NCIS-1 Multiverse

This is a tribute to Ephraim Ben Raphael 's very excellent An Examination of Extra-Universal Systems of Government thread at alternatehistory.com (I submitted this piece to him, but it didn't fit with his vision for that thread. I still wanted to use it, and I don't want to wait for the 'let's send Gibbs and _____ to Earth-3' story way down the road. So, here it is).


The United Supremacy of America


Arnold, District Capitol Region (D.C.R.)


I've only visited a few versions of Washington, D.C. All of the others were largely the same, the differences mainly coming from the time periods I visited the respective cities. Each had its own White House, Capitol Building, Pentagon, Washington Monument, Smithsonian, National Cemetery, memorial for an ex-President, etc.


Nothing prepared me for what I saw on the Third Earth.


This Washington — named Arnold, after Benedict Arnold — may be the darkest city I've ever stepped foot in.


Even before our plane got there from nearby Charlottesville, I felt what I can only describe as a mixture of oppression, depression, hate, hopelessness, greed and every other vice one can think of. The handler assigned to me when I came through the interdimensional gate thought I was dying on the flight to Washington; once I got myself together, I tried to explain what was going on. I told him what I was feeling; he looked at me like I was utterly insane, then laughed it off and said “come on, it's no big deal! D.C.R's always been like that. No worse than New York or L.D."


I just had to ask what L.D. meant. Los Demonios, California: the so-called City of the Demons. I figured Arnold was more than enough to deal with.


The mixture of emotions stayed with me but didn't increase any more as the airplane made its final approach to D.C.R. After we landed at Arlington International Airport, my handler guided me to a dark red, dark blue and greyish-white Humvee that looked like it could fight a small war by itself. There was a submachine mount on the top of the vehicle, and missile launchers on the top and the hood. "Never know when someone might decide to take a shot at ya," my handler said with a chuckle.


We drove past the dark red-colored, but otherwise still recognizable, Pentagon, into the city itself. The buildings were largely the same as the Washingtons I've visited, just colored the same dark red. We drove down Pennsylvania Avenue and saw the Red House; drove past the blood red Capitol Building; saw the Arnold, Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials; and visited the National Cemetery, where there were countless upside-down crosses on the gravestones.


We finally drove to the main headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This FBI's mission was vaguely defined as "internal security", and there were plenty of black-suited men and women walking around as if they were in a hurry to get somewhere important. I was taken to a plain conference room that featured a large, orangish oval table with a strange inscription: an eye in the center of an inverted pentagram.


For some reason that still escapes me, the local take on the so-called Eye of Providence didn't chill me, nor did my sudden awareness of the 18 hidden cameras scattered all over the room.


It was the realization that I was alone.


However, I didn't lack for company for very long. One of the FBI agents (for lack of a better term) escorted an older, slightly obese, bearded fellow into the room. After the agent left, he walked up to me and introduced himself.


"My name's Harold, but you can call me Harry," he said as he shook my hand. The fellow wouldn't give his last name, but did volunteer that he was a history professor at Benedict Arnold University.


I decided that I had to ask about Benedict Arnold's role in this world, and quickly found out that Mr. Harry knew quite a bit about my own world.


"Benedict Arnold is one of our U.S.A.'s Founding Fathers," Harry said. "He was the first President after the Constitution took effect following Evil Britain's recognition by the native American powers. He set the tone for the men who took power after him. There are high schools named after him; the university I teach at is named after him--"


"Just like George Washington," I said. "I'm sorry for--"


"For what," Harry said straight-faced, before breaking into a wide grin. "Just joking with you. It's not your fault you got stuck with a bastard as one of your country's Founding Fathers."


"My country...you know about my country...about where I'm from?"


"We know a lot about where you're from, my friend," Harry said, and I saw the smallest hint of darkness in his eyes that quickly went away. "I didn't want to come to his meeting unprepared, after all."


"I...see," I replied. "Tell me about your George Washington."


"What's to say?" Harry asked. "Un-American bastard, as much of a traitor to our cause as your Benedict Arnold was to your own America. George Washington, would-be King of America, tried his damnedest to overthrow the Lord Protector until he stuck his tail between his legs and ran back to his benefactor: George III, I believe."


"So, your America won its independence from Britain, like in my own world?", I asked.


Harry shook his head. "The other way around."


"How could that be if Britain colonized North America?...Or did it?"


"Now you're getting it," Harry said with a twinkle in his eye. "In any world -- and I've visited a few -- a good historian has a grasp on what actually happened and why. He knows the difference between facts, fiction and propaganda.


