Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business Legions of 7 Worlds (2nd story-arc of Retroboot Legion of Earth-7.5 is under way. UPDATE: Chapter 12 posted on Mar. 2, 2017.)

Extra-special thanks go out from me to two members of the Legion World community, without either of whom this fanfic project would never have happened:

HARBINGER, for proving it could be done, and done very, very well.

and

THOTH LAD, for showing me how I could adapt the Retroboot to suit my sensibilities.

The 7 Legions are differentiated as follows:

Earth-7.1: THE LEGACY LEGION - The super-heroic legacies (Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Atom, et cetera) which began in the first half of the 20th Century continue in the 31st Century

Earth-7.2: LEGION OF TITANS - Here the Legion was inspired not by Superboy, but by the Teen Titans, and particularly Kid Flash, who travelled back and forth from the 20th Century to the 31st Century, just as Superboy did in the Legion canon continuity.

Earth-7.3: LEGION OF ANTI-HEROES - In the least stable and most uncertain of the 7 Worlds of Wonder, it is to be expected that there would be a Legion which would adapt to adversity in a far different, and far darker, way than other Legions.

Earth-7.4: THE LEGION - Just imagine...if the Blight had invaded Earth not at the beginning of the 31st Century, but at the beginning of the 21st Century!

Earth-7.5: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES - The Retroboot by any other name, and the closest of these 7 Legions to established canon continuity.

Earth-7.6: SUPERGIRL'S LEGION, formerly known as LEGION OF META-REBELS - The Threeboot by any other name, this is, like the Legion of Anti-Heroes, a Legion in which the members surrender to their most savage instincts upon embracing their meta-powers. But unlike the Anti-Heroes, a lucky few members do find within themselves their potential for redemption, thanks to the guidance of Supergirl.

Earth-7.7: LEGIONNAIRES - Just imagine...if the Postboot Legion had been inspired by the Shazam Family!


LEGION OF EARTH-7.5 CHRONICLES: 1ST STORY ARC

This story takes place an unspecified amount of time after the Legion's disbanding in LSH v. 7, issue #23.


In the early part of the 21st Century, on the planet Earth, the battle between metas for absolute power raged on into its ninth decade.� By the turn of the millennium, the notions of good versus evil had blurred into an impenetrable gray murk devoid of morality.� Until, that is, seven genuine heroes from one thousand years in the future had arrived, in the nick of time at Earth's darkest hour, to show the metas the path towards deliverance to the light of truth, justice, and universal harmony.

Three of those saviors from another time now soared across the skies of Metropolis.� On the left flank flew Dawnstar, a strikingly beautiful young woman whose fine features were unmistakably Native American, and whose naturally grown white avian wings shone bright white against the blue sky.� On the right flank, gliding less smoothly but just as purposefully, was Yera Allon, codename Chameleon Girl, a female member of the shape-shifting alien race from the planet Durla.� Yera was currently sporting the form of a leather-winged creature suggesting nothing less than a hybrid of a pterosaur from prehistoric earth and a hairless orange-skinned humanoid.� Nonetheless, Yera's face,�despite the lack of hair to frame and enhance�it, was undeniably attractive, and having been an actress before becoming a reluctant heroine,�she knew that very well.

And blasting relentlessly forward, right in the middle of this three-pronged battle formation, was an honest-to-the-Gods rocket-man, a sentient cloud of self-renewing anti-energy�providing the propulsion for�a bright-orange and cherry-red high-tech suit of armor which�gave him a humanoid shape.� He had been born Drake Burroughs, but while studying the sciences at college, an accident in the laboratory had transformed him into a post-human powerhouse.� Now and forever, he was the one and only Wildfire.

"Good work, Dawnstar!!" shouted Wildfire exhuberantly, raising his left fist to the air for emphasis. "Thanks to your tracking skills, we've got that slimeball Byth trapped in the back alleys of�Suicide Slum like a rat in a maze."

"Better still," replied Dawnstar, "Tellus has just�informed me via his telepathy that�Hawkgirl will definitely be coming at Byth from the opposite direction, precisely as we had planned."

"Cool beans!" exhulted Wildfire. "We're so close to ultimate victory I can taste it!"

"Should I take the point, Drake?" inquired Yera.

"Go for it, girl." replied Wildfire. "If any of us can handle Byth and his mutation powers at close quarters, it's you!"

With a combination of�swiftness and stealth, Yera swooped down towards the dark end of the alleyway which the injured, molecularly unstable Byth had stumbled into, then shapeshifted into a gigantic, vaguely feline monstrosity crouched in anticipation of pouncing on her quarry as he blindly headed closer towards her with each heartbeat.

But Yera was no novice, much less foolhardy.� She already knew that a wounded savage was even deadlier than one in the rudest of�health.� Yera had also read the Justice League's file on the alien war profiteer Byth, and despite his privileged background, he was as savage as they came -- on his native Thanagar,�Byth had masterminded the ruling caste's oppression of the planetary underclass for years, until two brave and true warriors, Katar Hol and Shayera Thal, had exposed and�dismantled his operation, turning�Byth into an inter-galactic�fugitive.� Only the combination of his military training and the mutation abilities brought on by his copious abuse of illicit chemicals had allowed Byth to survive space travel and set up a beachhead on Earth.� From there he had manipulated his home planet into declaring war on their longtime planetary nemesis Rann.� This was the third such war to date, but the first with Earth caught in the crossfire.

And, as with all wars, the collateral damage had been considerable, and the�casualties steep.� The latter included both Katar Hol and Shayera Thal themselves, with only their Earth-born�young�prot�g� Kendra Saunders, codenamed Hawkgirl, living on to�continue their legacy.� Wielding her mace, Kendra now landed next to the only way in or out of the alleyway that Byth had entered.� She waited impatiently for Yera to smoke�Byth out, so that she could clobber him; she'd planned on throwing in a couple of extra poundings for the sake of avenging her dead mentors.

But as the minutes ticked by, Kendra knew something was amiss.� After looking up to make certain that Dawnstar and�Wildfire were�watching over her, she took�a couple of cautious steps forward, and tensed herself�for a confrontation with whomever was making audible footsteps as she or he walked towards Kendra.

Shortly, she was able to make out the vague outlines of�a tall figure with imposing musculature.� Kendra knew this could go either way -- it could be Byth trying to trick her, or Yera still wearing whatever form she had shifted to in order to battle Byth.� Then she heard the figure speak.

"Lay down your weapon, good Hawkgirl." it said in a deep, masculine voice, but she knew that meant nothing when Yera, like all Durlans, could move as fluidly between genders as she could between species.

"It is I, the reincarnation of your beloved Prince Khufu." it continued as it came into the light, revealing a disturbing resemblance to the deceased Katar Hol.�"Do not fear, my love, for the Durlan girl�did slay the monstrous Byth, allowing my soul to enter his body and reshape it for your pleasure.� At last, at long last..."

"SHUT THE BLOODY HELL UP!!" shrieked Kendra as she swung her mace, striking a decisive blow against the so-called prince's skull.� As "Khufu" hit the ground hard, his flesh rippled and began taking on�a protoplasmic aspect, proving beyond a doubt that this was, indeed Byth.� Kendra, for her part, continued to rage at her seemingly fallen foe.

"You sick, pervy, twisted bastard!!� What kind of an idiot do you take me for?� As if I was ever going to fall for such a stupid story!"

Suddenly, Kendra found herself distracted simultaneously by the sight of Wildfire & Dawnstar coming in for a landing, and the sound of more footsteps, along with soft�groans in�a husky, feminine voice.

"Sorry I failed you, Kendra." said Yera as she emerged from the dark alleyway in her chosen default form of a hairless orange-skinned humanoid. "He was even more of a vicious nass-head that I'd expected."

"No sweat, girl." replied a smiling Kendra. "All that matters now is that he's finally..."

"Everybody," screamed Dawnstar�abruptly,�be on your guard!� Now!!� Byth is not..."

But before the heroes' defensive reflexes were able to kick in, Byth had already shape-shifted into a massive, obscenely ugly invertebrate�creature sporting multiple tendrils, a Lovecraftian nightmare made flesh.

Dawnstar's lack of defensive powers, and Yera's addled state, still lingering after the one-on-one battle against Byth she had fought just a few minutes ago, allowed the Thanagarian to wrap his tendrils around both of them and place the two young women in front of him, as living shields protecting him against retaliation from either Wildfire or Hawkgirl.

"Sentimental fools!" Byth taunted the two opponents facing him with obvious indecision and awkwardness. "A true warrior does not value any life other than his own, or anything at all except victory!"

"WRONG!!" shouted a female alto voice which managed to be sexy even as its bearer charged into battle thanks to the rocket-pack she wore.

"Alanna Strange, it's you!" exclaimed Hawkgirl as she beheld the shapely form of the planetary princess of Rann who had become her ally, divebombing Byth and using the advantage of surprise to get in a couple of point-blank shots from her laser pistol, the latter which packed a greater punch than any foe ever expected.  Kendra tried in vain not to stare at Alanna's graceful moves and physical perfection -- the flawless head of long raven hair, the spotless complexion, the stunning blue eyes, the figure which managed to be both athletic and curvy, wrapped in a turquoise jacket and tight canary-yellow pants.  Hawkgirl wondered how Alanna could pull off wearing such an outfit, let alone whether the princess shared Kendra's bisexuality and her desire for a menage a trois between the two of them and Alanna's husband...

Speaking of whom, the smiling, serene, chiseled face of Adam Strange peered through his transparent face plate; even framed by his finned helmet, he was still the epitome of handsomeness, clad in his form-fitting vermillion uniform, standard issue for Rannian warriors.  As he joined his wife in firing at Byth's gelatinous, quaking form with great precision, he belatedly chided the ignorant Thanagarian for his use of a male pronoun, "A true warrior also respects gender equality and fights to make it a reality."

"Pronoun trouble." muttered a non-plussed Wildfire.

"What?" asked a puzzled Hawkgirl.

"Nothing.  Been watching too many old cartoons." he replied softly just before he leapt forward to catch his beloved Dawnstar, who had managed to twist herself out of Byth's now-loosened grip.

"Thank the Haven for the Rannian couple's timely arrival." gasped Dawnstar.

"Whatever." grumbled Wildfire, even though he grudgingly admitted to himself in silence that the Stranges had indeed saved the day.

"Hey!  Hey!" snapped Yera as she herself broke free of Byth's rapidly liquefying tendrils. "Where's MY knight in shining armor?"

"Will I do?" inquired Kendra in a sultry whisper as he helped Yera to her feet.

"I'll try anything once." replied Yera, playfully batting her eyelashes at Kendra, who responded with a warm smile.

"Forgive the interruption," said Dawnstar, "but Tellus has just informed me that what the humans colloquially term a "mop-up operation" in the part of the city which bore the brunt of the Thanagarian armada's attack is proceeding in a satisfactory manner, thanks largely to his telekinesis and Gates's teleportation."

"Any word from Tyroc or Timber Wolf?" asked Yera.

"Tellus says that Timber Wolf continues to take part in the American army's rescue operations, while Tyroc is off in Asia, helping the Justice League fight one of the remaining pockets of enemy aggression.

"Yup.  Everything's just hunky-dory now in the ever-changing world of the 21st Century." declared Wildfire in an ambivalent tone to everyone present, and at the same time, to no one but himself, as if he was trying to convince himself that perhaps he and the six other out-of-time Legionnaires might do good to surrender any hope of returning to their own era, and finally put down roots in this primitive, war-torn galaxy from the distant past in which they'd ended up.

Wildfire's reverie was broken by a loud gasp from Dawnstar.

"I sense we are being...watched!!" she announced cryptically.

"Jeez Louise, not that Brother Eye crap again!" groaned Wildfire.

"No, this is something far different!" replied Dawnstar. "It is beyond time and space...almost beyond imagination...WAIT!  No, blast it!"  Dawnstar went silent for a moment of heart-stopping tension, before she sighed, "It must have realized I could sense its presence, and retreated back to its point of origin."

"IT??" said Wildfire as he gesticulated in an over-the-top manner. "What the sprock is "it?"  We need details!"  Then, calming down quickly, he declared, "Sorry, Dawny, I didn't mean to freak out."

"If you went for a whole day without freaking out even once, THEN we'd worry." snarked Yera.

"Not now, Yera.  Is there anything else you can tell us about what you sensed, Dawny?  Anything at all?"

"I fear I cannot." replied Dawnstar as her lovely face assumed a downcast expression and her eyelids covered her beautiful obsidian eyes.

AT THAT EXACT MOMENT, IN A REALM BEYOND TIME AND SPACE...

"Why did you so suddenly order me to take us away from what we had been contemplating for such a long time?" asked the mysterious teenage orphan Glorith of her new mentor, the ageless Earth-born Elemental Harmonia Li.

"You forget, my dear -- presently, with your powers still in their tentative, formative stages, we can do no more than observe.  Had the Legionnaires fully detected our presence and identified us, we would have given them false hope of returning to our time...their proper time."

"Hey," piped up Marya Pai, a teenaged pyrokinetic hellion who shared a Chinese heritage with Harmonia, and a brief stint as rookie Legionnaires with Glorith, "even if we can only do so much right now, that'll change soon, right?  And anyway, being able to look into any point in time that we choose is still pretty sprockin' awesome!!"

"Yes, Marya," replied Harmonia, "but it is fraught with peril.  The line between edification and voyeurism is a fine one indeed.  Glorith, you must return us without haste to the 31st Century!"

"I shall...do my best." mumbled a hesitant, intimidated Glorith in response.

"Clear your head of any expectations," advised Harmonia serenely, "and simply become one with the infinite flow."

Within seconds, the three women's traverses through time had come to a stop...but not at their intended destination.

"What the sprock is this??" asked Marya loudly, the object of her bewilderment being the vision before all three women of a young male/female couple kissing each other passionately atop the iconic American monument named the Statue of Liberty -- only with most of the statue hidden below the risen waters of the Atlantic Ocean.  The boy was shirtless and androgynously handsome, with an impressive head of long, flaxen hair.  The far-more-exotic girl also had long hair, but its natural color appeared to be no less than lavender, and it could not hide the antennae poking out of her forehead; in addition, she had an alabaster face with periwinkle markings, shaped like butterfly wings, around her eyes.

Before either of her travelling companions could reply to her unsophisticated query, Marya exclaimed, "Wait a nano-second!  I recognize her now!  That's Drura Sepht, the Legionnaire who disappeared during their battle against the xenos!  She seemed cool, and I always liked her look.  We'll have to rescue her, too...uh...I mean, once we actually can."

"Indeed." replied Harmonia. "Do you see now, Glorith, there is a reason for everything, even one's apparent mistakes."

"Yes...you speak the truth..." said Glorith softly, "...but I must still return us to the proper time..."

After another swift voyage through the time-stream, they now found themselves beholding a dimension that defied all conventional perceptions of matter and form, a vast panorama of swirling shades of green, constantly changing their shape in a kaleidoscopic effect.

"Now I'm glad I never tried drugs." quipped Marya. "This is too much for me to handle as it is.  Let's get out of here."

"Hold." replied Harmonia. "There is one object out of place there, being as it possesses a definite shape."

"I see it as well.  It looks like...like a boy the same age as me and Marya." whispered Glorith.

"Okay, now I can see him, too." admitted Marya. "But what's wrong with his face?"

"I believe I know the answer," said Harmonia, "but neither of you are as yet ready for that degree of knowledge.  Patience, dear girls.  Patience."

"Gee, thanks." muttered an understandably cross Marya under her breath.

In a split second, Glorith's powers had once again whisked them away into the unknown byways of the space-time continuum.  And this time, she succeeded at last in transporting herself, Marya, and Harmonia to the 31st Century...or rather, the version of the 31st Century within the timeline they called home.

"Finally!" exclaimed Marya. "I've got a killer hunger.  Anyone for duck?"

"Not quite yet." replied Harmonia firmly. "We have one more vision to behold, the most crucial of them all."

"Whatever." grumbled Marya.

"Behold!" exclaimed Harmonia without warning. "Unfolding before us is the very event upon which revolves the sum total of our past, present, future...and those of every other sentient in the Multiverse!"

"What are you talking about??" sneered Marya. "That's just our ex-teammate, the Coluan!!"

"Hold your gazes steady for but a few seconds longer...there!!"

As the three women focused on the sight of a visibly forlorn Querl Dox, who had gone by the codename Brainiac 5 until the government of Earth had forcibly disbanded the Legion, going through the scientific motions in his cluttered laboratory, the innocuousness of the moment vanished entirely when, in a burst of tachyon energy particles, a time-travel portal appeared directly in front of Querl Dox.

And when another sentient stepped out, Glorith gasped loudly.  Marya gasped as well, if a bit more softly.  For within a few seconds, their identification of Querl's mysterious visitor advanced from merely looking like another Coluan, to recognizing him as none other than the infamous inter-galactic law enforcer from a thousand years in the past, he who had been all but written out of history for the extreme, absolutist vision of justice he had pursued in his lifetime: Vril Dox the Second, founder and leader of the Licensed Extra-Governmental Interstellar Operatives Network -- the L.E.G.I.O.N., also known as the secret shame of the Legion's ancestry.  From this point on, and just as Harmonia had foreseen, the future of the multiverse would never be the same.

"Moons of Colu!" exclaimed Querl, in a tone closer to wary hostility than either the shock or awe which Vril had clearly been expecting.  "I knew that all this pointless work, these futile efforts at repairing the damage to the entire galaxy's tech, would end up taking their toll.  I'm having a sprocking hallucination!!"

"The hell you are!" sneered Vril with a dry understatement that contrasted tellingly with his descendant's petulant outburst of emotion.  As Vril thought to himself that he never would have believed that the Brainiac Legacy was destined to fall into the hands of such an incapable fool, worthy of nothing but his contempt, he could also tell from looking into Querl's soft, bright-green eyes that Brainiac 5 did not need telepathy to sense exactly what Vril was thinking.  Querl all but confirmed this when Vril saw his descendant's brow curl into a frown.

Finally, Querl replied, "It's illogical...but not improbable.  So, if you are real, and you are my kin, then you'll tell me how you managed to crack the barrier which has all but prohibited time travel for the last few years."

"Now why would I do that, hmmm?  Your intellect is equal to mine -- you can bloody well figure it out!!"

Before the understandably hurt Querl could hurl invective at his singularly rude predecessor, Vril cut him off with, "Anyhow, that's not what I'm here for!"

"Oh?" queried Querl, the angry expression on his face suddenly softening into one displaying genuine curiosity. "What is it, then?"

"In plain Interlac, I'm here to help you." replied Vril, before getting in yet another jab at poor Querl by adding, because if I don't, then there won't be any bloody Brainiac Legacy to continue."

Just before he would have gone ballistic at his ancestor, Querl suddenly decided shifted tactics.  "Is that so?  Well, then..." he smiled and opened his arms and his palms, "...my lab, everything in it that you see before you, it's all yours.  Have a ball.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go eat an entire pluberry pie, wash it down with a tall glass of semi-synthetic milk, and then take a long, long nap."

"You're even stupider than I thought!  Truly, truly pitiful." laughed Vril, relishing Querl's unconscious invitation for more abuse. "I'm not here to work, I'm here to talk."

"Talk is overrated!" replied Querl, as his patience snapped in tandem with his tone of voice. "In fact, one of my pet theories is that if organic sentient beings such as ourselves were physically incapable of forming sounds, and if communication between sentients were to become completely visual, it would do the galaxy a whole sprocking lot of good!"

"I can see there's no point in prolonging this tedious banter." sighed Vril as he took a computer chip out of his pocket. "Take this and watch it.  Watch it patiently, until your obviously over-estimated intellect can fully comprehend it. For that chip contains no less than a holo-video recording of the entire glorious history of the L.E.G.I.O.N.  And before you make the obvious dumb reply of why I would want you to watch the history of your own team, let me clarify -- I am speaking of MY team, the L.E.G.I.O.N., founded by yours truly in the late 20th Century, and not disbanded until my death in the early 22nd Century -- over a hundred years of triumph and tragedy...though, naturally, the former heavily outweighs the latter."

"Am I to take YOUR word for that?" snarled Querl.

"AH." replied Vril in mock amazement. "At last you are showing a glimmer of your lineage -- now THAT is now a true Brainiac talks.  It took you long enough.  Who knows, there may be hope you and your team yet."

"What team?" sneered Querl, with added acidity. "If you're who you say you are, AND you're so sprocking smart, then you know very well that the Government of Earth ordered the Legion to disband some time ago."

"Yes.  And?"

"Uh?"

