Author’s Note: This story might be a little confusing at times. Once upon a time, I played around with writing about a group of heroes called the New Crusaders. One of the members of that group was a witch called Spellbinder. As you may know, my two LMBP character names (Spellbinder and Crusader) were inspired by those stories.
To avoid confusion in this story, Spellbinder will be the witch character, and Lady Crujectra will not use her codename at all. Also, the Crusader character is not being used, so any time you see the name Crusader, it’s in reference to the New Crusaders. Hopefully that will keep things clearish Posted by Spellbinder on :
OneVision by the Family Jectra The New Crusaders and the Legion of Message Board Posters: “When The Heck Are We?”
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Earth 2006
“With the Black Rings of Aggorrak, I bind thee!”
The Black Mage raised his arms above his head, hands moving in tight circles. His fingertips pulsed with eldritch energy as hoops of mystic power formed in the air above him. He then threw his arms forward, and the rings shot in the same direction, spiraling toward the young woman before him. She eyed the rings suspiciously as they dropped toward her. “By the Sacred Halls of… oh, never mind.”
She raised her arms upward, fingers pointed like weapons, and tapped the ley line that she could feel less than a mile away. Drawing magical energy from the line, she channeled it through her. Why waste her own energy when she could just draw from the invisible lines of power that ran all over the planet? Not many witches could draw directly from the ley lines without the use of incantations or magical talismans, but then, Kyra Alexander was not like most witches.
Casting raw eldritch energy upward, Spellbinder destroyed the energy rings about to ensnare her. She stepped to the left to stand behind a stone statue, watching the Black Mage carefully.
The garden around her was filled with similar skirmishes. It was hard to believe that Villains Inc had been brazen enough to launch an attack on Crusaders Citadel, home of the world's foremost group of young super-heroes. It was an uncanny stroke of luck for the villains that so many of the Crusaders were off on missions today. It was an even bigger stroke of luck for the Crusaders that several of their more powerful members were in residence today, having just returned from a mission themselves. There was no way that the Citadel Support Staff could handle an attack like this alone.
Powermax, the strongest member of the New Crusaders, was caught in the grip of a miniature tornado created by the villainous Twister. Muscles straining against the hurricane force winds, he inched across the lawn toward his adversary, his long cape whipping around behind him. He was so focused on reaching Twister that he didn’t see Marionette move closer. Now within range, the telepath reached out with her mind, melding her will with Powermax’s, seeking to gain control of the hero.
Michael Chamberlain’s footsteps faltered as he felt something touch his mind.
Contact!
Marionette pushed forward with her will, her thoughts rifling through Powermax’s mind as she one by one she wrested control of his motor functions from him. He came to a stop, a look of fierce determination on his face, struggling to move forward. It was no use. Like a puppet on a string, he was now Marionette’s to command.
It wouldn’t last.
Unbeknownst to Marionette, Powermax shared a strong psychic rapport with his boyfriend, the psionic Brainstorm. The instant Marionette entered his mind and took control of him, Brainstorm was alerted to her presence. Although barely nineteen, Christian McKenzie Prentiss was one of the strongest telepaths alive, due in part to his being the son of two of the most powerful mutants known: the heroic Psyche and the villainous Mindscape. The blond telepath darted between the two, brows knit in concentration as he joined the mind meld, adding his considerable will to Powermax’s.
“Get… your… filthy… mind… outta… my… man!”
The psychic backlash threw all three of them backward into the bushes.
Brandon Chao, who as Dragonheart was the leader of the New Crusaders, darted down a garden path, somersaulting and leaping with all of the acrobatic prowess at his command. Small explosions followed his path as explosive-tipped arrows sought to find their mark. The villainous Artemis grit her teeth in frustration as the hero managed to stay one heartbeat ahead of her.
Dragonheart swiveled his body around in mid-leap, his hand brushing up against the utility belt around his waist. His arm shot outward, releasing the small object held in his hand. The tiny stylized dragon dart sailed across the garden before sinking into the tree trunk behind which Artemis stood. Within a split second of impact, the dart exploded, forcing Artemis to flee from her hiding place.
Standing back within the relative safety of the garden entrance to Crusaders Citadel, the blind seeress named Cassandra Prentiss stood silent, her mind searching the probabilities. There… that seemed the most likely event. Raising her right hand, she gently touched her temple, her slender fingers activating the biochip implanted in her head. “Oracle to Dragonheart,” she said, knowing that the biochip would transmit her voice to the team’s leader. “There is a 90 percent probability that Twister is going to move behind Spellbinder. She will not be able to break off her fight with Black Mage in time.”
“I’m on it, Oracle,” he replied, and their contact was severed.
Oracle resumed her search of the immediate future. Typically she would not be able to assist her teammates in such a way. Distance would make it more difficult to relay such information to a field team. However, if the battle is happening right on your doorstep, then why not make the most of a seeress?
Interesting, she thought. Could this be possible? Should she warn…? No. This event must happen. To stop it would not be advisable. She considered remaining apart… Oracle did not typically go on missions. Her blindness was too great a hindrance in the field. However, the Fates had decreed that she must be a part of this event. She would, as always, have to trust the Fates.
Stepping away from the safety of the Citadel, Oracle moved into the garden.
Powermax stood in the center of the garden, recovered from the psychic backlash that had sent him reeling into the shrubbery. He looked around him, seeking out his original adversary. There. Twister was fighting against Dragonheart. He started to move forward to assist his teammate when suddenly his head snapped back. It had felt like he had been punched in the face, but no one was there. Another! And another!
Powermax clenched his teeth in frustration. The punches didn’t hurt thanks to his invulnerability, but they were definitely annoying. Eyes narrowed, he began scanning the area around him with superhuman speed. There! And there! Glimpses of the villain known as the Time Thief, bending the time stream around himself to move faster than the human eye could follow. Of course, as the son of Ultrawoman and Captain Victory, Earth’s mightiest mortals, Michael Chamberlain was no ordinary human. Sweeping his arm outward in as wide a stretch as possible, Powermax connected with the startled Time Thief. With just the lightest amount of super-strength possible, the hero sent the villain flying across the garden.
The Black Mage howled in frustration as Spellbinder countered yet another of his mystical attacks. He was not accustomed to battling other sorcerers, and he found the entire stalemate to be deeply irritating. In anger, he reached out and tapped the same ley line that Spellbinder was using, seeking to fight fire with fire. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as gifted with ley line magic as the young heroine. He couldn’t manipulate the raw energy coursing through him, and was forced to expel it all in a single blast of energy. The crackling ball of power flew out wide, missing the witch entirely.
Time Thief was not so lucky.
Powermax’s strike sent the villain soaring right into the path of the oncoming ball of magic, and within seconds the two connected. Screaming in agony, the Time Thief lashed out, twisting the chronal energy all around him. Time and space ripped apart violently, and the garden was caught in the onslaught of the explosion. Within seconds, heroes, villains, statues and foliage all blinked out of sight.
The chronal explosion suddenly reversed direction, and rushed back to fill the void created by the tear. In a single heartbeat, the tear repaired itself, but the damage was done.
The New Crusaders and Villains Inc were gone.
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Legion World 3006 The first thing Dragonheart smelled was grass. He felt fairly confident that he would also see grass if he could get his eyes to open. Yep… grass. Hands braced to either side of him, he pushed himself up onto his knees. The grass swirled around for a moment, and then slowed to a stop. So far so good.
“Is everyone okay?” he asked, risking a glance around him. He could see the other four Crusaders around him, also forcing themselves up off the ground.
“Well, except for the whole ‘belly button pulled out of my nose’ feeling, then yeah I’m okay,” Brainstorm said, rubbing his head slowly. He looked slowly about him. There were statues nearby that he recognized from the garden outside the Citadel, but the surroundings were different. He could see buildings nearby that shouldn’t be there. Not if they were still home. “Anybody got any idea where we are?”
“Intruders, stay where you are and don’t make any sudden moves.”
“Maybe we should ask them,” Spellbinder said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder. From seemingly out of nowhere appeared a dozen armed men and women, each one wearing identical blue-and-gray uniforms. The helmets they wore obscured their faces, and a patch featuring a stylized “L” and a starburst emblazoned the chest of each uniform. The rifles they held were pointed at the Crusaders.
“There’s no need to panic, people,” Dragonheart said, his tone calm and even. “We don’t mean any harm. We’re not even sure where we are.”
The nearest uniformed figure lowered his rifle enough that he could speak around it. “You’re trespassing on LMBP property.”
Powermax frowned. “I’m sorry… LMBP?”
