Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business Retroboot Continued (Brainy’s Legion)

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Introduction

"He's probably calculating a way to find a new Legion based on Colu… with him in absolute charge." – Imra Ardeen Ranzz

In the last Paul Levitz issue of the Legion of Super Heroes (vol7 issue 23), there was a suggestion that the group might continue with Brainiac Five assuming a leadership role.
Having dismantled the group and having had it shut down by the UP in a devastated galaxy, perhaps it was intended for Brainy to be in charge of rebuilding it. Or at least trying to rebuild it.
This thread takes that idea and continues from the closing point of that series into new stories.

This was put together not long after the last issue was published, and immediately after the first post in the Brainy's Legion thread, back in September 2013

It’s in the form of first or second plot drafts, from that time. Putting it up at that early stage gets the basic plots out of my system and will allow me to return and develop them at a later date.

Pulling this together let me think about a number of topics across the Legion’s history, and I’ll be using this thread to hopefully start a few discussion threads or some posts here.

Volume 7 Roll Call

This thread continues on from the events in Volume 7. Here's the Legion Roll Call from that volume, with some details on the membership.

Volume 7 Plot Recap

v7 Recap – Issue 1 “Renegade World”
A Legion team investigate the loss of contact from Panoptes, a military watchworld on the Dominator Empire. They discover that signals are being redirected towards the Dominion. Attempting to recover the situation, the team discover a rogue Daxamite.

On Earth, we learn that several members of the team have been lost, that Superman will no longer be available due to a shut off time stream and that Gim Allon has resigned to join the UP fleet. New members have been added to the team with mixed feelings about their readiness. Lar & Querl discuss the heroism of the deceased Earth Man (see v6) as Glorith misses the deceased student Oaa and Star Boy points talks about destiny awaiting them.

Tasmia is still mourning the loss of Earth Man and there’s a hint of a relationship between Hadru & Marya


v7 Recap – Issue 2 “Hostile World”
On Panoptes, Res-Vir the renegade Daxamite captures the team there, with the exception of Phantom Girl, who sends an alert signal. Res-Vir suggests that the United Planets are responsible for keeping Daxam a prison.

On Earth, Brainy hypothesises that Glorith’s powers may help unlock the time stream. On receiving Tinya’s signal, a rescue team is sent. Part of this team is on Shanghalla, where Shadow Lass mourns over Earth Man’s grave and Comet Queen rebuffs Polar Boy’s advances.

The arrival of Mon-El on Panoptes allows Phantom Girl to free her colleagues. But the arrival of a Dominator fleet tips the balance of the battle once more.



v7 Recap – issue 3 “Shadow War”
Phantom Girl determines that the fleet are hostile and the Dominators move to take control of the planet.

On Earth Brainiac 5 continues his experiments with Glorith. A Legion team visit Daxam to find out more about the Renegade. A reference is made to Lightning Lass &Shrinking Violet’s time on Orando when they encountered the Emerald Eye.

Monel and Ultra Boy subdue The Renegade in Shadow Lass’s shadows, while the others damage or infiltrate the Dominion Fleet.



v7 Recap – Issue 4 “Not What They Seem?”
Element Lad tutors the inexperienced Chemical Kid in subduing the escaping Renegade on Panoptes.

On Daxam, the Legion discover that Res-Vir studied off world cultures, only to fall for Dominion propaganda. They then lead him to create a serum, that boosts his powers, and enables him to travel to Panoptes to carry out their plans. Vi & Ayla are seen as a couple and Vi is shown to be detective minded and have an interest in political affairs.

Chameleon Boy continues to infiltrate the Dominion ship, but the arrival of the Legion, and particularly Mon El send the fleet back home after inflicting further damage on it. Shadow Lass comments that Mon El is almost back to his old self.

On Earth, Brainy and Dream Girl review the results of the experiments with Glorith.



v7 Recap – Issue 5 “One Day A Thousand Years From Now…”
Nura &Thom and Ayla & Vi begin their days. Nura has had a dream of standing stones. Cosmic Boy is pained at the loss of Legionnaires and we learn that Quislet has also vanished. Element Lad & Harmonia share a reflective moment as friends Brek & Dirk leave for something they feel is more fun.

