"Dr. Mortal," said a commanding voice. Visually the scientist was thin, with a narrow and rather sad-looking face, bald save for a rim of white hair along the base of his skull, and a white mustache and goatee. He turned his face up from the lab equipment he was working on, and smiled assuredly. "Blue Beetle," he said in acknowledgement.

The newcomer stepped forward, the light glistening off his blue chainmail. "This new mad quest of yours to dominate the world stops now … raising the dead and creating living monstrosities that are part human, part animal, and part plant. It's diabolical."

"Thank you," Dr. Mortal said, and smiled. He began to reach for the weapon which would shrink his opponent to doll size, but the explosion which devastated the lab never gave him the chance.

After the dust had settled, another quite different pair stood amongst the wreckage: a woman clad in a concealing black garment with accents of green and yellow, and a man clad in armor which resembled the Blue Beetle's save that it was orange-gold.

"You made sure there's enough of him left?" the Scarab asked.

"Don't patronize me. I know what I'm doing," replied the Shadow Lady. They explored the remains, and the Scarab emitted a sound of satisfaction as he found the bloodied corpse of Dan Garret. He removed a hypodermic needle from a pouch at his hip, and slid the spike into Garret's chest, filling it with blood. "Second one down," he said. "One more, and we'll have all we need."

"I think there's even a counterpart of me on this Earth," Shadow Lady mused. "Don't we have time to kill her, too?"

Scarab glanced at the woman. Her bloodthirstiness disturbed even him at times. "Sandra, we have to be there for the alignment," he reminded her. "It's best if we not waste time."

She nodded, sourly. "Let's do it, then."

He packed the needle away, and activated the portal. "Why did you save this next one for last? Did it matter?"

She shrugged. "Outside of a Blue Beetle, mystery men are fairly sparse there. There's a goddess named Diana we'd best steer clear of, but otherwise only some non-powered types like Judomaster and Yellowjacket. A perfect place for us to settle down without interference." She pressed a fingertip to Garret's corpse, soaked it in blood, and lifted it to her lips to savor the taste.

For a second time in 1955, Earth-4 resounded with a boom. This time it brought a pair of men along with it.

Cat-Man's heightened senses brought the scent of blood to him, and he ran over to the source of the scent. "Mister Miracle's boom tube brought us over too late," he said mournfully. "We failed to save him, just as we had in our world."

Strongman scowled. "He was one of the best of us. No more of them must die," he said. Any further words were cut off by a blow from behind him from fists as powerful as a hundred elephants.

Cat-Man's eyes widened as his ally tumbled down, in his place stood another pair of men, each clad in scarlet; the one who had struck Strongman wore a 'W' emblazoned on his chest.

"I don't know what your game is," the man said, "but you're going to answer to Wonderman and The Lynx."

"Not alone he won't," Strongman said as he rose to his feet before Wonderman's astonished eyes. With the speed of a race car he lunged at Wonderman and the two met blow for blow with fists which resounded like the sound of thunder.

Cat-Man did not hesitate to assist his friend and leapt towards the other man with all the power of a jungle tiger. But the Lynx has spent his life training to become a crime-fighter and was not so easily caught by surprise, and like two angry felines the pair began a series of feints and lunges, hands and feet lashing out with dangerous accuracy.

Strongman wiped a trickle of blood away from his lip. "You're the best challenge I've come across since the Battle Americans and I went up against Das Invasoren," he said, "but you'll fall, same as they did."

Wonderman shook his head. "When I was tested by that yogi in Nanda Parbat, the challenges I encountered were far more dangerous than anything you're going to put me through … I defeated those challenges, and I'll not fall to you either."

Strongman scowled. "Nanda Parbat? The yogi who authored the book I studied to gain my powers came from there. He was a priest of Rama Kushna. You have a lot of gall, taking the gifts he gave you and turning them to evil."

"What? We're not … Lynx, stop. I fear we've been the victim of a misunderstanding." He raised his hands in a pacifying gesture. "We came here from an … an alternate Earth, you might say, investigating the murder of a fellow mystery-man, the Blue Beetle. We made an assumption when we saw you both standing over his body. My apologies."

Strongman looked astounded. "We too. There was a Blue Beetle on our own parallel Earth. We tracked the killers here … and we were too late." He knelt down by the corpse of Dan Garret. "He was one of the first of us, and deserved better than to have his resting place fought over this way."

The Lynx and Cat-Man, still eyeing each other warily, joined them. "Blue Beetle fought a lot of criminals," the Lynx said, "but to … I can't even comprehend the sort of malice that would cause someone to do something like this."

"The Gotham City of my world is full of crime and evil, and since returning from my life in the idylls of Burma I have devoted my life to defeating it," Cat-Man said, "but I think something else must be going on here, some over-riding purpose or advantage to be gained."

The Lynx knelt down, examining Blue Beetle's corpse carefully. "There's a puncture wound in the chest. It doesn't look like damage from the explosion."

Strongman pondered this. "I knew he received his powers from a special vitamin, but it was taken in pill form, correct? Not injected?"

Cat-Man joined the Lynx. "It looks like it was done after his death, not before."

"So someone killed Blue Beetle for access to his blood … presumably for the source of his powers," Wonderman said. "But why kill three of him? Why not drain one of the bodies completely?"

"They needed something other than sheer quantity," Strongman inferred. "There must be something different about each formulation, something to be learned by comparing or combining them."

"Perhaps we can locate them by combining our own abilities," Wonderman said. He held up his right hand. "My powers come from this ring, given to me in Tibet. Perhaps, if Strongman donned it, he might be able to track our true opponents before they cause more deaths."

The Lynx approached him, one hand resting on his shoulder. "You're sure about this?"

"I think we have no choice," Wonderman whispered back.

