Merry Christmas everybody.

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(Michael P.O.V)

The negativity coursing through his veins felt euphoric. Different hateful emotions like fear, doubt, loathing, envy, greed...they all feed into him, pushing his abilities ever forward. Truly Micheal himself had no idea how powerful he was. And it was all due to this little plan his master had cooked up.

The strength increase was a bonus. What took the cake was the delicious death happening all around him. Calling it death was not an apt description however. Michael liked to think of it as a...timeout on life.

The souls of the fallen were harvested for future use. Every villain inside the huge and reinforced arena had done some heinous things. Any other villain whose biggest wrongdoing was robbing a store and maybe flying without a license in the case of Kite man was not part of the lot.

Those petty crime villains were getting punished as well but only according to the severity of their crimes. Most were being forced to relive their lives in an endless cycle of regret up until they truly and properly repented. They were forced to feel every single uncomfortable moment from inconveniences that they had caused to others.

Such an emotion when compounded would prove to be hell to anyone.

Those didn't intrest Michael all that much. Polite and well dressed in a suit didn't mean jack. When he peeled away the layers, Michael was one sadistic fucker. He knew it and relished in his Master's enemies faces when they found that out.

He looked down at the Arena, invisible while in the sky. 90% of all the villains that had been fighting in the arena were dead, their souls tucked away in the core of the realm.

He looked at the 16 villains left alive, huddled under various things. The largest group so far was inside a tall dome of ice sustained by two villains, Killer Frost and Mister Freeze.

They had chosen to stay as far away from the battle as they could, only taking lives in an act of self defense. That said, some among them had still killed others before deciding to sit out the blood bath. Why was this so important? Easy, because Michael had heightened each and every Villain's aggression to make them fight and kill.

Anyone who had managed to fight against his manipulation of their emotions had displayed that maybe just maybe they had a chance to be redeemed. So...back to their punishments.

Just because they had survived did not mean they would automatically be allowed to join the populace. They would surely cause problems. No, Master Aden, wanted things to go as smooth as possible.

It wouldn't be considered smooth if Mister Freeze decided to start Killing innocent people, until someone told him where his wife was. If Michael was any less Sadistic, he would've told the ice themed Supervillain that his wife was okay.

There was another group of 'special' Villains that Master Aden had allowed Gaea to take from the Hollowlands. Ra's Al Ghul and a very ferocious woman who Michael had instantly liked called Lady Shiva. Gaea needed them for a super secret project. Michael somehow found himself pitying them.

"Oh seems like I have kept my pets waiting too long that they have begun to grow restless."

Michael commented, deciding to finally reveal himself.

(General P.O.V)

"Is it...is it over?"

Captain Boomerang asked from within the dome. Things had been silent for a very long time. The fighters left had been Bizzaro, Enchantress, Mammoth, Blockbuster, Wotan and a few more high powered brutes.

But that had been before Killer Frost and Mister Freeze had reinforced the walls of the ice dome to avoid dying from the shockwaves produced as these juggernauts went head to head. Things were silent now. Too silent actually.

Killer Frost lowered her arms that were sustaining the ice dome and fell to the ground, suddenly weak.

"Frost!"

Deadshot was there to hold her before her legs gave out.

"Hey, hey what...what are you doing!? Keep using your powers, the ice is cracking!"

A scared Shaggy Man cried out.

"Shut the fuck up, Shaggy Man. Can't you see that she can't keep it up anymore?"

Cheetah growled out, hitting him with a feral look.

Shaggy man stumbled back, stepping on Scarecrow's feet. He was huge with thick red fur but that did not mean he wanted to cross Cheetah. Unfortunately, an argument sprang up between Shaggy Man and Scarecrow after Shaggy Man stepped on his feet. Deadshot caught Captain Boomerang's eye and motioned to Shaggy man and Scarecrow.

Boomerang looked at them and then shrugged in a 'the fuck you want me to do to them' way. Deadshot shook his head and aimed his wrist gun at them. A pasty white hand grabbed his wrist and lowered it down. The hand belonged to Harley Quinn.

The normally excitable and upbeat villainess had a cold expression on her face. She walked over towards the two of them who were dangerously close to fighting and then grabbed their heads together and smashed both of their faces onto each other. Hard.

Both cried out, stumbling away with broken noses and missing teeth. In the case of Scare crow, his face looked to be more hurt from the collision. Harley spat on them before looking around at the rest of the villains, challengingly.

A slow clap sounded out from above them.

