"There is a wrongness on my Earth," said the Spectre. "I can sense
it. I can feel it."
"Really," asked the Living Tribunal. "I remember what someone told me once. We don't jeopardize existences on feelings."
"Look, I am sorry about that," said Hal Jordan. "That was the Spectre, OK. It was the Spectre. It was not me. I believe in gut instincts...I was a test pilot once. If anyone here should know about split personalities, its you."
"Agreed," said the Living Tribunal. "But I don't know what's so wrong about the situation. So these particular champions are missing. It has happened before. It will happen again...especially when dealing with your brother. What is the import."
"This family is very important to my Brother. Vital even," continued the Spectre. "Normally, I would trust them to get out of the scrape themselves, but they have not been heard of for weeks. But that is not the most troubling aspect."
"What is it?"
"I can't sense them."
"That is not good," said the Tribunal, deep in thought. Finally he raised his heads and nodded. "You are right, your world needs our help. I can sense how important this 'family' is to your world. I think we can send you one of our important 'families.'"
"When can we expect them?" asked the Spectre
"Soon."
"What about my inability to detect them? They will not get aid from me."
"True, but I feel that these particular mortals which I have in mind, in combination with guides from your brother should find them, and shall succeed where you fail."
"Remember that discussion we had after the first 'trade,'" asked Hal Jordan.
"We do."
"I think you might have been right. I don't know who or what, but something is definitely happening. If so, we must determine our next move, and soon."
"Agreed. We shall think about it as we get our champions."
********************************************************
Dr. Charles Xavier was thinking, which was not an uncommon occurrence for the mutant telepath. However, the nature of his thoughts was.
Several weeks ago, the City of New York and the entire superhero community, including the X-Men had been captured by a group of supervillains. Had it not been for a group of extremely powerful superheroes from another Earth well removed from Xavier's, the Justice League, the heroes would have never been able to escape their prison and liberate the city.
However, this fact was not what was troubling the leader of the X- Men. It was the fact that the supervillains that had led this coup-de-tat which such success included a mutant who had been utterly destroyed by two members of his team and their time-tossed son. Also, the fact that the leaders were people who under no conceivable notion that Xavier could derive would work together in the first place.
Whatever force caused these villains to come together had to be immense, and more powerful than any other force that the modern heroes had ever faced. And most people in the "business" knew it to. People were falling back into their original teams, rallying around their respective "thinkers," trying to figure out a way to combat whatever hidden evil was present, or even what it was.
The same held true for the original X-Men. While the original heroes had gone their separate ways at times, formed their own teams, even quit for a while, when a truly universal threat raised its head, the core always circled their wagons around Xavier. Even Wolverine. Now was no different.
What Professor X considered to be his "core" wandered into his private study, having been summoned by their leader. Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Beast, Iceman, Rogue, and Gambit, all had faced large odds before, separately and together. Professor X believed that if any team on this planet could stop this menace, it was this one.
He had to.
"Alright Chuck. What do you got for us?" asked Wolverine. Logan had been one of two heroes that had escaped imprisonment and had been on the outside. He had helped the Justice League with scouting and breaking into the prison. His knowledge of what had happened from his experiences and based upon the theories of the Justice League, which he had picked up from conversations, had helped Xavier sketch out the most basic theories on what was going on.
However, Wolverine's experiences changed him a little. Don't get Xavier wrong, Wolverine still swore, brawled, and was his general charming self, but sometimes, during especially crucial moments, Logan took the edge off a little bit. Xavier didn't pry into others minds unless he had to, but he was tempted to if only to find out what caused this change.
"Unfortunately Logan, I am afraid I only have a lot of conjecture at this point," said the Professor as he rolled from behind his desk to face his former students. "Nothing solid, but we must stick together..."
"I could not agree more Professor, although I doubt we have the same thing in mind," said the Living Tribunal, who just popped into existence in the mansion.
Wolverine growled and muttered, "I hate it when he does that."
The other X-Men didn't take it as well. "What do you want?" said a half- stunned, half upset Cyclops.
"I come to you with a mission that suits your unique talents," said the Living Tribunal. "It is a rescue mission of sorts. A mission that will involve some travel to the other Brother, from whence your recent heroes came from."
"The universe where the Justice League is from," inquired Xavier.
"The same. As they helped us in our time of need, so we shall help them," concluded the Tribunal.
"I don't get it," said Gambit, leaning on a couch, fingering a playing card. "De peoples on dis earth and on dat earth don't interact for years, yet in the past couple of years dey been goin' back and forth."
"Is this a big crisis," said Wolverine, "is a whole continent under Nazi rule or something like that?"
"No," replied the Tribunal. "all free nations continue to remain so. The majority of the heroes are still free. We are asking you to cross over to save a family of sorts, because quite frankly, you are well suited to do it."
Everyone seemed to nod at this, as this was enough for them to go through with it. Except for Wolverine. "Nothing doin' bub. This must be some bigwig family for us to 'crossover,' but we got bigger problems to deal with. I ain't goin'."
The Tribunal nodded and said, "I thought you might feel this way. Would it help to know that the family that you would be helping would be the Batman's?"
