A pair of sliding glass doors appeared in the cargo hold of the Legion cruiser orbiting Durla, the world of the shapeshifters.
A tall, thin woman with a head of clipped, wavy reddish-purple hair fell onto the cargo floor.
BREEP! BREEP! BREEP!
An alarm sounded.
SSSHHHHUUUOOOAAAWWWHHH!
With that, the sliding glass doors vanished, leaving a cloud of billowing purple exhaust.
The woman groaned as she pushed herself up enough to view her surroundings.
"You've outdone yourself this time, Giz..." she breathed out as she took in the high-tech trappings of the 31st century spacecraft.
"Stay still, intruder!" a stern male voice interrupted the woozy woman's thoughts.
"Keep your hands up and open," a second voice added, this one female.
"Er... I don't understand you?" the intruder had heard only gibberish when the pair of uniformed teenagers spoke.
"She's speaking twentieth/twenty-first century English... with an American accent," spoke a disembodied voice emanating from the air.
"Now I can understand- hey, who said that?!" the intruder looked around with birdlike head movements. "Hey! My ears!" She began opening and closing her mouth and tilting her head first one way, then another. She stuck one long, tapered finger into her ear, wiggling it.
"Watch it! Keep your hands clear!" The intruder's metal bracelet pulled her arm away from her head.
"Magnetism? Frankie?", she said to herself. "Nah- not here!"
"You really should be more welcoming to your guests," the intruder said loudly, as she sprang to her feet and somersaulted around the startled teens.
Their surprise was short-lived, however.
"Cosmic Boy, let me." The young woman wearing green seemed to disappear.
The intruder capered about, laughing. As she began a complicated maneuver she'd picked up watching an old acrobatic 'friend' at work, the girl materialized in front of her, as if from nowhere. First her ears... now her eyes! She would've sworn she'd seen the girl *growing* in front of her!
She didn't imagine the uppercut to her pointy chin, however.
Or the bump to her backside when she hit the cargo floor once more.
Still woozy from the journey through the Sliding Doors, she now decided the smart thing would be to sit perfectly still.
"Good work, Vi," the young man called 'Cosmic Boy' was saying to the girl with the golden 'glove'.
"Brainy!?"... Cosmic Boy seemed to be addressing the air.
"Scanning... there seems to be some difficulty in identifying her genotype... I'm getting conflicting readings..."
"Again with the voices in the air..." the intruder whispered in frustration.
"One reading keeps recurring. It seems..."
"Why don't you just ask me, kiddoes?" the intruder interrupted.
"can't credit it, but somehow she's registering with 99.998% accuracy as..."
"I'm Mordru's..."
The voices of the disembodied and the intruder finished in unison.
posted
"Hey!" the intruder snapped. "Don't step on my lines, airhead!"
"Air--" Cosmic Boy began.
"--head!?" Shrinking Violet finished, stifling a laugh.
The intruder narrowed her eyes looking from one of the teens to the other suspiciously.
"You think I'm... funny?" she asked a bit plaintively... with an inflection of hopefullness.
Shrinking Violet nodded shyly, looking at the Elizabethan collar the intruder wore... and then at her black and white diamond-patterned tights.
"No..." Cosmic Boy said sternly, countermanding Violet with a sharp glance. "Not when you've barged into our cruiser... not when our scans indicate you're... *his*...", he whispered the pronoun, "...daughter. If you inherited his sorcerous power..."
"Hahahahahahahaha...!" the intruder threw her head back and laughed after a long beat of silence.
Without a 'tell', she leapt into the air, backing away from Cosmic Boy and Shrinking Violet. She flipped and kicked at a target that couldn't be seen, moving bonelessly and yet jerkily at the same time.
"I've never seen anybody move like that..." Violet whispered to Cosmic Boy, who raised a bewildered eyebrow in reply.
"Take *that*, airhead!" she grunted as she capered about.
"She's trying to fight Brainy?" Cosmic Boy whispered to Violet.
Surprising them all, one of her kicks connected with someone. A voice different than the 'brainy' one moaned... followed by the thud of someone falling to the ground.
"ANOTHER voice in the air? Who are you people?" she asked looking around at the stunned teens.
"We're the Legion of Super Heroes... who did you think we were?" Cosmic Boy answered and challenged.
The intruder shrugged and startled at the sudden appearance of a groggy young man at her feet. She somersaulted away.
"Invisible Kid-- your presence seems to indicate that the mission on Durla is complete..." the invisible voice returned.
"He's unconscious, Brainy..." Violet quietly replied as she knelt beside her teammate. "Knocked out by a kick from... from... what did you say your name was?"
"I'm... I'm Duela. Duela Dent. I was a Teen Titan." She said her name hesitantly... but proudly gave her affiliation... though the squared shoulders slumped a bit after a moment, as if she remembered a reason to be ashamed. "For awhile," she finished.
"Titan? But why are you here?" Violet asked, as she nodded to herself, deciding that Invisible Kid was unhurt and would soon be conscious.
"How could a Teen Titan be Mordru's daughter?" Cosmic Boy asked suspiciously.
"Hahahahahahahaha!", Duela laughed again... this time with an undercurrent of hysteria. "Mordru's daughter? No... I'm Star Sapphire's daughter! Hahahahahaha?"
