The Overseers Universe: Vigilance

Axel Justice, the handsome, powerfully built, currently stubbled High-Flying Titanium Superhero Vigilance, adjusted his costume and made certain that his silver costume with gold lines was shining as brightly as ever, the star emblem on his chest glowing like a diamond, and then he checked to make certain that his hair was just right before he stepped back from the mirror and held his arms out to his sides. "Well? How do I look?" He asked his close friend The Ghostly Specter Hero Nightmare. As opposite as night and day, Nightmare's black costume with slight golden lines, spiked shoulder armor, gauntlets and a cape he usually kept in a tattered state just to creep people out, was designed to frighten and intimidate his enemies, looking creepy, batlike, almost like a Vampire or someone out of a Nightmare. All part of the symbiotic liquid body armor he'd created and had bonded with him.



"You're sparkling like a disco ball." He replied. His baritone voice echoing out of his mask with a slight inhuman reverb for effect. Honest as always. "I'm proud of you though. I understand why you're doing this and I support it."

"Thanks." Vigilance sighed. "I know we took out the Devastarian Army to save the world, and billions of lives, but, still..."

"You and Volt Rush went all out to stop them and it frightened both of you so now you're both volunteering to go to court in order to discuss your actions." Nightmare finished. 

"Yeah. People look up to me, to all of us, like we're Guardian Angels and we do our best to live up to that ideal but when we eliminated the army I felt more like an Angel Of Death."

He put his hands on hips and looked down briefly before looking back up. "We've been working overtime to repair the damage the Devastarian's caused, sure, but we can't bring back the lives that were lost. On either side. I know we've essentially put ourselves above the law but this felt above and beyond even for us. I just...I just want to calm people down. Let them know that we stand with them and that they can talk to us, hear out our justifications for our actions, and that we are willing to turn ourselves over to the law and go to the courts if called upon. You can't even say that it's okay because they were extraterrestrials but we have aliens on the team! I'm an alien! If we start going down that particular road?  "Of course we can kill him! He's Not Even Human!" We'll set a very bad precedent for the future."

He took a deep breath and blew it out. "I'm glad we saved the world of course but I want to let the people know that, even after we just obliterated an invading army from space, we still stand by them as people too." 

"Seeing the big picture and thinking long term. That's what I love about you, brother. Regardless of how this turns out, The OVERSEERS will stand by both of you." 

"Thank you Deacon." Vigilance replied sincerely with Nightmare's real first name, his true identity being Deacon Slahter, and the two shook hands.

"You guys really are the best of the best, huh?" Volt Rush asked from a table. He'd been quiet since the battle even while going overtime to repair and rebuild and rescue everyone he could but at least now his smile had finally returned. The Lightning Speedster was dressed his blue and red costume with the golden emblem on his chest and his mask was pulled up. "Seriously, your friendship is inspiring."



"Thanks Volt. Are you up for this though?"

"Hey man, I was right out there with everyone else in the trenches and I sided with you to take out the Devastarian's despite knowing how much it would hurt to do it. I'm not going to turn my back on you now." He blurred in front of them from his seat and put a hand on his shoulder. "Let the world say what they want I'll never abandon my friends."

"Right back at you, Hermes."

"Not gonna lie, Axel, as much as I love our Hero Names, going by our real names just feels so refreshing." Hermes Skeets admitted.

"It's a good way to keep ourselves grounded in reality with everyone else." Axel reminded him. 

"Yes! That's it! Exactly! It's important not to forget who you really are outside of the costume. I for one am looking forward to getting back to being plain old Hermes again for a while once this is over with."

"I know right?" He chuckled. "It'll be good to take some time off again once the worldwide rebuilding process is over. But until we just have to remain....Vigilant."

Volt chuckled a little.

Nightmare said nothing.

"When did you get in here anyway?"

"He ran in while you were checking yourself in the mirror." Nightmare replied. "He just didn't want to interrupt."

"Wow. Stealthy." He complimented. "If you keep this up you might be able to outdo Nightmare one day."

