posted
As Val Looked up, he saw the others running towards him and he was soon surrounded.
"Who are you?" "Great job! I've never seen anyone fight so well!" "Irma, can you get anything from this guy's mind when he's out cold?" "Thank you son."
That last came from RJ Brande who had just been able to reach the others in the group.
"That's twice in just a few days that a youngster has saved my life at this airport. I don't know who is trying to kill me, but they sure are persistent! Now, who might you be so I can thank you properly?"
"Sir, my name is Va..Val, Val Armor. Sensei said I should find you and give you this letter."
"Sensei! My dear friend sent you?" RJ gasped "By damn, it's been years since I heard from him!"
"Here you are sir," Val said as he extended the envelope. RJ took it, opened it, and pulled out the letter. He recognized Sensei's beautiful handwriting immediately and he quickly read through the missive. Folding it up, he slipped it into his coat pocket and looked back at Val.
"Sensei writes that he has trained you in all manner of combat and requested that I let you become a part of my Legion. Having seen your skill and courage with my own eyes, I would have made the offer myself. But Sensei asks for something more. He asks that I treat you as if you were my own child. That is a great request he has made of me. One that few would dare. Yet Sensei knows that were he to ask me for my life I would gladly give it to him. So he knows what my answer to this request would be."
"Welcome Val Armor, welcome to the Legion," RJ said as he clasped Val's shoulder. "And welcome, my son. Welcome to my family and your new home!"
"Sir, we should get you inside and out of the line of fire, now!" Leviathan offered. "No need to give anyone another shot at you."
"Yes, I sup-..." Brande started to say but Val interupted him.
"But it wasn't Mr. Brande the gunman was aiming at!"
"It wasn't?" RJ said at the same moment as Leviathan and Cos.
"No, he was aiming at her," Val said as he indicated someone else in their group. Everyone slowly turned to see that he was pointing at...
...Lorna!
-------------------- "Hey Jim! Get Mon out of the Zone!! And...when do we get Condo back?"
From: Paragon City on patrol | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
McCauley looked down the table. None of the men sitting there had his respect. They were there only because it wasn't possible for him to run everything himself. He cursed his limits, that he had to endure these shams of board meetings.
He asked for an update on the Workforce project. Specifically, the public team.
The first of his subordinates spoke up. "Well, we have, between experimentation and *ahem* recruitment, 32 metahumans at present in our possession, none of which have yet been programmed. There are 8 surviving experiments, held in the cells in the basement of the complex. Of these only two - the fire girl and the boy who "reflects" attacks - still appear completely human. Another two are humanoid, and four are misshapen to various degrees. The recruits are kept in stasis tubes in the main laboratory, and presently number 24. All your instructions so far have been followed faithfully sir.
He sighed. It was going to be a long meeting.
"What thoughts have been given to publicity?"
His PR man spoke up. "We were thinking that the tall, blonde female - the one with the Superman-style powers - would make for an ideal front person. You know - have her open buildings, be the one at the front of the publicity shots, pose for a magazine, like FHM or Maxim..."
The lawyer interjected. "Pose for a shoot in a magazine like that? The girl's a minor!"
The tediousness of it. One of his underlings actually had the germ of a good idea for once and another attempted to shoot it down...
"I am to understand that this girl appears to be somewhat older than she is." "Yes sir" (the PR man passed him a picture) - "I doubt anyone who saw her would realise her actual age unless they knew it already. It appears that her powers caused her to physically mature more quickly." "And who does know?" "From the information we have, she ran away from an orphanage, and hasn't had contact outside there in at least five years." "Right, well arrange to have the fire girl adopted by the same orphanage. And have some people there to pick off any survivors and retrieve her. As for this 'Supergirl'..."
The lawyer at the table spoke up - "Ummm... sir... all the names that start with "Super" are trademarked. We can't use them."
"Have the PR people draw up a shortlist of names then, then empty your desk for interrupting me. As I was saying, as for this 'Supergirl', this magazine shot idea is expected to attract considerable attention to the Workforce project, correct? Put out some feelers to be ready to close a deal as soon as the Workforce team goes public. And play up the 'Supergirl' angle even if we can't call her that - it should attract more attention that way. Arrange new documentation for her with a slightly different name and an age of 19, and adjust her memory of her age with the rest of the programming if need be."