"The history books will tell you that America was colonized in the 16th century A.C.E. by the civilized persons of Britain, who fled east from the mongrels that threatened to destroy our great civilization. I will tell you the truth. Are you familiar with the legend of King Arthur?"


"Yes."


"The Knights of the Round Table, Excalibur, Camelot...all fact. We date him to our late 5th century and early 6th century A.C.E.. For a brief time, Arthur's England was a shining, city on the hill, as it says in the Christian Bible. Then Arthur died, and within generations England had devolved into a pit full of rabble. Anyway, during Arthur's reign he sent emissaries east, presumably to find a shorter route to China."


I picked up on Harry's pause. He expected me to tell where the expedition wound up. "His emissaries discovered the New World."


"America. There are records of contacts between England and the New World as late as the mid-8th century. Then it stopped, but the English who settled from Nova Scotia to North Carolina had other concerns: the natives."


"The Native American tribes, you mean."


"It took over a millennium to resolve that problem," Harry said, and my eyes went wide at the implication. "A numbers game, really. We had many more people by the 19th century."


I decide not to follow up on the comment, and instead picked up on a previous comment of Harry's. "Why did you call Britain 'evil' a short while ago? Did Britain turn fascist, or communist, or is it a dictatorship?"


Harry looked confused for a moment, then smiled. "We define 'evil' a little differently than your people do, perhaps," he told me. "After we -- the Americans -- solidified our hold on the eastern half of the northern continent, we sent our own emissaries west, to Britain. Our military had a fantastic time fighting their way to London, where King Oliver himself sat on his throne. The rabble had reestablished their monarchy. Oliver the First, holding up a half-assed sword cobbled together by some peasant as if it were the fictional Excalibur itself! In Satan's name, those Brits have been a cold sore on the world ever since."


"Satan?"


"You'd think the fear of god below himself would be enough to put them in their place," Harry continued. "But no, they forgot their roots. They acted as if they were the ones who returned from exile to restore the motherland. There was nothing worth restoring, at least nothing local. Nevertheless, we overthrew Oliver, installed his son Dick as Governor, and proclaimed the American Territory of Britain, if nothing else to keep an eye on the Huns, the Byzantines, the Russians, and the other European mongrels. Do you know what the people did, though?”


"Tell me."


"They went and declared a damned Revolution, and Satan damn me, they won! And what they did they do with it? They lived like paupers, to build a monarchy based on dust. They went so far as to declare their independence, and somehow, the bastards made it stick. Ever since then, god below, evil Britain's been a thorn in our side."


I push aside the temptation to ask more about 'god below'. I'm here to learn about the United Supremacy, not the British Republic.


"What happened afterwards?"


"We went back and plotted. The British allied themselves with the French, and the Norse, and the Huns. There were eight wars involving us and Britain before the First Great War of the 1870s. Then the Second Great War of 1920, and the First World War in 1944. By the way, there's never been a second World War. We'd blow the world up."


"Do you mind if I switch gears a bit?"


"Not at all. Fire away."


"Tell me about your government, and judicial system, and military."


"Okay. By the 1800s we had organized into what you would recognize as a three-branch government, with a Protector, a Congress and a Supreme Court, each with checks and balances to keep the other two branches in check and prevent any one branch from dominating the government. Even so, each of them, ahem, have tried to assert their authority from time to time."


“Asserting their authority as in a coup d’etat?”


“Usually not —although there was Dewey’s attempt to buy off MacArthur and McCarthy in 1951 when Congress threatened to pull funding for the Chinese War. Then there was the time when Warren tried his own little coup d’etat in ‘69. He paid off the wrong military generals, or not enough of them; Nixon had the gist of the military in his corner. Nice little fight on the Mall, though. Washington hadn’t seen that much excitement since Hoover got hung up by his fat neck when the economy collapsed in ‘29 — you’ve got that look in your eye. Wait right there.”


Harry got up and left the room. I was confused momentarily, then cursed myself for not keeping more of a neutral posture. Was I that obvious? Harry came back a minute later with a book in his hand that he laid on the table in front of me: A Prole’s History of The United Supremacy, by Howard Zinn.


“Wondering what’s in there?”, Harry asked. “It’s not hard to read your mind. It’s pretty factual, actually, if you take Zinn’s politics into account. He was really into Eric Blair; Zinn tried to Americanize Blair’s philosophy and take all the credit for himself. He only gathered a small following, and most people prefer to live for the day and get as much as they can anyway. Still, Zinn knows his shit.”


“I’ll try to read as much of it as I can before I leave,” I tell Harry. “What about the military? To be honest, I’m kind of surprised the Supremacy is a sort of republic and not a military dictatorship.”