"Star--" Cosmic Boy began.
"Sapphire?" Violet finished.
"Stop doing that," Cosmic Boy said, with a little snap in his voice.
posted
Duela came to a sudden stop, her arms and legs at awkward angles that might have been graceful in movement.
"Not you, Miss Dent-- oh, never mind..." Cosmic Boy shook his head. "If you'd just answer, Vi's ques-"
"Hahahah--" Cosmic Boy gestured and Duela rose in the air, as if picked up by her metallic bracelets and belt. "--hURK!!"
"--tion", Cos finished. "Why--"
"Hahaha-- I'm--"
"--are--"
"--the--"
"--you--"
"--Fiddler's--"
"--here--"
"--daughter!"
"--Duela?"
Cosmic Boy lowered his hand as Duela dropped unceremoniously to the floor, once again.
"This is getting to be a habit," she thought, as she rubbed her knee.
"At least you got the last word in," Violet said wryly, in a voice pitched only for Cosmic Boy's ears.
Violet looked at the intruder sympathetically. "We'll help if we can, Duela... if you need it."
Duela blinked. Maybe she wouldn't have to dig into her utility bag after all. "Drat it... I wanted to give that new nerve gas Giz came up with for my Cigarillo-holder a try," she thought.
No, Duela could trust these kids. Even the disembodied ones. She had an instinctual feeling about them. And Duela Dent *always* followed her instincts... even when they made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Especially when they made no sense whatsover.
"I-- don't know why I'm here," she said quietly. "I wish I did."
Cosmic Boy looked at Violet in surprise. A slight smile lifted his lips. Leave it to Vi to get through.
"Maybe we should concentrate on the 'how', then. Miss Dent--" the previously unconscious Invisible Kid interjected gently. He now sat up, rubbing his head gingerly.
Duela looked around, put upon. "Maybe you should call yourselves the Legion of Invisible Heroes," she said, causing Violet to giggle a bit.
"Meet me in Metropolis at the Time Institute," the voice continued, blithely ignoring the interruption. "I can help our visitor, there. With the help of a new friend."
"How did she-- Oh, why do I always fall for that?" Violet stopped herself from answering her initial question.
Cosmic Boy smiled at Violet, after exchanging a glance with Invisible Kid. He knew exactly how she felt. All Legionnaires did. "Thank you, Dreamer. We'll be there shortly-- as soon as we debrief Invisible Kid and make sure he's--"
"Oh, he's healthy enough. In fact, he'll soon be feeling better than he ever has!" the silvery voice replied.
"Thanks, Dreamer. I think," Invisible Kid, now standing, replied. He looked over at Cosmic Boy. "Everything went according to plan, Cos."
"Then we're on our way, Dreamer. I take it you-- ah-- foresaw our encountering the lovely Miss Dent, then?"
The silvery voice laughed. "No, Cos. I *remembered* it!"
posted
DEEP SPACE: The Legion cruiser flew through space on its way to Earth.
Cosmic Boy, Shrinking Violet and Invisible Kid sat at various work stations on the cruiser's bridge. Nearest Invisible Kid, Duela sat upon a couch built into the ship's bulkhead. In one hand she held a sketch pad, in the other a pencil. Her open 'utility purse' lay beside her; some of its contents surrounding it. Duela looked from her pad to Invisible Kid, frowning.
"Approaching Earth in... oh, ten minutes, Brainy. "
"Acknowledged," the clipped invisible voice responded. "I'll notify Dreamer and her companion." BREEP.
"It'll be a few more minutes before we're allowed to land, Duela. I won't invoke our clearance since this is a personal... mission."
"Uh-huh," a distracted Duela replies. "Don't worry about it..."
Shrinking Violet swiveled around to face Duela. "We'll make sure you get home, you know. One way or the other."
"Uh-HUH!" Duela nodded, still eyeing Invisible Kid.
"Is there something wrong with my backside, Miss Dent?" Invisible Kid asked, one eyebrow raised. He'd been ignoring her raking glances long enough.
"Wrong? No, no, no... it's ALL wrong!" she answered as she vigorously erased something from her pad.
Violet giggled... while Invisible Kid swallowed a comment. "You could always make it invisible, Lyle," she teased.
Cosmic Boy cleared his throat. "I'd still like to know how Miss Dent ended up in orbit around Durla if she last remembers being in New York."
"She told us, Cos... she stepped into an inventor friend's gizmo and popped out in our cargo hold!"
"And that's enough of an answer for you, Vi? I thought Cham and Lyle, here, trained you better..."
"Vi's taught *us* a thing or two from time to time, Rokk... you know that," Lyle broke in. "Besides, Dreamer's communique indicates there's more than rational explanation involved. Sometimes, you have to bend to illogic..."
"Hah!" Cosmic Boy tossed back his head. "Don't let Brainy hear you talk like that!"
"Why not? I'm actually quoting him..."
"Riiiight"
"OK- paraphrasing."
Duela shook herself awake, her pencil poised over the paper she'd brought with her from 1,000 years ago.
"Rokk? Lyle?" She looked from one Legionnaire to the other.
"You're letting me know your secret identities? We just met!"
"Secret identities?" Violet looked surprised. "We don't have *those* anymore."