"Sir?" - yet another underling interrupted, holding his hand up like a frightened schoolboy. "Yes?" "Y-Y-you do realise that the more changes are made, the less likely they all are to hold up? A-and we're already making some fairly significant..." "I was given to understand that provided the basic personality was left intact, then the mind could accept such things as a change of loyalties." "I-it's not that sir, i-it's the way you've included a requirement for a subservience to y-you in all the programming. In most of the cases, t-that's s-s-signific-cant enough to significantly increase the risk of r-reject..." "From point-1 of one percent to one percent, correct? That's low enough. If I may continue? Are there any other potential female candidates that would get significant publicity from a similar stunt? Either in support or separately?" "Perhaps the winged girl? The controversy alone would keep the Workforce in the headlines for weeks." "Possibly, but I'm given to understand that she doesn't quite fit the classical mould. And that she isn't even a Christian, which would lessen the impact enough that I'd rather hold her in reserve for a Phase 2, rather than put her in the initial lineup. If we find a girl to conform to the template more in the meantime, we'll go with her instead. Any others?" "Most are fairly young unfortunately - the metagene appears to be a recent enough development that there are very few active holders above the age of 18. The vast majority of them look good & have potential, but they're too obviously young to add them to the list with this 'Supergirl.'" "At present then, who do we have? I am given to understand that we have an inventory of 32 at present, and I asked for a shortlist of twelve for a team of 6-8."
He was handed a dossier containing twelve sheets of double-sided A4 paper, each with pictures, proposed costumes, power information, a brief biography and short personality analyses of each of the subjects. He read them leisurely, ignoring the men around the table. He'd already discounted the winged girl for now and confirmed the girl with the Superman-type powers. To them he added the boy with the more limited version of the same powers, the electro-girl and magneto boy (having the siblings of a pair of Legionnaires on the team could give a helpful psychological advantage if the teams ever came to blows), the insect (the team needed a mascot, and a teleporter could prove handy - it's political views would be no object once it's voicebox had been removed), the boy who could reverse attacks, the female telepath, and the magic-user. He directed that they should be taken for programming as soon as the meeting was over. Before adjourning, he made one final stipulation:
"And, once the Workforce is public, I want a concerted effort to recruit the Legionnaire who can split into three. By persuasion if possible, given her high profile, by force if you must."
He envied Lorna's ability to be in more than one place at one time. And he would have it.
posted
At Metropolis University university students Randal Burroughs and John Drake-Nagale were putting the finishing touches on their experiment to recieve their degrees in Quantum Physics. Together they built a machine that was supposed to cheaply create antimatter and with the help of their supervisor Professor Vartan where able complete the machine and tonight were able to go test it.
"...and if this machine works there. Energy shortages will be a thing of the past. Is the machine ready?" Randal asked
John was performing the last minute checks, checking the shielding on the antimatter tank, "As ready as it'll ever be. Shall we start now?"
"The sooner we have some results, the better John."
"All righty then," John said flipping the switch that started the conversion that reverses the subatomic charge of the hyrodgen atoms turning them into anti-hydrogen, "All is going well matter/antimatter conversion at 1%... 5%... 10%"
"Yes! It's working, it's actually working."
"Matter/antimatter conversion at 15%"
The machine seemed to work perfectly until conversion was hovering aroun 18%. John saw this on the readouts.
"Randal, we have a problem."
"What is it?"
"We're losing matter/antimatter containment." John reported.
"Do something. Try the back up measures!" Randal told him.
"I am they seem to be failing, I told you we should've ran a simulation first."
Then the screen started to read "DANGER" as the power for containment failed. What what backups they had were going to going to fail in one minute maybe less. Thankfully for experiments as dangerous as this the walls were reinforced with interon.
"Secturity Systems Error..." the computer chirped
"We have to get out of here!" John told his partner getting up from his seat and running for the exits with Randal following him. As soon as they reached the door the blast door slammed down and the two where trapped in the lab.
posted
[Interlude] If you go through with it, you DO realise someone's going to kill you for using the post-boot Wildfire origin, right? [/Interlude]
Ella awoke to find herself strapped down tightly to a metal table in the middle of a brightly-lit room, the brightest of these lights shining directly down on her. What had happened? The last thing she remembered was finishing her packing, and going out for one last look around the farm. Her parents had tried to discourage her, but she was firm - twins were meant to stick together, and she had to join up with Garth. And then... she remembered it felt like something had hit her, then darkness. Until now.