“The Legion of Message Board Posters, as if you didn’t know. Everyone has heard of the LMBP.”
Oracle turned her head slightly in the direction of Dragonheart. Her telepathy wasn’t strong like her brother Brainstorm’s, but it would suffice in this close proximity. Dragonheart, these people will take us into custody. We cannot allow that.
Dragonheart didn’t move at all as he softly said, “Spellbinder…”
Kyra Alexander reached out, searching for a ley line. There… but it felt… strange… different… but still she should be able to use it. Tapping into the raw power, she swept her arms upward, triggering the spell forming in her mind. Instantly, a wall of power rose up from the ground, encircling the Crusaders. Something felt wrong… the spell was off… Suddenly the wall burst outward, and the explosion of power threw the guards backward.
“Errr… oops,” Spellbinder said, surprise on her face.
“Oops, indeed, dear,” a regal voice said from above. The Crusaders looked upward to see four figures floating in the air above them: a blonde woman, her voluptuous curves tightly encased in black leather; a brown haired man wearing a costume adorned by lightning bolts and paw prints; a dark haired woman with a spider-inspired costume; and finally a formidable looking man in the front, his costume similar to the uniforms worn by the guards, but featuring small metallic disks on the chest and shoulders.
“I’m afraid you people are going to have to come along with us,” Cobalt Kid said, crossing his arms across his chest.
“That’s really not going to work for us,” Dragonheart replied, arms hanging loosely by his side, his fingers flexing near the utility belt around his waist. “Crusaders… GO!” Fingers brushing against one of the compartments in his utility belt, Dragonheart palmed a handful of small pellets, which he hurled upward at the LMBPers. Lady Crujectra reached outward with one hand, raising a wall of telekinetic force in the path of the pellets. Upon impact, the pellets exploded into a cloud of smoke, which obscured the LMBPers’ vision momentarily.
“Allow me, your Highness,” Beagle Boy said, stretching his arms out before him. He began to move his arms in a circular motion, faster than the eye could follow. The wind generated by his gyrations dispersed the cloud of smoke. Once cleared, the LMBPers were in for a surprise: the New Crusaders were gone!
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“Fan out, LMBP! They can’t have gotten far!”
“Cobie dear, for all we know they could be teleporters,” Crujectra said, closing her eyes and raising her hands to her temples. Reaching out with her mind, she psi-scanned the area. Her probe seemed to find something, but then it was brushed aside. “Or maybe another telepath,” she said, scowling. “Cobie, they are still on the grounds, but I’m getting blocked by their telepath.”
“I’m on it, Crujeckie,” the Security Chief of Legion World replied, bringing his right forearm up in front of him. He pressed a hidden button on the right wristband, which caused a concealed control panel to open. Quickly pressing a sequence of buttons, the LW Security Chief activated the Plaza’s security protocols. Suddenly, all across LMBP headquarters, doors closed and security force fields activated, sealing off the secure areas of the complex. Lastly, a force field formed a dome over the Plaza, effectively securing the outer gardens from the city around it.
“All righty then,” he smiled as the compartment closed on his wristband. “Let’s find us some intruders.”
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“Spellbinder, what happened back there?”
“I don’t know, Brandon,” she replied as the five Crusaders darted down a garden path. “The magical energy here feels wrong somehow. It doesn’t react the same way that magic does back home. I thought that this was Earth, and that we had just been displaced in time, but now…”
“Now we should probably get a move on,” Brainstorm suggested, his arm wrapped around Oracle’s waist as he helped his sister navigate the garden path. “Those Legion-whosies have a telepath with them, and she’s scanning the compound for us. I was able to blanket our thoughts, but from the futuristic look of those buildings around us, I couldn’t begin to guess what sort of scanning technology they have. We really need to get out of this garden.”
Oracle moved along swiftly, her mind scanning the probabilities to alert her to any potential obstacles. Confident that her brother would keep her on her feet, she shifted her focus. “Crusaders, we need to split up… Now!” They had only seconds before the strange super-beings would burst through the trees and overtake them. Separate paths suggested peaceful success.
Trusting the seeress’ judgment, the time-lost heroes shot down different paths as their pursuers caught up to them.
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Spellbinder was thrust forward into a nearby bush, pushed from behind by an unseen adversary. Rolling over onto her back, she looked upward to the slim blonde floating in mid-air above her. “Do yourself a favor, dear, and stay down.”
“I would,” Spellbinder replied, “but I’m a little afraid that you’re going to drop those babies on my head if I don’t move. How on earth do you get them off the ground?”
Lady Crujectra smiled in spite of herself. She realized that this girl was an intruder, but she had to admit, the girl had spunk. She admired that. Without a physical gesture to betray her action, the Psyonian Royal reached out with her telekinesis and took command of the bushes around the downed sorceress. At her command, branches reached out to encircle the girl’s arms and legs, holding her tightly with the added telekinetic strength.
Spellbinder automatically reached out for a ley line, but stopped. That probably isn’t a great idea, she thought. At least not until I can get a better understanding of how the magic works around here. Guess I have to do this the old fashioned way. Reaching within herself, the young sorceress tapped her own reserves of magical energy, stored within the cells of her body. Most mystics on her Earth were forced to use their own reserves of mystic energy, and then utilize talismans or spells to release it. Since Spellbinder could channel eldritch energy, she would not need those extra devices to cast her spell. However, she had to use her reserves sparingly. One could only store so much power, and without knowing how long she would need to tap her reserves here, she had to be careful not to exhaust them.
Eldritch energy crackled along her skin, quickly spreading across her entire body. It connected to form a shield around her. With a mental push, the shield expanded, pushing the branches that bound her away. Within moments she got to her feet and looked into the eyes of the telepath above her.
“Your move, Boobzilla.”
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The need for stealth over, Brainstorm wrapped Oracle in a telekinetic bubble and the two flew down the garden path, Arachne following closely behind. The LMBPer was forced to weave from side to side and mounds of earth were telekinetically raised upward, creating an obstacle course of rock and dirt.
Tired of dodging, Arachne stopped suddenly, eyes focused tightly on the retreating pair. Webs of psionic force lanced across the distance between them, and they ensnared the blind seeress. Grasping her webbing tightly, the heroine pulled backward, and Brainstorm suddenly found his sister being pulled from his control.
“Cassandra!”
Dropping to the ground, Brainstorm focused his might, and tried to pull his sister from Arachne’s webbing. The resulting tug of war caused the seeress some distress. “Could… the… two… of… you… find… something… else… to… fight… over?”
Brainstorm suddenly released his grip on Oracle, and instead telekinetically ripped a small sapling out of the ground, roots and all. With a surge of psionic power, he hurled the tree at the startled Arachne.
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Beagle Boy raced forward toward Dragonheart, who was unaware of his super-speed pursuer. In the blink of an eye, he began running in circles around the Crusader, creating an updraft that lifted Dragonheart upward off the ground. Helplessly suspended in mid-air, the leader of the New Crusaders fought against the whirlwind, his hand inching upward toward his utility belt. Withdrawing a small grappling gun, he fought to aim it toward the ground. Squeezing the trigger, he fired a grappling line into the base of the vortex.
Not seeing the line that was suddenly stretch across his path, Beagle Boy tripped and launched into what would have been an impressive series of tumbling somersaults… if he were running slowly enough to be seen.
Freed from the mini-tornado, Dragonheart dropped to the ground. Lowering into a defensive crouch, he searched the shrubbery around him for his the speedster.
BAM!
The unseen punch snapped Dragonheart’s head to the left.
WHAM!
A second blow whirled him around to the right.
POW!
An uppercut sent him falling backward to the grass beneath him.
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Cobalt Kid reached outward, searching the ground around him for every bit of metallic ore that he could detect. Pebbles, rocks, outdoor lighting fixtures, they all rocketed toward the powerhouse moving toward him. Naturally, none of these things appeared to have any effect on Powermax. Sure, Cobalt Kid thought, watching his opponent move closer and closer. I manage to catch up with the invulnerable one.
Wrapping himself in a magnetic cocoon, Cobalt Kid shot upward, seeking to gain a little distance from his foe while he planned his next move. To his dismay, Powermax launched himself into the air right after him. Oh come on! He flies, too? Seeing no immediate alternative, Cobalt Kid focused his power on the wristbands he wore. They began to change shape, the metal moving like liquid to spread down over his hands, forming metallic gloves. With his magnetism reinforcing them, the gloves should be pretty strong.
Hopefully they would be strong enough.