A lonely, unconfident Glorith sends a letter home to Zerox, where the Black Witch contains Mordru within her. Glorith is taken under the wing of Invisible Kid and returned to the more sociable aspect of the team.

Later, Dragonwing trains with Shadow Lass and Phantom Girl interrupts Ultra Boy’s session. Lightning Lass catches up with the Ranzz family, while Dream Girl and Mon El try to determine what is behind one of her dreams.

At the Legion Academy, Bouncing Boy and Duplicate Damsel look through potential candidates. Comet Queen catches a drunkenly returning Polar Boy and then heads out for a party.

In his lab, Brainiac falls asleep working on a time bubble and Sun Boy watches the sunrise at the standing stones in Dream Girl’s vision.

v7 Recap – Issue 6 “Dragon & Phoenix”
Element Lad, Sun Boy mentor Chemical Kid in their investigations into eruptions in the fiery Xin Jiang region of Earth. Dream Girl monitors as Brainy & Mon El investigate the Dominator attack on Panoptes. Docor Aven, from Titan, tells them the locals were imprinted by the Dominators, not telepathically controlled. As punishment for failure, the domainator who lead the Panoptes invasion is executed.
Back on Earth Dragonwing visits her sister, only to find she has fallen in with the Red Dragons, who seek to restore a lost age. Pai is assisted by Chameleon Boy as the two confront larger numbers of the Dragons, and meet their leader: The Phoenix.


v7 Recap – Issue7 “Phoenix Rising”
Chameleon Boy is defeated by the leader of the Dragons as Dragonwing holds off the rest of the group, and her sister. Dream Girl sends Comet Queen and a newly costumed Harmonia to help Chameleon Boy and Dragonwing.

Mon El & Brainy return from Panoptes, resolving the ongoing leadership jostling by agreeing to a new election. The Dominion look to combine dna to create a star spanning super army.

In the Xin Jiang region Element Lad is convinced that the eruptions are deliberate. They capture saboteurs working for the Red Dragons.

Harmonia defeats the Phoenix, as the new recruits discuss the differences between themselves and the established Legionnaires. Chameleon Boy gives a final cautionary note about how a single mistake can cost a Legionnaire their life.


v7 Recap – Issue 8 “1 of 5”
Invisible Kid intercepts some raiders on Zardon’s medical centre, where work is being done to help cure his sister. He is told that the raiders were after something worse than a circuit from Computo, but the chip that created Tharok. Brainy surmises that the chip has been duplicated and that this correlates to rumours of a revival of the Fatal Five.

Elsewhere, Lightning Lad and Saturn girl return to Earth and reunite Cosmic Boy and Night Girl.


v7 Recap – Issue 9 “Capture”
Dominion hybrids capture Brainiac 5 and Dream Girl as the pair discussed accessing the time stream with Circadia Senius and Harmonia. One hybrid is stopped by Harmonia and an arriving Ultra Boy, providing a clue to its origins.

We see from the monitor room that teams are investigating the Fatal Five, while the newer recruits are trained by Shadow Lass. Concerned about thinning the team, Cosmic Boy is discussing Otaki and Mwindaji as recruits with Duplicate Damsel. Mon El meets Gravity Boy on Takron Galtos where they see Validus is still in captivity.

Cosmic Boy begins plans to retrieve their colleagues, only to be told by Mon El that Earth Gov have instructed them not to break any treaties. Star Boy quits the team to get Dream Girl back.


v7 Recap – Issue 10 “Choices”
As Dream Girl and Brainiac consider their option on the Dominion home world, Cosmic Boy makes a failed attempt to infiltrate the Dominion embassy on Earth. He is exfiltrated by Ultra Boy.

Mon El’s address to the UP Council is rebuffed, leading to Star Boy building a team to go to the rescue of their two colleagues. Duplicate Damsel, Mwindaji, Otaki, Bouncing Boy and Comet Queen. Receiving intelligence from Colossal Boy, who with the Up Fleet, they travel to the Dominion.

