Steve Rogers launched his fists into the heavy bag in front of him. One after the other in a vain attempt to rid himself of the ghosts of the past. Each blow seemed to bring him a brief moment of serenity, which was interrupted by more painful flashbacks.
"Cap, we've got a problem," Tony Stark said as he entered the gym, causing Steve to halt his exercise. "JARVIS, show the Capsicle what we've discovered."
"At once, sir," the robotic voice of JARVIS replied in a monotone British voice. "The readings of the vortex show that it is less than one week old, and has recently been opened. My sensors indicate that during that time it has been used before you sent the task force to investigate." Steve inhaled deeply at the thought of unknowns running around unchecked. And Tony was flustered by the fact that the world's leading expert in inter-dimensional travel was busy trying to not get his head bitten off.
"If only there was someone like the Watcher to help us." Steve muttered but then got the idea, "Tony if there is another villain at work, you think we could see if any of them with the potential to have the technology capable of trans-dimensional travel is accounted for, or maybe villains who have access to powerful items that could do that like the Cosmic Cube or the Infinity Gauntlet?" Steve asked knowing there were dangerously smart villains out there and he also remembered the last time that the Cosmic Cube had gotten into the hands of his mortal enemy the Red Skull.
"I guess that might not be such a bad idea." Tony answered putting his hand to his goatee "JARVIS can you please do what the good Captain asked?"
Steve laughed and Tony grunted when JARVIS answered with "already started right after Steve Rogers suggested it, sir."
*M&DC:WWC*
The Watchtower, the space headquarters of the Justice League where they monitor the planet for threats or people in trouble and Batman had the three JL members and the heroes from another world teleported there in a manner that reminded Peter of the teleportation from Star Trek.
"I have also had your vehicle craft teleported up here as well so it will be there when you are ready to return to your own dimension." Bruce explained as the visitors look around them.
"This place is not as impressive as the SWORD base but not too bad." Johnson muttered as Bruce and Diana stopped out a door.
"Diana and I will explain things to the other founding members." Bruce explained as he opened up the door "Supergirl and Captain Marvel can you keep our guests company as we explain things." Bruce and Diana then entered the door leaving the visitors alone with the other two heroes.
"So you are Supergirl and Captain Marvel?" Peter asked seeing what the Batman called them, "You can call me Kara and the Captain here likes to be called Billy by the other JL members." Kara explained with a flirtatious smile, having used her X-ray vision and saw that under his mask Peter was a cute guy about her age.
"We have a Captain Marvel in our dimension as well, only ours is a member of an alien race called the Kree. By the way I am my world's New York's friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, as you might know this is Ares, this science guy is Bruce but we refer to his green other self as the Hulk, the one with skunk-hair is Rogue and this is SHIELD agent Quake." Peter replied pointing to the other members of the little task force while Bruce who had turned back from being the Hulk earlier, was marvelling at the technology around him, Ares was just standing there wishing that Batman had not made him leave his weapons in the Quinjet, Rogue was looking 'Captain Marvel' up and down and Johnson was looking around wanting to see if she could finding something worth mention to SHIELD when she got back. "Hey look I found a junior Captain America." Peter said noticing a blonde girl in a blue shirt with a white star on it, red belt, blue shorts, red boots, red gloves, a glowing yellow rod weapon she was holding and a mask which not only showed her hair but her eyes and mouth.
"That's Stargirl, she is kind of jealous of my popularity but we get on just fine." Kara told Peter as they noticed Stargirl and other heroes walking to them.
*M&DC:WWC*
Inside the meeting room of the Watchtower was the main table with seven chairs, each one for one of the founding seven members of the Justice League. There was a black haired man in a blue shirt with the same S shield on it that Kara's costume had, blue tights with what seemed like red shorts over it, red boots and a red cape. He was Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent secretly Superman, the leader of the Justice League and considered to be the most powerful of the superheroes. There was a brown haired man with a blowing green eye mask, white gloves with a glowing green ring on one of his fingers and a green and black bodysuit that had a symbol of a green circle with a green line on the top and bottom of it. He was air force pilot Hal Jordan or better known as Green Lantern. There was also a man in a red costume and mask with a small lightning bolt symbol on it, he was crime lab scientist Barry Allen or the fastest man alive Flash. There was a muscular man with long blonde hair, a beard, an orange chainmail suit, a hook for his left hand, a golden trident in his other hand, yellow belt, black boots and green tights. He was the King of Atlantis, Arthur Curry or Orin to his subjects but the surface world knew him as Aquaman. Finally there was a green man with a bald head who was wearing a red belt, blue shorts, a blue x on his torso and a blue cape with a collar on it, he was J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter. Bruce and Diana took the remaining two seats at the table and sat down.