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With a sweeping gesture, Lady Crujectra sent a variety of plant life flying toward the sorceress, whose magical prowess seemed to be up to the task of deflecting the attacks. The telepath frowned. Perhaps a psychic attack might be better. Marshalling her thoughts, she fired a psi-probe at the girl, establishing a light connection between their minds. Eyes wide open and heads snapping backward, the two women found themselves sharing memories, the result of psionic protections that Brainstorm had placed in the minds of the Crusaders after they had been recently attacked by his villainous father, Mindscape.
Visions of heroic deeds flowed from one woman to the other, as each began to gain a greater understanding of her adversary. With effort, Crujectra was able to sever the connection, and both women slumped to the ground. Spellbinder looked to the Royal and asked, “Why is it that whenever two foreign teams of super-heroes meet, their first instinct is to have a brawl?”
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Cobalt Kid and Powermax rolled over each other on the ground, pitting superhuman physical strength against magnetically enhanced strength in an effort to subdue each other. So far it hadn’t been an outrageously successful endeavor. Although the area around them was impressively wrecked with mounds of upset earth, crushed shrubbery and a few mismatched spots of scorched grass. Suddenly, both men were pulled apart by unseen hands, and were forced to dangle in midair as Crujectra and Spellbinder stepped out into the clearing.
“As deeply entertaining as it may be to watch two buff men wrestle around in the dirt,” Crujectra said, telekinetically lowering the men to the ground, “I’m afraid that we have more pressing matters on our hands.”
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Less than twenty minutes later, the New Crusaders and Legion of Message Board Posters sat around the informal conference room table in the heart of the Plaza’s Administrative Tower. A holographic display representing Legion World floated above the center of the table.
“So, let me get this straight,” Cobalt Kid was saying to Dragonheart, who sat next to him. “This Time Thief guy created a time/space portal when he was hit by that mage guy.”
“That’s our best guess, Cobalt Kid,” Dragonheart replied, gently rubbing his temples. He hated time travel, and adding dimension hopping certainly didn’t help.
Beagle Boy sat before a computer terminal, his fingers dancing across the keyboard. A small holographic display floated in the air before his face, and his eyes quickly scanned the words scrolling across it. “Well, according to our database, there is no record of a group of heroes called the New Crusaders in the early 21st Century. Granted, there are some holes in historical records before the Third World War back in the 22nd Century, but since none of the heroes we know of from that time sound familiar to you, it would certainly support the trans-dimensional rift theory.”
At the far end of the table, Arachne and Oracle sat side by side, conversing quietly. “So let me get this straight,” the seeress began, a look of disbelief on her face. “You have actually fought against things called the Emerald Ass and Middlefinger?”
Arachne smiled. “Not exactly the Fatal Five, I guess, but evil comes in a variety of forms.”
Brainstorm leaned over Beagle Boy’s shoulder, watching closely as the speedster tapped into the planetary sensory grids. Back on their own world, Brainstorm was something of a computer whiz, but the technology on Legion World was light years ahead of anything they had back home. “As near as I can tell,” Beagle Boy said as the assembled heroes turned from their conversations, “there were six temporal disturbances detected across Legion World within the last hour.”
He glanced up at the holographic Legion World above the table as six flashing lights appeared in six different locations. “The red light represents LMBP Plaza, where you Crusaders appeared. The other five white lights most likely represent where these Villains Inc people appeared.”
“Of course, they could have moved on since then,” Powermax observed.
Dragonheart’s eyes narrowed as he looked over the map. “If I know Villains Inc, though, they shouldn’t be hard to find. All we need to do is look for the destruction.”
Cobalt Kid stood up, a look of determination on his face. “Let’s split up into teams, then, and find us some villains.”
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Cobalt Kid and Powermax soared across the skies above Legionnopolis, their passage causing the pedestrians below to look up in wonder. They were used to seeing the LMBPers, of course, but this caped man was new to them. Conversations started up almost immediately as gossipers speculated as to the man’s identity, wondering if this was a new LMBPer, and why no press release had been issued yet.
People do like to keep track of their celebrities.
The pair was headed toward the waterfront district, where one of the temporal disturbances had registered. Of course, there was no way of telling who they would find there, but at least Powermax was familiar with the villains they were seeking, and he felt confident that between the two of them they could handle whichever villain they encountered. All they had to do now was locate their adversary.
Which turned out to be easier than expected.
There, congregated outside a warehouse at Pier 318, was a large group of people. The crowd stood silent and motionless, their dazed eyes focused on a slim woman standing in the center of the group. She gazed around at them, a smile on her face. Sensing the heroes’ approach, she turned her attention skyward.
One hundred sets of eyes mimicked her.
“Well, that can’t be good,” Cobalt Kid said.
The pair landed before the crowd, looking over the mass of people toward Marionette. “Well, in case you haven’t guessed, Marionette has the power to telepathically take control of a person’s mind,” Powermax said. “I’ll be honest, though. I’ve never seen her control a crowd this size before. That can mean that she’s either more powerful than I gave her credit for, or her control over this crowd isn’t all that strong.”
“Or maybe the crowd is just a distraction, heroes.”
At the sound of the voice above them, the pair of heroes spun around in time to see two enormous bulks dropping down upon them from a warehouse rooftop. The man wore a costume of black and white, and his size and costume choice gave him a killer whale look. The woman was also large, and wore a costume of gray hues. The first thing you noticed on her, though, was her unusually large mouth, which was filled with large, razor-sharp teeth.
“Orca and Great White?” Cobalt Kid said, confused. “What in the world are they doing here?”
“We’re here to take you down, Legionnaire,” Great White replied, moving forward toward him with the graceful gait of a sumo wrestler. Cobalt Kid was legendary for his love of ladies, but he felt that perhaps this was more woman than he cared to handle. Great White leaped forward with a speed belying her great size, and her jaws snapped furiously at Cobalt Kid.
Hovering above the ground, Cobalt Kid flew backward, arms outstretched beside him. His power reached out, tapping into the magnetic fields around him, using them to scan the area for any and all metallic objects nearby that he could use. Latching on to a steel girder, he pulled it from the junk pile where it rested and flexing magnetically as though he were flexing a muscle, he bent the girder in two, forming a tight u-bend. When Great White leaned in to again snap her jaws at him, he sent the girder into her mouth, using it to prop her mouth open wide. The villainess growled in frustration as she tried to remove the metal.
Nearby, Powermax wrestled against Orca, who seemed to be a near match to him physically. Luckily, the Crusader had other powers to fall back on. A super-strength uppercut flung the massive villain up into the air. Powermax flew up after him. Once his momentum had worn off, Orca began to plunge back downward toward the ground. He wouldn’t fall far, however, as he was met in midair by Powermax. Swinging forward with all his might, Powermax struck Orca. The force of the blow sent Orca sailing out across the water and quickly out of sight.
Turning to look down, Powermax saw Cobalt Kid struggling to move through the throng of mind-controlled dockworkers, trying to reach Marionette. Unable to clear a path, it looked as though Cobalt Kid was about to try to take off into the air, but suddenly the crowd leaped on top of him. Within seconds the hero disappeared.
Powermax immediately flew down toward Marionette, figuring that the best idea would be to take out the puppeteer. He landed before the villainess, who instantly tried turning on the charm, hoping to enslave the powerhouse before he could capture her. It was a useless attempt. “Sorry, Marionette,” Powermax said, grabbing the woman firmly by the arms and rising up into the air. “I’m afraid my boyfriend was a little miffed to have you rummaging around in my head earlier, so he took some precautions once we got here.”
Soaring out across the harbor, Powermax dropped the struggling puppeteer onto a harbor buoy, pulling some of the support beams on it around to pin her in place. He wasn’t sure what the exact limits of her powers were, but he felt certain that the crowd on the docks were now beyond her reach. The buoy would hold her until the proper authorities could pick her up.
Flying back to the dock, he saw the crowd breaking up, looks of confusion on their faces. He scanned the crowd, but was surprised to see that Cobalt Kid was missing.
Where on Legion World could he be?
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Beagle Boy was fast. Really fast. In fact, at top speed he could circle Legion World in the span of a few heartbeats. Mind you, the sonic booms from his passing would most likely shatter every window on his path, so he usually tried to slow it down a bit. Today, however, he had to slow it down even more so as not to outpace his companions. Under his own power, Brainstorm could certainly cruise along at a good clip, but his flight speed was no match for the Speed Force. And he was also carrying a passenger.
“I still wish you had stayed behind at LMBP headquarters, Cassie,” Brainstorm said to the blind seeress in his arms. They had already been over this, of course, but he could be every bit as stubborn as his sister. Many were the times that the twins’ heated discussions could be heard around Crusaders Citadel.