"Do I need to spell it out for you?  Put the bloody Legion BACK TOGETHER!!  If you value your worthless life, or even if you DON'T, then at least do it for the sake of the continued existence of the infinite, ever-renewing loop of time, instead of letting it fall into bloody entropy and an eternity of nothingness!  And THAT, my simpleton successor, was my purpose for contacting you directly and passing along my wisdom.  IF you know what's good for you AND the bloody UNIVERSE, you WILL watch that holo-video!!"

While Vril caught his breath, he gradually came to notice that Querl's silent response to his tirade, via facial expression, was not one of acquiescence or even intimidation, but rather one of profound amusement.  "You really ARE my ancestor after all.  I knew that if I pushed you far enough, you would go overboard with the emotion which you profess to so despise!

"Yes, Vril Dox," Querl elaborated, gleefully twisting the metaphorical knife into his shocked ancestor, "I know you better than you know yourself!  I have also already committed to memory everything on your holo-video -- AND MORE!  I may be fallible, but in the end, NO ONE sprocking outsmarts Brainiac 5!!  Can you say the same about yourself...Brainiac 2??"

"Touche." sighed Vril warily after a pause whose awkwardness Querl had savored. "Game, set, match.  Checkmate.  Whatever colloquialism you prefer, you've won..."  He then narrowed his eyes and grinned devilishly. "...THIS TIME!!"

"Haven't you got better things to do?" snarked the unruffled Querl. "Protecting yesterday's galaxy, perhaps?  I know I have better things to do...such as, yes, putting the Legion back together.  So if you'll kindly take your leave..."

"I only did what I had to do." grumbled Vril, as his time portal re-opened and he strode inside. "I don't expect gratitude, but if you think I have any real confidence in you...you've got another think coming!  In the final outcome, Brainiac 2 shall be the only one standing."  And with that final pithy put-down, Vril turned his back on Querl, and made his exit.

Querl's face took on an expression as enigmatic as that of a pre-19th Century portrait, and stayed frozen there, as he continued to sit quietly, staring at the wall of his laboratory.

"We have seen enough!" declared the ageless Harmonia Li to her young companions, the restlessly impatient Marya and the deeply perturbed Glorith.  For the first time, the girls detected a crack in their mentor's serene hauteur.  "The time has come to end contemplation and proceed with proactive measures.  I must seek out Querl Dox, but not in such a way that he would see me as coming on too strong, or else all is lost."

"Whaddya want us to do in the meantime?" asked a non-plussed Marya.

"Enjoy your duck supper." was Harmonia's deceptively flat, almost unperceptively droll reply, to which Marya initially responded by widening her eyes, only for her face to break out in a wide grin just a couple seconds later.  So, thought Marya, the old lady's not as stuffy as I thought; this protégé gig might turn out to be fun after all.

Glorith, for her part, was too scared for words, yet too proud to admit it to the enigmatically ambiguous Harmonia, much less to the transparently shallow Marya, the latter whom Glorith barely tolerated in a passive-aggressive manner, which she knew could cause serious problems in the long run.  Harmonia had no need to tell Glorith she must continue to hone her latent powers of time manipulation. The young girl, who remained a mystery to all including herself, also sensed that, from this moment on, she must not depend anymore on anyone other than herself to open the doors in her mind.  For knowledge was power, and Glorith had finally learned to appreciate the taste of power.  And it tasted sweet.

Tasmia Mallor, the ex-Legionnaire formerly known by the codename Shadow Lass, glared disdainfully at the interchangeably grim vistas of deep space which passed before her eyes as her rented cruiser -- which she regarded as a piece of trash unworthy of her, but desperate times called for desperate measures -- lurched forward by fits & starts.  The procession of grandiose state-of-the-art tech -- magnificent space stations, sophisticated satellites, proud battleships, whole exoplanets even -- turned worthless debris by the sentient cybernetic virus Tharok's recent rampage through the galaxy was soul-deadening.  It might even have been considered enough to test the sunniest optimist's capacity for hope.  And while Tasmia preferred to think of herself as a cold, steely pragmatist, she was also honest enough with herself that she could not deny the toll that this voyage was taking on every facet of her well-being.  Her intended destination was the planet Verzwei.  Once there, she would seek the aid of some of the most exclusive doctors in the galaxy, in hopes of finding a cure for her mortally wounded, on-again-off-again lover, the long-lived wanderer Mon-El.  As she began to reminisce, if only to the numbing boredom of low-tech space travel, Tasmia could not escape a nagging feeling of what the humans colloquially termed "deja vu."  Had she not been through a near-identical experience once before? It was this question which she asked herself briefly, before choosing to embrace the fatalistic, yet oddly comforting, notion that it was all part of the space madness threatening to consume her psyche before she would be able to save Mon-El.

Her lover had been born Lar Gand on Daxam in the 20th Century, then renamed himself Mon-El after relocating to the planet Earth, before enduring nearly an entire millennia trapped within the Phantom Zone, so that his planetary race's sensitivity to lead would not kill him.  Once Mon-El was freed in the 30th Century by the Legion, he established himself as their top powerhouse.  But beneath his dutiful stoicism, there had always lain a profoundly insecure and emotionally unstable man with feet of the purest metaphorical clay.  And while it was reasonable to infer that no sentient being who had survived ten consecutive centuries of inside-looking-out exile could be expected to be a paragon of sanity, the fact remained that he was undeniably a handful.  Tasmia had learned this the hard way, and yet she had stuck with him through thick and thin, through times rough and smooth. 

Then, shortly before the disbanding of the Legion, Mon-El met his match in the latest so-called successor to the original, now deceased, Emerald Empress.  Because although it could be argued that the late Sarya of Venegar was but one in a never-ending series of hosts for the tremendous, and ultimately will-sapping, cosmic powers of the Emerald Eye of Ekron, Sarya had also possessed a tenacious belief in the strength of her aspirational convictions which had kept her healthy and sane longer than most of the eye's doomed avatars.  Which may also have explained why Sarya's unstable, utterly deranged successors had actually managed to invoke a far greater level of power than she ever had.  And it was this -- the unrestrained, unfiltered destructive potential of the Eye at full force -- which, in the midst of the havoc wreaked by Tharok, had thoroughly devastated Mon-El in mind, body, and soul.

As though some kind of divine intervention was taking place, Tasmia was unexpectedly jolted from her ever-more harmful ennui, by what at first she took to be nothing less than a message from the shadows themselves.  This was a timely reminder that the full extent of the powers within the shadows, which only her lineage had been granted the gift of commanding, was vastly unexplored.  At that moment, she made the connection -- her younger cousin Grev Mallor, who had willingly succeeded her as planetary champion of Talok VIII so that she could be a full-time Legionnaire, must have been trying to communicate with her through the esoteric forces they shared the power over.

"Grev?  Is that you?" she inquired, grasping for what could only be termed shadow-telepathy.

"Yes!  Thank the ancestors I was able to reach out to you, Tasmia!  I won't mince words -- my powers are not enough to defend Talok from the threat it is now facing.  I desperately need your help!  The survival of our world depends entirely on you!"

"Grev...this is not a good time...my cruiser's current course is at the other extreme of...all right, tell me exactly what the problem is."

"The Yakka-Mahor are revolting!"

Quixotically, Tasmia chose to respond by raising an eyebrow and quipping, "So what else is new?" 

She knew very well it was a cheap, badly-timed joke at the expense of Talok VIII's rustic, mountain-dwelling underclass, but she had not been able to resist.  Perhaps, she mused, the space madness had advanced further upon her than she had thought.  But then, another telepathic shout from Grev brought her back into focus.

"Tasmia, this is dead serious!  Lady Memory is leading the Yakka-Mahor once again, and this time, the galaxy-wide tech-failure has given her and her fellow savages the advantage of a groundswell of grass-roots support, which has added an enormous number of city-dwellers to her ranks.  There's fire in the streets, brawling, looting, pillaging...at this rate, Lady Memory might be ruling over Talok in less time than it would take you to get here!!"

It was a no-win situation which Tasmia now found herself in. Should she choose to postpone the search for her beloved Mon-El's much-needed cure, she risked losing their last chance at ever being together again.  But were she to allow her beloved planet and its institutions, which she had spent almost her entire life proudly defending through the duties which generations of Mallors had upheld, to descend into a return to the barbarism of the ancestors of her ancestors...the dogs returning to their vomit, as it were...she could never forgive herself.

And so Tasmia, knowing that Mon-El's comatose state did would not allow him to hear her speak, chose instead to silently ask his forgiveness, and to then say a silent prayer to her ancestors begging them to watch over Mon-El and her until she had finished helping to bring an end to the Talokian crisis.

This is great FL, really great! And not just because of your very kind words about me at that start either.

Your style if writing has improved so much over the last couple of years but is still obviously your own, all the hard work and self reflection you've put in are really shining through, as is your love of the characters.

Starting with the Lost team is a good choice, though hopefully they'll be reunited with the future at some point. You shouldn't rush it though as you're take on 21st Century heroes is great, so I'm really enjoying reading them.

Your introduction of Wildlife is perhaps the best description I've ever read of him: honest-to-the-Gods Rocket-man indeed!

Your take on Harmonia is sinister and manipulative and really really intriguing, I'm looking forward to reading where you take her from here. She seemed to know what was coming and making Dragonwing and Glorith watch was interesting, I'm sure you have bigger plans. Also love your little twist that Glorith enjoys power.... Hmmmm are we seeing the beginning of her corruption?

Tasmia, of course, is the highlight so far. Her passion and loyalty are there for us all all to see, though those moments of melancholia and self absorption are further nuances to her already multi faceted personality. Well done for not taking the easy road with her as the tough unemotional warrior and for showing her struggling with the responsibility she has. This also included my favourite line so far, in amongst a lot of good line, as perhaps the most Shady like line in a fanfic - like dogs returning to their vomit - I actually laughed out loud at that, as it was just so perfect and disgusting at the same time.

This is really really good FL, and I'm looking forward to a lot more, more, more!

Wow. Thank you, Harbi. I particularly appreciated your opinion that my writing has improved over the last couple of years. That means a lot to me, as your firm but fair critiques in the past were always a great help.

Thanks, too, for your positive feedback on my characterizations. Naturally, it's Tasmia who remains particularly amazing to me, in the sense that, while on the one hand I could write her in my sleep and be satisfied, but OTOH, whenever I put in just that little bit extra thought & effort, she always ends up surprising me with the new layers upon layers of her complex personality that she reveals to me!

I think you'll be pleased to learn that because I had so much fun writing the opening 21st Century sequence, I had already been thinking, even before I read your comments, of waiting a little longer than I'd originally planned before I return Dawny, Drake, and their teammates to the 31st Century.

FTR, the moment from the opening that I'm most proud of is Kendra/Hawkgirl's seeing through Fake Hawkman/Byth's cheap and pervy theatrics right away. Best meta-fictional bit I've done to date, if I do say so myself; I'd like to think my hero Peter David would be pleased.

And, finally, after getting off to such a roaring start yesterday, I figure I'll have no trouble managing several more installments today. That said, I've embraced the concept of moderation, and of only writing when the fire is there, never again trying to force it as I tended to do in the past.

Thanks again, Harbi. Yours was a wonderful reply to wake up to.

Yes, sorry, I meant to say that Hawkgirl was well written too, and her bopping Byth was fun as well. You put so much into those first few posts that it's hard to comment on it all without writing an overwhelmingly long reply.

And I definitely agree about not forcing your work; enjoy it and revel in it when it comes but it you make it a chore the fun will die quite quickly, and it shows in your fic, unfortunately.

Thanks again for sharing this FL. Looking forward to whatever you give us next.

No worries, Harbi, I certainly don't expect you or any other Legion Worlder to comment on *everything* in my stories. I had actually brought it up only because I'd hoped to spark some discussion on the meta-aspects of the story. The Hawkgirl bit wasn't the only meta-moment in the installments posted up to now, and it definitely won't be the last, but it was by far the one which, as of this post, I felt most satisfied with the way I executed it.

Warrior woman, pagan priestess, mind-witch, revolutionary firebrand, Lady Memory...those were but a few of the appellations which her fellow Talokians had placed on the woman who bore a slight resemblance to the planetary champions whom she intended to make examples of by killing them.  Other, less flattering titles included heretic, trouble-maker, devil-worshipper, dissident agressor, sadist, and tyrant-in-the-making.  But Lady Memory had always held enough belief in herself to laugh off her detractors, especially when they were vastly outnumbered by her loyal acolytes.

And at that moment, she would, every chance she had, thank Makkas, the gender-ambiguous prime God/Goddess of the planet's disenfranchised underclass she had been born into.  For the galaxy-wide tech-failure from the recent past was regarded by Lady Memory and her followers as nothing less than divine intervention, the catalyst for the final disassembly of the ruling class's so-called civilization.  Any doubter need only have looked at the hundreds of converts she had brought into her fold, with more added every day.

But Lady Memory was also pragmatic enough in the way she allowed neither her lusty giddiness, nor her certainty of the triumph laying ahead, to lead her into a premature declaration of victory for the revolution.

No, she thought to herself, the people -- HER people -- needed a symbolic event which they could point to as the moment of Talok's Year Zero, from which the planet's population would henceforth never look back.  And what she had in mind was nothing less than a brazen double-stroke.

The first of the ruling class to die publicly, in a manner as dramatic as Lady Memory could possibly manage, would be Grev Mallor, better known as Shadow Man (and formerly as Shadow Kid), the planet's current bearer of the burden of championship (how, Lady Memory wondered to herself, could any of the so-called champions have ever had even enough self-respect to look in the mirror, considering they were nothing more than glorified marionettes of the decadent hypocrites who presumed to oppress the torch-bearers of Talok's truth?)

The second killing would be that of Shadow Man's older cousin, Shadow Lass, who, as a member in long standing of the ghastly Legion of Super-Heroes, was complicit in protecting and perpetuating a society led by greedy parasites, each of them looking only after their individual selves, and publicly living a deceitful affectation of being high-functioning sentients, when their true emotional maturity was that of spoiled toddlers trapped in adult bodies.

Lady Memory laughed loud and hard at how, in the end, the ruling classes had already done most the revolutionaries work for them, drowning in their own filth and relying on chemicals to numb them through their waking hours long enough that they would resist the temptation to kill themselves.  To say nothing of their nature-killing dependence on technology whose recent mass-failure had been a long time in coming.  

Upon reflection, thought Lady Memory, it was to be a Year Zero for not only Talok, but for the entire galaxy.  And it would begin just as soon as the revolutionaries made the final push into the citadel of the prime oppressors.  At the climax, Shadow Man would be publicly executed -- first, Lady Memory would use her mind-witchery to make him relive every unpleasant memory of his worthless waste of a life; next, he would be brutally beaten by the revolutionaries; finally, he would be thrown to the mob of newly-liberated Talokian city-dwellers so that they could tear him to pieces.  Glorious times lay ahead for Talok, Lady Memory asserted to herself, now that Makkas no longer forsook his/her faithful flock.

MEANWHILE, ON EARTH...

Unknown to Lady Memory, the same basic concept of Year Zero as that preached by her was now snowballing within the brilliant mind of Querl Dox, the Coluan who currently felt 99.99% certain that the right thing to do was to bring back the very Legion of Super-Heroes which Lady Memory despised.

But, thought Querl with complete and utter certainty, it would never be the same Legion as before, mainly because the new iteration of the team would be founded, and unquestionably led by, Querl Dox himself.  There would be no need for the supposed cornerstones of the team -- Rokk "Cosmic Boy" Krinn was a metaphorical dinosaur, with his outdated notions of might making right and inter-planetary interventionism at the service of that empire built on quicksand known as the United Planets; Garth "Lightning Lad" Ranzz had once been a fierce but fair-minded warrior whom Querl had been happy to call an ally, but years of misfortune, including Garth's skin-of-the-teeth return from seeming death, had beaten the fight out of him, and dampened the fire within, while his recent embrace of domestication and fatherhood was all it had taken to extinguish any remaining embers inside Garth.

Ah, but then, thought a newly smiling Querl, there was Imra "Saturn Girl" Ardeen-Ranzz, that telepathic force of nature, whose psionic powers had never even come close to being pushed to their limits, who had been the first female Legionnaire and the team's first female leader, AND who had single-handedly saved the galaxy from Universo's masterful scheming, after even Imra's handful of hardy allies -- including Querl himself -- had fallen before the forces which had been at Universo's command.  But Imra chose to hide all that she truly was behind an icy reserve and the affectations of being a perfectly normal wife to Garth and mother to her twin sons.

Sad, really, thought a now-frowning Querl, that she would have chosen the easy, conventional route which had always suppressed her true potential.  But then again, at the other extreme there lay Imra's fellow Titanian Eve "Saturn Queen" Aries, she whose megalomaniacal grandiosity had warped her into an utterly unhinged agent of the forces of chaos.  Querl shuddered as he recalled his recent victimization, and that of other Legionnaires, through Saturn Queen's vicious head-games before concluding that trying to win Imra over to his side was not only a self-defeating impossibility, it could even turn out to be counter-productive.  Who, then, Querl now pondered, could be his ideal Number One?

As if in response to his silent query, the automated communication and security system of the dilapidated Metroplex at the city limits of Metropolis, the same which housed Querl's current lab, came crackling to life.

"You have a newly arrived visitor, Professor Dox."

"AGAIN??" groaned Querl loudly. "If I wanted fewer interruptions, I'd set up my lab on bloody Nullport!!  Who the sprock is it?"

"Your colleague, Professor Harmonia Li."

The mention of Harmonia's name stirred up a reaction within Querl that even he could not define -- and he hated anything he could not define.  Where, he thought bitterly, did that supposedly ageless busybody get off, presuming to shoehorn herself back into his life, when her stint with the Legion had begun with her complicity in the destruction of Titan (albeit unwittingly so), and ended with her (and, in fairness, the entire Legion's) helplessness in the face of the Tharok-driven, tech-failure-produced galactic disaster?

But then, as the emotional fog lifted from Querl's mind, allowing the logic to take over, all of Querl's thoughts suddenly converged into a brainstorm so electrifying, it shocked even him.

"Moons...of...Colu!!" Querl whispered to himself as his eyes widened until they threatened to fall out of their sockets, "Harmonia is the answer to all my immediate needs, and I almost turned her away!!"

Pulling himself together within the next nano-second, he finally replied to the automated communication and security system.  "By all means, send her in!"

Querl now allowed himself the childlike indulgence of rubbing his hands in anticipation while grinning ear-to-ear until his cheekbones hurt.  Yes, he thought, it was meant to be, after all...not that I should have ever doubted it, but if this isn't a sign, then I'm as dumb as that loser Ultra Boy.  He then began talking to himself again, while unconsciously lifting his head and raising his arms to create a messianic pose.

"There shall be a new Legion.  And I will be in charge.  ME!!  HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!!"

(What's below was written before reading your latest update.)

I'm enjoying this as well, Fick! I know you've probably been disappointed in my not reading fanfics you've done previously, but here I am--finally!

What got me to try this one was your recent, very thoughtful review sof the Retroboot and Lost Vol. 2 over on the LSH forum. I was surprised by how even-handed they were and how it made me re-think a few things. So with those things in mind, I followed you here. (Didn't hurt, either, that I've had 7 days off and some time to kill! )

I'm curious about a lot of things. One of those is how many subplots you will be introducing. My only concern is that, if there are many more begun, I may have trouble following them and remembering who, where, what, etc. Not trying to shackle you--the Legion is nothing if not an unruly and expansive cast of characters--but I'm curious. I know you could probably pull it off, but I would think it would be harder in prose than in a comic book. For me, it would be a daunting task!

I'm also curious about whether you will "right some wrongs" in your process or if you'll take what happened as gospel and go from there. I know I would be hugely tempted to undo at least one or two deaths, for example. In any case I'm eager to get a look at Tinya and get some of her perspective on her departure.

So far, I've enjoyed Tasmia's scene and the meeting of the Brainiacs the most. In the former I kind of expected some reference to Earth-Man, though. I know you loathe the character, but it would have been a good place to address her feelings on the matter. And obviously, I'm also a fan of dot-LEGION and Vril II, so that was a treat, even if it was a one-off.

Of course, I hope to see some Vi and Ayla, Dreamy and maybe some kind of follow-up on Jeckie's last scene in the last issue.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying this and look forward to more!

Welcome aboard, Lardy!!

Words just can't properly express what a nice surprise it is for me to see you posting here, because I seem to recall you saying a few years ago that you'd become extremely selective about which fanfics you chose to read. Therefore, to get the Lardy seal of approval on this project is a great pleasure, and very flattering!! Thank you from the bottom of my fangirl heart!!

And thanks, too, for the kind words about my reviews of the Retroboot and LLv2; I have made a conscious effort lately to be more even-handed in my posts than I used to be, but especially my Legion forum posts. Happy to hear that it's paying off just as I'd hoped.

