From the rubble in lower Manhattan, Albert Meyers, founder of a nationally-known fertility clinic and recovery volunteer, pulls a strange green gemstone. He is the anchor of Evelyn, Regal of Evolution, who has been feeling awful all day, or maybe forever. To his mystic eye, the stone appears untethered to anything in this world. There is only the tag end of a silver cord flapping plaintively in the direction of a Spin Doctors CD, some comic books, a handful of TV shows, when they are presented.

It is a piece of kryptonite. There are no superheroes in the world, though perhaps there should have been.

Evelyn leads his familia out onto the branches of the world tree, where they are scattered by the passing of a serpent whose name they never learn. The serpent does take Evelyn to the barren stem the stone seemed to indicate. There was a world here. Now there is not.

In Valhalla, Odin suffers the presence of Tom Bender long enough to agree, ruefully, that yes, the superheroes are no more. He utters a name: Darius Susa.

You cannot buy "Darius Susa" on eBay. Searches for Darius Susa come up "File Not Found." With help from Tom Bender's anchor from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Paul Grejbko does eventually find a reference to D.A. Susa, author of The Destruction of Numeracy, about the dangers to science education and scientific understanding presented by comic books and fantasy stories.

In New York, Timothy Hague, Marquis of Accidents, finds fired DC Comics editor Lana Lang feeding the pigeons in Central Park. He presents himself as a fan. Human vanity is such that she believes him, even though her unhappy tenure as editor made her no fans whatsoever - too possessive of the continuity, too unwilling to take chances, and frankly, too batty. She breaks down and leaves. Timothy lets her go.

Elsewhere in New York, Evelyn and his anchor, Albert Meyers, discuss the excrucians and the question of whether there ever were superheroes, and whether there could be now.

In a trendy SoHo dive (sic), Tom Bender and Timothy Hague decide to get Lana Lang drunk.

And that's where the session left off.