’s not like Kahunas, nononono these are different.

For one, the Slates were created by scientists in Aether as a way of boosting human genetics and abilities.

Basically, they found a magic rock and accidentally turned it on now there are like 6 people running around in the world wielding these superpowers who can also give them to people who become their clansmen.

START HERE IF YOU ALREADY KNOW THE BASICS OF WHAT K PROJ IS!!

Enter You!

*Opening Song Plays* woooorriesssss slowllyyy come and kissssss tell meee what’s youurrrr nAAAAAME

ok shutting up now sorry i’m such a nerd for this anime

After the Slates started giving people these crazy powers someone had to prevent it from going out of control.

Luckily!!! Lusamine was granted with the amazing Blue Aura!!! Queen Lusamine managed to tame the Slates which she created anyway so that’s fair but still 6 people were left in the world wielding different coloured auras.

Meanwhile!!! This evil Silver King!! From a different region happens to visit Alola and gets these powers!!!

And in a bid to destroy Lusamine and grant even more power to the people of the world by stopping her from putting a cap on the magic rock, he tries to assassinate Lusamine!!

EXCEPT!! HER HUSBAND MOHN TAKES THE BLOW AND DIES!!

Lusamine completely desTROYS THIS SILVER KING AND HER SWORD OF DAMOCLES - a floating sword that appears above the heads of Kings when they use their Aura that is also a symbol of their power - BECOMES REALLY WORN OUT LOOKING.

This is bad news bc if the sword falls then it will destroy… everyone in the Alola region, oh noes.

LUCKILY!!! Green King Kukui steps up to help her handle the Slate in the mean time!! He’s not too strong though since his power mainly works with nature and Lusamine was one of the stronger Kings having derived her power from ice and wind.

Lusamine slowly becomes insane as time passes still not over the murder of her husband~~

Following Canon, Gladion realises that if he stays with the Blue Clan then he will be expected to become his mother’s right hand since his dad was fulfilling that role beforehand.

Instead of staying to witness Lusamine’s reign of terror he leaves to find a power that can rival Lusamine’s.

AND ALONG CAME THE RED KING GUZMA.

Team Skull is basically Homra. They’re both full of thugs that mean well and are actually cinnamon rolls.

Plumeria is like… their Kusanagi lbh they both mom all the members of their clan.

Anyway, by becoming part of the Red Clan Gladion earns the Red Aura which derives power from fire isn’t that the edgiest thing omg.

All the members have the skull tattoo too instead of the Homra Tattoo that they have in canon.

So Gladion stays with King Guzma and basically becomes his 3rd in Command who digs out all the secrets and goes on stealth missions.

Meanwhile!!! Lillie is confused af about why her brother left the Blue Clan and she asks her crazy mom for permission to go after him but Lusamine becomes even crazier and Lillie is starting to think that staying is a bad fucking idea so she runs away the first chance she gets staying with King Kukui in his little hut.

On her way to it!!! Lillie meets you!!!

You just arrived at the island and are lost so Lillie takes you to see Hala.

Hala is, of course, the Gold King. He keeps people in check, he mostly has the managing jobs taking care of the governance of Alola with his Gold Aura of light.

His grandson Hau takes to you immediately!!!

AND SUDDENLY!!!

YOU START GLOWING!!!

And Lillie is like ( 0.0)

And Hala is like ( 0 o 0)

And Hau is like ( OwO)

BIG SURPRISE!!! A SILVER SWORD APPEARS ABOVE YOUR HEAD CONGRATS YOU’RE THE NEW SILVER KING.

And then Lillie Realises.

Oh Shit, you’re the new Silver King.

Lusamine and Guzma are on the scene and start clashing like rip Kukui’s hut and Hala’s house these two are fighting and destroying things.

And all the while poor you are confused and floating in the air not used to your Silver Aura and the powers that come with it.

Luckily! Gladion is on the scene!

And Gladion takes one look at you floating lit up with Silver Aura and thinks Oh Shit.

Cupid better mcfreaking put that arrow away right now-

Cupid, no!

Cupid, YES!

Anyway, he knows he should get you the frick away from Lusamine before she blows you up and her sword falls down because she almost didn’t survive killing the previous Silver King she’ll destroy Alola if she kills you her sword will blow you all up to kingdom come.

Lusamine’s sword falls anyway during her battle with Guzma and the Red King scrambles to shoot Lusamine before her Sword hits the ground so that nobody will get killed.

Everyone stands there, staring at Lusamine lying on the ground, her sword disappearing.

The Blue Clan are devastated.

