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Legends of Tomorrow - The After Story of Remnant's Justice League
🕑 Added 2024-05-31 17:43:20 +0000 UTCMonths prior to the Fall of Beacon, an alien being known as Starro invaded the world of Remnant from an unknown alternate dimension, attempting to conquer the planet with its unique psychic abilities. In response, Starro's old enemy Jessica Cruz had gathered Team RWBY of Beacon Academy and various others in order to finally defeat her alien enemy and save Remnant. After the battle was over and Team RWBY returned to their duty at Beacon, the rest of Jessica's allies created their own stronghold to defend Remnant from any future alien threats and became known as the Justice League, changing the face of their world forever.
Or at least, they would have.
Instead, an unknown interference following the defeat of Starro caused the timeline to break apart, removing the Justice League and several others from the face of Remnant and creating several alternate worlds whose history, and even their very laws, were as different from the original Remnant as the world of an imaginary fairy tale. The various versions of the Justice League, whose own past was changed along with the world, became the sole heroes of their worlds, who protected it from evil humans who still endangered it in the absence of Grimm...
But even those worlds, each one being called "Earth" by its inhabitants, retained a semblance of connection with their worlds of origin. They became entwined with alternate versions of Remnant where the Justice League did not exist, its humans and monsters occasionally bleeding into one another in different ways. Their timelines began jumping back and forward, stopping and starting... Until suddenly, everything ended.
After watching everything unfold from its own domain, the strange intervention that split the timeline decided on a whim to undo the split. In an instant, and without a hint of a warning, two Earths and two Remnants disappeared from history, making it so them and everything in them had never existed... But rather than completely erased, these timelines were all absorbed back into the original like vanishing twins, turning it into a timeline that contained not only the Justice League, but also the whole of their allies and enemies from their fractured histories, now reforged back into the world of Remnant and its history. The following account will chronicle all of these individuals and their stories, from the first contact with Starro and up to the Justice League's own demise after the Fall of Atlas.
While the Justice League's original purpose was to battle against aliens while leaving local threats at home to the Huntsmen, they were never ones to deny help to those who asked for it. Such was the case when two teenagers from Vale who watched the Justice League in action had managed to track down Bruce Wayne's old home and contact him through his kindly guardian. Their names were Dick Grayson, a Robin Faunus whose Semblance could inspire hope in others, and Barbara Gordon, the daughter of the former head of Vale's police force, James Gordon, who were attempting to find the latter's murderer with Renee Montoya, Gordon's young successor and Dick's friend, but so far found nothing. Bruce was impressed by the trio's tenacity and wits and had agreed to help them on their quest, believing that a criminal who could evade their gaze was certainly dangerous. Along with his old friend Jesse Quick, the group spread out and assisted the police in gathering clues and information about Commissioner Gordon, who was found dead with a gaping hole in his chest despite no bullet being lodged in it. Bruce's own ability to analyze his surroundings had allowed him to locate an empty dust cartridge in the streets near the crime scene, suspecting it was used to create an elemental projectile that would dissipate after piercing Gordon's chest. It had no fingerprints, but gripping the empty magazine in desperation allowed Barbara to awaken her Semblance: The ability to learn about any object's history with a touch.
The ice shard that killed James Gordon was fired from a simple gun made by a retired doctor named Victor Freeze, who Barbara, Dick and Commissioner Montoya knew nothing about, and neither did the Justice League - It was one magazine out of thousands, after all. Nonetheless, the three were committed to finding Freeze and avenging Gordon's death, and the Justice League was willing to do their best to help. Their investigation led them to a hidden base used by the White Fang in Vale's Faunus quarter, something none of them expected, as Doctor Freeze was a Human. Not recognizing any of the interlopers aside from Barbara and Montoya, Freeze claimed to their surprise that Commissioner Gordon himself had his wife killed as part of an agreement with Jimmy Vanille and he joined forces with the base's operator, Edward Nashton, after he told him about the former Commissioner's corruption. Freeze refused to listen to reason and attacked the teenagers along with the dozens of soldiers in the base, and Dick Grayson was able to kill Freeze with a shuriken only for Nashton to arrive and shoot him dead on the spot with his electrified baton-gun. This sent Barbara and Renee into a rage, with Barbara pinning the Wolf Faunus down with her daggers as Renee blew his brains out with her own handgun's explosive bullet and Bruce and Jesse wiped out the remaining White Fang soldiers. Devastated at the loss of their friend, Barbara and Renee could take comfort knowing his death was not in vain as they said their goodbyes to Bruce and his friends, insisting to stay in Vale and continue to combat the White Fang rather than join them permanently.