"Oh!", Duela looked shocked. After a minute's consideration, her face and posture slumped. "Then you don't trust me, either..."
Violet leaned closer to Duela. "Not *yet*, anyway," she smiled a bit.
Duela peeked at Violet out of the sides of her eyes... then blinked. She shrugged. "No secret IDs... I need a ... new... perspective!"
As she thought this last, she swiveled on the couch, so that her boots were pointed to the bridge's ceiling and her head hung off the couch's seat. She eyed Invisible Kid and attacked her pad with renewed focus.
BREEP
Cosmic Boy touched the device in his ear. "Okay, people... we're cleared for landing..."
Duela swung back into a 'normal' sitting position. "Should I buckle--"
"And we're down."
"--up?'
All rose and walked towards the back of the bridge, where a door was folding out, then extending from the ship, forming a ramp.
"Stick out your tongue..." Duela said, almost involuntarily.
"Wha-?!" a surprised Invisible Kid, who was right beside Duela, asked.
"Here," she recovered her poise... or at least what she thought of as her poise. She shoved a piece of paper torn from her pad into the startled boy's mouth.
Invisible Kid quickly pulled the paper from his mouth... he eyed Duela suspiciouly as he unfolded it.
"What is this?" his bewilderment chased all suspicions away.
"A solution for your backside... and your frontside and even your side sides..." Duela answered.
Invisible Kid looked from the paper to Duela and back again. "I don't *want* a new uniform,"
"I see a yellow, red and green color scheme," Duela continued, nonplussed. "Of course, now I know you won't need the mask. But it'd be a shame to cover up those legs..." she grinned wolfishly.
"I can't go around with bare legs!" Invisible Kid snapped.
"Let me see," Cosmic Boy peered over Lyle's shoulder. He'd thought Duela had launched a weird attack, but was caught up in the unveiling.
"Not bad... reminds me of--"
"So does he!" Duela broke in.
"He does... what?" Lyle asked, confused.
"I see what you mean," a straight-faced Cosmic Boy looked Invisible Kid up and down.
"So does he-- WHAT!?"
"Remind us of Robin, of course," Duela sniffs. "As if you didn't know. *I* recognize a boy wonder when I see one,"
"'Boy wonder'", Cosmic Boy laughed.
"Not so funny, Rokk-- I've seen what you wear when you're off duty. Makes this look modest!"
"What's the matter, Kid? Ashamed of your body?" Cosmic Boy knew Lyle wasn't, so he didn't feel the joke was intruding into personal space... much.
"I just catch cold easily," Invisible Kid pretneded to be flustered.
"Much as I love them, this isn't the time for a fashion show, Legionnaires," a feminine voice interrupted.
"Ye gods!" Duela thought to herself when she saw the stunning platinum blonde whose hair and outfit were as silvery as her voice, striding up the ramp. "And I thought Donna and Lilith were beautiful--"
Dreamer advanced authoritatively up the ramp. She approached Duela, holding out her hand. "Miss Dent, I am Dreamer," she shook Duela's hand crisply. "And I've remembered something that will help you unlock your past."
"My-- past?" Duela asked. It would only make sense that she'd find an answer to her long-mysterious beginnings a thousand years in the future. She should've started her search here!
As Duela recovered what passed for her poise ("Why do we have to keep our darn poises covered, anyway?" she asked herself), Dreamer smiled a greeting to her teammates.
"Robin..." she nodded at Lyle, addressing him with his 'new' name, a playful spark twinkled in her light blue eyes. "Nice of you to give the others a ride in the Batmobile..."
Invisible Kid rolled his brown eyes, giving an exaggerated nod. "Always glad to help, Dreamer," he answered with mock-seriousness. He carefully folded Duela's drawing, placing it gently in his belt-pouch.
Dreamer turned back to Duela, all business once more.
"Tell me, Harlequin, does Project: Kasiphone have any meaning for you?"
posted
"Project... Kasi-who-ni?" Duela interpreted Dreamer's words with her own inimitible style.
"Kasiphone. As in the daughter of--" Dreamer began to answer--
BREEP! BREEP! BREEP!
--but was interrupted by the emergency alert system.
"Legionnaires! Drop what you're doing! A spaceship of... unusual... design has violated Martian space and is broadcasting an extortion threat!" The clipped tones of the unseen Brainiac 5's voice began before the last sound of the alarm finished.
"Miss Dent, you'll have to stay here while we--", Cosmic Boy, now seriousness personified, gestured towards the ramp.
"Yeah, OK. I know the drill," Duela nodded gamely. She hurried down the ramp, passing Dreamer as she followed the other Legionnaires back into the cruiser.
At the foot of the ramp stood a man-sized, orange insectoid wearing a robe and an ageless woman whose hair, skin and clothing were a monochromatic white... a white that still somehow projected warmth and accessability instead of chilliness and reserve.
"Great," Duela observed to herself, "the chick's got antennae and the cricket man doesn't. Should I speak or chirp?"
At a silent signal between the white woman and the silver one onboard the cruiser, the pale lady gestured to Duela.
"Greetings, Duela Dent. I am Mysa and this..." she indicated the insectoid sentient beside her, "this is Circadius Sentius, director of the Time Institue."