Lillie starts following you everywhere, at a loss for what to do.

You decide not to take any more clan members, remembering how her mom’s death was caused basically by her need to kill you.

As a way to repay her, you take Lillie with you on a Pokémon journey.

You don’t use your Silver Aura in front of her.

It might remind her of the person who killed both her parents.

Hau tags along some time after and sometimes he uses his Gold Aura to make butterflies and make Lillie smile.

In which Hau is a Totsuka that doesn’t die.

You’re all surprised to find Gladion walking up to you one day, challenging you to a battle.

“Do you mean-”

“I mean a Pokémon battle, of course.”

He’s surprisingly alright after his mother’s death.

He’s a bit desensitised to it after his dad’s death. He’s still hurting from it, from the absence of the Blue his mother gave him. Which is why he decided maybe training Pokémon would give him something else to think about.

Gr8 minds think alike hm? *eyebrow wiggle*

YOU CRUSH HIM IN POKEMON BATTLE AND HE’S NOT ABOUT TO TAKE THAT LYING DOWN.

He tags along too.

His excuse? He wants to be close and see how you train so he can beat you.

Lillie is v amused because this is her brother she knows what he really means. He just wants an excuse to be near you.

BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe some of the old Blue Clan are still angry at the Red Clan and Silver Clan and Gold Clan for not preventing the death of their King so one day they see you four!!!

The Silver King!!! The grandson of the Gold King!!! And the traitor 3rd in Command of the Red King!!!

AND THEY AMBUSH YOU!!

You try of course to activate your Silver Aura and manage to do it but so far all you know is some floating and a bit of memory manipulation you don’t know any offensive uses of your Aura yet!!!

Gladion steps in front of you, his Aura engulfing him in flames and protecting you.

And he is lit af omfg.

Hau is struggling a bit with his Gold Aura but he knows how to apply it enough to protect Lillie.

Lillie is v distressed that her friends and her are in danger and everything was going fine for the first time since her dad died and she sNAPS

AND. THEN. THERE. WAS. LIGHT.

A big majestic Blue Sword appears above Lillie’s head. Surprise! She’s the new Blue King.

And all these Blue Clan that attacked you? Yeah, they all bow tf down to their Queen.

NO ONE MESSES WITH HER CLIQUE.

You four are like… the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse. No one messes with any of you. You have 2 Kings and 2 strong clansmen among you from all 4 coloured clans in Alola.

Green King Kukui is v proud of all his kiddos and so is Hala.

You guys finish up your Island Trial and you become Pokémon League Champ but also your headquarters is now in the Pokémon League with Gladion, Lillie, and Hau as part of your Elite Four.

Your last member is this guy named Sun who Kukui also trained. He doesn’t say much but he’s part of the Green Clan and is fairly strong so it ties all the colours together nicely.

Grey King Red watches all of you from the Battle Tree all chill and everything. His only clan member is Blue.

#K Project AU #been waiting to do this for ages #I imagine the issue with Colourless happening after this #Lusamine is like Kagatsu but from the Blue Clan #I guess that makes Guzma the Mikoto?#If I continue this does that mean he dies?#And then Gladion becomes Red King?#OH NOES #that means one of the grunts must be like... a Totsuka #someone impersonates you and kills a Team Skull member the only one who doesn't believe it is Gladion #Mikoto!Guzma wants to kill you for it but in his rage his Sword of Damocles gets destroyed and he almost kills everyone #Gladion has to kill him in exchange for like... his hearing or his sight idk #only Kings can kill another King #maybe you can kill him #and everyone becomes very worried that your Sword will deteriorate bc you killed a king #you end up being fine though #because the Silver Aura grants immortality #but then everyone wonders about the old Silver King the one Lusamine killed #turns out that one was Colourless too impersonating a king #this got way too long #this would be like 4x the length of TSL tbh #type: my text #type: queue #type: to do #type: headcanons #Gladion x Reader #kind of #its in there it's just slow burn #THIS IS ONLY PART ONE HOLY SHIT

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15 Darkest Versions Of Superman

Superman is one of the most noble superheroes in the comic book world today. Since his creation back in the 1930s, Superman’s catchphrase has been that he fights for “truth, justice and the American Way,” and he’s been a symbol of all that’s good in the world. In fact, he’s such a great guy that we can’t help but wonder what would happen if he fought for evil instead.