She tried to blast her way out of the straps, but couldn't generate any voltage. Worried, she twisted her head and saw two old guys in white coats talking to each other, while looking at a woman who looked a few years older than her and a boy a year or two younger, both of whom were standing like statues. Straining, she tried to hear what they were saying.
"...not meant to be zombies surely." "No, the process is very traumatic to the mind, as you can imagine. It enters a sort of state of shock for a time, while assimilating the new data. One of the big mistakes in the early days was to try it on unconscious subjects - the idea being that it would lessen the trauma. Complete failures, every one - the subject needs to be conscious, or at best it won't stick, but more often than not their minds shut down completely, leaving them effictively brain-dead. No, they need to be kept conscious during the alterations, and they stay in this sort of trance-state while they recover, then their minds absorb the changes and they reemerge as their old selves, barring the intentional changes obviously. It's quite subtle you see..."
The guy who was talking took a step forward, to just out of earshot. This was bad, very bad. She looked around and saw dark-suited guards at every exit, with about four "spare" guards all looking directly at her. There was also a group of eight plastic armchairs, four of which held an unconscious person, and one a giant insect. She couldn't see any way out of this, and from what she'd overheard, this was a brainwashing clinic or something. She needed to find a way out of this, somehow. She knew the chances were near-zero, but still a «Garth, I know you can't hear me, but I hope you're on your way to help your sister» somehow ran through her head.
It wasn't to be though. One of the old doctors turned round and finally noticed she was awake. Ignoring her pleas for mercy, they took a new set of electrodes from a plastic bag, plugged them into a machine behind her head she couldn't see, then smeared electrolyte jelly on her temples before placing the electrodes on top of this surface and taping them in place. One last "no" escaped her lips before the large, overly-dramatic switch was pulled.
She screamed.
-----------
Tikhik awoke to find himself in what looked like a large operating theatre. A red haired girl was lying, strapped to the table, with electrodes attached to the side of her head, screaming in agony. Beyond, he saw a blond woman and a dark haired boy, standing, staring straight ahead, oddly passive. Several others were arranged beside him, unconscious.
So this was it - they'd started lobotomising them into perfect little soldiers. Well, he wasn't going to be part of it - he'd rather die first. Dampening field or no, he had to go - now.
He strained for several minutes - long enough that it would have been noticed that he was awake, but for Ella's protesting screams at the painful violation of her mind. He strained & he strained, but refused to give up hope - otherwise he was lost, doomed to suffer her fate. Then, a small green disk began to glow beneath him. This caused him to finally be noticed, but it was too late. Tikhik wasn't sure he could hold it long enough to make it through, but better death than that he thought, and twisted his short black body into the glowing gate, the tip of his tail barely making it through before it spluttered out. The guards looked at each other, oblivious to the diminishing sobs of the girl on the table. They were in big trouble.
----------
Ella Raines wasn't thinking of very much at all now. As she was led to join Laurel and Paul, the unconscious Jose was laid where she had been, about to recieve the same soul-shredding treatment as soon as he was stimulated into wakefulness.
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
Qwyzlyt was bored. The little imp was tired of everything the fifth dimension had to offer. He was also more than a little upset that he was so much smaller than all the rest of the kids his age there, measuring in at 2 inches in height! Not that any of them were much taller. Kids his age (roughly 16 in human terms) were normally only about three to four inches tall. When, oh when was his growth spurt going to finally kick in?
Because he was so small, all the guys made fun of him and said he would never amount to anything cool! Well he would show them! But how?
************
At dinner that night his parents were talking about mom's wayward brother, Mxyzptkl. Uncle Mxyz was always in the news because of his adventures in the human dimension. Of course, he was able to do that because he could use magic!
God, how Qwyzlyt wished he had been born with Uncle Mxyz's magic talent, but no! All he had gotten was his dad's talent...to a lesser degree of course...to be able to "jump" into other objects and animate or "drive" them as he liked to call it.