"There is a reason why I have asked you all to come down." Bruce said as he brought up a hologram of the vortex from earlier on the table "Earlier on I have discovered readings from a vortex similar to the one that brought the Crime Syndicate to our world." The League members look alarmed, the Crime Syndicate were just about their evil equals and it took much to finally defeat them and make sure the proper authorities in their world had them locked up. "The vortex brought five heroes from another world into our own that Diana, Captain Marvel and Supergirl were the first to encounter." Bruce continued to explain "ever since our encounter with the Crime Syndicate I have built a machine to investigate parallel dimensions, in case something like this ever happened again."
Hall then turned to Wally who he was sitting next to and muttered into his ear "just like ultra prepared Bats to do something like that."
"The heroes found the vortex in their dimension and they sent a team to investigate, two of the heroes came from somewhere else but three of them belonged to their world's biggest superhero team – the Avengers." Bruce then said and the other JL members looked bewildered at the name of the superhero team "but what caused a misunderstanding is that amongst them is their universe's counterpart of Ares." At that the JL members realised how Diana reacted to when she saw him since they knew first-hand the bad blood between Diana and Ares. In fact Diana's mother Hippoltya the queen of the Amazons had sent Diana to 'man's world' in the first place in order to deal with Ares and his plans for the planet, even if it was another world they were finding the thought of Ares being a hero hard to comprehend.
"Outrageous, it seems that this world is not the only one where heroes exist." Arthur said excitedly "but what do we do about our guests then?"
Bruce pondered and said "I think they can stay here while I examine the readings that I got from the vortex."
Wally looked confused and asked "why do you want to study them?" Bruce's face is possible looked more serious as he then said the following sentence:
"I don't think the vortex just appeared for no reason. Someone wanted to open it."
*M&DC:WWC*
Bruce exited the room and saw the visitors from the other world with Billy and Kara, Kara laughed and said "I think Spider-Man has been getting to know the other Justice League members." She then pointed to Peter who was now talking to various heroes including Stargirl, a man in a blue styled suit, red neck scarf and white hat and a man in golden armour with a red chainmail shirt with a black falcon on it.
"So wait you are an actual western outlaw and you are an actual knight from Arthurian times?" Peter asked amazing to the heroes known as Vigilante and Shining Knight.
"Don't mind Spider-Man, he is one of the most optimistic and bright minded heroes I have ever met and he manages to get along with even the most darkest minded heroes." Bruce Banner clarified for Billy and Kara as Quake went and dragged Peter back to where they were.
"For the duration of your visit you five can stay here in the Watchtower. I will have guest rooms sorted out for you." This universe's Bruce told them and he had then asked Peter to step aside so he can have a talk with him. Kara left with Stargirl, "Just so you know if you don't plan on making a move on the Spider guy I will be after him myself." Peter was worried as he faced the serious gaze that Bruce gave him with his expression and mask. "I have researched about many different worlds, yours included Spider-Man." Bruce said as Peter held his breath "I just want to say – you do a good job with the problems you face with the media and your own personal life without giving up. I have you marked up on the list I made of the greatest heroes on your world." Peter felt flattered by the way that the cloaked Bat hero had complimented him.
Sometime later Peter was in the bedroom that had been set up for him in the watchtower, he had the suitcase he had packed for this mission and placed in the Quinjet and Captain Marvel or Billy had helped him unpack. "You...you're not that old are you." Billy said surprised as Peter took of his mask, since Billy was a fellow hero and since he didn't exist in this universe and had no reason to keep his identity a secret as of this moment.
"Yeah I am in High School myself." Peter replied as he put on a bedside a table an old photo taken of him with Aunt May and his Uncle Ben when he was a kid. "Hey if you would keep it a secret, I can show you how old I really am." Billy told him and Peter felt confused by what he said, what did he meant show him just how old he really was?
"SHAZAM!" Billy shouted and he seemed to be struck by lightning, Peter felt flabbergasted when he saw that where the hero had been was now a kid who could not be any older than ten years old. "Yeah this wizard gave me the power to transform into the world's mightiest hero, my uncle Dudley lets me be a hero as long as I am not out too late." Billy said as Peter regained his composure.
Billy said the word again and turned back into Captain Marvel as he left the room, Peter was wondering that as of this moment if anything would ever surprise him again.