What has gone before:
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=416321

That link takes you to part nine. You can follow to the beginning if you want to catch up.

Day 14: Early morning, On an alternate Earth, Near a duplicate of Central City.

Frank Castle; known and feared as the Punisher, was ready to get an early start. He expected a very big day, possibly his last day. But then; the way he operated, any day could be his last day.

With all the missing superheroes over the past two weeks, the supervillains had become extremely bold and the remaining superheroes were working overtime to contain them. Castle intended to ease their burdon, permanently. He was going to eliminate as many supervillains as he could, even if it meant his own death in the end.

He had a battle van stocked and loaded and he was going to take his war to the criminals. Every weapon was primed and loaded and in perfect condition. He wasn't even worried about police interference. They were undermanned due to members of the force being killed or wounded trying to take down super powered felons.

Today was going to be open season on the bad guys.

He fired up the van and opened the garage to drive out. Due to the absense of most of the city's populace, he wasn't even worried about blowing the cover for one of his many safehouses.

Once he got onto one of the main freeways and opened up to a high speed, that was when he was taken by a dimensional rift where he was deposited on the alternate Earth.

Quentin Beck looked around. He was greatly irritated. He had big, big plans to make a huge mark now that so many of the superhero population were missing. He intended to have people say the name Mysterio with the same sense of reverential dread reserved for Victor Von Doom.

Now he was mysteriously deposited near an unfamiliar city in the same apparent fashion as all the other missing heroes and villains. Word was, the Kingpin himself had been taken. Now it was his turn.

At least he was fully equipped with all his gear.

He was just about to make his way into the unknown city when he heard a disturbance behind him.

He turned to look and saw a rift open with a speeding van crashing through. This vehicle barely missed running him over. Collecting himself he watched the van pull to a stop. Suddenly, the van door opened up.

Beck nearly filled his pants when he saw who jumped out of the van and aimed an M-16 directly at him, using the van as cover while he aimed over the top.

The Punisher? What kind of bad luck was that? As the bullets began flying, Beck used his plate springs to get away while creating holographic images of himself to misdirect the Punisher's fire.

There was no doubt about it, Beck was scared. Bad. Fighting Spiderman and Daredevil was one thing but the Punisher was something else. He was out to kill you!

He wasn't about to take on the Punisher head on. Not without planning and preparation. Beck needed to get out of here, fast!

Barry Allen was starting his day with a sweep around his city. It had been determined that new arrivals appeared near Opal City yesterday and they'd been from the Marvel universe but apparently there were only a handful arriving compared to other days. They felt that that city might get more today as had happened several times before.

Still, it was better to be safe then sorry.

Suddenly, he heard gunfire. Rushing to the scene, he discovered a brutal looking soldier type firing a military issue rifle at several strangely dressed men. Perhaps another terrorist organization from the Marvel universe?

The immediate threat appeared to be the rifleman and the Flash disarmed him first. The man was extremely tough and it took a flurry of punches from Barry before he fell.

When he looked for the targets of the man's ire all he saw was clouds of smoke near a brush of woods. Well, he'd flush them out later. First he needed to get this trigger happy fool dealt with.

He contacted the Avengers and described what he'd seen. Captain America recognized both and identified them. He was irked that the Punisher seemed to be categorized as a "hero" by the mysterious entity that was bringing them here.

He boarded a quinjet and flew out with Ms. Marvel to collect the Punisher before the man managed to irrevocably damage relations between his universe and the DCers.

The Super Skrull and Ronan the Accuser were at a historic summit meeting.

Despero had been attacking all the alien races he was encountering, Skrulls, Kree, Saurians and even the Brood.

If Kl'rt and Ronan hadn't worked together before, this meeting would not have been possible. The enmity between the Kree and the Skrulls was that great.

Still, it was obvious that this Despero was more powerful then either of them and an appeal to Darkseid produced unsatisfactory results. All he said was that he'd look into it when he had time.

They were working out plans to prevent Despero from conquering them all, including the Saurians.