It was fun, no question, but compared to some of the magical skills some of his friends had developed he was starting to fear that he WOULD never amount to anything cool!
The only thing he was really good at was building things that worked. But what good was that when you could walk into just about any Magician's store and have him create whatever you wanted on the spot!
***************
"That's it!" he thought so loud that he woke himself up at 3:00 in the morning. He knew exactly what he was going to do! "What fun!" he thought as he snuggled back into his bed to dream sweet dreams about the adventures he was going to have. Let them make fun of him then!
****************
The little metal ship popped out of the dimesional vortex right above the city of Metropolis. It look something like a minature, comic book version of the Beatle's "Yellow Submarine" only it was a bright, shiny silver color. On it's side was written in tiny bright red letters "QUISLET" (which, of course, stood for "Quintuple Universal Interfacing Sentinent Long-Range Environmental Transporter")
Qwyzlyt had arrived!
What fun!!!!!!!!!!!!
-------------------- "Hey Jim! Get Mon out of the Zone!! And...when do we get Condo back?"
From: Paragon City on patrol | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Jazmin was not happy. "But I want to join the Legion!" She had said for the eighth time. And for the eighth time, that big jerk had rebuffed her.
"Calm down, girlie, and listen carefully. This is the Legion of Super Heroes. "Super" means that you have to have SUPER powers. The ability to slow someone down is NOT super enough for the Legion! Heck, bouncing boob and the triple girl over there are barely powerful enough as it is, but Mr. Brande won't let me thin the ranks. Still, at least I can prevent any other weaklings fro joining up."
"And I've told you, my power is way stronger than my brother's was! I can do things he never could do!"
"Yeah, right. Look, why don't you go on home and work on your powers first? Then when you can accomplish something better, you can-"
Leviathan stopped. Had he heard something cracking? Could it be the floor they were standing on? "What was tha- aaah!"
Gene yelled as the floor beneath him collapsed and he fell through into the storage area below. It was a pretty long fall, and he quickly grew- enough to minimize the chances of a serious injury but not enough to wreck the place. Suddenly, though, he felt his descent slow down. And then he saw an angry Jazmin hover in front of him, her hands glowing.
"Not strong enough, huh? How do you like this?"
Gene watched as the glow disappeared from her hands, and his fall speeded up once more. Then, at the last possible second, the glow reappeared and he slowed down yet again, falling gently to the ground like a feather. He scrambled up and turned to face her.
"So... I guess that was your doing?"
"Yeah, big man. As you can see, I can slow time down, like how I stopped your fall, speed it up, like how I aged the floor to make it collapse, and almost stop it entirely. Now what were you saying about my not being strong enough?"
"All right, all right... Repair that hole you made and I'll let you join."
He watched as Jazmin's expression quickly turned into one of worry. "Um... Can't we just get Zoe to do it?"
Gene sighed. "Okay, okay, fine. I owe you for not believing you. You're certainly stronger than your brother was. And I know you want to join in his honor... Jazmin Cullen, welcome to the Legion."
posted
The storm was raging outside of Tatiana Mallor's house in northern England. Three women and one red-haired man were drinking tea in the living room, while a second man lied heavily injured upstairs. Outside, braving the storm, a humanoid being made out of rock stood looking towards the ocean, watching.
Monius Ellysius had been impressed by the 'golden boy', he certainly could put up a fight. But the sheer power of the two women fighting beside him had stunned him, he would have never thought that there could be women warriors this strong. The witch in white was particularly impressive, she was surely one of the most powerful sorcerers the world had ever seen. And the other woman, the princess, had actually managed to confuse the Eye! He hadn't thought that that was possible.
He himself had done very poorly. The Eye's awakening had forced him to leave the Zone of Phantoms in Iran, but he had not been cured, and although the long years of dormancy had allowed him to function for a little while, the effects of the lead poisoning had soon reappeared. He had been easily defeated by the Eye, and soon laid heavily injured on the floor, merely a spectator to the events unfolding.
The rocky entity had fallen soon after their arrival, it had been fighting on its own for quite some time. And so the princess, the white witch and the golden boy had had to deal with the Eye on their own. That they had managed to fight it to a draw was a statement to their power. After hours of incessant fighting (Monius Ellysius had lost consciousness by then), the Emerald Empress just stopped, saying that she had better things to do, and simply left. The other three, unable to stop her, could only stare in disbelief, amazed that they had actually managed to survive.
