• The Legion founded by Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, and Lightning Lad was actually R.J. Brande’s second attempt at creating an interplanetary teen-aged super-hero club. The first Legion consisted of Leeta-87, Hate Face, Mog Yagor, and Nimbok of Vaalor.
Ooh, that's fanfic-worthy!
So here it is.
The version of these characters in this story is substantially different than those found elsewhere, although many ideas and events remain similar.
If it makes anyone feel better about continuity, these events take place in the universe of Earth-341, a universe which no longer exists in any "real" continuity. But all stories exist in the Dreaming, and the unfinished manuscript of The Autobiography of Marta Latham sits on a dusty bookshelf in the extensive Library of the Endless.
…from The Autobiography of Marla Latham…
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One of my first assignments was to accompany Mr. Brande to Ranagar, one of the Ancient Worlds. Rann is home to the famously unreliable zeta-beam teleportation technology. The technology is owned and controlled by the government of Rann itself, in the form of Zeta-Tech Industries. While theoretically capable of operating on planetary masses over interstellar distances, due to its high fallibility rate, few have utilized Zeta-Tech for anything more than small, local transport. Certainly over distances no greater than a dozen light-years. However, R.J. had a theory that there was something in the nature of planet Rann itself which made zeta-radiation more controllable within its environs. Thus, rather than setting up teleporters on-site, he planned to negotiate a lease of dedicated stations centrally located on Rann, to move around material throughout the U.P.
[footnote: It was confirmed years later by Drs. Vilogr & Tir that it is the particular makeup of the radioactive elements in Rann's core that stabilize zeta-beam teleportation on Rann.]
One of the worst bottlenecks in terraforming is the transport of materials planet side, especially volatiles. Ordinarily, farmed comets are brought into close spiraling orbits until they collide with the planets- a time-consuming process. If we could negotiate a reasonable rate for their services, Rann-based zeta-beaming could substantially improve our delivery time over our competitors.
In addition to Zeta-Tech, Rann is also famous for its Monsters. One theory is that these bizarre creatures, which emerge from caverns deep underground, are bio-engineered weapons of war from some era of the long-distant past, possibly remnants of the original inhabitants of Rann. Anticipating the possibility of one of these Monsters disrupting the negotiations, the Ranagarian Ruling Assembly had hired a temporary “Planetary Champion”. That is how we first met Leeta-87 of Galadriel.
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In the Galadrene language, “Leeta” refers to a particular native animal, a cat-like predator, whose name is also synonymous with revenge. Leeta are never hunted: it is proverbial on Galadriel that one who kills a Leeta kills himself. First the Leeta’s mate, then is parents, then siblings, then cousins, will seek out a Leeta-killer and exact revenge. When extra-planetary hunters recently came to Galadriel seeking Leetas as prey, the native organizers of the expedition, as well as their families, were swiftly wiped out by packs of Leetas. Even the hunters themselves, supposedly safe on distant worlds, were soon found dead. Leetas had stowed away aboard trading vessels, and sought them out even on their homeworlds.
Some three thousand years ago, a Galadrene woman seeking revenge against the crime syndicate which had murdered her family, assumed the masked identity of “Leeta”. Mastering a wide range of scientific disciplines, she and her daughters fought crime as feared vigilantes. As time went on, their descendants augmented their skills, becoming stronger, faster, more agile, and more intelligent than the ordinary Galadrene, and adding more and more sophisticated technological devices to their arsenal. As time went on, the “Leeta” became official government position, a sort of privateer vigilante.
Something less than a millennium ago, due to the influence of the Leetas, serious crime became unknown on Galadriel. At that point, the Leetas became a profit center for the Galadrene civilization. They became “Champions-for-Hire”, sent out to bring law and order to distant worlds. The colonial expansion period which immediately preceded the creation of the United Planets was a particularly lucrative time for Galadriel, as Leeta after Leeta was dispatched to the “frontier” planets.