Brainy & Dream Girl escape only to be recaptured. Upon returning to their cell, Dream Girl precogs that one of their own will betray them.

v7 Recap – Issue 11 “Betrayal”
As Mon El and Cosmic Boy clash over leadership and effectiveness, the rescue party reach their two team mates, on the Dominion Homeworld, using Comet Queen and Star Boy’s powers. They further help Brainiac retrieve his force field belt only to be captured after a further attack. As Brainiac fights back, he is rendered unconscious by Comet Queen, who has betrayed the team.


v7 Recap – Issue 12 “Cataclysm”
The Dominators are about to celebrate the first hatching of their new super powered hybrids by feasting on the captured Legionnaires. Dream Girl escapes and frees her team mates.

Cosmic Boy looks to Mon El for action, and the Daxamite realises that he can get Sensor Girl to use her powers, and her UP rank, to show the Council the truth about the kidnap of their colleagues. This done, he and Ultra Boy go to save their friends. They find that Star Boy has held of a Daxamite/Dominator hybrid, while Bouncing Boy has prevented any others from being hatched. Returning home, Duplicate Damsel tells the recruits they have done well, as she wonders why Comet Queen betrayed them.


v7 Recap – Issue 0 “Brainiac’s Original Sin”
A flashback to an adventure set shortly before the founding of the Legion, and before Brainiac 5 had joined. A team of Legionnaires assist the elders of Colu against the legacy of the threat from the original Brainiac. Weapons from 1000 year ago have been stored in a central bunker. It has been opened allowing for the escape of activated threats and for the theft of an artefact by a controlled Tharok. The Legionnaires defeat the threats, throw the bunker off world and protect the only child born since Brainiac 5’s birth on the planet. As the Legion return home with Brainiac, it’s revealed that he was responsible for the opening of the bunker.


v7 Recap – Issue 13 “Questions”
An inexperienced Chemical Kid freezes on a mission with Element Lad and Cosmic Boy into raids on mining operations.

On Earth, Brainy begins to find out why a, now comatose, Comet Queen attacked the team. He clashes with Duplicate Damsel, whose feelings for Brainy are called into question by Dream Girl.

Mon El checks with the groups looking into the revival of the Fatal Five. Sun Boy and Phantom Girl are to check the Forbidden Weapons reserve for the Persuader’s axe.

Cosmic Boy suffers a head injury when he discovers that three of the mining raiders are also Braalians.


v7 Recap – Issue 14 “Overwhelmed”
Under Brainiac’s instruction, Chemical Kid stabilises Cosmic Boy for his return to Medicus one, and a tearful Night Girl for treatment. Element Lad & Chemical Kid engage the raiders, only for Element Lad to receive a head injury. Chemical Kid gets his colleague to safety, alerts the Legion and prepares to find a way out of their predicament.

On Earth Brainiac 5 uncovers a post hypnotic trigger placed in Comet Queen by Saturn Queen, which compels her to try and kill the Coluan. The trigger was placed there when Saturn Queen wiped Comet Queen’s mind (see vol. 6)

At the Forbidden Weapons Reserve, Sun Boy and Phantom Girl tell the warden M’Wim that he has been guarding a hologram of the Persuader’s axe.

Chemical Kid helps Element Lad recover and the pair defeat the miners. Lightning Lass, Shadow Lass and Night Girl arrive to begin the sweep up of the remaining raiders.

v7 Recap - Issue 15 “Once Upon A Dream”
A mysterious voice rouses Glorith from sleep and transports her to Barcelona where time slips have made angry mobs, dinosaurs and soldiers from history appear. The Legion disagree about Glorith’s disappearance amidst jostling for leadership, when they receive an alert about the disturbances.

Arriving in Barcelona, Brainiac organises the team, allowing them to identify the source of the disturbances, which are centred on Glorith, who is about to be burned at a stake.

Harmonia shows Glorith that the young mage is causing the time storm, and it ceases.
At Legion HQ, Chameleon Boy shares his concerns about the Fatal Five with Shrinking Violet & Lightning Lass.



v7 Recap – Issue 16 “Choose Wisely”
As the Legionnaires decide who to vote as leader, Chameleon Boy and Shrinking Violet discover that the imprisoned Validus is a construct.

