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Extra: Alternate Reality Timeline
🕑 Added 2022-10-24 13:48:57 +0000 UTCAuthor’s Note:
Oops I totally forgot to post this at the end of the Alternate Reality arc. Sorry all, here you go!
Hey all, for the most part I tried to keep the exploration of the alt-timeline restricted to the team and Captain Sildeth’s POVs, so figured there might be a few things that weren’t touched on that you might be interested in hearing. Or else you might want an overall view of how it all went down. As such, I’ve written down the basic timeline I determined for this arc, featuring changes and the fates of certain characters that weren’t otherwise specifically mentioned. If I didn’t specifically mention someone you were wondering about, feel free to ask and I’ll see if I can’t think of something, though for most people the answer is probably ‘got nuked’.
This also forced me to finally make a decision on the specific years of the OG timeline. Going to go ahead and say it's around the late 2000s - early 2010s when most of the story takes place (from Aurora Legion arc onward). Any references to technology/pop culture from the mid-2010s onward or other anachronisms are hereby hand-waved as ‘supergeniuses sped up the development of technology and culture’. Again, under the assumption of Bob starts off as early 20s in the 1980s, Bob’s age range is now minimum 40 (late 80s - late 2000s) and maximum early fifties (1980 - early 2010s). Guess we could cut some years off if we said Bob skipped some grades and went to college early, or vice versa if you want him even older haha. Eh, we could also always subtract a decade with the supergenius excuse if we need to but let’s just go with that for now.
- Chapter 1 - Butler Bob, 1980s
- Duke Gaetan’s plan to bomb the Coflar Royal family succeeds. He is subsequently arrested and executed for treason, leaving the Coflar line of succession in tatters. Coflar subsequently joins one of the larger nations nearby as an autonomous region. As Coflar was an anachronistic microstate to begin with its fall doesn’t impact the world much, but the bombing does spook the people of Europe, causing them to more strongly value security and support Concordat-aligned politicians. Lady Anita is reduced to a commoner, stripped of all assets, and banished from Coflar, she disappears from history after that and is presumed killed in the Day of Sorrow and the Dark Days that followed.
- Chapter 2 - Icy Falcon and El Capa, 1980s
- Icy Falcon confronts El Capa, largely as before, leaving him for dead. El Capa is found and empowered by the Atomic Herald, becoming the Warped Warrior as before. The major change is that without Bob’s help the Sinaloa Cartel does not rise to power; eventually the Concordat will take over the cartels in its stead. Icy Falcon would become vaguely aware of them due to this, though he didn’t know their name or ultimate goals.
- Chapter 3 - Xiong Zhen vs. Cao Xinya, 1980s
- The first truly major change. Without Bob’s intervention, Xiong Zhen and Cao Xinya fall at each other’s hands. With no outlets for her rage and grief, Xiong Huang breaks down and picks up the Black Blade, becoming partially possessed and turning into a mindless killing machine stalking the former Eternal Night’s halls. The Eternal Night Sect is thus not rebuilt in this timeline, leaving a major power vacuum in the underworld / magic people society, especially in the East Asia area. This will eventually lead to the shinobi villages becoming more active in the area and coming into conflict with the Concordat.
- Chapter 4 - The Red Colonel, late 1980s
- The Red Colonel’s plan goes almost exactly like before, and he is stopped almost exactly like before. The only change is without a certain suspiciously hyper-competent subordinate the Red Colonel used a different allocation of his operatives. This led to Ivan working on the front lines this time and so dying in the crossfire. Baba Yaga would swear revenge on all involved in his death.
- Baba Yaga starts to take her revenge, starting with the Red Colonel. In this, she learns of the Concordat of Sorrow’s involvement. She makes some predictions, using her own hatred and pain as a guide, to determine the best way to bring them down, and learns that she should wait before conducting her revenge (original Baba Yaga may also have contacted her and informed her of the situation).