“Let’s not start this again, Christian,” Oracle sighed, leaning her head upon her brother’s shoulder. “The Fates have decreed that I must be a part of this adventure. I have no choice in this matter.”
Brainstorm rolled his eyes, knowing that she wouldn’t see it, but confident that she would know he had done it. It was a twin thing. “Cassie, you know I believe in your visions, but I think that sometimes you take them too literally. You came with us to this world. Maybe that’s enough.”
Oracle turned her head away, closing her eyes behind the blindfold that she always wore to cover them. “You’re just going to have to trust me on this, Christian.”
Beagle Boy ran onward, racing down mountain paths that wound their way through Swan National Park, a popular tourist area catering to outdoor enthusiasts. Mountain chalets overlooking Lake Amethyst offered rest and pampering for those not taking advantage of the area’s famous mountain climbing areas. The signal for the time disturbance was somewhere in the heart of these mountains.
“Beagle Boy!” Oracle cried. “Look out!”
Between one heartbeat and the next, a tidal wave of water surged up from the lake, rising up to form an aquatic canopy over the mountain pass that the speedster was barreling down. Without hesitation, Beagle Boy continued forward, adjusting his body’s vibrational frequency as he ran. When he came into contact with the wave, he passed harmlessly through it as it came crashing down into the pass.
Above him, the twins arced up higher into the sky to pass over the water. Oracle once again peered into the possibilities. “Oh crap.” Before either twin could react, a funnel of tornado force wind shot up from a nearby cliff, striking the pair in mid-flight. Brainstorm fought to telekinetically hold them in place, but it was too late. Oracle was wrenched from his arms, and while he struggled against the tornado, his sister plummeted toward the ground.
“Oracle, go limp!”
Safely through the tidal wave, Beagle Boy raced across the ground toward the falling seeress. Faster than the eye could follow he began running in a tight circle below her, creating a funnel of his own. The updraft of air slowed the heroine’s fall until she hung suspended in mid-air. Slowing down, Beagle Boy lessened the force of the updraft, and Oracle was gently lowered to him.
Meanwhile, Brainstorm was finally able to get his bearings. Knowing instantly that his sister was safe, he reached out with his mind, wrapping a nearby fallen tree in a cocoon of psionic force. He hurled the tree like a javelin toward the source of the whirlwind assaulting him. The attack was abruptly stopped as Twister was forced to turn his attention to the counter attack being launched on him.
Beagle Boy carried Oracle into the safety of a ring of boulders, hoping that she would be safe enough there while he helped her brother with their attackers. He turned to race back out into the battle when he was thrown from his feet by an explosive blast behind him. Tumbling forward, he regained his feet in a heartbeat and spun around to find the cause of the explosion. He was shocked to see the ground on either side of Oracle burst upward. The rocks and gravel held together as though fused into a single piece, forming two large rocky hands, which grabbed the blind seeress and lifted her from the ground.
From out of the darkness of an overcropping of rock stepped a woman. Once upon a time she might have been considered beautiful; there was evidence of it in the shape of her features. However, she was now nothing but a haggard facsimile of her former self. Wrinkled, excess skin hung limply from her proud cheekbones. Once full lips were now withered and cracked. Her body had lost its tone, and her frame was hunched over and bent.
To the casual observer, one might think this was just some poor old crone who had fallen victim to the ravages of time. Beagle Boy knew who she was, though, and knew that she owed her appearance not to the passing of time, but rather was her punishment for trying to possess a power that was never meant to be held by a mortal being.
“The Shadow Queen?”
“I see my reputation has preceded me, young speedster,” she cackled with glee, clearly pleased to have the hero know her. “The entire universe should know of me.”
Beagle Boy shrugged. “Actually, I just happened to read your file one night while I was on monitor duty. It didn’t take too long, really. After all, you only fought the LMBP once.”
Her thin lips curled up into a snarl. “If not for your LMBP, I would have taken over the universe! I should have become a god, rather than this hag you see before you.” She began to cough, her cackle obviously a little more than her vocal chords were up to. “But no matter. When this is over, I shall have the power that I deserve.”
“Riiiiiiight.”
Beagle Boy rushed forward, thinking to simply subdue the witch before she could react. Halfway to his target, though, he was forced to turn aside as a geyser burst up from the ground, showering the area around it like an open hydrant. He tried angling around it, only to have another sudden geyser bar his way. And then another. And yet another. Finally, tired of running through an obstacle course, Beagle Boy decided to simply vibrate his way through one, the same way that he had gone through the tidal wave earlier.
When the next one appeared, he raced right into it. This time, however, something went wrong. He was unable to keep his vibrations steady, and he began to quickly slow to a stop. And then the water began to harden, turning to ice and imprisoning him. He may have been the fastest man in the thirty-first century, but his speed failed him this time. He was trapped!
Sue Nahmie lowered her arms and then jumped down to stand beside the Shadow Queen. “We make a pretty good team, Queenie. What say I dump those Seven Seas losers and the two of us team up?”
Distaste evident in the look on her face, the Shadow Queen turned to look at the aquatic villainess. “Don’t be ridiculous, mortal. I am destined to be a God, not a sidekick.”
“Tell you what, Your Majesty,” Brainstorm said, hovering above them, the unconscious form of Twister held in a telekinetic cocoon behind him. “You let my friends go and give yourselves up, and I won’t kick your wrinkled old ass all over these mountains.”
Sue Nahmie screamed with glee as she threw her arms forward. From seemingly out of nowhere, twin geysers of water burst from her outstretched hands, surging upward toward the young telepath. Brainstorm reached one arm forward and stretched the other arm out behind him. Telekinetic force surged out in opposite directions: the forward pulse formed a wall of mental power before him, shielding him from the deluge; the backward pulse braced him against the wall of stone several yards behind him. Most people didn’t understand how telekinesis worked. You couldn’t just apply the forward force; otherwise the impact would most likely just hurl him backward. He needed the backward force to use as leverage. It was the same with lifting a heavy object: raising the object without applying equal opposite force would just push him to the ground.
Changing the shape of the invisible wall before him, he pushed a wedge of force forward, cleaving through Sue Nahmie’s water attack. A final surge of power impacted with the villainess, knocking her backward against a nearby boulder, where she crumpled to the ground unconscious. Without her power to supply the water, the deluge stopped instantly.
Brainstorm’s eyes searched the area around him, but it was too late.
The Shadow Queen and Oracle were gone!
Posted by Spellbinder on :
Arachne soared above the streets of New Metropolis. She looked at the young man racing across the rooftop beside her and sighed. After a bit of a mishap with a borrowed flight ring, Dragonheart had decided to cross the city under his own steam. Arachne had offered to carry him, but the look on his face at her suggestion was all the answer she needed. It wasn’t that she particularly wanted to carry him… she wasn’t a skycab after all. It would have been a little faster, though.
Not that the teen was doing too badly on his own. He leaped off the rooftop, right arm extended before him. A thin grappling line shot out from his wrist band, connecting with a nearby building. In a fluid motion he was swinging across the street, the wristband on his other arm already being brought around to fire off another line.
You have to admire the kid’s spunk, she thought, her eyes focusing back on the Omnicom that she carried. According to the display, they were almost at the site of one of the temporal disturbances, deep in the heart of Legion World’s financial district. Arachne hated this part of the planet. It wasn’t that she disliked money, exactly. She just wasn’t fond of how it changed people, and how ruthless the moneymakers could become. It was power of a different kind, and power didn’t always bring out the best in people.
She signaled to Dragonheart, and then joined him on a rooftop overlooking Legion World First National’s home office. It was one of the planet’s largest banks, and seemed like a logical place for a villain of the past to suddenly show up when arriving in the thirty-first century. The pair crossed to the ledge and looked down at the office building. Arachne scanned the nooks and crannies of the building as best she could, but not knowing who to expect might make it a bit difficult to find them unless they happened to be really obvious.
Dragonheart removed a pair of binoculars from his utility belt and focused in on a shadowed overhang in front of one of the side entrances. He had thought that he had seen… yes, the glint of sunlight on metal. Specifically, the glint of sunlight on an arrowtip. Artemis. Replacing the binoculars, he leaped forward off the ledge, leaving a confused Arachne behind. Rather than use grappling lines, he began to leap from balcony to balcony, an acrobatic ricochet that would get him quickly to the ground.
