IMMUNITY ━ GODS AMONG US
✧ UNSETTLING ENCOUNTERS ✧
━━━━♛━━━━
"IT'S GOTHAM... SORT OF,"
The Justice League stood confused. They knew the infamous city well, but a second ago, they were in Metropolis, trying to stop the Joker from detonating a nuke that would blow the city to kingdom come.
"So, temporal displacement?" Green Arrow guessed. "Alternate Earth?"
"Could be either," Wonder Woman considered. "We may have jumped to a different dimension, or events in our own timeline have changed and we're in a new, altered present,"
"We need to determine which, soon," Aquaman told them. "If Joker's bomb detonated, we have to get back,"
"The Watchtower should have picked up any anomalies, right?" Green Arrow asked.
Wonder Woman shook her head and said, "The Watchtower might not exist. I can't make contact,"
"We need to find out," Green Lantern said. He held up his right hand and added, "Once my ring is charged I can get us there,"
"The Atlantis Archives," Aquaman pitched. "If this is an altered timeline, we might find a record of the triggering event there,"
"Assuming there's an Atlantis," Green Arrow raised a brow.
"It's worth investigating," Wonder Woman agreed with the Atlantian. She nodded towards the archer and said, "Let's you and I check things out here,"
Green Arrow agreed, and he stood up. Meanwhile, Green Lantern spoke to his ring, asking, "Ring. Where's the nearest power battery?"
"The Ferris Aircraft facility in Coast City,"
Green Lantern shrugged in relief and said, "Well, at least that hasn't changed. Stay low. I'll be back ASAP,"
The heroes nodded, and the Lantern flew off to the opposite end of the country to his hometown.
━━━━✷━━━━
As Hal Jordan crossed the country from Gotham to Coast, it was like whatever darkness had infamously plagued Gotham now loomed over America. At least, the hallways of the Ferris Aircraft facility were comforting... familiar.
"Where did you say the battery was?" He asked the ring again. Hal knew exactly where he hid the battery, but he needed to fill the eerie silence of the empty hallway.
"Locker #407. Locker room located on the fourth door on the next hallway to the right,"
Hal furrowed his brows, uttering, "Locker room?"
His lantern was supposed to be in Carol's office, not his locker. He continued down the hall anyway, but he paused when he heard a conversation behind one of the doors.
The Green Lantern pressed his ear onto the door. The conversation was inaudible, but the voices were unmistakable.
"Raven? Cyborg?" He whispered, his tone almost relieved that he found other teammates. He pushed the door open slowly, but as he approached them, he realized that they were not the same teammates he knew.
Cyborg looked much larger, towering over Raven. His doubled technology bulked his appearance. Raven, on the other hand, had a red undertone to her skin rather than her violet.
A man was strapped onto a table. Gear laid on another table nearby— Deathstroke. Green Lantern would have understood that resentment coming from the two, but it sounded like it was more of a persecution than it did an interrogation.
"The rest of the Titans died after Metropolis five years ago," Cyborg snarled.
"I had nothing to do with that," Slade choked out, Raven's powers clenching his throat.
"Doesn't matter," Cyborg retorted. "You're still on the wrong side of the law,"
Suddenly, a green forcefield surrounded Deathstroke, successfully protecting him from Raven's magic. Cyborg and Raven stared wide-eyed at the brilliant emerald color. Their heads snapped up, and their faces fell in utter confusion.
"This how things work here?" Green Lantern sneered, stalking over to them.
"You're green again?" Cyborg exclaimed.
Meanwhile, Raven narrowed her eyes at the Lantern. Her magic itched her instincts uncomfortably.
"Something's not right," She muttered. "He's Hal Jordan, but...,"
"Stand down! You're done here!" Green Lantern ordered, cutting her off.
"High Councillor's not gonna like this, Hal," Cyborg warned him. "What happened to protecting Legend?"
The Lantern stopped in his tracks. His posture tensed, equally confused and wary at the mention of his friend.
"Legend?" He repeated. "What do I have to do with protecting Legend?"
That was the giveaway for Victor and Raven, and the Cyborg shook his head, "He's definitely not ours,"
Raven shot a blow of his magic, causing Green Lantern to grunt and fall to his knees. Raven kept her grip on him tight, making sure he was motionless.
"After we're done with Deathstroke, how 'bout the three of us have a little talk?" Cyborg said, circling around Deathstroke and approaching Green Lantern. "We're not risking Legend's life because of your carelessness,"
Green Lantern was utterly confused why one of his best friends was constantly being brought up, and he used his ring to escape Raven's magic. The blast was also directed at Cyborg, who was knocked into the pile of airtight containers.