In answer to your questions:

What I'm trying to do about the subplots is to let the first bunch run their natural course before introducing more of them. That's what I've been trying to teach myself, through trial and error over the six or seven years I've been writing Legion fanfics on-and-off, how to do it as good as my writing heroines and heroes (and Levitz, however ambivalent I have become about his Legion runs, remains one of my heroes.) I have detailed notes and computer files with all the possible subplots I've brainstormed to date, but I try to select only those which are most organically compatible with whatever the A, B, and C plots happen to be at the moment. Right now, the A-Plot is Brainy & Harmonia reforming the team, the B-Plot is the LLv2 team fragmenting as some members decide they want more than others to go home, and the C-Plot is Glorith's inner voyage of self-discovery and its outer repercussions (A digression: Steve Engelhart calls it the "rising and advancing of a spirit", so the question is, will Glorith make the universe soar towards further enlightment, or drag it down into oblivion? I already know the answer, but obviously I can't reveal it right now. ) So whichever threads spin organically out of the above are the ones which take priority.

As for "righting some wrongs", Tinya and her mid-battle meltdown (an appalling WTF Legion character assassination if there ever was one) is definitely at the top of my list, but I also believe in the old saying, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," so while she will return eventually, and all will be explained to the best of my ability, Tinya's story is currently simmering on the back burner. I'm curious which other dropped balls from the Retroboot you'd like to see me deal with, and as long as it won't spoil any major developments I have planned, I'll be happy to share my thoughts.

Glad that you enjoyed the Tasmia scene so much. Regarding Earth-Man, I'm using what might be called the "Mike Carey Method", specifically his long, long X-Men v. 2/X-Men Legacy run -- the method, in a nutshell, is to at the very least respect everything about what came before, and then choosing whether or not it's worth making lemonade out of lemons, or to just leave the lemons alone. And so, yes, I do fully intend, in the not-so-long-run, to deal with Tasmia's feelings for Earth-Man, how they've intertwined with her touch-and-go (also quite possibly, though not necessarily, doomed) reconciliation with Mon-El, and just what it is that has often drawn her towards a certain kind of man (it just occurred to me, as I was typing this paragraph, that in LSH v. 6, both Earth-Man and Mon-El were chosen by the Green Lantern ring, and since I made no bones in the Tasmia installment of this fic about Mon-El's fallibilities, it suddenly dawned on me that Lar and Kirt might not be as different under the surface as they seemed (Lar the life-bringer, Kirt the mass-murderer, Tasmia going from one extreme to another? This bears further pondering.)

Regarding Querl & Vril, I greatly appreciate your positive feedback, because that was, to date, the most challenging scene for me to write. It actually didn't completely jell in my mind until I was more than halfway through writing it, and I was greatly relieved that it came together in such a way that I didn't have to go back and rewrite a single word!! So that was very much an ego-boost.

AND, as long as we're talking Vril, I think you'll be quite pleased to learn that this is far from the last we've seen of him interacting with his descendant. Without spoiling anything, we'll eventually (maybe even sooner that I'm planning at the moment) see the whole L.E.G.I.O.N. crew, though not necessarily all together at the same time.

And regarding the four Legion ladies you'd most like to see, I think there's more good news than bad. Because while I consider Dreamy's epilogue in #23 to be the perfect sign-off for her, and while Jeckie's return is even more far-off than Tinya's (not by a lot, though)...

...Vi and Ayla will be *the first two ex-Legionnaires to rejoin the team*, right after it's been *officially formed*!! And on their first official mission, Vi will be field commander, with Ayla as Number One!!

Finally, and as a perfect segue, I would be remiss not to mention that I feel like I've at last reached a level of perspective and emotional maturity to properly deal with the relationship between Ayla (who I love) and Vi (who I think needs several of the aforementioned "wrongs righted" before I can fully embrace her as a character.) (Not that Ayla hasn't got at least a couple of explanations due, mainly what the hell that scene towards the end of the Baxter Era between her and Pol was, other than prime fodder for snarky Ayla-haters. In short, I'll deal with it eventually, but I still have to finish wrapping my head around it.)

Thanks again for the support, the encouragement, and the thoughtful feedback, Lardy, and I hope you enjoy what's on the way as much as you've enjoyed the opening installments.

Sounds like a winning plan you have there, Fick! As far as other "wrongs to be righted", I was primarily thinking about the deaths of Star Boy and Sun Boy, though I would respect it if you decided to treat those as inviolate. But there's also Quislet and Tenzil having been written off casually and XS, iirc, inexplicably never showing up after being set to continue after Legion of 3 Worlds, along with Gates. I'd also like to see more of Jed Rikane and Gravity Kid.

And maybe some subtle, organic continuity-doctoring that shows what parts of the preboot are still in continuity when relevant. I can see, for instance, that at least the aftermath of LSH Vol. 3 #50 is out with your reference to Shady's plight with Mon feeling familiar somehow but not. This, of course, follows Levitz's own cue that the marriage rite never happened. (I'm sure, though, it's within your own preference to ignore approximately the last approximately 2 years of that run because of your own proclivities.) But questions involving Superboy and Supergirl are tempting to address, among many others. And of course, your use of Lady Memory and Grev made me think of the two getting married, iirc, in TMK.

No pressure of any sort here, Fick, just some of my own musings. I'd advise, though, for you to think about writing some characters you're not overly fond of, or maybe even hate. Sometimes, making that effort can be very rewarding!

I think it's clear that the Retroboot had and has more potential than was ever really explored. I'm confident from what I've seen that you will be realizing that potential!

Quislet *will* return, I give you my word on that, Lardy!!

I don't think it'd spoil too much to say that Drake will temporarily exit his containment suit in order to enter Teall to try and rescue Quislet once and for all. Drake *will* do this, whether he stays in the 21st Century or not.

I'd like to bring back Tenzil, explain why exactly he left the Legion, and explore the melancholy beneath the clowning; I know the latter is more TMK Tenzil than Preboot/Retroboot Tenzil, but it's by far my favorite thing about the TMK era, and I don't think it should fall by the wayside. I also want to explore exactly what effects eating the Miracle Machine had on him, because there just *had* to have been *some* kind of change in him.

XS I like, but her continuity post-post-post-post-all-the-DCU-resets is going to be a tough tangle to unravel. But I'm not one to back off from a creative challenge, and I have a vague notion of bringing in her mom and her uncle from a different point in the timestream...it's all far from even starting to coalesce yet, but I can say that we might even see appearances by her grandfolks Barry & Iris (though I doubt I'll be bringing Wally or Bart into the 31st Century, even for visits, more out of a gut feeling than anything.)

Gates is a character I've enjoyed writing in the not-too-distant-past, even though the one time I did was in what I regard as one of my worst Legion fics, the third installment of the Every-Boot Legion. Now I'm eager to write him again, in a story where I've already nailed down the beginning, middle, and end. For a taste of what's coming with Gates, consider that he's still living in the 21st Century, and that it's quite possible his politics might be too radical even for the Bernie Sanders crowd, AND he's an insectoid from another planet to boot!!

Jed Rikane and Tel Vole are a sweet, endearing couple, and Brainy & Harmonia could definitely use them on the new roster, what with Mon-El's survival looking iffy, Blok under Mysa's thrall, Ultra Boy MIA (hint: Quest for Tinya), Supergirl & Superboy both in a Hawk-People-like continuity fustercluck, and Star Boy turned into a bearded pancake (I know, I know, that last bit was mean, but I've never forgiven Preboot Thom for his idea of how to do a "tough-love" breakup with Preboot Nura.) Jed could very well become the team's permanent muscle, while Tel's precocity and reverence for the Legion make him more than qualified to take Star Boy's place. My only uneasiness about Jed & Tel is that Phil Jimenez seemed to have such definite plans for where they were going (understandable, since Tel *was* his baby) that it's hard for me not to try to second-guess what those plans might have been, and second-guessing is not conducive to good storytelling (hmmm...possibly try to contact Phil and ask for a gist of his plans? Worth considering, I think. )

And, ahhh...Legion continuity...I plan to tread very carefully, and if I see the need for minor modifications, I won't hesitate to use them, as the ending of Convergence was a gift from the Gods for fanfic writers like me, as far as getting plenty of wiggle room for what does and what doesn't remain ("Continuity blip? No, it's because that timeline *evolved* into something rather different.") As for Superboy and Supergirl, you may be surprised, knowing my personal Legion preferences, at what might be coming up. Hint:

I agree with you 100% about the potential rewards of writing characters I dislike. I took some tentative steps in that direction with the first two installments of the Every-Boot Legion (which, even though it went off the rails after that, I would like to have another go at within the next 5 to 10 years.) This is particularly true of my Engelhart-inspired weaving together of my bete noire among the male Legionnaires, Cosmic Boy's, continuity in the first installment. And it's going to have relevance to Cos's backstory in the Earth-7.5 Legion, and the current plans I have for him. I will elaborate when I post Cos's entry in my upcoming "Who's Who in the Earth-7.5 DCU" thread.

Regarding Lady Memory and the whole situation on Talok VIII, the scenario explored in TMK *might* happen...but with my own twist on it, naturally...and I'm confident that nobody's going to see how the LM-led uprising on Talok will be resolved. (And it's going to happen in just two more installments!! Stay tuned!!)

You've got a very big canvas here! It's quite exciting to think of the possibilities of where you'll take the characters.

When I think of this Brainy and Harmonia running a Legion, Lucifer and Mazikeen come to mind (although Brainy is less polished). Watch out galaxy!

You write a great Tasmia! I think we're most aligned on that particular character. The Talok plot is compelling. I've always wondered to what degree Grev smarted from his humiliation at the hands of Lady Memory and it sounds like she has a few resentments to work out as well! (Maybe they're already married and this is a super-argument gone very bad? ;))

You have quite a different perception of some characters' personalities compared to my own, and that makes for a very intriguing read.

I got a laugh with Kendra thinking about a threesome during a battle. Really looking forward to upcoming installments!

MEANWHILE, ON THE PLANET WINATH...

Although it would have been naïve and simplistic, if not borderline delusional, to describe the agrarian planet Winath as a bucolic paradise, populated entirely by uncomplicated, hard-working people with good values, whose doors were always open to welcome decent folk like themselves into their homes, the planet was randomly dotted with spots where the truth did come acceptably close to the myth.  One such spot was the piece of land containing the modest but thriving vegetable farm which was the property of one of Winath's most sincerely decent and neighborly couples, Mr. Garth Ranzz and Mrs. Imra Ardeen-Ranzz.

As they both currently busied themselves with preparations for receiving guests, Garth quietly took comfort in their relatively good fortunes of late, but as a native son of Winath, he knew that it wasn't luck at all, but rather his and Imra's commitment to a strong work ethic, and, more importantly, the feeling that anything at all positive should never be taken for granted.

Imra, for her part, simply felt relieved that her sister-in-law, Garth's vivacious if edgy twin Ayla, had agreed to take care of Imra's and Garth's twin sons for as much time as they needed to properly entertain their expected guests.  Ayla lived with her abrasive but ultimately kind-hearted same-sex partner, Salu Digby, on one of Winath's moon colonies, a location rather more cosmopolitan than the Ranzz farm.  By 31st Century standards, this was, if not quite like living a few streets away from each other, then at least a distance which could be covered with reasonable speed, even with the kind of old-fashioned cruisers which the galaxy-wide tech-failure had once again made necessary.  Those two iconoclastic young women, thought Imra, would make great parents one day, and Ayla had actually told Imra not long before that they were already discussing either artificial insemination for either her or Salu, or applying to adopt a child.

Naturally, Ayla knew she and Salu could always count on Imra's unconditional support and encouragement, but Imra hoped they also knew that she would never hesitate to be the hard voice of experience, warning them that motherhood was not all glee and bliss.  It was also torturously long nights without sleep but WITH a great deal of anxiety and uncertainty, it was bodily functions out of control, and it was noise -- endless, headache-inducing noise which produced more stress than a sentient being should be reasonably expected to handle, ESPECIALLY if there was more than one child in the household, as was the case with Imra & Garth's twin sons.  Should Ayla & Salu, the latter affectionately nicknamed "Vi" by those she allowed to get close to her, make the same choice Imra had, then it was only fair that Imra forewarn them of what they would be in for.

Then, without the slightest warning, Imra's hyper-sensitive Titanian-born mind abruptly fixated on a seemingly random thought -- the fact that neither she nor Garth had thought of telling Ayla & Vi exactly who their guests were.

Imra stopped her cleaning and re-arranging of the living room on a dime.  Garth was busy outside, setting up tables and chairs for the meal, which Imra felt was fortunate for both her and him.  Possessing the telepathy which was the genetic birthright of all native Titanians -- and at a level of not-fully-explored power which was near-unprecedented in her generation, as well as downright scary to boot -- she had been trained from birth by Titan's finest minds to keep her powers under control, lest the potential sensory overload threaten to drive her mad.

She knew that the resulting public impression she communicated was one of icy aloofness, but deep down, she saw no alternative.  It was, Imra felt, all she could do to not end up like such monstrous rogue Titanians as Eve "Saturn Queen" Aries, scourge of far too many vulnerable minds across the galaxy, and who had victimized several of Imra's fellow ex-Legionnaires in the not-too-distant past, just a short while before the team was forcibly disbanded by executive order.

These were precisely the kind of thoughts which Imra made every effort during her every waking hour to avoid like the plague.  And when she could not shut them out, as was the case at that moment, she urgently required what could be termed her "me time."  But circumstances did not always allow Imra that luxury, and this was one of those unfortunate times.

She now did her best to focus harder, going back to the thought which had triggered her current unease...

It seemed on the surface like an innocuous question: Why it would have never occurred to her to tell Ayla & Vi who was coming to visit her and Garth?

Suddenly, a metaphorical dam burst within Imra's mind, and she could no longer hold back all of the dark, skewed, irrational thoughts which had been unleashed, such as:

How had she and Garth managed to stay friends with their expected guests, Rokk Krinn and Lydda Jath, through years of sharing ups and downs as members of the Legion of Super-Heroes and its ancillary teams...when they hardly knew anything substantial about either Rokk or Lydda?

Sure, Garth and Rokk had already done the superficial male-bonding thing way back when they, and Imra, joined together to found the Legion while still only in their mid-teens.  And when Lydda started coming in and out of their lives a relatively short time later, Imra had initially tried in earnest to connect with the stunning, stylish, outwardly vibrant Lydda, but there had always been a kind of opacity to Lydda which prevented anything from truly taking hold between the two women...and the same held true, Imra now realized, in the strictly businesslike relationship between herself and Rokk.

With his self-assurance, his take-charge inclinations, his smooth negotiating skills, and his general ability to disarm everyone from teammates to villains bent on massive-scale domination through ill-gained power, Rokk appeared the very epitome of the well-adjusted, highly-functioning model citizen, the perfect public face for the Legion to revolve around.

What was it, then, about Rokk which had always caused Imra to tread carefully, to take his every word and deed at face value even when she had her doubts, to never attempt to probe deeper into him?  Into that honest-to-the-Gods working-class hero from the harsh world built atop the merciless surface of the Gods-forsaken planet Braal?  That one-time high-school athlete of great promise and breathtaking charisma, who had sent young women's hearts aflutter even before her came a celebrated super-hero?  

And hadn't Lydda publicly claimed at least once that her entire reason for entering the superhero community was so that she could get close to Rokk?

The mind of Imra Ardeen-Ranzz was now flooded with twisted suppositions and deeply disturbing musings.  All she could do at the moment to cope with it was to put both her hands on her forehead, settle into an easy chair, close her eyes, and take several deep breaths.  Please, Gods, she thought, don't let Garth, much less Lydda and Rokk, see me like this!  Just help me make it through this gathering as the best hostess I can possibly be, and I promise to deal with it as soon as my guests have left!!

AT THAT MOMENT, ON EARTH, WITHIN HARMONIA LI'S CHINESE RETREAT...

"I'm glad we agree that there is no need to approach any of the original team's founders." declared a grinning, visibly confident Brianiac-5 to his fellow ex-Legionnaire -- and, just a short while earlier, his official co-founder of the new Legion -- Harmonia Li. "They are, in my opinion, the epitome of the phrase "surplus to requirement.", nothing more than glorified anachronisms."  He then paused to catch his breath, admire the retreat's décor, and take a sip of Harmonia's graciously offered tea.

Harmonia responded to what he had just said with a restrained smile and a polite laugh.  Earlier that same day, when Brainiac-5 had received her at his lab with what was, for him, such an uncharacteristic display of solicitousness and demonstrative friendliness, all of which seemed outright sincere, she had been genuinely surprised.  A rare occurrence indeed with Harmonia, for if anyone could be said to not have been "born yesterday," it was her.  Perhaps, she thought, the fates were being kind to her in facilitating the realization of her plans...and then again, it was just as likely the fates had a wickedly ironic outcome in mind for the future of this aborning new Legion, a possibility indicating to Harmonia that she would have to stay on her guard.

So I had hoped to have the story done by the end of this weekend, but like Harbi and I were agreeing on earlier in this thread, a story ends up better when its writer stands back and simply allows it to happen when it happens (that is, if she or he is doing the story just for fun and doesn't depend on meeting deadlines to get paid. And that's why I'll never stop writing fanfics, even once I've established myself as a freelance writer.)

But at least I was able to complete a substantial enough portion to post. All's good ATM with me and my fanfic writing.

And the other DCU fanfic projects I've been working on in addition to the Legion for future Bits posting ...you won't believe your eyes!!

Now to read FC's always-welcome comments and post a reply to her, before getting back to doing the creative pursuits that I love to do more than anything in the world.

Thank you, FC. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I'm so excited about this opening arc and the one coming up right after it, that I feel downright *giddy*!! I've never before felt so confident about, and happy with, my own writing.



*YAY!!* FC just compared my Retroboot Legion writing, and my portrayals of Brainy and Harmonia, to Mike Carey's "Lucifer" run!! *SQUEE!!* Thank you so much. It so happens Carey is one of my very favorite writers, and one of the few who is equally at home writing either Vertigo weirdness or Marvel superheroics (on a more sobering note, DC's superhero division has consistently rejected his proposals, including one for *Firestorm* that Carey was particularly excited about. Sigh. )



Your Lucifer comment had me on Cloud Nine. The one I just quoted has taken me even higher, if that's possible!! Thanks a million billion trillion, FC.



Anything's possible. If I said any more, I'd spoil the upcoming ending to that plot thread.



Much appreciated, FC. That just makes the writing even more of a pleasure to do. And to reiterate something I've been saying a lot lately on these boards, I really, really love the mutual respect between Legion Worlders and the general civility, even friendliness, of our discussions.



Thanks. I was quite proud of that bit myself. She's always been by far my favorite Hawk-Person. I'm almost finished working on my Secret Origin of Earth-7.5 Kendra, and I'm very happy with how it's turning out.



Thank you, FC. And I'm eagerly anticipating your further comments.

What a good start, Fanfie!

I like your narrative style, where you have a sort of narrator introducing your scenes. It's a good way to introduce the characters and the settings.

Good job for showing Lady Memory's point of view, helps to let us see both sides of the Talokian rebellion.

Your Tasmia is wonderful, very strong-willed, emotional but not letting emotion overcome her. A great portrayal of her character.

I loved your 21st century scene. Hawkgirl thinking of a threesome was comedy cold, and like others said I loved her seeing through Byth immediately. Happy to see the Lost Legionnaires involving themselves in the present, but I'm certainly excited at the thought of them eventually coming home. And happy you included a glimpse of Drura!

Harmonia and Brainy reforming the Legion makes sense. I got a laugh out of Brainy manipulating Vril Dox into losing his temper - and I'm glad it showed him living up to his Brainiac name (emotional intelligence IS a mark of intelligence!) His thoughts on the 3 founders were interesting.

Imra's thoughts were interesting as well. Cos and Lydda, interested to see where you go with them. I also like your perspective on why she is so careful with her self-control. Citing Saturn Queen as a counterpoint makes a lot of sense.

Thanks, Ibby. Much appreciated.



Glad to see my intentions came through clearly. Growing up in Latin America, one does tend to get a better education towards understanding what exactly makes would-be revolutionaries tick.



Thank you. Like I said to FC in reply to her equally positive comments on my Tasmia, I can write her in my sleep and still feel like I did right by her, but when I put in that extra bit of effort...it's magical!!



You're very welcome. Having never read, nor ever intending to read, the later issues of the TMK/TM minus K run, wherein Drura had her most prominent moments in the spotlight, she's pretty much a clean slate for me to develop in the direction I see as the most fit for her...only the best for one of Dave Cockrum's most imaginatively designed creations.



Thanks a trillion, Ibby. As with Lady Memory, it makes me happy to see that what I was trying to convey came through loud & clear.