Cursing under her breath at reckless youth, Arachne followed a heartbeat later, using her flight ring to bring her down after the Crusader. She barely heard the rocket sound before being struck from behind. The impact pushed all the air from her lungs, and although stunned she was just able to control her descent enough that the impact with the ground was less painful than it could have been.
She looked up to see what looked like a metallic fist circling around in the sky above, propelled by its own mini-rockets. The fist shot downward, swiveling around at the last instant to reconnect with the outstretched arm of a large armored figure. A vaguely familiar figure. “Stanobot?”
The robotic figure stood up straight, metal chest almost puffed out with pride. “So you know me, Arachne,” he said. “Well, I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, I am one of the LMBP’s greatest adversaries!” He looked around, almost as though waiting for some form of musical fanfare. When none appeared, he looked back to Arachne.
Arachne considered bursting the mandroid’s bubble in regards to the whole “greatest adversary” comment, but instead just said, “It’s the duty of every Legion World Security Officer to keep on top of potential threats.” Yeah… that was diplomatic enough. Crujectra would be proud. “What on earth are you doing working with a criminal from another time?”
“Let’s just say that we have common interests, my dear,” Stanobot replied. “Don’t concern yourself with that, however. You have much more deadly things to worry about.”
From behind the hulking form stepped three females. To the casual observer, they looked like any other woman that you might run into on the streets of Legion World. If you looked into their eyes, though… that was where you could spot the difference. There was an intelligence there, certainly, but there was something else. Something cold. Something… inhuman.
They were Nanobots.
Meanwhile, Dragonheart was engaged in combat with Artemis. He had been able to get close enough to her where she couldn’t use her long range weapons, like her arrows and daggers. Artemis wasn’t limited to her weapons, though. She was trained in a variety of martial arts. Dragonheart, however, was trained by the greatest physical combatant of his world: his father, the hero called the Red Dragon.
He risked a look to see Arachne leaping about, trying to evade a trio of female attackers. They looked harmless enough, but he would have to assume that there were more to them than what met the eye. Watching in the background was a large, robotic figure. He looked more menacing.
“Do you require any assistance, Arachne?” he asked, blocking Artemis’ blows.
“Depends,” she replied, dodging and weaving as the Nanobots advanced on her. “Do you have anything in your bag of tricks to stop a robot?”
“Trade partners,” he said, somersaulting backward to take himself away from Artemis and over to Arachne. She, in turn, leaped away from her attackers to replace Dragonheart in his fight against Artemis. Dragonheart reached into his utility belt and withdrew a small dart. He quickly inserted it into the launching device for his grappling wire and took careful aim at Stanobot.
“Hey, you don’t really think a little dart can stop me,” Stanobot said in disbelief. “Look at me, man! I’m a big armored guy! There’s no way that thing’s gonna get through me!”
Dragonheart fired, and the dart flew through the air. As it crossed the distance to its target, the point opened up, forming a sort of suction cup. When it struck, it firmly attached itself to Stanobot. Suddenly, the armored villain began to shake, electricity arching up from his armor. At the same time, the Nanobots began a similar dance. Suddenly, a ghostlike man crawled from the chest of the robot. Once out of the robot, Stan Biercht became solid. The geeky man fell to the ground, stunned from the shocking attack.
Making sure that the Nanobots were not moving, Dragonheart crossed to the villain and handcuffed him. He patted Stan on the shoulder. “I wasn’t actually trying to pierce your armor, dude.”
He turned to see Arachne just as she finished securing a frustrated Artemis against the wall of the bank, held motionless by the LMBPer’s psionic webbing. She nodded appreciatively at the subdued form of Stanobot. “Neat trick,” she said.
Dragonheart shrugged, pleased that the older hero seemed impressed. “I can’t take full credit for that. It’s a little system disruptor that I developed with our tech guys back home.”
“Speaking of home, we’d better check in with LMBP Plaza and see how the others are doing.”
Posted by Spellbinder on :
“Okay, remind me again why we are searching the sewers?” Lady Crujectra asked as she and Spellbinder floated above the churning sludge below them, held aloft by flight rings. One would think that by the thirty-first century that sewage would be processed in a much less… aromatic method. However, if something isn’t broken, it often gets overlooked.
“I think we drew the short straw,” Spellbinder replied, adjusting the environmental processing unit that covered her nose and mouth. The device filtered out any unpleasant odors and fumes that were around her, and allowed her to breath more or less clean air. Too bad there wasn’t a matching goggle to go with it.
“Well, at least we knew what we were getting into when we arrived here. Imagine the villain’s surprise when he or she popped up in the midst of all this?”
“It wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, let me assure you,” a deep voice said from out of the shadows, echoing against the stone walls of the sewer. From out of the darkness came a small cylindrical object, which exploded a few feet from the heroines. The force of the blast threw them against the wall. Momentarily stunned, the women were unable to react before an energy net formed over them, pinning them in place.
Spellbinder looked at the royal LMBPer through narrowed eyes. “I thought you were supposed to be a telepath?”
Although the answering look on her face was probably enough, Crujectra said, “Give me a break! I was a little distracted by our surroundings!”
From out of the shadows stepped a ridiculously over-muscled man, dressed in combat fatigues. His face sported a macabre set of tattoos, and his numerous pockets bulged with a variety of guns and weapons. Behind him stood the robed figure of the Black Mage, who looked a little the worse for wear thanks to his new environment. “Don’t blame yourself, pretty darlin’,” the muscle man said, tapping the headband he wore with a meaty finger. “Psi-dampener. Keeps pretty little things like yourself from poking around inside my head.” His mouth widened into a perverse grin, and his eyes roamed appreciatively over the forms of the two women before him.
“Believe me, Bannata Commando, the last thing I want to do is crawl around inside that cesspool of a mind,” Crujectra replied, a look of disgust on her face. She turned her head slightly toward the captive sorceress beside her. I don’t suppose you can get us out of this energy net, can you? It seems to be sapping my strength a bit, and I’m finding it difficult to focus my powers.
Spellbinder bit her lip. This might hurt a little, she thought, and tapped into a ley line. Granted, her own stored energy might have been enough to break free, but there wasn’t a huge amount available, so the ley line seemed a better solution. In retrospect, the resulting explosion of force must have looked fairly cool, especially when the Commando and Black Mage were flung back against the wall. It was probably just as well that the heroines were already braced against a wall to start with. It only felt a little like being hit in the stomach by a steel girder. Cool beans.
“Do your powers always do this sort of thing?” Crujectra asked, stretching out aching muscles.
Spellbinder raised her hands before her. “Hey… not my fault. Blame the screwy magic in this dimension. My powers rock back home.”
Lady Crujectra reached out a hand, and the limp forms of the Bannata Commando and Black Mage were lifted from the ground. A surge of power sent the Commando’s weapons flying away from him. The Commando appeared to be unconscious, but the Black Mage’s eyes were wide open and filled with fear. “You know, you don’t seem so scary. I thought you were a big bad wizard?”
Spellbinder looked at the man speculatively, and then her eyes opened wide in surprise. “You can’t access the magic of this dimension, can you?” The look in his eyes was all the answer she needed. “Sucks to be you,” she smirked. “Back home, most magic users have to draw magical energy from the environment around them. Many are able to store up some of that energy, but only a limited amount. Our boy here isn’t able to store large amounts, nor can he tap into ley lines. He probably showed up here with his powers more or less depleted, and without being able to access the energy here he hasn’t been able to recharge.”
“I wonder how Bannata Commando managed to find him so quickly?” Crujectra mused.
The air was suddenly filled with buzzing, and Crujectra’s eyes widened in horror. Before she could react, the pair were overrun by thousands of bees, swirling around them like a living tornado. A telekinetic cocoon was all that kept the bees at bay, but the constant buzzing was making it difficult to concentrate. The psionic wall of force began to falter, and the bees got closer and closer.
Within seconds, the bees backed off, revealing the unconscious forms of Spellbinder and Crujectra. A man stepped from the shadows, a look of evil on his handsome face. He knelt beside Crujectra, grabbing her by the hair and bringing her face close to his.
“Long time no see, beautiful,” the Red Bee said triumphantly.
Posted by Spellbinder on :
Cobalt Kid began to stir, his eyes clenched tightly shut. Why were his arms stretched out so far? It was almost painful. He didn’t so much mind being tied up, so long as there was a pretty girl involved.
“Cobie?”
He opened his eyes at the sound of Crujectra’s voice. Somehow he had the feeling that this dream wasn’t going to go exactly according to plan. “Hey, Crujeckie. What’s up?”
“Well, dear, at the moment we are.”