“The military doesn’t want to rule directly,” Harry said. “There would be a million more things they’d have to handle that the generals and admirals don’t want to be bothered with. They like the influence over the Red House, the House and Senate, the Court, even the media, that they have now — and it’s a lot of influence—“


“I’m guessing the military doesn’t assert itself through lobbyists.”


Harry stared at me for several moments, then began giggling. “That’s a good one,” he chuckled. “No, they don’t lobby. They shoot.”


“Then I guessed correctly.”


“See? You’re catching on. Anyway. Part of that influence includes the freedom to fight the military’s little wars without Protector or Congressional approval or the Supreme Court sticking its nose into the military’s business — not that there aren’t vetoes or court ruling. If the Protector and Congress sign off on the occasional war the Pentagram wants to fight, the military goes along with the big ones the person in the Red House may want to fight.”


“So there’s an agreement between the government and the military, I look the other way while you do your thing and once in a while, I help you out if you return the favor?”


“That’s it!,” Harry said. “We call it the ‘favor bank’. I owe you, you owe me, and we keep owing each other. The key is to keep that balance where both are equal – it’s when things get lopsided in favor of one side that wars start. Not just political wars -- literal wars. Shooting wars. It’s fun to see a real-life episode of FBI on the news channels once in a red moon. Seeing that all the time is not good for the country.”


“Can I ask what American culture is like?”, I ask. “What are things like for the average person?”


“Not too different than in your world,” Harry said. “I’ve been there, before. Your world is too nice. Yes, I know about the man in your White House. I know about the political divide in your America, the backstabbing that goes on in the political and business world. Reality television. Social media. You think I’m crazy.”


“I think your definition of ‘nice’ is different than mine, perhaps.”


“Perhaps. Think of our world like this: the guy who swerves in front of you on the highway, the woman who cuts in front of you at the supermarket, the drunk asshole who shoves you randomly at the bar – that’s commonplace. People trying to step over you at work and literally kill you to advance in their jobs -- not nearly to the degree you see on Star Trek, thank Satan -- and alliances being made and unmade all the time. There’s very little drama here, because if someone tried that shit they’d get cut to shreds, literally.


“Kids are raised from the cradle to be aggressive, to stand up for themselves and fight for themselves, and their allies -- people do have friends, and do care about others besides themselves, here. But people are tough; they have to be. You could die any second for any reason. Most people believe either Hell awaits them or they cease to exist upon death – except for the Christians, Jews, and Muslims, who believe in their bloody paradises – so people live for the moment. Although – at least in Hell, things can’t get any worse than they already are, and you can get drunk and laid as much as you want. “


A chill went up my spine at Harry’s chuckle. I know of a small office nearby for the CIA from my world, and the thought occurs to me it would be good to go there after the interview.


I look at the Zinn book, and decide the rest of my curiosity about this America would be satisfied by reading it from the safety of the CIA safe house. I did have another question for Harry, though, and it had to do with the people who really ran the United Supremacy.


“On my world, we have private corporations that exercise influence over our government and our economy,” I said. “We have our lobbyists from every corporation and special interest group that constantly try to gain influence over Congress. Our Presidents aren’t immune to it. I can’t help but wonder, who influences the influencers here?”


“That’s a good question,” Harry said. “To answer it, ask yourself this question: Cui Bono?”


“Latin,” I said. “’Who profits’?”


“Very good. You won’t come up with the answer by yourself, but I’ll tell you where to start. We have our own corporate interests paying off Congressmen like money grows from the ground. But don’t stop there. You need to ask who’s influencing them?”


“Russia? China? Some other foreign power?”


“No, no, no, although the Nationalists in Shanghai, the Syndicalists in Brasilia, and the Eurostate Fascists in Brussels have tried. Think who’s powerful enough to influence the government, business, the military. You’ll never guess.”


“If it’s not a foreign power -- a cabal? Aliens? A shadow government? You’re probably better off just telling me.”


“I agree, because it’ll save a lot of time,” Harry says. “All of those things are correct, in a sense. There’s a Syndicate that has run the country since Bush’s misadventures in the Middle East after the Rashidis invaded the Atlantic Northwest in 2001.”


“Tell me about this Syndicate.”


“They’re a group of powerful men and women, embedded in the military, media, corporate worlds, in academia, even among law enforcement. They’re not just influential, they’re powerful. Individually, with powers you only saw in animated shows and magazines and movies. Like the Greek gods come to life. Once in a while they dress up in public, and show off their powers. You really don’t want to be around when they do -- better to watch it on TV.”


“I can imagine,” I said. “They keep everyone below them in line.”


