Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business Postlo3w stories *LATEST UPDATE 7 APRIL*

Glad I could satisfy your Jordan/Gardner bloodlust, Harbi!

I love Garth & Imra and would love to have them on the team...like Jeckie and Mysa they won't really let it happen yet but hopefully one day!

Hoping you all like what's coming up and you should find some surprising elements turn up over the next lot of installments!

MARS
Husband Hill, Legion of Superhero Headquarters

ROLL CALL
Chlorophyll Kid aka Ral Benem: hyper-stimulated plant growth
Comet Queen aka Grava: flight, gas generation

Ral Benem took a gulp of his nutrient shake as he climbed the emergency stairs on his way from the Legion’s gym back to his personal quarters. The shake tasted foul, but Stone Boy had sworn it would help him replace electrolytes lost from physical activity while giving Ral the protein he’d need to repair and build muscle mass. Coming from Zwen, a planet not quite as technologically advanced as the UP standard, Stone Boy had been a great aid in helping Chlorophyll Kid lose weight as naturally as possible. It was also his idea for Ral to take the stairs where possible instead of relying on the people-moving technologies the rest of the Legion took for granted. His legs felt like Ventura Jelly after the intensive workout he’d just pushed himself through, but Ral had to admit that it felt good accomplishing his goals through his own hard work rather than letting a cellular trim-ray do the job for him. He was panting and wiping sweat from his brow when he came across Comet Queen sitting by the door to the first of the residential levels. She was holding her knees up close to her flat chest and she looked utterly miserable. “Comet Queen?” Chlorophyll Kid questioned. “What are you doing here all on your own?”

“I’m sorry, starshine,” she sniffed. “This is like the border territories of Legionland, nobody ever uses these stairs. I didn’t think I’d bother anyone here.” She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.

“You’re not bothering me,” Chlorophyll Kid reassured her. “I guess it’s just a weird place to hang out…h-hey, have you been crying?” He crouched down to her eye level.

“It’s Quislet!” Grava bawled. “He hasn’t come out of his room in days and nobody cares but me!” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed loudly.

“Aw hey, I-I’m sure it’s not that bad.” Chlorophyll Kid very awkwardly patted her knee. “He just—“

“No!!” Comet Queen blurted. She looked up at Chlorophyll Kid imploringly. “Don’t say that! Everyone says that, but what they mean is we just don’t matter! When Lightning Lad died, the rest of the Legionnaires couldn’t wait to sacrifice themselves to bring him back! When Shrinking Violet got kidnapped by that creep Micro Lad, the Legion ran after her faster than a tachyon burst when they found out! Parse me to the C-span, they tried to clone Lyle Norg and Ferro Lad! Bouncy told us all about it when I was at the Academy! Do you know what they did when Quislet’s first shuttle went full Q-dispersal and he phantomed back to Teall? Nothing! They knew his weird energy people hated him and they didn’t do a thing about it! They treat me and him both like we’re in elliptical orbits and we just don’t matter!” She had worked herself up too much to continue and lost herself into disconsolate wailing once more.

Chlorophyll Kid felt something come over him. Part of it was guilt. Like everyone else on the team, he tended to identify Comet Queen and Quislet more in terms of their idiosyncratic personality quirks than anything deeper than that. But a larger part of what he was feeling now was empathy. He’d been a member of the Legion of Substitute Heroes a lot longer than he’d been in the Legion of Superheroes, and for years the larger Legion had ignored and underestimated Ral and his friends. Even Polar Boy had turned his back on the Subs when he joined the Legion of Superheroes. As much as that had hurt, Chlorophyll Kid couldn’t deny that making it into the Legion of Superheroes himself had given him a sense of validation that he shouldn’t have needed to have felt. He was proud to be a full-fledged member of the Legion of Superheroes, but he knew that there was a particular elitism that permeated this team.

Ral gently lifted Grava’s chin up so she was facing him again. “Come on,” he said with a determination that shocked her out of her hysteria.

“Where?” the young heroine was clueless. “Where are we going, starshine?”

“You do matter,” Chlorophyll Kid declared firmly. “So does Quislet. And it’s time someone else in this team learned that.” He stood and offered his hand to help Grava to her feet, then gripping her hand tightly Ral Benem stormed off toward Brainiac 5’s multi-lab.

**********
SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE UNITED PLANETS SPACE

ROLL CALL
Dragonmage aka Xao Jin: dragon magic
Supergirl aka Kara Zor-El: Kryptonian physiology
Zoe Saugin: non-Legionnaire, infused with Green Lantern energy

Zoe Saugin had followed the trail of the Thunderers of Qward so swiftly that even Supergirl had to make an effort to match her speed. The Legion of Superheroes’ young sorcerer Dragonmage would never have been able to follow his old friend’s trail using his flight ring and he was glad that Supergirl had been there to carry him. Glowing an iridescent green, Zoe paused before a large brownish-grey world. It was the first time she’d stopped in nearly 30 minutes of space flight, and it gave the two Legionnaires the opportunity they’d been waiting for. Kara flew directly in front of Zoe, and Xao pointed at his ear. Zoe was confused for a moment, but she soon realised that he was trying to find a way to communicate with her and she used her power to transmit her voice from her ring to his telepathic earplug. “You two didn’t need to come,” she warned them. “This is a dangerous place for anyone who’s not a Green Lantern. What’s down there is not likely to be much fun for me as it is."

“Nobody doubts your power,” Dragonmage answered diplomatically. “Supergirl is at least your equal though, and my dragonforms may come in handy."

“It’s not about power,” Zoe explained. “This planet is Larfleezia. The one and only Orange Lantern rules here with an iron fist, an immeasurably old alien named Larfleeze. He signed a peace treaty with the Green Lantern Corps nearly a thousand years ago, Sodam Yat taught us about him. Larfleeze wasn’t supposed to bother us and we wouldn’t bother him. My power’s tracked the Thunderers of Qward here, if they think they can hide out on his planet they’ve thought wrong. He’ll give me the Thunderers to satisfy the terms of our treaty, he won’t take kindly to any other outsiders though. It’s best you stay here.”

Supergirl had a faraway look in her eye as she gazed upon the ugly planet. “Are you sure there’s only one Orange Lantern?” she asked.

“Of course I’m sure,” Zoe dissented. “Sodam Yat met Larfleeze. He lived through this history, Supergirl.”

“He may not have lived through enough of it,” Kara retorted. She released Dragonmage and took point in front of her two fellow travellers. “Because there are a whole lot of Orange Lanterns flying up to meet us right now.”

Zoe looked planetside and her already green eyes flared a slightly brighter emerald. “You’re right,” she admitted in a confused tone. “There’s an army of them approaching us…but that makes no sense, orange is the color of avarice! The whole reason there’s only one Orange Lantern is that Larfleeze refuses to share his power with anyone else! He never has! Why would he have his own corps now?”

“Wait, you said avarice?” Dragonmage thought on the matter. He could see the beginnings of the army that ascended through Larfleezia’s unbreathable atmosphere, dozens upon dozens of tiny gleaming orange lights twinkling in the murky fog. “You mean greed? Zoe, what if he’s decided he wants to be the only Lantern? If this Larfleeze can’t possess the other colors, maybe he’s just as happy to see them destroyed!”

The question remained unanswered. Powered by the orange light, Larfleeze’s agents swarmed the three heroes in no time. A platoon of automatons hit them like a wall of force, their metallic shells illuminated by neon orange strips of light. Supergirl’s invulnerable form shielded Dragonmage from the brunt of the attacking force, but sheer numbers soon separated them. He saw a flash of Kara's cape beneath a mountain of metal and completely lost sight of Zoe within seconds. Paradoxically, as much as the multitude of robots made them impossibly daunting opponents it also gave Xao some measure of safety. They swept over him like an unstoppable tidal wave of force, but none of the stronger and more durable machines had yet targeted him individually. Still, he knew his luck couldn’t hold out. Tumbling through the void of space as he was, bouncing painfully from one metal shell to the next, he couldn’t focus his concentration enough to summon a dragonform. He needed a moment to find his centre, just one moment.

Granting his wish in the most backhanded way, one of the robots grabbed Dragonmage by the throat. Its orange optical sensors blazed, and he heard a painfully shrill voice rip through his skull. “You think you can steal from Larfleeze? Nobody steals from Larfleeze! The Orange Agents will destroy you for even trying! Larfleezia and everything on it belongs to the God of the Orange Light!”

Dragonmage was no robotics expert, but he had the highly uncomfortable sensation that this thing was about to kill him. You wanted more experience with combat magic, he chided himself, Well here it is. Grimacing, Xao Jin knew he didn’t have the luxury of an elegant solution. An enormous jade dragon appeared behind him, its powerful jaws yawning wide enough to swallow both Dragonmage and his foe whole. Appearing suddenly in the middle of the robots as it had, it smashed several of them into their fellows. Its spreading wings and flicking tail took care of double that number. Finally, its roar of fury somehow travelling through the vacuum unaided, the dragon dashed forward and ripped the head clean off of Dragonmage’s robotic opponent. A dragonform this large and powerful was difficult to control, but outnumbered as he was, Dragonmage wasn’t too concerned about control. He trusted both Supergirl and Zoe to be able to keep clear of the beast, and he was happy for it to take out as many of these so-called Orange Agents as possible. Using his flight ring to mount the dragonform’s scaled head, Dragonmage felt something surprising as it tore through the ranks of the artificial beings’ ranks.

He was enjoying himself.

**********
“Get off of me!”

Supergirl hurled two of the robots into the crowd of metal which surrounded her. One of their appendages continued to grip ineffectively at her forearm until the rest of its body smashed to smithereens against its troopmates and the orange light which had given it life faded. More accurately, the light didn’t fade so much as it dispersed into near invisibility and beamed back down to the planet’s surface. It was something most other people wouldn’t have noticed, but with her enhanced senses very little in this universe was hidden from Kara Zor-El.

One of the things which was hidden from her right now was Dragonmage’s whereabouts. Nor could Kara see Zoe Saugin. There was a lot of lead in these metal shells, and there were a lot of metal shells. Supergirl’s x-ray vision was useless here, and it stopped her from truly releasing her power. As much as she’d have liked to incinerate the robots en masse, she had to make sure Zoe and Xao were safe first. Think, Kara. Twin beams of red light shot forth form her eyes to penetrate two of the attackers, her fists demolishing another three of them. Super-hearing is useless in space, and even if it wasn’t I doubt it’d overcome a hundred stupid robots screaming through my flight ring about their stupid orange god…I can’t see through these dumb machines, there must be some way to find Xao and his Green Lantern pal and get them out of this mechanical feeding frenzy! An animalistic roar came over the space battle even as Supergirl was lamenting that she couldn’t hear anything, and she cocked her head to one side with a puzzled expression. In the distance, dozens of robots flew in all directions and an enormous dragon appeared from out of nowhere. Kara smiled. Guess I found Dragonmage. She flew through a wall of the robots like a human battering ram, calling on a wide swath of heat vision to annihilate another squad of them who’d been getting in position to fire on the young sorcerer from above his field of vision. You’re full of surprises, Supergirl complimented him telepathically now that they were once again within range to use their earplugs to communicate. Nice one, short stuff!

Dragonmage blushed furiously. It’s really nothing, but thank you. Have you seen Zoe?

A brilliant explosion of emerald light caught the duo’s attention, dozens of robots flying from the force of rapidly expanding green energy a few miles away. I think she’s over there, Supergirl deadpanned. You wanna go have an old-fashioned superhero team-up?

Sure, I— Dragonmage cried out sharply, and though the sound didn’t travel beyond his transuit the telepathic connection passed on a knife of pain to Supergirl’s mind as well.

Unused to the sensation, Kara reeled for a second. Dragonmage, what is it? she asked. She instantly saw the cause of their mutual pain for herself. The robots weren’t just strong, a lot of them had cannons in their appendages or weapon ports in their heads or torsos. They worked together now to fire upon the dragon which had scattered so many of them, and the onslaught of orange energy was causing psionic feedback. The dragon shimmered and faded from existence, and no sooner had it gone than they turned their energy assault on Supergirl and her dazed teammate. Supergirl leaped to action, hugging Xao close and protecting him with her own hide for the second time today. The robots had them surrounded though, and their energy assault was hurting even Kara. If a single beam hit Dragonmage, he’d be dead for sure. She racked her brain for a way to get him to safety, but she couldn’t think of a method which would leave him unharmed. With the speed and efficiency with which these robots were surrounding the two teenagers, staying in one place wasn’t going to protect him for long either.

Suddenly a bunch of robots on one side were enveloped in a red flash of light which left them smouldering and half melted. A red and blue blur zoomed through more of them, tearing them to pieces and scattering them. Finally, a thin sheen of ice developed over more of the automatons, and the newly brittle hunks of frozen metal shattered just as easily before the charge of the petrified Legionnaire Stone Boy. Stone Boy and Polar Boy hovered before Supergirl and the now recovered Dragonmage while Mon-El and Ultra Boy continued to deal destruction on a grand scale to the robots in the immediate area. With a clearing made in the machine onslaught, Supergirl’s telescopic vision picked up the Legion’s shuttle near one of Larfleezia’s moons and her x-ray vision told her Chameleon Boy, Fire Lad, Light Lad and Matter-Eater Lad were on board. No doubt you could have found a way out of that mess yourself, Stone Boy greeted them via telepathic earplug, but when Ultra Boy’s penetra-vision saw you both underneath a dogpile of robots he thought neither of you would be ungrateful for the assist either.

