Post by redsycorax on Aug 10, 2023 5:45:40 GMT
On Earth-381, a brutal historical twist meant Nazi Germany was able to develop nuclear weapons and delivery systems and used them to attack Britain, Russia and the United States. In the turmoil, Lois Lane and Steve Trevor were both killed when Washington and Metropolis were both targeted. As a consequence, Wonder Woman travelled back to 1889 and killed the infant Adolf Hitler in his cradle, much to the horror of Superman, who opposed her action and tried to stop her. So, what were the consequences of ending the life of the infant Hitler?...
+++
1953: LONDON:
"This is Lois Lane, reporting for the Daily Planet news service. It is now six months since the nuclear exchange between Soviet Russia and the United States that has become retrospectively known as the Second World War. In the drama and turmoil, much of Europe was devastated and some of it may be uninhabitable for centuries, if it can ever recover. The former United Kingdom was ...lucky... if you can call it that. Ah. Ah, I see Wonder Woman assisting a US Army relief team. Princess! Over here!"
"Miss Lane. Good to see you again. As you can see, the latest echelon has arrived from Dover."
"Can anyone resolve this grievous situation? Not that we aren't grateful for your heroism and commitment to service, given how much it's cost you."
"My own suffering pales beside the tragedies that we encounter and witness on a daily basis. Perhaps if we had a super-woman or super-man to provide additional assistance, this carnage would not have had to happen in the first place."
"Colonel Steve Trevor was a brave and valiant man. He tried to avert the attack against Washington and thanks to him, the death toll was less than it might have been."
"Thank you, Miss Lane." Lois took a deep breath and bit her lip. She hated to raise this next subject, but it was important to her professional integrity as a journalist. She looked up at the Amazon and cleared here throat:
"Princess, can you confirm that there have been vigilante violence attacks against some of the survivors here?"
Wonder Woman stared levelly at Lois Lane:
"Standard operating procedure states that if individuals and groups engage in terrorist activities against the relief echelons then they are culpable. You're from a military family, Miss Lane. You know that as well as I do."
"I wouldn't ask this if I didn't have to do so, Princess."
"I know that, Miss Lane. Look at those children waving at us outside the crater perimeter. Look at how skeletally thin they are. Many of them have radiation poisoning. Some of them are borderline cases. This may be the last time they greet us. You've seen parents holding the lifeless bodies of dead little ones, something no-one should have to do. I know you are not justifying terrorism, you are a better person and more intelligent woman than that."
A helicopter soared overhead, bringing more radiation poisoning cases to a sprawling field hospital. In it, a woman holding a wounded, frail child was visible:
"Look at that mother, Miss Lane. In the next few hours, will her loved one still be with us? That is why we're here. She may never recover from the trauma of losing her loved one. For her, it may be too much to endure. And as you can see, there are many graves for our own and fallen British service personnel who laid down their lives to protect her and her loved ones from having to experience unnecessary and unspeakable tragedy like that. It is our moral obligation and duty to help."
As they watched, a detachment of tanks rolled out and headed off into the desolation of the churned and blackened soil of the irradiated adjacent countryside. They rolled past derelict and uninhabitable buildings, past burnt down houses, with empty square holes where windows and doors had once been, lacking walls and roofs. Alongside all too many, there were makeshift, newly dug graves demonstrating the trauma of what had happened to these people. In some cases, there were three or four or five graves, indicating a whole family had died from the aftermath of the attack or from subsequent starvation or civil turmoil. Once, this had been a street of houses where children had played and families had lived. Now, thick and acrid smoke curled darkly upwards from funeral pyres and mass, makeshift cemeteries. The tanks rolled over the broken shells of burnt out cars, while in others, children and families sheltered from the elements and from an uncertain future. Elderly men and women lay on their knees in the grey dirt and dust, oblivious in their catatonic shock, rocking backward and forward. As they rolled past a relief camp, children and the occasional parent waved at them, or else ran and sheltered out of bewilderment or disorientation.
And to be honest, it was deeply affecting some of the men and women in the tanks as they witnessed the consequences of an act of mutual desperation on both sides of the Atlantic. Lois choked down the questions about suicide amongst serving military personnel from the relief contingent, because she knew that there was a limit to what the readers and listeners back home could accept. As she shut down her tape recorder, she looked across at Wonder Woman, indomitable, courageous, steadfast and alone. There was no way of knowing what she was thinking. In truth, if she could, she would have been horrified. Princess Diana of Themiscyra had averted one act of barbarism through another of primitive recompense, and this was the result. Either way, she had still lost her beloved Steve and although there had still been a nuclear war even without the sadism and genocidal self-immolation of Nazi Germany at its core, there were millions less casualties. Even so, it felt like she had navigated Scylla only to fall victim to Charbydis, the coeval monster lurking at the other side of the strait.
And light years away, on Daxam, a Kryptonian refugee family looked out over the tachyscope, witnessing what had happened on distant Earth. Jor-El did not begrudge himself the decision not to send his son Kal-El to that brutal and primordial charnel house but instead confirm the salvation of his entire family through constructing a vessel to take them to this kindred planet of a crimson sun, so much like their own disintegrated world. In his sleep, his young son stirred uneasily. Jor-El gently kissed his forehead and went back to bed, gently cradling Lara and his beloved son in his arms, unaware of a road not taken.