- Behind the Scenes, late 1980s - late 2000s
- In the original timeline, this is the period where Bob, Xiong Huang, Markus, and the Minion Crew set up EL Bank and Midnight Staffing. In this timeline, there is no centralized source for villain funding/staffing but also no centralized database of villain dossiers, nor a powerful fixer for the particularly dangerous ones. As a result, supervillain activity is more sporadic but they generally get farther along before being stopped, leading to significantly heavier collateral damage. As a result, heroes grow increasingly harsh in dealing with villains, while a general feeling of fear, suspicion, and anxiety grows among the public, with them starting to fear ALL supers.
- The Battle of Kayserling Inc, 2000s
- Londyn Green, being very capable, is still able to secure funding and staffing for her boss and work on the Mass Suppressor carries on, though perhaps not with an entire skyscraper in downtown NYC to the doctor’s name. Captain Hot Devil manages to catch wind of it and intervenes. He is even more ferocious in his assault this time, as he has even less time before the Suppressor activates…and even less sympathy. Londyn is one of the casualties of the battle, perishing when the Mass Suppressor explodes; without her and EL Bank the blueprints to the Mass Suppressor and related gravity technology are lost in the battle. The public turns on Captain Hot Devil even more than previously and in fact starts to turn on all supers as a result. Captain Hot Devil, with no allies whatsoever, ends up going on the run.
- The Shadow War in the East, 2000s
- At this point, even the isolated shinobi villages have become aware of Eternal Night’s fall, fear of Eternal Night being one of the major motivators for their isolation. A full on war in the shadows is underway between the shinobi, the other cultivator sects, and the Concordat. Amano Kiyoatsu is sent into battle and captured by the Concordat before the time when he would be broken by battlefield trauma in the original timeline, so the Amano Family Massacre never occurs. The shinobi assumed he was killed by the Concordat, motivating Amano Bin to leave her younger son behind and take an active part in the fight. And so she was almost never present in the village for many of the following years…
- The Founding of the ILS, late 2000s
- This is an off-screen time period where in the original timeline Londyn Green founded the ILS, recruiting Captain Hot Devil to train the newly gathered Aurora Legion. In this timeline, that didn’t happen. The future Wonder Knight and Pink Star remain anonymous at their school, never given the motivation or opportunity to become heroes and hiding their powers due to the anti-super climate. Chronolock does not learn to control her powers, given the political climate she is not given much assistance. Her powers end up causing an accident that claims her life. Without any authority figure to help him work through his circumstances, Voidspeaker attempts to become a villain and conduct a dark ritual. A hero interrupts, the ritual backfires, and he is killed in the backlash. These two deaths further fuel the growing anti-super hysteria.
- Ideas similar to the League are proposed and occasionally trialed but no one has the right combination of drive, resources, and connections to truly make it happen. Anti-super hysteria also contributes to this, leaving few opportunities for any sort of super organization to create a positive reputation and subjecting any organizations to heavy legal and financial liability and so all attempts quickly sputter out.
- The NSLICE Program, 1990s - late 2000s
- Work on the NSLICE program continues much as it did before, only expanded. With no ILS the Concordat doesn’t have a strong alternative for dealing with supers, and so the NSLICE program remains their most promising solution. As a result, the Concordat funnels significantly more resources and effort into the program, accelerating its development. With the Eternal Night Sect gone, they even repurpose the Iesnorium bomb meant for Xiong Zhen into the program, developing the Equalizer for NSLICE-00P. NSLICE-00P comes online somewhat earlier as a result.
- The Day of Sorrow, early 2010s
- The Atomic Herald stumbles upon a few conveniently abandoned missile silos, he and his followers get to work. No one is aware of their plot and so no one manages to interrupt it. Nuclear missiles are launched against the major nuclear powers who, believing the others are responsible and with only 10 minutes to decide, end up retaliating, leading to a global nuclear exchange. Much of the cast perishes here, including most of Bob’s Minion crew, Markus Herring, Agent Tina, Tesla Titan, Dr. Fraser, and Therapy no Chiyeko. Some of a certain nation’s missiles malfunctioned, landing in a supposedly uninhabited region of Japan and destroying the shinobi villages, killing Amano Kiyosuke, Ueno Nana, and the three shinobi leaders. Amano Bin, who was off on a mission at the time, was not present and so managed to survive.