Thanks. That was one of the hardest, most time-consuming parts of that installment to write.



The more understanding I gain of Imra, the more she becomes basically an extension of myself...only a lot more attractive, and with naturally blonde hair (though I haven't been a blonde for over a decade now.) I find now that it's a fine line I walk to prevent myself from turning her into a Mary Sue.

That said, once Ayla returns in the second story arc, that's going to be even more of a temptation for Mary Sue-ing. But I also think I've become confident enough, objective enough, and pragmatic enough about serving the story and the characters over any personal biases, that I should be able to stay true to both of these Legion ladies.

I think you'll do a good job continuing to make sure nobody turns into a Mary Sue.

Out of curiosity, what's your take on the v3 portrayals of Imra and Rokk having a really friendly relationship? I notice you describe them as having a strictly businesslike relationship. I agree though that Lydda never got to be close with Imra and Garth, at least up to the end of v3.

And I applaud your look into Lady Memory's POV again, and your desire to portray the opposing side's thoughts. We need more of that in real life - trying to understand the other side.

Re: Lady Memory and the opposing sides, I think that was very well said, Ibby, and I'm in 100% agreement.

Re: Imra & Rokk, I see it more as her humoring him with white lies & half-truths, the better to keep his monstrous control-freak side at bay.

Oh, an interesting take! I can see how it would fit in with the actual v3 scenes. Cos THINKS their relationship is one of close friendship, but that's what he thinks...

Exactly.

THE FINAL INSTALLMENT OF THE FIRST E-7.5 STORY ARC

At this moment, Tasmia Mallor was discovering that the cliché about one's life passing before her or his eyes as they approach their own death was completely untrue.  And while someone as tenacious as her would probably have frowned at being described as having resigned herself to fate, that was Tasmia's exact mind-set as her ship, inadequate from the start for the long voyage she had forced it to undergo, came in for an inevitable crash-landing on the surface of her home planet of Talok VIII.  The landing would, in fact, be not far from the sacred cavern where she had first embraced the shadow powers which had been her rightful destiny since birth.  A perfectly circular way of the cosmos capping off her life as it neared its end, she mused as the outside pressures on the rickety ship became too much to bear, and even a last-second attempt by her cousin Grev, whose pleas for help had summoned her to Talok in the first place, trying to reach her once again through the mind-link provided by their mutual shadow powers.

"Tasmia!!" she heard his mind screaming, "Pull up, or your ship will explode upon landing!!"  But she found that she did not care any longer, not whether she lived or died, nor even whether her only fellow passenger, the once-mighty, now-fallen Mon-El, still unconscious inside his stasis tube, lived or died. Tasmia closed her eyes and prepared to meet her ancestors.

Down on the planet's surface, Grev Mallor continued to reach out in vain to his older, more powerful cousin, while running straight towards what he had determined, using only his eyes and his instinctive sense of direction, was the trajectory of Tasmia's seemingly doomed ship.

Grev could be forgiven, under the circumstances, for focusing exclusively on the ship at the expense of discovering that he was being shadowed from close behind, by a Yakka-Mahor sentinel loyal to Grev's nemesis, Lady Memory, the leader of the uprising taking place in the planet's capital city.  An uprising which Grev had narrowly escaped the site of with his life, which has the reason the sentinel had been dispatched to track him down, but to bring him back alive so that Lady Memory could kill Grev herself, in full view of the Talokian population.

Now the sentinel found himself having to make a tough call.  His intuition told him that whoever was piloting that ship had to mean a great deal to Grev, if he would risk making himself an easy target by coming out of hiding in order to follow the ship's descent.  Perhaps, the sentinel deduced, correctly as it were, the ship's pilot may even be Lady Memory's other prime target, Tasmia Mallor, Grev's cousin and his predecessor as champion of the old Talokian order which Lady Memory and her acolytes were now in the process of disassembling.

This was too vital a possibility to waste on fulfilling his original mission, thought the sentinel.  And so he stopped on a dime, turned on his heel, and began running swiftly -- the Yakka-Mahor had always been trained by their elders to be exceptional runners -- back to the capital city which had fallen to his leader Lady Memory's forces.

MEANWHILE, ON EARTH...

Harmonia Li & Brainiac 5 were both in high spirits as they entered the recreation room of Harmonia's elegant retreat hidden within a bucolic yet dense region of China.  They were not surprised to see Harmonia's teenage protégés, Marya and Glorith, already in the room, the former half-heartedly watching cartoons of the holo-vision set, the latter wrapped up in her own thoughts.

Nor were Harmonia & Brainy surprised to note that the girls did not take any notice of the adults' presence, refusing to even look in their direction, much less greet them with words.  That was just typical teenager behavior from the girls.

But right after Harmonia spoke up and said, "Great news, young ladies!!  Brainiac and I have finished conferring, and the new Legion has become a certainty," both Marya & Glorith turned their gazes towards Harmonia, giving her their undivided attention.

"Great!" replied Marya. "So who's in the roster?"

"Uh...why, you are." replied a puzzled Brainy. "Both of you."

Now Marya's eyes blazed with anger. "HARMONIA, how COULD you??" she shouted. "You volunteered us for the team without even ASKING us first???"

"I had assumed, erroneously it now appears, that your memberships were a given." replied a typically unruffled Harmonia.

"It's the PRINCIPLE of the thing!!" Marya continued to rage as Harmonia retained her poker face, Brainy rolled his eyes, and Glorith hung her head low and sighed. "If you're gonna try to run our lives behind our backs, then this setup isn't gonna work at all!!"

Suddenly, the argument was put to stop when the holo-vision set began blaring with an ominously familiar musical fanfare preceding the announcement that the regularly scheduled program was being interrupted for a Special News Report.

With all eyes in the recreation room now fixated on the holo-vision, the anchorperson got right to the point: "We are now receiving, live on the scene, breaking news confirming that the overthrow of the ruling council on Talok VIII is nearly complete.  The only loose end remaining is the current status of their champion, Grev Mallor, who fled the scene of the council's massacre just a couple hours ago."

After a pause, the anchorperson continued, now wearing a visibly disturbed expression through the heavy layers of makeup on her face. "And yet, we are also being told that the riots in the streets show no sign of abating, and, if anything, they're getting even worse, spreading rapidly to the outskirts of the planet's capital city.  With more on this troubling situation, we now go live to the scene unfolding just outside Talok's capital city."

The image on the holo-vision changed to a grainy, shaky vision of an obviously uncomfortable reporter trying to remain objective and calm as the savage fighting amidst smoke and still-burning fireballs continued a short distance from where he stood facing his crew's small, easy-to-handle cameras.

"What we're looking at here," declared the reporter, "is the very worst connotation of anarchy come to frightening life.  Lady Memory's followers, be they her Yakka-Mahor kin or city-bred converts, are giving no quarter to their perceived oppressors as the fighting now descends from a rebellious uprising into a chaotic free-for-all.  The obvious question being, is there any point to the fighting anymore, or are we witnessing the Talokians reverting to their barbaric roo...uh, hang on a minute, it appears that our current location is becoming more unsafe by the nanosecond!!  We'll have to make haste and..."

But it was too late for the reporter and his crew.  A small group of rebels had broken off from the pack and descended upon the outsiders with blood-curdling speed.  The resulting attack was better left to imagination, and yet it was hard for the quartet watching in Harmonia's recreation room to avert their eyes from the gruesomeness unfolding before them on the holo-vision.

Harmonia's serenity, Brainy's detachment, Glorith's self-obsession, Marya's affected cynicism...they all fell away as the ugliest side of sentient existence made its presence known to them, in no uncertain terms.

The first to finally tear herself away from the holo-vision and head out of the room was Harmonia, but not before she had tossed off the command, "FOLLOW ME," over her shoulder.  The other three did just that, and, within a minute, they had arrived at Harmonia's trophy room.

"Blast!" yelled Harmonia, atypically demonstrating her frustrations to the others. "I thought it would be in plain sight!"  She then began frantically searching through her collection of rare objects from a variety of worlds...and from a variety of eras in time.

"If you'd just tell us what you're looking for, we could help you!" asserted Brainy.

"I fear not." replied Harmonia. "It is an ancient device from over a thousand years ago!!  And it is our only hope of being able to defuse the crisis on Talok!!"

AT THAT MOMENT, ON TALOK VIII, IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE PLANETARY CAPITAL CITY...

"Fools!!  Tourists!!  Dilettantes!!  Unprincipled, milk-fed, city-raised slime!!"

It was hard to say at that moment which of the two prevalent noises in the vicinity of the Resistance's main base camp were more blood-curdling:

One of them was Lady Memory's shrill, sharp, angry shrieking at the converts who had channeled their animal instincts unwisely by making a fatal attack on the unwelcome news crew, whose provocation of the converts had been indirect at best.

The other was the moaning, droning pleas for mercy from the converts themselves, all of whom were now being subjected to Lady Memory's mind-witchery at its most merciless.  Within the next few minutes, the shock to the system -- minds and bodies alike -- of three of the converts would prove too much to bear for them, and all three would die in agony, within mere minutes of each other.

Still raging, to the effect that everybody who could made the choice to run as far away from her as possible, Lady Memory responded to the deaths of her victims as though they had only themselves to blame.  This, she made obvious not with spoken words, but by kicking brutally and stomping savagely on the converts' lifeless corpses.

There could not have been a more badly timed moment for the sentinel who had, a short while ago, tracked Grev Mallor's location, to arrive at the camp with important information for Lady Memory.  This he knew well, but duty obligated him to approach her nonetheless, at his own peril.

The sentinel advanced slowly, until he saw Lady Memory's body language become slightly more relaxed, and heard his leader huffing, in an effort to return her breathing to normal.

"My queen, I bear you good tidings." he said to her, as quickly and clearly as he could.

Lady Memory turned around to show that, while her face was still somewhat twisted in anger, her more rational, pragmatic side regained control, and while she remained somewhat short of breath, she replied,

"They could not be any worse than the actions of these dead idiots.  Do proceed to deliver these tidings."

"I located my quarry, the so-called planetary champion, and I have reason to believe that he remains in that vicinity, for I also observed him chasing after a small ship coming in for a crash-landing.  It may prove to be but empty speculation, but I believe it is quite possible that the ship contained your other prime target, his cous..."

"HIS COUSIN!  She who humiliated me some time ago." hissed Lady Memory. "Yes...those are indeed worthy developments, and I am grateful to you for informing me of them with all due speed.  Now I have a new mission for you -- guide me to where you witnessed what you just described.  It matters no longer whether the Mallor interlopers are executed publicly or out among the rock formations in the barren wastelands.  What matters...the ONLY thing that matters...is that they both die by my hand!!"

MEANWHILE, ON EARTH, AT HARMONIA LI'S RETREAT...

"At last!" exclaimed Harmonia triumphantly. "It is found!"

"What the hell?  You were looking for an old remote control from before holo-vision existed??" was Marya's snarky reply.

"No, it's far more than that," whispered an atypically wide-eyed Brainy before Harmonia could respond to Marya, "it...it's a genuine 21st Century Mother Box, the most innovative and influential machine ever created by the planet Earth science of that time!!"

"Indeed, Querl." said Harmonia, almost giving away that she was impressed with him. "And it is to be our mode of instant transportation to Talok VIII."

SIMULTANEOUSLY, AT THE CRASH SITE ON TALOK...

"For the people, for freedom, FOR MAKAAS!!" shouted Lady Memory as she swiped her dagger at Grev Mallor's chest, the blade slashing through Grev's flimsy clothing and cutting open an enormous gash in his outer layer of skin.

Lady Memory now found herself on the verge of salivating, as her lusty hunger for violent retribution reached its fever pitch.  Catching unaware the addled, out-of-breath, already-wounded Grev had been child's play, especially with his hated cousin Tasmia only semi-conscious.  Now, for Lady Memory's intended coup de grace, she leaned closer towards her fallen antagonist, her free hand grabbing him by the throat, her other hand holding the dagger aloft, savoring the highly anticipated killing stroke...

BACK ON EARTH, INSIDE HARMONIA'S TROPHY ROOM...

"How did you ever manage to procure...?" Brainy began, before Harmonia cut him off politely but firmly.

"Explanations shall be forthcoming, I promise you, Querl.  But at this moment, our intervention on Talok takes the highest priority."  She said this as she tapped the super-sensitive buttons on the Mother Box's keypad, before adding, "I require your presence over here, Glorith, for it is your intuitive sense of direction that shall make our destination as close as possible to the location of the crux of the crisis.  I need you to visualize the Talokian pagan priestess, Lady Memory...I trust you know of whom I speak?"

"I do." replied Glorith flatly, and, with that, the four of them were whisked off to Talok, though not without the eardrum-stunning sound of the Mother Box's Boom Tube, the colloquial label for the quantum-powered tunnel which opened to connect the two closest points between launch site and desired destination.

MERE SECONDS LATER, ON TALOK...

Being robbed of such a crucial kill was infuriating to Lady Memory.  But for her surprise assailant, and Grev's would-be savior, to be Mon-El -- who had once injured her dignity even more severely than Grev, and whose stasis pod had flown out of the ship as it crashed, then cracked open upon impacting with a rock formation -- THAT was, in her skewed view, cause for taking the most drastic measure of all, consequences be damned.

"DIE, DAXAMITE SCUM!!  DIE!!!"

Mon-El's grip on Lady Memory's wrists, already far weaker than what he had once been capable of before the power of the Emerald Eye put him in a coma, loosened completely as he felt his personal demons -- of which he had enough to fill ten Hells -- overtake him, along with every trauma from his past.  It was no different from what Lady Memory had done to him in their previous confrontation, but this time, his mind and body were far more vulnerable to the shock.

And just as Lady Memory's mind-witchery had just as short time earlier proven fatal to her misguided non-super acolytes, so it now was for Mon-El.  With his defiant-in-the-face-of-death screams echoing off the surrounding rocks and canyons, those sounds would outlive Mon-El himself by only a few seconds.  After that, the centuries-old wanderer was no more.

Dazed and drained after the intensity of her physical and psionic efforts, Lady Memory attempted to get back on her feet, and, at the same time, looked around her, trying to locate the dagger she had dropped when Mon-El tackled her.  So while it was not unexpected that a sudden, loud explosion-like sound would disrupt Lady Memory's concentration, it came as no surprise at all when she found herself on the receiving end of a vicious martial-arts kick.

"MURDERESS!!"

She knew that scream she had just heard was obviously directed at her, and the voice was vaguely familiar, even in the state she was in, but before Lady Memory could get her bearings, she bore the full force of a second assault upon her.  This time it was the shocking sensation of a fist to her face, and the unmistakable sound of cartilage breaking from the pile-driving impact.

If Lady Memory's eyesight had not begun to fail her, she would have recognized her assailant as none other than a seething, hissing, snarling Tasmia Mallor, newly jolted back to full consciousness and out for vengeance at any cost!!

A SHORT DISTANCE FROM THE SCENE OF THE FIGHT...

"My dears, I apologize for not warning you about the noise." said Harmonia.

"Forget that," replied Marya, her head swiveling to and fro until she realized that their drab surroundings would most likely not vary no matter which direction they walked in, "what I wanna know is, how do people even LIVE in a place like this??"

"Our quarry lays nearby, I am certain of that." said Glorith, bringing the quartet back to the point of their voyage to this planet. "My empathic powers detect Lady Memory's intense fury...and a similar rage from a second female Talokian, but even more volcanic!!"

"TASMIA??" exclaimed Brainy and Harmonia in unintentional unison.

JUST THEN, AT THE CRASH SITE...

Having quickly tired of smashing her fists against the grossly swollen face of her nemesis, Tasmia opened up her aching hands, pausing for a couple seconds to register the pain coursing through them.  Then, she abruptly thrust her hands at Lady Memory's throat, her fingers wrapping themselves around it in a near-superhuman grip.  By this point, Tasmia's invective was, more often than not, lacking in any coherent sounds, with only the occasional fully-formed words.  And fighting words they were: "THROWBACK ANIMAL!!  HATE-MONGERING NEANDERTHAL!!"

Suddenly, Tasmia's mind no longer communicated to her the crystal clarity of murderous intent, which she had regarded as righteously justifiable.  Now, her thoughts became cloudy and muddled, ultimately settling into an opaque state of emotional and physical paralysis.  She struggled at first not to close her eyes, but within a couple minutes, she had given in.  Tasmia slumped, then rolled over until she lied next to Lady Memory, and finally went completely still.

"Holy nass!" exclaimed Marya as she and her three fellow travelers cautiously approached their fallen ex-teammate. "If that Mother Box can do something like this to a person...scary, just scary!"

"Will she live?" inquired Glorith, more out of curiosity than any sympathy for Tasmia.

"But of course!" replied Harmonia, lowering the Mother Box until it came to rest by her hip. "And by the time she awakens, all problems on Talok shall be taken care of."

MUCH LATER...

"They did WHAT??"

Tasmia had always been quick to anger, but this outburst from her -- being as it was unleashed less than a minute after she had regained consciousness and found herself in a medicine tent on Talok -- was unprecedented, at least in the memories of her cousin and designated bearer of bad news, a heavily-bandaged Grev Mallor.

Grev took a deep breath, then reiterated his summary of the events that had occurred while Tasmia had been recovering.  "They...your ex-teammates from the Legion...negotiated a surrender from the revolutionaries, in exchange for Lady Memory getting a fair trial, to be held off-world, on a planet as yet undetermined."

"Would I be correct," queried Tasmia, in a singularly icy tone, "if I were to assume that Harmonia did most of the talking?"

"Y-y-yes..." Grev stammered in response.

"They shall PAY for THIS!!" snarled Tasmia through gritted teeth.

By now, Grev was visibly shuddering.  "Wh-what exactly do you have in mind?"

Suddenly, Tasmia's lovely lips curled upward into a sly smiile, which somehow made her even scarier to Grev.  "Oh, not the direct approach, no, not at all.  What I plan to do is to approach Brainy, preferably the next time Harmonia goes off-world -- after all, it's most likely they lack funds, which will necessitate her working her wiles to woo potential sponsors.  Anyhow, I shall do my utmost to convince Brainy to let me join their team, and once I'm in..."

"...I shall learn Harmonia's secret agenda, and ensure that it comes crashing down around her.  Then, whether she is dead or still living, the truth about Harmonia shall be exposed to the public.  After that, Lady Memory shall be sentenced to a richly deserved public execution, and you and I shall be the icons of Talok's reconstruction."  She paused, then hissed, "I crave the taste of revenge.  For revenge, at its finest, is so very satisfying...and it tastes sweet."





NOTE: The next arc of the Earth-7.5 Legion of Superheroes will be posted sometime shortly after the New Year.  In the meantime, I encourage you to have a look at the 7 Worlds of Wonder thread, also here in the Bits forum, for a sense of where I'm heading over the course of the next several years with my Bits contributions, Legion and otherwise.

Lady Memory's hatred of the Mallors really comes through here. It's quite taken control of her, I expect.

Grev may be Planetary Champion, but Tasmia is running the show. He always was something of a bumbler. Will Tasmia focus on Lady Memory, or get distracted with Harmonia's "interference", even if it did save her and Grev's life?

Harmonia and Brainy with a mother box! Wow! I don't think Kirby ever indicated that there were consequences/side-effects for non-Gods using the mother box, and I don't know where Harmonia fits into the spectrum of beings, but I figure there may be some complications from using this device. Especially if Brainy tries to take it apart...

Mon-El went down swinging, a send off worthy of a great hero.

Like FC, I wonder if Tasmia will allow her anger at Harmonia to consume her. I understand her rage - losing Mon was quite a blow, and the circumstances were awful. I am a tad surprised at how vicious her reaction to Harmonia was though. Rage at Lady Memory I can understand, but Tasmia's rant about exposing Harmonia frightened me a little. I'm not sure how I feel about her bent on revenge, and not the more noble concept of justice. I was surprised, definitely. I do look forward to see where you take this though. As a big Tasmia fan I am sure you have things planned out for her already.

Dragonwing complaining that Harmonia and Brainy didn't even ask them was a nice touch. It's the principle of the thing!

Also liked that Lady Memory punished those who attached the innocent news crew. Even if not quite done out of altruism, it is a pragmatic move - attacking innocents reduced her side's legitimacy. The fear and doubt of the scout who returned news of Tasmia was well done too.

Thanks for chiming in, FC.



Agreed, but one thing I've found in exploring the untapped potential of Lady Memory and of the Yakka-Mahor's overall culture, is that it's put me back in touch with my South American roots in the best possible way. The Sapa Incas were cultural icons, whom we were extensively educated on in grade school, as were 19th and 20th Century revolutionaries such as Eloy Alfaro. In addition, my father, being the very best sort of Boomer Liberal, progressive yet sensible, owned copies of several vinyl albums by the Chilean folk-protest band Inti-Illimani, which were quite the heady listening experience for me at an age where my years had not quite reached double-digits. No wonder I feel I can relate so much to Marjane Satrapi!!