"Enough!" Raven ordered. "Whoever you are, you're under arrest,"
She blasted her magic at the Lantern, who quickly ducked and rolled to the side. He directed a blast from his ring at Raven, knocking her back, then held her down with chain constructs. The demoness was quick to counter that, her magic breaking the constructs after a brief struggle. She took two airtight containers by Cyborg, throwing them at the Lantern, and Hal constructed a shield that bounced the cans to the side.
Green Lantern constructed chains once more, locking Raven and throwing her to the opposite side of the room, and blasted her mid-air, enough to knock her out.
"Now who's this High Councilor?" He demanded from Cyborg. "The one who's turned you into a second-rate thug?"
"I'll show you second-rate," Cyborg snarled.
"Talk. You. Now," Lantern snapped, holding his ring up. "Who's this High Councilor, and why do you keep bringing up Legend?"
"Why don't we talk about the mess you're in instead?" Cyborg retorted, his arm morphing into a cannon. He refused to tell Hal Jordan anything, especially now that he was not the Hal Jordan that they thought they knew.
Hal was yet to charge his ring, which meant that he had to use it wisely. He constructed a shield against the blast and decided to target Cyborg's systems instead. He managed to disable his offensive systems, shutting him down and knocking him out.
The Lantern proceeded to free Slade, breaking the straps, and the assassin cursed under his breath as he sat up, "Damn scum! Get off me!"
"Look, I'm not with them," Green Lantern reassured him.
Slade only glared at him and said, "Whoever you are, they know you now. If they catch you... You have the stones to refuse their amnesty?"
"Who are they working for?" Green Lantern asked.
"Who's the only one who could keep metas like them in line?" Slade returned, raising a brow.
Hal frowned. There were not a lot of beings on Earth capable of such.
Before he could properly ponder on the question, his ring buzzed. A faint voice called out from the communication frequency.
"Hal! Hal, are you there?"
The Lantern turned away from Deathstroke and responded, "Wonder Woman,"
"You better get back here! Sinestro's here!"
"On my way," He responded. He shut off his ring and muttered, "I need to charge my ring, then you and I are gonna take a little trip— son of a bitch,"
Slade was nowhere to be found.
Green lantern huffed. He had other matters to take care of. He quickly found the power battery in his locker and flew back to Gotham City as quickly as possible.
When he arrived by a battered bar beneath the train tracks, he spotted Green Arrow and Wonder Woman, but there were also bright yellow constructs appearing out of thin air.
Sinestro Corps.
Green Lantern quickly created a green anvil to protect Green Arrow from a yellow ax construct.
"Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, now Hal Jordan?" Sinestro smirked amusingly. "This just keeps getting better,"
"Oppressing your home planet isn't enough, Sinestro?" Hal spat.
"The One-Earth government is similar to mine of Korugar," Sinestro told him. "An alliance was logical, so for now I tolerate humans. Even Hal Jordan,"
He connected Sinestro's remark to Cyborg's surprise— who stared at him like he was not supposed to be glowing green.
"So my doppelgänger has joined your side," Green Lantern glowered.
"As do all who wish to live," Sinestro retorted, holding his ring up.
Hal was quick to deflect the attack that Sinestro threw at him. If there was one thing that he was confident in, it was that he could kick Sinestro's ass without a problem.
"I'm resisting arrest... again," Green Lantern scoffed once he did. He flew over to Diana, bending down to her and offering her a hand, asking, "You okay?"
Diana groaned, pushing herself up, but her eyes widened when something caught her eye behind Green Lantern.
"Hal!" She exclaimed.
"Someone call me?"
Hal Jordan turned around sharply, hearing his own voice. He stared disgustingly at his doppelgänger.
"You're Sinestro Corps?!" Green Lantern condemned.
"I had no choice," Yellow Lantern stated through gritted teeth.
"There's always a choice," Green Lantern responded, flying up to his doppelgänger's level. "So you ditched green for yellow, the color of cowardice,"
"I did what I had to do for my wife," Yellow Lantern snapped, blasting power at his duplicate's direction. The Green Lantern was quick to counter that, meeting the yellow light with an equally powerful green blast. "I'm still about Order. Like the Guardians,"
Diana had stood up, but Yellow Lantern quickly blasted her back down again.
"And I'm sure Carol and the Guardians are very proud of you," Green Lantern provoked angrily. He fired missile constructs at his doppelganger, who easily deflected with a large yellow shield.
"I didn't marry Carol, Glowstick,"
The Green Lantern's eyes widened, jaw slightly ajar at the revelation. The shocked, dumbfounded look amused the Yellow Lantern.
"Looks like I'm not the coward between us two," He smirked.
"Save it," Green Lantern snapped. "Time to kick my ass,"
Now, word was Hal Jordan was arguably one of the most strong-willed and therefore powerful Green Lanterns to ever wield the ring. Hal Jordan would admit his bravery was thanks to his ego. He not only faced his fears and overcame them; he had taunted death many times.