- The Dark Days, early 2010s
- Society breaks down in the aftermath of the apocalypse. The Atomic Herald comes out and gathers mutated survivors in Europe, forming the Atomic Cult. They begin forcibly mutating anyone they can find, killing all who resist. Arvid despairs, believing as the chosen hero it was his destiny to oppose the Atomic Herald and that he is thus responsible for the devastation. He runs off into the wilderness, going into exile.
- The Concordat of Sorrow steps out into the light, rallying the non-mutated survivors. NSLICE-00P and the handful of other available NSLICE units are deployed to defend survivors from the Atomic Cult. Surviving supers, military, and police start to gather under their banner to resist the Atomic Cult.
- Vaidehi Dayal goes berserk, wiping out the Order of Harmony and the Indian subcontinent. The Atomic Cult attempts to stop her but all forces sent against her perish. The Atomic Herald takes what nuclear weapons he has left and detonates them along the former borders of Pakistan, stopping the encroaching death forest. Vaidehi Dayal remains in the Indian subcontinent, killing anything that intrudes upon the dead forest. She is known as the Scourge of India from that point onward.
- The Lizardman leader goes back into hibernation, waiting for the radiation to clear and for humanity to go extinct. Left on their own, the cult begins drifting away to the Atomic Herald, until the cult leader is forced to seal off their main base.
- The Otter King is largely unaffected and manages to protect his domain, but cuts off all contact with humanity for devastating the planet.
- The Atomic-Concordat War, early 2010s
- Conflict escalates between the Atomic Cult and the Concordat of Sorrow in Europe and North Africa. The Atomic Herald eventually declares a crusade against the Concordat, forming an army called the Sentinels of Dawn. The Concordat thus puts out a call to all survivors and rallies back, leading to open war between the two organizations. Notably though, the Concordat limit the supers they accept, rejecting any mutants as well as some supers with questionable powers, such as the necromancers.
- At first the Concordat holds the line thanks to monopolizing most of the former military personnel and thus hardware, but with the global arms industry in tatters said hardware cannot be easily supplied, maintained, or replaced, and so the Concordat is slowly but surely pushed back as their stocks of ammunition, fuel, weapons, and fighting vehicles diminish. The only silver lining is the Atomic Herald used his last nuclear weapons against the Scourge of India, and so does not have any available to wipe out the Concordat.
- The NSLICE units and cooperating supers help turn the tide and allow Concordat forces to face the Sentinels of Dawn on even footing as the conventional military assets dwindle. However, the disruption of the global economy and power infrastructure limits the Concordat’s ability to build, maintain, and above all fuel NSLICE units, and the people are deeply prejudiced against the supers, even the ones fighting under the Concordat’s banner. Due to this and the supply issues, they struggle against the powerful mutants of the Atomic Cult and are continuously pushed back.
- The Concordat is forced to retreat from continental Europe and North Africa, with constant attacks across the channel threatening their positions in the British Isles. However, the abundance of military personnel and advanced military hardware from the former United States as well as their control over the drug cartels in Latin America allows the Concordat to drive Atomic Cult sympathizers out of the Americas. Likewise, as nearly all the world’s remaining naval and air forces joined the Concordat, the Atomic Cult is unable to invade across the Atlantic. And so the Concordat reestablishes itself in North America as the Atomic Cult consolidates control over Europe and expands into Africa.
- In East Asia the Concordat takes control fairly easily. The collapse of global infrastructure and the nuclear winter dropping global temperatures makes crossing Central Asia or Siberia a long and difficult journey, and the Scourge of India prevents all travel near South Asia. On the other hand, as most of the world’s naval forces join the Concordat, they are able to travel across the Pacific, albeit with some difficulties due to the destruction of many ports. Amano Bin forms the few surviving shinobi into something of a resistance against the Concordat but they don’t make much headway in rallying support among the general populace.