“Yes, they do. They keep all of us in line. There are those who defy them, however: the occasional insurgent, the group of idiots trying to make a name for themselves and their enemies. There’s a terrorist group calling itself the Legion of Hope based out of Britain, consisting mostly of American insurgents; it’s one reason we haven’t gone in and invaded the place. They’re too damned tough, they and the British military, for our military -- that hurts like hell to say, but it’s the truth.”


“What about this Syndicate? What could they do?”


“Wipe them out of existence in a second,” Harry says a little more quickly. “They’re just toying with the fuckers.”


“Why hasn’t this Syndicate done so, already?”


Harry got up abruptly and called for a couple of his colleagues. He handed me the Zinn book off the table and shook my hand with a tight, but trembling, grip. “It’s time you went back and visited your colleagues at your CIA’s local office,” Harry said, with some fear and trembling.


“Will I get to speak with you again?”, I ask.


Harry walked past me and down the hallway. I last saw him turn a corner as my two guides escorted me out of the FBI building and into a car that drove me to the two-story house housing members of the CIA, the FBI, and the federal government from my own world, guarded by two dozen of my world’s best Navy SEALs and Green Berets. Before I went in, I looked into the sky and thought I saw someone looking downward, at the city, at the house and then at me.


I said the Rosary for the first time since my freshman year in college.

Nice tittle Brky2020

UNIVERSE

WORLDS OF THE NCIS1 MULTIVERSE

PRIME

Also known as Earth Prime, the world where the NCIS; NCIS LA; NCIS NOLA; Hawaii Five-O; and other TV network crime shows are set

0

Where the DC Earth One series are set

1

JLA, Titans, Outsiders, Challengers, Doom Patrol, Global Guardians, LSH; Gibbs and Co. killed in ’05 followed by the Siege; M. Stewart, Julie Todd

2

JLA formed in late 70s, most killed in ‘80s WW III that led to formation of Justice Society; JSA in second generation

3

Evil/Reverse’ Earth, dominated by fascist United Syndicate of Amerika and Justice Syndicate, opposed by Legion of Hope

4

Pax Americana (Kate Todd becomes the new Peacekeeper), Charlton Heroes

5

Captain Marvel/Shazamverse, with its own JLA inspired by Captain Marvel

6

Satanic-influenced JLA/Crime Syndicate, opposed by JLA led by Batman-esque Arrow, Martian Manhunter, GL John Stewart, Kal-El, others)

7

Marvel Ultimate universe pastiche, destroyed by The Gentry; also some other DCU heroes (Starwoman); Dark Angel (Donna Troy) escaped

8

Marvel Earth-616 pastiche

9

Tangent Comics

10

The Nazis won World War II: Ubermenschen, Freedom Fighters

11

Gender-reversed hybrid version of Earth-1 and Earth-2

12

DC Animated Universe

13

Vertigo-influence ‘dark’ world

14

Justice League of Assassins; post-apocalyptic dystopia

15

Utopia destroyed by Superboy Prime of Earth-33; a world where Kate Todd survived her NCIS team’s murder - and the murder of her homeworld

16

The Just

17

BrianD’s Countdown to Looking Glass; WW III later becomes known as Great Disaster; Kamandi, Atomic Knights, Hercules, Omac, Justice League

18

Justice Riders

19

Gotham by Gaslight

20

A world of pulp heroes

21

New Frontier

22

Kingdom Come

23

Most superheroes are African-American and/or African descent (Batman is an exception); Kalel/Calvin Ellis, a.k.a. Superman, is also POTUS

24

JLA: The Nail

25

Elseworld’s Finest: Supergirl and Batgirl

26

Anthropomorphic version of Earth-1, with a JLA, New Titans, etc., and Captain Carrot and his Zoo Crew

27

Watchmen

28

UNKNOWN

29

Waterworld/Leatherwing

30

Superman: Red Son

31

Dark Knight Returns

32

Amalgamized DCU (BatLantern, Super Martian, Wonderhawk, Black Arrow, Aquaflash, etc.)

33

Similar to Earth-Prime, but where the crime shows are fictional; also home to Superboy Prime and Ultra

34

Astro City pastiche

35

Rob Liefeld’s Supreme pastiche

36

Big Bang Comics pastiche

37

Thrillkiller

38

Superman/Batman: Generations

39

Agents of W.O.N.D.E.R.