Weeks later, Green Lantern Jessica Cruz was contacted by an unexpected visitor: Hal Jordan, an older Green Lantern from Jessica's planet who came to inform her that their teacher, Thaal Sinestro, has gone rogue and went into hiding somewhere in Remnant. In their effort to locate him, the Justice League found evidence that he was in alliance with someone named Grodd and traced the two's activities to the ruins of the settlement of Tuff in Vacuo, which was now filled with Grimm and animal drones produced by the now-defunct Starhead Industrial Company, seemingly reprogrammed by Grodd to protect him and Sinestro. The old machines were no match for the Justice League and they were ultimately able to find Sinestro and confront him in the settlement's former community building. The rogue Green Lantern was able to turn his ring's light constructs yellow and had a Semblance that could absorb Hal and Jessica's energy into his own, and while he was backed to a corner by the rest of the Justice League, a giant Gorilla suddenly appeared and punched Hal into a wall. That gorilla was Grodd himself, and he had a Semblance that allowed him to telepathically invade other people's minds and steal their intellect, allowing him to achieve a Human level of intelligence and even exceed it. While Grodd forced the Justice League to split up, Hal returned to back up Jessica and the two united their willpower to overpower Sinestro, using Jessica's own Semblance to force an opening by summoning an alien tentacle from Sinestro's own memories, which allowed Hal to finish him off while he was restrained. Meanwhile, Bruce, Clark and Arthur Curry fought Grodd, who was smart enough to realize Clark's Semblance only worked while he was under sunlight and attempted to trap him in the building's basement while he was fighting his friends. Powerless and desperate, Clark was able to break out of the cellar ceiling that trapped him with nothing but his own aura, destroying Grodd's genius brain with his heat vision and gaining the ability to store solar energy for future use in the process.
The Fall of Beacon took many lives, including Renee Montoya and Barbara Gordon, and left the city of Vale in disrepair. Despite this, more than a few individuals came to sympathize with the words of the mysterious "Black Queen" right before the attack, and a few of those gathered together and founded the Black Queen Village in the Forest of Hinoki. The group of misfits who led it were Harvey Dent, Jonathan Crane and Jack Oswald White, three survivors from Brunswick Farms whose experience left them scarred in body and mind. Their operations in the village drew the attention of the ambitious investigative journalist from Mistral, Lois Lane, who used her Semblance to project her consciousness outside of her body in order to bypass any barriers between her and the truth. Suspecting that the Black Queen Village was conducting experiments on Grimm, Lois believed it was no longer safe to investigate on her own and attempted to reach out to Huntsmen - But anyone she could find was either preoccupied or not available. Luckily for the junior journalist, she had previously learned about the Justice League's battle with Starro and managed to contact them, calling for Bruce Wayne, Diana Prince and Clark Kent's help in getting to the bottom of the operation.