He was right, Supergirl gave her rescuers a grateful smile. And I always say one good turn deserves another. She sped forward and smashed through five of the automatons surrounding Jo Nah.

Thanks, Jo winked. I could have taken them but you know, one power at a time means I have to think a little more about it.

Stone Boy traded blows with another of the Orange Agents while Polar Boy’s ice shields kept orange energy blasts at bay. Dragonmage was in the process of casting a new dragonform when he suddenly vanished in a streak of green light. Green’s good, right? a surprised Polar Boy asked. Green’s one of ours?

Stone Boy gave a brief look of concern before his fist caved in his opponent’s face plate. Let’s hope so.

**********
Dragonmage looked around in a daze. He could see the expanse of space around him and he could see his friends swarmed by a seemingly endless number of Orange Agents some distance away. Everything was tinged in green though. ‘Wha—?” The young sorcerer was shocked to hear his own voice clearly.

“Sorry for the rude abduction,” Zoe’s voice sounded. Xao spun around to find her floating behind him and realised they were both floating inside a translucent green sphere of light containing a breathable environment. “We can’t fight these Orange Agents forever, they’ll eventually wear us down. I need to take the fight to the Thunderers, and I can sense that they’re down there on Larfleezia. I don’t know why they’re working with Larfleeze, but I intend to find out.”

“And you brought me here to…help you?” Dragonmage asked disbelieving. “Zoe, I can’t just leave the Legionnaires to fight these things on their own!”

“Oh, come on.” She rolled her eyes. “Even Stone Boy is holding his own, you think the Orange Agents are a threat to Mon-El, Ultra Boy or sprocking Supergirl? You said you were here for me and I didn’t want to bring you into this, but it’s too late for that so are you going to help me or not?”

Xao struggled between loyalty to his friend and loyalty to his team. Zoe was the only reason any of them were even here, Xao didn’t feel right leaving them to finish the fight she’d led them to. He felt worse about the idea of her confronting those Thunderers again on her own, especially if they were allied with someone who referred to himself as an orange god. “Very well,” he finally agreed meekly. “I’ll help.”

“Xao Jin, you’re the best friend a girl could ask for!” Zoe threw herself at him, hugging him tight. The bubble flashed away toward the dirty planet’s furthest hemisphere, far away from the main continent from which thee robots were swarming forth. In their wake, a jade dragon small enough to fit in the palm of a young man’s hand zipped off in the other direction away from the planet.

**********
The surface of Larfleezia was a chaotic mess. It had been many centuries since its several large landmasses had featured anything even resembling conventional cities. The entire world now was just a space for Larfleeze to store the many many things he hoarded. Rare gems, discarded machinery and the detritus of generations piled high around the planet like manmade mountains. What had once been a robust civilisation of artificially intelligent machines had for hundreds of years now been nothing more than an extension of Larfleeze’s will. Those who weren’t cataloguing his worldwide collection were preparing to meet their fellow Orange Agents in battle high above their trashpile of a planet. Larfleezia’s atmosphere had long since been rendered toxic to organic beings, and the only two flesh and blood men currently on Larfleezia’s surface were protected by their similarly hued rings.

After billions of years of close proximity to its exotic and mind-warping radiations, Larfleeze now contained the energy of the orange power battery within him. Physically, the self-proclaimed orange god was not particularly imposing. He was long-limbed, wiry and awkward in stance. The sharpened fangs and tusks which sprouted forth from his elongated snout gave him an air of savagery though, and one look into his manically gleaming eyes confirmed his single-minded animal lust. “You try to steal from Larfleeze?!” the ancient alien ranted, spit flying from his bare-toothed snarl. “Pray to your own stupid god that the God of the Orange Light only kills you! Better than what I did to your friends!” He gestured, and a deadly rain of orange hardlight blades rained sideways at the bald stranger who’d invaded Larfleeze’s home.

The stranger’s hastily erected golden shield couldn’t stand up to the assault, and it exploded into fragments which dissipated into the thick soup of air around them. One of the knives slashed his arm, and a second embedded itself in his thigh. “Wait!” the invader called out. “We can help each other! I can help you find all the material wealth you could possibly desire! All I ask is seven little rings and I’ll help make the universe yours!”

“Larfleeze doesn’t help,” the alien sneered, “And Larfleeze doesn’t share. The orange light is mine! Only mine!” Larfleeze gestured at the corpses around him, Thunderers he’d slain. “Then again, maybe Larfleeze should be magnanimous. Have all the orange light you need!” A ray of light beamed forth from the ring on his clutching hand and enveloped the Qwardian corpses. The orange ring scanned and replicated them, and in as much time as it took to imagine the assault half a dozen orange Thunderers were closing in on their former commander. Larfleeze howled with wheezing laughter as the purple-robed bald man pulled out every stop just to survive the attack of thunderbolts and battering shields.

The stranger manipulated two of the constructs into annihilating each other, and despite himself Larfleeze was impressed. Whomever this rash would-be thief was, he knew how to use the green and gold rings he was wielding. Larfleeze had initially thought the man to be a Green Lantern. The Sinestro Corps hadn’t existed for centuries so he couldn’t possibly be a Yellow Lantern. Larfleeze had developed a grudging tolerance of the Green Lanterns though, they were the only sentients he’d even come close to respecting. The members of the Green Lantern Corps were traditionally chosen not just for their dauntless will, but also their altruism and sense of honour. It didn’t make sense that one of them now would reduce himself to brazen robbery. Unless…why was he wielding two different colored rings? Why did he want more? Was he being directly influenced by Parallax or one of the other emotional entities? Larfleeze realised it didn’t matter. He just wanted him dead, and then those rings would belong to Larfleeze. His eyes glinted orange with avaricious desire. His treaty with the Green Lanterns meant he’d never been able to add a Green Lantern ring to his collection of valuables, but really this one had come storming into his house. “...And everything that comes to Larfleeze is mine," he crowed, rubbing his taloned hands together gleefully.

With the disgustingly hairless stranger distracted by Larfleeze’s constructs, Larfleeze himself concentrated on two towering piles of vehicles on either side of him. He visualised enormous orange plates on either side of those piles, and without any hesitation Larfleeze slammed the plates together. The bald man was caught in the middle of the deadly crush, his shocked cry cut short by the sound of hundreds of tons of metal and plastic smashed together. Larfleeze presumed the man must be dead and was about to use his own ring to scan for those the stranger had worn when a female voice caught his notice.

“Larfleeze, right?” Zoe Saugin floated before him in her green bubble, Dragonmage at his side. “What happened to these Thunderers?” She looked down at the broken corpses littering the cluttered battle site.

Larfleeze instantly forgot about his victim. The presence of another Green Lantern here confirmed the truth he’d not wanted to face. His centuries-old treaty really had been broken. The Green Lanterns were as base as any other creature in this universe. “Mine!” Larfleeze exploded in fury. “The orange ring is mine!” Dispelling all finesse, he simply blasted the emerald bubble to nothingness.

Zoe was aghast at the raw power he displayed. Even with her own ring supplementing the energy she’d absorbed from Neon, she had barely kept the force bubble intact long enough to prevent herself and Xao from being obliterated. She refocused her willpower and envisioned Larfleeze in a cocoon of green light. It was a cocoon he shattered with frighteningly little effort. “Mine!” he raved once again, flying straight at her. “Bring two Green Lanterns, bring a million, you’ll never take Larfleeze’s ring!”

Orange hardlight claws extended from his raised arm, but before he could strike at Zoe he found himself entangled in dozens of slithering scarlet snake-like dragons. “What is this?!” he railed. “You have a red ring too?! Larfleeze will take them all! Red, yellow, green, all will be mine!!”

“It’s not any kind of ring,” Dragonmage spoke up. “It’s a simple spell. I can assure you we haven’t come to steal your ring. In fact Sir, I believe we may have a common enemy.”

“Magic?!” Larfleeze shook his head in blind rage. “Larfleeze hates magic!” An omnidirectional burst of orange light tore the dragonforms apart and sent Zoe and Xao flying backwards where they bounced painfully several times before coming to a stop. As they both rose groaning to their feet, the Orange Lantern advanced on Zoe. He formed an orange noose around her throat and lifted her from the ground kicking and gasping for air. Panicked as she was, she couldn’t concentrate to save herself and resorted to clawing at her throat ineffectively. “Now,” Larfleeze sneered while Zoe’s face turned red then purple, “Larfleeze will kill you and take your ring, then Larfleeze will take your friend’s rings and then Larfleeze—“

“Imposter!” an unerringly familiar voice barked from behind him. “You think you can impersonate Larfleeze?!"

Larfleeze turned to face the newcomer and was utterly stunned to come face to face with an exact duplicate of himself, right down to the orange ring. “How—“

Before he could make sense of the doppelgänger, he was abruptly flung into orbit. Larfleeze’s twin morphed into the friendlier form of Chameleon Boy, and Light Lad, Fire Lad and Matter-Eater Lad stepped out from where they’d been hiding behind a colossal mound of golden coins. Matter-Eater Lad wasted no time in flying to Zoe’s side. He momentarily deactivated the transuit which was keeping him safe from Larfleezia’s toxic air and with one well-placed chomp he disrupted the orange noose which was still choking the life out of the young Green Lantern. She collapsed into his arms while Light Lad helped support a concussed Dragonmage. “Saved…my life,” she rasped. “Both of us…how..?”

“Dragonmage here sent us a little escort,” Chameleon Boy explained. “When his dragonform phased through the hull of our shuttle, we figured he might need help.”

“Thank you,” Xao grimaced. His head pounded, but he knew he couldn’t afford the luxury of unconsciousness. “I don’t know how much you saw but this Larfleeze is powerful…he was too powerful for the two of us, and I can’t imagine that you’ve inconvenienced him for very long. We should leave.”

“Xao, no!” Zoe uttered a hoarse complaint. “We still don’t know why the Thunderers were here, why they attacked Oa!”

“These men are not going to give us any answers,” Light Lad said, looking at the Qwardian corpses around them. “And we saw and heard enough that I believe this Larfleeze person can back up his threat to kill you and take your ring if we stay.”

As the senior Legionnaire present, Chameleon Boy made the decision to take charge. “We’re leaving,” he announced firmly. “Even Jo and the others must be getting tired fighting those robots by now.”

“He’ll just follow us!” Zoe shouted in opposition. “We can fight him on the run or we can fight him here!”

There was a tremendous sonic boom, and before any of the gathered heroes could react Larfleeze cannonballed back in with terrifying force. The impact of his landing sent them all flying and toppled his hoarded piles of belongings. “Mine!” Larfleeze roared triumphantly. “You're all mine!!”

His head bleeding, Matter-Eater Lad looked around at his allies. Chameleon Boy and Dragonmage were out, Light Lad and Fire Lad weren’t much better off. Barely conscious, Zoe nonetheless wobbled defiantly on her feet. “Sorry kid,” Tenzil muttered under his breath. “I can see how that stubbornness made you a Green Lantern, but you gotta learn when to cut and run.” He grabbed the nearest heavy object and smacked her upside the head with it before she could launch an ill-advised attack. “Darvan!” Tenzil bellowed. “Grab Cham and Dragonmage, we’re about to make the galaxy’s most suicidal escape attempt! Hey Staq, how flammable d’you think this pea-soup atmosphere is? You think this Larfleeze guy likes his planet more than he likes the idea of killing us?”

“You’re not sseriouss...” Fire Lad’s jaw dropped as he realised what Matter-Eater Lad was suggesting. Larfleeze created a small arsenal of floating orange guns pointed right at them and Fire Lad made his decision. Suicidal is right, he thought to himself as he inhaled as large a lungful of oxygen as his transuit would let him. Still, probable death beats certain death. He switched off his transuit and breathed a plume of flame into the smog around them. There was a rush of motion as Light Lad’s power released them from gravity’s hold, their field of vision filled with flames and the spike in temperature even penetrated the comfort of their transuits.

Then there was blissful oblivion.

**********
MARS
Husband Hill, Legion of Superhero Headquarters

ROLL CALL
Brainiac 5 aka Querl Dox: 12th level intelligence, team leader
Chlorophyll Kid aka Ral Benem: hyper-stimulated plant growth
Comet Queen aka Grava: flight, gas generation

“So that’s the problem.” Chlorophyll Kid completed his monologue with his arms folded aggressively across his chest as he stood in Brainiac 5’s multi-lab. Comet Queen stood behind the former Substitute Hero. She’d been unusually subdued while Chlorophyll Kid had demanded their leader’s attention and explained Grava’s fears about Quislet. Until now Grava had known Chlorophyll Kid as a stammering insecure guy, kind of cute in his own way and sweet as Honeyrock Magma, but she’d never suspected this side of him existed. She was a little awestruck, truth be told.

“Ridiculous,” Brainiac answered without looking up from his latest experiment. “The Legion insisted that Quislet undergo rigorous psychological testing when he first joined the team, and again when he rejoined us. The artificial influence of Fearstorm aside, it’s not possible for Quislet to suffer from any kind of emotional distress. If anything, that’s even more true of him since his return. The fact of the matter is there is very little to Quislet aside from pure hedonism.”

“You think he’s been out partying all this time?” Comet Queen threw her hands up. “You think he wouldn’t tell me if he was?”