When he thought he had seen it all in the galaxy, there was always something else. This fight was definitely one of them.
Every combat was like any other, no matter the opponent. It was always about outsmarting the other, so fighting himself was... different. The Lantern across him was himself, his strengths and his weaknesses, and fighting his doppelgänger was a testimony to a fact he constantly pushed to the back of his mind.
His fear was just as strong as his will. Green Lantern knew that his stubbornness and impulse to act strengthened his will-powered constructs, and it seemed like his yellow counterpart was wielding just as much fear as he did his will.
"Well, that was surreal," Green Lantern huffed once he managed to knock out the Yellow Lantern, but his mind said, Surreal was wording it nicely.
"And a bit disturbing," Diana added, walking up to the Lantern. Oliver joined them and snorted, "Yeah. All that yellow's really tough on the eyes,"
Disturbing wasn't the nicest term to word it either, Hal thought. He had just faced the person he feared he would become, but also learned something else that maybe gave him hope or maybe terrified even more, which was—
"He said he has a wife," Diana pointed out, coming back to her point of what was disturbing.
—Hal Jordan was a husband in this reality. He was married.
"Looks like you were able to marry Carol," Oliver smirked, nudging his friend as he referred to Hal's lengthy, if a bit sporadic, courtship with his childhood friend and employer.
Hal didn't even spare his friend a glance as he shook his head conflictingly, muttering, "It's not Carol,"
Oliver's eyes widened, more curious about who else Hal may have and could've courted, and the archer asked, "Then who—?"
Loud wailing sirens pierced through the air, and the three heroes immediately perked up, putting Oliver's curiosity to a hold.
"We need to move," Diana told them.
The two men nodded in agreement, and the three heroes slipped into one of the alleyways, stealthily running away from the sirens.
"Hiding from the cops," Oliver scoffed. "Aren't there any good guys here?"
They stopped in their tracks when they bumped into Batman, but not theirs. His suit was different.
"There just might be," Hal responded to the male archer.
━━━━✷━━━━
LATER, THE HEROES FOUND THEMSELVES IN A LEAD-LINED HIDEOUT that belonged to Batman and his Insurgency. Their encounter with the yellow-clad Hal Jordan confirmed that they were in an alternate Earth instead of an alternate timeline, and this world's Batman had filled them in with a brief recount.
The Gotham vigilante had also given Green Arrow a pill, one that he said would enhance his body's capabilities and strengthen his immunity system. The archer was about to swallow it when hellfire scorched at the side of the room. Diana, Hal and Oliver stood combative, but they lowered their guard when it was revealed to be Arthur.
"How'd you get here?" Green Lantern asked.
"Ares," Aquaman answered and quickly added, "Not our Ares,"
"We know," Green Arrow shrugged. The door Batman disappeared through opened, and the archer pointed at it, saying, "Meet Not-our-Batman,"
He was clearly expecting Batman to walk in, but he did a double-take when a female archer walked in instead.
"That's not Not-Our-Batman," Oliver uttered, and the Earth-One heroes' gazes were drawn to the Hooded Archer. The Legend looked different, much like the counterparts that Arthur had met back in Atlantis. Her suit was pitch-black, not illuminated in the brilliant blue of her magic.
"Nope, brooding isn't really my thing," Legend told them. She turned to Arthur and said, "I was about to get you out of Atlantis, though. Looks like someone did the work for me,"
Her tone was casual, but her exhaustion was hard to miss. The Legend they knew was bright-eyed and goofy, always joking and always teasing. Sometimes, she would be grumpy– stoic like Batman, but it was coupled with utterly amusing sarcasm. There were days they wondered–and admired her light-hearted demeanor despite her history.
But it looked like in this timeline, the darkness had finally won.
Her eyes were lacking the light that they usually held. Her stance felt like she was ready to pounce yet refuse to budge. It was like she had survived tens and thousands of hurricanes, and the tornados had sucked out all the warmth that would radiate from her and left a shell of the Legend they knew.
The heroes did not comment on any of their observations. They knew better than to pry about more than what Batman-II had told them about this timeline.
However, Hal Jordan's gaze lingered on the archer with a different look in his eyes.
The Legend was easily one of his closest friends in the League—his best friend, in fact. She was in the same tier as Barry Allen in his eyes, and now he knew she was supposed to be his wife—a word and a commitment that scared the heavens out of him.
In this alley, Yellow Lantern was no coward. Despite giving into the Sinestro Corps, this world's Hal Jordan had the willpower to get his shit together, start a new chapter and live his life. Despite wearing the color of cowardice, this world's Hal Jordan had the guts to pursue his best friend, love her, and marry her.
"Headache?" Aquaman asked, nodding towards the pill that Oliver was about to swallow.
"Trying to prevent one," Green Arrow replied, finally flicking it into his mouth.