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that, in getting inside the head of Lady Memory and figuring out what makes her tick, I inadvertently uncovered a very strong personal connection, to the point where, even though she is, to put it mildly, misguided in the way she channels her otherwise-justifiable anger, and undeniably monstrous at times in her actions, by the time I'd finished the story I found myself unable to refer to her as a villainess anymore. This makes her, without a doubt in my mind, the very best Legion adversary ever created by Paul Levitz.

BTW, the Yakka-Mahor scout's running prowess was directly inspired by a grade-school memory of being taught about the Incas' running prowess.



I generally try not to quote the Christian Bible, but I think the familiar quotation, "Pride goeth before a fall," (which I actually learned not from the Bible itself, but from its use in Walt Kelly's "Pogo"), would seem to apply to Tasmia at this moment. And being as how characters take on a life of their own and take themselves in direction that surprise even their chroniclers such as myself, I cannot say ATM whether Tasmia's wiser side will prevail over her vengeful side in the long run. Naturally, though, I hope it does because I love her so.



LOL

I think that if Fourth/Fifth World science can impress even a 12-Level Coluan intellect such as Brainy's, then there's no real danger of him trying something that foolish.

As for Harmonia, all about her will be revealed sooner rather than later (because, IMO at least, Levitz kept her enigmatic for far too long), and I'll provide a second hint, but put it in a spoiler box for anyone who wants to be 100% surprised:

Thank you for sharing more of your always-thoughtful feedback, Ibby. There is some overlap between my thoughts on both your post and FC's, which I think goes to show that great minds really do think alike.



Thanks. As with Rokk in the first Every-Boot fic, I tried to be as fair as I could to a character I generally dislike intensely. I know Mon-El has some very passionate fans, mostly male (albeit ranging widely across the entire sexual-preference spectrum), but TMK's refusal to let him rest in peace has, over the past few years of rumination, become one of the things that bothers me the most about their run. For one thing, they robbed Tasmia of the chance to become her own woman and to no longer define herself by her male partner. And for another, their method of bringing back Mon-El, by referencing an obscure throwaway character related to him, from a mediocre Action Comics Backup Era Legion story...I find that unforgivable.



That, I'm happy to say, is exactly the reaction I was hoping for from readers.

Like I was saying to FC, I don't know whether or not Tasmia will ultimately make the choice that will serve the greater good in the long-term, or the one which will satisfy her petty vendetta in the short run, regardless of its repercussions. However, as a fan of hers, rather than as a sympathetic-but-pragmatic chronicler of her story, I share your concern and hope she makes the wiser choice.

And to elaborate on Tasmia's negative view of Harmonia, it simply seemed logical to me that several of the Legionnaires would see her, to varying degrees, as an interloper to be wary of, and that Tasmia, with her prickly nature, would be one of the most hostile towards Harmonia. Even Brainy, earlier in the story arc we are discussing, referred to her in his private thoughts as a "busybody", and threw in his lot with her more out of self-interest than genuine affection for her (which is not say that may not do a 180-degree change, or that the hints haven't already been dropped towards the end of this arc.)



To paraphrase (and, if only for the sake of making my point, misquote) Bette Davis in "All About Eve":

Fasten your seat belt, Ibby, it's going to be a bumpy ride.



THANK YOU ever so, Ibby!! I had been worried about that line, concerned that it might make Marya come across as petulant and whiny, but you've just confirmed to me that the intention behind her reaction, and her expression of it being more layered that it might seem, did come off as I'd hoped.



Again, Ibby, thank you from the bottom of my heart for confirming that the point I was trying to make came through crystal clear. As in every revolution, it's always the tourists with relatively pampered upbringings who cluelessly cross the line, with violent rhetoric that is counter-productive to the cause they claim to espouse.

Hi, sorry I'm late to the party but I missed this when you first posted it. I'm writing as I'm reading so my views may change as it goes on.

Your descriptive skills are incredible Raquel, Winath sounds amazing, and Imra's views on parenthood actually made me laugh out loud, literally! Her views on Saturn Queen were interesting and gave a good insight into her attitude towards her abilities, more interesting though were her thoughts on Lydda and Rokk are definitely worrying, I'm looking forward to what the payoff is you have planned. Is this Rokk going to be the Trapper with Lydda as his Glorith?

I do love your Machiavellian Harmonia and Querl, their plots and schemes are really entertaining and I think they are my favourites so far. Querls dismissal of the founders as surplus to requirements was brilliant.

The relationship between Tasmia and Grev is well established, and I always thought slightly dysfunctional, so it's good to see you add something to it by introducing their mind link. Lady Memory taking advantage of the technology crash is clever, and worrying how determined you've made her. She is rather blood thirsty isn't she?

I found the jumping between scenes on this post to be a bit off putting tbh, perhaps a dotted line between them as Raz does? I don't know, but it kind of threw me out of the story. And as that's the only complaint I've had so far it hardly even counts.

The scene with Harmonia and Querl telling Marya and Glorith that thy were in the team was sweet, teenagers can be so stroppy so it rang true. "It's the principle!" even though that's hat she wanted - perfect! Also well done was using the news broadcast to tie in Brainy's group with the savage goings on on Talok.

Harmonia with a mother box, scary!

Ah. Mon El's death was very unexpected. Hopefully Tasmia will avenge him properly.

Trust Harmonia to pragmatically deal with a situation and not understand the emotional reaction that engenders. Tasmias anger is understandable, though I also think it may mellow over time, depending of course on what she finds out about the inscrutable Professor Li.

Great start Raquel, I'm looking onward to what's coming next, and I'm sure you'll take us on a roller coaster ride as you carry on and I for one am eager to read more, more, more!

No worries, Harbi. At the parties I throw here in the Bits forum, there's never any such thing as "late for the party."



Thank you so much!! That means a lot to me.



Not quite. I feel like I've already done the Rokk-as-Trapper concept to best of my abilities in Every-Boot Legion Volume 1, and I wouldn't want to do an inferior copy. For the moment, just about every scene involving the founders will be very down-to-earth, in the same mould as the Imra solo sequence from this past story arc.

FTR, I did originally plan to show what happened at Imra & Garth and Rokk & Lydda's seemingly doomed get-together in this past story arc, but I decided it would disrupt the flow of the events leading up to the climax on Talok. There will be at least one sequence involving at least 1 or 2 of the founders in the next story arc, and the events from the get-together will be detailed.



Thanks. That feels to me like vindication of my decision to have them as the "stars" of the E-7.5 Legion. I knew going in that it wouldn't be easy to sell "Panel-Hog-Brainy" and the fandom-polarizing Harmonia as the prime movers behind the new Legion, but based on yours and the others' feedback, I'm now a lot more confident that I made the right decision.



Much appreciated. Such meta-fictional moments can border dangerously on writerly self-indulgence, so I'm glad to hear I managed to stay on the right side of that border.



Thanks. Yeah, like I said in my above replies to FC and Ibby, writing Lady Memory ended up really touching a personal chord with me, having grown up in South America, with its various nations' histories of civil and political unrest, as well as the enduring legacies of its nations' native tribes, particularly the Incas. I don't absolve Lady Memory of her more extreme actions, but on a very deep level, I feel like I can see what could motivate her to go to such extremes.



As always, Harbi, your constructive criticism is something I greatly value. I've tended to alternate in my stories between the dotted line you mentioned, and transitional "captions" in capital letters, like in this story. Perhaps next time I'll experiment with a combination of the two. I've also considered perhaps using the colour functions to make the dots and/or the captions stand out.



Awwww...thanks. I'm amazed at how Marya came alive to me almost instantly, and to a slightly lesser extent Glorith as well. That, to me, is an indication of whether or not another writers' creations have genuine potential.



I'm inclined to agree, but to elaborate overmuch would spoil what's ahead. Still, there's no harm in adding a second hint to the one I posted in my reply to FC:





Thank you. Tasmia is certainly determined to do just that.

On some level, I do feel, despite my distaste for Mon-El, a slight degree of guilt that he's sort-of become to me what Karate Kid is to Keith Giffen, a fictional construct to kill over and over. It's not out of laziness, I just find next-to-nothing interesting or sympathetic in what I feel is a very muddy and uncertain personality. IMHO, the only two things that he's really got going for him are his 1,000 year exile in the Phantom Zone and his inability to live up to his legend. And, ironically, the latter came about more by luck than judgement when he had to be reimagined as Legion continuity's stand-in for Superboy. I think the Postboot writers did manage to get some mileage out of that concept, even though it wasn't originally theirs (the scenes in the Postboot between M'onel and Triad were heartbreaking), but, like so much in the Postboot, there was never any real follow-through. A pity.



I do hope Tasmia mellows, but like I said to Ibby and FC, I find that a lot of character's actions are ultimately out of their chronicler's hands to some extent. We shall see.



Thanks again, Harbi. And it occurs to me that I should update my signature to reflect my tentative but fairly solid plans to have the opening installment of the 2nd story arc posted somewhere between New Year's Day and 31 January.

Happy New Year to all Bits participants, with extra-special thanks from me to Ibby, Cramer, Lardy, and Harbi for their insightful and extremely helpful and gratifying feedback on the 1st Earth-7.5/Retroboot Legion story-arc.

My Bits plans for 2017 boil down pretty much to seeing through the upcoming 2nd Retroboot installment from start to finish. This, and do excuse me if I come across as too pleased with myself, shall be my own "Great Darkness Saga," wholly appropriate in a symmetrical way given how Levitz spent his first few issues of LSH v.2 mostly setting the scene for the grand spectacle to come. And the parallels don't end there -- as the hints that I dropped in both the 1st story-arc itself (just where did Harmonia procure that Mother Box?) and in spoiler boxes in my replies to people's comments, the New Gods of the 7 Worlds of Wonder (who, FTR, are exclusive to E-7.5 bar the occasional incursions onto other Earths) will play a major role!!

And although I have already announced January 9th as the start date for story-arc #2, there may be a delay of 1 or 2 weeks, depending on whether I decide to do a more light-hearted, palate-cleansing vignette-fic, set on E-7.2, to get myself warmed up for the epic Legion tale ahead.

Stay tuned.

And, because I'm feeling so generous, here's who will be joining Brainy, Harmonia, Glorith, and Dragonwing to fill out the new Legion's initial roster:

...and one other who must remain a surprise in order not to spoil a key plot point.

2017 is going to be the year of the Retroboot for sure, with Thoth's own Retroboot fics -- if you haven't yet read them, I ask you to please do so, with my highest recommendation -- giving Bits followers double the pleasure.

LLL!!

A RECAP OF THE PREVIOUS RETROBOOT-CONTINUATION (LEGION OF EARTH-7.5) STORY-ARC:

While the time-lost Legionnaires stuck in 2017 have finally managed to gain the trust of the meta-heroes of that era and helped save the world, not all of them have yet accepted the possibility that they may never return to 3017. Wildfire is the most ambivalent, and Chameleon Girl the most all-embracing, with the other five (Dawnstar, Tellus, Tyroc, Timber Wolf, Gates) landing somewhere in the middle.

Meanwhile, in 3017, Harmonia, having adopted Dragonwing & Glorith as her protégés and made it a goal to help the latter reach her full potential as both a time-warrior and a sorceress, manipulates Brainiac 5 into forming a new Legion. Harmonia has confided, albeit cryptically, in the girls that a multiversal crisis is on the horizon and necessitates their actions. Somehow, Brainiac 5's visitation by his ice-blooded time-travelling 21st Century ancestor, L.E.G.I.O.N. leader Vril Dox, is tied into this, but Harmonia refuses to elaborate on this either.

On Shadow Lass's homeworld of Talok VIII, civil unrest results in a violent near-overthrow of the planet's ruling class by a more-vicious-than-ever Lady Memory and her army of both fellow Yakka-Mahor and converts to their cause. When Shadow Lass reluctantly comes to her homeworld's aid, her cousin Shadow Man is injured and her on-again-off-again lover, Mon-El, is killed by Lady Memory herself. In retaliation, Shadow Lass beats Lady Memory nearly to death, only for the new Legion to intervene and knock her unconscious...using vibes from a 21st-Century Mother Box which is somehow among the ageless Harmonia's trophies. After she awakens, Shadow Lass finds out from a recovering Shadow Man that, while she was unconscious, the new Legion negotiated a surrender from Lady Memory and her acolytes, in exchange for the former getting a fair trial, to take place off-world. Shadow Lass furiously vows to infiltrate the new Legion and destroy it from within, her vendetta against Harmonia taking top priority.

Finally, on Winath, while Imra & Garth are making preparations for a get-together with Rokk & Lydda, Imra suddenly experiences a form of telepathic overload; it's not the first time, but it is worse than any time previous.

It is presently 2 weeks since the events described above.

Now read on...

****************

THE 1ST POST OF THE 2ND RETROBOOT STORY-ARC

3017: THE NEWLY REBUILT WEBER'S WORLD, SITE OF THE NEW LEGION'S FIRST PUBLIC CONFERENCE, TO BE BROADCAST LIVE ON HOLOVID AND SCHEDULED FOR 12 MINUTES FROM NOW...

This should have been one of the greatest moments in the long, long life of the enigmatic elemental Harmonia Li. Instead, she found herself losing control of her present situation -- a rare occurrence indeed for a sentient who took pride in staying one step ahead of all others. She was being bowled over by visions of past, present, and future headed for a clash that would devastate the multiverse if she and the new Legion could not avert it in time. One image, that of an exotically beautiful young woman in the 21st Century...



...unnerved Harmonia to the point where she felt faint.

"Go get help, Ayla!!" barked Salu "Shriking Violet" Digby, who had just joined Harmonia's Legion only 2 days earlier.

"On it!!" Ayla "Lightning Lass" Ranzz shot back over her shoulder as she dashed towards the holovid studio's green room, where the rest of the Legion, minus the media-shy Brainiac 5, awaited.

Two days, thought Ayla to herself as her breath grew shorter with every bound, which have felt more like two DECADES!!

The violent rollercoaster on which she and her lover, Salu, now found themselves had actually begun not with their rejoining the Legion, but with horrible news from Ayla's twin brother, Garth. During what had been intended as a leisurely get-together with another married couple of ex-Legionnaires, Rokk Krinn and Lydda Jath, Ayla's sister-in-law, Imra Ardeen-Ranzz, had apparently suffered some kind of emotional meltdown in front of the others, and used her telepathy at its fullest potency in order to lash out at Rokk, leaving him comatose. In an unnerving bit of symmetry, Ayla & Salu's old friend and ex-teammate, Reep Daggle, had informed the loving couple -- just a few hours after Imra had been restrained, sedated, and forcibly transported to Medicus One -- that he'd only just become the sponsor of the new Legion, and that Harmonia was extending an invitation, through Reep, for them to join. Salu was reluctant, but Ayla insisted that they needed to Legion to help investigate Imra's actions, which would have, until then, been unthinkable for her, or for any native of Titan with reasonable self-discipline over their telepathic birthright.

Ayla was jolted back into the here and now immediately after she bolted into the green room to find Tasmia "Shadow Lass" Mallor, another prodigal Legionnaire, cackling in the most grating fashion along with the two youngest members of the new Legion, teenage girls Marya "Dragonwing" Pai and the ever-mysterious Glorith. Once she had the attention of her three teammates, Ayla did not mince words.

"Come on!! Harmonia's having some kind of episode, she looks like she's gonna pass out!!"

To Ayla's shock, Tasmia merely smirked, raised an eyebrow, and replied, in her most disdainful tone (which, for Tasmia, was saying a lot), "Oh?? Fancy that!! Did the poor old dear look in the mirror and find a grey hair?"

As Tasmia and the girls resumed laughing, even harder and louder than just a minute before, Ayla began to literally shoot sparks from her angry eyes.

"Now you listen up, witch," she screamed, pointing a finger directly at Tasmia, "and listen well -- this isn't the old Legion, and we're not gonna abide your Princess, Champion, whatever, attitude!! Tinya's still missing-in-action, so you don't have any yes-people in this new lineup to take your side!!"

"Is that so??" Tasmia hissed back, her lips curling into an unsettling cat-that-ate-the-canary grin before she tilted her head to face Marya & Glorith. "Tell her, girls."

"You lay one finger on this awesome lady," sneered Marya to Ayla, "and I'll fry you like a morsel of batter-dipped chicken."

"Ladies, please," Glorith begged, "this does none of us, nor those who need our help, any good whatsoever."

After a tense silence, Ayla's snarl softened into an expression of resignation, and she sighed, "Thank the Gods one of you has some sense in her."

But then Ayla noticed that Marya had begun to stare at her intensely. And although Ayla knew she should just let it slide, she allowed the sensitive soul beneath her feisty façade override her better judgment.

"WHAT??" was all that she asked of Marya, in the most threatening tone she could muster.

"I was just thinking," replied Marya, "I can actually see how you could have passed for Garth way back when...if anything, he's prettier than you!!"

And with that flagrant bit of rude taunting, Ayla found that she was unable to stop herself from lunging at the bratty teenager facing her, drawing first blood in a vicious fight between the two of them. Tasmia quickly found a safe distance from which to regard the clash with queenly amusement, while Glorith ran out in the same direction which Ayla had come from just a minute earlier.

"About freakin' time!!" spat Salu at Glorith as the young woman approached her and the fast-fading Harmonia. To which Glorith replied in a tone which managed to be soft yet with a barbed, subtly threatening underside, "Your partner is beating up on my friend."

"Ohh, peanuts!!" shrieked Salu. There was no need for further words, as she gently passed Harmonia's statuesque body over to Glorith before racing over to the green room.

"Speak to me, milady Harmonia." pleaded Glorith with her mentor, though her tone once again suggested there was some kind of personal agenda beneath the gentle succor on its surface, "What avails you so severely? Do please tell me."

"It is already too late, dearest," gasped Harmonia in response, "and we have failed," before she closed her eyes and finally lost all consciousness.

CONTINUED...

THE 2ND POST OF THE 2ND RETROBOOT (EARTH-7.5) STORY-ARC

2017: The very same young woman whom Harmonia had seen 1,000 years later as the bringer of doom to both the Multiverse and the time-space continuum itself was, at this moment, attracting little or no attention from the residents of the mostly Eastern-European neighborhood she was presently strutting through. This despite the fact that her stylish look and her sultry attitude had clearly been calculated by her to get in people's faces and provoke a reaction.



But the pragmatic, tradition-minded, practical-nearly-to-the-point-of-dourness members of this community merely shrugged off the young exhibitionist's antics. Whether it was fear, loathing, bitterness, or envy they felt towards her, they kept it to themselves. Because whatever else she was, her distinctive dark beauty marked her as one of them, and therefore she was to be at the very least tolerated.

If only they'd know how much more to her there was than met the eye.

The young woman's male companion attracted even less attention. While his bald head and solid, stocky build would intimidate any stranger who saw him from a distance, his face when seen up close betrayed a gentleness and sweetness which would disarm anyone into automatically thinking of him as a living teddy bear. To the neighborhood's residents, he looked like a well-mannered, hard-working peasant boy from the Old Country, and it was quite likely that they secretly hoped he could teach the young woman a thing or two about humility.

Eventually, the youthful couple found the walk-up apartment building where, for the past few weeks, they had been sharing a modest...very modest...unit. Each climbed the long flight of stairs in a distinctive way, her impatient swagger and seemingly inexhaustible energy contrasting with his awkward, self-conscious stumbling.

Within a few minutes, the young woman had turned the key to their door and let them both in. For someone of modest enough means to settle for this sort of dwelling, she had somehow found the resources to decorate the place with a clutter of eye-catching objects. Some were vintage kitsch, some were currently fashionable, others appeared to come from another world altogether. As she headed to the kitchen, he gently pushed away some of her treasures to make room on the couch for his bulk.

Without a word, she returned, carrying a glass of water for him and a bottle of sparkling pink lemonade for herself. He nursed his drink, while she chugged hers until it was quickly gone. She then removed her glasses and set them down before she began approaching him with a look in her eyes that was even more enigmatic than any time since he had met her.



"Sonya," he said in a strained croak which proved he had not yet finished catching his breath after the long climb, "now is not the time. I am simply exhausted, and..."

"Wrong, Leo!!" she curtly cut him off, "This is, without the shadow of a doubt, the time."

"Please, no..."

"While I truly do treasure a man who is secure enough in himself to not try too hard to keep up with me, your indolence can still be quite frustrating." She punctuated this with a roll of the eyes and a hard huff.

"S-Sony..."