“Brainiac.” Chlorophyll Kid moved around so he was in the Coluan’s field of vision. “Can’t you just check? Please? If this were any other Legionnaire, you know you’d be taking his absence more seriously. He’s not even answering direct comms.”

Brainiac sighed and squeezed the bridge of his nose. “I’d be taking it more seriously because any other Legionnaire takes their role here more seriously. Still, if it’ll earn me some peace and quiet…” He tapped at a button to record the progress of his experiment without him and walked over to a larger console where he entered a command to locate Quislet’s homing beacon. The console breeped rudely back at him and Brainiac frowned.

“What…what does that mean?” Comet Queen asked gingerly. “The shiny little shuttle’s in his hangar, right?”

“No,” Brainiac 5 replied darkly. “The shiny little shuttle is most assuredly not in his hangar. Nor is he anywhere else within his homing transmitter’s range.” He stepped back from the console and thought for a moment. “Come with me,” he said without another word of explanation. Comet Queen looked imploringly at Chlorophyll Kid who simply shrugged, and they both ran to follow their leader’s determined gait out of the multi-lab.

The trio found themselves outside the door to Quislet’s quarters. “I’m not gleaming your shine,” a puzzled Comet Queen approached Brainiac 5. “I thought you said the shiny little shuttle wasn’t here?”

“The shiny— Quislet — is not here,” Brainiac 5 corrected himself. “However, I have a sinking feeling the answer to his whereabouts is.” He uttered a command to override the privacy lock and the door to Quislet’s residence whooshed open. True to his word, Quislet was nowhere in sight. In fact, the room itself was a featureless white void. Only one thing broke the surreal sameness, a small perfectly formed black hole floating in the centre of it all.

“Wh-what is that..?” Chlorophyll Kid stuttered.

“That,” Brainiac 5 answered, “is trouble.”

NEXT: THE SECRET ORIGIN OF QUISLET 2.0

*********

EDITOR'S NOTES!

* For anyone not familiar with the Green Lantern mythos, Larfleeze is actually an existing character. He even had his own series for a little while where he took ownership of an entire planet full of robotic lifeforms and found out he was related to G'nort of all people. He and G'nort seemed to get on pretty well by the end of it...the treaty with the Green Lanterns is something I made up though.

* Brainy's mention of Quislet rejoining the Legion is a reference to his off-panel and never explained reappearance on the roster around about the time of the Legion of Three Worlds story. He had originally been forced to leave the team when the Emerald Eye of Ekron wrecked his ship and he had no way of staying in the Legion's reality.

* The black hole in Quislet's room has appeared only once before, in the one and only adventure where we saw his home dimension of Teall. Wildfire had to help him escape then before his people essentially lobotomised him...that might be a fact that's good to know before heading into the next instalment...


(editted because IB was quicker on the draw than me)

Wow! Some amazing action here. I like how you have a bunch of "lesser-powered" Legionnaires taking on Larfleeze. Xao's thoughts were good and it is nice to see him embracing his aggressive side.

Ral trying to lose weight was fun and relatable and I am very excited to see Quislet's origin!

Glad you liked it IB! That last scene kind of came together by accident, I just felt guilty about leaving those guys stuck on the cruiser & wanted to give them something to do but I'm quite happy with how it came out considering how outgunned they were! Larfleeze was taking on multiple cosmic-level dudes in his solo series so he's pretty much way overpowered for most Legionnaires to take on directly

I kinda like the idea of Ral struggling with his weight....it is something that I can relate to very easily, and it's a nice character bit that draws on continuity where he's been shown as being anywhere from standard superhero bod to pretty overweight.

Me too, I get fat easily even now so I really appreciated Ral's struggle.

Btw forgot to comment on the bald guy. Doubt he is dead! Is that Luthor? Seems Lex would be a bit more aggressive, but he was the deputized Orange Lantern in Blackest Night

Love this Raz!

I don't know anything about the Orange Lantern so it's great to read about him, with enough information to let me follow it perfectly clearly but without it feeling like a nasty info dump, good job there. I really enjoy your take on both Kara and Xao, both seem really well realised, and Chams trick never gets old - I was planning on Yera using it soon but now I'll have to think of something else

Your take on Grava is the best in this forum, you do her a real justice, take a bow as she's not easy to write convincingly. Your Sub love is superb too, Ral shines! Looking forward to where they go next, more, more, more!

Oh, and thanks for the kind words on my fic too, always appreciated.

Lazafeeze is super powerful and i'm glad Tenzil was able to knock Zoe out before she got herself killed.

Entire robotic world at his command and all of his avatars made for a cool battle and will be more epic.

I agree with Harbinger i don't know much about the Orange Lanterns but this was great without being a huge info dump.

Kara is kicking some butt and saving the day.

I like that Ral is stepping up for Grava and Quislet. they made some really good points and i can't wait to see how you tackle his home dimension.

Thanks guys! Grava is one of my favourites and it can be difficult to give her the right blend of kookiness and earnestness so I take what you said as a massive compliment Harbi!

I also have a big soft spot for the Subs as is probably way obvious by now lol

We may not have seen the last of Larfleeze, but that mysterious bald guy he probably killed is probably definitely dead and probably won't pop up again I'm sure

DEEP SPACE
Two light minutes from Larfleezia

ROLL CALL
Chameleon Boy aka Reep Daggle: Durlan shapeshifter
Dragonmage aka Xao Jin: dragon magic
Light Lad aka Darvan Locke: anti-gravity control
Polar Boy aka Brek Bannin: cold and ice generation
Zoe Saugin: non-Legionnaire, infused with Green Lantern energy

Xao Jin groaned as he stirred into consciousness. He instantly realised he was no longer on the Orange Lantern’s junkyard planet, and it only took a couple of seconds longer for him to recognise his surroundings as the sickbay on one of the Legion of Superheroes’ cruisers. He looked across to see Polar Boy and Chameleon Boy in their own beds, Zoe and Light Lad watching over them. “What happened..?” the groggy young sorcerer asked. He tried to sit up and thought better of it immediately. “Larfleeze..?”

“…thinks we’re dead thanks to Matter-Eater Lad’s crazy idea,” Zoe answered his question.

“The atmosphere of Larfleezia turned out to be quite volatile,” Light Lad explained when he saw the confusion on Dragonmage’s face. “Tenzil told Fire Lad to set it alight as a distraction to cover our escape, and…well, one megascraper-sized fireball later and Larfleeze thinks we’ve been incinerated. Which isn’t surprising as we very nearly were.”

“The others?” Dragonmage looked across at his bedridden comrades.

“They’ll both be fine,” Darvan reassured him. “Just a little banged up. We’re all a little banged up, Larfleeze and his agents are scary powerful!”

“I shouldn’t have taken you with me,” Zoe admitted glumly. “I could have gotten you all killed, I’m sorry.”

“You might have gotten yourself killed if we hadn’t been there,” Dragonmage countered with a pained smile. “I’d rather take some bruises if the alternative is losing a friend.”

“At least it’s all over now.” Zoe gave a dejected sigh. “The way Larfleeze was acting made me think he’d come across a Green Lantern before we got there. So when I woke up on your ship I checked and one of the Green Lantern rings is unaccounted for. Those Thunderers must have taken it on Oa, and then they tried to take Larfleeze’s ring, and well…he killed them all and I can’t find any trace of the missing ring so I guess he destroyed that too. I can’t believe my friends died so that those monsters could get one sprocking ring and I never even got a chance to avenge them.” Her voice cracked as she finished talking, and Zoe wiped at her eyes with the back of her gloved hand.

“Cham and Polar Boy don’t need me while they’re resting,” Light Lad announced quietly to Dragonmage and Zoe. "I’ll give you two a little privacy.”

Darvan left the sickbay, and Zoe Saugin considered her next move.

**********
MARS
Husband Hill, Legion of Superheroes Headquarters

ROLL CALL
Brainiac 5 aka Querl Dox: 12th level intelligence, team leader
Chlorophyll Kid aka Ral Benem: hyper-stimulated plant growth
Comet Queen aka Grava: flight, gas generation
Tellus aka Ganglios: telepathy and telekinesis
Wildfire aka Drake Burroughs: anti-energy being

“So what’s the little jerk done now, Brainy?” Wildfire stood in the featureless space of Quislet’s quarters and looked over the black hole floating before them all.

“We don’t know that Quislet has done anything,” Brainiac 5 answered calmly while Comet Queen poked her tongue out at Wildfire. “From Comet Queen’s reports it seems that he retreated into isolation after Fearstorm’s psionic assault. His fellow Teallians may have simply chosen to exploit that isolation to abduct him once more.”

“Last time you got him back straight away!” Comet Queen railed. “It’s been days this time around! Parse me to the C-Span, the shiny little shuttle could be dead already!”

“I don’t think Quislet can die,” Wildfire dissented. “Not like you guys anyway. I’m gonna be stuck with that twerp forever.”

“Quislet’s immortal?” Chlorophyll Kid’s eyes grew wide. “Wait a m-minute…W-Wildfire, are you saying that you’re immortal??”

“You never heard of conservation of energy?” Wildfire retorted bluntly.

“Under the examinations of both myself and the Science Police, neither Wildfire nor Quislet have displayed signs of anything approximating atomic decay,” Brainiac explained more thoroughly. “It seems that one of the basic precepts of physics holds true for them as it does for any other form of energy; they naturally remain constant.”

Chlorophyll Kid thought on the matter for a moment. “B-but…how do you replenish—"

“Can we get on with this?” Wildfire interrupted. "Not that I don’t enjoy talking about how I’m gonna outlive everyone I’ve ever loved but truth be told, I really don’t enjoy it.”

“Of course,” Brainiac acquiesced with uncommon humility. “My apologies, Wildfire. Sometimes my scientific interest overcomes my sense of propriety. Tellus, are you prepared?”

“Prepared and quite eager if I may say so,” the gentle Hykraian’s voice modulator sounded. “Ensuring Quislet’s safety is of course my first priority, but I must admit that the opportunity to explore Teall with Wildfire’s assistance is one that I find fascinating.”

“I’m nebula-hazy,” Comet Queen pouted. “Quislet told me baryonic matter can’t exist in his crazy energy world the same way he can’t exist in ours without his shinygleaming microship…and how’s Tellus gonna fit in that little hole anyway?” She pointed at the perfectly black disc which was barely large enough to fit Quislet’s ship.

“It is true that I cannot physically enter Teall,” Tellus explained patiently, “Nor can my telepathy unaided communicate with the Teallians. Wildfire can exist in both worlds however, and by linking my mind to his I will be able to sense Teall as he does. I will also act as his bridge to the rest of you.” Tellus let the soft wave of his telepathy wash over Grava, subtly excluding the others. I know how important Quislet is to you, Comet Queen. He is my friend also. We will bring him back.

Comet Queen hugged herself and smiled shyly. It had been a long time since she’d been a student alongside Tellus at the Legion Academy and the two had never been particularly close, but she had always felt that he had a respect for her she wasn’t sure she’d earned. “Thanks Space-Fishy,” she mouthed silently.

“Come on,” Drake Burroughs prompted Tellus. “Do your head-voodoo and let’s go get back the one Legionnaire who’s ever been a bigger pain in the butt than me.” He opened his mind to Tellus and felt an initial icy rush followed by a warm flow of inquisitive empathy.

While the Hykraian’s enormous yellow body remained motionless beside the others, Wildfire could unmistakably feel Tellus’ presence in his mind. Indeed, Tellus agreed. Let us depart.

Brainiac 5 surrounded everyone else in a forcefield to protect them from unintended backwash as Wildfire faced the black hole and raised his visor. For an instant, the blazing light of explosive anti-energy filled the borderless space of Quislet’s room and then Wildfire’s empty costume drifted to a floating rest. Brainiac 5 dropped his forcefield and Comet Queen rushed to pick up Wildifire’s costume. Clutching it to her bosom while Chlorophyll Kid stood close by, she looked into the void that had claimed her friend.

“Good luck, starshines,” she whispered into the darkness.

**********
Tellus had often wondered how it was that Wildfire interpreted reality visually when he no longer had eyes. He supposed it must be some function of Drake Burroughs’ Terran mind trying to retain as much of a link to its previous existence as it could. Right now, Tellus wasn’t sure how to feel about that. To Wildfire’s mind, Teallian space was an overwhelming plane of black and white areas which appeared flat but at the same time three-dimensional. Tellus’ own eyes weren’t as adjusted to certain fields of vision as those of his mammalian friends and he’d had to teach himself to adjust when seeing through their senses, but this was a different matter entirely.

It’s weird for me too, Wildfire admitted. And it’s weird that this link goes both ways…I can kind of feel what you’re projecting but I don’t think you’re consciously projecting it…does that make sense?

For this level of connection there will be some natural ebb and flow between our minds, Tellus explained. Imagine it as a tide drawing closer and further to shore. There is a subsurface level where the connection remains strong, but we will co-mingle at other depths as they happen to come into contact as well.

I guess now I know how Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl’s psychic rapport feels, Wildfire mused. Have to admit, it’s not as creepy as I thought it would be. Tellus clearly felt what was swimming between those words. ...I wish I could have this with Dawnstar.

It was difficult to gauge either time or spatial dimension here, but soon they seemed to be closing in on a particular black area in front of/surrounding them. There’s something I gotta warn you, Wildfire confessed. This is just the border space between Teall and our world. Teall is not gonna be anything you can prepare for, just like nothing I could have said would have prepared you for this weirdo place. But Tellus, when we get there you need to be on top of your game.