And yet there was always ever only one Leeta. All were the descendants of the original “Leeta-Prime”- daughters or nieces or cousins of the just-previous Leeta.
[ December 04, 2011, 01:33 PM: Message edited by: Tom Tanner Issue #One ]
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So it was that Leeta-87, a young woman barely out of her teens, came to sit in on all the negotiations between Brande Planet and the Ranagarian Assembly. Even in this capacity, she was exceptional. She frequently perceived agreement between the parties where they saw only discord. She was fair, gracious and diplomatic, and greatly facilitated- and even accelerated- negotiations, despite not being an actual party to them. And, as the Assembly had feared, a Monster attacked the city. Actually, three Monsters, rather more than had been expected. Leeta-87’s reaction was also unexpected: she fled, leaving the monsters to the local armed forces.
The Ranagarian military has had centuries of experience fighting the Monsters of Rann. Even without the help of Leeta-87, they were able to quickly bring three Monsters under control. The Assembly, on the other hand, was furious. They had paid an exorbitant sum for a Temporary Planetary Champion, and she had run from the battle. Brande was also nonplused at Leeta-87’s behavior, but was the first to be completely and permanently impressed. Leeta-87 had deduced that the Monsters were not merely attacking the city: they had been unleashed.
It had been a distraction: the real target was Brande’s personal files aboard our starships, sequestered at the Ranagar Spaceport. A self-styled “space pirate” of Rann, named Samson Strange, supposedly a descendant of a 23rd-century Ranagarian Planetary Champion himself, had taken a contract to engage in some industrial espionage. Leeta-87 had confronted and captured him before he was able to download any information or cause any damage.
That is when Brande began to think that he might like to have a Leeta-87 on his payroll.
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That same year, we accepted a contract from Vasmeer. They had a peculiar problem, and an even more peculiar solution.
Vasmeer is a giant water-world, so large that at its depths, ice remains solid at temperatures of hundreds of degrees. Far above this region live the Vasmiri, sentient beings that somewhat resemble chartreuse manta-rays.
About two hundred years ago, a massive comet impacted Vasmeer, sinking down to the depths of the planet. This comet remnant has been a source of ecological instability, from time to time sending out destructive waves which batter the floating coral-castle dwellings of the Vasmiri, or cause changes in the habitats of food-creatures.
Barely beginning to develop space-flight, the Vasmiri did not have the technology to repair their environment. However, the cometary radiations also produced a mutation in the rising generation, vastly increasing their telepathic and telekinetic abilities.
Thus it became a tradition on Vasmeer for young groups of organized “heroes” to set to rights the damages caused by the comet-core. Of these, none was more powerful or more respected than Mog Yagor, a young Vasmiri R.J. and I were introduced to at the beginning of the negotiations.
It was, of course, a relatively easy matter for Brand Planetforming to locate and extract the comet-core. We were allowed to keep it, in payment, as well as receiving a five-year exclusive contract for supplies of certain rare protein-chains found in the watery environment of Vasmeer. It did have an impact on the social structure of the planet: the “hero” groups were no longer necessary, and Mog Yagor, in particular, had difficulty adjusting to his new-found irrelevance in the new peaceful, predictable environment.
[ December 28, 2011, 08:12 AM: Message edited by: Tom Tanner Issue #One ]
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posted
Chapter Thirteen: The Mission Monitor Board
This was R.J. Brande’s idea: while Mog Yagor's amazing powers might not be needed on Vasmeer, they could certainly be used elsewhere. Taking his cue from planet Galadriel, Brande thought he might be able to lease out Mog Yagor as a hero-for-hire. However, rather than having troubled individuals contact us, he would pro-actively seek them out. This, then, was the first solo assignment he gave to me: the Mission Monitor Board.
The major problem was getting the information quickly enough. Generally, when there is a crime or disaster, information is out on the Galactic Services within minutes. This, however, was not fast enough. We needed to be able to get personnel on-site even as events were unfolding. This meant knowing what was going to happen before it happened.
