A/N: I am so sorry for the long wait, but Fate was not with this story for quite some time. Well, that and the fact that I joined two more fandoms since publishing the last chapter. Just a quick note, while I know that the show is unpopular, Torch's nanotech suit is loosely based off of the nanotech suit featured in Spider-Man: Unlimited. And here's the code for Young Justice's comms.

Italic-Kaldur/Aqualad

Bold Italic-Superboy

Bold Wally/Kid Flash

~Accented Italics~ M'gann/Ms Martian

"Quotes"-Robin

"Italic Quotes"-Tony/Torch

{Bracket Quotes}-Artemis

Bleeding Multiverse

Chapter Five: AI's, Arrows and An Old Friend

Mount Justice-August 3-12:45

It was twelve days before I saw or spoke to Dick again. I walked into the main room of the base, and Dick was waiting for me. "We need to talk, Storm." I nodded, and lead him to my room. This was our first chance to talk since the mission to Santa Prisca, and I still didn't know if he'd heard what I'd said about the fear gas. Once we were in my room, he asked me straight out, "Alright, I haven't told Batman about your gas, but I need to know something. Who are you using on it and why?"

"Dick," I ignored his shock at the casual use of his name and continued. "The main reason I have it is because of one man that should die, but the justice system will never give him the death sentence, no matter how many graveyards he fills. He is the only reason I'm making it stronger, and that's because the concentration that Scarecrow uses doesn't work on him."

"A name, Storm, give me a damned name."

I hissed out the answer. "Joker, who else? But his dose is not only strong enough to work on him, but also infused with something so that justice will be done. I'll use the usual strength on occasion, but it's just another weapon. The concentration I use is simply a hallucinogen, designed to show a person their worst fear. Fortunately, it wears off about an hour after the initial exposure."

"Alright, but why? Why do you think Joker needs to die?"

I took a deep breath and explained. "Remember when I talked about different realities? In one version of this Earth, Joker did his best to destroy Commissioner Gordon, and one of the ways was shooting his daughter, Barbara in the back, crippling her. Then he beat one of your successors as Robin with a crowbar before blowing him up. In another version, he's the one responsible for making District Attorney Harvey Dent into Two-Face. And in a third, he kidnapped another of your successors and . . . tortured him until he was . . . until he was a Joker Jr . . . he never fully recovered from that. Then, forty years after . . . after that . . . he started . . . started taking control of his body . . . allowing Joker to terrorize Gotham decades after he died." I had started crying as I told Dick the terrible fate of Earth-12's Tim Drake.

Dick just stared in shock. "How . . . how did he do it?"

"Cadmus tech. One of the heads of Cadmus in that reality was truly impressed by Batman and believed that Gotham would always need a Batman. In order to make sure that Gotham always had a Bat, she created different contingency plans to replace him and Joker stole one of those and corrupted it." I growled out the last part.

"Cadmus?"

"The Cadmus of Earth-12 was quite different from this reality's Cadmus. That Cadmus was born as the government's response to the Justice League. Basically, it was there to keep the League in check, just in case the League went rogue. Later, it became the government's liaison with the League. Then, in a third reality, he utterly destroyed anyone connected to the Batman. He killed or was responsible for the deaths of Canary, Green Arrow, Hawk, Question and Huntress, demolished Buckingham Palace, and tortured two of your successors, including a version of the one he got on Earth-12 until they were both Jokers. I won't rest until he's been utterly and completely destroyed. I don't care what Batman thinks or says, that clown is dead." I could tell Dick was still in shock, so I said "If you want, I can show you the proof I have, but let's wait until later. If I remember correctly, we have some training and a mission coming up soon."

As it was, I did remember correctly, as Black Canary and J'onn came through the Zeta Tube just as we came back into the main hall. Kon was quite upset when he heard J'onn talking to M'gann and asking how she was, so I went up and comforted him. "Hey, don't worry. It will just take some time and Superman will come around. Besides, until then, you've always got us."