Events unfolded quickly afterwards. Proiectra buried her father and turned her back on her throne. Moldavians were ready for a republican government, she said, and since the only purpose of the Moldavian monarchy had been to contain the Romanescu clan, now that that mission had failed there was no purpose for the monarchy itself. Maizah tried to help Monius Ellysius, but not understanding what ailed him, she was not able to do much more than stabilize his condition. She had an even tougher time with the rocky entity, she understood nothing of his physiology (was it magical in origin? she didn't think so, it certainly seemed to have a consciousness of its own...). But the 'Blok', as they were now calling it, seemed to get better on its own. It still talked very little, though.
The 'golden boy' had decided to follow them; life as a model was boring, and he was ready for new experiences. Having witnessed his power, and aware that the fight against the Eye had just begun, Proiectra and Maizah were not adverse to letting him join them.
And then they left for England. The choice was obvious, Tatiana Mallor was the fourth member of Irma Ardeen's circle of telepathic friends, and bot Maizah and Proiectra had known her for years. Maizah had been concerned about having to transport Blok, but he said that he didn't need to fly, and then simply merged with the ground and reappeared in England.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
He had done stupid things before. “Tagging” walls and assault and battery had landed him in juvy three times before his 13th birthday. He didn’t know why he did those things, and they certainly weren’t venting his rage like the “juvy” therapist had suggested. “Rage venting…” he chuckled to himself as he lay in the hospital bed. T-Rock knew better than to trust the words of a prison therapist, and a white one at that. Besides he felt just as angry after he did those things as he did before they happened. For it to have been “rage venting” the rage would have had to have left his body, he thought.
He picked up the remote and pointed it at the TV… (click) the set lit up the dark room. He immediately searched for the volume as the TV whined it’s “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” sound. “Damn sign-off screen”, he thought to himself. His eyes adjusted to the bright, static colors that illuminated the tv screen as well as his room. A quick glance at the hands of the clock showed that it was about a quarter ‘til four. (click) “…and that’s not all you get.” (click) He quickly changed the channel. After ten straight channels of informercials he could feel his anger starting to work on him.
(Click) He shut the TV off. Realizing that his legs were feeling very stiff, he sat up in his bed. “How long have I been here? I don’t remember being in the hospital.” He thought to himself. He could see light shining through the crack the door made with the floor. Just beyond he could see shadows rustling. “Nurse?” T-Rock shouted. His lips formed the word and his mind said it, but his ears heard nothing. He tried again, only louder and more determined. “Nurse!” Again his ears did not register the sound. Now he was not only angry, but this was down right confusing. He had heard the TV’s sound?
Rotating his body 90 degrees, he let his legs hang over the side of his bed. The floor was cold and smooth. T-Rock stood up and immediately wished that he hadn’t. The room started spinning without mercy. He hit the floor face first.
posted
Maria Gambi put the last stitch in the pink and white costume. It had taken a bit of time, but all the costumes Brande Industries had ordered were now complete. Most had been easily made using a spandex blend. Others were simple cotton. But this last one was a special order. It seemed the young lady was allergic to almost all types of fabrics.
Maria folded the costume and put it in the shipping box. With a twinkle in her eye, she grabbed the marker and addressed the box "To: Irma Ardeen, the Satin Girl"
-------------------- Five billion years from now the Sun will go nova and obliterate the Earth. Don't sweat the small stuff!
From: Boston | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Gene Allen had just left RJ Brande’s office and he wasn’t in the best of moods. He had always heard what a tough man Brande was but he had only seen him as a cheery optimist…until now. And yet it was Brande’s cheery optimism that had caused him to experience the most effective, first class dressing down in his entire military career. There wasn’t a DI out there that could do it better than RJ without raising his voice, of that he was now convinced!
Well, if codenames is what RJ wanted for this wet behind the ears kids brigade, then codenames he would get! Gene still felt that name & rank should be sufficient in any paramilitary organization, but this was certainly like no military command he had ever served in. How had he ever let Zendack talk him into accepting this posting?