The Teallians nearly assimilated you upon your last visit, Tellus picked up from his teammate’s thoughts. Wildfire, why did you not tell us of this before we left?? I sense that you barely escaped with your energy form and psyche intact!

Last time Quislet came back here we just let him, Wildfire explained. Tellus could feel his guilt like a burning grip. Better than anyone else I knew what was waiting for him back here, and I always wondered if I should have done more to try and help him. This is my chance to make that up to him…and if Brainy knew how dangerous this was last time there’s no way he’d risk sending me back now. But Quislet and I made it out on our own when we were last here. This time we’ve got your help, there’s no way we can fail.

Let us hope not, Tellus replied. Together they felt reality around them change structure somehow. It were as though they were being compressed and simultaneously stretched out into an infinitely long and thin cylindrical space. They tasted something like battery acid as their minds tried desperately to interpret the physics-bending changes taking place any way they could. They were overcome with a sickening sense of vertigo and then they could have sworn Wildfire’s naked energy form made the same annoying poop-pop-poop as Quislet’s tiny ship as they were expelled into a geometric sea of fiery orange and yellow particles. The micro-dimension of Teall felt impossibly larger than the threshold they’d traveled through to reach here, but at the same time claustrophobically small. Tellus had to call on meditative techniques he’d learned before ever leaving Hykraius to centre himself in this hellish miasma.

You okay buddy? Wildfire asked.

I do not like this place, Tellus answered almost fearfully. I feel far from the embrace of Great Mother Ocean here, Wildfire.

We’re far from a lot of things, Wildfire sympathised. Heads up, we’ve got company.

Five fiercely glowing embers shot through the matrix toward them like comets through a blazing sky. They were at once like torpedoes shooting through an ocean but at the same time almost seemed like a virtual simulation, mathematically mapped out to precise points. Everything felt right-angled here, unnatural. Back on Mars, Tellus could feel the pods on his back turn a stark white color. He held on to that, held on to the dim awareness of Brainiac 5, Comet Queen and Chlorophyll Kid’s concern for them. He was afraid without it he would lose his anchor and drift madly here forever.

“Outsider!” one of the embers trilled in a voice unerringly similar to Quislet’s. “But! Familiar!” Each word came from a different glowing lifeform, continuing flawlessly from its predecessor.

I see them as you do, Tellus confided to Wildfire. But my telepathy senses them no more than it senses Quislet.

That’s not necessarily a disadvantage, Wildfire thought back at his teammate. They can’t sense you either. They think I’m here alone. With whatever passed for his voice in this space, Wildfire addressed the Teallians. “You should recognise me,” he announced. “I’ve been here once before, the last time you tried to kidnap my friend. I’m here to help him come home, just like last time.”

“This! Quislet home!” the hive mind of Teall barked. “Soon! Your world! Home! As well!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Wildfire demanded.

“You! Think! Quislet! Traitor! Think-Apart!” The five Teallians surrounded the ball of anti-energy which constituted Drake Burroughs’ presence here. “That Quislet! Lives no more! Quislet! Fixed now! Teallian scout!”

“What have you done to him?” Wildfire asked. He wished he didn’t feel so helpless here. “What do you mean he’s fixed now?”

“We! Show!” the Teallians crowed. Three of them positioned themselves in triangulation around Wildfire and encased him in a bubble of invisible force. The other two shot away into the distance.

Don’t panic, Wildfire comforted Tellus silently. Once they bring Quislet here, we’ll figure out a way to escape.

Tellus didn’t respond. He knew Wildfire was accustomed to blasting his way out of any situation, but Tellus had a sinking feeling this was one problem they weren’t going to be able to charge their way through. The absent Teallians returned soon enough, a new glowing ember alongside them. Somehow, Wildfire and through him Tellus knew the newcomer was their comrade despite the fact that he was visually identical to his fellow Teallians. Tellus wondered if perhaps Wildfire’s own energy form responded to some unique emission of Quislet’s on a subconscious level which allowed Wildfire to recognise him without even being aware of it.

“Quislet!” Wildfire pushed against the force constraining him. “Come on! Rebuild your ship, let’s get out of here!”

“Wildfire should not have come to Teall,” Quislet responded. There was something in his voice that Wildfire had never heard, something he couldn’t quite place. Then it dawned on him. It was contrition.

“Quislet, stop messing around!” Wildfire snapped. “I don’t know what they’ve done to you, but you don’t have to put up with it! We can help you, Tellus came with me!”

“Tellus here?” A note of hope lifted Quislet’s tone. “Tellus, go home if you hear Quislet! Tell Legion, Quislet sorry!”

“Sorry?” Wildfire asked. “Sorry about what? Quislet, what’s going on?” It was then that Drake Burroughs noticed more of the shining sparks of life which were the Teallians shooting through the blazing cosmos toward them. A handful more stopped near them, followed by twice as many more. A couple dozen more came, and many more after them. Soon a pyramid formation of Teallians floated before them, each one an exactly calculated distance from his neighbour. “Quislet!” Wildfire shouted. “Tell me what’s going on, damn it!”

Quislet remained quiet on the matter, but the Teallian hive mind did not. “You! Think! Quislet! Your hero!” they screamed. “Quislet! Only! Gather! Information! First! Teallians! Want to! Assimilate! Alien life! Now! Teallians! Assimilate! Alien Dimension!”

“Quislet sorry!” the Teallian Legionnaire repeated. “Quislet not want to hurt Legion, Legion Quislet’s friends. But too late for that, too late for anything now!” As he spoke, the pyramid formation of Teallians focused their energy alteration abilities and each individual constructed a micro-ship around himself. Whereas Quislet’s ship was a gleaming chrome though, these ships were a deep metallic blue, sinister red trim highlighting their rounded curves.

Wildfire, what is happening? Tellus asked, alarmed.

The dark ships flew off in formation, dozens upon dozens of them following the path Wildfire and Tellus had taken to get here. Still entrapped by the handful of Quislet’s people they’d originally encountered, Drake Burroughs could only watch in horror. Tellus, warn Brainy! Wildfire ordered urgently.

Teall is invading the United Planets!

Zoe and Xao would make a good pair two Corps down, I am curious about the rest.

Uh oh, was Quislet a spy all along? Or is there something up its sleeve? This invasion is going to be rad!

We will get around to seeing what the rest of the emotional spectrum has been up to if the Legion make it through Quislet's story in one piece! I have to rein myself in from writing an invasion/battle scene for every single Legionnaire and supporting cast member ever lol

When we get back to revisiting the Corps, I promise a new development for one of the Legion worlds, the introduction of a Legion character I haven't written in my series at all yet and the return of probably the least expected Legion villainess ever! Oh, and that Zoe chick might hang around a bit longer too

I sometimes have to rein myself in from giving every single Legionnaire on my team something to do in those mega battles that I like to write. But sometimes I am too weak to resist

Yay more Zoe! And those other bits you mention sound intriguing

I love your story Raz, the idea of Teall invading the UP is outrageous and funny and really creepy at the same time. Meanwhile the Weaponeers and the Emotional Spectrum war is away to kick off Too... Your team are going to be pushed hard to deal with everything so I'm looking forward to see what you do with your storylines.

More, more, more!

MARS
Husband Hill, Legion of Superheroes Headquarters
Nura Nal sat up in bed with a shocked gasp, instantly jolted out of her slumber by the jarring realism of the vision she’d just experienced. Not wasting a moment of time, she brought her flight ring to her perennially glossy lips. “Dawnstar, this is Dream Girl! Where are you?!”

“What is it, Dream Girl?” came Dawnstar’s haughty reply. “I have agreed to aid the Science Police in locating a cache of solar crystals the Taurus Gang have sequestered away in the asteroid belt.”

“Forget about that,” Dream Girl said dismissively. “Get back to Mars, you’re going to be needed.”

“In case you’ve forgotten, you haven’t been the leader of the Legion of Superheroes for quite some time,” Dawnstar countered. “And without my powers, it may take the Science Police months to locate these stolen valuables.”

“Without your powers, Lightning Lass is going to die!” Nura snapped. “Now get back here!” She ended the communication before Dawnstar could protest and shook Thom Kallor next to her roughly.

“I’m awake,” the hirsute Legionnaire named Star Boy grumbled. “I was hoping you’d go back to sleep, but no such luck huh?”

“Put your costume on,” Nura commanded as she bounced out of the luxurious bed they shared and made her way toward the en suite bathroom. “Trust me lover, you’re not going to want to be naked ten minutes from now.”

**********
In the borderless void which was Quislet’s quarters, four Legionnaires waited with varying degrees of patience before a small perfectly formed black disc. Comet Queen was bent over, three-fingered hands pressed against her thighs as she tried fruitlessly to peer into the sightless depths of the black hole. “They’ve been gone like starspans,” she whined. “Can’t we call them for an update?”

“As I explained the last three times you asked,” Brainiac 5 struggled to maintain a civil tone, “I imagine it’s already quite taxing for Tellus to remain tethered here with us while he simultaneously accompanies Wildfire into Teallian space. There is no reason for us to make his task even more difficult by badgering him for constant reassurances. When there is news to impart, I trust he will do so.”

Beside the Coluan hypergenius, Tellus was hunched over in eerie stillness while Chlorophyll Kid stood next to him watching the Hykraian’s back pods anxiously. Chlor didn’t fully understand the unique visual language of the Hykraians, but his old friend Color Kid had made a point of studying Hykraian communication since joining the Legion of Superheroes and he’d shared a few pointers with Chlorophyll Kid. One of the things that Chlor remembered was that a Hykraian’s pods turned white when they were in a state of great stress or shock. Tellus’ pods had been stark white for a large part of the time he’d been on the other side of that black hole. “H-hey Grava?” Chlorophyll Kid called out nervously, “Maybe y-you shouldn’t be standing so close to that portal, we d-don’t really know h-how safe it is.”

Comet Queen didn’t move back, but swivelled to grin at the slightly overweight hero. “It’s sweet that you care, starshine. But I jumped into the tail of a comet to get my powers, a baby black hole’s not gonna scare me now.”

Immediately as she completed her statement, Tellus shuddered to life and his telepathic voice rang out in all their skulls. Legionnaires!!

Comet Queen and Chlorophyll Kid gave a surprised yelp, and even Brainiac 5 was visibly startled. My apologies, Tellus continued. But the urgency is warranted. My friends, the Teallians are invading our space! They have Wildfire captive, and Quislet seems to be working alongside them!

“What?!” Comet Queen exclaimed. “Quislet would never work with his weird energy people against us, we’re his friends! And how are they gonna invade us when they can’t even exist in our space?” She heard a poop-pop-poop which she recognised instantly and squealed in excitement which soon turned to alarm as a deep blue version of Quislet’s familiar microship zoomed straight out of the black hole, barely missing the golden heroine. Not missing a beat, Brainiac 5 projected a forcefield around himself, Comet Queen, Tellus and Chlorophyll Kid.

“Well,” Brainiac deadpanned. “I suppose that renders that question moot.”

**********
LUNA
Silver City, Crescent Bay Fusion Restaurant
Outside of his Element Lad costume Jan Arrah was just one more well-dressed diner at the most exclusive eatery on Earth’s moon, though not many people were paying attention to Jan with his date stealing glances from most of the sentients in the room. In her deep jade evening dress, a dusky shawl draped over pale freckled shoulders and her fiery red hair tied up in a loose bun, Shvaughn Erin was breathtaking. “You hate ostentation,” Shvaughn smirked over a glass of Winathian rose wine. “Why’d you bring us here, Jan?”

“Because I’ve seen my partner’s bucket list,” Jan smiled back, “And this restaurant is quite high up on it. Forgive me if I want to spoil the woman I love after nearly losing her.”

Shvaughn put her glass back down and reached across the table to grip Jan’s hand. “You are too good for me, you know that?”

“Luckily for you, I’m convinced otherwise.” Jan brought her hand to his lips and kissed it gently. Screams diverted the couple’s attention, and they looked outside the picture window to see a Science Police patrol droid opening fire on passing skycars.

“What the sprock?” With one hand, Shvaughn reached for the modular pistol in her handbag on the floor. She drew her other hand close to her mouth and uttered an override command into her wrist-comm unit to deactivate the droid. “Nothing happened!” she exclaimed. “If someone’s hacked into SP systems—“

“Then it means we settle this in a slightly more dramatic way,” Jan completed her sentence for her. He stepped up from the table and sent an electro-static charge through his suit which clothed him immediately in a far more famous fuchsia and black outfit. He approached the huge window and turned part of the glass into free-floating oxygen, a stunt he next repeated with the droid itself. Jan turned to a nearby waiter watching in mute shock. “Sorry about the window,” he apologised. “I’ll replace it with a temporary layer of aluminium and of course the Legion will pay for a more permanent repair.”

“Jan, look out!” Shvaughn pointed past him. The Trommite hero turned just in time to see a tiny blue ship fly through the hole in the window. A golden spark leaped from the ship’s open hull into the window pane itself, and transformed into an acutely angled glass creature which slashed at Element Lad. Jan jumped back just in time to avoid being disembowelled, and before the odd creature could make a second attempt Shvaughn disintegrated it with a well-placed shot from her handgun.