There were three sources of information that I was aware of that might source our Mission Monitor Board. The first was the Time Institute on Earth, supervised by the ancient Circadian Genius, which was concerned with time travel, both into the future and the past. The second source was the Council of High Seers of Naylor, which coordinated the psychic dreamers of that world. The third was the mysterious Trylop Council of Mernl and their computer-machine, which was able to simulate reality closely enough to make reliable predictions.
Unfortunately, knowing the future is expensive as well as profitable, and all three groups were suspicious being taken advantage of by Brande, and individual known for being able to turn a dollar. I needed a master negotiator. I needed Leeta-87.
She returned with three amazing suggestions:
First, that we scrap the hero-for-hire concept, and Brande Industries sponsor a non-profit, philanthropic hero corps- not merely Mog Yagor, but a number of heroes.
Second, that she, Leeta-87 be a founding member.
Astonishingly, with these two conditions, she had got the Time Institute, the Naltorans, and the Trylop Council to agree to supply input to the Mission Monitor Board, gratis.
The third idea was that the third founding member ought to be Nimbok of Va’Alor.
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The aboriginal Va’Alorans are a race known as the Pyggor. Resembling meter-high, pig-headed dwarf gorillas, the Pyggor eschew technology beyond rudimentary stone-age tools to this day, but make some of the most aesthetically pleasing stone tools in the Galaxy. There was also a small colony of about three hundred Kormons on Va’Alor. Nimbok was born in the Kormon colony.
A mutant, he was able to directly metabolize the red solar radiation of Va’Alor’s primary. He exhibited enhanced speed, strength, durability, and intelligence. On his homeworld of Va’Alor, Nimbok could leap one-eighth of a mile; hurdle a twenty-story building; lift tremendous weights; run faster two hundred miles per hour, and nothing less than a bursting bombshell could penetrate his skin. He also had a heightened empathic sense, which gradually drew him to the Pyggor.
Although mostly initially ignored by the most of the Kormon colonists, the Pyggor came in conflict with their alien residents more and more frequently. A small but vocal group of Kormons wished to massively expand the land used by the colonies, creating farmlands and mineral mines as sources of export to outer worlds. There were violent conflicts between the Pyggor and the more expansionist colonists, which led to increasing bad feeling on both sides.
Nimbok, even as a child, began to take the side of the Pyggor. With his great powers, he repeatedly defended the Pyggor against the depredations of renegade Kormons seeking to expand their territory. However, he was inexperienced in the uses of power. This is when he was fortunate in finding a mentor in Ben Nez.
Ben Nez was neither Pyggor nor Kormon, but a lone hermit of some unknown third alien race. He lived alone in a cluster of caves hidden deep within the Pyggor territories. He sympathized with Nimbok’s cause, and the defense of the aboriginal Va’Alorans. With his greater wisdom and experience in diplomacy and persuasion, he guided the young Nimbok in the proper application of both physical and political power.
When Nimbok was thirteen, a treaty was negotiated between the Kormon Colony and the Pyggor. Nimbok’s great powers verified and enforced the treaty. Ultimately, the Kormon colonies continued to exist on Va’Alor, only with the consent of the Pyggor, Nimbok and Ben Nez.
Leeta-87 had become acquainted with the history of Nimbok, and recommended him for membership in the Super-Hero Club.
But it was I, myself, through diligent research that found the fourth hero.
[ December 29, 2011, 08:14 AM: Message edited by: Tom Tanner Issue #One ]
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Dvesha Aanan was born on Draxler in the early 30th century. So hideous was his visage that his parents refused to raise him, but immediately turned him over to the State Orphanages for care. There he was hated and reviled by his peers and caretakers alike. He was required to be masked at all times, but even this did not stop the rejection and revulsion. The adults at the Orphanage attempted to conceal their disgust, but the children never ceased tormenting him.