"Good luck." 

Adamantia Vasiliki looked out the space station window into the vast emptiness of space while ruminating on their current situation. To say the towering Amazon was a powerhouse would be putting it too lightly. Adamantia was BUILT! Her whole body was buff and powerful like a bodybuilder! The 7'3 Amazon was not only among the tallest members of the team, towering even above Vigilance's 6'8, but she was also one of the biggest with her jacked, beefy, powerful frame. 



She wasn't just a hulking physique though, despite Insector's jokes about her being a 'Baki-character', she was also quite intelligent due to her exercising both her body and her mind. Currently she was reflecting on Vigilance and Volt's actions in the invasion leading up to now. Despite being physically present her mind was currently seated in the palace back home discussing the situation with another version of herself seated across from her. 

"So to reiterate, The Devastarian's Army of Vritritarian War Beasts, the Devinians and Crypteans, numbered in the billions. Prime Eradicator Magnus Vugmannan intended to genocide The Earth's Population. This was further compounded by The World Drills which were intended to bore down into the planet's core and disrupt and detonate it, which would have destroyed the Earth, The World-Shaping Ship which would have radically terraformed the Earth, likely into something similar to their homeworld, which would have rendered it inhospitable for any surviving human life, the Weather Machine which would have 2012'd the planet killing countless innocent people, and their attempts to rocket giant meteors into the Earth." Adamantia listed. "Between their invading army, their vehicles, their Doomsday Devices, and the raw power Magnus displayed with being able to fight Axel through space, it is safe to say that he and Volt were completely justified in slaying the invaders. Billions of lives and the entire planet were at stake and would have been obliterated if we had fought with anything less than 100%." Adamantia folded her arms. "The defense rests." 

Adamantia2 nodded her head. "Excellent points but we should take the fact that he killed them at all into account. I'm worried that this might result in excusing more extreme methods. He wiped out invaders who were attempting to genocide the planet. Fair enough but what about next time? What if Starling Savage or Eva Destruction come back from the Devil's Gate Prison in The Dricire Dimension and try to take over the world again? What if they are leading an army of villains? Do we kill them? What about villains who escape from the comparatively less secure prisons here on Earth? Do we kill them? They're threatening the Earth as well aren't they? I'm not talking about Captain Skull, who just comes back from the dead regardless, I'm talking about the more low level offenders. Lightning Glimmer? Feline Shadow? Broiler? They're criminals but they aren't especially dangerous. We can incapacitate them easily enough. But if they escape again do we kill them? What about random civilians doing something minor? Purse snatchers? ATM Robbers? Traffic Violations? We justified killing the invaders and it worked easily enough so why not this time? That is how easy it is for superheroes to kill people. Can you say if you did it once, even to a murderer, it would never happen again? You can't. Because if you found someone that was an absolute monster and murderer and you decided to kill them, you would eventually find someone who was just as much an absolute monster and murderer or even worse than the one you killed. And what about the opposite? Should your life be ended if just one person in the world thinks they'd prefer if you died so you would never kill again? If we don't accept limitations, if we are no better than the villains."

"Ah! Excellent points. However, we are accepting accountability. Vigilance and Volt are literally volunteering to be held accountable and asking to be taken to court to explain their reasoning to the people. That is literally accepting accountability! Furthermore, the slippery slope fallacy fails here due to the invaders attempting to literally genocide and destroy the Earth. That is billions of lives being slaughtered for no reason at all. The Defense Of Self And Others is beyond justifiable in this instance. Their invasion and attack was a declaration of war and an attempt at mass slaughter of innocent people who had never met or heard of them before. Vigilance and Volt wiping them out is perfectly acceptable there. The only potential argument against this is his fight with the invaders in space. Specifically his fight with Magnus that took them across the solar system but considering everything else Magnus had done up until that point and Magnus refusing to stand down, we can still justify that one as stopping a villain who would have come back with technology and resources to try and destroy the Earth again. It obviously won't be like that in EVERY battle, I'm more than old enough to understand that, but in some circumstances you have to step up and eliminate the threat. I am an Amazon. I am a warrior. Born and raised. I know the circumstances in which one would have to take a life. Look at soldiers returning form war or taking out terrorists. It's not a pleasant experience, it never should be, but they do it to keep the world and their loved ones safe and they never go on a mass worldwide killing spree like the villains. That's what makes villains who they are: Their choices. Therefore we stop them with as much force as is necessary for the circumstance in a case by case basis." 

