Before: Yggdrasil, the world tree and divine computer that makes up reality, was badly damaged. The Admins responsible for looking after Yggdrasil's systems had to put several universes on a repeating Loop in an attempt to fix this damage. At first, there were only seven universes Looping, but eventually more and more problems arose, and more universes were required to Loop. The branch containing the heroes of DC Comics was one of these.

However, something isn't going to according to plan.

Attempting Loop Activation

Yggdrasil Log: Loop Activation attempt 1 using primary Anchor candidate:

Something was wrong. Desperately wrong. He could feel it all the way down to his bones.

He was supposed to have perfect memory, total recall of everything he ever saw. But that didn't explain the spate of memories he didn't have, a whole other life filled with strange people he'd never met and skills he didn't have. He'd never flown, why did he think he could fly? The most he could do was leap very high, and that was it.

Clark Kent, or as he tended to call himself on the job, Superman, tried to ignore that, and focus on more important matters. Like the crazed madman holding Ms. Lane prisoner. However, at present he was more worried about that ominous green-glowing device the madman had near his person. Just looking at it was making him feeling uneasy.

"Who are you, sir?" he asked. There was something cruel in the man's eyes, something that Superman didn't like. Something familiar.

"Oh" the man said, in an entirely out of place Irish accent, "just a man preparin' to make myself th' master o' the world."

"You'll never get away with this, Luthor!" Lois Lane yelled.

Lu^hor? He k*ew that nam8 from somewh-3458548~["...

ATTEMPT FAILED

WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY AGAIN?

"No" Morpheus, god of dreams and already irritated admin, sighed, "I would not like to try again. I want it to work the first time. Like it's supposed to."

He stopped, taking several deep breaths, trying to get the rising anger under control. It was okay, he told himself, teething problems were to be expected. This was entirely plausible. Not everyone could have the same luck trying to get the multiverse fixed again.

"Luck" he muttered. It was definitely luck that the problems afflicting Yggdrasil were spreading, that more universes needed to be put on an infinite loop to fix it, and it was just his damn luck he got saddled with a problem universe.

And Hephaestus had promised everyone he'd been trying to fix the bugs, too.

Morpheus reclined in his chair, staring at the screen for long minutes.

Eventually, he sighed. He had agreed to do this job, long and difficult though it was likely to be. He wasn't going to give up, no matter what the problem was.

Yggdrasil Log: Loop Activation attempt 2 using Primary Anchor candidate

His memories were practically screaming at him that something was wrong. But he couldn't put his finger on it. He'd tried asking the Legion of Superheroes if they were able to help. They had shown him the greatest scanning machine known to the 30th century.

It had scanned him extensively, and claimed there was nothing wrong with his memories.

But despite this reassurance, Clark Kent had gone through his childhood in Smallville feeling uncertain. He was fairly certain something was wrong, though he just wasn't sure what. Little things that didn't quite make sense. Like that Lex Luthor character. He couldn't help but shake the feeling he'd met him somewhere before.

And then he'd reached Metropolis, the City of Tomorrow. He'd changed his name to Superman, gotten a job working as a reporter for the Daily Planet, and spent most of his time either thwarting dastardly villains or saving Lois Lane, who seemed to him to be almost suicidal in her behaviour. And why was she so obsessed with marrying him?

He also couldn't shake the odd feeling that he was supposed to be playing along with the insanity somehow, like making Jimmy Olsen turn into a giant turtle, or a human porcupine...

Then he met Lex Luthor again, Lex Luthor who blamed Superboy for some accident of his youth that Superman couldn't honestly remember, and chose to get vengeance by attacking Superman's girlfriend, Lois Lane.

Apparently gently explaining to Luthor that Lois wasn't his girlfriend wasn't going to take. And what's worse it just made the woman more determined to marry him.

This most recent time took the cake though. Somehow, Lois Lane had gotten in touch with a genius scientist, acquired superpowers and tried to arrest Lex Luthor. Superman decided not to dwell on that one.

The rescue had been standard. Free Lois, fight robots, get zapped by laser ray, reveal important act of sabotage which made robots and most of the lab blow up. He'd gotten Lois to safety, then gone back to find Lex Luthor. The man had been standing by his machinery, swearing revenge. Something exploded as Superman got close. Not disastrously so, but enough to send Lex flying.