His power manifested at an early age. Not yet five years old, Dvesha, a group of children were entertaining themselves by throwing rocks at him. He was used to such treatment, and endured it stoically, only covering his eyes so as not to be badly hurt. One of the rocks went astray, and was headed straight for a little girl even younger than he was. There stone rebounded from a crimson shield which appeared suddenly in the air. The girl was unharmed, but now the anger and hatred toward Dvesha became mingled with fear.
In the recent past, Draxler’s environment had suffered severe degradation. So wide-spread was the poison and pollution that a global project was begun to evacuate the planet. Incapable of FTL technology, dozens of space-arks were built in close planetary orbit, as powerful multi-spectrum telescopes searched for a new habitable planet.
In the course of the search, the Draxletians contacted other intelligent life, and acquired both FTL travel capability, and environmental control technology. The Evacuation Project was abandoned, and the unfinished Space-Arks became a tourist attraction: the Orbiting Ghost Town of Draxler.
It was known that the Arks inhabited unstable orbits, but the fragmented national congresses of Draxler continued to put off action, year after year. Decades passed, then centuries. Then the unthinkable happened: a chaotic cascade of collisions caused the orbits of much of the Space Ark fleet to rapidly degrade, threatening to send dozens of the thousand-meter-long ships hurtling toward the planet’s surface simultaneously. Such an assault from the skies would be disastrous, ripping Draxler’s atmosphere and oceans apart.
The Draxletian Congresses attempted to initiate another evacuation plan- but it was clear that so imminent was the emergency that few on the planet could be saved.
Dvesha Aanan was only ten years old at the time. Still, over the past several years, he had been secretly exploring and exercising his strange abilities, and discovering the limits of his powers.
He controlled a strange red force, able to impart or absorb kinetic energy to himself or other objects. He had occasionally used this power secretly in the towns and villages surrounding his home orphanage, averting accidents and preventing injustices. He now had complete control over his abilities.
Enveloping himself in a crimson aura, he flew out into space. One by one, he confronted the falling Space Arks, pushing them out in to more distant, more stable orbits with the strange energy he produced. Once the planet was safe, he did the same with the remaining Arks.
The Draxletian Congresses were thrown into commotion.
On the one hand, Dvesha Aanan was a true hero, and his incredible power a valuable natural resource.
On the other, his mere presence was revolting to the Draxletians. The Congresses at last reached an agreement. On an Isle of Exile, they built a sprawling mansion. There, the new champion “Hate-Face” would live in luxury with only minimal contact with the Draxletian populace. In return, he would serve the greater good as determined by the Congresses.
Hate-Face’s first task was to retrieve the Space Arks from their distant orbits, and distribute them among the nations of Draxler, where they would be disassembled, and their resources recycled. Due to the necessity of migrating the various bureaucracies, assigning contracts, and so forth, this took nearly two years.
An ongoing project was the construction of a world-wide irrigation network. It required the input of engineers, ecologists, politicians, multi-national corporations, labor unions, economists, ambassadors, and, in some cases, the military. It was a project still ongoing when I visited Hate-Face’s Isle of Exile, and offered him a position as a founding member of the Super-Hero Club.
[ December 31, 2011, 09:29 AM: Message edited by: Tom Tanner Issue #One ]
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Brande Industries, the holding company of Brande Planetforming, incorporated its non-profit philanthropic subsidiary, The Super-Hero Club, on Weber’s World itself. It was technically chartered under U.P. law as a “friendship society”, under the right of free association. This allowed complete freedom in determining membership, while retaining tax-free status.
There were few in attendance at the time: Brande was not yet quite as attuned to the values of positive publicity unrelated to his core businesses as he would be in his later years. There were representatives of the Capitol itself, R.J. Brande and his executive assistant, Manden Apo of Korugar; the family of Leeta-87, and Nimbok’s parents. Few Vasmiri ever left their homeworld, so Mog Yagor and Hate-Face were alone together.
R.J. had had a “Super-Hero Clubhouse” constructed by renovating an existing building, and the Mission Monitor Board was installed in the Common Room.