"Er- nice to meet you, I'm su--" a gust of wind cut Duela's words off, as the cruiser rose into the air, disappearing quickly as it sped into space.
Turning back to her new acquaintances, Duela noticed that Mysa's hair, which fell to below her knees, hadn't been touched by the wind. Her own always-uncontrollable short crop of curls felt as if it'd been yanked off and put back on backwards.
"It must take you forever to dry that hair," Duela blurted, telling herself that it was just an icebreaker.
Mysa smiled a mysterious half-smile. "Not usually," she replied. "I have my ways..."
"Futuristic Alien Secret, huh?" Duela didn't expect a reply... and didn't get one, but she noticed that Mysa's scarlet eyes ("Scarlet eyes? Do I need a disinfectant?", Duela thought to herself) blinked as if she were processing new information.
"C-c-c-comparing beauty sec-c-crets can wait for a quieter moments, sentients." Circadius Sentius ignored Duela's replying query and turned abruptly towards the impressive edifice of the Time Institute... a huge cube that appeared to be suspended in air, with only one corner touching the ground. It glowed with a cool, silver-blue, white-gold light.
"Please follow now," his head swiveled like an owl's to face the pair, turning the full 360 degrees to once again face the Institute.
"In there?", Duela breathed deeply, looking up at the cube, which seemed to grow before her. "It won't... fall... or take off into space, will it?"
Mysa cocked her head, as if observing something about Duela for the first time. "The Time Institute is quite stable, Duela. It's been here for several years without incident."
"Maybe so... but *I* haven't..."
Mysa's eyebrows (and, disconcertingly, the attached antennae) rose in surprise. Her reply was an unsure laugh that invited Duela to join in.
"We'd better keep up. Sentius will forget all about us if we don't stay in his sightlines..." Mysa hurried forward, Duela following, though her face turned to Mysa with a question.
"He has eyes in... other places... than his cranial front." Mysa supplied the answer.
"Who doesn't?" Duela responded, as she brushed the seat of her pants. "Was that a warning about my buttcams? Did they detect them-- and if they did, am I breaking some law of the future?"
Duela's questions were forgotten-- as was whatever possible use a buttcam might have-- as she and Mysa struggled to keep up with a speedy sentient insectoid.
Duela further struggled not to gape at the interior of the Institute, which seemed about five times as big as the exterior would have indicated. She barely hesitated at the foot of the football-field length reflecting pool, as first Circadius Sentius, and then Mysa walked briskly into the pool, without causing so much as a ripple.
The trio, close together now, followed the steep decline of the pool's bottom. Soon, the 'water' covered their entire bodies. Duela held her breath for a moment, but noticed that her companions were breathing easily. The 'water' entered her nose and lungs and she could breathe... it felt heavier than air, perhaps, but had no taste, no slipperiness, no wetness. It did, however, cause her hair and clothes to swirl about as if underwater.
Deep, they descended ("But we're still in the *corner* of that cube!" Duela thought). The silver-blue-white-gold light seemed high above them now... though a yellower, harsher light surrounded them as they walked.
Duela felt as if she were a thousand leagues under an alien sea. ("No wonder Garth always seems a little light-headed..." Duela thought) when they finally stopped. Circadia Sentius waved an impossibly thin and knobby limb and a bank of sophisticated looking machinary ("Of course, I think a microwave is hi-tech") appeared... or rose from the floor... or rippled in on an invisible wave. Somehow, it was there where before it wasn't.
"Why even try to keep up? You're in Wonderland, Alice!"
"No, you're not. This is Metropolis. Wonderland is *much* different than this, Duela. Trust me." Mysa smiled, her scarlet eyes, twinkling.
"I said that out loud?", Duela realized she had. "How can pools of blood twinkle?" She made sure she didn't vocalize that last observatory internal rhetoric.
"Now, Miss Dent..." Circadius Sentius gestured Duela forward to a glowing panel in the floor directly beneath what looked all the world like a gigantic faucet.
"...just stand still for a c-c-chronoscan..." A light on one of the consoles turned green... then disappeared.
"Fine," the insectoid studied a handheld device, which also momentarily lit up the same green. "Now... Legionnaire Dreamer has given us a couple of key words so that we can progress... the search will take some time. Perhaps you'd like to observe the Science Police feed--?"
"I don't really care to watch cops eat, if that's all the same..." Duela began, her words tapering into a whisper as a three-dimensional image appeared in front of her.
The Legion cruiser was slowing beside another vesesel... one that was shaped to resemble a longship with a flying dragon for a figurehead... complete with sails for wings. Oars dipped and rose in unison on both sides of the ship.
The images blurred for a second, then a much closer view appeared. Tiny glowing figures hovered around the ship.
The eyes of the dragon-figurehead glowed, then shot a beam of some sort, which missed the glowing figures by quite a margin.
"A warning shot..." Duela held out her hand as if also in warning.
The cruiser fired a shot of its own, from its new position well away from the cluster of figures, who seemed to be conferring.
One of the oars jumped out of its rhythm of rowing and slapped at the energy, absorbing it. An oar further down the 'row', released the energy in a harmless burst.
One of the dragon's eyes appeared to open. The glowing figures ("The Legionnaires", Duela finally deduced) turned to face the looming dragon's head.