Settling down in his assigned office, Gene started listing each of the current members of the Legion. Then he tried to figure out some cute name for each of them. 45 minutes later he still had a column full of names with not one single codename listed after it…well there was one…Leviathan (his own!) Wasn’t that poetic justice!
Wandering out of the office in search of something to drink he spotted Lorna and Rex laughing about something across the open waiting area. His initial reaction was to call them to attention but he stopped himself. “Guess I have some attitude adjusting to do myself.” Instead he walked over to them and nodded to say hello.
“Hi Mr. Allen,” Lorna offered while Rex just nodded in response. “Guess I would be a little miffed if I had just had my outfit taken away from me also.”
“I was wondering if I could get the two of you to give me a hand with a little project Mr. Brande gave me. I’m having a hell of a time with it.”
Ten minutes later they were all seated around a conference table adjacent to Lorna’s office. Spread out on the table top were the files on each of the new Legionnaires. “Wow, Lorna, you’ve got most of it done already!” Gene commented as he began looking through them.
“I’ve been with RJ a long time now and I know how he thinks and what he wants. I figured he would be asking for this sooner or later so I’ve been putting it together from the start of his new “project” she explained.
“But, he must have known that you would do this. Why ask me for it?” Gene asked, a puzzled look on his face.
“Because you’re in charge of this group now,” Rex said. “It’s probably a good way for you to get to know everybody since you haven’t had the chance to work with any of us yet.”
“Rex, I believe I owe you a bit of an apology. You obviously are pretty sharp based on that observation and likely more than qualified to lead this group. I don’t think I showed you enough respect when we first met today. I’m sorry for that and I hope we can work together with no hard feelings.”
“That’s fine with me,” Rex replied. “I don’t begrudge you the position of leader. I know it wasn’t your decision any more than it was mine. And it does make sense. If we’re going to be an arm of the UN, we need to have a leader they can accept. Anyway, that’s over with, what do you say we get this job taken care of?”
Working together, the three of them began discussing the team members and their powers. Little by little the list started to come together until they finally had the formal list of codenames drawn up and ready to be posted. Some of the discussion had been light hearted and funny. Some of it serious. Each offered something and in the end they were all satisfied with the result, or as satisfied as a group can be with the results of a joint effort.
“You realize that Tela just won’t last as a codename for Irma, don’t you?” Lorna giggled. “As soon as the uniforms arrived and everyone saw what was written on her box, they all started calling her that!”
“Yeah, I know,” Gene grinned back at her. “But I can’t very well hand Mr. Brande a list of codenames that shows her as 'Satin Girl!' I'm sure the same thing will happen with some of the others…”
“Yep, some of the guys are already calling Quentin “Egghead,” or “Brainey,” Rex laughed. “But I guess “Doc” sounds a little better.
“Do me a favor Lorna, read through the list one more time. I want to be sure we didn’t miss anyone before we wrap this up,” Leviathan asked.
“Sure, Gene,” Lorna said. “Here goes… ~~~~~ Name ~ Codename Rex Kline ~ Cosmic Boy Garth Raines ~ Live Wire Irma Ardeen ~ Tela (soon to be Satin Girl ~giggle!) Lorna Durgo ~ Trinity Tamara “Tina” Wazzo ~ Spirit Quentin Docks ~ Doc Reed Daggly ~ Shifter Sally Digby ~ Shrinking Violet Lyle Norga ~ Invisible Kid Zoe Sanders ~ Kinetix Jenni Ognats ~ Flash Charles “Chuck” Tan ~ Rebound Conan Doyle “Condo” Arlington ~ Catalyst Nura bint Mordru bin Ahmad Al-Nayal ~ Dreamer Brock Bannon ~ Blizzard Val Armor ~ Valor (Val-iant Arm-or) Jan Arrah ~ Element Lad Gene Allen ~ Leviathan Jazmin Cullen ~ Kid Quantum
“Okay, I think that does it,” Gene said.
HEY, YOU FORGOT ONE!
“Who said that?” Gene asked, looking around, first at Rex and Lorna, and then around the room to see if someone else had come in.
ME!!!! YOU FORGOT ME!!!! I WANT TO BE A LEGIONNAIRE TOO!!!