But the village saw them coming. Although most of its people were weak and easily defeated, their leader and his two deputies were wise and strong despite their trauma and rather than experimenting on Grimm, they have actually learned to befriend them. Harvey Dent, who had half of his face horribly disfigured, was able to overwhelm Diana with his pair of grenade launchers loaded with acid bombs and the ability to split himself in two with his Semblance, and Jon Crane, who wielded a scythe combined with a spetum, used his Semblance to induce intense fear in Lois and Clark in order to leave them vulnerable to a Chill, a mysterious Nightmare variant who could take over their body as Bruce Wayne chased down Jack White, the village's leader. While Diana learned to channel lightning and flames with her two gauntlets with enough focus to cleave Harvey Dent's head down the middle, Clark was struggling to fight both Crane and the possessed Lois, who was already almost as strong as him. Despite knowing someone who was possessed by a Chill would likely die once the Grimm is removed, Clark attempted to get Lois to fight off its possession, only succeeding once he confessed that he loved her. The Chill was forced out of Lois' body, allowing Diana to kill it with a bolt of fire while Lois and Clark took down Crane. As they did, Bruce reemerged, revealing that Jack White managed to get his hand on an offspring of the Nuckelavee that destroyed Oniyuri and merged with it using his Semblance. The combined forces of Bruce, Clark, Diana and Lois proved too much for the village leader, but he resorted to merging with his two fallen friends as well and then sending a second Chill to possess Bruce; This time, the Bat Faunus' immense willpower allowed him to not only resist its possession, but actually merge with it and take control of its dark powers for himself, using them to finally end Jack White for good.
The Justice League returned to their Watchtower, and Lois Lane returned to her home in Mistral to recover with Victor and Jessica's help. After finally publishing her report, Lois was approached by Team CBZO (Cobrizo) of Haven, who encountered Edward Nashton before the Vytal Festival and were informed that his superior, Selina Kyle, who killed Barbara Gordon and Renee Montoya, was active in the town of Kuchinashi. Lois was still in no condition to fight, but she was more than happy to point the now second-year students in the direction of Clark, who landed them a few of his own friends' help. Diana Prince, Arthur Curry and Barry Allen, the latter arming himself with Bruce's spare sword and kunai, teamed up with Oliver Quinn, a boy from Oniyuri wielding a bowmerang and dust-tipped arrows; Beatrice de Costa, who could turn into a living flame and fly with her Semblance; John Constantine, a seasoned sword and quarterstaff user whose Semblance allowed him to create portals; And Zatanna Zatara, a flamboyant trickster with a Dust-powered fairy wand and the ability to copy the Semblances of her allies. Their first mission, of course, was to find the stealthy operative and her subordinates in the White Fang, and to do so, Team CBZO took Diana to the woman who claimed to have seen her, a Cheetah Faunus named Minerva Ann.
The group of teens followed her directions to an abandoned mansion in the Upper Cliffs where the literal cat burglar was hiding, using her own Semblance to endlessly copy riches and resources for her allies… Except once they got there, no White Fang soldiers were present and Selina was in her civilian clothing. Arthur and Barry believed they had simply caught the operative by surprise and began to attack her, forcing Selina to retaliate with her claws and bladed cat-o'-nine-tails - All the while she was claiming to have left the White Fang after watching it destroy Vale. Diana and Beatrice attempted to convince their allies to listen to her, but while they were arguing amongst themselves, Selina Kyle was impaled from behind with a double-ended spear, which was held by none other than Minerva Ann, accompanied by a group of Grimm, even merging with one of them. Selina revealed that the Cheetah Faunus was working for Mistral's oldest and most dangerous crime syndicate, the Black Sheep, which replicated Jack White's ability to speak to and merge with Grimm, and Team CBZO began to battle her along with Barry and Arthur while Diana attempted to revive Selina with her aura. Minerva revealed that her spear was loaded with Dust and could create twisters, pushing back her enemies before she attempted to impale Beatrice, only for the partially-healed Selina Kyle to take the hit, this time actually killing her. Unamused, Minerva sliced Beatrice's throat with the tail of the Grimm she merged with, only to immediately be smitten by the rest of her teammates, Arthur and Barry, who grabbed Minerva's weapon out of her hold and used it to kill the Black Sheep's agent in the same way she killed Selina. Taking the spear for himself, Barry, Arthur and Diana waved goodbye to Team CBZO, who went on to bury their friend before they would continue to fight for Mistral in her name - And her Tokkosho-Chakram they gave to the Justice League as a farewell gift, which became Jessica Cruz's auxilary weapon.