The pupil of the dragon's eye glimmered; a dot in the eye appeared.
"A sty in a dragon's eye?" Duela asked, looking in consternation at Mysa. The pale woman had stepped closer to Duela, though remaining outside the still-lit panel in the floor.
"Keep watching," she whispered.
The sty in the dragon's eye grew, then detached. It rose from the vessel and approached the glowing figures.
The image blurred once again, and when it reformed, Duela saw Cosmic Boy, Invisible Kid and Shrinking Violet slowly fall into a prearranged (Duela hoped) formation.
The direction of the holographic image shifted; Duela, Mysa and Circadius Sentius now saw what the Legionnaires did.
A large (in relation to the Legionnaires, anyway) man with pale blond hair tied into twin braids, wearing a helmet with horns curving from it flew towards them. A fur cape wafted behind him. His arms and chest were bare... except for the muscles that bulged within them.
The beginnings of a beard and mustache obscured his otherwise youthful face. His forward motion stopped, as he... took an exceedingly deep breath.
"What is he breathing, Mysa? There're no tanks there... and there's no air in space..." Circadius Sentius asked worriedly.
The braided muscle man's chest and stomach expanded dramatically... then impossibly.
"Is that former Legionnaire Bouncing Boy?" the insectoid asked, in confusion. "The coloring appears to be wrong..."
"No that is not Bouncing Boy, Sentius." Mysa replied.
The bearded blond's face puckered out in a strange way. A light-blue, silvery discharge hurtled out towards the Legionnaires, knocking them into disarray... like bowling balls.
"Looks like the Legionnaires are the ones bouncing," Duela observed. "If there was anything out there to bounce off of--"
"Who is this attacker, Mysa? Do you recognize him?"
"No- I don--"
"*I* do-- Duela trumpeted.
Circadius Sentius and Mysa looked at each other in astonishment, then in query at Duela.
"Well, not specifically, maybe." She cupped her cheek in a long-fingered hand. "But, clearly... that's a Viking in Space! A Space Viking!"
The image blurred. BREEP "Image temporarily unavailable. Feed resumes in five earth minutes"
"You should switch to cable," Duela responded, hurrying over the look on Mysa's face, a look Duela knew too well. The look that indicated her credibility was slipping. ("And it doesn't have far to go," she thought.)
"Miss Dent-- until the feed resumes, we can refine our chronosearch..."
"Chronosearch? Will this hurt?" her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Er-- no, there's no pain involved," the insectoid answered nervously. "Mysa, if you'd read the word-parameters that Dreamer indicated on my mark...now." Circadius Sentius waved his hands over a few panels on the consoles, adjusting and tweaking.
"Project Kasiphone..."
("That's what the silver girl said before!)
"...The Immortal One..."
("What?!")
"...Symbolix..."
("That sounds familiar!")
A whhrrrr sounded from the console. Duela gasped as a bit of smoke curled above the computers. She looked from a startled Circadius Sentius to Mysa, who was now glowing *pink* from antennae-tip to boot-heel. ("Uh-oh--" she thought. This *can't* be good.")
The hologram appeared at Duela's shoulder suddenly. The Space Viking, now emaciated through his midsection, held an unconscious Cosmic Boy high with a still muscular arm. A shrunken Violet was pierced through a thigh on one of his helmet-horns... her blood floating in space, staining the Space Viking's bare chest... his blond braids... his face.
The Space Viking's other arm waved and grabbed at nothing. His movements grew more and more frantic.
"Look at his face," Mysa intoned, her voice sounding like something from a deep pit... the pink glow wavering with each word.
Duela squinted. "He doesn't want to be doing what he's doing..." she began. "Look... his eyes... they're worried... regretful... those lines around his mouth... apologetic."
Duela turned to the impassive, pink expressionless of the glowing Mysa. "He's acting against his will. I know it!"
She turned to a chittering, upset Circadius Sentius, whose bug-arms moved back an forth in distress.
"I've been where he is! Oh, can you reach them? Hey! Invisible Legionaire! Can you talk to them? Tell them he doesn't mean to hurt them! Oh, Please! Tell Them!"
A tear escaped from Duela's squinting eye. She brushed it away, roughly. "Tell them..." she whispered.
"Mysa... the last parameter, please... the device is ready..."
Mysa studied the director of the Time Institute darkly ("How can pink be dark?" Duela thought.)
Mysa turned to Duela, who ignored the second tear that followed the first, unseen one.
Mysa looked within... an impossible observation, but one that Duela knew was correct. Her chin lifted... the tips of her white/pink antennae glowed like blood.
posted
Scarlet and pink whorls like the Milky Way spread from Mysa's antennae. She rose in the thickened air, hovering inches above the ground.
The whorls grew until they encompassed Duela, Circadius and the wrecked machinary. With a 'snap', they straightened and struck... rendering the living unconscious and the machine a smoking heap.
Mysa crumpled to the floor. She gasped and coughed, pushing her upper body up with her arms. Her eyes glowed. "Duela... I'm so sorry..." she whispered. She moved towards the unconscious visitor to the 31st century, but stopped when she looked up at the holo of the Space Viking fighting the Legionnaires.