Under the double yellow sun of Weber’s World, Nimbok’s powers were greatly increased. He could fly in space unaided, was invulnerable to nearly any attack, his strength and speed grew to nearly immeasurable levels. He developed further enhanced senses, as well as lightning vision, flame breath, flash vision and psychoglaciation abilities as well.
Hate-Face was another surprise. First, it must be said that to untrained eyes, his appearance was similar to any other Draxletian. He had the same scarlet complexion, bat-like ears, glowing red eyes, the same horn-like spines on the forehead and chin, the same acne-riddled complexion. To Draxletians, he was an abomination; to us aliens, he was merely a curiosity. It may have something to do with the so-called “uncanny valley” hypothesis.
There is another hypothesis that Hate-Face absorbed emotional energy, and somehow metabolized it into kinetic energy, and that the anger, hatred and revulsion of his own people was a reaction to his powers. But as a member of the Super-Hero Club, isolated from Draxler, his powers only increased. The strange, gelatin-like red energy became more solid; he began to be able to produce sharp-edged and long-lasting energy-constructs. He found it easier to move objects through space, and had finer control.
As we grew to know him, we found Dvesha an engaging personality. He was humble, kind-hearted, and empathetic. I know of only a single instance of his becoming angry, and that was in the midst of a great tragedy. He was always reasonable, yet had strong personal moral code, from which he would not depart. Because he had spent a great deal of his time alone, he was well-read in the literature of many worlds. He was especially interested in philosophy. For example, he had great respect for the Terran concepts of Satyagraha and Ubuntu.
The Clubhouse- soon to be known as SHCHQ- had two dozen dormitories. Brande expected expansion. There was a special water-filled dorm for Mog Yagor, with a corridor that led to a wall-aquarium in the common room.
Although able to survive in an atmosphere, and, indeed, in deep space, Mog always felt more at home underwater when off-duty. Still, it was unnerving to see him use his psychic abilities to phase through the transparent wall of the aquarium and float into the common room.
Brande had provided the Club with space-faring vessels, both large ships and runabouts. However, as Nimbok, Hate-Face and Mog Yagor were capable of independent space-flight themselves, and Leeta-87 had her own ship, these were seldom used. The same is true of the Ranagarian flight-belts. For distant interplanetary travel, we had access to the Ranagarian Zeta-Beam technology.
There was an interesting mix of ages. Leeta-87 and Hate-Face were young adults, no more than ten years younger than myself. Mog Yagor was of the same level of maturity, but Nimbok was barely into his teens. He tended to be rash and over-enthusiastic, and more than once I was grateful for his near-invulnerability.
Leeta was both impressive, and, sometimes, frightening. She had a personal storage tessaract in which she kept three thousand years’ worth of crime-fighting technology, including some formidable weapons. When the SHC faced off against the Callisto Eight, Leeta took down both Daximus and the Cybernaut (who together might have had enough power to break her force shields) with a single blast from a weapon about the size of a communicator she called the Hypermagnetic Pulse, instantly shutting down both their nervous systems. She didn’t even need to aim the thing.
She was unquestionably brilliant, and her intellect was both broad and deep. She was equally at home discussing tactics, technology, poetry, philosophy, or gastronomy. I admit to having something of a crush initially, but being intimidated by her as well.
[ December 01, 2011, 08:06 AM: Message edited by: Tom Tanner Issue #One ]
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The Mission Monitor Board was an unqualified success.
The first mission was a freighter rescue. Ordinarily handled by Spaceways Patrol, a branch of UPSP, an industrial freighter was threatened by a Starwhal.
Subsequently, the Super Hero Club was dispatched to Dollworld to assist in a planetquake cleanup, assisted in the disaster on Hephaestus, then assisted another industrial freighter trapped by a singularity.
After the second freighter incident, Leeta-87 and Mog Yagor did some further investigation, and discovered that both accidents were staged by the Zyzans, which resulted in long-term diplomatic sanctions against that world, a turn of events not even predicted by the Mission Monitor Board.