Back in the capital city of Mistral, Lois Lane was able to recover after the Chill attack and got right back to business. After the kingdom of Atlas decided to close its borders, rumor began to spread that a hidden passageway was allowing certain people to move between the city of Argus in Mistral and a small town named Crossed in the kingdom of Atlas, and Lois was determined to find it - Not only for her duty as a journalist, but also to spread the knowledge of the Justice League to the masses after everything they did to protect the world from evil. Knowing Lois' worry of a dangerous conspiracy was likely justified, the Justice League answered her call and agreed to join the search in Argus; With Bruce Wayne's recently-acquired precognitive abilities, Clark's X-ray vision and Jessica's clairvoyance, it wasn't difficult for them to find a hidden entrance leading hundreds of miles underground, to a large facility beneath the ocean floor connected with tunnels to several points on the surface. While the facility was protected by security droids made by Merlot Industries and even some modified Grimm with extra powers and cybernetics made of a combination of artificial ectoplasm and raw data, the Justice League and Lois could find many mysterious digital entries, including references to Starro, his Human ally Mr. Lloyd, and attempts to look into alternate timelines and bend the laws of reality to allow alternate versions of people to merge with one another. Near the center of the facility, they were welcomed by a scientist who called himself Professor Lex Luthor, who was in charge of the secret project. The professor explained to them that thanks to a major shareholder he, Lloyd and Doctor Merlot had in common, he was able to recover some of their lost knowledge and was planning to use it to create a new generation of Grimm who will protect Humanity instead of fighting against it - But the Justice League didn't listen, and Arthur Curry and Victor Stone wasted no time attacking both the base's security system and its physical structure to ensure it will be destroyed. The Justice League escaped through one of the tunnels and reemerged in Crossed, where a furious Professor Luthor confronted them with an armored suit outfitted with bladed tentacles capable of absorbing Dust from the League's weapons. The suit's power was enough to match the whole of the Justice League, until Lois attempted to shoot him from behind - Only for Luthor to use his own space-manipulating Semblance to absorb her plasma shot into a portal and fire it back from behind her, drilling a hole through the back of the reporter's head. Seeing the girl he loved die made Clark literally explode in rage, releasing all of his solar energy in an explosion that wiped out Luthor along with half of Crossed, with the other half quickly falling to the Grimm as Jessica Cruz transported her allies back to safety in a nick of time. While Clark attempted to learn how to control his new power, which he called a Supernova, the Justice League elected to finish Lois' report and publish it in her name, complete with information about the Justice League, so that anyone who needs help will always be able to call them and get it.
Months later, an intense snowstorm woke up Jessica, Arthur and Diana in the dead of night, allowing them to notice three men entering the Watchtower through its reflective wall. Instead of explaining themselves, these individuals went on the attack immediately - One of them by phasing in and out of walls with a fire gun, one by summoning clouds from his staff and using them to shoot hail and lightning with his Semblance, and the third, a large muscular Crocodile Faunus, with nothing but his bare clawed fists. The invaders could actually gain the upper hand at first, until the rest of the Justice League were woken up by the sounds of battle and put an end to them immediately. Using the men's scrolls, the Justice League discovered they were hitmen hired by someone named Harley Quinn - Which immediately raised their suspicion knowing there was another person with that name who they were familiar with. Bruce, Clark and Diana tracked down Oliver Quinn in hopes that he'll be able to give them information; The young archer survived the Fall of Haven, but his remaining teammates did not, and his response to hearing the name "Harley Quinn'' was even more perplexing: Harley was Oliver's older sister, but he believed she perished in the fall of Oniyuri. Bruce stayed resolute and asked Oliver what his sister looked like, at which point he recalled seeing photos of someone with a similar appearance in Jack White's home, which of course only raised further questions.