Her inner self relented. "Honestly those are all excellent points. Alright, I'll relent this round, you win again."

"Thank you, our talks are nice my inner self." 

She opened her eyes again, exiting her mental plane and returning to reality to see Dynamo standing in front of her. She was, to put it lightly, a rotund woman with the body of a Sumo Wrestler or Power Lifter, and definitely tall, being almost as tall as Adamantia, just three inches shorter, and rocking a primarily black costume with red shoulders, a long red cape, silver bracelets and side armor and chest armor, a black top, and red and black boots and gloves. Powers Wise, beyond the usual Flying Brick Powers, Dynamo had the ability to absorb any energy sent her way and either redirect it right back or use to amplify herself further. Uniquely, Dynamo had the ability to transmute other objects into energy and absorb it into herself directly given enough time to focus which was very useful in taking out the enemy's war vehicles before Volt and Vigilance eliminated them all. 



"Morning, Sunshine!" She greeted Adamantia. "Did I interrupt anything?"

"Nah I was just ruminating on the recent battle that's all." 

"I know the feeling. I've been working hard to assist with the various city repairs and, while being able to transmute and absorb the rubble goes a long way in helping with the clean up process and keeping me refreshed, it's still a lot of work and the sheer devastation is..."

"Heart wrenching?"

"Yeah. I know we've dealt with space jerks before but this was above and beyond the norm. This was an attempt at full on extermination and destruction. What I don't get is why? I mean, who were those guys anyway?" She folded her arms and levitated. "Man. I get why Vigilance did what he did, I'm not going to judge him for it, but it might've been worth keeping the big guy around just so we can get some answers from him."

"I understand that feeling but you must remember that it was a life and death battle and in such situations you have to make a call and he chose to strike down the enemy that would not relent under any other circumstances. Lets stop worrying about what ifs and focus on the now. What's the current rate of city repairs?"

"Right. Ah, repairs to the cities and towns, etc. of Earth as a whole are proceeding on schedule. We're about 55% of the way there overall. A few more days and we should be able to finish up. With everyone working together in unison and utilization of tech and our abilities it shouldn't take too much longer." 

"Good. Then that's what we should focus on right now. Once this whole trial business is over we'll be able to redouble our efforts and put all of our attention in repairing the damage the invaders caused and then proceed forward from there." Adamantia placed gentle hands upon her shoulders. "It will be alright. We'll handle this. Just like we always do."

"You're right." She sighed, rubbed her face and perked back up. "We can't bring the back the people that were lost but we can move forward into a brighter future for the world. In the end, this will be just like when we handled that Subterranean Uprising and smacked their lights out." 

"I remember. That was a good fight. A massive army of underground monsters, golems and beasts. Truly a battle for the ages." Adamantia sighed. "I'm glad we were able to come to an understanding in the end though. A shame we couldn't come to the same treaty with the invaders. Oh well."

"Don't worry about it. Wherever they came from I'm sure they'll think twice before attacking us again." 

"I certainly hope so. I'd rather not have to go through another wipe out like that. But lets focus on now. Have you seen Arrowhead around?"



"Yeah, he went back to Aurora City after he healed up in order to get back to his HQ and rest. He seemed....really overwhelmed to put it lightly." Dynamo informed her.

"I don't blame him. This whole situation has been overwhelming all of us. We'll have to check up on him after the trial. The most important thing right now is being able to support and help each other. I don't want to leave anyone out in the lurch to suffer alone. Not when we could still reach out our hands to them."