Brainy continues to experiment on Glorith’s powers, resulting in her using her powers to divert the Coluans attention onto his equipment. We see Saturn Girl attempt to cure Comet Queen.

A morbid Star Boy finally returns to active duty, while Tasmia confirms to Mon El that, although she will vote for him as leader, their relationship is over.

Cosmic Boy and Mon El discuss the price of Legion leadership as Phantom Girl is chosen as the next leader. Ominously, quark relay systems across the galaxy begin to fail.


v7 Recap – Issue 17 “The Beginning of the End”
Following the failure of quark technology, Sun Boy is killed piloting his colleagues in a crashing Legion cruiser. The survivors, Invisible Kid, Polar Boy and Phantom Girl discover they are trapped on a Promethean Giant. The local population that live on the giant, eat Sun Boy’s corpse. The giant begins to stir.

On Rimbor, investigating rumours of Tharok’s presence, Ultra Boy, Chameleon Boy and Glorith investigate an area that still has power. They are attacked by service robots, which Glorith dispatches.

On the fringes of the United Planets, Tharok outlines his plans to the Persuader. He is looking to bring an end to the UP, and has disrupted the Legionnaires who are looking for them. He dispatches Validus to Zerox. Tharok no longer has a human form and can travel across worlds through the ancient technology that once formed his cyborg half.


v7 Recap – Issue 18 “Home’s End
In front of a burning Legion HQ, Dragonwing and deputy leader Harmonia are confronted by an angry mob.

A second group travels to Weber’s World, which is especially dependant on the quark relays. The team discuss the impact of technology’s failure. Shadow Lass fears that Talok will return to barbarism.

On a chaotic Rimbor, Glorith teleports her team to Zerox to seek help from the Black Witch.

Beneath Legion, Brainiac leads a group in constructing a cruiser, as they watch destruction across the world.

On the Promethean Giant, Phantom Girl leads her group to the village of alien parasites to try and get information. The now active Giant, controlled by Tharok, targets them.

Brainiac’s cruiser leaves the Legion HQ which suffers more structural damage, killing Star Boy beneath the debris.



v7 Recap – Issue 19 “World’s End”
On an isolated Weber’s World, the failure of technology has led to widespread destruction. Above, The Emerald Empress attacks the survivors. She is confronted by Mon El.

The Promethean Giant continues to slowly target the Legionnaires on its body, forcing Invisible Kid to teleport Polar Boy away. A distraught Phantom Girl, with the disasters weighing heavily on her leadership, wonders if she has gotten her whole team killed.

On the UP’s fringes, Tharok continues to control the Giant and dispatches the Persuader to Earth.

The Emerald Empress critically injures Mon El, who is saved by Brainiac. The Empress is contained by Element Lad, while the others stabilise their colleague.

Chameleon Boy, Ultra Boy and Glorith arrive on Zerox to the sounds of Validus causing earthquakes far below.

v7 Recap – Issue 20 “Vanishing World”
Chameleon Boy, Ultra Boy and Glorith travel across Zerox to seek help from the Black Witch. They are shown visions of the destruction elsewhere.

On the Promethean Giant, Phantom Girl fades from the universe to escape its attack.

Invisible Kid and Polar Boy have travelled to a place where he once encountered what he took to be ghosts of fallen Legionnaires.

Tharok moves across the galaxy, contacting the Fatal Five. He had considered Phantom Girl to be a key threat, and encourages Validus to destroy the gem at the heart of the Sorcerers World. In doing so, he will nullify The Black Witch who he also considers to be a danger to his plans.

As Blok and Ultra Boy hold off Validus, The Witch links her powers to Glorith’s removing the Sorcerers World from its spatial/temporal location and from The Fatal Five’s grasp.

Ultra Boy and Chameleon Boy are transported to Legion HQ. There they encounter The Persuader, who has just killed one of Duplicate Damsel’s forms.



v7 Recap – Issue 21 “Endings – Part 1”
On Earth, The Persuader gains the upper hand in a fight against Chameleon Boy 7 Ultra Boy, who learns of Phantom Girl’s disappearance. Tharok’s contact with the Five, weakens his control of the quark network, allowing Legionnaires to summon assistance. Chemical Kid works to keep Mon El alive until he can receive proper medical care for his injuries.