Strongman extended his hand, accepting the ring gingerly as if it were a holy icon. He glanced at Cat-Man for a moment, and then slipped it on. "Ah," he said, and immediately staggered. "It's … almost too much … I feel like … my muscles are bursting out of my skin …" He let his eyes unfocus, partially entering a meditative state. "Everything's made of glass, and I can see … oh … yes, there's … vibrations! The world vibrates on a specific frequency, but Cat-Man and I … and you two … resonances are slightly different. And there's traces of another frequency here too, but there's something wrong about it, something inverted … " He slipped the ring off quickly, handing it back to Wonderman. "They went that way."

It was the New York laboratory belonging to the independent scientist known as Dr. Franz that the Scarab and Shadow Lady now occupied, having dispensed with the original owner. "Do you see it? Were we right?"

"Yesssss … " Shadow Lady peered through the microscope. "The artificial substance they ingest to give them powers is similar to your own 'Supplement X2,' but the active ingredient is actually not a vitamin at all, but a crystalline substance which attunes itself to the surrounding vibrational frequency. The worlds rotate around the cosmic center like planets orbiting the sun, and they come in and out of alignment. Euthanising the three Blue Beetles so close to the alignment of their Earths will cause a unique reflection/echo effect, and by combining the three serums and injecting them into you at the time of the alignment, that should cause you to draw on all of their powers, added to your own. You'll derive abilities to rival Ultraman himself."

"If the future technology that Carter provided for us works as well as he claims, we should be able to time it precisely." Scarab drew forth the orrery, calibrating the center for their present location of Earth-4, tuning the rest to the resident Earths of the other Blue Beetles, and setting his own native Earth-3 in place as a counterpoint. Soon, the parts of the orrery began to rotate. "We're close," he said.

Shadow Lady kept her eye on the orrery as she drew the amalgamated serum into the needle. Scarab peeled back his sleeve to bare his upper arm, and placed a tablet of Supplement X2 on his tongue. At the moment the three Earths' rotations allowed them to line up exactly, he felt the sharp prick of the needle at the same time as he swallowed.

In the past, Scarab's acquisition of strength had been accompanied by a sensation of increased weight and solidity. To his astonishment, under the influence of the multiple serums he began to feel lighter, as if gravity had lost its hold. For him as well the world began to seem transparent, and he smiled wryly at what he saw approaching. "I see a couple of pale, shallow imitations of Ultraman and Owlman heading our way," he said with a leer. "We can squash them the same way we did those imitations of me we squashed before." He cracked his knuckles in anticipation as the back door which lead to the laboratory exploded inwards, Wonderman and Strongman striding in, followed by the Lynx and Cat-Man.

The quartet were immediately bathed in darkness, followed by a hail of bullets which were quickly deflected by Wonderman. "I think with my jungle-trained senses I can locate the woman even in these shadows she has generated," Cat-Man whispered to his newfound ally, "see if you can find a way to assist against the big guy."

The Lynx perched on a countertop, watching the interactions thoughtfully. Sections of the room seemed blocked from view by a peculiarly generated shadow, the sounds of gunshots and male and female voice grunting in pain and frustration coming from within. The rest of the room was filled with brilliant light as the Scarab seemed to be generating bolts of lightning in addition to possessing enough physical prowess to challenge the combined forces of Wonderman and Strongman … a feat he wouldn't have considered possible.

His attention was drawn to the orrery. It was no solar system he recognized, but knowing that a variety of alternate Earths were involved in whatever these two villains were doing, what it represented was plain in context. The internal gears rotated, and the spheres shifted out of alignment. He glanced over at the Scarab. The lightning had paused, and the man seemed to suffer a moment of weariness. Possibly their opponents had miscalculated, and whatever effect he had sought to achieve from the alignment had been temporary. But his allies were also appearing battle-worn; even were his supposition correct, the battle may not last long enough for them to gain the upper hand.

He looked around the laboratory which was quickly being destroyed by the battles it contained. His studies with some of the greatest detectives of his youth had given him a reasonable grounding in the physical sciences, but much of this technology was beyond his ken. He picked up a length of copper wire and unspooled it, and tore off a strip from the bottom of his cloak, making a loop at the end. With practiced ease he swung the other end so that it covered over Scarab's facing, blinding him momentarily.

The Scarab laughed mockingly, lightning flashing from his eyes once more. The Lynx had already tossed the other end of the wire to Wonderman, who with accelerated speed had tied around the Scarab's chest after his ally's shouted instructions. Completing the circuit, the Scarab felt a great shock of electrical energy to his heart, making him recoil. He screamed, and Wonderman and Strongman took advantage of his disorientation, powerful fists pounding him mercilessly.

Shadow Lady was distracted by the sound, and the pause was enough for Cat-Man to finish her off. Using his uncanny senses he switched off the darkness-generating tech she used, his eyes adjusting quickly to the illuminated room. He looked around to see the devastated laboratory which had once hosted so many scientific wonders, and at the frail, crumpled body of Dr. Franz. "I don't feel like this was much of a victory," he said sourly.

Strongman shook his head. "No … no it wasn't. Our friends have been avenged, and I'm sure we stopped this pair from doing even more damage, but victory has tasted sweeter."

"Where do we take these two?" Wonderman said. "Take them to the authorities here, or back to one of our own Earths?"

"We should speak to Stardust," the Lynx said, and turned to their other allies. "We call him the 'Super Wizard,' and he's more experienced than any of us with interdimensional travel." He also knew that Stardust had a reputation for bloodthirstiness of which he did not necessarily approve, but with this pair he felt no compulsion for mercy.

Strongman and Cat-Man looked at one another and nodded. "I don't think our friend who sent us here, Mister Miracle, had any particular plans … and his people have battles of their own to contend with," Strongman said. "So yes, agreed."