"It's a durability enhancer," Insurgency Batman explained, finally walking in. "Five-U-93-R,"
"How can a pill allow—?" Aquaman was quickly answered by Batman, who said, "Kryptonian nanotech. Increases the tensile strength of bone and tissue by several thousand percent,"
"Bats can tell you the rest later if you're having trouble sleeping," Green Arrow told Aquaman as the group sat down by the table. "He borrowed the recipe from Superman. Supes gives it to his flunkies,"
"Yes. I met a couple of our evil twins," Aquaman said.
"They're not evil," Legend corrected the Atlantian, but her gaze was locked on Batman.
There was a murderous look in her eyes that reflected the pent-up emotions she had towards the vigilante. Whether the simplification of how the Insurgency attained the components of the pill was Bruce's or Oliver's doing, the term borrowed couldn't be farther from the truth.
"Most obey Superman out of fear, or they believe he's right and has lost perspective," The female archer stated, each word spoken like she wanted them to know it was the truth.
"So you two are the only ones left," Aquaman gathered, looking between the two Gotham vigilantes.
As if on cue, Lex finally entered the room and corrected him, saying, "Not the only ones,"
"What is this?!" Aquaman demanded, slamming his fist on the table while Green Arrow said, "How. Are. You. Even. Alive?"
"He's with us," Batman reassured them, extending a hand at them.
"Unlike your Luthor, I've never indulged in law-breaking," Luthor explained as he made his way to the empty seat by the table. "Superman doesn't suspect his best friend is funding the Insurgency,"
"Gotta give it to you. Took me a while to figure it out," Legend commended, sitting beside Luthor. She then addressed the rest of the duplicates, saying, "Luthor's involvement is a secret. People critical of Superman disappear or die—government officials, activists, reporters...,"
The way the female archer's voice trailed off sounded like she was about to add something else. She decided against it, but the heroes didn't fail to miss that there was more than she and Batman let on.
"Well, now that we're all here, explain why you chose us," Wonder Woman said, and Green Arrow added, "And why you didn't ask before yanking us over. We were kinda busy,"
"The nuclear bomb? It didn't go off," Luthor said, sharing a look with the female archer. "Your transfer somehow prevented it,"
"How did you know about—?"
Luthor cut Aquaman off, saying, "We've been monitoring your world for some time—you four specifically,"
Batman nodded and said, "I have a weapon to take down Superman: a Kryptonite-based laser that—,"
"Hold on, a Kryptonite weapon?' Green Lantern spoke up, leaning forward. "You kill him, you're no better than he is,"
"It isn't going to kill him," Legend reassured the guy.
"It'll incapacitate him, nothing more," Batman told the heroes, successfully averting the group's attention from the eye contact Hal shared with the female archer a second longer. "The weapon's in the Batcave. I need your DNA to unlock it,"
Legend quickly averted her gaze from the Lantern, cursing at herself. She had prepared herself and told herself to not get hung up on it, but seeing Hal in green again... she couldn't help it.
She never blamed him for what happened but seeing his brown eyes glimmering emerald again... She had to admit, she missed it.
An alarm in the Insurgency headquarters suddenly rang, and the heroes were startled, looking up as Green Arrow asked, "What's that?"
"We're needed somewhere," Insurgency Batman answered. "It's over in Arkham,"
Legend furrowed her brows, "Who—?"
"Harleen," Batman answered, standing up.
The heroes' heads snapped up in her direction in complete and utter shock, saying, "Harleen?!"
"Like Joker's Harley Quinn?" Green Arrow clarified.
"Things are different here," Batman told them. "With everyone else backing Superman's reign, I had to turn to other allies,"
"Yeah...," Legend drawled, rolling her eyes as she raised her hand. "They won't be happy to see me,"
"Get used to that," was Batman's only answer as he marched out the door.
The archer rolled her eyes, grumbling, "Be grateful you have help, Batsy, or you would've needed my duplicate,"
"I heard that," Batman called at her.
"You were supposed to!" She retorted. As the archer begrudgingly stood up, her suit glowed bright blue. Her magic lit up brighter, fueled by her annoyance.
The Earth-One duplicates exchanged nervous and worried looks as the archer left the room. There were easily many disturbing details about this reality that did not sit right with them, but it was seeing where their teammates stood that truly worried them.
Superman ruled as a dictator. Hal's doppelgänger served the Sinestro Corps. Aquaman was assisted by Ares. Lex Luthor and Harley Quinn were Batman's allies. Robin was nowhere to be found. Instead, Legend stood by Batman, seemingly not by choice.
Whatever history Batman had told them about this Earth barely scratched the surface.
━━━━♛━━━━
AND SO IT BEGINS
VOTE, COMMENT, AND
ADD THIS TO YOUR LIST!