- The Concordat finds the former Herald of Ashes, and forces him to convert his previous designs into a new power source: the Geo-Oscillator Engine. With the fuel and power situation solved, the Concordat is able to rebuild an industrial economy, putting the NSLICE units into full-scale mass production. This permanently secures North America as Concordat territory. The Concordat attempts to launch a counter-offensive through the British Isles but the qualitative advantage held by the Sentinels of Dawn prevents the conventionally armed NSLICE units from making any headway. Only the Equalizer armed NSLICE-00P and the new NSLICE-NS units make any progress but they are too limited in number to be relied on. With neither side able to truly threaten the other’s base of power, the war enters a stalemate focusing on smaller raids and covert operations.
- The Rise of the Resistance, early-mid 2010s
- The Concordat begins ramping up anti-super rhetoric, which finds fertile ground among the already prejudiced population. Even the supers under their command find themselves increasingly pushed to the wayside.
- After the Necrosaurus was rejected from the Concordat, he founded the Resistance, intending to fight against both belligerents and establish his own domain. By this point he hadn’t gained much support except from other necromancers and supers rejected by the Concordat for questionable powers. However, his own substantial power allows him to make several successful raids and counter any retaliation, and so establishes a name for his band. He finds he enjoys being thought of as a ‘good guy’.
- The Concordat increases production of the NSLICE-NS units. At first it is stated they use volunteers, as demonstrated by Mr. Dapper Tiger himself participating in the program. As time goes on though, these claims are called into question, especially when it is revealed that Atomic Cult POWs were put into the program. The population at large has no issue with this, due to their deep hatred of the Atomic Cult. The supers and some of the former professional military, however, grow increasingly uncomfortable. Some supers start to go missing. This is not questioned as it is normal for people to go missing ever since the Day of Sorrow.
- It is revealed that one NSLICE-NS unit is one of the missing supers. The remaining supers and some of the former military protest, demanding answers. The Concordat declares them traitors. The supers and former military resist, but the people firmly support the Concordat and so they are defeated. They are rescued by the Necrosaurus and his posthumous freedom fighters, officially joining his resistance. In particular, Admiral Faulkner and Dr. Iwalani are able to make off with a good chunk of naval assets, including almost the entire fleet of submarines.
- The Resistance goes on the run with what supers and sympathetic supporters it can gather. The Concordat pursues but the Necrosaurus’s undead are able to ward them off. The Concordat lets them go, and instead uses their existence to declare all supers a threat. All supers in Concordat territory are thus required to be registered, which in the vast majority of cases means fed into the NSLICE program. The majority of the populace is fine with this but some start to have doubts, particularly as younger supers are taken to registration and never seen again. The Resistance starts gaining a bit of sympathy as Concordat laws grow increasingly strict in practically every area.
- Dr. Iwalani is able to develop the technology required for an underwater settlement, allowing the Resistance to build a secure base and a full on city for its non-combatants. With growing support, a core of highly capable supers and professional military officers, a secure base with a functional economy, and a means of silent transport, Resistance operations become increasingly complex and impactful.
- The shinobi hear word of the increasingly successful Resistance. They make their way across the Pacific and link up with the Resistance, vastly improving their potential for infiltration.
- The Concordat locate the mind control villain and subjugate him with NSLICE-00P and the Equalizer. They discover his plans for the Mental Unifier. And so a true Solution for achieving peace everlasting presents itself…
- The Concordat and the Resistance both detect a group of unregistered supers in the ruins of New York City. The already patrolling NSLICE-00P and a band of Resistance fighters are dispatched to investigate…
- A Note on the Mistake and the supers it created:
- Most of the characters introduced after the Mistake remain largely unaccounted for, as the super-serum was never invented in this timeline and so the majority of them did not receive powers in the first place. It can be presumed that the majority of them perished in the Day of Sorrow or the Dark Days and the Atomic-Concordat War that followed. Those who did not did not play a significant role, as they remained normal folk at the mercy of either the Concordat or the Atomic Cult, save for those who managed to escape to the Resistance. This includes almost all of the AVS and most of the Nova Guardians. Candy Cane Man survived and has his own marauder band in one of the nuclear wastelands, but doesn’t particularly feel like joining any of the big camps and so doesn’t come into contact with the team.