"He's acting against his will," she quoted Duela. "He doesn't mean to hurt him..." Mysa blinked a couple of times, clearing her spell- clouded mind. It sometimes took a moment or two to recover mental faculties after touching the energies of magic.
"She's right! I can see it," Mysa's eyes narrowed as she watched the Space Viking gingerly pull Violet off of his helmet's horn, laying her beside Cosmic Boy on the fur cape he'd pulled off his shoulders. He gathered the ends of the cape, and lifted the fallen Legionnaires like kindling in a sack.
Mysa looked at Circadius, who was still out. The console was a wreck; the Science Police feed was her only means of communication.
Wincing, Mysa once more touched magic. She sat up weakly and began tracing runes in the air with her fingers.
"Message giver be message bearer," she whispered. "Nura!" she called. "Oathsister! Hear me!" her voice was strong; she'd pay for it later.
"Mysa? What is it? I have to get out there!" The feed image split into two. Nura appeared in thin air. She stood by a the Legion cruiser's hatch. She was in the process of putting on a transuit.
"Dreamer...Hurry! We have to help!" spoke Invisible Kid's once-again disembodied voice.
"A moment..." Dreamer squinted. "Mysa, please..."
"Nura, listen! The Viking... he's acting against his will! He needs your help as much as your teammates do!"
"How could you--" Nura shook her head in midthought. "Never mind. You've earned my trust, oathsister. Anything else you can tell me?"
Mysa breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't known Nura long-- only since the Naltorian had traveled to Xerox in hopes of maximizing her precognitive insight. They'd spent a harrowing couple of nights in the wilderness of Xerox, completing a little-used ceremony. To complete the rite, they'd sworn a blood-oath-- hence the title 'oathsister'. Mysa was glad that her oathsister trusted her.
"No, I'm agraid not. Only--", she paused. "Be careful."
"Always." Nura said matter-of-factly. She turned aside. "Lyle-- listen up!"
Nura's image faded, as did the scarlet in Mysa's eyes. She slumped, the power she'd summoned from places she really shouldn't have left her weak, drained.
Slowly, she gazed up at the Science Police feed. A tinny voice replaced Nura's silvery one.
"... that's correct, Nura. That *is* a ship from Danymeade."
Dreamer and Invisible Kid hovered above the dejected-looking Space Viking. Lyle glanced at Nura who returned his gaze, obviously communicating through the telepathic earplugs that were one of the Legion's often overlooked strengths.
Lyle motioned with his hands. The Space Viking responded. Lyle was translating Nura's words.
"...son of Sigurd..." the tinny voice interpreted. "...pay the Danygild...end the debt that sends my people viking..."
The dialogue continued for a short time... ending with Sigurdson flying with the Legionnaires to their cruiser and gently depositing his 'hostages' inside.
Nura and Lyle glared at one another; a sharp exchange. Lyle retorted, but gave in. He waved 'bye' to Sigurdson and shrugged. The Space Viking grinned... then reached up to unscrew one of his helmet horns... offering it to Nura, who refused.
Nonplussed, he extended the horn to Lyle, who took it. The Viking clapped Lyle on the shoulder, laughing heartily-- if silently. The force of his friendly gesture sent the Legionnaire tumbling head-over-heels through the airlock, where he joined Rokk and Violet in a silent heap.
Nura smiled, then bowed her head to the Space Viking, who returned the bow and then returned to his longship.
Seconds later, the cruiser scooted off, while the oars of the longship began to rotate in unison. The dragon loomed large in the feed's picture, then disappeared.
"He was the only one aboard that ship," Mysa intuitively recognized.
"What the heck was that?" Duela interrupted Mysa's introspection.
"Later, Duela... I have something to tell you. The spell worked. The chronosearch was successful. At least, partly."
Duela looked around, taking in the snoring Chronarch, the steaming rubble of the chronoconsole, and Mysa's disheveled appearance. "It's gonna cost, isn't it? Whatever it is you found?"
"The cost has been paid, Duela Dent. I can't tell you who you're parents are... but I *can* tell you where you came from."
posted
"Damage, Symbolix, the Immortal One, Kasiphone...", Mysa the White Witch ignored Duela's flippant remark and repeated the words she'd whispered with the thunder-voice. Words that writ themselves across her unfocused eyes after she'd enchanted the chronoresearch machinary.
As she repeated them now, knowledge bloomed in her mind. Memories not hers, memories magically extracted from a time a thousand years past were now hers.
Hers to share.
Duela Dent sat quiet and quiescent, consciously still for the first time since she'd stepped through the time-gate and entered the far future.
"Symbolix," she repeated throatily.
"The privately held genetic tampering facility ultimately funded by Vandal Savage," Mysa spoke in clipped tones... as if she were machinary rather than flesh and blood.
"The Immortal One..." Duela filled in one blank.
"... implacable enemy of that-- and many other-- era's heroes." Mysa finished.
"Damage...?" Duela asked, considering.
"Product of one of The Immortal One's stratagems. He was created from the genetic possibilities of several midtwentieth-century heroes," Mysa supplied an answer.
"*That* Damage!" Duela nodded slightly, a little more energy in her voice. *Her* answers were close, she sensed. "I've heard of him..."
"Savage called Damage's creation 'Project Telemachus'," Mysa continued. "As in the son of Odysseus and Penelope of Greek mythohistory."