RELATED: Men of Steel: 15 Comic Book Copies Of Superman

Superman has incredible power, including heat vision, super-strength capable of moving mountains, and heat vision that can burn through anything, which is why we’re glad he’s on our side, but what if he wasn’t? What if Superman turned to the dark? What if he used his unstoppable power for evil? Would he enslave humanity or destroy the world? On that dark note, here are 15 of the darkest incarnations of Superman we’ve ever seen.

JUSTICE LORDS SUPERMAN

The first dark version of Superman we’re looking at is Justice Lord Superman, a member of an evil, alternate-universe Justice League. The team, known as the Justice Lords, first appeared on the animated “Justice League” TV show in the 2003 episode “A Better World.” They came from an alternate reality where the execution of the Flash by President Lex Luthor enraged Superman into killing him. From there, the Justice Lords seized control of the world’s governments and imposed tyrannical rule on their Earth.

In the two-part episode, the Justice Lords traveled to the world of the Justice League, where they imprisoned the League and began their own brand of crime-fighting. Justice Lord Superman’s first act in the new world was to use his heat vision to lobotomize Doomsday, followed by immediate steps to take over the world’s governments. His incredible powers would have let him succeed if it weren’t for the regular Superman, who managed to defeat the Justice Lord before it was too late. The worst part is that Justice Lord Superman truly thought he was doing the right thing.

EVIL SUPERMAN (SUPERMAN III)

The 1983 movie “Superman III” had a lot of problems, but it did have the first movie version of an evil Superman. Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) was a computer genius instructed by his boss to make synthetic kryptonite, but screwed up royally when his computer found kryptonite had an unknown element. Inspired by a box of cigarettes, Gorman substituted tar with the missing element and produced a form of kryptonite that didn’t kill Superman, but instead split him into a de-powered, mild mannered Clark Kent and a super-powered evil Superman.

With his personality twisted by the kryptonite, Superman immediately began using his powers to mess things up. He traveled around the world, defacing the Leaning Tower of Pisa, blowing out the Olympic torch, getting drunk and basically being the exact opposite of a hero. This version of Superman was dark in the sense that he did bad things, but was overall pretty campy, acting more like a jerk than a true supervillain. He still manages to get on the list, though, because Christopher Reeve did a great job.

DARK KNIGHT SUPERMAN

“The Dark Knight Returns” is a 1986 classic mini-series that showed an alternate future where Batman had gone into retirement, but returned a decade later when new threats terrorized Gotham City. In “Dark Knight,” Superman has become an ally of a brutal U.S. government opposed by Batman, and is ordered to arrest the Dark Knight. The story culminated in an epic battle between Superman and an armor-clad Batman.

The Superman of “Dark Knight” wasn’t necessarily evil, because he remained committed to freedom and American ideals that have been corrupted. With his secret identity of Clark Kent publicly known, Superman was forced to fight for the government to do some good in the world. Instead, Superman is stuck fighting Soviet-backed forces in Latin America in a prelude to World War III and even Batman instead of fighting crime in the streets of Metropolis. Rather than being evil per se, he’s a misguided and frustrated hero who finds himself trapped in global affairs.

SMALLVILLE’S KAL-EL

On the TV series “Smallville,” Clark Kent had a rocky relationship with his father, Jor-El, and that’s putting it mildly. He didn’t know his Kryptonian heritage until later in the series, and discovered Jor-El wanted him to conquer Earth instead of protect it. In season three, to save his adoptive father, Clark allowed himself to be reprogrammed into Kal-El, his Kryptonian persona. In the fourth season premiere, Kal-El was focused only on his “destiny” as ruler of Earth at the cost of his humanity.

For those who had come to know and love Clark throughout “Smallville,” his Kal-El persona was terrifying, completely empty of emotion and love for humans, including his adopted parents whom he barely remembered. He even threatened to kill Jonathan and Martha Kent when they tried to stand in his way. Kal-El had new powers and used them ruthlessly, fighting with Clark for control of his future as a Superman who would help or would dominate humanity.

RED SON SUPERMAN

What if Superman fought for the Soviet Union instead of the United States? That was the premise of “Superman: Red Son,” an Elseworlds mini-series published in 2003. In “Red Son,” Superman’s ship crash-landed in a collective farm in Soviet Ukraine instead of Kansas. Instead of being raised to fight for “truth, justice and the American way,” the Soviet Superman fought for Stalin and the Communist Party. He became a weapon of propaganda for the Soviet Union, upsetting the balance of power in the Cold War.

Soviet Superman was dedicated to his country, just like the American Superman, which made him incredibly dangerous for the wrong reasons, because he was a living weapon that the Soviets used to spread their power throughout the globe. He traveled the world with Wonder Woman, converting other nations to the Communist Party, and even became their new leader. He was a good leader for a bad world.