Since it was Amora the Enchantress' turn to have a break from protecting the land of Asgard, She was attending a summit of mystics that included Umar, Nightmare and Hecate.

The demon Nightmare had called it and she crashed it. Although Hecate was not from her universe, she was still a Cthonic goddess and Nightmare felt a special kinship with her as if she were the Hecate of his own universe.

Although Amora had crashed the meeting, she was not unwelcome. In the absense of Loki, she was considered a suitable representative of the Norse pantheon for Nightmare's purposes.

Eclipso and Arcane were there as well. Eclipso, chafed at his status as a lackey for Nightmare but his powers here were on the level he displayed when he first took possesion of Bruce Gordon. Hecate was accompanied by Rasputin.

Darkseid arrived shortly after Amora crashed the party.

Amora agreed that she would ally with the others solely on the condition that they left Asgard alone, a condition she'd extracted from Nightmare previously. The others swiftly agreed.

With this promise extracted from the dark lords, Amora felt no obligation to return to Asgard and relieve Hercules and Beta Ray Bill from their duties to protect the kingdom of Odin and began plotting to make her own allies so that she could have them both ousted eventually.

The discussion turned to the limited magical defenses available to the heroes, which amounted solely to the presense of Zatanna, the Scarlet Witch, Magik and the Swamp Thing. The coalition felt that together, they could easily overwhelm that with proper planning.

Umar laughed, no Dr. Strange? The Scarlet Witch was hardly in his league, though her mutant powers were nothing to sneeze at.

T'Challa spent the night guaranteeing that his kingdom was safe from any incursion. Wakandan technology had done an excellent job preventing any breach of security despite the absence of anyone to monitor the defensive devices put in place.

At some point he began to notice that his lower echelon subjects were there. He'd been warned to expect this by Captain America and he greeted his subjects warmly and managed to get the word out that he would do everything to ensure their safety. He asked that his subjects carry on as usual while he worked to protect them. It was going to be quite a while before T'Challa was able to sleep.

Quasar and Captain Mar-Vell were aware of the threat that Despero was posing and decided to offer their help to the Super Skrull and Ronan.

Taking along Adam Warlock and Moondragon, they approached the Kree/Skrull/Saurian alliance and offered to confront Despero and "dissuade" him from his aspirations as conqueror. Ronan and the Super Skrull agreed as long as they were included in the confrontation.

The group left to confront the would be dictator.

Mysterio managed to slip into Central City unnoticed. Attempting to find a decent place to hide, he inadvertantly stumbled on the nondescript hideout of the Weather Wizard.

After a painful introduction to the Flash villain, he managed to convey his desire for a useful alliance. Since the other rogues were not available and the Weather Wizard had gotten a little stir crazy trying to hide from the Flash until he was ready to show his hand, the Weather Wizard accepted and an alliance between the two was born.

Captain America retrieved the Punisher from the Flash.

"Only you could convince me to relinquish a gun toting maniac over to your hands. Any one else from your universe would have been told no. I don't believe in guns and I don't have any respect for those who use them irresponsibly. I hope you know what your doing."

"I understand your concerns. I know the Punisher and I am certain I can keep him in check and ensure that he applies his skills more responsibly. At any rate, from now on, he'll be under my supervision and that of Nick Fury. We won't sanction rogue behavior from him."

"I hope your right. He reminds me of Deathstroke from our world and I have no tolerance for him either."

"I've been briefed on this Deathstroke. I imagine we'll have to contend with him eventually. I hope we can stop him. At any rate, the Punisher's not your problem any more."

"All right Captain America. As always, it's an extreme pleasure to meet you again. I hope we work together sometime soon."

"Flash, it would be my honor."

After that exchange, Cap loaded Frank Castle into the Quinjet but instead of returning to Avengers Mansion or the facility, headed for Capital City.

During the flight, Cap briefed Castle on the status of everything as best he could in the short time he had.