Duela looked up at Mysa, confusion in her eyes. She looked lost, forlorn.
"Odysseus had another child, in some mythohistories," Mysa's eyes glowed. "A daughter by the sorceress Circe. Kas--"
"--iphone." Duela interrupted, not lost now, but still confused.
"Project Telemachus was not Vandal Savage's first genetic enterprise," a pink flush seeped into Mysa's cheeks. "It was presaged by Project Kasiphone."
"Project... Kasiphone..." Duela mouthed the words a couple of times, tilted her head from side to side. "You're telling me that I was involved in this... genetic experiment."
"Not involved, Duela. You *are* Project Kasiphone."
"But-- I can't make things explode like Damage..." the harlequinade heroine sputtered.
"Savage regarded Project Kasiphone as a failure," Mysa said gently. "It's... subject displayed no meta-potential at birth. For an Immortal One, Savage displayed impenetrable impatience."
"What do you mean?"
"Damage's genetic background included material from heroes from the Justice Society, the Justice Leage, the All-Star Squadron... these samples were not easily harvested," Mysa lectured. "But were considered necessary since the first... experiment's source material was deemed flawed."
"Flawed?" Duela looked lost once again.
"While Damage's roots can be traced to that era's heroes, Project Kasiphone was developed from a source whose contributions were easier to gather."
"Easier?"
"That era's villains, Duela. You're the product of combining the genetic material of several 'supervillains'."
"You're making this up! Just because I've used... a ... schtick! A gimmick! Doesn't mean... that... I'm..."
"You were compelled, Duela. The Joker's Daughter. Mordru's Daughter. The Penguin's Daughter. Two-Face's Daughter... you *knew*... Savage was wrong about you. You *have* meta potential. Very subtle, but there."
Duela was annoyed. She'd *chosen* the 'daughter of a supervillain' gimmick in order to attract Robin's attention. She distinctly remembered it. It had the 'flash', the clarity of an instinctual decision. Of a plan that blossomed fully-formed in her mind. A vision.
"Oh, God..." Duela moaned. "This is a curse..." she whispered.
"No, Duela," Mysa shook her white head. "No. We can't be sure of all the... donors. Most likely Savage himself. The sorceress, Circe. Sportmaster and The Huntress. Mordru, somehow. Others. But one of your... parents was *not* what Savage thought she was."
"So?"
"So... like all beings, you are a mixture of good and evil and all that lies between. *You* decide your future..."
"Platitudes..." Duela shook her head raggedly.
"Savage's Daughter... Circe's Daughter... Joker's Daughter... so you've called yourself... so are you in part. But look at your costume, Duela. There's your heritage. You have the potentials of many... but there is a prime!"
"I don't understan--"
"One, there is, who you've patterned yourself after, unconsciously. One who once straddled the lines between good and bad. Just as you have."
Duela found herself taking shallow, quick breaths. She felt as if she'd been running for miles... or had somersaulted across the rooftops of Gotham City.
"Duela Dent... you are and have ever been..." Mysa raised a hand, one finger pointed directly at Duela like a ruler, like an accusation, like an unbending line of truth.
posted
"Harley Quin? You mean my mom is that chick that has the hots for the Joker?" Duela asked. "I'm older than she-- I mean, she's barely older than me!"
"Not-- her...." Mysa whispered, all trace of thunder faded from her voice. Her eyes, her antennae-tips, her lips were drained of color.
"She means Molly Mayne," an invisible voice broke in, gentle for all its abruptness. " Wife of Alan Scott... the original Green--"
"--Lantern!" Duela fininshed the familiar sobriquet. "I've seen him before! Does that mean that he's my fath-"
"No!", the invisible voice quickly interrupted. "Gene-scans indicate no match for Alan Scott or his children..."
"Children?" Duela asked, wonderingly.
"Your stepbrother and sister, Miss Dent."
"M-olly Mayne?"
"-once called herself The Harlequin. She seems to have committed several petty crimes... though there is also evidence that she worked for that era's government in some capacity."
"My mother was *that* Harlequin?"
"So it seems, Miss Dent. Once we return you to your era, you have a family reunion to arrange."
"Family?"
"A mother... a stepfather... siblings... a 'cousin' in Damage... I-- envy you, Miss Dent."
"YOU envy ME?"
"We have a certain matter of-- legacies in common. I hope that the exploration of yours is smoother than was mine."
From: Knoxville, TN | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
"What do you mean, Voice?" Duela asked, her eyes flitting about, though she knew she wouldn't spot her conversational partner.
"Consider my name, Miss Dent. BRAINIAC Five..."
"Braini-- OH!" Duela swallowed.
"So, I know a bit of what you're feel--"
"MYSA!" a silvery shout interrupted the disembodied voice.
"What have you done to her?!" an angrier, masculine voice added.
Cosmic Boy and Dreamer rushed into the liquid-air of the time-cube's corner. Dreamer looked surprised, though not angry. Cosmic Boy was livid; his suspicions alive.
Dreamer placed an open hand on Cosmic Boy's upper arm, calming him. "I don't think it's what you're fearing, Rokk..."
Cosmic Boy's eyes narrowed. He looked steadily at Dreamer, then knelt beside the reviving Mysa. "She's coming around," he said grimly, eyeing the broken machinary and the still-unconscious Chronarch.