ULTRAMAN

The original Ultraman was a Kryptonian from an alternate universe whose spaceship encountered kryptonite during his journey to Earth, making him stronger instead of weakening him. It also twisted his mind. When he arrived on Earth, he named himself Ultraman, and assembled a dark version of the Justice League called the Crime Syndicate of America which conquered the world. When Ultraman learned of Superman’s Earth, the Crime Syndicate crossed into their dimension to conquer it.

First appearing in “Justice League of America” #29 (1964) Ultraman had all of Superman’s powers, but without the weakness to kryptonite. He’s ruthless and as hungry for power as Superman was for justice. He ended up in a cycle where he would be caught by Superman, break out, and fight Superman again. After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Ultraman was recreated in “JLA: Earth 2” as a human astronaut who was killed and reconstructed by aliens with new powers. However, the 2013 New 52 reboot restored him back to being an evil Kryptonian again.

THE SUPERMAN (HARVEY DENT, TANGENT COMICS)

In 1997, DC released a new imprint called Tangent, which was intended to be a reimagined version of the DC universe, where the existence of superheroes had political and economic impact. It was sort of like their take on the idea explored in “Watchmen,” where superheroes have changed history and society instead of just existing alongside our world in the regular universe.

In the Tangent universe, Superman was Harvey Dent, an ordinary man who survived an experiment that accelerated his mind to new levels. With new powers of telepathy and telekinesis, Dent took on the persona of The SuperMan, fighting crime and ultimately becoming more cold and remote until he decided to take over the world. With his godlike powers, he easily subdued the world’s governments and imposed a brutal totalitarian state. In 2008, the mini-series “Tangent: Superman’s Reign” brought the SuperMan to the DC mainstream universe, where he tried to impose martial law, but the main-continuity Superman finally stopped him.

ERADICATOR SUPERMAN

The Eradicator first appeared in “Action Comics Annual” #2 (1989), created to preserve the culture by an ancient alien race until it was reprogrammed to eradicate all other cultures except Krypton’s. Thousands of years later, the Eradicator was given to Superman while on Warworld and it began its work again on Earth, creating the Fortress of Solitude and trying to manipulate Superman into becoming the ideal Kryptonian. When it failed, the Eradicator created a new body for itself based on Superman.

The Eradicator had all of Superman’s memories (even thought it wasn’t actually the real Superman), but was far more brutal and violent. It didn’t have the power to absorb solar radiation, so it relied on Superman’s body to transfer energy to it. Over the years, it became more compassionate and even fought alongside Superman and sacrificed itself to save Earth, but remained dedicated to preserving Superman and Kryptonian life. In DC’s Rebirth continuity, the Eradicator has returned, and it’s just as dangerous.

UBERMENSCH

In 2000’s Elseworlds tale “JSA: The Liberty Files,” the Justice Society of America were secret government operatives in World War II; the Bat (Batman), the Clock (Hourman) and the Owl (Doctor Mid-Nite) investigating a secret German weapon called Ubermensch (the German word for “Superman”). Hitler’s forces had found the alien and planned to use the Ubermensch to lead a German attack in Egypt.

In reality, Ubermensch was the alien we know as the Martian Manhunter. The Martian Manhunter has enhanced speed, strength and the power of flight, making him a fitting Superman, but with added telekinetic powers. Ubermensch could absorb the thoughts of anyone he touched, but Hitler only allowed contact with him, infecting Ubermensch with his own twisted worldview. Dedicated to the Nazi cause, Ubermensch almost allowed Hitler to conquer the world, but the Bat touched him and was able to give him a new perspective to end World War II.

OVERMAN

He came from a world where everything had gone wrong. First seen in “Animal Man” #23 (1990), where the Psycho-Pirate began releasing long lost characters from out of continuity, Overman was the result of a government experiment and other superheroes (based on the Justice League) cloned from his cells soon followed. Overman was driven mad by a sexually transmitted disease and killed everyone in his world, ultimately creating a doomsday bomb to commit suicide and destroy his world.

In “Animal Man,” Overman was just a drooling maniac carrying an oversized bomb. In 2015, Overman was revamped in a sort of Ubermensch as part of the “Multiversity” storyline in “Mastermen,” a present-day world where Overman was taken in by Adolf Hitler to lead the Nazis to victory. In an Overman-controlled world, he was plagued with guilt for his role in the genocides the Nazis carried out. He’s one of the darkest alternate versions of Superman out there without any of the fun of “Red Son.”