"Wow, well done Harley. Have you ever considered that the Joker might have been holding you back before?"

The voice had them all turning to face the sky. Their mouths dried, their eyes bugged out, their legs trembled. Terror the likes of which they hadn't ever felt before hit them.

"T.h..th...the whisp...ers. The whispers..."

Cheetah sounded absolutely scared. Yet she was better off than the others who peed or shat themselves.

What she meant by whispers was the universal voice they all had, whispering all their regrets and despair to their ears. There was nothing they could do then and there was nothing they could do now.

Michael's eyebrows rose up.

"Oh, so your souls recognize me..." He floated gently down. The villains all stayed in place. Too overwhelmed by fear to do anything.

"No...you... you're not real! This is an illusion! Dammit! I killed you!!"

Deadshot's wrist gun was already up by the time he finished his words. He targeted Michael's vital organs. All 37 bullets slowed down as they closed in on Michael, seeming to move in thick syrup.

Deadshot's attack seemed to rouse almost everyone else and in desperation they joined in. Ice beams, Polk dots, boomerangs...all kinds of attacks flew towards The Warden.

Michael smiled. Reality around them begun to change. The arena broke away into fragments of millions of dementors all flying towards the sky. They formed a black cloud that sucked away all the light and the warmth around, hovering above Michael as if he was the eye of the storm.

"The whispers in the dark, that which hides in the corner of your eye. The fear of the unknown... Well... now you know."

The villains abandoned their attacks and started trying to run away, towards anything. Only for the ground to break apart and reveal wide bottomless chasms. Their screams were the only thing left echoing out as they were devoured by the darkness.

Michael looked up at the sky.

"You know Gaea, I just had a thought. That whole thing would make awesome entertainment."

Michael's surroundings changed as he teleported away from his realm.

"You have a point. We could use the footage from the fight as a sort of way to debut the realm wide news network project. It would hurry Master Aden's plan."

Michael floated down towards the huge EUC building headquarters. The statue behind it depicting Aden had been completed and in his opinion looked as grand as Fuck.

He managed to capture the figures of both Superion and Superman as they flew towards the woods. Enhancing his sensing skills, Michael was able to capture the building constructed deep into the mountain range. That was also coincidentally where Superman and Superion were headed.

He narrowed his gaze.

"Is that going to be a problem?"

The question was directed to Gaea.

"No. Master Aden is quite aware of their little fan club. However he hopes that some of the more...wise members of the hero community will be able to talk the rest out of whatever foolhardy schemes they may be plotting."

"And I'm guessing one of those 'wise' members is the Kryptonian? Someone who wears his underwear above his costume."

Gaea was silent for a while.

"Just get here."

She finally said which earned her a laugh from The Warden.

Michael took the direct route. He flew down and phased through the roof of the building, appearing in a small conference room occupied by a few notable figures. Gaea was standing at the front of the table. Behind her was a holographic display of a few incomplete building projects which seemed to be what she was discussing with Luthor and a few others.

The whole set up was direct. There was a row of thrones, on what passed as the stage. The thrones numbered 7 with one huge throne sitting right in the middle. Below the stage was what would come to be known as the Council. And the only ones occupying the seats were Luthor and a man that Michael had never seen before.

The man was dressed in fine clothes and had a moustache across his face. He was also struggling to open a can of pineapple slices. He was visibly sweating and red in the face. Before long he gave up and wordlessly offered the can to the girl wearing similar clothing to him, standing behind his chair.

She received it and opened it with no effort before passing the can back to the unfamiliar human. Michael was instantly annoyed. He questioningly looked at Gaea. She ignored him in favor of levelling a hard stare towards the new couple. The realm mother sighed in exasperation.

"Varick, if you could please pay attention."

Michael's expression underwent a change. Wow, his master did not waste time using his vast powers to bring an Otherworlder to the realm. Michael really wanted to learn more about the man. Despite his eccentrics, anyone Master Aden picked must have been useful.

Michael sat on the far left throne while thinking a lot. His attention was only broken when Master Aden along with Vaatu, Yaotl and Raava appeared on stage all at the same time. Michael was up to his feet without a hand.

Aden looked around at the conference room and clapped his hands together.

"Well then, how about we begin the most important meeting of all time?"

To Aden, after today's meeting, he would be free to do anything like Training for more power and exploring the water realm.

With his increased comprehension speed, it was only a matter of time before he completely mastered both water and earth. He anticipated they wouldn't even take up any time. With only a few weeks of meditation he could reach Grandmaster level and past it.