Taking Oliver with them just in case, the League headed back to the Forest of Hinoki, where they searched and found nothing - That is, other than a few trails they could eventually follow back to the ruined kingdom of Vale, discovering that the surviving members of the Black Queen Village now resided in tunnels underneath the capital's ruins, ready to destroy its foundations with bombs once it's fully rebuilt. The group of teenagers busted in, fighting off the Black Queen followers only to discover that Harley Quinn was now their leader, having been rescued from Oniyuri by Jack White and raised as his own daughter. Oliver revealed that he was the younger brother she thought she lost and pleaded with her to leave her defeated followers and return to her real family; In response, Harley knocked his head off his neck with a hammer like a golf ball from a tee, proclaiming that his choice to come and slaughter her comrades proves Jack White and the Black Queen Village were more of a family to her than Oliver ever was. Knowing she has nothing left, Harley Quinn fought with all her might to take her father's killers down with her, quaking the ground with shockwaves of energy but she was quickly overpowered by Diana, who learned to form a shield with her gauntlets to block the hare Faunus' energy blast and restrain her with her whip before Clark Kent beheaded her with his own hatchet, which he ended up combining with Harley's mallet.
With the increasing number of threats both on the inside and the outside, the Justice League was well aware of how dangerous the world around them was becoming, and they continued to train harder than ever before to make sure they'll be able to endure it, using Victor and Jessica's unique talents along with information they took from Luthor's computers to create a digital training simulation allowing them to do weeks of training against powerful virtual simulacra in mere hours. The time to test this advanced training came right after the destruction of the city of Argus, when Jessica Cruz's Green Lantern ring suddenly received a distress signal from her old friend Hal Jordan, calling her to assist him in the once-quaint settlement of Higanbana. The Justice League arrived to find Hal already dead along with most of the village's population, with a lone warrior in crimson armor fighting for his life against a giant, half-organic half-mechanical monstrosity. The Justice League briefly engaged with the creature before it ran away and they could properly introduce themselves to the village guard, who turned out to be a small prepubescent child. The boy said his name was Billy Batson and he could fight with Thunder Dust in his bracers, Air Dust in his boots and his Semblance, which allowed him to unleash all of his inner potential, aging him to his prime and giving him all of the wisdom, strength, stamina, power, courage and speed he could ever achieve naturally. Even with all that wisdom, the only thing Billy could say for certain about the creature that destroyed his hometown is that he didn't know anything about it. This hardly stopped the Justice League as they, alongside Billy, chased the monster down into the wilderness in an attempt to corner it. To their surprise, the creature was capable of speaking in Human tongue, telling the Justice League that its name is Ki|g%re and that it was sent to expand its "Dominion of Biomechanical Perfection" into Remnant as it used its shape-changing body, electric charging and objects he formed out of pure data to battle the Justice League; Even Clark Kent wasn't strong enough to defeat that monster, but once Billy Batson unleashed his Chi powers he could access with his Semblance, he could finally destroy Ki|g%re, smashing its grotesque face as it was laughing at him.
By now the Justice League knew enough to immediately start investigating where this thing came from. Turns out it was a mixture of alien technology and alien organic matter from various different planets, which some of them appreciated, since fighting alien threats was the Justice League's original purpose. They were also smart enough to remember the creature saying it was sent by someone else and went straight to investigating who that may have been, with Billy tagging along so he can avenge the destruction of his village. Scanning Ki|g%re's mechanical brain showed it had indeed been communicating with computers in several locations, the most active one being one of the many islands around Menagerie, which was where they were heading next. It seemed like Menagerie's Grimm situation already worsened since the death of Ghira Belladonna and the Albain brothers, even attracting the remains of Lex Luthor's artificial Grimm, which were being fended off by Marilyn McCabe, the counterrevolutionary who overthrew the Albains, and the Menagerie Guard's winged fresh captain, Dinah Lance. The two women already suspected paranormal activity was going on and were eager to come with the Justice League to find the source. Taking off to the island they were being attacked by more modified Grimm, which they could all fight off without much problem, including Dinah with her ability to generate sonic booms and her Menagerie Guard gun and Mari with a plain machete and a Semblance that allowed her to assume the traits of any animal.