Dinah then stepped into what I guessed to be our official sparring ring and started her lecture. "I consider it an honour to be your teacher. I'll throw a lot at you: everything I've learned from my own mentors," here she pulled off her jacket, revealing a bandage just above her left elbow, wincing as she did so. "And my own bruises." When M'gann asked what happened, Dinah's only response was "The job. Now, combat is about controlling conflict, putting the battle on your terms. You should always be acting, never reacting. I'll need a sparring partner." Wally immediately volunteered and quickly got served, with Canary claiming he lost because "He allowed me to dictate the terms."

"Really? Then let's test that, Canary," I called out. "My own fighting style is exactly the opposite of yours, react and defend yourself until the opportune moment. But first, let's make this fair. Computer, activate disabling mode. Authorization Code: Stamford-7-13-06-CN-8-25-SHIELD-Register, activate." The nanites quickly stabbed me in the neck, and I fell to the ground as an excruciating pain filled my body as my abilities were neutralized.

"Tony! Are you alright?"

"Yeah, Superboy, I'm okay. Slag it, I never knew it would be that painful." I then focused on the nanites, forcing them into a small cube in my hand, leaving me in only my workout pants. Once that was done, I tossed the cube into Kon's hand saying "Take care of that for me, would you?" before turning to Canary and giving her a hand signal that clearly said Bring it on. Several punches were quickly blocked, and then I jumped as she attempted to sweep my legs out, exposing her wound, which I quickly took advantage of by jumping and hitting her on her bandaged arm. When I landed, she was favouring her arm even more. She stared at me in shock, surprised that I would take advantage of the wound. "We did agree on 'no holds barred,' didn't we, Dinah?" My use of her first name shocked her even more, allowing me to get in another strike at her arm and stomach, winding her. When she went to grip her stomach, I brought my elbow sharply down on her back, making her fall to the ground, and the computer announced Black Canary: Fail. "Like I said, defend until you see an opening, then strike. That is the premise behind Soresu fighting."

Kon then challenged Black Canary, claiming that his strength always put the fight on his terms. "And what about those who are stronger than you, Supes, like Mammoth or Blockbuster? Or those who use Kryptonite? Then what?" I asked. Dinah also challenged him by fighting him, but he quickly lost. When he got back up, I advised him "Remember, the greatest weapon in anyone's arsenal is not their strength, speed, or weapons, but their mind. Someone who relies on any of those can be beaten easily by someone who can outthink them. Learn to outthink your opponents, and you'll win every time."

Kon was so furious that I'm sure he was about to leave when Batman called. "Five hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary. The attacker was capable of studying, then duplicating the powers and abilities of its attackers." Amazo, Ivo's android superhero killer. That was the only thing it could possibly be. "Arrow called in reinforcements, which nearly proved to be disastrous as our foe gained more and more power with each new combatant. In the end, it took eight Leaguers four hours to defeat and dismantle the android." Dick immediately asked who made it, starting with T O Morrow, the maker of Red Tornado, and suspected builder of Mr Twister. "Good guess, Robin, but Red Tornado doesn't think so."

"The technology bears the signature of Professor Ivo," J'onn said.

"Ivo? But Ivo's dead."

"Are you sure, Kaldur?" I asked. "One of the first things we learned back home was that unless you found a body, then the guy was still alive, and even then you still kept an eye out for him."

Batman continued with our mission assignment. "To make certain this threat is permanently neutralized, we're sending two trucks carrying the android's parts to two separate STAR Lab facilities in Boston and New York for immediate evaluation. Every precaution is being taken. We'll have four decoy trucks to create confusion in case Ivo, or anyone tries to take the remains. You will split into undercover teams to safeguard the two real trucks."

I was glad that I had disabled my abilities before my fight with Canary now, as I knew it wouldn't be safe fighting Amazo with them, nor would it be safe fighting him with my normal uniform, so as soon as I recovered it, I immediately changed to a safer one. Fortunately, it would also be useful considering our means of transportation: motorcycles. "Activate uniform JT-R-Red-2-Hood-E0." My usual blue and black uniform changed to a pair of leather jeans, white shirt, and a tough leather jacket, with plenty of toys inside. And protecting my head was a classic black Robin mask, and a featureless, red full-face metal-framed leather mask, with only a pair of slit holes for my eyes. As he said, it made me look like a guy with a motorcycle fetish. Still, better than a flashy maitre de. "Perfect. Whoa!" I wasn't prepared for one change that the mask made: I now sounded exactly like the original owner of this suit, Jason Todd as voiced by Jensen Ackles. "Well, this is interesting."