“Quislet! Tell us! About! The Element Lad!” the living ember barked. “Transmutation! Powers! Useless! Against Teallian! Matter!” The Teallian re-entered his ship, but as soon as the hull closed Element Lad encased the vessel in a solid iron block and it fell with a loud thud to the restaurant floor.

“I may not be able to transform your ship,” Jan said coolly. “That doesn’t matter though when I can just trap you inside of it.” He looked gratefully at his Science Police lover. “Thanks for the assist, Shvaughn. I’d better call this in to Brainiac 5, I’m sure he’ll be just as intrigued as I am to find out why one of Quislet’s people are taking potshots at sentients on Earth’s moon.”

“Jan, it’s not just one of his people.” Shvaughn had retrieved her omnicom from her handbag now and stared at it incredulously. “SP reports are coming in faster than I can read them. This is a full-scale invasion of the United Planets!”

**********
MARS
Husband Hill, Legion of Superheroes Headquarters
In the Legion’s monitor room, Gas Girl’s jet black eyes grew wide with disbelief as she gazed at a galaxy-wide holographic tableau of violence. “They really are everywhere,” she announced to Brainiac 5 over a comms link. “Quislet’s people are opening portals all throughout known space! Mars, Earth, even Weber’s World!”

On one holoscreen Night Girl, Cosmic Boy, Timber Wolf and Color Kid faced reanimated statues of their fallen comrades Ferro Lad and Karate Kid just outside the Legion’s headquarters. On another screen the Legion of Substitute Heroes protected the citizens of Metropolis from a rampaging 30 foot tall moopsball mascot. Gas Girl’s lifelong friend Life Lass tested her powers against the Teallians on Lallor, and Takron-Galtos’s resident superhero team the Workforce had the unenviable task of fighting off Teallians while simultaneously preventing the prison planet’s criminal population from making their escape. Like Element Lad and Shvaughn Erin on Luna, Shrinking Violet and Calorie Queen’s date on Bismoll had also been interrupted. Bouncing Boy and Duplicate Damsel had stopped a Teallian from demolishing the Time Institute on Titan and Sensor Girl had reported an incursion on her isolated world of Orando. It seemed nowhere was safe from the inter-dimensional invaders.

Brainiac 5 began to utter a command, but his holographic visage flickered and faded in a shrill burst of feedback as the computer console projecting it came to life surrounded in a telltale glow. “This! Our space! Now!” the vaguely humanoid collection of metal and plastic ranted. “Legionnaires! In the way!”

The construct brought a heavy fist down on Gas Girl, and the bald heroine dissipated into a fine mist to protect herself from force powerful enough to completely shatter the chair she’d been sitting in. The Teallian took another ineffective swing at her before it burned out its current form and leaped into another console. He’s gonna destroy the whole monitor room if I don’t stop him, Gas Girl assessed the situation. What can I do though? No point corroding whatever form he’s using, that’s just destroying the building for him! It was then that she saw the extradimensional invader’s shiny blue ship hovering obediently in a high corner of the room waiting for its master. “Hey!” Gas Girl shouted. “You need that ship to stay in our dimension, right? Wonder what’ll happen when my acidic mist burns right into the hull?” Her cloudy form shifted color until it was a sickly green, and she drifted toward the vessel.

“No!” the Teallian screamed in predictable alarm. “Maybe Gas Girl! Do it! Maybe not! Not take! Risk!” The Teallian abandoned its current host and the pile of plasteel and electronics crumbled into powdery dust as he entered his ship and zoomed out of the room and into the corridor.

“Another one!” a younger girl’s voice rang out. Gas Girl’s slower moving mist form made it out of the room just in time to see the Academy student Dragonwing exhale a plume of flame which the ship expertly ducked. Her attack instead melted a small hole through the external wall of the Legion’s headquarters and the Teallian took advantage of the opportunity to flee through it.

Gas Girl paused before Dragonwing, Chemical Kid close behind his classmate. “Are you guys okay?” the Lalloran heroine asked.

“Are you kidding?” Chemical Kid beamed. “This is the most fun we’ve had since we came to this dusthole of a planet! It’s like playing Starship Shooters III in real life!”

Gas Girl smirked, though her facial features were vague enough in this form that it went unnoticed. It was a very brief time ago that she’d been that young and eager herself; she liked these kids. She followed the microship outside and into a scene of utter chaos. There were creatures made of rock and plasteel, converted aircars and shuttles, even a floating billboard which had absurdly grown four arms to wrestle with Elastic Lad while it flashed Interlac slogans about the health benefits of McCauley Industries detox ray treatments. A spindly long-limbed creature which had once been an antennae array swirled up Gas Girl’s form as it fell past her, then disintegrated before it hit the ground. The incorporeal heroine looked up to see Phantom Girl descending.

Tinya rolled her eyes. “I went phantom, the silly thing charged straight through me and off the roof…they may have Quislet’s powers but they don’t have his smarts.” Tinya gave her similarly insubstantial comrade an exaggerated look of seriousness. “Grife, don’t ever tell Quislet I said that. He’ll be impossible!” Phantom Girl and Gas Girl both giggled, then peered skywards when a sharp crack of thunder caught their attention.

**********
High above the Legionnaires’ home, Ayla Ranzz’s power decimated the winged metal form of the Teallian who’d pursued her this far. In the early morning sun her lightning didn’t draw much attention outside the immediate area, but the deep boom which accompanied it was heard by every sentient within a hundred feet. The thunderclap made everybody look, and that made it all the more gut-wrenching when the Teallian leaped straight from its former vessel to the golden band which Lightning Lass wore on her finger. Ayla’s eyes grew wide with horror as she realised what was happening. “No!” She clutched desperately as what had once been her flight ring morphed into a miniscule replica of a Teallian ship and darted off, glinting in the sunshine. Ayla herself plummeted like a rock, gravity taking its swift and inevitable course.

Another Teallian had engaged Gas Girl and Phantom Girl; the instant either of them turned solid to catch Ayla they’d doom themselves. Sun Boy was protecting Invisible Kid and Infectious Lass, both of whose powers were no defence against these queer invaders. Even Timber Wolf could only look on helplessly as a Teallian-possessed titanium cable kept him bound and occupied on the ground that Ayla was rushing toward.

This is so stupid, Ayla fumed. How does an ex-Light Lass die from a sprocking fall?? She thought of her brothers Garth and Mekt. She closed her eyes as the ground came closer, then screamed as she felt something entirely different slam into her and whisk her sideways. She opened one eye gingerly and saw that she was in Dawnstar’s arms. “Holy nass! Dawny!!” Ayla hugged her winged saviour with trembling arms and planted a wet kiss on her cheek. “You saved my life!! Where did you come from?? How did you even know I needed saving?! Oh sprock, I think I’m gonna throw up.”

Dawnstar’s wings spread wide to slow her flight, and she deposited Lightning Lass gracefully alongside Blok, Diamond Damsel and Kid Computo. Danielle Foccart helped the far less graceful Lightning Lass stand while Blok and Diamond Damsel smashed Teallian rock creatures around them. “You may thank Dream Girl,” Dawnstar replied, wiping her cheek with the back of her sleeve. “Eternally frustrating she may be, but her precognition does have its uses. What is this madness, Legionnaires? If I didn’t know better, I’d think we were facing Quislet’s people!”

“No, no, you know just well enough.” Danielle rubbed Ayla’s shoulder while the still shaking heroine sucked down lungfuls of air and steadied herself.

“Looks like Quislet was a spy all along,” Ayla continued explaining. “We don’t really know anymore than that yet though.”

“Where is Quislet?” Dawnstar asked huffily. She narrowed her eyes and looked into the distance, completely ignoring the pitched combat going on only feet away. “My power can’t sense a trace of him anywhere. For that matter, where is Wildifire?”

Kid Computo bit her lip and shared an awkward sideways glance with Lightning Lass. “Welll….funny you should ask that…”

**********
TEALL
Inside a force bubble in a universe dominated by blazing reds and oranges, the formless anti-energy named Drake Burroughs fumed. He’d been trying to break free of the Teallians’ ensnarement since they’d started their invasion of United Planets space. The glowing spark which was Quislet in his native state hovered just outside Wildfire’s containment bubble while a seemingly endless procession of Teallian ships continued to fly off in pyramid formation to wreak havoc in Wildfire’s home dimension.

“Quislet, what the sprock is this about?!” Wildfire exploded impotently. “Your people can’t exist outside of their ships for more than a bunch of seconds at a time back home, how the sprock do they think they’re gonna take over the UP? Why do they even want to take over the UP?! Last time I was here, they were appalled by my individuality! Don’t they realise there’s a whole sprocking universe of individuality out there waiting for them?!”

“Quislet sorry!” the Teallian Legionnaire blurted. “Quislet—“

“Damn it, stop apologising!” Wildfire shouted. “Just answer the sprocking question!”

“Teall not take over United Planets,” Quislet explained, “Teall annex the space, expand home dimension! When Quislet’s people inhabit matter, matter falls apart and energy released! Only little bit of energy from Quislet alone, but—“

Wildfire completed the statement, his mind racing. “—But the energy release from every one of your people, every single time they jump into something, eventually it’ll tip the balance and make my space habitable to them, and inhabitable to organic life! But that’ll take forever! What the sprock kind of nutty plan is that?!”

While not physically present, Wildfire’s Hykraian comrade Tellus had accompanied Wildfire here via mind link and thus shared his awareness of everything that transpired. We do not know the average lifespan of a Teallian, the telepathic hero reminded him. They may consider your definition of forever as something far more finite and reasonable, Wildfire.

“So you’ve been planning this the whole time you’ve been in the Legion?!” Wildfire raged at Quislet. “What were we to you, just some kicks while your pals perfected their plan to destroy our whole dimension? Damn it Quislet, we trusted you!”

“Quislet’s people not want to annex your space at first,” Quislet replied. “First they want to find other energy beings like us, to assimilate. When they find out your space full of sentients they can’t assimilate then Teall scared, but after Quislet’s ship wrecked and Quislet sent home Teall came up with new plan! They send Quislet back to spy on Legion, to send reports about Legionnaire powers so they know how to fight Legion! And then they decide to take Legion’s space!”

“And you just helped them?!” Wildfire ranted. “Are you nuts?! What am I saying, of course you're nuts! And I’m just as crazy for ever coming after you!”

“Not Quislet’s fault!” the Teallian pleaded. “Teallians change Quislet to make him more like them! Quislet fight back but Quislet couldn’t fight forever! Quislet never want to hurt Legion but Teall make him thinksame! And then Fearstorm scared it out of Quislet, made Quislet more like old self! But too late then! Too late for anything! Quislet come home to try and talk Teall out of crazy plan but Teallians got Quislet good! Wildfire should never have come to Teall, Quislet’s people do the same to Wildfire too now!”

Wildfire! Tellus exclaimed telepathically. What he describes sounds like behaviour modification! If that is the case, Quislet was never truly responsible for his betrayal at all!

Maybe so but that doesn’t help us fix this, Wildfire thought back. “You need to tell your people to come to their senses,” he said out loud to Quislet. “You know the Legion will stop them, but how many sentients are gonna get hurt in the meantime? You really want that on your conscience?”

“Quislet can’t help it!” he protested. “Quislet don’t want to hurt anybody but Quislet different now! Teallians made Quislet like them!”

If only my powers could affect our friend’s mind, Tellus pondered, I could have a chance of restoring Quislet to his original state. Working together we could perhaps end this without the need for violence. I am sorry Wildfire, I have failed.

Wait a minute, Wildfire considered their dilemma. You can’t affect Quislet’s mind because he’s an energy being, right?

That is correct, Tellus replied.

Wildfire had an epiphany. Tellus! I’m an energy being! If you can get into my head, what makes Quislet so different?!

I have conferred with Brainiac 5 about this, Tellus explained. The strength of his psychic link shared the concepts he was thinking as strongly as it shared the words which described those concepts. Our comprehension is that when you lost your human body, you instinctively structured your anti-energy matrix to replicate your neural network as accurately as possible. If I am to be honest I do not understand the science at all, but I am comfortable deferring to Brainac 5’s expertise in this. Quislet never had a human brain, his physical make-up is so divorced from any other living creature I have known that my powers do not even recognise him as possessing a mind at all.

So all we have to do, Drake Burroughs mused sardonically, Is get Quislet to become a completely different species. Easy. He paused a moment. You know, maybe it is actually easy..!

I sense what you are planning, Tellus spoke into Drake Burroughs’ mind. It seems highly improbable if I may say, my friend.

I’m a ball of anti-energy carrying someone’s disembodied mind into a universe completely unlike my own. I think we left probability back a ways ago, Tellus. Wildfire called Quislet’s name out loud. “You remember when you were teaching me how to conform my energy into a corporeal body?” Wildfire asked. “How did you do that?”

“Quislet know energy matrices,” the tiny Teallian responded. “Quislet know how to shape their fields, teach Wildfire how to shape. But Wildfire not very good at it, how that help Wildfire now?”

“I’m terrible at it,” Wildfire agreed. “But you, you’re really good.”

“Quislet good at everything,” the ego-driven entity started to warm to the subject.

“Why, I’ll bet you could even mimic the structure of whatever passes for my brain these days so you could speak to Tellus too!” Wildfire prompted him.

“Quislet never try before,” he answered. “But Quislet bet he can do it easy! How hard can Wildfire’s brain be?” His energy form seemed to change frequency somehow. Wildfire wasn’t entirely sure how or even how he could sense it, but he did sense it. And do did Tellus.