THE END [5.44 PM, AUGUST 10, 2023]
+++
1953: LONDON:
"This is Lois Lane, reporting for the Daily Planet news service. It is now six months since the nuclear exchange between Soviet Russia and the United States that has become retrospectively known as the Second World War. In the drama and turmoil, much of Europe was devastated and some of it may be uninhabitable for centuries, if it can ever recover. The former United Kingdom was ...lucky... if you can call it that. Ah. Ah, I see Wonder Woman assisting a US Army relief team. Princess! Over here!"
"Miss Lane. Good to see you again. As you can see, the latest echelon has arrived from Dover."
"Can anyone resolve this grievous situation? Not that we aren't grateful for your heroism and commitment to service, given how much it's cost you."
"My own suffering pales beside the tragedies that we encounter and witness on a daily basis. Perhaps if we had a super-woman or super-man to provide additional assistance, this carnage would not have had to happen in the first place."
"Colonel Steve Trevor was a brave and valiant man. He tried to avert the attack against Washington and thanks to him, the death toll was less than it might have been."
"Thank you, Miss Lane." Lois took a deep breath and bit her lip. She hated to raise this next subject, but it was important to her professional integrity as a journalist. She looked up at the Amazon and cleared here throat:
"Princess, can you confirm that there have been vigilante violence attacks against some of the survivors here?"
Wonder Woman stared levelly at Lois Lane:
"Standard operating procedure states that if individuals and groups engage in terrorist activities against the relief echelons then they are culpable. You're from a military family, Miss Lane. You know that as well as I do."
"I wouldn't ask this if I didn't have to do so, Princess."
"I know that, Miss Lane. Look at those children waving at us outside the crater perimeter. Look at how skeletally thin they are. Many of them have radiation poisoning. Some of them are borderline cases. This may be the last time they greet us. You've seen parents holding the lifeless bodies of dead little ones, something no-one should have to do. I know you are not justifying terrorism, you are a better person and more intelligent woman than that."
A helicopter soared overhead, bringing more radiation poisoning cases to a sprawling field hospital. In it, a woman holding a wounded, frail child was visible:
"Look at that mother, Miss Lane. In the next few hours, will her loved one still be with us? That is why we're here. She may never recover from the trauma of losing her loved one. For her, it may be too much to endure. And as you can see, there are many graves for our own and fallen British service personnel who laid down their lives to protect her and her loved ones from having to experience unnecessary and unspeakable tragedy like that. It is our moral obligation and duty to help."
As they watched, a detachment of tanks rolled out and headed off into the desolation of the churned and blackened soil of the irradiated adjacent countryside. They rolled past derelict and uninhabitable buildings, past burnt down houses, with empty square holes where windows and doors had once been, lacking walls and roofs. Alongside all too many, there were makeshift, newly dug graves demonstrating the trauma of what had happened to these people. In some cases, there were three or four or five graves, indicating a whole family had died from the aftermath of the attack or from subsequent starvation or civil turmoil. Once, this had been a street of houses where children had played and families had lived. Now, thick and acrid smoke curled darkly upwards from funeral pyres and mass, makeshift cemeteries. The tanks rolled over the broken shells of burnt out cars, while in others, children and families sheltered from the elements and from an uncertain future. Elderly men and women lay on their knees in the grey dirt and dust, oblivious in their catatonic shock, rocking backward and forward. As they rolled past a relief camp, children and the occasional parent waved at them, or else ran and sheltered out of bewilderment or disorientation.
And to be honest, it was deeply affecting some of the men and women in the tanks as they witnessed the consequences of an act of mutual desperation on both sides of the Atlantic. Lois choked down the questions about suicide amongst serving military personnel from the relief contingent, because she knew that there was a limit to what the readers and listeners back home could accept. As she shut down her tape recorder, she looked across at Wonder Woman, indomitable, courageous, steadfast and alone. There was no way of knowing what she was thinking. In truth, if she could, she would have been horrified. Princess Diana of Themiscyra had averted one act of barbarism through another of primitive recompense, and this was the result. Either way, she had still lost her beloved Steve and although there had still been a nuclear war even without the sadism and genocidal self-immolation of Nazi Germany at its core, there were millions less casualties. Even so, it felt like she had navigated Scylla only to fall victim to Charbydis, the coeval monster lurking at the other side of the strait.
And light years away, on Daxam, a Kryptonian refugee family looked out over the tachyscope, witnessing what had happened on distant Earth. Jor-El did not begrudge himself the decision not to send his son Kal-El to that brutal and primordial charnel house but instead confirm the salvation of his entire family through constructing a vessel to take them to this kindred planet of a crimson sun, so much like their own disintegrated world. In his sleep, his young son stirred uneasily. Jor-El gently kissed his forehead and went back to bed, gently cradling Lara and his beloved son in his arms, unaware of a road not taken.
THE END [5.44 PM, AUGUST 10, 2023]