Cobalt Kid looked around him and sighed. Definitely not going according to plan. He was strapped to a huge machine of some sort. There was a large, cylindrical section in the center. Spellbinder appeared to be strapped to that part. Spaced out around that were smaller cylinders, each one holding a different captive: one for him, another for that seeress… Oracle? And on the third one was some guy that Cobalt Kid had never seen before. The trio formed a sort of triangle around the center cylinder.
The machine was in the center of some kind of asteroid or something, although since he was breathing he supposed there must be some kind of environmental thing happening. All around them was the vastness of… space? No, not space exactly. The panorama seemed to be fluctuating, shifting. There was something vaguely familiar about it.
“Cobie dear, I realize you just woke up and everything, but can you kinda focus over here,” Crujectra asked, patience struggling against desperation. She was chained up nearby, an inhibitor collar around her neck. “There’s something you need to know.”
“Now, now, Crujectra,” a mocking voice sounded from behind the machinery. “Don’t make the poor boy think too much. You know it’s not really his thing.”
Cobalt Kid’s blood ran cold. He would know that voice anywhere. His eyes narrowed, a look of anger crossing his face. “Red Bee,” he said through gritted teeth. The villain walked calmly around to stand before Cobalt Kid, stopping just behind the Psyonian princess. He reached out a hand and gently moved it along the curve of Crujectra’s shoulder, almost as though caressing a lover. Cobalt Kid growled in anger, muscles straining against his restraints. He fought to access his magnetic powers, and could feel them just under the surface, but frustratingly beyond his grasp.
“Don’t you touch her, you bastard!”
Red Bee laughed, squatting down beside Crujectra and resting his chin next to her face. She turned away, seemingly in revulsion, but for an instant her royal training failed her, and Cobalt Kid could see the fear in her eyes. There were few things in the universe that scared Crujectra of Psyonia: this man who had single-handedly almost destroyed the LMBP was at the top of that list.
“You know the really funny thing, Cobie old pal?” Red Bee asked, an evil grin on his face. “Crujectra here isn’t even part of the plan. I just grabbed her ‘cuz I could. It doesn’t hurt that she’s pretty sweet to look at, of course. And the fact that it’s eating you up is just priceless.”
The Shadow Queen came out from behind the machinery, moving slowly to stand near to the Bee and Crujectra. “Do not forget, little Bee Man, that your little games are of no consequence here. Do not lose sight of our grand design.”
“Your grand design?” Red Bee scoffed, barely dignifying the Queen’s presence with the slightest turn of his head in her direction. “You may be getting something out of this, Shadow Queen, but don’t even try to suggest that this attack was your idea.”
Cobalt Kid could hear something else behind the machine. Faint at first, but slowly growing louder. At first he thought it was ticking, but as it grew louder he realized that it was squeaking. Comprehension hit him with a brick-like force. No wonder this place seemed so familiar to him. This was the End of Time!
From behind the machine came a cloaked figure, his robes swirling around him as he moved. He pushed back his hood to reveal a face that Cobalt Kid never thought he would see again. The figure had the head of a mouse. A very large mouse.
“You are correct, of course, Red Bee,” he squeaked. “The one pulling the strings in this little puppet show is me… the Time Mouse Trapper!”
Posted by Spellbinder on :
“The Time Mouse Trapper? Are you certain, Brainstorm?”
The teenage telepath looked incredulously at Arachne. “Do you honestly think I could make up something like that? I swear that just before this Shadow Queen woman disappeared with my sister, I caught a glimpse into her mind. And what I heard was ‘Time Mouse Trapper.’”
Arachne sat across the conference table from Brainstorm, her head cradled in her right hand. This was just getting worse and worse. Slowly she opened her eyes. “The Time Mouse Trapper is one of the LMBP’s oldest super-villains. He was the master of time, and the LMBP managed to thwart many of his plans in the past. We learned not too long ago that he is an alternate reality version of LMBPer Lash Lad. In our last battle, the Trapper was split into two beings: the alternate Lash and his mouse essence. The Time Mouse Trapper was left powerless at the End of Time.”
“Maybe not so powerless as we were led to believe,” Beagle Boy said solemnly.
Dragonheart stood up from his chair and began to pace back and forth along the room. “Powerless or not, it would seem that this mouse guy has taken our friends.” He stopped his pacing and turned to face the assembled heroes. “So how do we go after him? Do you guys have some sort of time platform or something?”
Ten minutes later, as the heroes stood in the midst of an abandoned laboratory, Dragonheart realized that it was definitely in the “or something” category. Sitting atop a platform in the center of the laboratory was five large glass spheres. Completely transparent, the spheres appeared to be empty except for a control panel that rested atop a thin cylindrical mount. Almost afraid to ask, Dragonheart said, “What did you say those were again?”
Beagle Boy coughed self-consciously. “Errr… Time Balls.”
“Right. So, these balls are capable of time travel?”
Arachne moved closer to the docking platform. “The Time Balls were created awhile ago, as part of our efforts to track and defeat the Time Mouse Trapper. They worked… more or less… but it was decided that time travel was too risky, so the laboratory was shut down and the project mothballed.”
Brainstorm straightened, a look of determination on his face. “Will your balls get us to my sister?”
“Let’s just say that they’re our best chance,” Arachne replied.
“Are the five of us going to be enough?” Dragonheart asked.
Arachne thought about it. Powermax and Brainstorm were definitely heavy hitters, and she and Beagle Boy were no slouches either. Dragonheart may not have had powers, but he was a force to be reckoned with regardless. They were up against the Time Mouse Trapper, though, plus who knew how many villains he had gathered at the End of Time. Her mind made up, she turned the “L” insignia on her flight ring. If they were going in, they were going in with guns blazing.
Posted by Spellbinder on :
“I don’t get it,” Cobalt Kid said, watching the Time Mouse Trapper pace from side to side, wringing his hands (paws?) together in anticipation. “I thought your powers were gone. How did you do this?”
“I suppose I can spare the time to tell you how you came to be here, Cobalt Kid,” the Trapper said, clasping his hands behind his back and strutting along, his thin tail poking out from under his robes from time to time as they shifted with his movement. “When you LMBPers abandoned me at the end of time, you thought me powerless. By your standards, I suppose, I was. My command over the chronal energies of the universe was weakened, and my personal stores of power were small. Too small to free myself from this prison. Ironic, isn’t it? The Master of Time trapped at the End of Time?
“I had to hoard my energies, drawing what I could from the universe to replenish me. It was a slow ordeal, to be sure. After months I had enough to break free of my prison, but to do so would severely weaken me again, and I would once again be at the mercy of the dreaded LMBP.” He stopped next to the Shadow Queen, who looked at him with what at first seemed to be lust, but Cobalt Kid decided it was greed. “It was then that I began to hatch my scheme. I would need to gain far more power than I had before I could take on your team. And I knew how to get it, but I would need help.
“First I selected the Shadow Queen. Her magics would help me focus my diminished powers, getting as they say “more bang for my buck.’ And she had knowledge that would assist me. Knowledge of other dimensions, where more resources could be gained. When last you saw her, you had left her to die in her castle as the Psyonian Twins foiled her plots in your “Shadowspell’ mission. I was able to use some of my stored energy to pluck her from the timestream milliseconds before her death. She was, as you can imagine, most grateful.”
He then moved over to the Red Bee. “And then this eager little beaver came to my attention. During the attack on Takron-Galtos during your ‘Infinite Crisis,’ the Red Bee was able to escape. I knew that his help would be a huge asset in completing my plans, so I offered him a chance to join me. Would you believe he wants next to nothing in return? Well, he wants you of course, provided you survive the fate that awaits you. Oh, and I told him he could keep young Crujectra.”
Red Bee wrapped his arms possessively around Crujectra, oblivious to the princess’ squirms, his full attention on Cobalt Kid, eager for his reaction.
“Together we built this machine. It has served two purposes in my plan. The first was allow me to reach through the fabric of time and space, to a dimension that the Shadow Queen found. I manipulated the events that occurred at Crusaders’ Citadel, causing the Time Thief’s powers to falter and rip open the hole that brought the New Crusaders and Villains Inc to this reality. I needed a few of them to power the machine for it’s next purpose.”
The Time Mouse Trapper looked up at the machine, practically drooling at the thought of what was about to happen. When it appeared that he wasn’t coming back any time soon, Cobalt Kid said, “Excuse me, Trapper. You want I should come back later, or are you gonna finish your story before you start humping this thing?”
Spellbinder, who had been laying quietly, listening to the events unfolding around her, rolled her eyes. These LMBPers were definitely not like the New Crusaders. Didn’t they take anything seriously?