Litchfield County-August 3-20:08

We quickly split into two teams: M'gann, Wally and Kaldur going to Boston, while Kon, Dick and I headed for Manhattan. Dick tried to take Kon's mind off things by coming up with a new definition for aster. Instead of talking about the flower, now it was the opposite of disaster. But Kon didn't respond. "Clearly you're not feeling the aster. What's wrong?"

"Canary. I mean, what business does she have teaching combat skills to a guy with super-strength?"

"Taking down stronger guys is part of the gig. Canary learned that the hard way. Same with Batman, and well, me."

"Yeah, besides, there's always someone stronger than you, Supes," I added in, ignoring their stares at my changed voice. "Sometimes you have to deal with people who are more powerful than even you, or someone who is just as powerful. Remember Blockbuster and Mammoth? Matching strength against strength doesn't always work; you need combat skills as well. Even Superman can't beat everyone through strength alone." Kon just shrugged his shoulders and sped up.

Not long after that, our truck was attacked by robot monkeys. Instantly my mask gained a Heads-Up Display as I pulled out one of the guns and started shooting them. "Torch, watch it! You could kill someone with that!"

"No worries, Rob. Supes is invulnerable and I can't miss. So long as you get the ones on the back, we'll be fine. I'm targeting the ones in the air and on the sides," I told him as I shot monkey after monkey with the machine pistol. Unfortunately, even with them, the monkeys still stole the Amazo pieces. Before they got too far though, I quickly tossed a tracer onto the box, while Kon chased them down the old-fashioned way.

Aqualad to Robin, we lost our cargo. Did you-?

"It's gone, and so is Superboy."

Aqualad to Superboy, radio your position, we'll help you.

I don't need help. Don't want any!

Superboy?

"I think he ditched his comm."

Super, now we can't even track him.

~He's out of my telepathic range. This Professor Ivo, if he is alive, seems to be two steps ahead of us. Maybe we should contact Red Tornado?~

Tornado always tells us to take handle things ourselves. And the mission can still succeed if we recover the parts before they are reassembled.

Well that's a great plan, except for the part about us not knowing where to look!

"No need to worry about that, Impulse. I put a tracker on our case so we can follow them."

"But that doesn't solve everything. We'd have heard by now if the decoy trucks had been attacked. So how did these monkeys know exactly which trucks to target? Ha! The parts have GPS. The monkeys can track the signal, which means I can track them using the one I hacked into. Looks like both parts are converging on . . . Gotham City."

That far south? M'gann and I won't get there any time soon. I'm sending Kid on ahead to meet you. Aqualad out.

"Definitely a disaster, heavy on the 'dis.'"

"You can say that again, Dick," I said as we reboarded our bikes and headed down towards Gotham.

Gotham City-August 3-21:30

We met up with Impulse after Dick changed into his official uniform. Apparently Wally had the same idea as he "felt naked in civvies. Still tracking the parts?"

"They were heading through Gotham, but they veered. Wait, dude, they're at my school!" We caught up to Kon and Amazo about twenty minutes later inside the gym of Gotham Academy, where Kon was getting his arse handed to him by the android. Remembering the advice from Under the Red Hood, I quickly threw a pair of batarangs at his legs. Once the smoke from the explosion cleared away, I noticed that it had worked perfectly as the leg was stripped down to the metal skeleton. Now it couldn't use Flash's superspeed or Superman's strength (via a small earthquake) against us, not without losing it's legs. In the meantime, Impulse had pulled Kon out of the fight, just barely escaping the twin explosions. Dick threw a batarang at Amazo's head, but he activated J'onn's density shifting, allowing it to pass right through. "Torch, what's the plan?"

