Zatanna sat in a room far away from the Hall of Justice and the city of Heroica. In the room with her was Cyd Russell. The woman looked worn and tired. Zatanna's news had shaken her. Authors had somehow broken through the Barrier and entered into the Antipodes. And now the Supers, Heroes and Villains alike, were hunting those Authors down. The balance of power in the Antipodes Quarter was razor thin as it was; if the Supers captured the Authors the repercussions could very well cause the entire fabric of society to come crashing down into ruin. The last war between Cyd and the Supers had been catastrophic enough, if a new war broke out she feared that this time no one would survive it.
In the Centerlands teams of Supers roamed across the land in search of the Authors. Wonder Woman's impromptu alliance with Doctor Doom had blossomed into a fullscale joint initiative by both factions of Supers, the heroes and the villains. Their goal - to find and apprehend the hated Backstage Authors. And when they found them the Supers would do whatever it took to steal their knowledge and their power. And once they had it the Supers intended to tear down the Barrier that trapped them, to finally end Cyd Russell's reign over them, and to beat the shit out of every Author in the Backstage.
In Heroica a man pretending to be the Batman patiently waited for news. His real name was Paul Kirk and he had once been known as the Manhunter. But in the Superhero Sector of the Backstage he was most commonly called traitor. He had betrayed the Conclave and secretly been an agent for Cyd Russell. Once that had been discovered it had cost him his life - or so people thought. In reality, when Batman and Zatanna had confronted him in battle, it was the Batman who had died. And Paul Kirk, with Zatanna's aid, had then taken on the Batman's identity and continued with his mission as Cyd Russell's secret agent.
But now his subterfuge was in danger of being uncovered, for somehow the dead Batman had come back to life.
And somewhere in the Eastern Null Zone a weary and desperate band of fugitives was hoping against hope that they could somehow escape from the dragnet the Supers were pulling close all around them. But not even JigSaw, the most optimistic of the group, believed that they really had a chance to make it out of this in one piece. Luckily for JigSaw, he was used to not being in one piece. But Dabbler, D.J., the morpher Mort, the witch Rincewind, and the cast-off Character Sindy were not so sanguine about the situation. In fact, they were mostly just scared.
And they had every reason to be afraid.
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Sat May 29 20:38:01 2004