"Shush, Leo," she replied while playfully moving her finger across his baby-face. "you know I speak the truth..."

Suddenly, her eyes blazed with a heart-stopping intensity which alarmed him yet also paralyzed him. "...and the truth will always rise above illusion. You know something about illusion, don't you, Leo? Or should I say Ganglios? Perhaps you would even prefer...Tellus??"

He barely managed to gasp out his response, in which he invoked his personal diety from the faraway planet on which he had been born and raised. "Great Mother...Ocean...h-h-how did you..."

Her way of answering was to reach into her back pocket, and whip out a small square object which he at first mistook for her cellphone. Only after it was too late, and he found himself imprisoned within a crackling, pulsating stasis field, did he realize that, like Sonya, and like himself, the box had its share of secrets.

As the stasis field numbed every cell of Tellus's being and reduced him to a state of helpless, inside-looking-out ennui, he found he could no longer maintain the telepathic human-teddy-bear image with which he had been publicly cloaking himself for so long that it had almost become a second skin. That, at least, was a moot point. More alarmingly, he could not find even a fraction of the strength of will he required to send out a telepathic S.O.S. to his fellow Legionnaires.

Sonya, for her part, had just finished typing a sequence onto the box's keypad. With a boom so deafening that it caused Tellus pain even in his diminished state of sensory perception, a perfectly circular portal opened up in front of them. Then, thanks to Sonya's tapping of a couple more keys on the box, Tellus found himself lifted up by forces emanating from this endlessly versatile bit of tech, and thrown into the portal. Sonya, sashaying as confidently as ever, followed, just before the portal closed, leaving their neighbors to break down the apartment door, only to find neither of them present and no clue as to where the loud noise had come from, nor what it had done.

CONTINUED...

THE 3rd POST OF THE 2nd RETROBOOT EARTH-7.5 LEGION STORY-ARC

********

3017: THE SORCEROR'S WORLD, NOT LONG AFTER THE NEW LEGION'S HOLOVID CONFERENCE FIASCO...

Marya Pai knew that she and her new role model, Tasmia Mallor, were in over their heads. She wouldn't have had it any other way, and she suspected that Tasmia felt the same, only MORE strongly.

At that moment, the two warrior women found themselves fighting against a phantasmagoric assortment of monstrous, mindless elemental creatures, summoned by the Black Witch to keep Marya, Tasmia, and Glorith from breaching the sorceress's sanctum. Glorith, tasked with using all her raw, undisciplined, yet potentially formidable, magical power in order to shield the still-unconscious body of Harmonia Li.

The fire creatures found their heat extinguished by the icy shadow-forces which were Tasmia's to command, while the wind creatures dive-bombed Marya only to find themselves vaporized, thanks to the seemingly endless reserves of fire-energy within her, and which she unleashed upon all who crossed her like a sentient flame-thrower.

Suddenly, it became clear to both Tasmia and Marya that the Black Witch had sensed the two of them becoming overconfident, and had seized the moment to turn the tide in her favor, when the two Legionnaires found themselves unable to keep their balance as the ground below them quaked, and then erupted, with a tremendous geyser of hot lava seemingly heading for the stratosphere.

Marya was impervious to any kind of heat attack, and Tasmia's reflexes were sharp enough that she had constructed a shield of shadow-matter around herself to prevent harm from coming to her. But what neither of them had been prepared for was for the lava to coalesce, absorbing the surrounding mud and rocks in the process, into the form of another ex-Legionnaire whose moral integrity, like the Black Witch's, had become suspect in the recent past.

"What the hell is that??" gasped an atypically overwhelmed Marya.

"That, darling, is trouble..." replied Tasmia, "...but only with a small 't'."

Tasmia paused to get back on her feet and stand tall, proud, and defiant towards the latest obstruction conjured by the Black Witch, whom Tasmia now chose to address by raising her authoritative alto voice:

"Hear me, Mysa!! If you truly believe that I will hesitate to destroy Blok out of any sentimental delusions of past camaraderie, then you are the one who is deluded!! I have never had time for sentiment, least of all in times as desperate as the ones we now find ourselves in. So command your stooge to do his worst. This is WAR, you addled, hermetic fool, and by the end of this battle, my teammates and I shall dance upon your ashes!!! That, by all my glorious ancestors, I SWEAR!!!!"

*************

3017: THE ONCE-LEGENDARY, NOW SEEMINGLY BARREN PLANET MALTUS, CURRENTLY SERVING AS A TEMPORARY BASE FOR THE NEW LEGION...

"Did you even TRY to stop them??" snapped Querl Dox at Salu Digby, the designated Field Commander of Querl & Harmonia's new Legion, whom he felt had failed utterly at dealing with her first crisis situation.

"I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer." replied Salu with a cool, even-tempered restraint which Querl would never have expected from her, given Saul's propensity in recent years to behave in a volatile and reckless manner.

Sensing -- accurately as it turned out -- that she had momentarily silenced the Coluan's rage at the disastrous outcome of the Legion's aborted media conference, and its even more heinous aftermath, Salu went for Querl's jugular by asking him, "Did YOU even try to keep Her Majesty, Queen Tasmia, from bulldozing her way into our team and destroying it before it could even get off the ground????"

Querl responded by spluttering and stammering without even managing to form coherent words, let alone string together an actual sentence. For inside his brilliant 10th Level mind, there raged a truly unspeakable bedlam, the likes of which any self-respecting Coluan would have found impossible to deal with in any sort of rational manner. That Querl had always found his emotions unusually palpable for one of his normally stoic race only added fuel to the fire within his head.

What he could not admit to Salu was that Tasmia may or may not have succeeded in becoming the new Legion's interloper, if only Querl had not been too intimidated by her force-of-nature manner to try and call her bluff.

The possibility that Tasmia may NOT have been bluffing when she claimed to know Querl's deepest, darkest shame -- that his callous curiosity had ultimately resulted in empowering Tharok to unleash the galaxy-wide tech-failure which had led to complete and utter devastation -- and threatened to publicly expose him, irreparably damaging Querl's, and his and Harmonia's new team's, credibility in the process.

HAD Tasmia, in fact, forced ex-Legionnaire Luornu Durgo-Taine, the one sentient who most assuredly WAS AWARE of Querl's secret, to reveal what she knew about Querl? He wouldn't have put it past Tasmia, who had, of late, shown troubling signs of selfish amorality gone beyond the point of no return. And that, Querl told himself, was what had made him cave in to Tasmia's demand to rejoin the Legion, and forced him to stand up to a chagrined Harmonia...the latter whom Querl had found himself, Gods help him, actually beginning to develop FEELINGS for!!!!

Now Harmonia was gone, taken away from the holovid studio in the blink of an eye, thanks to Tasmia's impulsive and insubordinate command that Glorith use her frightening level of magical/chronal/cosmic powers -- whose range had not yet even been accurately measured -- to transport Tasmia, Marya, Glorith herself, and the unconscious Harmonia to the Sorceror's World, where a way to revive Harmonia could more easily be found. Or so Tasmia said; Gods only knew what her TRUE agenda was!!

"Well, Querl?" hissed Salu softly, yet forcefully enough to pierce Querl's lapse into solipsism. "What do you suggest we do now? After all, I'm just the Legion's Field Commander, and you're the alleged genius!!"

The Coluan's response horrified Salu, but only half as much as it horrified Querl himself:

"I...I...I don't know. I DON'T KNOW!!"

CONTINUED...

THE 4th POST OF THE 2nd RETROBOOT (EARTH-7.5) LEGION STORY-ARC

2017: A CROWDED, BUSTLING SIDEWALK IN A BIG CITY ON EARTH

It was a sign of the times that a four-foot talking insect dressed in a red cloak was actually LESS likely to draw unfriendly looks from passing strangers than a fully-human young man whose skin happened to be a darker shade of brown than most of the other pedestrians. And the aforementioned odd couple had learned this the hard way -- Gates (the insect) and Troy "Tyroc" Stewart (the human) were quite literally out of time, having travelled from 1,000 years in the future on a vaguely defined Legion mission, only to find themselves stranded there. The difference between the two was that Gates was far more likely to talk out loud about it.

"I'm tellin' ya, Troy, this awful 21st Century has changed all of us Legionnaires -- and, no offense to you, but none for the better...myself included. I mean, how in the Gods' names could there've once been a time when someone like me would get thrown out of a rally for a sensible socialist like Bernie Sanders because I'm TOO RADICAL?? And meanwhile, Tellus spends all his time with that creepy girlfriend of his who leads him around like a dog on a leash, Brin and Dawny decide to go gallivantin' off to SOUTH ASIA, for sprocks' sake... and Drake, that one-time firebrand, now spends all his time acting like a hurt puppy about Dawny drifting away from him -- all he ever does anymore is either watch escapist fluff on The Idiot Box, or listen to bubblegum music on the internet...Gods, the internet!! Talk about the opiate of the masses!!! Worst of all, Yera is now a full-fledged libertine who never answers us when we try to...uh...say, Troy, buddy, you're supposed to be the leader of this motley crew, but you never seem to SAY anything anymore!!"

Tyroc scowled at Gates before gruffly replying, "That's because you talk too much to let me get a sprockin' word in."

"Oh, excuse the sprockin' NASS outta me, Troy!! SOMEONE has to speak up about these things, if only so that we might find the tiniest hope of ever functioning as a team again!!"

"What do you mean, 'WE'...comrade??"

"That's it, then, you're giving up the fight?? FINE!! See if I care. I'll find me an anarchist collective that doesn't greet me with a face-full of bug spray -- I know they're out there somewhere. You go your way, and I'll go mine!!" And Gates immediately proved himself an insect of his word by using his teleportation powers to take himself as far away from Tyroc as he could.

Tyroc would have been lying if he'd said that he wasn't relieved that his ears would be getting a rest from Gates' incessant one-sided chatter. But that was only in the short run -- in the long run, Tyroc seemed destined to be the loneliest, most out-of-time Legionnaire of all.

In just a little over 1,000 years, he would be born into an inter-dimensional community of African-American isolationists. He would then, as a young adult, emerge into the Legion's dimension, and gradually discover, through his interaction with that diverse team of heroines & heroes, that he had been raised by people with a perspective as extreme and as skewed as that of the worst white racists. Then, just as he was finally coming to terms with it all, he'd find himself stuck in the 21st Century, a time of such virulent racism that he would begin to actually understand why his ancestors went to the extremes that they did.

Suddenly, as though the Gods had a cruel enough sense of humor to confirm his worst misgivings, a black teenager, dressed in dirty, tattered clothing, sideswiped Tyroc as he ran past the time-lost so-called hero. In the blink of an eye, Tyroc heard the sounds of screeching tires and a wailing siren coming from behind, and he wasn't sure which was worse -- if the police were chasing the teenager, or if they had just then randomly decided to "profile" Tyroc himself!!

A split-second later, the car sped by Tyroc, only to come to a stop a short distance ahead, in order to block a back alley which the teenager was clearly headed for. And when the cops piled out of the car, sticks in hand, and began whaling into the young man, Tyroc had finally had more than he could take of this awful reality.

Tyroc's first instinct was to use his sonic powers to concussively reduce the cops to mincemeat, but being a hero at heart if not in actual achievement, he pulled his punch, and his scream merely sent the cops flying away from their victim. Before the cops could regroup and resume hostilities, Tyroc had already flown to the side of the teenager.

Then, as if he wasn't already angry enough, he discovered that one of the three cops was black!! Before he could stop himself, Tyroc had already blurted out, "How can you sell out your own people like this, brother??"

The black cop's face twisted into a terrifying scowl, but it was his reply to Tyroc which was truly blood-curdling: "Put a bandage over your bleeding heart, 'brother!!' That kid's a worthless piece of garbage!! And YOU have five seconds to give me and my squad a good reason not to draw our guns and..."

A deafening noise interrupted this queasy racial standoff; at first Tyroc took it for some kind of bomb exploding nearby, but the sound was too clean for that, and there was no telltale smoke or fire as far as he could see. As it turned out, Tyroc was correct...but when he saw what the mysterious sound had unleashed upon him, the teenager, and the cops, he wished it had been a bomb after all.

Four of the most bizarre-looking women any of these men had ever seen came charging out of the alley. One looked like a drag-king impersonating the infamous 21st Century villain from Gotham City, the Joker; another, an attractive blonde, immediately showed what she was made of when she cleaved the cop-car in half with a few well-placed strokes from her bare hands; the third, who resembled the most extreme kind of female bodybuilder, let loose with a kick that sent one of the white cops flying all the way to the end of the alley, before proving herself an equal-opportunity hater by bounding over to the young black man, and stomping on his ribcage.

Tyroc didn't hold back this time, and he screamed at her the most pulverizing juggernaut of a scream he was capable of. Imagine his shock when she proved to be resilient enough to not only survive, but to show no outer signs of harm. Who, thought Tyroc, WERE these monstresses??

Before he could ponder this query any further, Tyroc got a shock to his system when he sensed the unmistakable feeling of a blade entering the upper right side of his back, so cleanly that it almost reached the bone!! But that was nothing compared to the burning pain which followed, as if Hell itself had been compressed into the blade!! As he felt himself about to go into convulsions, Tyroc spun himself around long enough to see who had gotten the drop on him -- the fourth woman, a severe-looking androgyne with the most frightening deadpan scowl anyone could ever be unfortunate enough to see first-hand. Before Tyroc blacked out from the pain caused by her infernal blade, he saw the other three regrouping around her, and express their satisfaction with themselves.

"I could have handled him myself, Bernadeth!!" bellowed the muscle-woman with the kicks and the stomps. "I had plenty of fight left in me, he barely wounded me!!"

"You would have killed him, Stompa, you stupid, reckless cow!!" was Bernadeth's cutting reply. "Our orders are to take the Legionnaires alive!!"

"Do we get to chase the talking bug next?? Huh, 'Deth, do we?? HEE, HEE, HEE!!" asked the Joker-lookalike. "And can I burn him alive?? I love the smell of burning bugs in the morning -- smells like VICTORY!! HEE, HEE, HEE!!"

"No, Mad Harriet. The communist vermin was assigned to Knockout's team, so let them deal with him. But I'll tell you what -- when we return to Apokolips, I'll ask my brother DeSaad to allow you to torch any random denizen of Armagetto you choose. How would you like that?"

"I like-ee, I LIKE-EE!! HEE, HEE, HEE, thanks, 'Deth, HEE, HEE, HEE!!"

"Capturing an insect and a darkie," sneered the obviously racist blonde at Bernadeth, "is this what we Female Furies have been reduced to??"

"Patience, Gillotina. Once we satisfy Our Lord Darkseid's request for a third Legionnaire prisoner, he shall assign us something far grander and worthier of us...perhaps even the search-and-destroy mission against his son Orion and his arm-candy, that treacherous turncoat bitch Artemiz!! The shame that she brought upon the Furies shall be eradicated at last!!!!"

The terrifying cacophony of four-part female laughter bounced off the walls of the back alley, spreading far and wide into what was ultimately just another big city night.

CONTINUED...

THE 5th POST OF THE 2nd RETROBOOT LEGION (EARTH-7.5) STORY-ARC

2017: THE PENTHOUSE UNIT OF A HIGH-RISE, HIGH-COST APARTMENT BUILDING, ALSO THE NEARLY-DESERTED HEADQUARTERS OF THE 21st CENTURY LEGIONNAIRES...

Def Leppard, "Bringin' on the Heartbreak"

Once he had been Wildfire, stalwart Legionnaire and passionate fighter for the greater good. Now he was, in his own mind at least, just Drake Burroughs, sad internet-browsing recluse and lonely boy made of pure energy, destined never to be able to consummate his on-again, off-again romance with his strikingly beautiful teammate, Dawnstar. That Dawny had abruptly flown across the Atlantic to join Brin "Timber Wolf" Londo's so-called archeological pursuits in South Asia felt to Drake like the final proof that she'd finally wised up to her & Drake's mutual predicament.

What hurt the most was that Drake was too smart and too self-possessed not to be aware that his pity-party was not helping anybody, least of all himself. But then, he'd allow his natural melancholy leanings to sink him ever-further into impotent ennui, and the vicious circle would be completed yet again.

It was into this morose environment that Drake's teammate Gates now teleported himself into. Much to Gates's chagrin, he discovered that Drake was so thoroughly immersed in his solipsism as to not be aware of Gates's abrupt entrance. This left the insectoid no recourse but to get Drake's attention, even though he knew his feisty teammate would be peeved.

"Drake? Hey, Drake! DRAKE!! Up & at 'em, buddy, we've got trouble outside!!"

Drake's reply was less fiery than surly: "Eh, go mainline a can of Raid, you pest. Can't you see I'm busy??"

"Okay, then, let me put this in terms you'll understand -- if you don't come outside with me right now, three madwomen are about to cause collateral damage to this property, damage which we'll get sued for!!"

"Oh, all right," grumbled Drake as he lifted himself out of his outsized chair and stepped away from the laptop. Then, once Gates had teleported them both to the outside of the building, Drake was jolted back into awareness of the world outside his navel (if he'd actually had a navel.)

He and Gates found themselves facing two decidedly unusual-looking women -- one, rather butchy, sporting body armor, aviatrix shades, and the most hi-tech pair of roller skates ever conceived; the other, quite glamorous with her long, impeccably styled vermillion hair, porcelain features, and peaches-and-cream complexion...albeit decidedly more cream than peaches, and by the time she had flashed her vampire fangs, it was too late for either of the heroes, Gates snatched by the speeding roller-derby champion in the literal blink of an eye, Drake picked up by crimson telekinetic beams being emitted from the vampire's eyes, and thrown a considerable distance from where he had just stood.

Just as Drake began getting back on his feet, he was thrown into the air once again, this time by a swift kick from an extremely shapely leg belonging to another sexy-but-deadly redhead. But this time, Drake managed to land on his feet, and when she lunged at him, he easily dodged her thrusting fist, which smashed clear through the asphalt, leaving an impressive crack...damage which, as Gates had noted a minute ago, the Legionnaires would have to pay the city to repair.

"Come back here, and fight like a man!!" taunted the spandex-clad, hard-bodied bombshell.

Drake's ego was, despite years of hard-won wisdom, still too overblown to resist her challenge, and he assumed a defiant, legs-far-apart, dukes-put-up stance directly in front of her.

"Okay, then, party-girl, you wanna dance? I'll show you some moves you never imagined!!"

"Go on, then, and I'll bring a set of BEATS you won't believe!!"

Despite his wounded pride, Drake had learned the hard way that if one of her punches or kicks ruptured his suit, the fight would end in a clean victory for her -- Pulchritudinous Pugilist 1, Drake ZERO. And so he found himself relying on his agility and his energy blasts...or so he thought, until the latter proved to do absolutely no visible harm to her. But this only spurred him on, reconnecting him once and for all with his long-dormant mojo. In his mind, helpless Drake faded away to be replaced by the one, the only...WILDFIRE!!

**********

It had felt like an eternity for Gates before he regained his bearings, even though it had actually been less than a minute since he'd been swiped off his hind legs by the refugee from "Rollerball" and taken on a high-speed ride. With everything around him appearing as a blur, Gates had no choice but to teleport blindly, and just hope he didn't end up in an even worse predicament than he already was.

A few seconds later, he found himself more-or-less in the same spot where he had been captured, but his relief was short-lived as a cloud of smoke erupted right in front of him, and quickly coalesced into the form of the sexy vampire. Their respective lines of sight connected, and Gates found to his displeasure that she couldn't just move objects around with her eyes, she could also mesmerize any sentient standing close enough to her and impose her will on the victim du jour, even a tenacious left-wing radical from a planet of four-foot talking insects.

"Good work, Bloody Mary." said the fast one as she zipped up next to the vamp. "I thought for sure he'd given us the slip."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Speed Queen. Now go tell Knockout to stop sparring with the living energy-cloud and head straight for the Boom Tube I am now activating." hissed Mary with pure contempt for her hapless teammate.

"But...but...if we capture him, too, the Darkseid will..."

"Darkseid will fry us all if we deviate from the plan -- we were tasked to capture the insect, and the insect only. So shut up and fetch Knockout already!!"

Reluctantly, and with her mind reeling with pithy retorts, Speed Queen did as she was told, racing over to Knockout, picking her up, and rocketing towards their escape route over Knockout's loud objections.

"Just when I had him on the ropes, you had to butt in!! I'll take off your head with one swipe for this, Speed Queen!! Don't think I won't..."

"Better that than Darkseid's Omega Beams -- now quit squirming, and SHUT UP!!"

Wildfire was no less frustrated than Knockout at her being snatched away in mid-fight. But now that he was feeling himself again, his more sensible and pragmatic side quickly took over. Whoever those women were, and whoever they were working for, he could possibly track down, much less battle, completely on his own.

