In the past of one of the two universes - which one, it does not matter - a great detective hero lives.
"Hahahahahaha!" a deep voice rings out in the dark alley.
The little man with a gun in his coat, and drugs in his pocket looks around nervously. "Who's there?!" he asks.
He hears the laugh again. It is eerie, as if from beyond the grave. Then, the laugh stops. "I am The Shadow!" the deep voice answers.
"Where are you? Why can't I see you?"
The Shadow ignores these questions. "You have heroin. That's illegal to possess in this country."
The nervous man looks around, sweat trickling down his face. "I know nothing!"
Suddenly, he feels a punch in the gut. Yet, he still does not see the invisible avenger who is attacking him.
"Lee Chan, I know your dirty little secret. I will send you to jail."
"No! NO! NO!" Lee Chan yells. "No one will stop me here!" He begins running.
The Shadow pulls a gun from its holdster on his right side. Even if the man were still looking at him, he couldn't see it. The Shadow was clouding his mind, so he appeared invisible.
He raises the gun. Slowly, he aims, and pulls the trigger.
Lee Chan screams as the bullet penetrates his back. He quickly falls to the ground. The Shadow walks over to where the Chinese man fell. He squats down, and opens Chan's coat. He sees the heroin. However, there is something strange about it.
He brings it up for a closer look.
Suddenly, with no warning, the bag explodes, and Lee Chan disappears. The Shadow is startled, not only because the body is missing, but also because he is seeing a huge white space in front of him, where the body had been.
It was as if reality was fading.
Meanwhile, possibly on the same Earth, at the same moment . . .
The Green Hornet was racing in his car, the Black Beauty. His valet, Kato, was driving. They were in hot pursuit of a criminal. Suddenly, they were blinded.
"What is that?" Green Hornet asked, looking at the white space in front of them.
"I don't know, sir," Kato replied.
"Kato, stop!" Green Hornet shouted as he saw the car in front of them disappear into the white space.
However, it was too late. Kato was unable to slow down enough to stop. The Green Hornet was now in the great white abyss - forgotten?
On the Marvel Earth, a red-garbed figure leapt over the rooftops of Manhattan. It was Daredevil, the defender of the common man of Manhattan. Daredevil suddenly stopped, and smiled as he realized he had caught the notorious Owl unawares. Obviously, the supervillain was up to no good, perched on a high rooftop as he was, staring down at the local Bank of New York branch. Daredevil was about to take his foe by surprise when a wave of white came out of nowhere and erased both of them from existance.
Elsewhere in this city, Bobby Drake, better known as Iceman was fighting his own trouble. He had spent the better part of two hours fighting another man who could control ice. What this guys name? Oh, yeah, Mr. Freeze! he thought.
"Little Iceman! Just give up!"
Iceman started laughing. "Me? Give up? Sorry, pal. No can do! I'm an X-Man!"
As Mr. Freeze charged toward Iceman, Bobby put up an ice shield, to protect him. He braced for impact. However, instead of coming through, Mr. Freeze was absorbed into the ice. Bobby stood up and looked at his ice shield. It didn't exist. In its place lay a white space of unreality.
"Aw, man! I gotta call the X-Men!"
Out on the Astral Plane . . .
Dr. Strange was attempting to hold his own against the agents of Chaos. There were some agents who looked like warriors, only with wolf heads with gnashing teeth. Other agents looked like living protoplasm, and lashed at Strange with poisonous protoplasmic tentacles.
Suddenly, a bolt of black light flew from the ranks of the agents of Chaos and hit Dr. Strange flat in the chest. He struggled to maintain his astral form as the demonic figure who attacked him appeared. The figure had blue skin and dark blue hair. He wore a dark blue tunic and a green cloak.
"Greetings, fool. I am Dark Opal, and I have come to claim this world for the greater glory of Chaos!"
"Even in my realm we have heard of you, Doctor Strange, so-called Sorceror Supreme. You won't be much of a sorcerer after I do this!"
Dark Opal raised his hand and transformed Doctor Strange's hands into stones, and used magic to stretch Strange's skin over his mouth so the Sorceror Supreme could not speak his spells.
With that, Dark Opal cast Strange back into the plane of reality and forced his way into that plane, along with his legions of Chaos.
Not far away, Dr. Doom was enjoying his new-found magic powers, having just captured the Helmet of Nabu.