"Amazo has the same weaknesses as a human being. Flight gyros in the inner ear, CPU under the brain pan, other sensitive parts replacing the guts," I called out while shooting at the android. Unfortunately Amazo shot back using Captain Atom's radiation beams. Impulse tried hitting him from behind, but the android hit the ground with Dinah's Canary Cry. Kon went at him just as the 'bot activated Superman's strength. Then Dick threw a few more batarangs while I charged at him with a pair of knives. Amazo defended himself against the batarangs, while I managed to hit the flight gyros. It threw me off just before it grabbed Impulse and started crushing him. Just before Wally's back and ribs would have been broken, an arrow appeared, forcing Amazo to use the Manhunter's intangibility, while saving KF at the same time.

Amazo attacked again, throwing Kon into the bleachers with Dinah's martial arts skills, while nearly killing Rob with lasers obviously based on Superman's heat vision. Then something happened, causing Kon to switch his assault from Amazo to Ivo himself. Kon continued the attack, while Dick and Wally followed up. Me on the other hand, I decided to do something else. While my team-mates distracted Amazo by attacking Ivo, I took off my mask and rushed Amazo, quickly closing it on his head. Before the bot could do anything about it, I pulled out the detonator and blew the mask, which took the head with it. The body immediately fell, oil gushing out from what would have been the throat. "Help me disassemble him, now!" Dick called out.

"Don't worry, Rob. Amazo is no threat without his head, trust me. The CPU was there, and without the CPU, no computer can do anything."

Just then, Aqualad and M'gann showed up, with M'gann quickly going to Kon and asking if he was alright. "Fine, feeling the aster."

"I think we all are, Supes," I said, just before Wally noticed that Ivo had disappeared.

Mount Justice-August 4-01:06-Shade's POV

This time, I decided to do the debrief while Bruce and Clark had a very long talk concerning Superboy. Really, what was Clark's problem with the boy? Ollie used to call him the world's biggest boy scout, but he sure wasn't acting like it now. As the briefing ended, Kaldur said "The Amazo android is in pieces again, safely being analyzed at the two separate STAR Labs. But Ivo escaped, and as he originated the tech, he is arguably more dangerous than the android."

"Capturing the professor will be a League priority," Dinah responded.

"Yes, my wife is already searching for him at our Watchtower. But from what we heard, your mission encountered other . . . complications." I looked pointedly at Superboy. "Complications come with the job, but your ability to handle them has impressed the League."

"The whole League?"

I smiled at Superboy. "Given time, yes. As we both know, Kryptonians have extremely hard skin, let alone skulls." Superboy chuckled at that. "Of course, there's no shame in asking for help, even if we'd prefer that you handle things on your own. That's why the League exists, so we can help each other solve our problems. Even as powerful as we are, there are problems that we can't solve on our own."

Dick surprised me then by being sarcastic. "Please, if we needed help, we'd never get the chance to ask." He then pulled out a green arrow from underneath his cape. "Look familiar? You were following us! Babysitting! You still don't trust us!"

"But Rob, we didn't follow you." Ollie pulled out one of his arrows, which clearly had a different head to the one they found.

"And that's not your arrow. But that means-"

"Speedy!"

"He has our backs."

I immediately found a problem with that idea, admirable though it was. "I'm sorry, but I don't think so. Roy has always armed himself with red arrows, not green. Someone else was following you." Although, we would definitely be looking into this Gothamite archer.

Siberian Wilderness-Russia-August 7-14:37

The man appeared in the middle of the Siberian wilderness from nowhere. No tech could make someone appear out of nowhere without a trace, yet this man did. He looked around confused, and glad that the chest piece that powered his light-whips also produced enough heat to keep him warm even on a cold, Siberian night. He would make his way to the nearest village, and then back to America, so he could destroy the man who stole his father's legacy.

Mount Justice-August 8-16:58

It was a beautiful summer day in Rhode Island, but only most of Young Justice was enjoying it. Wally had to start school that day in Central City. As for me, I was taking the day to do some work, work that Batman would most definitely not approve of: I was hunting the League of Shadows, and more specifically Talia al Ghul, the daughter of the infamous Ra's al Ghul. Soon I was going to commit one of the three executions that I had decided on before I even left home, and with this one, I would prevent the birth of Damian Wayne, the most irritable Robin in the history of the Bat family. But first, I needed to find the League of Shadows, and I was starting in the one place I knew they had lived: the Himalaya mountains of Tibet.