Castle was annoyed that he'd been dragged into the craziness that epitomized the superhero community. He was about punishing lowlife criminals like the ones that slew his family. He didn't give a fig newton about the nonsense the Avengers got themselves wrapped up in, but he had huge respect for Captain America and Cap knew it.

When they landed, Castle had no idea where they could be.

"Where is this?"

"Capital City."

"Capital City? What the hell is Capital City? From the Simpsons?"

"No Castle, don't be facetious. This city, like the one you appeared at, is from the other universe we call, the DC universe."

"So why are you bringing me here?"

"Because I have other things to do besides spend my time being your nursemaid here. I'm bringing you to be monitored by someone who has the time for that."

"Now who the hell would that be?"

"You'll see."

Cap brought Castle into a military base situated near Capital City. The first thing castle noticed was that the base seemed antiquated, like it evoked World War II.

Cap led Castle into a building.

"Frank Castle, I'd like you to meet Sgt Frank Rock, U.S. Army. Because you're a marine deserter, I'll let you explain your reasoning to this man."

Rock looked Castle over and said, "You're a deserter son?"

Castle eyed him and said, "Yeah, but I had good reasons."

"There ain't no good reasons for desertion son!" and the fight was on, Frank Rock, distinguished hero from WWII versus Frank Castle, notorious deserter of the United States Marines.

The fight lasted a long time, with Castle surprising Rock several times with unfamiliar moves. Despite that, Rock was resourceful enough to counter them effectively. Eventually, the two men collapsed from exhaustion, each of them complimenting the other on their toughness.

"All right Castle. I know your story, I know why you deserted. I understand it, I don't approve of it, but I understand it. Captain America told me about you when I first arrived here. He respects your ability, if not your motives. He told me right off that he was going to turn you over to me if you showed up. He wanted me to remind you that you're a soldier. That's what I'm going to do, or die trying. This crazy world still has a ratzi problem back on the continent and those ratzis are way worse then your vendettas."

With that; Frank Castle, the Punisher, met a true World War II icon from a different universe and (for now) was dissuaded from his personal demons.

Meanwhile, Barry Allen knew that it was his city's turn to receive new arrivals to this world and he had no desire to leave the safety of his home to strangers, so he decided to maintain a patrol to ensure the protection of Central City.

Day 14: Mid morning, An alternate Earth, near a replicated Central City.


Johnny Ell, resident Morlock couldn't resist inspecting the bizarre apparition he was faced with. He dipped his hand in and pulled it out to no ill effects. What was this thing? It didn't seem like anything practical.

Curious beyond practicality, he plunged in and found himself face to face with a Hellfire Guard.

Wade Cole was a Hellfire Guard with an eye for advancement. In his mind's eye, he saw himself as a the Black King someday, mark his words.

Suddenly, he was faced with a situation outside the norm for him.

He was nowhere near a Hellfire club and he had no idea where he really was and how he got there.

He was trying to identify where he was by examining the nearby city skyline which was completely unfamiliar with him, when a strange noise caused him to look.

A grotesque figure stepped through. Wade Cole was armed and began to aim when he was suddenly disarmed.

"Who are you?" a man in a red costume asked him.

"I -- I'm a Hellfire Guard!"

"And what does that mean?" The Flash asked.

"I --- it just means I'm paid to protect the Hellfire Clubs interests"

"So how does drawing down on that person reflect Hellfire Club interests?"

"I thought it was a monster, it looked like a monster."

"Did he do anything threatening?"

"He threatened to dismember me!"

The Flash looked hard at the Hellfire Guard. "I saw when he arrived. All he was doing was looking bewildered. You drew down on him. You were in the wrong here."

"Are you calling me a liar?"

"Yes."

Cole didn't know what to say to that.

"I'm taking you both in and handing you over to Nick Fury. He'll know what to do with both of you."

With that, Flash whisked them both off to the facility.

Selene stalked through the NYC Hellfire Club and was startled to know that the the guards had reported for work this morning.

Meanwhile; Marrow's depths of depression were mildly alleviated when she discovered a restored Morlock population in the underground depths she called home.