And so it was that Wildfire launched himself into the sky, on a direct course to South Asia, no stopovers whatsoever. And being as fallible a sentient as anyone else, he took perverse pleasure in his certainty that Timber Wolf and Dawnstar would not be pleased when he crashed their party.

CONTINUED...

THE 6th POST OF THE 2nd RETROBOOT LEGION (EARTH-7.5) STORY-ARC

3017: THE HIGHEST OF ALL THE HIGH CASTLES FLOATING ABOVE THE SURFACE OF THE SORCERORS' WORLD...

Despite invoking the potential peak of her powers from her vantage point within the castle's main chamber, Mysa Nal, better known as the Black Witch, still struggled to focus on her scrying-pool, as it was currently showing her the battle on the planet's surface, with her friend-turned-slave, the super-strong and super-resilient Blok, single-handedly fighting the Legionnaires' double-team of Shadow Lass & Dragonwing. And although, at that moment, the probable outcome of said battle seemed likely to be one that would benefit her precarious situation, she also knew the tide could turn at any moment -- particularly if the upstart teenage sorceress Glorith, she whose untapped potential, if unleashed, could easily dwarf Mysa's powers, should leave her still-unconscious mentor Harmonia's side and join the fray.

Until just a minute ago, the only thing Mysa had feared more than Glorith coming into her own at the worst possible time was the complete takeover of Mysa herself, by the near-omnipotent mage imprisoned within her -- Mordru!!

And yet, the sudden fading of Mordru's sonorous baritone from inside her head, which had persisted every second of every hour for years, did not bring the slightest bit of relief to Mysa, for his voice had been almost immediately replaced by a female one that Mysa was completely unable to recognize, and, even more alarmingly, this new voice echoed through her head with twenty million times the intensity of Mordru's. If, thought Mysa, the voice was summoning her from an outside source, how much more torturous would it be should this mystery woman manage to gain full possession of her??

*************

And, in a remote corner of the castle, a tomb which had been, until then, deliberately placed between two thick walls, began to shudder...

*************

Below, upon the surface of the Sorcerors' World, one of Mysa's fears was already coming true -- Glorith had been watching the nearby battle from behind the concealment spell cloaking herself and Harmonia, but she had just come to the conclusion that the combatants were too evenly matched, and that if the battle were prolonged, then Harmonia would soon be beyond help. And so Glorith surrounded her mentor's body with the most powerful talismans available, and, hoping that would be enough to keep Harmonia safe, she dropped the concealment spell and began stealthily creeping up ever closer to the fray, hiding anywhere she could, as best she could, until the timing and the proximity were exactly right for her to strike at Blok.

Glorith's sort-of-friend Dragonmage was, by then, discovering that none of the dragon-powers she had stolen in the not-too-distant past -- neither agility, nor flight, nor even the greenish-white heat of the most blazing flames she was capable of summoning -- were likely to save her from Blok's pile-driving fists, much less his previously undocumented command over dirt, stone, lava, and, worst of all, this planet's very own tectonic plates. It seemed obvious to her that Mysa had somehow awakened the full elemental potential within Blok's enigmatic Dryad race, turning him into a monolithic living boulder that destroyed everything in his path.

Shadow Lass, for her part, was still unimpressed with either Blok's power upgrade or the unleashing of the pent-up aggression which had always threatened to explode from within him. Blok still had eyes, and a mouth, through which the dark, viscously manifesting forces at Shadow Lass's command could slither their way into his seemingly impenetrable body. She laughed heartily as his panicked bellowing confirmed that she had, indeed, found a way to cause Blok harm.

But it was to remain unknown, for the moment at least, whether Shadow Lass would truly break the Legion's anti-killing code once and for all, as she nearly had two-and-a-half weeks earlier when she beat Lady Memory to within an inch of her life, stopping only through Harmonia's show of force via the ancient artefact known as a Mother Box.

This time, Glorith would be the disruptor of Tasmia's display of unchecked fury towards her antagonist. The teenage sorceress jumped out from behind a nearby pile of earthly debris left by Blok's rampage, and cast her mightiest spell to date!!

Within mere seconds, the magical hold through which Mysa had come to dominate her unfortunate one-time friend was irreparably broken, bright-red ribbons of spectral energy exiting Blok's body and heading upwards, straight back to their sentient source within the castle.

*************

The impact on Mysa of her own spells being turned against her proved the final, decisive blow which caused the Black Witch to lose control of everything within and without her that she had, until then, kept a firm grip on. She convulsed on top of the floor of her chamber as it crumbled beneath her, as the castle walls cracked and shattered, and as the scrying pool turned into a mini-squall, sending candles, tapestries, and the most potent talismans known until then to the practitioners of magic in the early 31st Century, scattering every which way.

**************

And, in that same remote corner of the castle as before, the tomb burst open, in an explosion of mystical energy which reduced the walls surrounding the tomb to rubble.

*************

Down below, the Legionnaires' reactions to the destruction of Mysa's floating castle changed instantly from wide-eyed awe to screaming panic as the enormous chunks of debris headed straight downward towards them. With Blok still recovering, it fell to Glorith to protect them all, and she succeeded in summoning a mystical force-dome that would protect all things within a wide radius of her and her companions, including the body of Harmonia...which, unknown to all, even Glorith, had only just begun to stir!!

Through Glorith's dome, the Legionnaires witnessed the pitiable sight of a broken, bruised, disheveled Mysa crawling from the wreckage of her sanctum. Pity was replaced by out-and-out horror when they saw ectoplasmic tendrils emerge from Mysa's pores, and, after whirling around in the air for a few seconds, coalesced into an imposing form which was hazy and not-quite-fully-defined, but appeared for all the world to be Mordru himself!! And then his glowing red eyes met with Glorith's line of sight!!

THEN, just before the malicious mage -- who had, in his long life, been time-tossed back-and-forth across millennia in mighty magical battles, and who had seemingly and sincerely sought redemption before reverting to his true nature -- could possess Glorith's body, his ghostly form began to unravel before the very eyes of the paralyzed-with-fear Legionnaires!!

They managed to look away for a split second to confirm that this was not the doing of Mysa, whom they could tell was just as bewildered as they were. But if not her, then...Harmonia?? Glorith took a quick look over her shoulder to confirm that her mentor continued to lay still.

Without warning, a second sentient being burst through the castle's rubble...



...and THAT was when Harmonia finally awoke, with a scream which could have shattered glass!! None of the other Legionnaires recognized the woman standing triumphant before them, swirls of mystical energy dancing around her exotically sexy figure along with tiny flying creatures of both the hellish and the halcyon varieties. But when Harmonia turned her head to face her worst nightmare come back to life, SHE knew exactly who it was, and she screamed again, and again, and again!!



"Yes, I love you and am pleased to see you, too, Harmonia..." declared the newly empowered sorceress before her terrified and unwitting audience. "...my dear, DEAR half-sister!!"

CONTINUED...

THE 7th POST IN THE 2nd RETROBOOT LEGION (EARTH-7.5) STORY-ARC

2017: THE PLANET APOKOLIPS, INSIDE THE HIGHEST TOWER IN THE WORLD, THE ONE PLACE WHERE VISIONS OF TRUTH, DIRECTLY FROM THE SOURCE, MIGHT BE VIEWED...

"Observe, DeSaad," growled Darkseid, the imposing, stone-faced, grey skinned overlord of all who were unfortunate enough to call Apokolips their home, "observe, and rejoice. Observe, and be grateful to bear witness to the end of all that is. Rejoice in the magnificence of the Anti-Life Equation made flesh and blood at last!!"

"I AM!!"

"As tomorrow, so today."

"As today, so tomorrow."

"I AM!!"



"Why, Sire," replied Darkseid's chief advisor and head scientist, DeSaad, with typically arch unctuousness, "I do believe you are...SMILING!!"

"Indeed, DeSaad, indeed. For it would be churlish of me to deny myself the rare indulgence of pure pleasure, to exult in the ultimate irony that the devastator of all life in the universe, all past, present, and future existence, was fathered not by me, but by my nemesis of centuries untold...the supposed All-Father, the so-called Lord of the Greater Good, the leader of New Genesis, that revolting planetary bastion of virtue -- IZAYA, THE HIGHFATHER!!"

3017: AN ANOMALY ON THE SURFACE OF THE SORCERORS' WORLD, WHERE TIME STANDS STILL...IF ONLY FOR THE MOMENT...

"Was I dreaming??" asked Dragonwing as she found herself on the edge of hysteria. "Tell me I dreamed that whole thing, and I'm awake now, and everything's all right!!"

"I fear not, Marya." Shadow Lass replied with surprising softness and vulnerability. "Look directly in front of you, and despair."

"I AM!!"

"As tomorrow, so today."

"As today, so tomorrow."

"I AM!!"



"No, no, NO!!" cried Marya, burying her head in her hands so as not to bear witness to the final seconds of all sentient life that had ever been.

"How is it, then, that we live??" mumbled a fully-recovered but still-not-completely-aware Blok.

"It is thanks to...them." whispered Mysa to the gentle giant she hoped would forgive her abuse and become her friend again, so that she could die with at least a modicum of inner peace.

Blok looked toward where Mysa was pointing, and gasped at the sight of Glorith and Harmonia merged into one glowing, sparkling sentient being, one of power so immense as to defy the call of death itself...at least temporarily. The question on the minds of everyone in this small group of survivors was...just how much longer would this delay last??

2017: THE PLANET NEW GENESIS, INSIDE THE FLOATING COLISEUM WHERE VISIONS OF THE TRUTH, DIRECTLY FROM THE SOURCE, MIGHT BE VIEWED...

"Father!! Father, I beg you, find the strength within to keep going." sobbed Scott "Mister Miracle" Free, the normally happy-go-lucky, optimal-thinking escape-artist and royalty-by-blood of New Genesis, he who had survived a horrific upbringing on his adoptive world of Apokolips with his essential decency and positive attitude intact. At present, Scott was squeezing the wrist of his beloved progenitor, Izaya the Highfather, who appeared to have been fatally felled upon witnessing the sight of the one thing he had hoped would never come to be.

"I AM!!"

"As tomorrow, so today."

"As today, so tomorrow."

"I AM!!"



"I fear he is lost to us...just as all is lost to all who have ever been." moaned Scott's adoptive brother Orion, he who was sired by Darkseid before being exchanged for Scott, so that Orion could be raised on New Genesis, in the hopes of extinguishing the seeds of evil within him before they could take hold. Although Orion had recently managed, as he had many times over the years, to temporarily tame his bestial birthright, he no longer used his Mother Box to reshape his face into a less monstrous one than his natural face, though the fact that he had also grown out his hair would seem to indicate that traces of shame remained within him.

Suddenly, Izaya's eyes opened!! Scott and Orion gasped in unison before combining their not inconsiderable individual strengths in an effort to get Izaya back on his feet.

"Do not waste your energy," wheezed Izaya with what little breath he still had in him, "you shall need it in order to embark on a quest to the planet Earth...in the near-impossible hope of preventing the universe's descent into irreversible entropy."

"Who shall we seek, Father??" asked Scott, struggling to choke back his tears after seeing his hopes of Izaya's survival cruelly dashed.

"Your...sisters."

And with those words, Izaya breathed his last and closed his eyes for the final time, expiring before he could elaborate on what he had managed to impart to Scott and Orion, and clinging to his conviction that both his sons, one biological and one adopted, would manage to use that tiny bit of information in order to save the universe by restoring existence itself.

CONTINUED...

There you have it, Bits readers old & new, the opening installments of my epic new Legion of E-7.5 arc.

I shall now take one week off from writing, so that you may catch up and post your comments (every one of which I will be happy to reply to), and so that I may finally finish reading the first arc of Thoth Lad's own excellent take on where the Retroboot might have gone, as well as every installment to date of Harbinger's fourth volume of Legion Worlds, the very first Bits Retroboot-continuation series, and the one that started it all.

Happy reading, one and all!!

Like squared how you've upgraded some of the powers - Tasmia's hard shadows (although it's appeared occasionally, I don't recall it from the original version) and Blok's earth-moving powers from Mysa. Also liked the sparks shooting from Ayla's eyes, which we don't see often enough, and the reminder that shadows can be cold!

What a lot of long-simmering resentments break out in that battle! The insults are flying - and they all feel real, not something out of the blue that you just threw into the story.

Didn't anyone think that messing with the Sorcerers' World and Mysa might release Mordru? Heat of the battle, I guess. Lucky for them he didn't last long. One thing I'm not clear on (will reread) is why Dragonwing switched her alliance to Shadow Lass. Glorith is a real wild card, in terms of allegiance and power.

I always figured that Highfather (and Darkseid) should have had more children. And daughters too! And a step-sister for Harmonia. I'm suspecting that they're Highfather's daughter(s), maybe not. This should be fun, regardless.

Have to wonder if Izaya is really dying. We know from GDS that he did die, but it's sad all the same.

The pictures are a good addition. It probably helps that I don't know who these women are, so there are no preconceived notions.

Good to see the Furies, in a perverse way. They haven't been used as much as some other New Gods characters.

Not too much to say on the 21st century Legionnaires, except that there are a lot of enticing mysteries there. And I would wish that Gates would shut up, too. :; You'd think he'd be disabused of his communist idealism by now.

And I return the sentiment, Cramer -- I thank you squared for the kind words!!



That means a lot to me, that you said that, because I had developed a concern since posting those chapters that I might have been unconsciously "Marvel-izing" or "Avenger-izing" the Legionnaires (you can take the fangirl out of the Marvel Universe, but can't take the...et cetera.) I was running purely on instinct there, and I'm glad to hear my instincts were sound.



LOL Exactly. I wanted to resolve the whole Mysa-keeping-Mordru-in-check subplot as quickly and cleanly as I could. Mordru as the main antagonist tends to be way over-powered for my taste as a reader, even in the mostly excellent Mordru intro story by Jim Shooter & Curt Swan. Now, I realize the accusations could be made of Sonya. So how will she be defeated (IF she's defeated?) I already know what's going to happen to her, so I look forward to finding out from you and other Legion Worlders if it works for you or not.



Yes, I can see in hindsight that I should have spent at least a paragraph or two on that. IIRC, I had originally intended to at some point in the first few chapters, but then it got caught up in the cosmic slipstream.

In a nutshell (and I do hope to elaborate on this at some point before the end of the story-arc), Marya is -- even by the standards of an average teenager -- shallow, immature, disloyal, and easily swayed. Tasmia is much more direct than Harmonia, with none of the cryptic tangents, which appealed to Marya; combine that with some petty grudges against Harmonia that Marya had already been nursing, and I think it all falls into place.



More than anyone (with the possible exception of Harmonia) realizes.



I'm glad I'm not the only one who considered it logical for Highfather to develop a roving eye once he'd had enough years to recover, at least partly, from Avia's death. Once all the various New Gods' pecadilloes are revealed, New Genesis is going to look like nothing less than a cosmic Petyon Place!!



Glad you said that, as I was still unsure whether or not to reveal who they are. Now I'll be sure to keep mum. Thanks, Cramer.

(But if anyone else wants to play "spot the cult-celebrity" with me, they are free to do so by PM.)



I love the Furies, and I'm glad to hear you're enjoying their antics as well.

And, for those keeping track:

Bernadeth, Gillotina, Stompa, and Mad Harriet were all created by Jack Kirby and first appeared in the early 1970s Fourth World Saga.

Artemiz (who has not appeared on panel yet, but she will be...oh, yes, she will) was created by John Ostrander, and first appeared in JO's original Suicide Squad run.

Knockout was created by Karl Kesel, THE Kirby-Fan-Turned-Pro, and first appeared in KK's original Superboy run.

Speed Queen and Bloody Mary were co-created by KK with his then-wife, the AWESOME Barbara Kesel (nee Randall), and first appeared in Hawk & Dove.



Poor, poor Gates, he just can't win. I do give him points for being principled, even when it hasn't been in his best interests.

Hey FL, I'm posting these thoughts as I red so my views may change as I get further into this.

I've read your story through a couple of times now - there's so much happening that it deserves that if I'm to give honest feedback.

Starting from your recap on 9th Jan onwards:

Harmonia losing the plot? It must be serious that woman is seriously controlling of her emotions and reactions - was she ever seen showing any real remorse for Titan?

I love Ayla and Vi (despite what I did in my fanfic) and am really glad you are including them, they'll provide a voice of reason I imagine. One thing that I always admired about the way their relationship was handled was that no-one blinked an eye at it, it was just seen as perfectly normal, which in pop culture is a rarity as lesbians as rarely given that much dignity. With this in mind your description of them being in an alt-lifestyle relationship rang a bit wrong to me, or at least we haven't seen anything going on between them that would make it anything other than a decent loving relationship.

Nicely done adding in Ayla's thoughts on what happened on Winath and Imra's condition. You dropped it in so well that it almost appears as an after thought though I imagine it's going to be a big part of the plot later. I hope so anyway,'ve a soft spot for old iron-butt.

I loved the catty comments between Marya and Ayla. Salu thinking Glorith was there to help, ha! It's never dull being a Legionnair I guess.

I like that you've reintroduced the sinister undercurrent to Glorith that Levitz had in the comic; she certainly is a mystery, and I wouldn't be surprised if people get babyfied if not Glooped!

Harmonia's announcement that they were already too late was a great cliffhanger - I love a good clifffhanger!

My laptop is quirky so I'll post my next review separately.

Loved your description of the neighbourhoods reaction - or lack of - towards the mysterious woman. I'm originally from a small village where there was the same dour attitude so I could relate to it immediately. Although behind closed doors tongues would be wagging

Maybe I'm reading too much into it - and not for the first time - but you say the couple (Sonya and Tellus) had rented the apartment doe a couple of weeks and then Sonya comments about he can't keep up with her, which kind of implies they'd been having sex - ew! The idea of Tellus getting jiggy isn't one I'd like to linger on, so moving quickly on...

(what can I say, I maybe very liberal but I can still be a prude)

And Tellus is gone! The teams telepath, who could unite them quite literally with a thought is gone. Very tactical first strike!

Next post in next reply

Hi, Harbi, and thanks, I always look forward to reading your comments on my fanfics!!



The destruction of Titan will most definitely be addressed before the story-arc's end. I've got extensive secret origins outlined for both Harmonia and Sonya.



Good point very well taken. As a matter of fact, I think you are so right about this, that as soon as I've posted this reply, I'm going to go back and edit out "alt-lifestyle." Thank you.



I share your affection for the "shameless hussy." As with Jeckie and Tinya, Imra's return will take a while, but I'm already confident their fans will be quite pleased once they've re-emerged.



Awww...thanks. I almost toned down Marya's insult to Ayla's femininity, because even though I am acutely aware of Marya's fallibilities, I felt and still feel it was just such a horrible thing to emerge from the lips of a character I've come to really like, flaws & all. But I also feel that Ayla's gender-fluidity had to be addressed somehow, and we haven't heard the last about it, not by a long shot; in fact, a considerable portion of the upcoming 9th installment of this story-arc will focus on previously untold parts of Ayla's backstory.

RE: Salu's misreading of Glorith, "never a dull moment" may be the understatement of 2017, even though we're only three weeks into the new year. LOL



Babyfications & Gloopings are definitely on the horizon, and I even have already marked specific characters for them.



Many thanks. I really do make an effort with the cliffhangers, so such positive feedback about them is much appreciated.

I'm unsure why they are suddenly on Zerox fighting Mysa. While it's a great scene I must have missed the link somewhere as I thought they were on Weber's world. It kind of threw me out of the story as I had to go back and check.

Marya and Tasmia make a good pair to fight together, their abilities compliment each other while their fierce natures mean whomever is on the receiving end will have a tough time.

"That, darling, is trouble..." replied Tasmia, "...but only with a small 't'." - Ha! my favourite line so far!

Poor Blok, turned into an elemental under an apparently mad Mysa's control.

Tasmia isn't one for holding back her opinions is she?

Nice to see Salu argue with Querl, he needs reality checks from time to time.

His motivation - self preservation - at allowing Tasmia onto the team is true to character, the man's ego is truly monumental!

Ah, so it was Shady who initiated the move to Zerox, got it.

So what will they do now? Another good cliffhanger.

Thank you, Harbi, especially for sharing a bit of your own experiences. My mother's family comes almost entirely from Eastern-European stock, so I had quite a few true stories to draw from. And I'd also like to take this opportunity to recommend the underrated 2015 sci-fi movie "Jupiter Ascending", directed by The Wachowskis and starring Mila Kunis (herself born in the Ukraine) as a space-princess who was raised on Earth, in a community very much like the one described in that chapter of my story. Only two years since it's release, "J.A." has already become a cult-fave in the making.



