Kilowog returned to Oa or at least the replicated Oa. He was stunned at the absense of the Guardians. Only the races that lived on Oa to serve the Guardians were there. He and John Stewart were the only Green Lanterns available.

John Stewart had earlier brought him to observe the being known as Galactus and told him about the deal that he'd made. This meant that Kilowog would have to be the primary source of defense for Oa.

The Kree warrior, Captain Mar-Vell and his associates, Adam Warlock and Moondragon promised to make themselves available to aid in the defense of Oa if needed and with Manhunters, Sinestro, Darkseid, Despero, Queen Bee and Fatality out there along with several threats from the other universes such as the Skrulls, Saurians, Kree and the Brood, Kilowog knew he would need all the help he could get.

Winds took Weather Wizard to Central City in no time. Conjuring a forceful storm with his wand, he had no trouble slipping into the city unobserved and found one of his private hideouts. He allowed the storm to rage for an hour after his arrival, then let it taper off to avoid attracting attention to himself.

He'd seen so many strange things en route to Central City from Gotham City that he almost felt tempted to try to contact the Flash and make a truce with him in order to try to go back to where he'd come from. He had no doubt that he was where all the missing heroes had gone. Their absence was too prominent in the news back in his reality.

He settled down to learn what he could from the media.

Bane was the only prisoner in the facility now. Tapes showed that the previous prisoners had escaped via rifts. This; along with the accounts of the Mandroid guards, showed the Shield and Checkmate agents what had happened.

Batman stood outside Bane's cell. It would probably be only a matter of time before Bane was freed the same way, but for now, Batman wished some words.

"Why'd you betray my trust? I helped you heal your arms after Aquaman broke them. I gave you my trust because I thought you recognized there were greater issues to deal with here then your perceived rivalry with me.
I needed your help to protect Gotham City and you turned on me."

"Because we are meant to be enemies. In the end, it must be either you or me. We cannot coexist. You think the Joker is your greatest enemy? Rha's Al Ghul? No! It is me. I am and always will be your most dangerous foe. You were a fool to trust me. I am Mordred to your King Arthur. I will destroy you. I was born to destroy you!"

Batman looked at him stoically. "I'm not often wrong, and I find it difficult to believe I was wrong about you. There's more to you then that. I think you need to examine yourself and consider what's really there. You are capable of so much more, if you could let go of this pointless rivalry with me."

Bane just glared at him and Batman turned away.

Mr. Bones stood before Lex Luthor. He'd made his choice. He was on Luthor's side.

"The D.E.O. agents in Metropolis will do as I say Luthor. We're at your beck and call. Many of them remember your leadership during your presidency and refuse to believe you were a criminal."

"That's good to know, Mr. Bones. I have always tried to do what's best for our country and now I'm working to do what's best for Metropolis."

"I believe you Mr. Luthor. That's why I'm pledging my loyalty to you now."

"It's a well placed loyalty Bones. You stick with me and you can't go wrong. We can't allow the continuing encroachment of these aliens like Superman to undermine our innate Earthlike greatness. We don't need these aliens Bones!" Luthor slammed his fist. "We can do everything we need without them! Superman is a crutch! We need to throw away that crutch!"

"Yes sir!" Bones replied, "Absolutely sir."

"Thank you Mr. Bones. Glad to have you aboard." Luthor shook Bones' gloved hand.

Meanwhile; in his suburban townhouse, Perry White and his wife peered out of their front window in dismay at the Intergang agents that patrolled the streets.

Kobra was ecstatic about his new situation. He had his followers, he'd been restored to life after Black Adam slew him, and the new world he'd been restored to was in utter chaos! Exactly what he wanted!

He didn't waste time considering his good fortune, or how he came about it. Instead he resumed his plotting. This new world would have to bend to the will of Kobra.

To this end, he had teleporters that allowed him to go to the other secret headquarters in the other cities. The only city he was denied was Capital City, which only existed on Earth 2.

