Capitol Hill, located in Washington D.C. On top sits the most famous landmark of the National Mall—the United States Capitol, the white building with Roman columns and a dome often seen in various films and TV shows. As the name suggests, this is where the U.S. Congress is located; the circular hall commonly seen in movies is the meeting room of the House of Representatives.
Coincidentally, every year around Christmas is the time when state ballots are sent for selection. Congress needs to tally and confirm the votes to decide the next president. Therefore, Congress is extremely busy during this period—it's an opportune time for them to exercise power, and hardly anyone is absent.
This time, however, everyone arrived exceptionally early because the alien arrival incident affected the Electoral College voting, causing discrepancies in the vote count, and all the members were gathered in the House chamber discussing. At the climax of their discussion, the ground suddenly experienced a slight tremor. Looking out the window, the view wasn't the National Mall scenery but the bustling sights of Metropolis Square.
If it was just that, it wouldn't be a big deal, but the number of police and soldiers following Superman is overwhelming: MPD (Metropolitan Police Department), FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), HSI (Homeland Security Investigation Bureau), NG (National Guard), USMC (United States Marine Corps), USAF (United States Air Force), and various armed forces all in attendance. Apart from the end of the year when funds are needed, it's rare to gather all these troops together; even during critical missions, typically only one or two appear.
These forces are comprehensively armed, each person equipped with more than one gun. All sorts of anti-terrorism gear are readily available, and everything is loaded. The ominous muzzle of their guns is aimed at the center of Metropolis Square—now the location of the United States Capitol.
In other words, when the congressmen opened their eyes, the entire armed forces of America had surrounded the United States Capitol, almost at the point of shouting "Heaven is dead, a new order shall rise."
Nevetheless, who cares about the process of who is attacking whom; now there are thousands of guns pointed at America's most important political building, who wouldn't be anxious?
Let's just say, there's often news about the president's safety being threatened in America, and the famous assassins that have attempted to assassinate the president are too numerous to count with One Hand; but has anyone heard of a terrorist attack on the United States Capitol?
The biggest news about the United States Capitol is that the congressmen have started fighting internally. Is it that the terrorists don't want to do this?
Assassinating the president can be considered a personal vendetta, but attacking the Capitol is equivalent to declaring war on America. As the saying goes, capture requires evidence, anti-terrorism just needs coordinates; war doesn't even need coordinates, it starts with striking continents. Madmen wouldn't even do such a thing.
So, everyone is dumbfounded: the U.S. Military, Federal Government, congressmen, Metropolis journalists, and the onlookers, now everyone dares not move, fearing a single accidental discharge that would replicate the Civil War.
Now not even considering why Superman would do this, just resolving the current situation is already extremely difficult. And this is exactly what Clark desires.
"Everyone, stay the hell still!!!" The yelling of the United States Marine Corps commander comes through the headset, "Don't move! Also, don't lower your guns, don't make any moves. Do you not understand, damn it?!!"
Theoretically, the military should be telling these soldiers to quickly put down their weapons to avoid accidental discharge, but things aren't that simple. The separation of powers system in America leads to mutual suspicion among various parties, this is a miniaturized version of The Dark Forest Theory—you can only assume the other party is unfriendly.
In this scenario, whoever moves first might encounter an attack first. Even if you are lowering your weapon, if afterward someone analyzes your movement and sees it as an attacking intent, who knows how many people's entire families would end up in ruin.
Thus, the best method now is to remain completely motionless, waiting for someone else to move first. But no one dares move first, so the situation remains at a standstill.
The military doesn't want to move first because they don't want to be responsible. They're quite innocent; they were originally executing a mission to monitor and pursue Superman using a reasonable range of armed forces. Who would have thought he would bring Capitol Hill here? The armed forces meant to deal with Superman are now surrounding Capitol Hill.
Congressmen are going crazy; we gathered to discuss official matters, not for you to catch us all in one go. Originally eating hot pot and singing in the meeting hall, halfway through being hijacked, who do we approach for reason?
So now, since things have gone wrong, shouldn't we quickly withdraw the people and weapons? Just placing guns to our heads. How much longer do you intend to keep them there?
Congressmen exploded, beginning to frantically call officers demanding immediate withdrawal of troops. However, the more furious they became, the more officers dared not withdraw, even with guns to their heads, this was their stance. If they withdrew, wouldn't there be a blood purge in the military?
Thus, the military certainly wants to negotiate; we can withdraw troops, but you must promise not to pursue this later, since the incident wasn't our fault. The more they negotiate, the more anxious the congressmen get, their attitude worsens, leaving the military even more uncertain. Going back and forth, both parties are now in a deadlock.
Someone might find this comical, but actually, it's how America's political system functions. They don't really have a unified government; it's more like a big company, each shareholder with their own interests, sub-departments intensely competing. "Discuss matters rather than people" is almost non-existent; everything is viewed based on personal interests, things aligning with departmental interests will get done, those that don't can get out.