The team exposed the political machinations of Cerulean, the renegade Hooloovoo genius.
They brought to justice the terrorist Felix Vitreon.
They assisted in putting down the Coventry Rebellion on Zerox, assisted by the centuries-old wizard Hunter.
Leeta-87 continued to take assignments from Galadriel, negotiating a treaty for Orando with Venegar.
Nimbok and Hate-Face tracked the Monochrome Bandits to the planet Blax, a world without color. Under its weird grey sun, they found themselves without super-powers, but still apprehended the gang.
They prevented a nuclear war on Lallor, or, at least, forstalled it for a quarter-century.
The lead the resistance against an invasion by the Automan Empire.
With unsolicited donations, the SHC built eco-friendly water-stations on Sahara, and medical facilities on Tartarus.
The team re-discovered Asteroid Colony Aquarius-1969.
Brande Industries was beginning to become as well-known for its philanthropy as for its planetforming business. R.J., at last realizing the value of a positive community reputation and citizen’s goodwill, began to take full advantage. In an interview with me six months into the project, he indicated his desire to begin a membership drive. His idea was to so thoroughly publicize the exploits of the Super-Hero Club that super-powered beings from throughout the U.P. would apply for membership- a sort of heroic “tryouts”.
As I considered this, I was impressed by the value of bringing in younger members- Nimbok looked to the four of us- yes, even myself- as mentors in learning to properly apply his vastly increased powers. Yet we learned as much from him.
He had a medallion from his first mentor, Ben Nez, which on which was imprinted Nimbok’s motto: “It is excellent to have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.” We took this as a motto for the entire Super-Hero Club.
Mog Yagor had suggested as an alternative, “Good is better than Evil because it is nicer” but we could never tell when he was being serious or ironic. In either event, he was always smiling.
[ December 29, 2011, 08:08 AM: Message edited by: Tom Tanner Issue #One ]
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The Super-Hero Club was particularly effective in tracking down and apprehending the “Most-Wanted” and “Super-Criminals”.
The Purple Martian, the Lords of Jakuta, and Vrolox were among those eventually imprisoned on Takron-Galtos.
Coppelia of Rossum, the self-styled “Evil Robot”, mocked the Super-Heroes at her capture, declaring that all their homeworlds were in danger, from sources they did not suspect, and that it was already too late. She made an obscure reference to an “Anti-Hero Club” before shutting herself down.
The warning prompted Leeta-87 to begin an investigation to discover whether this warning had any merit, and whether friends and families were really in danger. She uncovered the existence of a Zyzan agent named Ydobon was en route to Galadriel disguised as Leeta herself. The SHC got there first.
This led to the discovery that Samson Strange had hired the Zyzan, and was himself on route to Vasmeer. The Zyzan had intended to attack the Leeta family from within, but Strange intended to deal a devastating blow to the entire Vasmiri race.
He had a series of drone ships which he intended to use to spread a deadly ultra-virus throughout the oceans of Vasmeer, specifically engineered to be fatal to Vasmiri. Above the planetary biosphere, Leeta-87, Nimbok, and Hate-Face began quickly hunting down and disabling the drone ships. Mog Yagor confronted Strange himself. Quickly subdued by Mog’s telekinesis, Strange vowed that he would never rest until Vasmeer, Va’Alor, Galadriel, and Draxler were dead worlds.
Peering into his mind, Mog Yagor saw the twisted truth: Samson Strange was a sociopathic, genocidal monster, who would not stop his insane quest for revenge until the inhabitants of Vasmeer, Galadriel, Va’Alor, Draxler, and Rann were extinct.
He did what he knew was in his power, but which he had never dared attempt: he erased the mind of Samson Strange.
But Mog also learned that during the battle, Strange had managed to infect him with the ultra-virus.
