The Chronicles of The Trinity on Earth-10: Part One - Superman

Chapter Fifty: Livewire's Redemption, Part Four

Uptown Metropolis | Metropolis, New York
Monday, June 28, 2033 | 09:28 EDT

I find Lois, and she says, "I heard the Priority Omega Alert. Where are the kids?!"

"At Cedar Point, in California," I answer her, but I call attention to my hands, and I sign out, "S-A-N-D-U-S-K-Y... O-H-I-O", because I don't know whether or not he's listening.

Lois nods, and then says, "Awesome. Let's go get 'em, then!"

And we take off in the direction of the famed amusement park.

Cedar Point Fairgrounds | Sandusky, Ohio
Monday, June 28, 2033 | 09:30 EDT

When we get to the amusement park, we see the kids just arriving.

And when the kids see us, Jon says, "Dad, what's going on?"

"The abridged version," I start: "Evil version of me, wants to kill your ma, you, your sisters, Kara, and everybody else who's close to me to make me suffer like he has, and we've all gotta move."

"I'm afraid it's far worse than that, Superman," says Damien. "But I'll tell you once we're at Generation Justice HQ. Let's go."

Generation Justice Headquarters | Smallville, Kansas
Monday, June 28, 2033 | 09:45 EDT

After I round up the rest of my family, especially Ma, I bring them to the kids' HQ, and the entirety of the Justice League, Titans, Society, and the SHAZAM! Family shows up. Then, Damien says, "Father?"

"It's on you," Bruce says to his doppelganger.

"This all started... actually, with you, Lois," says Alternate Bruce. "I come from Earth-49, and in that universe, our Superman lost his mind. His wife, Lois, was pregnant with his son. Would've been his first child. But the Joker wanted to corrupt our Superman. That suicidal maniac knew that what he had planned was going to be his last 'joke'. He planted a nuclear bomb in the heart of Metropolis, killed Jimmy Olsen and kidnapped Lois, surgically attached a remote detonator for that nuclear bomb to her heart, and rigged it so that if, for any reason, her heart stopped, the bomb would go off.

"He then drugged our Superman with a Green Kryptonite-laced variant of the Scarecrow's Fear Toxin, and made Superman believe that Doomsday had returned. Superman then beat what he believed was that mindless monster into space, but when the effects of the gas wore off, he saw that it was, in fact, Lois that he had taken into space. She died by her own husband's hand, and Metropolis became a crater. The Joker had won.

"Overcome with grief, rage, and hatred, our Superman snapped, busted into the GCPD interview room I was interrogating the Joker in, and ripped his heart straight out of his chest, right in front of my eyes, and the eyes of everyone else who was watching my interrogation of that madman.

"After that, he revealed his identity to the world, and turned the world into a police state, and, by force, became the self-appointed supreme dictator of his new Regime's one-world government. He expected the entire Justice League, and the world's heroes to follow him, especially me, because he all but directly blamed me for everything that happened to him by not killing the Joker before he did, but what he ended up doing was completely, and irrevocably splitting the Justice League in half. Our Wonder Woman stayed with him, along with my son and several others, and instead of trying to talk him out of doing what he was doing, not only did she encourage him that what he was doing was the right thing, instigating his growing insanity, but she ended up becoming his main advisor, second-in-command, primary enforcer, and rebound lover."

Diana and I exchange an identical look of mortification, and Earth-49 Bruce continues. "He committed various crimes against humanity, all in the name of keeping the Earth safe, such as but definitely not limited to: Forcibly disarming the world's entire nuclear arsenal, forcibly disarming the world, imposing a worldwide martial law, doling out harsh punishments for infinitesimal misdemeanors, incinerating entire groups of disturbed young Gothamites with his heat vision who worshipped the Joker, and killing various heroes and villains who disagreed with him, no matter who they were... or how young. Green Arrow, The Atom... SHAZAM!, and that's just naming a few who had simply gotten on his bad side. I couldn't let this stand, so I formed the Insurgency to his Regime, and I went into hiding."