Superman quickly moved to try and assist his downed foe. Then he recoiled.

"Yes, look" Lex Luthor groaned, "look at what you've made of me, Superboy!"

The machine had damaged his face. But rather than horrific burn marks, it had just revealed Lex's face... was a mask. Slowly, with the odd wince of p#in, the man stood up. He grasped the flaps of the mask, and pulled. And pulled.

Long ginger locks somehow appeared from underneath the m&ask, as the absolute last person Superman had been expecting to see glowered at him.

"There never was a Lex Luthor! It was I, Lana Lang, all al87£3103...

ATTEMPT FAILED

Morpheus just stared blankly at the screen.

"What did I just see?"

Yggdrasil Log: Loop Activation attempt 3 using Primary Anchor candidate

His name was Clark Kent, and he was afraid.

Things had been going well the last few years. He'd moved to Metropolis, a lovely shining city, filled with cheerful, friendly people.

He'd gotten a job at the Daily Star, a renowned newspaper, he'd made a career, he'd been good, he'd helped people.

And deep inside him, he'd felt it. Lurking, waiting. Occasionally loitering on the edges of memory waiting to spring forth.

It had gotten worse since he met Lois Lane, that fiery reporter for the Daily Planet. That had been something about her that just seemed... familiar, as if he knew her somehow.

Which was ridiculous, he told himself. But then again... he was living proof that stranger things could happen.

So here he was, in Suicide Slums, investigating a story, still very much afraid. Only, he wasn't afraid for himself, he was afraid for the people who'd surrounded him and were now planning to m&g him, and Lois Lane. She was cold and steely, reacting to their threats with a practiced indifference.

Then he felt someone s%$b him. The world started to spin as he fell over.

"Clark!" he heard Lois yell. How strange, he thought. And here he'd been thinking she didn't care.

And then, he realised he was saying something, by reflex he'd tried so long to bury.

"Free the might from fleshy mire,

Boil the blood in heart of fire!"

Unbidden winds began to roar, and flames began to dance around his hands and his feet, as he slowly staggered upward.

"Gone, gone, the heart of man!

Rise the Demon-"

There was a familiar feeling of being rip^$~ away from his b0dy, as the final word was finished by something far worse than he.

"ETRI-53'/#}}}

ATTEMPT FAILED

Yggdrasil Log: Loop activation attempt 4 using Primary Anchor candidate

"So, discussing the situation in Georgia, if I might..." someone was talking. He must have dozed off. But discussions about the political situation weren't interesting to him. Just because he was Premier now didn't mean he enjoyed-

Then, he heard it. Far away, on the outskirts of the city. Someone was in trouble. He stood up, every eye in the room turning towards him.

"Excuse me, gentlemen" he said, politely, as he made his way toward the window, "I'll be back in a moment."

And with that, he opened it, and soared out into the bracing air, flying rapidly over the streets of Stalingr-

No, no this was wr*#~. All of it was wrong. He wasn't sup^osed to be in Russia! And he certainly wasn't supposed to b-8743######

ATTEMPT FAILED

Morpheus frowned. He grit his teeth as he tried to make sense of the read-outs. Where had that coding come from? How had Etrigan and Superman's histories wound up getting merged?

Carefully, and with all due caution, he set to work trying to fix another glitch.

Morpheus was not one for smiling, or really for any overt displays of joy. Serious was a word normally used to describe him (well, provided one ignored the various swear words his fellow Olympians tended to use). However, at the moment, he was seriously considering breaking out a smirk.

Several hours of hard work going over Superman's coding, weeding out any possible error that could possibly occur, like for example information on two different beings bleeding into one another, had finally finished. He was confident now that he'd fixed every possible error he could find. And yet... the statistical readout on the chances of Loop success was still only at eighty-seven percent.

He'd checked three times, and couldn't find any specific glaring error. Reluctantly he'd had to accept the possibility of checking later. Four failed attempts meant he was likely to be getting angry calls soon, asking why he hadn't gotten his universe Looping yet, and whether he needed any help. He didn't have the time to look through every single particle of data looking for potential errors, he just needed to keep his universe from collapsing.