Leeta-87’s runabout had a lifepod on board; it was filled with cometary water, and Mog Yagor was placed in it. The finest biologist and physicians on Vasmeer were brought up into space to examine the Vasmiri hero, but ultimately, there was nothing they could do. Fearing that even bringing the body back to his homeworld would doom his people, the lifepod containing Mog Yagor’s body was placed in a distant orbit beyond the asteroid belt which encircled Vasmeer’s primary.
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Although the team searched carefully, there appeared to be no imminent danger to Va’Alor or Draxler from the “Anti-Hero Club”. It may have been that the organization was merely Samson Strange himself, and his hired lackeys.
A few months later, the Super-Hero Club revived, with just three members. During this period, less than half the missions came from the Mission Monitor Board.
Of course, there were the usual disasters to deal with, terrorists and space-pirates to track down, and planetary rebellions and civil wars to avert. Particularly, the SHC served as peacekeepers during the Almerac Insurgence. But the three heroes together sought out other, even stranger adventures.
They encountered the Seven Deadly Sinners.
In their battle with the Speigelmeister, they were projected into a MirrorVerse, where they met 78-Ateel and Gom Rogay. The Speigelmeister was responsible for his own downfall: 78-Ateel deduced that time also ran backwards in this strange dimension, and the SHC had defeated the Speigelmeister, and turned him over to the Science Police days before their initial confrontation.
Although hopelessly outmatched, they managed to confine Nyarlapatra, the Trickster Queen, to the planet New Vhrool, with the help of the aging Hunter.
They even faced down The Man Who Keeps The Universe In a Jam-Jar On a Dusty Shelf In a Closet Under The Stairs, although the outcome of that confrontation was, to say the least, ambiguous.
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At the Clubhouse, the tone gradually became lighter. Leeta-87 and Hate-Face had become very close. Oddly enough, they enjoyed old-fashioned cooking together. When the whole group was at home, I never used the food processors. It was food like my great-grandmother used to make.
One night, Leeta and Dvesha were in the kitchen. Occasionally, we would hear them laughing. I had begun the evening teaching Nimbok four-dimensional chess, but now he was teaching me. Suddenly, there was a change of light in the room.
The Mission Monitor Board had shut down.
I stood up to check out the Board. The connections to the Time Institute, Naltor, and Mernl were had been deactivated. There did not seem to be a problem on our end- there were simply no transmissions coming in.
A feeling of dread came over me. “Nimbok,” I said, turning toward him.
We heard a crash from the kitchen. Suddenly I was alone.
Six years at IAH University, and I was skilled at the use of moving sidewalks. It took me no more than twenty minutes to get downtown to the Central Capitol Hospital. Nimbok had immediately caught up Leeta-87 from the floor, and had flown her to the Hospital in a fraction of that time. Hate-Face had had his back to her, cutting up fruit for a Galadrene Trifle, but was only seconds behind Nimbok. But it was too late.
Leeta had both broken her neck and cracked open the back of her skull. She died instantly. It was with her, perhaps, as it is with Coluans: her body was so dependent upon her hyper-evolved brain that it could not survive for even moments alone.
The irony pressed in on me like a fog. More agile and graceful than a cat, often protected by an impenetrable force-shield in battle, and not twenty feet away from two of the most powerful mortals in the galaxy, either of whom would have given their lives to protect her, Leeta-87 died from a moment’s lack of attention. A fragment of banyo-peel had been on the floor because we were not using the food processors.
When I arrived, Hate-Face and Nimbok had been evicted from the hospital proper by the staff, and had been placed on a balcony overlooking Central Capitol. They were arguing furiously. Leeta-87’s lifeless body was still attached to useless life-support machinery, until the Galadrene government could claim it; but there was no mind, no soul, and no life there.
I was dealing with calls from Brande, from Galadriel, from the President of the U.P. I had at least three diplomatic crises I was trying to deal with simultaneously, and little information to provide. Suddenly, burst of red light caught my attention. An energy-blast from Hate-Face had lifted Nimbok into the air, and thrown him through the force-window out one hundred stories above Central Capitol.