"I've seen her like this before," Nura said. "After a demanding working of... magic," she hesitated about the final word, testing it in her mind.
"What about the Chronarch and this equipment?" Rokk demanded, gesturing at the wreckage.
"*I* didn't hurt him...er...it. Or the fancy computers!" Duela said decisiviely.
"She really didn't, Mr. Krinn," Mysa whispered as she sat up with effort. "All you see was a consequence of my spell--"
"It worked, then?" Nura asked, looking anew at Duela, as if to gauge the effect the recently acquired information had upon her.
"Yes. As you-- remembered, sister."
"What's with the sister act? You two just met a few weeks ago--" Rokk asked, still testy.
"I've been studying various... traditions to maximize the efficiency of my foresight. You okayed this, Rokk."
"Well, I *knew* about it. I'm not the one to 'okay' things, these days."
"Riiight," Nura smiled indulgently. "Anyway, my most recent stop was Xerox, where I hoped to gain some insight about the mystical implications of my ability... Mysa was assigned to aide me."
"I suggested the Spell of Remembrance."
"That's right, you said you *remembered* me," Duela chimed in.
"With Mysa's guidance... my new oath-sister's guidance, I've learned to look into the past, as well. With difficulty. Though I don't *see* it... it's more like reading text on an omnicom..."
"Huh," Rokk dubiously absorbed this.
"Hey-- where's the other ones? The Invisible Wonder and the Purple Atom?" Duela asked suddenly.
"Invisible Kid and Shrinking Violet? They're with the Science Police vouching for Sugynson," Cosmic Boy answered, as he moved towards the sleeping Chronarch.
"The Chronarch will be alright in an hour or so, Mr. Krinn. I cast a Spell of Slumber upon him," Mysa offered.
"I *knew* the Space Viking wasn't to blame!" Duela crowed.
"I believed you", Mysa replied.
"As did I," Nura added.
"And I trusted *you*," Cosmic Boy finished, nodding at Dreamer. "Or else, Mr. Hot Air Bag would be on his way to Takron-Galtos about now."
"And the Science Police?" Mysa asked.
"They're corroborating Sugynson's story with Danymede, as we speak. That viking kid's generation is out to redeem Danymede all on their own. Their elders set a price... the Danygild they have to meet to call an end to the robbing, the pillaging..."
"The vik-ing?" Duela supplied.
"That, too. They need a little guidance. And protection from their rampaging elders. Imagine brain-washing your own son... The ways of *those* ancestors aren't going to work. Though I'll bet scum like, Sugyn, won't be stopped that easily."
"You see, Duela? We're not bound by the sins of our fathers or mothers..."
"Maybe..." Duela hung her head.
"I should know. After all, we have an ancestor in common."
"We do? Are you Brainiac's daughter, too?"
"I'm not... and neither are you, I don't think."
"I'm not? I coulda sworn..."
"The ancestor I mean is... Mordru," Mysa interrupted. "He's my father... though my conception is a bit more traditional than yours. Not much, but a bit."
"So we're..."
"Sisters. Of a sort."
Mysa folded Duela's long-fingered hand in her own attenuated one, and squeezed.
"I wish we had time to get better acquainted," Mysa began.
"But we've got to get you back to Durla's orbit, and return you to your own time."
"A prolonged stay could compromise the timestream," Brainiac Five's disembodied voice agreed.
"But--" Duela jerked her head.
"You wouldn't want to compromise the time stream, would you, Miss Dent?" Cosmic Boy slyly asked.
"But--"
"Any more than you already have, Duela?" Dreamer asked, a touch more softly than had Cosmic Boy.
"But--"
"Duela... we'll meet again. A-- seer, has told me so!" Mysa said, looking askance at Nura.
"But I didn't get to go shopping!" Duela wailed. "Imagine the gimmicks I could whip up HERE! The 'holovids' you guys use..."
"We'd better get her to the cruiser," Nura said to Cosmic Boy, a wry grin on her face.
"... this 'aqua-air' has GOTTA have some property or other I can use..."
"Before Duela really DOES Durla in!" Cosmic Boy grinned back.
"... and these invisible voices-- how do you get them to sound so 'real'?!" Duela continued her shopping list. "I could use the heck out of *that* tech!"
Nura and Rokk each take an arm, pulling Duela to her feet. They drag her up the gentle incline of the time-cube's corner.
"How did that Space Viking boy's ship work? Can I get a schematic?"
"Forget about all that, sister!" Mysa said, a bit of spine stiffening her voice. "Remember-- Sympolix! Kasiphone! Damage!"
"Is that some kind of spell?" Rokk asked Nura over the barely-struggling Duela.
"The best kind, Cosmic Boy," she answered. "The best..."
"Symbolix... Kasiphone... Damage!" Duela repeated. "Family... a *real* enemy..." The Harlequin repeated.
"... a *purpose*!" she finished, glowing with satisfaction.
"Now about that holo-tech..."
AN END
From: Knoxville, TN | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
*bump* for happy coincidence of Duela's brief star turn in the new TEEN TITANS/OUTSIDERS SECRET FILES 2005-- out 9/21.
From: Knoxville, TN | Registered: Jul 2003
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