After finally hacking into a pair of Queen Industries and Wayne Enterprises satellites, I finally found their lair, and quickly noted it's location. When I headed out to the main room, Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen were waiting in costume with Red Tornado and the newly recruited Artemis Crock, who I suspected of being a spy for her father. "What were you doing?" Wayne asked.

Well, time to test out my resistance to the infamous glare. "Working on a report. I applied to go to Gotham Academy once school starts, and they asked me for a report on the Arkham family. You wouldn't happen to have any information on them, would you Bats?"

There was the glare. "We detected a hack into two satellites originating from here. As you were the only one inside today, it must have been you. Why did you hack them?"

"So I could take a close-up look at the Arkham family's most famous or infamous legacy, Arkham Asylum, why?"

"How did you do it?"

"Well now, that's for me to know and you to find out now, isn't it?" Truth was, I used my knowledge of their identities against them-I guessed their passwords: Thomas Wayne and Robert Queen, their fathers. But I had passed the test, I had stood up to the Bat-glare.

By now the rest of the team had shown up and gotten dressed. "Interrogating allies now, B? If you've got a mission for us, I'd really appreciate it if you could get to the briefing and keep my team-mates away from your interrogation methods."

"Thanks, Rob, but I'm fine. Not like I've got much to hide anyway."

I would have gone on, but Wally came in through the teleporter, ready for an evening of relaxation. Artemis immediately joked about his entrance, asking his abilities. "Uh, who is this?"

"Artemis, your new team-mate."

"Kid Flash, never heard of you."

"She's my new protégé," Ollie explained.

"Well, what happened to your old one?"

As if in response to his question, the teleporter activated, announcing Recognized: Speedy, B06. "Well, for starters, he doesn't go by 'Speedy' anymore. Call me Red Arrow." I stared at him, his costume was completely different from any I had seen in the comics, yet it somehow suited him.

"Roy, you look-"

"Replaceable."

"It's not like that, you told me you were going solo."

"So why waste time finding a sub? Can she even use that bow?"

"Yes, she can," Artemis responded. I was certain of that. Sportsmaster would have made certain she could from an early age.

"Who are you?" Wally asked again. Ollie and Artemis answered that she was his niece.

"Huh, I never knew you had any relatives, Arrow," I jutted in.

Ollie just glared at me, while Kaldur said "But she is not your replacement. We have always wanted you on the team, and we have no quota on archers." Wally then implicated that they'd choose him over her every time. He was probably right. As dangerous and rash as I knew him to be, I'd still prefer him over Tigress, any Tigress.

"Whatever, Baywatch. I'm here to stay."

Aqualad ignored the argument and turned to Roy. "You came to us for a reason."

"Yeah, a reason named Dr Serling Roquette." Dick immediately identified her as an expert in nanorobotics and claytronics from Star City that had vanished two weeks ago. "Abducted two weeks ago, by the League of Shadows," Roy corrected.

"Wait a minute, you actually want us to go up against the Shadows?" I asked. What a great opportunity! Save Dr Roquette and eliminate Talia al Ghul at the same time!

"I already rescued her." Damn, I had forgotten about that. "Only one problem. The Shadows had already coerced her into creating a weapon. Doc calls it the Fog, comprised of millions of microscopic robots. Nanotech infiltrators. Capable of disintegrating anything in their path. Concrete, steel, flesh, bone. But it's true purpose isn't mere destruction. It's theft. The infiltrators eat and store raw data from any computer system and deliver the stolen intel to the Shadows, providing them with access to weapons, strategic defence, cutting-edge science and tech."

Here, Artemis cut in, saying "Perfect for extortion, manipulation, power broking. Yeah, sounds like the Shadows." I had to wonder about her knowledge. As far as I knew, Sportsmaster didn't work with the al Ghul's.

Wally scoffed at that. "Yeah, like you know anything about the Shadows. WHO ARE YOU?"

"Roquette's working on a virus to render the Fog inert," Roy continued.