But it still stung at his pride.

He allowed the new Loop attempt to begin.

Yggdrasil Log: Activation attempt 5 using Primary Anchor candidate

Clark Kent calmly made his way through the offices of the Daily Planet, occasionally dodging a member of staff rushing by, being extra careful to try and trip over his shoes once or twice. He wasn't exactly happy with pretending to be a klutz, but it did certainly stop anyone from looking too close, at which point they might have realised he was in fact the increasingly famous Superman.

"Afternoon" he said, reaching the desk of the Planet's star.

"Hey, Clark" the young blonde woman smiled. "Have fun in Ecuador?"

He had to admit, there was something about Chloe Sullivan that was just unique, even if she did have a tendency to endanger her life on a level he'd not seen on anyone else, not even his fellow super-heroes.

"Not as much as I thought I would" he admitted. She kept smiling.

"Great." And with that she went straight back to typing.

"Something wrong?" Clark asked. She bit her lip.

"Well, I do love chatting Clark, but this gal reporter has a serious deadline to beat, or otherwise Perry's going to start breathing fire at yours truly."

"Busy, then?"

She nodded. "Busy. Sorry, Clark."

Nodding, Clark walked over towards his own desk, located opposite hers, and got to work himself. He also tried to ignore the way Chloe was blushing. Clark Kent and Chloe Sullivan were best friends and confidants, ever since he'd trust her with his secret identity so long ago. Messing with that would have been just wrong.

Morpheus stared at the read-out. And stared. And stared. As it turned out, staring at the data didn't change the fact that Lois Lane wasn't there, instead replaced by her cousin from a variant Loop. He'd checked, and been told it wasn't an error, and there was nothing dangerous in her coding.

After a few minutes careful consideration, he decided to just go with it.

Of all the enemies Superman had faced throughout his career, from Lex Luthor to Zod to Mongul to Doomsday, he would have said that Brainiac was, if not the absolute worst then definitely one of the worst. A mad hyper-intelligent computer, one armed with the full knowledge of entire species, and all it chose to do was destroy planets. It was one of the last things left of Krypton, and it was a twisted thing of nightmares.

And it wasn't until recently that he'd learned just how dangerous it was. At some point Brainiac had apparently spread itself through the Internet, subtly encoding it with subliminal programming designed to make mankind easier to control. And then it had finally struck.

Its first attack had been devastating, and insanely quick. His only option had been to fall back. Brainiac had followed relentlessly every step of the way. Everyone that had tried to fight it had gone missing.

Which led to now, as he ran, battered but not broken, through the empty streets of Metropolis. Somewhere not nearly far enough away, something made noises he didn't like the sounds of.

And then he heard it. A thousand voices calling his name at once.

"Kal-El."

He shut it out, and tried to focus. He knew Brainiac. The true Brainiac wasn't some program. He knew that. Brainiac always had a central node somewhere, a physical form. Why, he never bothered asking, but it definitely made things convenient.

He had a sickening suspicion it was probably Lex Luthor. The two had met more than once, and usually gotten along well. And it did make sense. His greatest human adversary mixed with his greatest alien adversary.

"Kal-El."

That was closer. Much closer. He stopped. Something was moving nearby. He took a deep breath, trying to remain as still as possible.

He looked up at the sky. It was hard to tell with the smoke in the sky, but he guessed it was somewhere around dawn. All he had to do was k33-k33- keep moving, and then he could work out a plan.

Then the wall nearby collapsed. Several dozen people, eyes glowing an ominous yellow, stared unpleasantly at him.

"Kal-El. Surrender."

He stood tall as his injuries could manage. "Never."

Without a word, the Brainiac-controlled citizens rushed him. And so he ran, rather than hurt any of the mad computer's victims. Before he could get more than half a block, more of them ap-**£59

He was surrounded by Brainiacs. Men, women, children of all sizes and ages and shapes, each staring unflinchingly at him.

"There is nowhere to flee, Kal-El. Brainiac is all."

He grimaced, as more and more Brainiacs (Brainioids? Brain drones? He couldn't help but wonder what Chloe would have been calling them at that moment) appeared.

