Post by redsycorax on Jun 15, 2023 2:04:03 GMT
Earth-718 may be one of the worst of all possible alternate worlds. On this particular alternate Earth, an uninhabited Krypton ceased to exist several light years away from Earth and nothing inhibited Lex Luthor's steady and remorseless rise to the pinnacle of global power, the US Presidency. At some point, he encountered the remains of the Coluan Brainiac artificial intelligence and used it to construct a neural network for himself. It ended any residual humanity within him and resulted in the murder of Doctor Saul Erdel, the nuclear attack on Corto Maltese that ended the life of his Vice President, Peter Ross and the initiation of a nuclear holocaust that ended all human and other life on that Earth, including that of his estranged First Lady, Lana Lang Luthor. But fate has a way of taking unaccustomed steps...
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By rights, Lana Lang Luthor should have ceased to exist at the moment that her husband's nuclear device detonated several kilometers above the WGBS Studios in Metropolis, where she was in the process of disclosing the evil and corruption that cankered the heart of the man that had been her childhood sweetheart and soulmate, before corruption and ruthlessness set in and he began his long and irrevocable journey away from any hope of redemption or compassion toward those 'weaker' than himself. Instead, the former First Lady found herself in a white leotard, green slippers and a hooded cape:
"What just happened? Where am I?"
-Lana Lang Luthor, I am afraid you are dead. You died when a thermonuclear device detonated above the Metropolis WGBS studios, where you were incinerated along with your interviewer Lois Lane and the rest of that television station. As well as eight billion other human inhabitants of your world, countless higher primates and cetaceans and all animal and plant life on your Earth.
"Are you God, then? No, wait...everything?!! Lex wiped out all life on the face of the Earth?"
-In answer to your first question, Lana, that is one of my nine billion possible names. And in response to your second question, your conclusion is correct. Below you lies a wholly dead planet.
"Why do I still exist?"
-Alexander Luthor has destroyed all life on this planet.
Lana didn't hesitate as she stared upward at the soft, comforting yet intense ball of healing, pacific light and immeasurable love that filled the sky above her:
"Then he's beyond redemption or any reach of mercy? Yes, that must be the case after what he did. I think I can guess why I'm here. Do you want me to act as an agent of celestial retribution? Because if that is your intention, my answer is yes, without hesitation or doubt. Lex has slaughtered billions of people. The words 'crime against humanity' don't even begin to describe what he's done- which is obliterate the whole human species and other sapient life forms on Earth. If you want to use me as a tool of divine recompense against him, then I willingly consent. He has to be stopped before this intolerable evil is compounded. Besides, I need atonement of my own. If I hadn't hesitated..."
-You loved him, once. He was your husband. You could not believe he was capable of this degree of merciless depravity. You sought to expose his existing crimes and in response, he killed you. Lana, know that you are not responsible for what Lex Luthor has done. You were in the process of making atonement when the bombs started to fall. Yours was not the finger that turned the key that unlocked the hellfire that ended this planet's existence as a living, vibrant world.
Lana looked down at the charnel fields below her, the blackened dead ground, the litter of skulls and skeletons that had turned Earth into a grey, irradiated ossuary floating silently in the void of space. She blinked back a tear:
"I may be a vengeful spectre now, but yes, this is my own choice. Look down there. I seem to recall a phrase from Your Holy Book, 'and the bones cried out, no hiding place.' Well, there are billions of human remains down there and I swear that the architect of global genocide that was responsible for that tomb world below us will pay. He must. Again, I freely consent to be the instrument of Lex Luthor's doom and justice for the human species he coldly and cruelly executed in their billions. Tell me, instruct me what I need to do to stop him and I will not rest until I have accomplished it."
And as the Presence did so, it was aware of countless other alternate Earths within the multiverse it had formed, and some iterations of Lana Lang Luthor that showed her to be a good and virtuous woman who had won the heart of an alien demigod and storied hero. It wished it could tell Lana Lang Luthor that it had no doubts about her clean and guiltless heart and loved and cherished her for the sacrifice that she was about to make. On those other Earths, the Presence had chosen men like Hal Jordan and James Corrigan as its Champion, but here, the Presence had made a different decision.