More telephone calls. There was a battle raging in the skies. Clouds of red energy roiled, tinged with violet lightning. A flash of blue was thrown away from the maelstrom, and then turned back, over and over again. It lasted no more than five minutes, but it was as terrifying as the center of the Hephaestus Disaster. In the end, Hate-Face flew off erratically into space. Nimbok sheepishly returned to the hospital. There had been no property damage, and no injuries, except a persistent ringing in the ears.
Nimbok was obviously devastated. I wanted to go to him, to somehow console him. He was so young- first Mog Yagor, and now Leeta.
But I couldn’t- I was in the center of a diplomatic maelstrom.
Passing by, I saw one of the female nurses speaking with him. He seemed more in control of himself. She was striking in appearance: I have been unable to get her image out of my mind- pale skin, dark hair, with an odd tattoo around her right eye. When things had quieted down, I went looking for her, to thank her. But I never found her. I seemed unable to describe her well enough for the hospital staff to identify her.
Nimbok had gone as well. He was not at the clubhouse. It was completely empty.
-------------------- "So different from the Original Superman of Krypton!"
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The following is a reconstruction from known evidence.
Hate-Face roared blindly through space, zigzagging erratically. He had nowhere to go. He was wasting energy, and he knew it. Contrails of crimson-violet energy billowed out from his path through the stars.
Passing the Tartarus system, he suddenly knew where it was he was subconsciously heading. He changed course slightly, and he saw it: a fleet of Dominator warships, on the edge of U.P. Space, heading for Tartarus.
It was the battle of the Space Arks all over again- but this time, they were fully functional starships, with enough artillery between them to destroy a planetary system.
Hate-Face left the ships in a daisy chain, woven and fused together, above Tartarus. Their engines were off-line. All their weapons were destroyed. All their life-support systems, including artificial gravity and food supplies, were untouched and unharmed. There had been no loss of life. There were not even any serious injuries. With surgical precision, Hate-Face had handed a humiliating defeat to the Dominion.
Exhausted, Dvesha Aanan returned to Draxler, to his Isle of Exile. His arrival was announced by a tower of roiling clouds of red energy illuminated by violet lightning. Then silence. After several days, a fact-finding mission was sent to the isle by the congresses. The champion of Draxler sat in a courtyard, motionless, dead. Some say he died of the wounds he sustained in the Dominator conflict. I believe, rather, he died of a broken heart.
-------------------- "So different from the Original Superman of Krypton!"
Registered: May 2010
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The Pygorr still make Va’Alor their home. They sometimes trade with the greater Galaxy, finely crafted stone tools and artifacts for metal. Sometimes, they will not trade. Sometimes, there is nothing they want.
Nimbok never heard of the demise of Hate-Face. He did attend the memorial service of Leeta-87 on Galadriel, and met her cousin, who ultimately assumed the mantle of Leeta-88. He apologized to R.J. and myself, but insisted he could not continue with us; he set out for his homeworld, Va’Alor.
The Kormon colony had vanished as though it had never existed.
Subsequent investigations have shown that Ben Nez had used the colonists, one after another, in a necromantic attempt bind powerful demons to his aid.
Nimbok fell to the same purpose, but whether Ben Nez ever succeeded or not is unknown. He disappeared as completely as the Kormon colony.
Who the wizard was, or where he came from, or where he went to, is a mystery never fully explained to this day. Nor do we understand why it was only the Kormon colonies which attracted his attention, and the Pygorr were left unmolested. It is suspected that he may have been associated the earlier, mysterious, Coventry uprising on Zerox, but that was never proven.
Brande purchased an asteroid in an isolated system, and set up monuments to the team. He called the place, “Shanghalla”.
In any event, the Super-Hero Club was no more.
It would be nearly fifty years before we would try again.
-------------------- "So different from the Original Superman of Krypton!"
Registered: May 2010
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