Wolverine stood for a moment, and then slowly nodded his head and grinned. "Let's go."
"Really," asked the Living Tribunal. "I remember what someone told me once. We don't jeopardize existences on feelings."
"Look, I am sorry about that," said Hal Jordan. "That was the Spectre, OK. It was the Spectre. It was not me. I believe in gut instincts...I was a test pilot once. If anyone here should know about split personalities, its you."
"Agreed," said the Living Tribunal. "But I don't know what's so wrong about the situation. So these particular champions are missing. It has happened before. It will happen again...especially when dealing with your brother. What is the import."
"This family is very important to my Brother. Vital even," continued the Spectre. "Normally, I would trust them to get out of the scrape themselves, but they have not been heard of for weeks. But that is not the most troubling aspect."
"What is it?"
"I can't sense them."
"That is not good," said the Tribunal, deep in thought. Finally he raised his heads and nodded. "You are right, your world needs our help. I can sense how important this 'family' is to your world. I think we can send you one of our important 'families.'"
"When can we expect them?" asked the Spectre
"Soon."
"What about my inability to detect them? They will not get aid from me."
"True, but I feel that these particular mortals which I have in mind, in combination with guides from your brother should find them, and shall succeed where you fail."
"Remember that discussion we had after the first 'trade,'" asked Hal Jordan.
"We do."
"I think you might have been right. I don't know who or what, but something is definitely happening. If so, we must determine our next move, and soon."
"Agreed. We shall think about it as we get our champions."
********************************************************
Dr. Charles Xavier was thinking, which was not an uncommon occurrence for the mutant telepath. However, the nature of his thoughts was.
Several weeks ago, the City of New York and the entire superhero community, including the X-Men had been captured by a group of supervillains. Had it not been for a group of extremely powerful superheroes from another Earth well removed from Xavier's, the Justice League, the heroes would have never been able to escape their prison and liberate the city.
However, this fact was not what was troubling the leader of the X- Men. It was the fact that the supervillains that had led this coup-de-tat which such success included a mutant who had been utterly destroyed by two members of his team and their time-tossed son. Also, the fact that the leaders were people who under no conceivable notion that Xavier could derive would work together in the first place.
Whatever force caused these villains to come together had to be immense, and more powerful than any other force that the modern heroes had ever faced. And most people in the "business" knew it to. People were falling back into their original teams, rallying around their respective "thinkers," trying to figure out a way to combat whatever hidden evil was present, or even what it was.
The same held true for the original X-Men. While the original heroes had gone their separate ways at times, formed their own teams, even quit for a while, when a truly universal threat raised its head, the core always circled their wagons around Xavier. Even Wolverine. Now was no different.
What Professor X considered to be his "core" wandered into his private study, having been summoned by their leader. Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Beast, Iceman, Rogue, and Gambit, all had faced large odds before, separately and together. Professor X believed that if any team on this planet could stop this menace, it was this one.
He had to.
"Alright Chuck. What do you got for us?" asked Wolverine. Logan had been one of two heroes that had escaped imprisonment and had been on the outside. He had helped the Justice League with scouting and breaking into the prison. His knowledge of what had happened from his experiences and based upon the theories of the Justice League, which he had picked up from conversations, had helped Xavier sketch out the most basic theories on what was going on.
However, Wolverine's experiences changed him a little. Don't get Xavier wrong, Wolverine still swore, brawled, and was his general charming self, but sometimes, during especially crucial moments, Logan took the edge off a little bit. Xavier didn't pry into others minds unless he had to, but he was tempted to if only to find out what caused this change.
"Unfortunately Logan, I am afraid I only have a lot of conjecture at this point," said the Professor as he rolled from behind his desk to face his former students. "Nothing solid, but we must stick together..."
"I could not agree more Professor, although I doubt we have the same thing in mind," said the Living Tribunal, who just popped into existence in the mansion.
Wolverine growled and muttered, "I hate it when he does that."
The other X-Men didn't take it as well. "What do you want?" said a half- stunned, half upset Cyclops.
"I come to you with a mission that suits your unique talents," said the Living Tribunal. "It is a rescue mission of sorts. A mission that will involve some travel to the other Brother, from whence your recent heroes came from."
"The universe where the Justice League is from," inquired Xavier.
"The same. As they helped us in our time of need, so we shall help them," concluded the Tribunal.
"I don't get it," said Gambit, leaning on a couch, fingering a playing card. "De peoples on dis earth and on dat earth don't interact for years, yet in the past couple of years dey been goin' back and forth."
"Is this a big crisis," said Wolverine, "is a whole continent under Nazi rule or something like that?"
"No," replied the Tribunal. "all free nations continue to remain so. The majority of the heroes are still free. We are asking you to cross over to save a family of sorts, because quite frankly, you are well suited to do it."
Everyone seemed to nod at this, as this was enough for them to go through with it. Except for Wolverine. "Nothing doin' bub. This must be some bigwig family for us to 'crossover,' but we got bigger problems to deal with. I ain't goin'."
The Tribunal nodded and said, "I thought you might feel this way. Would it help to know that the family that you would be helping would be the Batman's?"
Wolverine stood for a moment, and then slowly nodded his head and grinned. "Let's go."