Contact! the Hykraian exclaimed.

For the first time since they’d joined the Legion of Superheroes together, Tellus had more than a vague peripheral awareness of Quislet’s psyche. As overwhelming as Teall itself was, Quislet was driven by simple desires; hedonism, independence, altruism, friendship. Tellus was glad that his friend’s mind was so easily understood, because operating through Wildfire as a proxy he wasn’t sure he’d have the strength of will to access Quislet if the Teallian Legionnaire were even half as complex as any of his organic comrades.

It was easy to see where the Teallian hive mind had grafted their personality additions on to the rebel in their midst to make him a more docile servant. The crippling obedience and need for approval were like grey webbed cocoons around the joyously vibrant strands of energy that made Quislet unique. Normally Tellus didn’t approve of using his own telepathy in an aggressive manner, but these people had hurt his friend in a way that he knew somewhere deep inside Quislet abhorred. Tellus wasn’t going to fail him now. He visualised the personality grafts as seaweed, his strong Hykraian paws rending them to shreds of astral matter which floated away on the tide as he swiped again and again to reveal the pure white star of Quislet’s inner essence.

Stop! A barrage of angry psionic voices screeched. Intruder! Make Quislet! Thinkapart! Teall! Won’t let! Intruder! Bring! The traitor! Back! The drab ribbons began to form again around Quislet’s mind. As much as Tellus tried to tear them away, the Hykraian knew he was not strong enough to oppose an entire race of sentient beings when that race was united as one overpowering force.

“Tellus done enough,” Quislet said out loud, having felt his telepathic teammate’s despair. “Quislet do this wrong before, Quislet try to fight Teall! Maybe Quislet learn something from Wildfire and Tellus! Now Quislet teach Teall to be like him!”

Quislet, no! Tellus protested, realising what he was going to attempt.

"What the hell’s going on?!" Wildfire shouted. He had some awareness that there was a psychic conflict occurring but Tellus’ link with him didn’t extend to allow Drake to be connected to the struggle going on around Quislet’s psyche at the moment. All he could sense was the heightened emotion coming from both his teammates and the rest of the Teallians, and the physical presence of a growing number of Teallians surrounding them all.

Both physically and astrally, Quislet’s brightness began to bleed into the Teallians around him. They changed color ever so slightly, and their frequency changed as his energy flowed through them all. The effect spread out, and then something amazing happened. Each individual Teallian became a different hue to his neighbour. Their frequencies all rose or fell only the most minute amount, with each one finding its own unique point of vibration. Influenced by the only individual mind their species had ever spawned, the Teallian hive mind transformed itself into a race of unique entities. The wave that Quislet had started was propelled by his fellow Teallians, and soon not a one of them was spared from its individualising effect. The Teallians crackled once more, and an ember of energy instantly familiar to Wildfire and Tellus reformed before them.

“Quislet save the day again!” the exuberant little spark boasted. With no effort at all, he released Wildfire from the containment bubble in which he’d been trapped this whole time.

“Okay, someone explain to me what just happened!” Wildfire complained. “We’re all friends now?? What the sprock, you two?!”

“Like Quislet said,” the once-again cocky adventurer explained, “Quislet teach Teall to be like him! Teallians all their own people now! Minds still connected, but not one! Teallians have to make up their own minds what they want to do now but they don’t know how yet so they all come home to learn! Quislet going to visit lots and teach them to be awesome heroes like Quislet, the best Legionnaire of all!”

We were still connected for some of that process, Tellus explained more fully. It seems that as the Teallians could influence Quislet’s matrix, he could also influence theirs. It was something that had never occurred to him to try, and it has evolved their entire race! They are all retreating, Wildfire! Quislet really has won the day! Our friend has returned to us!

“Well that’s just great,” Wildfire groaned. “If his ego was planet-size before, it’s gonna be as big as a sprockin’ star system now. Come on…

…Let’s get our nasses outta here.”

**********
QWARD
Q’Uld, the Voidrim
On a world of golden sands and the ruins of buildings which had once dominated those sands, there stood a city. Many of the cities of Qward had fallen over the centuries and not risen again, but this city…this city had stood. The citystate of Q’Uld was a thin crescent-shaped testament to the enduring stamina of the Qwardian people. Internal power struggles, interdimensional assaults from the Green Lantern Corps, the Sinestro Corps, Krona, the Descendants of Mongul, several incarnations of Earth's Justice Leagues and Rannian champions, nameless predators from the Bleed or the higher or lower planes of the multiverse, none of these things had managed to permanently wipe out the war-borne Thunderers of Qward. Q’Uld was their proudest remaining seat of power, and it loomed over an enormous void which devoured anything that plunged into its unholy depths. Sometimes, standing on the Voidrim, the Thunderers felt the bone-chilling wails of the lost souls it had been swallowing since before the beginning of recorded time. Only one creature had ever emerged from the Void, the Qwardian deity Erdammeru. Erdammeru the Void Hound had rained terror down upon the Qwardians, taught them the value of violence and was responsible for their devotion to the art and tools of war.

One of those tools was the golden ring which currently sat upon the finger of a cloaked bald man. A green twin sat on his other finger, and he huddled inside his cloak now while these weapons for once used their power for a constructive purpose to heal his broken body. He tried to hide his weakness from Highlord Ofreie, the stoic armoured Qwardian who currently walked the Voidrim as his companion. The cloaked bald man was not a Qwardian, he was not from this universe at all. He had found his way here through guile and the application of his vast and self-serving intellect, and those gifts had done him well so far but he couldn’t afford to rest on his laurels.

“How many more of my Thunderers died?” Highlord Ofreie asked bluntly. His voice was booming and his enormous round eyes seemed to stare into the cloaked human too well.

“All of them,” the Earthman answered without hesitation. He knew it wouldn’t serve him well to try and sugarcoat it. “Larfleeze killed them all. I was lucky to escape with my life at all.”

“When you came to my world,” the leader of the Qwardian people decreed, “You came with promises that we would gain the power of all of the Corps. Instead, we have found slaughter at the hands of Green and Orange Lanterns.”

“A temporary setback,” the shorter man replied quickly. “Don’t forget I also brought you a yellow ring and a green ring. The Orange Lantern was more savage than I anticipated, but with reinforcements—“

“It has not escaped my attention that you wear those rings, human.” The Highlord stopped strolling and looked down at the bald man. The Qwardian was a full head higher than his interdimensional ally. “I know, I know...until we learn to reverse-engineer the weaponry they are the only rings we own. And you are far more familiar with their workings than we are. When you proposed to wear them in our service until our enemies were dead, admittedly that prospect was enticing to me. It has been many many cycles since our people had enemies to face in bloody battle.”

“You can’t be getting cold feet now!” the human man protested. “We slaughtered the Green Lantern Corps, we can kill Larfleeze! We’ll find the other rings and your Thunderers will have the power of all seven Corps! Just as I promised!”

“You have delivered something substantially different to your promise, human. You have delivered us to the attention of Sodam Yat, to the attention of the female Green Lantern who absorbed her comrade’s power. You delivered us to the attention of the Orange Lantern, to the authorities of your universe who now hold those Thunderers whom survived your scheming like rats in a cage. You have not delivered us new enemies…you have pointed your enemies toward us. And I suspect you would find it hard to depart with the power of the Emotional Spectrum were we to help you find the rest of it. Simply put…the risk outweighs the benefits.”

The human man felt a sharp stabbing pain in his gut which wrenched the breath out of him. His mouth gaped in confusion and he coughed thick blood up onto the jagged blade which Highlord Ofreie had skilfully inserted into his torso. The Highlord slashed sideways before his victim could put either of his two rings to use, and the human man screamed in agony as more of his blood spattered the Qwardian’s golden armour. “You…you…I’ll…” the bald human staggered, remaining conscious only through sheer force of will. Green energy already began to seep across his open wound, but before he could go on the offence the Highlord simply smashed him across the temple with the heavy handle of the knife. The cloaked human tipped over the edge of the barricade upon which they’d been walking alongside and tumbled silently into the whipping winds of the Void.

Highlord Ofreie watched the man fall long enough to placate himself that he was truly doomed, and then turned away to walk from the Voidrim back into the city which he ruled with an iron fist. “The Thunderers of Qward are no man’s pawns,” the Highlord proclaimed to his departed victim.

“You would do well to remember that in your next life, Universo."


**********
EDITOR'S NOTES:
I may have mentioned this last time, but Quislet's original stint with the Legion was cut short when the Emerald Eye destroyed his microship and he had to return to Teall

Those Thunderers sure got around in the last thousand years!

Wow! Amazing ending raz. Tricking Quislet into mimicking Wildfire's energy patterns and having Tellus reverse the brainwashing and making Quislet evolve his entire species... Amazing!

And I never expected Universo!

Thanks for the kind words IB! Quislet's story is one of those ones I have been holding on to since forever, it is good to finally get to tell it

...and I don't think it is spoiling anything to say we probably haven't seen the last of Universo, hopefully where he goes from here will be just as surprising!

I love how this invasion is both large scale and small scale and the way you used Quislet to change his people was really inventive. I like that it just takes one of them to change all of them. Its a great message.

Dreamy commanding Dawnstar was well done.

I liked Element Lad and Shavanugn's date. it was cute up to the interruption. I would have loved to see some extended battles with the Legion.

Chemical Kid's line about this being the most fun they've had and it being like a video game was funny.

I like the lightness of this war as opposed to others which get so dark and quickly.

Universo is a great villain and i'm looking forward to what he's going to do and i'm still unsure if the Thunderers are definitely out. Could they be planing something of their own?

can't wait for more.

That's the last time I'll think "Funny little Quislet"! An invasion by Teall is such a wild idea and you handled it with great imagination. Very clever!

Thanks peeps! Quislet evolving Teall should see some long-term consequences, I am glad you guys liked it! I like the challenge of writing meaningful plot developments for Quislet while still keeping him a basically silly character

Funny you mentioned wanting to see some more Legionnaires in battle Omni...I did actually have some detailed scenes for a Shadow Lass/Laurel Kent team-up as well as Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and a bunch of students fighting a transformed cruiser that I had to chop out for space.

Also funny that you brought up the Qwardians, Zoe might get her rematch with them after all before too long...

Raz, this has been such a fun ride!

Loved Nuras and Thoms scene, her pragmatism and dynamism compared to his just wanting to stay in bed. Sounds like my relationship actually, though before you ask I'm no Nura her conversation with Dawny was great too. Why do people doubt a precog? Even one as self absorbed as Dreamy.

You showed the scale of the invasion really well without bogging us down with too much detail or unnecessary tangents to the main storyline, the only point I was slightly disappointed not to read was Life Lass dealing with the Tealins, that would have been interesting to read.

I like how you have included the Subs nd Academy kids too btw, you really have a grand holistic view of the Legions wider circle.

Aylas near death experience and Dawny's save was well done, those sneaky Teallians attacking flight rings!

Ultimately it was Quislet's save that takes the award for the best bit of character development he's had in twenty years. Very clever way to end the threat, and I genuinely am in awe of your skill at wrapping up stories so well, rather than dragging them out like I do. Wildfires comment about the size of Quislets ego is so true, I'm looking forward to how you write him going forward. Also be interesting to see how the othe legionnaires react to him, and the whole galaxy that have had to deal the invasion.

Loving the Qwardian storyline too, it's great the way you intersperse this bigger storyline with the invasion storyline.

Great stuff Raz, thoroughly enjoyed this and am eagerly looking forward to more, more, more!

Life Lass vs Teallians would be a pretty interesting battle! Too bad I am not a Carggite, there are a lot of Legion supporting cast characters I'd like to focus on more if I had time

I'm glad you like my use of the Subs and the Academy....I do like writing all of the Legion's world when I get a chance!

More Qwardians (and Zoe) coming up!

MARS
Cerberus Palus, Elysium Fields Floating Gardens

ROLL CALL
Chlorophyll Kid aka Ral Benem: hyper-stimulated plant growth
Comet Queen aka Grava: flight, gas generation
As Comet Queen approached the expansive floating gardens of Elysium Fields, it occurred to her she’d never been here before. The gardens stretched for a couple of miles, held aloft above ancient Martian lava flows by modern gravitic technologies. The artificial forest was an oasis of green on the red planet, and while Grava preferred the star-dotted vastness of outer space she had to admit that the gardens were pretty in their own way. She hadn’t come to look at trees today though. She flew low over the verdant canopy, attracting stares from tourists below and causing children to whoop in excitement as they recognised the golden girl streaking overhead. This is space-crazy, Grava chastised herself. I’m never gonna scope him here if he’s not in his costume, I’ll have to call him. Just as she was about to speak into her flight ring, a tousled head of blond hair caught her attention by a bed of siren cylinders. Grava circled her unwitting target a couple of times until she was sure it was him and then landed a few feet away.

While families and nature-lovers in the area gasped and took out their recording devices, Ral Benem remained completely oblivious to Grava’s arrival. Dressed very casually, he was fascinated by the long pinkish colored flowers before him. As their name would suggest, the siren cylinders were a group of brightly hued hollow tubes rising from a dense bush of rough-edged leaves. They whistled at various pitches, a subsonic component attracting nearby insects to enter their deadly embrace. Once the insects made their way inside the cylindrical flowers, a sticky excretion sealed their fate. Ral heard a familiar voice call out “Starshine!” and he tilted his head in mild surprise.