Elsewhere, Invisible Kid and Polar Boy encounter what they perceive to be the ghosts of deceased legionnaires.

The Persuader holds of Legion reinforcements casing widespread destruction in Metropolis. Tharok appears and reveals he allowed the Legion to return to Earth to ensure their deaths. His power over digispace brings the Emerald Empress to the battle and the Legion beaten. Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl return to stop the three attackers.



v7 Recap – Issue 22 “Vanishing World”
The Ranzz family defeat the Persuader, but Saturn Girl is teleported away by a retreating Tharok and Emerald Empress. Lightning Lad rushes into the diminishing teleport portal, where he discovers their destination is the Promethean Giant.

There, Saturn Girl shuts down the Emerald Empress, as Invisible Kid and Polar Boy return to where they left. Above the Giant an arriving Sensor Girl and Karate Kid awaken it to Tharok’s manipulation, and he loses control over it. In a final attack, Polar Boy reduces Tharok to absolute zero, preventing the movement of the information that comprises his new form.

On Earth, the Legionnaire stand in the ruins of their headquarters, as Brainy comes to terms with the fact that the creation of Tharok is his fault.



v7 Recap – Issue 23 “Aftermath”
On Shanghalla, Invisible Kid, Polar Boy and Dream Girl pay their respects at the graves of Star Boy and Sun Boy.

In Metropolis, Ultra Boy & Colossal Boy finish clearing some debris and return to the underground levels of what remains of the Legion HQ. Ultra Boy is convinced that Phantom Girl is alive, but Brainiac is dealing with a multitude of other issues to get the United Planets functional once more. His attitude irritates Duplicate Damsel who reminds him of his confession regarding Tharok’s origins.
As repair work continues, Shadow Lass retrieves Mon-Els suspended form and begins a return to Daxam.

As Brainiac considers his master plan, Chief Cusimano arrives to inform the Legion that they have been disbanded by the United Planets Council. The members of the Legion are to return to their home worlds, to civilian life. With no home to return to, Element Lad leaves with Cusimano to meet another Science Police officer with plans for him.

Some weeks later, Dream Girl has returned home to Naltor, Duplicate Damsel and Bouncing Boy hold a memorial over the capped underground levels of the Legion’s HQ and Sensor Girl and Karate Kid approach Orando. Finally on Winath, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy reflect on the Legion, what they have accomplished and what did and could happen on other realities.

Member status after Issue 23

The following is the status of each of the twenty active members of the Legion that began v7.

Chameleon Boy – Last seen accompanying Harmonia, Shrinking Violet and Chief Cusimano prior to the disbanding of the team in #23.
Ultra Boy - On Earth, helping with the clear up exercise in #23.
Phantom Girl - Fades from our universe to escape the Promethean Giant in #20.
Dragonwing - Last seen engaging with a crowd outside the damaged Legion HQ in #18.
Chemical Kid - Last seen helping to stabilise Mon El in #21. The ship they were on, returned to Earth to confront the Fatal Five, although Chemical Kid was not seen in the battle.
Brainiac 5 - In Legion HQ in #23. Revealed to have been “practically” “dragged from the building” later in #23. Later in #23, Saturn Girl speculates that "He's probably calculating a way to find a new Legion based on Colu… with him in absolute charge."
Mon El - The medical capsule where his injuries are being treated, was removed by Shadow Lass to be returned to Daxam in #23.
Invisible Kid - Last seen leaving Shanghalla with Sensor Girl and Polar Boy in #23.
Lightning Lass - On Earth, helping with the clear up exercise in #23.
Shrinking Violet - Last seen with Chameleon Boy, Harmonia and Chief Cusimano in the HQ prior to the disbanding of the team in #23.
Cosmic Boy - On Winath at the end of #23.
Shadow Lass - Returning to Daxam with Mon El’s medical capsule in #23.
Polar Boy - Last seen leaving Shanghalla with Sensor Girl and Invisible Kid in #23.
Element Lad – Departing Legion HQ with Chief Cusimano in #23. He is to meet a SP officer with plans for him.
Sun Boy - Deceased. Killed in #17.
Comet Queen - Last seen, still comatose, being treated by Saturn Girl in #16. Was in same condition in Legion HQ in #14.
Dream Girl – On Naltor towards the end of #23.
Glorith - Removed with Zerox from its spacetime location in #20.
Star Boy - Deceased. Killed in #18.
Harmonia – Accompanies Chief Cusimano through Legion HQ, when she telling the others that the Legion is to be disbanded in #23.