After the obliteration of Earth-718, Lana Lang would become the Spectre of her perished alternate Earth and pursue the creature that had been her former husband with all the steely determination, courage and focus on the mythical Furies of ancient Greece. And one day, she and the effigy of her corrupted spouse would meet hundreds of thousands of light years away and only one of them would walk away from that final encounter.
THE END [2.05 PM, 15 JUNE, 2023]
++
By rights, Lana Lang Luthor should have ceased to exist at the moment that her husband's nuclear device detonated several kilometers above the WGBS Studios in Metropolis, where she was in the process of disclosing the evil and corruption that cankered the heart of the man that had been her childhood sweetheart and soulmate, before corruption and ruthlessness set in and he began his long and irrevocable journey away from any hope of redemption or compassion toward those 'weaker' than himself. Instead, the former First Lady found herself in a white leotard, green slippers and a hooded cape:
"What just happened? Where am I?"
-Lana Lang Luthor, I am afraid you are dead. You died when a thermonuclear device detonated above the Metropolis WGBS studios, where you were incinerated along with your interviewer Lois Lane and the rest of that television station. As well as eight billion other human inhabitants of your world, countless higher primates and cetaceans and all animal and plant life on your Earth.
"Are you God, then? No, wait...everything?!! Lex wiped out all life on the face of the Earth?"
-In answer to your first question, Lana, that is one of my nine billion possible names. And in response to your second question, your conclusion is correct. Below you lies a wholly dead planet.
"Why do I still exist?"
-Alexander Luthor has destroyed all life on this planet.
Lana didn't hesitate as she stared upward at the soft, comforting yet intense ball of healing, pacific light and immeasurable love that filled the sky above her:
"Then he's beyond redemption or any reach of mercy? Yes, that must be the case after what he did. I think I can guess why I'm here. Do you want me to act as an agent of celestial retribution? Because if that is your intention, my answer is yes, without hesitation or doubt. Lex has slaughtered billions of people. The words 'crime against humanity' don't even begin to describe what he's done- which is obliterate the whole human species and other sapient life forms on Earth. If you want to use me as a tool of divine recompense against him, then I willingly consent. He has to be stopped before this intolerable evil is compounded. Besides, I need atonement of my own. If I hadn't hesitated..."
-You loved him, once. He was your husband. You could not believe he was capable of this degree of merciless depravity. You sought to expose his existing crimes and in response, he killed you. Lana, know that you are not responsible for what Lex Luthor has done. You were in the process of making atonement when the bombs started to fall. Yours was not the finger that turned the key that unlocked the hellfire that ended this planet's existence as a living, vibrant world.
Lana looked down at the charnel fields below her, the blackened dead ground, the litter of skulls and skeletons that had turned Earth into a grey, irradiated ossuary floating silently in the void of space. She blinked back a tear:
"I may be a vengeful spectre now, but yes, this is my own choice. Look down there. I seem to recall a phrase from Your Holy Book, 'and the bones cried out, no hiding place.' Well, there are billions of human remains down there and I swear that the architect of global genocide that was responsible for that tomb world below us will pay. He must. Again, I freely consent to be the instrument of Lex Luthor's doom and justice for the human species he coldly and cruelly executed in their billions. Tell me, instruct me what I need to do to stop him and I will not rest until I have accomplished it."
And as the Presence did so, it was aware of countless other alternate Earths within the multiverse it had formed, and some iterations of Lana Lang Luthor that showed her to be a good and virtuous woman who had won the heart of an alien demigod and storied hero. It wished it could tell Lana Lang Luthor that it had no doubts about her clean and guiltless heart and loved and cherished her for the sacrifice that she was about to make. On those other Earths, the Presence had chosen men like Hal Jordan and James Corrigan as its Champion, but here, the Presence had made a different decision.
After the obliteration of Earth-718, Lana Lang would become the Spectre of her perished alternate Earth and pursue the creature that had been her former husband with all the steely determination, courage and focus on the mythical Furies of ancient Greece. And one day, she and the effigy of her corrupted spouse would meet hundreds of thousands of light years away and only one of them would walk away from that final encounter.
THE END [2.05 PM, 15 JUNE, 2023]