"The power! More power than I have possessed in a long time!"
Doctor Fate groaned and rolled over. "The helmet of Fate is not for the weak, villain! Take care, or it will drive you insane!"
"Hush, fool! Did you not have the sense to die when I shot you just now?" Doom turned toward Fate. "Now, with my magical powers, I shall deal you an even worse fate . . . " His hands crackled with eldritch energy.
At that moment, Doom was struck from behind by a bolt of dark lightning. The Helmet of Nabu fell from his head, and clattered on the ground.
Dark Opal appeared, leading a group of his followers. Opal was carrying the limp form of Doctor Strange, which he dropped to the sidewalk.
"How quaint! An Earth-bound magic user attempting to use the Helmet of Nabu! Fools. I am the true master of magic! On with the conquest, my legions!!"
Light years away, select members of the X-Men were on a Shi'ar cruiser, racing to the Shi'ar home planet of Hala. Also on board was Gladiator, Praetor of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, and several royal subjects who were there to help inform the X-Men of the current crisis with the M'Kraan Cystal.
They had been on board for days. The trip took longer than usual because of reports of disappearing ships and whatnot. Some were wondering if they would ever see Earth again.
Storm and Gambit stood in front of the viewscreen of the main bridge, where they were gazing at footage of the M'Kraan current wave of destruction.
"Sad," Gambit said.
"Yes, Gambit. We have been able to stop its destruction in the past. However, now, we are without Jean and the professor. No hope of shutting it down," Storm replied.
"An' no Phoenix power!" Gambit sighed.
Storm walked into the quarters that had been designated for the X-Men. Gambit followed. He could tell that her mind was troubled.
"Stormy, w'as wrong?" the cajun asked.
Storm sighed. "I get the feeling that you're feeling shunted. I mean, I just took over leadership on this mission, not even thinking about you and Rogue."
"Awww, Stormy. Don' feel bad. I would rather have you leadin' dis mission. You have de experience."
"Thank you, Gambit. But how will Rogue feel?"
Gambit was silent. He turned and walked out of the room without saying anything.
The agents of Chaos gleefully marched through the streets of Gotham. Civilians fled before them, with the unlucky ones being caught and slaughtered by the ruthless beasts. Dark Opal used his magic powers to torture those unlucky enough to be in his path, before he cast their lifeless bodies away like broken dolls.
Three of the most powerful magic-users of the two universes lay helpless as Chaos reigned on the streets of Gotham City.
In the JLA headquarters, the assembled heroes were silent as they readied a small group for a daring journey.
Reed Richards spoke to the assemblage from behind the control panel of a contraption that the technical geniuses among the heroes had put together.
"Okay, everyone. What we're going to attempt has never been done before . . . so I need everyone to follow my lead, and do their part right when I say so. We can't afford to make a single mistake."
"We all have a stake in this, Richards," said the Martian Manhunter. He sat in a circle with Phoenix and Moondragon. The three locked hands, and a crackle of mental energy could be felt by even those with no mental powers. The telepaths were ready.
Reed flipped some switches on his control panel. "Okay, we're ready, then! Telepaths, do your thing! My machine will help unscramble the barriers between this dimension and the Negative Zone, so it shouldn't be that hard!"
The room was hushed as the three telepaths concentrated deeply. They locked onto Access's mind and his memories of the Negative Zone. Reed's machine hummed as it unscrambled the energy barriers between dimensions.
"Now, Silver Surfer! Are you able to locate the opening to the Negative Zone?"
"Yes, quite easily, Richards! Thor, to me!"
Thor raced to Silver Surfer's side. The Surfer stretched out a hand and placed it on Thor's brow. "Now, God of Thunder, I grant you one part of my power cosmic to help your mystic hammer open the portal!"
Thor surged with a burst of power, and seemed more unearthly than usual. He swung his uru hammer in circles until the barrier between dimensions began to open. The Flash, who was on a special treadmill constructed by Henry Pym and Reed Richards, began to speed around and around the room, adding to the strength of Thor's vortex. The noise in the room became deafening as the vortex grew larger and larger.
"Now, Green Lantern!" Richards shouted.
Green Lantern pointed his ring at the center of the vortex and created a tube to its vanishing point. Iron Man, Steel, Access, and Atom raced through the tunnel into the Negative Zone. Green Lantern strained to keep the portal open as the Silver Surfer sailed through to the other side, followed by Thor. The heroes disappeared, and all that remained was a small visible opening to the other dimension.