Dick immediately realized the implications of that. "But if the Shadows know she can do that-"

"They'll target her. Right now, she's off the grid. I stashed her at the local high school's computer lab." Ollie seemed shocked that he left Roquette alone. "She's safe enough for now." Ollie then suggested that they work together to keep her safe. "You and I? Don't you want to take your new protégé?"

Ollie was about to continue, but Batman stopped him. "You brought this to the Team. It's their mission, which means it's hers now too." Roy was upset at that and left, but not before updating the computer with his new codename.

We were about to leave for the school when Batman pulled me aside and said "I have a different mission for you." I turned to him in confusion. What kind of mission would he be sending me on? "Starting about three weeks ago, a serial killer showed up in Manhattan, but this one has already killed ten people."

"In other words, he's more prolific than most serial killers," I said. I distinctly remembered that most human serial killers usually took a few months break before killing again. Only Jack the Ripper came even close to killing this many in such a short time.

"Yes. The NYPD hasn't found a trace of the killer yet and they've called for assistance."

"Why us?"

"Because the bodies that they've found are all skeletons."

"Skeletons? Couldn't they be finding old bodies?"

"No. The skeletons are all fresh, and picked clean of anything even remotely resembling flesh, including the marrow. I want you to go and reconnoitre. This is a reconnaissance mission only. Do not engage the target no matter what. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir." I immediately left for the Zeta-Tube so I could get to New York. Recognized: Torch, B07

Manhattan, New York-August 8-17:45

The first place I went when I arrived was the nearest NYPD headquarters so I could look at the crime scene photos. Oddly, they looked vaguely familiar, almost as if I had seen something like that before. I had just gone over the last one when my liaison, Detective Seymour Simmons burst in and said "Hey, kid! We've found another victim! It's just outside the Javits Center!"

"Where's that?"

"11th Ave and West 36th." Hell's Kitchen, one of the few places that Spider-Man had never patrolled back on my birth-world. The home territory of Matt 'Daredevil' Murdock, the blind lawyer/vigilante. I immediately followed the cop out to the Javits Center. That was where he found it: a spot of black ooze that most would never take a second glance at. "Hey, kid? Does this mean anything to you."

"Slag it! Don't touch it, detective!" Luckily Simmons pulled back before he could touch the ooze. "Don't let anybody touch that! Get that into some kind of waterproof container. I need to take it to STAR Labs." Please don't let this be what I think it is! "Has this been found at any of the other crime scenes?"

"No, I don't think so. Or at least, nobody reported it."

"Have any of the officers been outing out of character? Say, more arrogant than normal or more aggressive?"

"No, why?" I didn't answer. I was too worried about the sample of ooze to do anything but get to STAR Labs as quickly as possible.

STAR Labs-Manhattan, New York-August 8-20:27

Two hours after I arrived, a STAR Labs tech finally returned with the results of the test. "Well, Torch, the results are in, and it appears that the substance is biological, extraterrestrial material. It also seems to be parasitical in nature, it consumes the host if it doesn't feed often enough."

"Slag it! This is not good! Burn that, every piece of it!" I shouted at the techs. My worst fears had nearly been confirmed, but I wasn't going to believe it until I saw the creature with my own eyes. I immediately took off for an area that I knew the creature typical hung out, ignoring the calls of the tech. I also called Simmons. "Detective Simmons, have you been seeing any black webs around the city recently?"

"Now that you mention it, kid, yeah, we have. Why?"

Slag it, it is him! "Have they been showing up in any particular area more than others?"

"Yeah, mostly around Central Park and Columbia University, why?"

"Simmons, tell the others to head to both places and be prepared for a monster. You'll need to be armed with flamethrowers and sound weapons to fight this guy. Also, be careful, this guy is one of the most dangerous villains out there. He's extremely strong, can shoot webs out of his wrists, and has a sixth sense that allows him to avoid danger. Above all do not let any of the suit touch you, burn it all!"

"Flamethrowers? Sound weapons? Kid, where do you think you are, Metropolis? We don't have weapons like that?"

"You don't? Haven't you guys ever dealt with a supervillain threat before?"