Former Legionnaires

Lightning Lad – On Winath at the end of #23.
Saturn Girl - On Winath at the end of #23.
Sensor Girl – Arriving on Orando towards the end of #23.
Karate Kid - Arriving on Orando towards the end of #23.
Duplicate Damsel – At Legion HQ towards the end of #23.
Bouncing Boy - At Legion HQ towards the end of #23.
Colossal Boy – Still with the UP fleet, but on Earth helping with the clear up in #23.
Black Witch - Removed with Zerox from its spacetime location in #20.
Blok - Removed with Zerox from its spacetime location in #20.
Dawnstar – Missing from the beginning of the volume to the end of #23.
Wildfire – Missing from the beginning of the volume to the end of #23.
Tyroc – Missing from the beginning of the volume to the end of #23.
Timberwolf – Missing from the beginning of the volume to the end of #23.
Gates – Missing from the beginning of the volume to the end of #23.
Chameleon Girl – Missing from the beginning of the volume to the end of #23.
Tellus – Missing from the beginning of the volume to the end of #23.
Quislet – Revealed to be missing in #5.
Night Girl – Last seen about to clear up mining raiders in #14.

v7.5 Issue 1 “Pulse”

50 Days Later…

Deep Space: En route to Daxam-

In a patched up transport ship that has clearly seen better days, Tasmia Mallor (Shadow Lass) and Jo Nah (Ultra Boy) discuss the critically injured Lar Gand (Mon –El), who is suspended in a medical capsule. Two attendants monitor the capsule, conducting diagnostic checks. One of them has a helix motif badge on their uniform.

Looking at the capsule, Tasmia comments that at least Hadru (Chemical Kid) managed to keep him alive this long. She knows that Querl Dox (Brainiac 5) was behind Hadru’s work, but couldn’t bear to stay and see her former lover turned into one of the Coluan’s many pet projects.

Jo shares what he thinks is Tasmia’s frustration. Brainy has a hold on him until he can get help to track down Tinya (Phantom Girl), following her disappearance.

Thinking back to the four on vacation in happier times, Jo reminds Tasmia that both have gone through similar episodes before. Tasmia tells him that they have both emerged as stronger people as a result. She hopes that Jo will find her again, just as she is sure that Lar will recover. He was not the victim of the Time Trapper this time, an episode that effectively killed him. She is not far from Daxam and they will be able to help. When they let her in.

Jo reflects on the mention of the Time Trapper, recalling a purpled robed figure. From Jo’s perspective, the Trapper has a feminine figure. He is interrupted by Brainiac 5 urgently summoning him to Webers World. As he flies from the ship, Tasmia hopes that his mission there is more successful than Lar’s was.

Omnipaedia: Webers World: Mobile administrative and communications hub of United Planets (UP) bureaucracy. Widespread destruction caused by the Fatal Five has placed this dwarf planet into stationary orbit around Trantor, increasing UP reliance on its three remote satellites.

Technological ruin is spread across this part of the world, as three of the Legion field team move across a surface covered in twisted glass and metal, that looms ominously around, and above, them. As they search, they pick up chatter from the UP Emergency comms network.

> UP Council agrees selected trial of Doctor Aven’s TelNet to reach outlying planets<

>Civil unrest results in several standoffs between civilians and government on Lallor. <


An in-flight. Tel Vole (Gravity Kid) focuses on lifting a fallen tower from a building, crushed beneath it. The Legion Academy has taught him to manipulate his power to handle the stresses in lifting larger objects. Supervising below, using his ice creations to hold up parts of other structures, Brek Bannin (Polar Boy) only finds more corpses. He thinks of the forces the Kirbyesque Emerald Empress unleashed here, her devastating energy blasts destroying these streets.