The telepaths strained to keep their focus on Access' mind, to help guide the Silver Surfer.
A small explosion alarmed Reed. "Just as I thought," he said, "the strain of keeping the link to the Negative Zone is overwhelming these machines! They'll explode if we push them any further!"
Henry Pym's engineering instincts told him that the machine was going to blow up soon. He shouted to Richards. "You'll have to let them go, Reed! If we push the machine any harder, it'll explode and kill us all! Shut it down! We have to help prepare our families and others, in case those brave heroes fail."
Reed Richards gave the others a frustrated look, and shut down the machine. Green Lantern groaned with relief after having held the doorway to the Negative Zone open for so long.
Reed was clearly frustrated, but he was already considering the chances of the heroes' survival in the Negative Zone. "Well, Thor and the Silver Surfer are with them, so they should be able to get back on their own . . . or so I hope."
"Man, I've never used my ring that intensely for that long before . . . .gotta rest . . . " The Green Lantern wobbled over to a chair and sat down.
Back on the Shi'ar cruiser, the X-Men had strapped into their seats on the bridge. They were about to enter the Shi'ar Empire.
Suddenly, the ship rocked and everyone on board heard a giant BOOM!
"What was that?" Wolverine yelled.
"Sounded like a sonic blast!" Beast responded, tightening some of the straps on his new uniform.
Gladiator rushed in, and quickly typed something on the main control board. The ship rocked again.
"Gladiator!" a voice shouted over the intercom. "The lower three levels of this ship have just been ripped off. We're working to conserve life-support!"
"Keep on it!" Gladiator shouted back. "X-Men, get down there and help them."
Storm stood up first. "Gambit, Wolverine, Rogue, Nightcrawler, come with me. Beast and Archangel, stay here on the bridge and help them stablize this ship."
Beast ran over to Gladiator and learned what he must do. Archangel stood where he was, thinking. The remaining X-Men held hands, so that Nightcrawler could teleport them to the lower levels.
In the Negative Zone, the heroes raced forward, following the Silver Surfer. Atom held on bravely to Steel's shoulder as the group raced toward a place not far away.
The impulsive Access flew off toward the two titanic forms of the cosmic brothers, who stood embroiled in a seemingly neverending battle.
"Stop!" he called out. "Stop fighting! You're killing the only chance the universe has left!"
At first the brothers seemed to not hear Access, then they turned toward him. Both of them were clearly wounded from their struggle.
"Ah, the meddler once more comes to pester us!" said the blue-tinted brother.
"Let us put an end to his bothersomeness!" the other stated, grinning.
The brothers prepared to destroy the young universe-crossing hero.
The six X-Men reached the lower level of the cruiser. Quickly, Storm lifted her hand and attempted to control the atmosphere.
"Wolverine, Nightcrawler," she commanded, "help them close that hole! Gambit, Rogue, try to get any non-essentials out."
"I have to work with HIM?!" Rogue shouted.
"Rogue, there's no time for you to have a little sissy fit! I don't know what your sudden disinterest in Gambit is, but I DON'T CARE! Do you job!"
Suddenly, the ship lurched, and Gambit was thrown down to through the hole.
"NO!" he shouted.
"Cajun!" Wolverine yelled, rushing over. He leaned down and put out his hand, hoping to pull his teammate up. Gambit reached for it, but his hand slipped, and he fell out of the ship, falling into the white abyss. "I love you, Rogue!" he shouted as he fell away.
At that moment, the force field erected itself. Wolverine stared at the white space.
"Um, guys? Is space supposed to be white?" he asked.
In Gotham City, a battalion of superheroes were working to calm the citizens and stop the rampages of looters caused by the public's belief that the world was ending. Members of the Titans and Young Justice strove to restore order, but the strain on them was showing.
Suddenly, Superboy called out to the group.
"Look there, everyone!"
A mob of screaming people ran toward the heroes and through them. Behind the crowd came an army of the Agents of Chaos, led by Dark Opal. Dog headed soldiers destroyed both people and property in single blows with their magic scythes, while protoplasmic creatures oozed forth, burning everything in their path.
Nightwing rallied the group together. "I don't know who those creatures are . . . .but they aren't doing my old home any more damage! Titans Together!"
The brave band of heroes prepared for the onslaught of the forces of Chaos.