By now the three young people could see the little silver ship hovering up near the ceiling of the conference room. There was some sort of shimmering field barely visible behind it. Suddenly, a bright ray of light flashed down to the pen laying on the table and engulfed it in brilliant white light. As the light faded the pen stood up, walked to the paper and, in large flowing script, added something to the bottom of the list.
“Look! It wrote what looks like Q-W-Y-Z-L-Y-T’ under name and ‘Quislet’ under codename,” Rex gasped.
Gene buried his head in his arms on the table and sob “Oh god! Why me? This is just too much!” as Rex and Lorna laughed and Quislet (in the pen) did a passable imitation of a jig on the paper, adding a huge florish to the bottom of the paper.
-------------------- "Hey Jim! Get Mon out of the Zone!! And...when do we get Condo back?"
From: Paragon City on patrol | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
"Excuse me, are you very busy right now?" Nura Al-Nayal was standing on the doorway. "I need to talk to you."
Gene and Rex stood up, staring at the platinum blonde at the doorway.
"Wow, you look stunning!" Lorna Durgo was smiling. "Did you choose this uniform yourself?" Nura certainly did not fit her stereotype of an Arab woman.
"Yes. I'm sorry, but can I talk to you all? It's quite urgent."
"Certainly!" Rex and Gene motioned to one of the chairs.
"I've just received a phone call from my sister. She says that she just survived a fight with the Emerald Eye of Akron. She's on her way to New York, together with four allies, one of which seems to be heavily injured. Do we have medical facilities to handle an invulnerable man from the past?"
"Oh, and by the way, you might just as well add all their names to that list you're doing. They all WILL join the Legion, you know."
posted
Tatiana watched as the mysterious man from the past lay in his bed, growing sicker by the minute. He could barely speak anymore, and although his body looked chisseled and impressive, he was too weak to use the limbs he once labored so hard to strengthen. "Monius...Elysius..." he had whispered to her earlier, and she understood that it was his name. She and Maziah had taken to calling him "Mon-El" for short, since neither was sure if they were pronouncing it right.
Outside, Maziah talked to Projectra, as they tried to figure out what was going on. Jackie was terribly upset about the death of her father, but wasn't letting it show--she was being strong for the rest of them, while Maziah was trying to comfort her. The two women had their own reasons for being upset, but both showed a sublte and powerful inner-strength by focusing on the problems at hand. The Emerald Empress, as she now called herself, would have to be dealt with, although they had enough trouble of their own now.
They wondered about 'Blok', who stood outside with the model who possibly controlled the power of the sun itself, and what this creature was and was doing here. It had helped them though, and like the warrior who lay dying, deserved the benefit of the doubt.
Tatiana watched the young man and found herself strangely attracted to him. "Mon-El...it will be alright, we are trying to reach help..." she whispered, as she looked at his garb and wondered if it was truly Roman as they had guessed earlier. She was unsure what anything truly was right now...
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Tatiana Mallor, sitting on her house's porch, was startled by the deep, creaky voice. Jacquie and Dirk were upstairs, sleeping, and Maizah was taking care of the injured man. His condition was deteriorating rapidly, they wouldn't be able to move him to New York, after all.
"You talk?" The rocky creature was standing beside her.
"Yes. I have been listening to the words of humans for a long time."
"You mean Mon-El? You know who he is?"
"Yes. I thought you did, too. You are the heir of the shadow wielders, aren't you?"
Tatiana Mallor looked at him, now completely perplexed. How did he know?
"Maybe you should call the Princess, this concerns her, too."
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Jul 2003
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McCauley was beyond apoplectic. His face had turned a very unhealthy-looking shade of reddish-purple behind his large, thin-rimmed glasses, and the seven heavily-built guards cowered slightly at the rage of a man any of them could have killed on the spot. If he didn't drop dead of a heart attack first.
"NEED I remind you that this project is TOP SECRET? And that any revelation of the means of recruitment and control could FINISH ME?"
One of the braver guards spoke up, trying to say it wasn't their fault, that someone had underestimated the anaestetic needed for a body like Miraz's, but McCauley was having none of it. Glancing at some of the other guards around the room, he directed they take the disgraced guards to the experimentation chambers. IF they survived, they might prove useful again. Ignoring for a moment the heavy blow this would be if the insect talked - and was believed. He tried to calm himself for a second.