40

Opposition to Earth-20, ruled by Vandal Savage

41

Image Universe pastiche

42

Chibi version of Earth-1

43

Batman: Vampire, where the Original Seven JLAers are the Blood League and are opposed by a new generation of Justice Leaguers

44

Doc Tornado and the Metal Men

45

Superdoomsday

46

UNKNOWN

47

Prez, the Love Syndicate; it’s always the late ‘60s

48

One World Earth where everything, every moment is an adventure: Lord Volt/Lady Quark/Princess Fern, the Forerunners, others

49

Justice Lords

50

The Wild Storm (updated version of Earth W)

51

Home of Jack Kirby’s creations

52

The New 52

53

The world Gibbs and Co. visited in Chapter 46 of Brky2020 Countdown to Looking Glass; Britain, USSR, China are world’s great powers; British Superman

54

chipperback Catherverse, with its own superheroes

55

Justice League 3000/Super Buddies/post Crisis DCU variant

56

Similar to Earth-1, but with sapient metasimians

57

Injustice: Gods Among Us primary universe

58

Injustice: Gods Among Us alternate universe

59

Tara Terruna

61

Home of the Young Justice cartoon universe

64

Milestone Comics

66

Magic/occult-influenced superheroes

68

Wonder Woman: Amazonia

80

JSA: The Liberty Files

81

All-Star Superman

86

The post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Earth

96

Batman: In Darkest Knight

101

Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Earth-1

102

Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Earth-2

103

Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Earth-3

104

Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Earth-4

105

Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Earth-S

115

DC Bombshells

136

Bruce (Superman) Wayne

177

Variant of Mark Waid and Barry Kitson’s Empire (Golgoth is the ruler of Earth, having killed the JLA and conquered the world)

178

Variant of Mark Millar’s Wanted; Earth-1 where psychopathic villains killed the pure heroes then split the world between themselves

179

Variant of Mark Millar’s Wanted: Earth-2/Universe-2, where the Justice Society has had 20 years to prepare for a confrontation with Earth-1’s villains

216

The groovy Super Sons

247

“Post Zero-Hour” Legion of Super-Heroes

351

Amalgam Comics (mash of Earth-86 and Earth-616)

423

Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

616

Marvel Comics (shhhhhhh)

1983

1983: Doomsday/Canadian Power ISOT

1984

George Orwell’s nightmare come to life

2001

Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001-verse with DC characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, JLA in 2001/2010, LSH in 3001)

2004

Mark Waid and Barry Kitson’s Legion of Super-Heroes

C

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew (alternate universe C-Minus has Just’a Lotta Animals)

D

Justice Alliance of America

G

Super Friends

N

Justice League: Gods and Monsters

P

Young Justice cartoon

Q

Antimatter universe; home of Qward, and of the ‘evil’ Earth-3 (includes the Crime Syndicate of Amerika)

T

Teen Titans cartoon

W

Wildstorm

X

Arrowverse Earth-X

AA-BZ

Arrowverse (Arrow, Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl)

CA

chipperback Catherverse

CP

Canadian Power

DC

DC Cinematic Universe

DC-B

Batman Begins universe

DC-U

DC Universe online (Titans, Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, others)

GA-M

Battlestar Galactica (Ronald L. Moore)

GA-P

Battlestar Galactica/Galactica 1980 (Glen Larson)

HA-IZ

Smallville

ID

Independence Day

LB

Left Behind

MC

Marvel Cinematic Universe

PS

@macragge's Protect and Survive and its various spinoffs

RD

@matt Wiser Red Dawn

RF

@drew Rumsfeld’s Fear and Loathing

SP

Superman movies w/Christopher Reeve

ST

Star Trek (prime timeline)

ST-K

Star Trek (Kelvin timeline)

ST-T

Star Trek (Terran Empire)

SW

Star Wars

TV

Superman (50s), Batman (60s), Wonder Woman, Shazam! And Isis (‘70s), Flash (‘90s)

ALPHA

UNKNOWN

OMEGA

World where Pariah hails from

They say you can find everything on the internet.

Well, if I had 12th-level intelligence and the patience of Job, I could probably create a US House/Electoral vote apportionment calculator with 52 states I'd have to create it myself, because I can't find one anywhere that allows me to plug in an extra state

That would be no problem Brky2020.

1993 – Christopher Logan Ambler is born on Rann to two American diplomats and is the first human to be born outside of Earth. His parents quickly market his likeness (somewhat for the fame, mostly to get out of debt and finance their son’s future education). The MTV reality show KL-99 (named after Ambler’s childhood nickname ‘KL’ and his soccer jersey number) chronicles his high school years on Rann and back on Earth in Florida. As of 2017, Ambler is finishing up his bachelor’s degree in engineering at Purdue University, with plans to study astronomy on Rann and use it as a base for his own explorations of the Milky Way Galaxy.