LOL No worries. And while, out of respect for your sensitivity, I won't spend too much time commenting on it, I do feel I should say that: 1) Tellus had to grow up sometime, and 2) Sonya's the try-anything-once type.



Thank you. Sometimes I think I might have been a success if I'd joined the military, but in the end, I stood by my natural anti-authoritarianism and my low threshold for the sexism, machismo, and homophobia which have always been part & parcel of the military.

Your candor is, as always, highly appreciated. Once again, I fell back on my tendency to leave out important expository data for the sake of keeping the story moving as fast as possible.



My sentiments exactly.



Thankies.



That's one of the things I most love about her.



Thank you, and what I find really scary about Coluans, which I'm not sure of ATM but I may have already alluded to in that chapter, is that Querl would be considered soft & sentimental by their standards. Coluans make Star Trek's Vulcans look like a New Age therapeutic support group!!

At this point, I must, regrettably, step away from the computer to take care of a couple household chores, but I will return as soon as I can to read the rest of your chapter-by-chapter reviews.

On a serious note, you opened the next post by saying Tyroc would draw more looks than Gates in the 21st century as he was black - as opposed to a 4 foot tall talking bug. Without wanting to sound political, of course I've followed the news where it can appear that racial profiling has resulted in many deaths of black people recently and we've all seen the rise of populist, verging on tribal, rhetoric and politics, but seriously, would a black guy be stared at that much? Jeez, that is very alarming!

Gates politics are always welcome reading, if only to laugh at.

Nice moment of introspection from Tyroc about the Marzallian isolationist attitude.

The moment with the police was interesting, but the Furies were great - what a bunch of psychopaths! I don't really know too much about them so am enjoying your writing them, it's an interesting introduction.

I'm going to slip into 'teacher mode' here - sorry in advance. The exclamation point (!) is only ever needed once at the end f a sentence as it denotes the strength of what had gone before. To add a second denotes the first is to be emphasised and as it isn't actually a sound this second '!' doesn't have any real meaning. It's something I mark pupils down for. The writer F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, "An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke." I do appreciate it's artistic license, I know, but it jumps out at me each time and I think 'one point off' every time. Okay, that's a personal view so ignore if you want, just had to say it.

And now Tyroc is gone too, leaving a team without a leader!

Wildfires predicament and feelings were well written, he's a softy underneath that armour and burning anti-energy.

Loved his banter with Gates too.

The fight was interesting, you mentioned how sexy the vampire was a couple of time which was a bit odd to me. Your descriptive skills are awesome and you excel at capturing the essence of subjects really well, but as descriptions go 'sexy' isn't the greatest as it's an entirely subjective point of view.

Those Furies don't really get on do they? The banter between them is pretty harsh, but I guess that's probably standard for Darkseid's minions. That said they follow orders and definitely get the job done. They are quite scary!

So now the tem have lost their mode of instantaneous transport. This is definitely a well considered plan, as ultimately the three that have been taking so far are possibly the most dangerous.

I wonder what Drake will find in Asia? It has been teased before that Dawny and Brin are close so will they have taken that a step further? I'm looking forward to finding out.

Mysa dealing with Mordru is always an interesting twist on their very dysfunctional relationship so I'm looking forward to find out who the mysterious woman is who overpowered her with her voice in her mind.

I assume the tomb opening isn't Mordru's?

Glorith entering the fight spells the end (pun not intended) of Mysa. interesting tat was so sneaky about it, her character is showing.

Blok having trouble fighting Shady was interesting as I'd have thought his silicon body would be just as tough on the inside, still it was great to read Tasmia's confidence and tactics - she really is a warrior at heart isn't she. Splendid!

And the destruction of Mysa's floating castle was really good, I didn't expect that so was really glad to read it.

The almost appearance of Mordru was fun, I never really cared for him as a villain - It was the fez that put me off - so I loved that he was ripped apart like that.

And, the picture - is that the singer Fiona? It looks like a rock singer one of my brothers had a huge crush on in the late 80s.

At last we meet one of Harmonia's sisters, and they obviously aren't close. I'm assuming that they are all descendants of Apokalips or New Genesis? If so, that's a very clever way to tie in Harmonias mysterious past with the Kirby Worlds.

Scary last post!

Again there's a wee bit of a jump here but it was fine.

Darkseid smiling? That doesn't bode well... and that it is Izaya's children responsible for his apparent victory is an ironic twist.

Harmonia and Glorith merged together, doesn't sound like fun really.

Mysa's guilt - true to her nature.

Mr Miracle and Orion to the rescue - Excellent!

I'm looking forward to more, more, more!
Tasmia and Marya's confusion - were they being manipulated?

Hello, Harbi, just jumping in & out of LW before I go deal with the inevitably expanding list of Sunday chores.

I feel I cannot thank you enough for your critiques, and even if they ended up being one-post-per-chapter because of your computer's aforementioned quirkiness, that's actually even better, because hopefully the abundances of new posts in this thread will attract at least a few curious Legion Worlders who might have missed this thread before.

Will come back sometime in the mid-late afternoon to read your last bunch of reviews and reply to them.

Thanks again, Harbi, you're the best!

My absolute pleasure, I'm also away to get stuck into chores so it was nice to have something pleasant to do first.

Thanks, yeah, they're two of my favorite characters to write dialogue for. And I agree with your succinct summary of Wildfire's personality.



That's yet another great observation RE: writing technique from you. Thanks for that, and for the kind words about my skills at descriptions and economical characterizations. I vaguely recall that while I was writing the scenes with Bloody Mary, I might have originally intended the uses of the word "sexy" as placeholders until I could think of something better, and then I forgot to change any of them.

That proves, once and for all, that I really do have to get better at proofreading my stories before I post them.



Extra special thanks for that, Harbi! During the writing process, I was a bit hesitant about some of the edgier touches, like Gillotina spouting racist idiocies, or Bernadeth pacifying Mad Harriet with the offer to burn alive any random homeless person from Armagetto, but then it became clear to me that if the Furies come from the nastiest planet in the galaxy, then OF COURSE they're going to have all manner of disturbing personality traits!

Another thing about their not getting on with each other: when I read Mark Paytress's excellent oral history of Siouxsie & the Banshees a few years ago, one thing that really stuck in my head was this bon mot: "It wasn't that we punks liked each other, it was that we hated everybody else even more!" LOL (Regrettably, I can't remember ATM whether it was Siouxsie Sioux or Steven Severin who said that.)



Agreed to a point, though the team's "Wild Card", Yera, is arguably the most dangerous of them all. Writer Joe Kelly, in his underrated JLA run, repeatedly stressed that, as ridiculous as Plastic Man appears, he is also potentially the most powerful Leaguer, and Kelly proved it solidly when, at the end of the "Trial By Fire" arc...





All I can say without spoiling anything is that no one is going to be more surprised than Drake himself.

Oh, yes, it truly is. Alhough I had a bit of trouble at first connecting with Glorith's inner complexities, it all came together recently with crystal clarity. Glad to hear from you that it shows.



Thank you. And, yes indeed, no truer warrior woman has there even been in fiction than Tasmia, be they in sequential art or in prose.



Thanks, and the most amazing thing about that scene is that I struggled for days to come up with a credible way to neutralize that particular threat, but in the end, the whole turn-Mysa's-powers-against-her was every bit as spur-of-the-moment in concept & execution as it was a fortuitous improvisation on Glorith's part!



Glad you liked it. And RE: the fez -- ROTFLMAO



Will PM you the identity of the woman in the piccies in a short while. Cramer said earlier that she'd rather not know who my visual reference points for characters are, as it means that she brings no preconceptions to the characters, so I'm respecting her wishes.

Good thing I've got a virtual encyclopedia of obscure & semi-obscure cult celebrities from the past several decades inside my own mind!



Thank you. I'd reveal the exact literary inspiration for the connections between Harmonia & New Genesis, but I think I should wait until after a couple more chapters, to prevent possible spoilers.

Thank you. I actually went back a little while after I posted it, after I unexpectedly found -- during a Google search for the same person, but one that was otherwise unrelated to my stories -- a far superior picture to the original one I used, about which the less said the better, except that I realized very quickly that it was possibly making that crucial scene a bit cheesy and unintentionally comedic.



I appreciate that, and I'm relieved that you found it forgivable. I'd never tried a breakdown of space & time on that level before, and my main inspiration was the climax of Alan Moore & J.H. Willams III's "Promethea," only to discover just how difficult it was to translate into prose! Ah, well, a learning experience and all that...



Thanks. One thing I figured out about Darkseid before I began writing this story is that, when writing him, less is definitely more. Kirby understood that, but it took me a while to get past the goofy and cheesy aspects of Kirby's original saga to appreciate that.

Oddly enough, among the post-Kirby interpreters who understood Darkseid like his creator did, I would have to name the people involved in the final two iterations of the Super Friends TV cartoon. One of my favorite things about the performances of Darkseid's voice actor from that time, the great Frank Welker, was how understated they are. Welker-as-Darkseid rarely talks above a deep rumble, like the sound of a volcano just before it erupts, so that on the rare occasions that Darkseid does completely lose his temper, the effect is chilling!



LOL Most definitely not. And worse yet, the surviving Legionnaire who can separate them is...no, nope, I just can't reveal it, not even in a spoiler box. But no worries, because Chapter 8 should, Gods be willing, be posted within the next 48 hours.



Coming from a fellow Bits creator who has written what I consider the best & the truest Mysa of all time, that is high praise indeed! Thank you, Harbi.



Thanks, and their two companions on their quest might thrill you even more!



48 hours or less.



Possibly. The true source of their confusion shall be revealed soon.

THE 8th POST OF THE 2nd RETROBOOT LEGION (EARTH-7.5) STORY-ARC


3017: INSIDE THE ANOMALY CREATED BY GLORITH & HARMONIA, WHERE TIME STANDS STILL...FOR THE MOMENT...

"This has become INTOLERABLE!!" yelled Shadow Lass, feeling her pride shatter into pieces, as the last traces of her regal hauteur gave way to a little-girlish helplessness which she would have previously thought unthinkable of expressing in front of other sentients.  The hard truth was, she simply didn't care anymore.  As final proof, she fell to her knees (albeit with her usual effortless grace), and broke down into a crying fit.

"What does it matter whether we die at this instant, or two hours from now, or two days from now?" she said between sobs. "At this point, I would prefer to die now.  Anything other than this hellish state of nothingness, I would welcome!!"

Her three companions -- Dragonwing, Blok, and Mysa -- could seemingly do little but nod in sympathetic resignation.  No response came from the Glorith/Harmonia gestalt, as they seemingly had to remain inert to continue forestalling the all-consuming universal entropy brought on by the rise to omnipotence of Harmonia's mad, utterly nihilistic half-sister, Sonya.

To Shadow Lass's surprise, it was Mysa who became the first to get close to her and make an effort at comforting her.  How ironic, she thought, given that only a short while ago, Mysa had been Shadow Lass's quarry, with the Talokian intending to dominate the troubled, unstable mage and force her to revive Harmonia and extract a confession from the enigmatic elemental of the true agenda behind her schemes and manipulations.

"Know this, Tasmia," whispered Mysa tenderly, "and I do hope it brings you even the slightest measure of relief -- whatever comes next, you shall not face it alone.  For we are, once and for always...Legion!!"

"Then you do forgive my awful words and actions?" asked Tasmia as she choked back more tears.

"Of course I do." replied Mysa, before turning her head to face Blok and raising her voice slightly. "But now I must know...do YOU forgive ME, Blok, for my TRULY AWFUL treatment of you, that no friend should ever visit upon another friend?"

"Yes, I forgive you, Mysa," said Blok evenly, "for do we not, each and every one of us sentient beings, possess an equal capacity for awfulness?"

"This is all very well," stated Tasmia, sounding more like her usual self, "but it is this I must know: Is there anything...anything at all we may do that would resolve our...unfortunate is not a strong enough word for it...situation??"

"Perhaps." answered Mysa, who then paused before elaborating. "But whatever it may be, I regret to say that I shall not be destined to bring it about.  Sonya stole all of my powers...and Mordru's as well.  All of my spells, all of my incantations, every last bit of magical knowledge...gone!!  I am truly an empty shell of a sentient being."

"By all the ancestors!!" gasped Tasmia. "How, then, do you find the will to go on??"

"The trick is to keep breathing." blurted Marya, a remark which may have been intended as purely facetious, or possibly have more going on below the surface than even Marya herself realized.

"You speak the truth." said Mysa, facing Marya with a warm, sincere smile.

"I do??" asked Marya. "Oh, I mean, yeah, of course I do!!"

"If there is any hope left for us to survive beyond this uncertain half-existence, it lies in you."

"Uh...but all I do is breathe fire and bring the snark."

"You also have an emotional connection to our potential saviors, Glorith & Harmonia.  Despite my complete depletion of magical wisdom, I sense on a purely intuitive level that you must reach out to them, and bring them back to the mundane realms of reality as we know it."

"B-b-but...how?"

"Physical contact, simple as that.  Walk over to their gestalt form, press the palm of your hand against it, and do not remove your hand no matter the repercussions."

"Um...one other little problem...if I undo their gestalt, won't I essentially be killing us all?"

Mysa paused before replying, plainly and succinctly, "That is a risk we must take."

"Do it, Marya," pleaded Tasmia with renewed vulnerability, "if not for yourself, then...for the rest of us.  Please."

Marya quietly walked over towards the gestalt until it was within her reach.  She tentatively opened her hand and began moving it closer, hesitating just long enough to say, "Here goes nothing."  She then closed her eyes and pressed her palm against the gestalt.

*****************

If Marya had thought that some of her previous voyages through oddball dimensions were like something out of a bad drug trip, none of them outdid the queasy weirdness of this kaleidoscopic place where she had just been transported.  Laws of physics appeared to be non-existent, and the chances of a moving object either passing through her or bumping into her seemed to be completely random.  Then there were the red skies, whose rather murky and muddy-looking tones were made even more disturbing by the clouds, which tended to resemble nothing less than ribbons of blood spreading across a dirty pond, changing shape by the nano-second until Marya felt like she was going to vomit.

But while Marya may have been many things, a quitter was not one of them.  She bit her lip, closed her eyes, and clenched her fists, until she could feel a solid sense of balance, both inner and outer, returning to her at last.  And once she found her speaking voice, she shouted with all her might to the four winds, or whatever passed for them in this nightmarish realm.

"Harmonia?  Glorith?  Are you in here somewhere?  Glorith?  GLO??"

For half a second, she felt as though she would lose her sense of balance again, dooming the entire universe because she didn't have what it took to save the day, and never had.  Then, another voice rang out, and Marya thanked the Gods that it was the exact one she'd been hoping to hear.

"Marya, you know very well how furious it makes me when you address me as 'Glo'!!"

"Well, how else was I supposed to get your attention, huh??"

"Girls, girls, now is not the time for that." scolded the even-more unmistakable voice of Harmonia.

"For once," replied Marya, "we agree on something, Harmonia."

"I should hope so.  Now then, I believe I speak for both myself and Glorith when I say that you have our boundless gratitude for reaching out to us as bravely as you did just now."

"Oh, wow...um...I mean, you're welcome."

"It is all too easy to give into the temptation of detaching oneself from mundane reality, and allow the full ascension to take place." admitted Glorith.

"Wrong, my dear," said Harmonia, much to Glorith's chagrin, "there are no ascensions, much less descents, only a full, single, perfect circle."

"Oh, spare me!" snapped Marya. "You've just reminded me why you get on my nerves all the time!  I mean, come ON, Harmonia, the universe could make its final slide into entropy any second now, and you're getting existential??"

To Marya's surprise, Harmonia's reply to her outburst did not sound the least bit angry. "Fair enough, child.  Sometimes even a goddess needs humbling, through a..."

"...a reality check!" interrupted Marya. "Yay me!  And you're welcome...again!  Now please, PLEASE set things back to normal before it's too late!"

"Of course, Marya.  But you must do your part as well, simply by continuing to talk while I guide Glorith through the necessary steps."

"Talk?  TALK?  Sprockin' hell, I'll give you talk!  Like, how the hell is it that you and the other gods ever let this kind of apocalyptic nass happen, if you really are so damn all-mighty?  And if you ARE that powerful, and you STILL screw up so bad, then what hope is there for the rest of us?  I mean, I stole the dragon-powers purely out of my instinct for self-preservation, but all they've done is make my life even more hellish than it already was...ahhh...AAHHH...AAAAAAAAAIIIIIEEEEEE!!  Now what the sprock is happening?  I feel as though I'm being shredded like a pile of raw pork.  Harmonia, is THIS your idea of 'fixing' things??  Sprock, what have I done to deserve...ah...AAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!"

******************

"Marya!  Marya, it's me, Tasmia, snap out of it.  I SAID SNAP THE SPROCK OUT OF IT, ALREADY!"

When Marya's eyesight finally returned, confirming that she had been returned to the surface of the Sorcerors' World, that Mysa and Blok were standing near her, that they were no longer trapped within the anomaly, and that she was indeed being screamed at by her questionable choice of a role model, all Marya could give in return was a slurred but acutely saracstic, "That's what I love about you, Tasmia, you're always so gentle."

"Oh, bloody hell," snarled Tasmia, "if soft, spineless young creatures such as you are inheriting the universe, it might as well have finished self-destructing!"

But then, as Tasmia stood up and turned her back on Marya with the intention of walking away, she was genuinely startled by the raw, heart-stopping wail of pure anger coming from directly behind her.

"In case you forgot, I SPROCKING SAVED YOUR LIFE!  As well as the WHOLE UNIVERSE!  You're welcome...BITCH!!"

The Tasmia from before the recent end-of-all-that-is ordeal would most likely have struck back at Marya with equal venom, and perhaps even with physical violence.  But if there had been any doubt that the aforementioned ordeal had changed her profoundly, it now became all too clear when she could not even summon the willpower to finish gasping out a half-hearted, "How...dare...you?"

And then there came from Tasmia the tears, a veritable flood of them, punctuated by eardrum-shattering yowls and loud sobs of such visceral force they felt to Marya like short, sharp gusts of wind.

"Oh, Gods..." croaked the understandably sore-throated Marya, "I didn't mean it like that..."

"Yes, you did," came Blok's initially blunt reply in the very depths of his already low voice, which then turned oddly comforting for Marya after he added, "and you had every right to say what you said."

"Uh...thanks, big guy." rasped Marya, who felt even better a few seconds later, after she saw that she'd inspired the closest thing to a smile that Blok's literal stone-face could manage.

Now it was Mysa's turn to approach Marya.  First she gently placed her hand on Marya's shoulder, then she said softly, "Tasmia shall pull herself together before long.  If anything, it is best we give her space by putting a short amount of physical distance between us and her.  Come now, young one, you have more than earned some peace and quiet."

Marya now felt herself being warmly enveloped by a metaphorical blanket made of relief and joy.  Save the worrying for later, she told herself, the worries about getting off the planet, and about where Glorith & Harmonia had ended up, and about whether everything really had been restored to normal.  As Mysa had just told her, Marya had earned it.  More than earned it.

CONTINUED...

I have only just started reading this so I know I'm way behind lol...But I am enjoying it so far and curious to see where it will go! Highlights so far:

- your opening description of Dawnstar, Yera and Wildfire was a great cinematic visual
- Mr & Mrs Strange as sexy sci-fi adventurers
- Hawkgirl smacking down Byth...I wish Kendra on Legends of Tomorrow had been 1/10th as fierce!
- the "dogs returning to their vomit" line that I think Harbinger might have also mentioned was perfect

Thank you so much, Raz. And, as before, I will be taking next week off before completing the third, and final, bunch of post related to the very long current story-arc, so you and others will have plenty of time to catch up.




RE: The opening scene, thank you, and I'm hoping that Bits fanart contributor Drake might decide to draw it sometime this year.

RE: Adam & Alanna Strange, they're such genuine DC-SciFi icons, I felt they had to have a moment in the spotlight while the Legionnaires were still in the present day. And even though I retroactively decided that the Stranges are exclusive to Earth-7.7, there's no reason they couldn't have crossed over to help the heroines & heroes of Earth-7.5, so it all adds up.

RE: Kendra, I just love that character so much, and I'm glad to hear it shows. As for LoT, I don't watch much TV these days, but I did, by chance, see some screencaps recently while I was doing a Google Images search, and the first thing I thought was, "Bloody hell, who's that they've cast as Hawkgirl, Leona Lewis?" LOL

RE: Tasmia's summary of her feelings about the possibility of the Yakka-Mahor seizing power on Talok, thanks for the kind words. Although, without spoiling what's ahead, her outlook may or may not face some serious challenges in stories yet to be told.

Thanks again, Raz, I love seeing comments on my stories when I do my first Legion World log-in right after getting out of bed.