The Justice League quickly arrived on the island they looked for and found a small fortress with only one person inhabiting it: A Human man named Vandal Savage. They immediately began to question who he was and why he was sending Grimm and alien robots to attack cities, and Vandal calmly explained to them that just like Lloyd, Merlot and Luthor before him he simply wishes to end the constant war between Humans and Grimm by sacrificing both to an alien intelligence. He then wasted no time revealing that Ki|g%re was still alive, as it was in fact an alien virus who could simply leave his flesh and metal shell and transfer his consciousness to a better one; As he said that, a giant Grimm resembling a combination of a cobra, a wasp and a dragonfly burst out of the floor and bit Dinah Lance in half, revealing itself as Ki|g%re possessing a Grimm made from scratch by Savage known as Nidhogg, its body containing radiation that was depleting the Justice League's strength. While most of the teenagers faced the artificial Grimm, Bruce, Barry and Arthur went after Savage himself, who revealed his own Semblance allowed him to keep his body in a state of stasis unaffected by age, injury or even death, which saved his life from the armies of Vale during Mantle's conquest in the Great War and allowed him to remain young and strong to the present day, which he used to acquire more knowledge than what any Human can learn in their lifetime - Including knowledge of martial arts and weapons. With nothing but an ancient broadsword, a battle-axe and his fists he could overwhelm the Justice League's fighters, claiming to be even stronger than Nidhogg itself - Which the Justice League was more than willing to put to the test after the latter was slain by Billy, Clark and Mari's combined efforts. Savage showed his words were no mere banter by impaling and beheading Billy Batson, only for Jessica to overpower his Semblance and crush him - At which point Ki|g%re's disembodied consciousness took over her body, using it to fight her own comrades. Thanks to Barry Allen's efforts, Ki|g%re was successfully phased out of Jessica's body, and she was able to use her own ring to destroy it completely. However, Jessica, Victor and Bruce knew the real battle was far from over, for Ki|g%re was merely the herald of a being far worse.
Thanks to Victor and Jessica's scanning and deconstructing Ki|g%re's digital consciousness, they were able to learn about the alien virus' creator and master - Brainiac, the ruler of an alien army that could travel across dimensions and avoid even the prying eyes of the Green Lantern Corps, and who desired to replace all life in the galaxy with his biomechanical creations, a goal he shared with Vandal Savage who fought on the side of Mantle in the Great War. The Computer Tyrant's starship was lurking beyond Remnant's orbit - Requiring Jessica Cruz to create her own spaceship to infiltrate it - And on top of his invulnerable mechanical body, Brainiac also had Aura; In his original home planet, Aura was called Matrix, Magic was called Alchemy, and instead of Semblances, Brainiac's people could use spell-like powers called Hexes. Using his mechanical and psychic powers together, Brainiac wielded the entire ship as his weapon as the Justice League attacked it, projecting beams of the harmful radiation he had given to Nidhogg, telekinetically controlling his environment, reading and attacking the minds of the Humans and Faunus who were fighting him and creating multiple copies of himself. When Mari decided she had enough and sliced off the alien emperor's head, he simply tore her in half with his bare fists before growing a new one. The battle seemed hopeless until Brainiac realized that Victor was hacking into his and his ship's system while they were fighting, Arthur created a wave of water to disrupt his circuits and Clark Kent used his Supernova to blow Brainiac away, at which point the League jumped out of the ship and flew back to Remnant as Victor set it to self-destruct to ensure Brainiac is destroyed completely.
And he failed. Even the explosion that destroyed the island-sized starship couldn't kill Brainiac, who simply crash-landed back into Remnant's surface, already beginning to plan his revenge on the Justice League... Plans that would never come to fruition as a swarm of mysterious drones appeared out of nowhere and tore apart the alien's mechanical body and mind to use for their own purposes.
A strange voice among them would assure that the Justice League themselves would be its next victims.