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Earlier, Tikhik had tumbled roughly out of a portal, still within sight of the McCauley complex. Spent at the effort it had taken to override the dampening field, he had barely enough energy to crawl under a large rock and collapse.
Now, he was waking up, somewhat refreshed. Thinking things over, he realised that his first priority still had to be escape. He was too close to be assured that McCauley's thugs couldn't just grab him, he had to get as far away as possible. First though, he had to make sure of something. He tried to open a portal to within the large rock above him - and saw the exit portal appear just outside. He tried again and the same thing happened. Good, so he couldn't end up inside something solid. He opened another portal, to go as far as he could, and stepped into it.
Now, Gates had no real idea of how far he could teleport. It was fortunate for him therefore that he couldn't teleport outside of the gravity well he was in, as he would have ended up well into outer space had the teleport been purely line-of-sight. As it was, he teleported as far as he possibly could on the Earth and ended up homing in on something heavier than it should have been, given the mass it had...
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Tom Kallor, bored again, kicked around the Sydney suburb he felt chained to. Because of something stupid that happened when he was a baby, he felt like he'd been wrapped in cotton wool his whole life - he broke curfew by 60 seconds, his parents were practically on the verge of calling the police. Doing anything actually exciting was out of the question.
And he was perfectly healthy - better than healthy. No-one could do the stuff he did, as he made himself heavier to shake the ground for the sake of it, scaring the birds in the process.
Just then, a little green hole opened in mid-air in front of him, and a giant black insect fell out. It just managed to mutter "Help, Помощь..." before collapsing into unconsciousness.
"What the hell...?"
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
The flames licked higher and higher. Whatever the firefighters did, the inferno only seemed to get worse. The orphanage was long lost.
In the conflagration's midst a few cries for help could still be heard. When the young girl thought she saw a fireman coming towards her, she managed to yell and wave. He came over, though the flames, and pointed the fire extinguisher in her general direction. She thought she was saved. The jet of flame which came from the "extinguisher" ended her hopes a few seconds before her lives.
Ten minutes later, only one survivor remained. As the naked blond girl - her clothes burned away - crouched in the inferno's heart, the flames licked at her skin without effect, as if it recognised it's mistress. She sobbed, cursing her lack of control over her fire, but the tears themselves were of fire rather than water. She didn't even notice the jet of flame from the "fireman" as it washed over her. Realising who it was, he radioed in.
"Sir, I've found the fire girl. She's naked and traumatised, but not physically damaged." "Not unexpected. Tranq her and bring her back in."
He injected the tranquiliser into her skin, to almost no discernable effect on the already catatonic girl, then tossed the syringe away, watching as it quickly melted in the heat, then hoisted her over his shoulder and carried her to the statis pod in the nearby van, ready for transport straight back to the McCauley complex.
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"Sir, we have news on the orphanage." "Orphanage" "Remember - the one you sent the fire girl to." "Oh yes - did she do as expected?" "Eliminated the whole building sir, and our 'firemen' picked off the few survivors. And picked her up again, ready for transport." "Excellent,..." He smiled - a thin unpleasant grin - sometimes even subjects with little control had their uses "...and there is no-one left to associate the 'Supergirl' with her previous identity now?" "We turned up one relative in the scan while the girl was having her memory altered yesterday - an 'Eltron Gander' - and we have a drive-by team on standby, awaiting your command." "See to it." «Excellent,» he thought. By the time the Workforce was announced, there would be no-one left to associate the 19-year old Laurel Gand, as her documents now read, with her former (16-year old) Gander ID. Which meant that she would be able to be freely used in the planned publicity, without the restrictions a minor would have. "And is there any news on whether the Workforce have accepted the mind-grafts?! "I'm told they are beginning to come out of their trances now sir, but they'll need a good night's sleep before we can tell whether the alterations are going to stick or not." "And the codename and symbol focus groups?" "Due to finish up later today for a report tommorrow." "Very well, keep me posted."
As his underling left the room, McCauley sat back in his chair and took his glasses off to clean them. Almost everything was going to plan. Damn that insect. And damn those guards for letting that insect escape. As things stood, that was the only cloud on the horizon, but it was a large and angry thundercloud. It had to be found. Fast.
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
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