Venom was about to be cornered soon by the various superheroes. There would be no way out.

Suddenly a Boom Tube appeared releasing a huge number of parademons. The parademons began to attack anyone they spotted. They were followed by Kalibak the cruel who insisted that Venom be turned over to him immediately.

The Hulk was delighted to see Kalibak appear and targeted him immediately. Nothing made this version of the Hulk happier in a fight then to take on someone of his own size. Those parademons were too easy to beat.

Meanwhile Desaad slipped up to Venom and sprayed him with something.

Whatever it was caused Venom to go rigid and collapse. Desaad ordered some parademons to collect Venom and take him back to Apokolips in another Boom Tube, leaving Kalibak and several Parademons to contend with the Teen Titans, the Defenders and the Checkmate agents along with the National Guard troops and the Star City police.

Kalibak and the parademons had been sent by Darkseid as a distraction so that Darkseid could collect Venom and add him to his superpowered army. The Midnight Rambler had suggested it to Darkseid.

Kalibak brawled with the Hulk while everyone else had their hands full with parademons.

Every superhero in Star City was busy with at least five parademons while the rest of the parademons harrassed the Checkmate agents, the Guard and Reserve troops and the Star City police force, including their swat team.

After several hours; during which, the Valkyrie and Nighthawk laboriously guided the Hulk/ Kalibak battle away from Star City, the parademons were finally routed.

This allowed all the heroes to converge on the Hulk/Kalibak fight.

Except the Scarlet Spider, who wanted to keep a low profile in case his discovery might cause problems for Spiderman.

Kalibak and the Hulk were still going strong but soon the rest of the Defenders and the Teen Titans converged on Kalibak. Feeling outnumbered and alone since all the parademons had been defeated, Kalibak desperately forced the Hulk off of him and quickly summoned a Boom Tube to escape, promising the Hulk a rematch under different circumstances.

With the threat of Venom apparently over, Star City returned to normal.

Dallas Riordan, Sgt. Tork and Turk Barrett were flown to New York City after Sgt. Tork was determined to be acting responsibly in the death of the Sin Eater despite being out of his jurisdiction as a police officer.

As night fell, Mia Deardon decided to look over her city. She had made friends with Hellcat and Mockingbird from the Marvel Universe but Mockingbird had left with the Avengers the day before and Hellcat was kept busy trying to keep the Hulk out of trouble.

Mockingbird reminded her of the Black Canary, who Mia missed tremendously.

Suddenly, she saw something suspicious and decided to investigate.

The Scarlet Spider was patrolling Star City, trying to get used to the strange city. Suddenly an arrow caught his left sleeve pinning it to the wall. Within milliseconds the same had happened to his right sleeve and both leggings.

He looked around and saw a snip of a girl giving him a hard look and demanding to know who he was. She had an arrow nocked and aimed right at his head.

The Scarlet Spider explained who he was to the newest Speedy. He could easily have freed himself but he didn't want to wreck his costume; besides, despite the girl's near Hawkeye level skill with a bow and arrow, she had not set off Ben's spider sense.

After a lot of fast talking, Ben managed to get the girl to remove her arrows.

Taking her into his confidence, he got Mia to agree to keep his presence in Star City quiet. He promised to help her patrol the city if she didn't let anyone know he was living there. She promised to keep mum as she was beguiled by his easy wit and charm. The two became a team, with the Scarlet Spider replacing Green Arrow as Speedy's mentor.

Elsewhere, the epic battle between Galactus and the Spectre continued to rage with no end in sight.

Superman took a look at the lay of the land. he could swear on a stack of bibles that this had to be the work of Mr. Mxyztlpk. West of the Mississippi was like the old West? East of the Mississippi was like a bizarre fantasy? The United Kingdom was like the King Arthur myths except for London?

Europe was like the World War II era except for two Eastern Bloc countries; Symkaria and Markovia and an area just North of those countries which seems to be expected to become Latveria. Africa nearly all primitive jungle, desert and wild savannah except in Khandaq, Wakanda and Gorilla City.

He learned he still had to visit Tokyo and immediately set out.

Batman considered the new arrivals that he knew about.

This new batch didn't seem to have delivered any power players from the Marvel Universe except that Black Bolt Inhuman and that Arkon who seemed a bit like many of the JLA's interstellar foes like Kanjar Ro and Hyathis.

The rest seemed like potential soldiers with the possible exception of that wild man Ka-Zar being sent to that Savage Land.

New members for the Avengers, new members for the X-Men (What a surprise there! How many of those X-Men were there?) New members for a team called the Defenders. And then there was Deathlok, who Nick Fury sent to Judge Dredd's world. A cyborg, but nothing like Vic Stone.

He wondered what that Radioactive Man meant for China in this world?

Perhaps Superman could check after he finished visiting Tokyo.

Let me wrap up this arc here.

The story will continue here:
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showth...44#post7851544

Where we move on to the next set release, which was the Danger Room Action Pack.

Thanks for reading, I'll see you there.