Maxima raged impotently. She was used to having everything her way. Now she was returned to her own world with most of it's population absent. This would not do! She was not someone to be denied.

Her poor handmaiden suffered the brunt of her wrath. It was nothing new to her. She'd learned to deflect most of it.

Maxima was the kind of world leader who liked to delegate authority, but everyone she would have delegated authority to was absent. She was still angry at how Nu'Bia had held her own against her, though she only was able to do that because Maxima had encountered interference with her mental powers. Maxima vowed to punish whoever was responsible for blocking her mental powers.

Silver Swan, Killer Frost and Metallo had signed on to obey Luthor.

Metallo had some issues with Luthor in the past, but Metallo was at heart a mercenary. He understood the need to put grudges aside; but deep down, if the opportunity presented itself, Luthor would pay.

In the meantime, Metallo was willing to be a super soldier in the service of Lex Luthor.

The Shade had no trouble finding Jackie Estacado. His darkness powers drew him directly to him. He hid himself and studied the kid. The kid impressed him.

He decided to make himself known to Jackie Estacado.

Estacado saw something that caught his attention. Was someone else wielding the Darkness powers? He tested his own abilities. He still had them. How could someone else do what he could do? He should be the only one with these powers. He decided to investigate.

He moved off to learn how someone could manifest powers similar to his own, when by rights, he should be the sole wielder of the Darkness powers.

He fell right into the Shade's trap. The Shade was vastly more experienced with the use of these powers and managed to trip Estacado up with his own Darkness powers.

The Shade successfully used his own darkness powers to focus available light to concentrate on Jackie Estacado, rendering Estacado helpless.

The Shade looked Estacado in the eye and said, "We need to talk."

Queen Bee entered into a strategic alliance with the Kree. This was uncharacteristic of the xenophobic Kree.

The alliance only occurred due to the progressive mind of Ronan the Accuser. As the de facto ruler of the Kree empire he understood the need to be flexible, a trait his fellow Kree did not share and was what ultimately had brought about the long running enmity of the Krees and the Skrulls.

And that's where I'm going to wrap up day 12.

I thought it would be kind of funny to throw in the movie Catwoman since they made her as a mailaway. Don't worry, the real Catwoman will eventually show up.

Juggling this many characters, I'm bound to neglect some, but I haven't forgotten the subplots I started with the characters in Japan or the characters stuck in a AD&D setting, my muse just hasn't spoken to me about them lately. I promise I'll get to them.

Next up, I move on to the Universe set, where I'll bring in five more heroes and five more villains that I saved specifically for this set, rather then use them for the Infinity Challenge or the Xplosion sets.

Then I pick and choose from the Ultimates set.

Right now I actually have more DC characters running around in this story then I do Marvel characters, despite having more Marvel sets. That'll change of course, due to having three more Marvel sets (and one more sort of Indy set, if you can call it that.) before I move on to the Legacy set.

That can be attributed to many of the Marvel characters getting remakes as opposed to the very few DC remakes.

Forgot to do this part last week.

Hercules was overjoyed at the arrival of Beta Ray Bill in Asgard. He wanted to celebrate by drinking vast quantities of ale and mead but the Enchantress wouldn't have it. Both she and Hercules were weary of constant vigilance toward a possible attack or invasion by the possible threats that loomed large, particularly Darkseid and Apokolips.

Beta Ray Bill agreed to stand in and give Hercules a brief respite and allow him to hang out for a bit with his Avengers friends.

This was not a popular decision in Amora's eyes and the two heroes had to agree to cover for her when Hercules returned. That didn't seem like a good idea but the heroes didn't have a choice if they were inclined to be fair and she had gone out of her way to provide protection for the ersatz Asgard since they'd all been removed from their own reality.

Hercules used the powers in his mace to go to Avengers mansion.

Link to the Universe arc:
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showth...17#post7148717