CHARACTERS: Firestorm (Jason Rusch); Gehenna

PLOT:
The people of Metropolis are walking past a statue of Tomahawk but are temporarily seeing Superman, not remembering who he is. Firestorm has been hiding from the authorities. He remembers the old world but doesn't know why things have changed. He breaks into a library to read old microfilm. It tells about the JSA who operated in World War II. When McCarthy started his communist hunts in the 50's the JSA chose to unmask in this new reality. In our reality they chose to retire. In this new world they began to operate out of costume and started a movement that attracted more and more volunteers. Since they were no longer in costumes any future super-heroes were viewed with suspicion and hunted by the police. Eventually there were no independent heroes, all of them either in hiding or working with the JSA.

While Firestorm is reading this history he is found by the authorities who employ giant Amazo robots to apprehend him. He is able to escape and decides to find John Stewart in this new reality since he still needs to deal with the escaped Krona.

CHARACTERS: Krona

PLOT:
Krona travels to a world belonging to the Controllers. There he uses them to build a machine that he can use to talk to the universe. He believes the universe is a living being that can be communicated with. The Controllers think he is insane but help build a machine that they hope will capture Krona instead so they can analyze his powers. The machine fails and in retailiation he destroys the Controllers and their world. Amidst the destruction he finds what he believes is the soul of the planet he destroyed, thanking him for its release from the Controllers. He comes to the conclusion that if the universe has its own intelligence then so too will the planets. He leaves to find other planets that he can use as soldiers against the universe.