“Grava?” he turned to face his teammate. “You’re in costume, d-does the Legion need me?”

“Nonono, nothing like that!” She shook her head vigorously. “Kid Computo traced your flight ring here, I hope you’re not flaring!”

Ral raised one puzzled eyebrow. “Uhh...no. No, I...don’t think I’m f-flaring. H-how can I help you?”

“I just wanted to say thanks,” she smiled shyly, digging at the dirt nervously with one oversized toe. “Quislet’s my pal, and when he needed help you were the only one who listened to me. I know I’m not in the same orbit as everyone else. I’m not used to anyone listening to me, even my friends don’t listen to me most of the time. I’m nova bright that you did, and now the shiny little shuttle and Tellus and Wildfire are talking to the United Planets about bringing Teall into their gravitational pull, and it’s all thanks to you! So I just wanted to say thanks!” She ran up to him and kissed him on the cheek. “Oh! And I came to give you this!” Grava brought her left arm from behind her back and revealed a hastily wrapped box in her palm. She’d decorated the wrapping paper herself with childish renditions of trees and flowers.

Ral was equally bemused and touched. “Y-you d-didn’t need to d-do that,” he stammered, taking the box from her. “Everyone deserves t-to be heard, Grava.”

“Open it!” she squealed, clapping her hands and jumping up and down on the spot. “Open it, open it!”

Ral laughed. “Okay, okay, give me a nano.” He tore at the paper and removed the lid from the small box, unsure of what he could expect. With Comet Queen, it could be anything. “G-grava! Oh wow Grava, it’s b-beautiful!” He removed from the box a small multi-faceted flower made from black stone which gleamed in the sunlight. “T-this must have c-cost you a fortune, it-it’s flawless!” Stunned, he held the quartz flower closer to his face and turned it around so he could examine every surface.

“Do you love it?” Grava clutched her hands before her face. “Do you love it? Starshine, tell me you love it! It’s a crystal rose, from Qual III! It’s not a real rose of course, I mean duh, but the crystal grows like that ‘cause of…reasons. I dunno, I kind of went nebula hazy when my auto-teacher beamed that part.”

“It’s really beautiful Grava, truly. And very thoughtful. I do love it, thank you.” Ral gave her a warm smile and she giggled nervously.

“Yay! Okay, gotta fly! Enjoy your plants!” She kissed him on the cheek again and was a tiny golden streak in the distance before he could respond. Ral touched his cheek while he watched her disappear into the endless blue skies. She certainly was a strange girl…

...but he was beginning to like it.

**********
MARS
Husband Hill, Legion of Superheroes Headquarters

ROLL CALL
Fire Lad aka Staq Mavlen: fire-breathing
Light Lad aka Darvan Locke: anti-gravity control
Polar Boy aka Brek Bannin: cold and ice generation

Staq Mavlen and Brek Bannin left one of their base’s well-equipped cafeterias with full bellies. Staq belched and a harmless mini-fireball exploded forth from his open mouth before quickly dissipating. “Ssorry.” The skinny hero called Fire Lad covered his mouth. “Better out than in, right?”

Brek pushed his old comrade playfully. “You’re disgusting! How many years have we known each other and you still haven’t learned basic manners?”

“I’m from Sshwar,” came Fire Lad’s self-depreciating retort. “You’re lucky I’ve learned to usse cutlery, buddy.” Fire Lad was glad that their friendship had reached a stage where they could joke like this. Even when Polar Boy had led the Legion of Substitute Heroes he’d always maintained some emotional distance from the rest of his team. While Fire Lad, Night Girl, Stone Boy and Chlorophyll Kid really embraced their friendships with one another and Color Kid had easily fallen into that circle when he joined the team, Brek had always seemed to hold himself a little apart. They all knew that he valued their camaraderie, but he could never seem to show it. Brek had been the youngest of them, maybe he thought he needed to maintain his exterior at all times to maintain their respect? Maybe he’d been so focused on joining the Legion of Superheroes the whole time that everything else came second? Staq honestly didn’t know, but ever since Fire Lad and Color Kid had called Polar Boy out on his poor behaviour he really had made efforts to change. In a lot of ways Fire Lad felt like Polar Boy was opening up to them more now than he had in the entire time they’d known him.

“Fire Lad!”

The sound of his codename shook Staq from his reverie. Fire Lad and Polar Boy looked to see Light Lad running down the corridor toward them. “I’m glad I found you,” the lanky Winathian smiled as he made his way past Shrinking Violet walking in the opposite direction. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to bring up!”

“Ssure, what iss it?” Staq asked. He and Light Lad were almost the same height but though Darvan might be lean, Staq was practically a skeleton in comparison. Beside them both, the much shorter Polar Boy watched the conversation curiously.

“It’s your readings,” Darvan explained. He presented the omnicom for Fire Lad’s perusal. “Your bio-readings, I mean. Remember how we were all a little worse for wear after we fled Larfleezia? I checked all of our readings from our shuttle’s sickbay, you know, just to be sure there were no internal injuries or anything that it hadn’t picked up. Yours are…well, they’re a little weird. I mean I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about, there’s certainly no sign of obvious damage—“

“Thankss for telling me,” Staq quickly lowered the omnicom without more than a glance. “I’m fine though, like you ssaid there’ss no ssign of damage right?”

“How are his readings weird?” Brek asked abruptly.

“That’s the thing, I’m not really sure to be honest.” Light Lad admitted. “I was an intern at a psychiatric institute before I joined the Legion, genetics isn’t really my strong suit.”

“Whoa, genetics?” Polar Boy’s eyebrows rose. “Staq, I don’t think you should dismiss this so quickly.”

“I ssaid I’m fine,” Fire Lad brushed their concerns aside. “Thankss for going to the effort of finding me to tell me, Light Lad. I appressiate the the thought, but there’ss definitely nothing to worry about.”

“Staq, I’m not so sure.” Polar Boy looked into his friend’s eyes, eyes which had long since lost any visible sign of either pupils or irises. Not for the first time in recent days, Brek found himself wondering about the physiological changes Fire Lad had undergone since their first meeting. The drastic weight loss, his skin becoming more leathery, his hair falling out to be replaced by a crest of flame…and now even his voice had changed, becoming more sibilant to the point where even Legionnaires who’d only known him since he joined the team had observed a difference. These changes had come in so gradually that nobody ever really noticed until he was suddenly a dramatically different person physically than he’d been months ago, and Staq had always assured his friends that it was normal for Shwarians to react strangely when spending large periods of time away from the rarified atmosphere of their homeworld. Now though, it was clear this metamorphosis was more than superficial. “What would it hurt to get checked out?” Brek continued. “At least then we’ll know everything’s okay.”

“Everything iss okay!” Fire Lad hissed sharply. Angry flickers of flame shot from his nostrils. “I’m telling you both…there’ss nothing to worry about! I’m fine!”

He pushed past Light Lad and Polar Boy, and the two heroes watched in concern as their teammate stormed off in a huff.

**********
TAKRON-GALTOS
Northern continent, “The Welcome Mat"

ROLL CALL
Legion of Superheroes:
Chameleon Boy aka Reep Daggle: Durlan shapeshifter
Cosmic Boy aka Rokk Krinn: magnetism
Dragonmage aka Xao Jin: dragon magic
Sun Boy aka Dirk Morgna: heat and light generation
Supergirl aka Kara Zor-El: Kryptonian physiology
Ultra Boy aka Jo Nah: deputy leader, ultra-energy which can be directed into any one of strength, speed, flight, invulnerability, flash vision, penetra-vision at a time

Workforce:
Abyss aka Kol Dane: wears void-ring granting flight and transportation to a pocket dimension
Bioluminescent Lass aka Jaene Birrun: enhanced bioluminescence
Gear aka I.Z.O.R: techno-organic being
Ion aka Mara Waid: shrinking
Magno aka Dyrk Magz: magnetism
Sizzle aka Teela Spuunvll: energy conversion
Triplicate Boy aka Dre Conno: Carggite triplication
Twine aka Oliv Dah: energy-siphon whips

Zoe Saugin: Legion of Superheroes ally, infused with Green Lantern energy

Doors a couple of feet thick groaned as they retracted into their housings and six Legionnaires watched alongside the last Green Lantern while a large sparse room on the other side was revealed. The Workforce awaited them there, eight metahumans charged with defending the prison planet Takron-Galtos and ensuring its captive population of prisoners remained captive.

“Hello Legionnaires,” a chirpy blond boy greeted the galaxy-famed heroes. “For those of you we haven’t met, I’m Dyrk Magz but you can call me Magno. The rest of my team are Bioluminescent Lass, Gear, Ion, Triplicate Boy, Sizzle, Twine and Abyss. Obviously none of you need introduction. Please, step into the Welcome Mat with us.”

“Wasn’t your name Void last time we met?” Cosmic Boy asked the skinny man called Abyss.

“Takron-Galtos has had a couple new intakes from your old pals in the Judgement League,” Abyss replied sardonically. “Finding out one of their ex-teammates is a walking lobotomy with the same name as me was all the inspiration I needed to change mine."

“Speaking of names,” Supergirl joined in, “The Welcome Mat seems kinda friendly for a prison, doesn’t it?”

“The official designation is Inmate Processing Facility 1-D,” Gear explained. “Welcome Mat seems a little catchier, and considering all new prisoners pass through here when they're processed, the name fits.”

“Might I just say,” Magno gushed, “It’s an unbelievable honour getting to meet the legendary Supergirl. I mean working with the Legion of Superheroes is a privilege in itself of course, but you’re…well, legendary!”

“...If you believe it’s really her,” Abyss muttered under his breath. Beside him, Twine’s eyes twinkled as she smiled behind her muzzle. With her super-hearing, Supergirl easily heard the barbed comment but she didn’t react. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard doubts of her legitimacy in the 31st century. While most sentients were awestruck to be in the presence of an almost mythologically famous heroine, there were the occasional few who simply assumed she was a Daxamite playing a role. Kara had long since learned to let it slide.

“I’m glad you guys were okay with us coming here,” Ultra Boy stepped forward and shook Magno’s hand. “We don’t want to step on any toes and we know the SP have already interrogated the Thunderers we took into custody but hopefully we’ll be able to get some more out of them. Granted, most of us are just here for extra muscle but between Cham, Dragonmage and Green Lantern we should have enough detective brains and weird powers to give us a better chance than your average psi-cop.”

“...Oh.” Magno seemed taken aback. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry Ultra Boy. We didn’t realise you were intending to bring the Green Lantern in on the interrogation.”

“Is that a problem?” Cosmic Boy asked.

While Magno stumbled for diplomacy, the Imskian Ion answered more bluntly. “She doesn’t have the clearance.”

“What?” Now it was Zoe who was taken aback. “Those monsters killed my friends! If you think I’m sitting this out while the Legion—“

“I’m sorry, Green Lantern.” Magno’s apology seemed completely genuine. “I really am, I’ve read the reports and I can’t imagine how you must be feeling. But Ion’s right…to be honest, it’s only a goodwill gesture toward the Legion of Superheroes that you’re allowed in the Welcome Mat at all. You’re more than welcome to wait here, you don’t have the security clearance to be allowed any further though.”

“This sucks!” Zoe exploded.

“I’m sorry,” Cosmic Boy apologised again while Ultra Boy looked on slightly annoyed at the imposition on his leadership. “This is really the Workforce’s decision though, we can’t dictate terms here.”

“I’m a sprocking Green Lantern!” Zoe complained. “We’re the cops of the universe for crying out loud!”

“Self-appointed cops,” Abyss clarified with a smirk.

“I’m afraid the regulations are quite explicit on this,” Gear added more soberly.

Zoe’s eyes flared green. “I could charge in there through all of you if that’s what I wanted to do!” She saw the Workforce take on defensive stance, and even some of the Legion joined suit. With a frustrated grunt, she threw her head back and flew straight up. In the brief instant it took her to reach the ceiling, her whole body was surrounded in an emerald aura and she phased harmlessly through it.

“Everyone else go ahead,” Ultra Boy commanded before Cosmic Boy could say anything more. “Dragonmage, you’re her friend. Come with me, we’ll try and calm her down and join the others once we’ve done that.” As he headed toward the external door with Xao, Jo turned around almost as an afterthought. “Cham, you’re in charge till I get back.”

Following Zoe’s green trail wasn’t at all difficult, and soon Ultra Boy and Dragonmage had caught up with her high above the surface of Takron-Galtos. “Zoe!” Dragonmage called out. “Where are you going?”

“This is so stupid!” she spun around and faced the two men. “They know I could flatten the lot of them, right? I could probably tear this dumb planet in half if I wanted! I’m one of the good guys, who are those jerks to tell me I can’t avenge my friends?!”

Ultra Boy wiped loose strands of hair behind his ear. “Yeahhh, no offence kid but when you say stuff like that I can see why they’d have trust issues.”

“Oh come on, of course I’m not gonna actually do anything like that!” she countered. “I’m just venting! Ever since those Thunderer squajes killed my friends I’ve been on the back foot trying to get anywhere with finding out why they attacked! And now this stupid planet’s stupid regulations are getting in my way! After everything I’ve gone through, can’t one thing just be easy??”

“I know it must be incredibly frustrating,” Xao said, “But the Workforce are just doing their job, Zoe. They’re not the enemy here.”