BLACK ZERO

Introduced in “Superboy” #62 (1999), Black Zero was from an alternate reality where Superman died and his clone grew to maturity to become Superman II (the superhero, not the movie). With the power of tactile-telekinesis, he could create a field around himself that made him invulnerable, allowed him to fly and also moved heavy objects, similar to Superman’s strength. Superman II tried to fight crime, but ended up losing a battle that cost lives, leading to a backlash against human cloning. He decided to rename himself after the pro-cloning organization on Krypton, Black Zero, and fight for clone rights.

Black Zero used Project Cadmus to kill off most of his world’s superheroes and recreated them as clones of the originals, but that wasn’t enough for him. He entered Hypertime (a cross between the timestream and the multiverse during an era where DC Comics only consisted of one universe) to travel to other realities to fight for clone rights as well. Black Zero was a fanatical and ruthless warrior who could only be stopped by the combined strength of numerous Superboys from across Hypertime.

DARK SIDE SUPERMAN

Darkseid and Superman have always been enemies, except in 1998’s “Superman: The Dark Side.” The mini-series showed an alternate reality where Kal-El’s rocket was diverted from Earth to Apokolips, where he was raised and controlled by Darkseid. In the beginning, he was forced to wear armor that gives him power through geothermal energy because he didn’t have a yellow sun to power him. The Dark Side Superman helped Darkseid destroy New Genesis, but Highfather transported him to Earth, where he met Lois Lane and learned the error of his ways.

Superman in this story is more a pawn of Darkseid than inherently evil, but much like the others, his actions have horrific consequences. With his direct and indirect help, Darkseid managed to extract the Anti-Life Equation from Superman’s cells and subjugated the world, and expand his reach. With Earth by his side and a yellow sun to power him, Superman was forced to fight Darkseid to end his reign of terror.

CYBORG SUPERMAN

In 1992, during the “Death of Superman” arc, four men came forward, claiming to be the reincarnation of Superman. One of them was a version of Superman with Kryptonian cybernetic parts who came to be known as Cyborg Superman. Unfortunately, Cyborg Superman was actually Hank Henshaw, an astronaut exposed to a solar flare that turned him into pure consciousness, and drove him mad in the process. His mind used Superman’s birthing matrix to create a physical clone of Superman to possess.

Driven by a desire to destroy the real Superman’s reputation, Cyborg Superman tried to use a nuclear bomb to destroy Metropolis. He was defeated, but used his power to inhabit machines to return over and over again, once even conquering most of the planet Apokolips. After his ultimate defeat, he was taken in by Sinestro during the Sinestro Corps War, making him more powerful than ever. Since the New 52 era, Cyborg Superman has been revamped as having been the father of Supergirl, Zor-El, who survived Krypton’s destruction only to have been transformed into the villain he is today.

SUPERDOOM

No, we’re not talking about the time Superman got infected by Doomsday. In 2012’s “Action Comics” #9, Superman became one of the most destructive forces in the universe: a franchise. Created in another reality by scientists who invented a machine that turns sound into solid objects, Superman was sold to a corrupt corporation called Overcorp. Their dark and brutal version of Superman was so popular that it ultimately took over the world, but the need for increased commercialization drove the superhero to travel to alternate realities and slaughter all other versions of Superman. It became Superdoom.

Superdoom gained power and changed form based on what people believed of him, a fitting metaphor of how commercialism seemed to affect Superman. In his quest for supremacy, Superdoom slaughtered countless versions of Superman until he came to an alternate Earth where that version of Superman trapped it between realities. Superdoom ultimately travelled to DC’s mainstream Earth, where he fought and was defeated by the New 52 Superman.

INJUSTICE SUPERMAN

“Injustice: Gods Among Us” was a 2013 video game about an alternate reality where Superman was driven mad with rage after the Joker destroyed Metropolis and tricked him into killing Lois Lane. Superman killed the Joker and set up a new world order with himself as supreme leader while the rest of the Justice League followed suit. When they crossed over into the mainstream DC universe, the heroes and villains fought to overthrow Superman’s dictatorship.

It was really all just supposed to be an explanation for why Batman would be fighting Wonder Woman, but it gave us a compelling vision of a totalitarian Superman. More than that, the game led to a comic book series that acted as a prequel, showing what led up to it. The comic told the descent of Superman into abandoning freedom to set up a One Earth government. It was a haunting tragedy where Earth’s greatest hero became its greatest enemy.

Which do you think was the darkest vision of Superman? Let us know in the comments!

The post 15 Darkest Versions Of Superman appeared first on CBR.com.

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