“Forgive me, young Cobalt. I wasn’t aware you were in such a hurry to meet your doom.”
Cobalt Kid snorted. “Please. I see my doom more often than I see most of my friends.”
The Time Mouse Trapper scowled, which wasn’t easy since he was, you know, a mouse. “Hello! Gloating over here.” Waiting to make certain that he was the center of attention again, he continued. “Getting these players into our reality was the first part of the plan. Once here, I would need to collect whom I needed. For that, I enlisted the assistance of a few LMBP foes. Foes who were available, that is. That bitch Whordru never did return my calls. Anyhoo, I needed to collect a few people in order for my plan to proceed.
“You see, there is one thing in the universe that can restore me to my former glory. This machine will draw it here, powered by Spellbinder’s command of this reality’s wild magic and your own natural magnetic powers. It will channel the Time Thief’s own power over chronal energy, which is far inferior to mine, of course, and will be guided by Oracle’s ability to sort through the possibilities of time.
“Once it is here, my machine will trap it while I draw it’s power into me, and then I will rule the universe!” With that he struck a dramatic pose, throwing his arms up into the air and laughing maniacally. It probably would have look more impressive without the big mouse ears.
Shadow Queen placed a hand on Time Mouse Trapper’s arm. “We will rule the universe, you mean. Do not forget our bargain: in exchange for my help, you promised to reward me with power and restore my youth.”
“Yes, yes, of course. You will get what is coming to you, my dear.”
Cobalt Kid frowned, one question nagging at his mind. “What exactly are you bringing here, Trapper?” he asked, not entirely sure he wanted to know the answer.
“You mean you haven’t guessed, Cobalt Kid?”
Red Bee sneered in Cobalt Kid’s direction. “His brain runs on impulse drive, Trapper.”
“With this machine, I shall capture, kill and bleed dry none other than… The Entropy Spinach!”
Posted by Spellbinder on :
The five Time Balls shook violently as they cleaved through the Iron Curtain of Time, having left Legion World far behind them. It was certainly crowded in them: the New Crusaders was a large team, but Dragonheart had never seen this many heroes in one place. Each Time Ball held nearly one dozen heroes, each one either an active LMBPer or one of their reservists. Each one had gotten the Arachne’s general alarm, and each one had raced to LMBP Plaza to offer their assistance.
And what an array of people they were: Kid Marvel, Dev-Em and the Boy With Ultra Powers; Abin Quank, Pagan Lass and Lash Lad; Lightning Lad, Nightcrawler and Saturn Girl; MightyFanBoyMan, Shadowplay In Candlelight and Seahorse; the Man From Carggg, Raging Bull and Eryk Davis Ester. There was many more, each one apparently from a different planet, representing some of the universe’s most widespread races.
Of course, as Dragonheart was pressed up against the glass of his Time Ball, he wished that some of them were a little smaller. He winced as Lardlad fell against him yet again as the Ball was rocked by another time quake. Mearl Dox was doing her best to keep the ride smooth, but apparently there were limits to even 31st Century technology.
He didn’t care how rocky the ride was, so long as they reached the End of Time… in time.
Posted by Spellbinder on :
Spellbinder screamed as the machine drew wild magic through her, raked down abused channels of power deep within her. It shouldn’t be possible to do this without her assistance, but little had made sense to her since arriving in this reality. The best she could do at the moment was try to survive the ordeal.
Cobalt Kid hadn’t been certain what role he was going to play in this nightmare. He hadn’t thought that his magnetism would be used as a power source, and he was right. His power was being used to hold the thing together. Whatever power was coursing through Spellbinder, it was taking everything he had to keep the machine from exploding apart. Not that he had any more choice in the matter than the young sorceress did: his power was being accessed by the machine itself, drawn from him against his will. As before, he could feel it, bubbling just below the surface, just beyond his grasp. It was so close…
The Shadow Queen had mounted the machine standing equidistant between Oracle and the Time Thief, arms raised out beside her, palms extended toward the pair. Her magic was bridging the gap between the two, joining them together as one. Spellbinder’s magic would bring the Entropy Spinach here, and would hold it captive while the Time Mouse Trapper overtook it, but it was the combined efforts of Oracle and the Time Thief that would find it.
The asteroid shook again as the machine bucked against the forces crashing through it. Crujectra was amazed that it hadn’t exploded and killed them all. Crujectra’s attention was jerked upward: just above Spellbinder, the air began to distort. Small at first, the field began to grow, larger and larger. Bolts of lightning arched out of it, and colors swirled around inside it, a kaleidoscope of energy that threatened to overtake them all.
And then it began to appear: a huge shape, dark and bulky. As it began to take shape, it became more defined. Rounded on the bottom, wavy on the top. Crujectra had never seen this before, but she had heard stories. Finally it became clear enough to make out its features. It looked like an eyeball. A huge, single eyeball. On top of it was a large, wavy mound of what looked like spinach. The eyeball rotated from side to side, most likely taking in its surroundings. It was probably fairly disoriented, and unless she was mistaking the look in its eye, it kinda looked pissed off.
Time Thief and Oracle sagged in their restraints as the Shadow Queen lowered her arms, their part in the plan done. The witch stepped shakily down off the machinery and moved off to the side. She didn’t entirely trust the mouse, and she wanted to be certain that she could keep an eye on him.
The Time Mouse Trapper laughed gleefully as the Entropy Spinach attempted to shift its position but found that it couldn’t. The Trapper’s machine appeared to be succeeding in holding the being. The Trapper reached his hands upward toward the captive entity. Suddenly, an energy trail arched between the two Masters of Time, and the transfer of power began.
Then a loud crack sounded, and the Trapper spun around in time to see five bubbles appear on the asteroid. Within seconds, over fifty heroes poured out of them, looks of grim determination on their faces. Howling with anger, the Time Mouse Trapper reached out with the energy that he had just absorbed. From various times and places he plucked allies who would keep the LMBP busy until he could finish the transfer of power.
Before the LMBP appeared Stanobot and the Nanobots, the Seven Seas, the Bannata Commando and Villains Inc. He would have brought more, but to do so would require more attention and more power. They would have to be enough.
The Shadow Queen raised her hands above her head and shouted an incantation. A dome of arcane energy fell over the Trapper’s machine.
And then all Hell broke loose.
As one the assembled heroes surged forward. Fat Cramer led an assault on the Nanobots, joined by the likes of Raging Bull, Midnight Son, Foxy Roxy, Space Tart, Freekinos, Sketch Lad, Outdoor Miner, Kent Shakespeare, Rtvu2, Loser Lad, Lucien Lad and Dev-Em.
MightyFanBoyMan grew to giant proportions and leaped upon Bannata Commando, and was joined in his battle by Jailbait Lass, Rockhopper Lad, White Raven, Poverty Lad and Caliente.
The Seven Seas found themselves set upon by the Boy With UltraPowers, Powermax, Lash Lad, Saturn Girl, Seahorse, Duplicate Man, Dragonheart, Arachne, Beagle Boy, the Man From Carggg, Eryk Davis Ester, Faraway Lad, Galadhran, Lad Boy and Lil Rhino.
Twister, Artemis and Marionette were horrified to be attacked by such heroes as Monkey Eater Lad, Mearl Dox, Icefyre, Polar Boy, Gigglebot Girl, Omega Man, Kid Marvel and Shadowplay in Candlelight.
The Shadow Queen sagged wearily as her mystic shield came under attack by Lightning Lad, Abin Quank, Varalent and the Emerald Eye, Maxx the Sorcerer, Pagan Lass, Invisible Brainiac, Lardlad, Iron Rat and Disaster Boy.
The Red Bee watched the battle with interest, his hand still placed possessively on Crujectra’s shoulder. Suddenly the air was filled with smoke and the stench of brimstone. Nightcrawler had teleported within the magical shield, and he hadn’t come alone. Carrying Brainstorm and Prince Mykel along with him had nearly been too much for him, but they would be necessary.
“Get away from my sister!”
As one, Brainstorm and Mykel reached out, and a wave of psionic force crashed into the startled Red Bee. The villain was thrown backward across the ground. Turning to Crujectra, the pair again let loose a surge of power, and the inhibitor collar burst apart. Re-energized by royal fury, Crujectra rose to her feet, and the telekinetic trio turned toward the Time Mouse Trapper’s machine.
“No!”