And some may think congressmen actually need not fear; surely they wouldn't dare fire. But American culture is such that anyone might fire upon anyone else, they grew up in an environment that fosters distrust in armed forces, cultivated over years, alike among civilians and politicians. Even stepping back, even if not actively wanting to fire, with so many weapons, should any accidentally discharge, you'll have a mountain on your head.
As for why the well-maintained active weapons misfired—how much funding Congress allocates each year, and how much of it is spent on legitimate purposes, don't they know themselves? This, this is a case of having a guilty conscience.
Every Congressman was at a loss. They couldn't fathom how Superman thought of putting the entire Capitol Hill inside his chase circle. What, besides super strength, does the alien also have super political brains? Where did he learn all this?
In fact, the President's team should mediate in such situations, but the problem now is, if the White House makes a call displeasing to Superman, he might just move the White House over as well. That would be great; America would directly relocate its capital to Metropolis.
To say Metropolis isn't too bad, anyway, since all the buildings have been moved, making do with working here isn't impossible. But folks, look at the neighboring Gotham; those madmen have a big explosion every three days, a small explosion every two days, how are the security personnel supposed to survive?
Of course, Washington D.C. is certainly happy, after serving as the political center without any voting rights, now that the bigwigs have finally moved out, it's bound to be an all-out voting frenzy.
But this presents another problem: New Jersey State used to be a Blue State, and if the political center is moved here, this state can no longer vote, which means directly losing a Blue State; whereas whether Washington D.C. is Red or Blue is uncertain, without a Blue State, it might even gain a Red State. This really makes America great again.
In short, the complexities involved are such that half a day after Capitol Hill moved to Metropolis, and after countless calls, the situation remained at a deadlock.
In the end, the onlookers all went home to cook, leaving only the diligent journalists keeping watch. Many TV stations began live broadcasts, intending to see which of these stubborn entities would out-stubborn the other.
The Congressmen certainly couldn't out-stubborn the military, after all, the soldiers have undergone professional training, squatting in place for several days is no problem; but these Congressmen are all in their seventies or eighties, with no heating and no food—finally, the boomerang of besieging another nation's presidential palace hit them right between the eyes.
Even more coincidentally, it started snowing in Metropolis as night fell. This was the largest snowstorm of the year so far, with temperatures plummeting to minus ten degrees. The Congressmen couldn't bear it any longer and began phoning the Presidential Palace for help.
The President had no choice but to help, as the election results are in the hands of the Congressmen. If he didn't, not only would his political career end, but so would his physical life.
However, he's not a blond real estate mogul, never mind the military, even mobilizing the National Guard was difficult. With no other options, there was only one road left: calling Superman and asking him to put away his magical powers.
Clark picked up the phone and immediately said: "The weapon manufactured by A.R.G.U.S. nearly killed me, and when I woke up, Amanda Waller tried to lead a team against me. In self-defense, I accidentally hit her..."
The President understood right away and said: "This is entirely a decision-making error by A.R.G.U.S. Neither the White House nor the Federal Government ever intended to be hostile towards you; this was entirely Ms. Waller's doing. I completely understand your act of self-defense. As for Ms. Waller's death, I am also very sorry. I can assure you that you will not be taken to Court because of this; if there are any other related legal proceedings, I can also grant you special immunity."
"Alright," Clark nodded, "you write up the immunity documents first, and I'll come by to retrieve them later. Now I'll go persuade the military to leave."
The President breathed a sigh of relief: fortunately, Superman's temper was good; if he were any harder to negotiate with, this issue couldn't be resolved today.
But, he evidently underestimated Clark. Because after getting the immunity documents, Clark did indeed go and persuade both the military and police to leave.
The military took the opportunity to bow out gracefully, after all, when Superman comes flying by asking you to leave, if you don't, and he moves you to the Mariana Trench, you can't possibly live past today, can you?
After the armed forces dispersed, the Congressmen breathed a sigh of relief. They were really freezing, unable to stay in the unheated hall any longer, so they trickled out in small groups to find a hotel to get through the cold, snowy night first.
As a result, just as the leading one took two steps out, about a thousand journalists came up, shoving microphones into his mouth.
"Hello, Congressman. Do you see that building without a roof next to you? We've learned that there are more than 2,000 unidentified corpses there. Are you aware of this?"
"Hello, Congressman, insiders revealed that the Federal Government is conducting large-scale captures of homeless people in Los Angeles for illegal human experiments. Are you aware of this matter?"
"Hello, Congressman. I am a reporter from the Metropolitan Morning News. Could the unidentified bodies appearing in military bases be linked to the poisoning case of Louise Lane? Is this, as rumored, a silencing operation by the Federal Government and military?"