“They’re not the enemy,” Ultra Boy agreed. “But their regulations are stupid.”

Zoe and Xao both stared wide-eyed. “…What..?”

“Well they are,” Jo shrugged. “You’ve gone through enough that you deserve to be down there. And if we can’t get you physically in the room with us, well then…we’ll just have to find a way around it.”

“Wow.” Zoe’s anger had been replaced by surprise. “I did not expect the Legion of Superheroes to help me find a way to break the rules!”

“Most of the Legion of Superheroes weren’t born and bred on Rimbor,” Ultra Boy gave a cheeky smile. “Now one of you is a sorcerer and the other one’s got the most versatile power in the galaxy…I’m pretty sure if we put our heads together we should be able to find a way to make you our silent partner down there.”

**********
While the Thunderers had been divested of their extra-dimensional weaponry, they were still dangerous warriors. Accordingly, they were kept isolated from the Workforce and Legion of Superheroes both by virtue of a translucent forcefield.

“I’m surprised you didn’t put them in separate cells,” Sun Boy remarked offhand when he saw the plate-eyed men congregated together in the one large room.

“Originally we did,” Magno replied. “Once we realised we weren’t getting anywhere with them individually we thought they might be more likely to let their guard down if they were allowed to interact normally with one another.”

“It’s a clever strategy,” Chameleon Boy complimented the Braalian teen. “I’m guessing you haven’t had much luck with it though. These men have had extensive military training. You can tell from their body language, the way they are around one another.” Cham stood close to the forcefield, analysing each of the Qwardians intently even as they looked him up and down with open hostility. “I’d also hazard a guess that they came prepared to endure much worse treatment than they’ve received,” Cham continued. “Look at their scars, their lack of fear. If their actions already weren’t enough to convince us, it’s obvious that they’re accustomed to a much more brutal lifestyle than we are.”

“Sounds like you missed your calling,” Ultra Boy’s voice chimed in as one of Triplicate Boy’s bodies accompanied Jo and Dragonmage down the corridor. “Shoulda been a profiler for the SP, Cham.”

While Triplicate Boy’s bodies merged, Jo took position next to Chameleon Boy and Dragonmage slipped quietly into place among the other Legionnaires. “I’ll tell you something else though,” Jo continued. “They’re not scared of us, but they’re scared of something. Look how tense they are, I don’t think it’s loyalty that’s keeping them from blabbing everything.” Ultra Boy rapped a knuckle against the forcefield and it emitted a sharp zapping sound.

“You guys should be scared of us,” Ultra Boy taunted the Qwardians. “Our boy Dragonmage here is a sorcerer and I guarantee you when his magic dragons eat your brains to get the answers we need it’s gonna hurt a lot more than any telepath would.” Simultaneously, and unnoticed by anybody present, Gear stared curiously around the room and extended an intricate antennae array from his forearm.

“Uh, Ultra Boy..?” Dragonmage tried to keep his voice down. “My dragonforms don’t actually hurt necessarily, and uhh…to be honest, I haven’t really summoned a dragonform before which can duplicate a mental probe to that extent…” The Asian hero blushed as he confessed his limitations. Behind him, Gear silently extended his neck a couple of feet straight up. Micro-circuitry became visible beneath flesh-hued epidermal panels, and his eyes shifted color gradually from one end of the visual spectrum to the other.

“Have some faith in yourself, Dragonmage.” Sun Boy gave the slight teen a reassuring pat on the back. “We do.”

“...Magno?” Gear’s voice sounded out uncertainly. “I don’t want to alarm anybody but some very strange energies are accumulating in this area.”

Supergirl put her own enhanced vision to the task. “That’s weird,” Kara pouted. “I can’t see anything—“

Before anybody else could utter a word, a deafening thunderclap sounded and the room was filled with a blinding light. “Thunderers!” Sizzle warned. She’d reacted fast enough to convert most of the light which reached her into electrical energy, protecting her sight. With a crackling jolt she soon had one of the intruders convulsing. There were a dozen Thunderers in all, and they immediately leaped to attack. While a couple went for the forcefield restraining their compatriots, the others drew their thunderbolts to attack the startled heroes. Protected by their own powers, Supergirl intercepted a couple of the thunderbolts in a blur of motion and Sun Boy incinerated two more before they could reach their targets. Gear and Bioluminescent Lass rushed to protect their own still recovering teammates, and when the artificial lightning struck Gear he squealed raw code and collapsed in a smoking heap.

Bioluminescent Lass stood over Triplicate Boy, her eyes wide with fear as she faced down the much more physically imposing Qwardian who now bore down on them both. The ethereal heroine was clearly terrified, but stood her ground nonetheless. “I won’t let you hurt him,” her voice trembled.

“You don’t have a choice in the matter,” the Thunderer snarled. He drew a thunderbolt from the quiver on his back and flung it at her, and Bioluminescent Lass pushed her Carggite teammate aside with as much force as she could muster in a futile attempt to protect him. The slender woman was surprised when an emerald wall appeared out of nowhere to protect her from the destructive force of the exploding thunderbolt.

“Too bad I don’t have the clearance to be here,” Zoe Saugin announced smugly from where she’d phased through the ceiling. “Might have been able to save your life.”

“Green Lantern?!” Still seeing stars, Magno ripped metal panelling from the ceiling itself to protect everyone else until they could see clearly again. “Not to seem ungrateful, but how did you know the Thunderers were here?”

“Does it matter?” Zoe grabbed one of the extra-dimensional invaders in an oversized green hand and flung him into his allies. “I can leave you to fight them on your own if you’d prefer!” She glanced across at Dragonmage and the sorcerer felt a tickle in his ear as Zoe allowed the tiny eavesdropping device she’d planted in there earlier to dissipate.

The Thunderers’ weapons smashed Magno’s makeshift shield to shreds, injuring Sizzle and Bioluminescent Lass with flying shrapnel. With their years of experience working together, the more powerful Legionnaires had already moved to protect their more easily damaged teammates. “We need some room to move!” Ultra Boy shouted as Chameleon Boy in hummingbird form flew past his eye. “We’re gonna trip over each other in this jail! Cos, can you help us out?”

“Of course,” Cosmic Boy raised his arms to the ceiling and concentrated. “Cover me please, Sun Boy. Magno, you should get your injured teammates to safety.”

“I should help you with that metal,” the younger Braalian countered. “The outer layers are magnetically shielded. Trip! Get Gear, Sizzle and Jaene out of here.”

“Why am I always on nursemaid duty?” Triplicate Boy whined as the three of him collected his wounded comrades.

“Because you’d do so much good taking on one of these bruisers,” Abyss mocked him. “We all work to our strengths, nursemaid.” His void-ring bathed one of the Thunderers in black light and the man vanished screaming. Next to him another of the Thunderers fell over, the Imskian Ion wreaking havoc with his inner ear.

The woman named Twine whipped at yet another of the Thunderers with her siphoning lashes, ignoring Chameleon Boy’s warnings when he realised she was going to miss her mark in the crowded space. Instead of hitting her foe, her energy whip smacked against the forcefield holding their original captives. With an anti-climactic fizzle, the field collapsed and the Qwardians were all reunited.

“The pink woman has done part of our job for us!” one of the Qwardians bellowed. “Thunderers, complete the mission!” What came next shocked everyone present. Every armed Thunderer drew his weapon, but instead of striking the heroes they hurled their thunderbolts at their weaponless comrades. Their deaths were gory and almost instant.

“No!” Zoe grabbed the man who’d given the command in a green bubble and whisked him through the tear in the ceiling which Magno and Cosmic Boy had now made. She was out of sight in no time, only an emerald streak marking her passing. “What is wrong with you people?!” she screamed through bared teeth when she finally stopped above the clouds of Takron-Galtos. “You kill my friends and now you kill your own men?? Are you insane?!”

“The Thunderers of Qward were manipulated into slaying your fellow ringbearers to suit the purposes of one of your own people,” the man in the bubble sneered. “Nobody manipulates a Qwardian warrior successfully for long. That man is dead now, and for their failure to defeat or escape you it has been determined that our failed warriors needed to die as punishment for their failure.”

“You are crazy!” Zoe snapped. “Maybe I should kill you, you mad squaj!”

“You will not,” the Qwardian replied with a sinister smile. “Your people are not willing to kill, and that has always been your weakness.”

“With due respect to your culture,” Dragonmage’s voice joined the conversation, “It’s not a weakness. I understand why you perceive it to be one, but our respect for life is one of our greatest strengths.”

Supergirl had accompanied Dragonmage and she now spoke as well. “We’ve disarmed the rest of them,” she reported. “They said the same thing as your friend here. None of them know who this guy is who allegedly sent them after the Green Lantern Corps, and we might never find out what he had against you, but they all claim he’s dead now and they don’t have any interest in continuing hostilities.”

“I can summon a dragonform which will carry them back to Qward,” Dragonmage continued. “And once Gear is recovered, the Workforce are confident that he will be able to help erect a warning system so that we’ll have advance notice if and when the Qwardian dimensional barrier is breached again. With luck, we’ll be able to stop it from being breached at all. It’s over, Zoe.”

Zoe Saugin stared intensely at the Thunderer inside her emerald bubble.

“Really?” she asked. “Then why don’t I feel like this is over?”

*********
KIRINYAGA
Somewhere in the Portela Mountain Ranges
He’d been named Gahiji at birth, but if he survived this Initiation Trek the young man walking these treacherous mountain passes already knew what name he’d take in its place. On the border world Kirinyaga, Mwindaji was a hero who’d lived long ago. He was the boldest and the most adored of the planet’s forefathers, and when Gahiji completed this journey to adulthood which was both symbolic and literal, he would take on Mwindaji’s name. It was a mark of respect, but moreso it was a statement of intent. Gahiji could not imagine himself living and dying on this world as so many of his people were content to do. Like Mwindaji of old, he wanted to explore distant worlds and cultures, discover new boundaries and traverse each and every one.

He was the strongest tracker in his class, easily able to locate even a prairie hare on the other side of the continent. His dedication to physical perfection bordered on obsession, and though he knew that this Initiation Trek would surely test him he had complete confidence that he would meet his family on the other side. Not every son of Kirinyaga was so fortunate; these mountains had seen their fare share of young corpses who’d faltered on their way to manhood, but Gahiji was determined not to be one of them.

As the dark-skinned youth used his gnarled hiking staff to push thorny bristlebush from his path, he noticed something in the deep indigo dusk skies. At first he thought it was a shooting star, but when its golden plummet changed to emerald his curiosity was piqued. Gahiji had no problem determining where the unidentified object landed. His tracking sense was sufficiently developed that he’d likely be able to trace its path even if he hadn’t seen it fall with his own eyes; having witnessed its descent, tracking it was a feat any Kirinyaga child could achieve. He considered how far following this mysterious object would take him from his path. He estimated only several hours at the most, he could still be in the arms of his mothers by morning. Gahiji considered as well the name he’d chosen for himself as a man and the reasons behind that name. Would the legendary Mwindaji balk at being sent off-course by a new discovery? Of course not. His mind made up, the athletic teen changed course without a second thought.

It took Gahiji the better part of the night to find the object of his interest. Luckily, Kirinyagan night vision served him well and he managed to avoid any and all predators which stood between he and his quarry. An hour before the sun was due to rise, the moon hanging faded in the sky, Gahiji finally found what he’d spent hours looking for. A ditch was marked in the dirt where the unidentified object had skidded to a halt after its fall from the firmament, and at its end point Gahiji found a blood-soaked man in a tattered robe. “Do not move!” Gahiji’s Interlac was heavily accented, but his panic came across clearly. This man had no obvious signs of protective clothing, it was a miracle that he was alive at all. Yet, he was alive.

“I do not know how it is that you have survived such a fall,” Gahiji blurted as he circled the man looking for obvious signs of injury. “But I pledge to do everything in my power to help restore you to health, my friend. What is your name? From where have you come?”

The bald man coughed, and a spatter of blood stained his lip. “My name?” the bald stranger repeated. “You may call me…Vidar. I don’t know how I have survived this fall from grace either…not that I’m complaining. What’s your name, son?”

“My name..?” The young tracker paused. Helping this stranger would irrevocably remove him from his Initiation Trek. But somehow, he felt that it would lead him somewhere far more adventurous. He straightened his posture and took a deep breath.

“…My name is Mwindaji. Let me help you."

**********

Nice contrast between the Legion's teamwork and experience and the Workforce.

I like Bioluminescent Lass!

Is Fire Lad... turning into a dragon???

I like Brek making up with the other former Subs.

Zoe is brash and not tactful at all, much like many of canon Zoe's earlier appearances

Uh oh, I thought Universo was dead... and a new Mwindaji, hmmm!

Grava and Ral make a cute couple.

Raz,
another great entry. these moments have been a lot of fun to read.

I'm interested in what Staq is becoming as well. it must be something if he's getting that defensive about it.

I really liked how you described Brek's relationship with the other Subs and how he's trying to turn it around.

Zoe is great as well. I feel her pain and i loved her reaction to Ultra Boy's "what they are stupid rules."

Ghngji and Universo together...this could be bad. But i think we know how he plans to find all the rings.

Also this post was just lush with description.

Can't wait for more.

Thanks peeps! Credit for the Fire Lad development must go to Set, he did a short story exploring the idea of Staq transforming to resemble his 5YL self and it inspired me to look at the same idea myself