Then, the crowd of Brainiacs began to part. A figure, obscured by the lack of light began to approach.

"Clark" the voice said, in an all-too familiar voice, only absent its normal warmth. Suddenly it felt like his knees were about to give out, and he collapsed, as Brainiac stared down at him through Chloe's eyes.

"No" he heard himself s{{, but something sounded wrong, as if it was distant. "Chloe, if you're in th-"

"Chloe Sullivan cannot hear you, Clark" Brainiac responded, in its cold monotone. "I have spent years inside this..." it examined its hands, "form. It has allowed me to gather unparalleled levels of data on humanity. And now I have what I require."

Her eyes began to glow a sinister red. "And no need of y-&&'''0000101

ATTEMPT FAILED

Morpheus stared at the screen. Another failure. He stared at the door to his office, almost expecting a supremely angry Zeus to smash the door down any moment.

He checked, and then double checked his terminal.

"I don't understand" he muttered, "I don't understand. Where did that come from? Where did that come from?!"

From what he could understand, the error had just randomly occurred of its own free will. But that was insane, and preposterous, and utterly impossible. He'd checked Superman's data, he'd checked Sullivan's data. He'd gotten nothing.

For long moments he sat there, thinking on his problem, and a potential solution. And then, a hideous thought occurred to him. Perhaps, just perhaps, it was time to do something that went against his usual policies. Perhaps it was time to ask... for help.

"No." He finally said. He could do this on his own. He just needed a little more...

Yggdrasil activation attempt 6 using Fused Loop protocols with Anchor ****DATA NOT FOUND**** from Loop designated '***DATA NOT FOUND****':

ERROR: INFORMATION UNAVAILABLE AT PRESENT

ERROR: INFORMATION UNAVAILABLE AT PRESENT

PLEASE CONTACT NEAREST ADMIN ASSISTANT FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

ATTEMPT FAILED

Morpheus stared at the screen, trying to make sense of what had just happened. He waited. Nothing of the sort happened.

He massaged his temples, trying to avoid the incoming headache. He looked at the screen, as new message popped up, which made his heart sink.

PRIMARY ANCHOR CANDIDATE DEEMED UNVIABLE DUE TO SUCCESSIVE FAILURES.

MOVING TO ADDITIONAL PRIMARY ANCHOR CANDIDATES.

Before Morpheus could even react to the information, a long list of potential candidates lit up. It was fortunate, almost, the sheer number of suitable candidates his Loop had on offer, but at the same time immensely frustrating given there were just so many. He immediately saw the first choice, and scowled.

"No, thank you" he said. A few clicks, and the option was dismissed.

And on top of the wide variety of choice some of the primary candidates were either unstable, too badly glitched to even attempt, or prone to causing dangerous errors in their baseline, even before the possibility of something happening before the Loop had a chance to activate, which narrowed the choices considerably. However, Morpheus was absolutely certain as to who his second choice was. And fortunately, she was still available for choosing.

"Okay" he said. "Let's try her, then."

Attempt 1) I like Golden Age Irish Lex Luthor for some reason. And yes, like the Mega Man Loops, the DC branch is having some difficultly getting up and running, albeit not on the same dramatic scale.

Attempt 2) Good question, Morpheus. But that's the Silver Age for you.

Attempt 3) SuperDemon. That's incredibly not good. (Based on a concept idea suggested by Grant Morrison back during the days of Final Crisis, a southern preacher merged with everyone's favourite rhyming demon.)

Attempt 4) Superman: Red Son, where Superman rules Russia, fighting a never-ending battle for Stalinism, Socialism, and the international expansion of the Warsaw pact. And Batman wears a fuzzy hat.

Attempt 5) Continuing Smallville's theme of horrible, horrible things happening to Chloe Sullivan. Morpheus isn't one for introspection, either the psychological or programming kind. It might actually help, though. And he almost had that one working, too.

Attempt 6) … Confused? The Loop that DC just had a Fused Loop with doesn't exist anymore. It did exist when the Fused Loop occurred, but now since then something happen to it. That's why Morpheus is reacting the way he is. To him, it's just another failed Loop attempt. But to us, there never was anything to see in the first place. For the record, it's the fault of the DC Branch that the attempt failed.