"No, we haven't." Figures, on my earth, Manhattan can't go a week without at least one supervillain attacking, and that's not even counting Hydra, AIM and Kingpin, and had at least six superheroes living there full time. Here, they're completely untouched! "But how difficult can it be? This guy can't be as bad as say, Parasite, can he?"

"You have no idea, Simmons. You have no idea." I cut the conversation and focused on an extra burst of speed into the repulsors, shooting straight for Columbia University.

Columbia University-Manhattan, New York-August 8-20:52

As soon as I arrived, I got a bit of luck, as I spotted Edward Brock/Venom leaving the prestigious college heading towards Harlem. Even though he was closing in on his sixty-fifth birthday, he only looked like he was in his thirties, an influence of the alien symbiote that had bonded to him. Everyone, even Mr Parker had to admit that the symbiote had it's benefits, but it cost a lot in return. Venom, the actual symbiote, fed on it's host in order to survive, and the host had to become a cannibal to survive. Another downside to having Venom bonded to you was that after as long as Brock had been, if it was removed, he was going to die.

The only question was, how did he end up here? Could it be that Dr Strange didn't close the door? If so, then what kind of ramifications could that have, especially for this world? Well, the only way to get any kind of answers was to interrogate him. I immediately sped up, only stopping when I was in front of him. "Brock, how did you get here?"

"Richards? Great, and here we were hoping to start over." Instantly, his clothes changed into the infamous Venom suit.

"If you wanted to start over, you should have ditched your friend," I said, quickly dodging his webs, while shooting a stream of fire at him.

Venom dodged my flames as best he could, but I still managed to hurt him. "You know we can't do that, even if we wanted to, Richards. If we separate, we both die!"

"Answer the question: how did you get here?!" I demanded as I launched two different attacks at him.

Venom was again injured, but he answered the question. "We don't know how we arrived here. We were escaping the Spider on foot when there was a bright flash of light and we were here, where we knew there was no Spider."

"Thank you, Venom." Great, that meant the gate hadn't closed. Who knew what other villains could be here from home, or who from here ended up back there? In any case, this was my mess, and I had to clean it up. And I would start with Venom. I caught him in one of my force fields, and incinerated the suit.

"What have you done?! I'll die without him!" Brock cried out.

"Then die, Brock. This world has enough problems without you adding to them!" I let him go then, and started back to the Zeta Tube site. I could have sworn that I sensed someone else, but I shrugged it off.

Mount Justice-August 9-0:35

By the time Shade had arrived to accept my report, Edward Brock Jr had died after having been away from Venom too long. He was quite shocked when he heard what I'd done. "Why did you confront him when your orders were observation only?"

"Because I knew him, Shade. I knew him from my reality. And that man has terrorized New York for more than 30 years and killed more than 150 people on his own. It was time that someone put him down, and I've done that."

The mysterious hero studied me hard before saying something. "You know, two years ago, I had to make a hard choice much like yours. A mad telepath called Brainwave created a dirty bomb that would have destroyed an entire city, making it uninhabitable for generations. I made the hard choice, and was nearly booted out of the League for it. I hate that you had to make the same choice, but from now on, call us if you encounter any more threats from your reality."

"I'll think about it," I answered before heading to bed.

Undisclosed Location, New York City-August 9-0:45

Doctor Arthur Light had just called his superiors, and quickly reported on what had happened in Manhattan. "They seemed to have quite the history between them. Unfortunately, Torch seems to have completely destroyed the symbiote, leaving nothing behind but questions. The one piece of good news is that whatever portal brought them here seems to still be open, we simply need to find a way to track it."

The man simply known as L-1 thought for a moment before realizing "This portal could be of great use in our recruitment efforts."

"Zat is assuming that those zat are brought through would support us," the clearly French L-6 cautioned.

"True," L-3 agreed. "But think of the power that could be at our disposal. The ability to cross dimensions, and gain unlimited allies. The gains are incalculable."

"Yes, but so are the risks," L-2 noted. "What if we find not allies, but more enemies, especially enemies on the scale of the Justice League?"

"We shall explore all options," L-1 decided. "After all, eventually everyone sees the Light."