As the Trapper howled in fury, the three heroes threw everything they had at the machine. Explosions rocked the asteroid as the machine was torn apart piece by piece. Brainstorm reached out for his sister, Mykel took the depleted Time Thief, and Crujectra reached out to Cobalt Kid. The three captives were pulled to safety as the remains of the Trapper’s machine exploded outward. The Shadow Queen was felled by a piece of the wreckage, and without her to feed it power, the shield was overcome by its assailants.
The LMBP and New Crusaders, having overcome their adversaries, stood in silent awe as the Entropy Spinach, no longer held captive, fought back against the Time Mouse Trapper. It was as though the universe itself moved as wave after wave of chronal energy burst outward from the battle. Reality seemed to bend around the tiny asteroid, and the stars at the End of Time winked in and out of existence.
Then, it was over. The Time Mouse Trapper fell to the ground, his body hitting the asteroid with a sickening thud. The assembled heroes held their breath as the Entropy Spinach turned its attention to them. “Uh oh.” A wave of chronal energy washed over them all, and the universe faded from their sight.
Posted by Spellbinder on :
Dragonheart, Powermax, Oracle, Spellbinder, Brainstorm, Cobalt Kid, Crujectra, Arachne and Beagle Boy stood in the garden in LMBP Plaza. The unconscious forms of Villains Inc lay in the grass at their feet.
“What the? What happened?” Cobalt Kid asked, his arms still locked protectively around Crujectra, as they had been ever since he had been freed. “How did we get back here?”
“And where is everyone else?” Arachne asked.
“We have been sent back here by the Entropy Spinach, as a token of thanks for its freedom,” Oracle said, standing between Powermax and Brainstorm, each of whom were offering her an arm of support. “As for the rest, well, they have been returned to wherever they were before this mission began. The LMBPers have been returned to their homes, and the villains have been sent back to wherever the Time Mouse Trapper found them.”
“What about the Time Mouse Trapper?” Beagle Boy asked.
“He remains trapped at the End of Time, he powers depleted once again. I feel that the Entropy Spinach will be keeping an eye on him from now on.”
“Swell,” Cobalt Kid said, clearly not happy that the villains were still on the loose.
“Don’t be cross with the Entropy Spinach, Cobalt Kid,” Oracle said. “It is a cosmic being, with a much grander outlook of the universe than we have. It cares not about good or evil, right or wrong. All that matters to it is that balance has been restored to this reality.”
“Well, except for you guys, of course,” Crujectra said, reminding everyone of the fact that, without the Time Mouse Trapper, they had no way of reopening the barrier between their two realities. Well, everyone except Oracle, apparently.
“Do not worry about us, Lady Crujectra. The Entropy Spinach has allowed us this chance to say our goodbyes. It has imbued me with just a hint of its power. Power that will allow me to open a portal back home.”
“Well, doesn’t that just wrap everything right up into a nice neat package,” Arachne said, leaning against a tree trunk.
Oracle reached out a delicate hand and made a quick gesture. The air before her began to shimmer and twist, and suddenly a hole opened up. On the other side of the portal was the garden outside Crusaders Citadel. Brainstorm wrapped the villains in a telekinetic bubble and sent them through the portal, figuring that they might as well go first, just in case.
“It’s been a pleasure working with you, LMBP,” Dragonheart said, shaking hands with Cobalt Kid.
“The pleasure was ours, Crusaders,” Cobalt Kid replied. “Your Earth is lucky to have you as its guardians.”
After a round of handshakes and hugs, the New Crusaders prepared to cross over. “I wonder if we’ll meet again someday?” Crujectra mused as the young heroes disappeared through the portal.
The voice of Oracle drifted back as the portal began to fade. “The Fates will bring us together again.”
Crujectra frowned. She couldn’t decide if she should be happy or worried.
Posted by Spellbinder on :
The End!
Hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to post feedback if you are so inclined Posted by Abin Quank on :
Great Story Crujecki! I particularly liked the JLA/JSA style teams. I found it to be quite appropriate for this LMBP/Crusaders Crisis! Posted by Spellbinder on :
Glad you liked it, Abin. There's more I wish I had done with it, more that I could have fleshed out, but I felt that it was probably long enough as it was
The important thing to me was the team ups, and I think those allowed everyone some time to shine, so I'm happy with that.
Who knows... maybe next year the LMBP will invade the Crusaders' Earth Posted by Spellbinder on :
If anyone is interested, this story is available in PDF form for your downloading pleasure Posted by Greybird on :
You create a clear and dramatic plot, and that's a skill that keeps one reading.
As for the teams ... well, nearly everyone was there Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
Midway through with thoughts!:
- I really love your descriptions of how powers work and the various ways to use them. Its like the way comics are supposed to be written and hardly ever are anymore! Your ideas on how telekinesis works (equal force to brace oneself) are simple & to the point, but informative and add to the effect.
- This already reads like a classic JSA/JLA team-up, at the height of JLA history! Each hero and villain gets a small spolight, the story continues to progress and move along and small sub-stories make way to the larger overall plot.
- I'll have to be sure I add in the Shadow Queen's original battle with the LMB to the timeline! I like her a lot, a great new LMB villainess. In fact, all the villains read great (I like the Time Thief especially). For some reason, I have a much better visual of her now than I did in Shadowspell.
- Its hard to pick a favorite New Crusader, but at this point its Oracle . Cool dynamic with her brother too!
- Bannata Commando! He's become a favorite of mine
- And the return of the Red Bee! What an entrance! Very well done. For some reason I picture Frank Miller's early 80's work or a very well shadowed George Perez's for an entrance. I love how he's truly become one of the more terrifying LMB villains.
I absolutely love it!
Now on the the second half!
[ April 25, 2006, 08:38 AM: Message edited by: Cobalt Kid ]
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
And it gets even better! The entrance of the Time Mouse Trapper is brillant! (As is the alliance b/t he, Red Bee and Shadow Queen). You also do very strong bit of writing--you address his past continuty (confusing as it is) very quickly and then move on. We know what we need to and the idea is intact: it doesn't matter exactly what his origins are, we know who the TMT is.
Time Ball (It *is* the LMB after all)
Love the idea of the TMT's plan.
The inclusion of the Entropy Spinach is inspired! Finally a visual to it too! The stand-off b/t the TMT and Entropy Spinach would be a epic!
The End of Time is such a fun setting for a battle too.
And the massive assault of the LMB is another great visual.
All in all, a pleasure to read! I loved it Posted by Spellbinder on :
As the LMBP Historian, I thought you of all people would appreciate some of the LMBPers that joined in the final assault, such as MightyFanBoyMan, Seahorse and Duplicate Man. I could have elaborated more on them, but decided to just pull a George Perez and throw as many LMBPers as I could into a couple of "panels"
Sigh. I miss Sasha and the others
Yeah, I thought time balls would be very LMBP
Oracle was very different for me, in that I had barely used her before, so I was kind of making her up as I went along. The big thing about her is that prophecy is her entire life, and as such I figured that she would trust the Fates completely, thereby going against common sense to follow the path she must take. I was pleased with how she turned out.
I have to admit that the scenes involving Spellbinder and Crujectra are among my favorites. Crujectra is so much fun to write, and Kyra was always my favorite Crusader. Oddly enough, in my earliest Crusaders stories, Kyra and Brainstorm were a couple. I was still a teenager then, and the idea of writing a gay character was taboo to me. It wasn't until after I came out in my 20s that Brainstorm was revamped into a homosexual, and soon after I paired him up with Powermax (who was named simply because at the time I liked the name Max, and decided to create a character whose nickname could be Max )
This story was the hardest OneVision for me to write, simply because I wanted to include a couple of LMBP villains to it (Red Bee, Time Mouse Trapper and Entropy Spinach) who I had never written before, and who I was mostly unfamiliar with (except for Red Bee). Cobie was kind enough to give me some background, and I took some liberties with the Entropy Spinach, as far as appearance and how it would act (the whole cosmic being angle). Hopefully I didn't stray too far off track.
I also knew that other posters had plans for the Red Bee and Time Mouse Trapper, so it was important to me that I returned them to where I found them at the end of the story, hence the Entropy Spinach's actions at the end of the story. Always put away the common toys so others can play with them too
Glad you liked the Shadow Queen and Bannata Commando There is probably alot more that can be done to flesh them out if anyone ever feels the urge.
As for how powers work, that was something I picked up from reading David Eddings "Belgariad". He talked about the use of magic, and opposing forces, and that just made sense to me, so I've always tried to keep it in mind when writing. There are natural weaknesses to anyone's powers, and the trick is figuring when to exploit them and when to counteract them. I think it makes the characters more human.
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. Cool dynamic with her brother too!![[Frown]](frown.gif)