Jed Rikkane (Power Boy) rises from beneath the street level, using his intangibility. He tells the others that the basement levels were also crushed and that no one survived in their attempts to escape the carnage above. Jed leans against a broken metal strut, showing some fatigue at witnessing yet another horror.

(Note: Although recognisable from their old costumes, the three are wearing tougher uniforms along with items they will need on missions, such as medi-kits, spare transuits etc.)

Brek tries to raise their morale by pointing out the number of people who have survived. He points to the rescue and construction drones above, giving hope for all the people they could still save.

The ground shifts, raining down debris that Tel’s gravitational powers help float away as Brek’s ice shield protects them. Jed allows debris to pass straight through him.

With Webers World being so heavily built upon, Tel points out that damage to the underlying asteroid may have left it unstable. The Fatal Five almost destroyed it, and it doesn’t look as though the relief teams are going to be able to keep the world together. He just hopes they can rescue everyone else in time. As Jed reports to the rest of the team regarding the quake, we see the familiar harassed, multi-tasking face of Brainiac 5 as a holo above the three.

Brainy is in a suite of Brande Industries offices on Weber’s world. He is surrounded by virtuals of the Legion team, relief officials, and technicians from both the UP and Brande Industries. In addition, a full figure holo of Danielle Foccart (Computo) is present. She is projected from a small, rectangular module on the desk beside Brainy. It’s of the same colour as his force field belt.

The busy staff are moving equipment, through the damaged building. They coordinate the relief effort from holos of the world and its sectors. There are a lot of crates with the Legion “L” on them around the room. Some contain relics from the Legion’s previous adventures, but notable is the old globular Computo major-domos. Everyone can feel the impact of this latest quake shaking the surrounding buildings.

One of the holos demands urgent attention. It is UP councillor Fajardo (last seen in v7 #12) angrily telling Querl that the Legion have been disbanded by the United Planets Council, and that they have no authority on Weber’s World. The councillor continues to warn him that they will be prosecuted for any additional damage that they may cause to the relief effort.

Brainy interrupts him, reminding him that the Legion are there to protect the staff, and interests, of their employers: Brande Industries. Fortunately for the councillor, protecting those interests will require further investigation into the cause of the current disturbances.

As Fujardo visibly colours with rage, holos of his UP Council counterparts require further discussion from him. He breaks off contact with a reminder that the Earth Emergency Team (seen in Superboy #240) are on their way, and that the Legion will be deferring to their authority.

Danielle compliments Querl on his handling of the situation. Brainy tells her that he’s been given plenty of instruction from Jacques (Invisible Kid) and Harmonia in recent weeks. He asks Tel if he can pinpoint the source of any disturbances. The younger hero can’t and looks disappointed not to be able to, already criticising himself.

Brainy is oblivious to this and has already moved on to see if there has been any critical damage to the power systems of the artificial world. Deep underground, Salu Digby (Shrinking Violet) tells Brainy and Danielle that some of the staff here managed to escape, but the quake damage means that there’s no way for the emergency engineers to reach them.

They will have to wait until Jed is available to phase them out. She has delivered supplies to the staff there, and they have managed to begin shutting down the large, red glowing, reactors behind her. Emergency power systems will keep the essentials operating, until the world can be stabilised.

Surrounded by yellow uniformed engineers, Salu is brief and matter of fact. She has small holos of the field team around her as she updates Brainy. As a second tremor is felt around her, she checks in with the last member of the team, to see if he’s closer to reaching one of the main tech spires.

A young man vaults a fallen wall, coming to a tired stop with his back resting against the almost levelled structure. Gahiji (Mwindaji) is wearing a toughened, gloved uniform reinforced at the elbows and knees. It has a battered look, with a few deep scores running across it. His upper arm has a medipatch on it. The only non-practical items he wears, are two golden bands in his right ear.

He tells Salu that he still can’t pick up any signals from the spire. Danielle concurs that she is also unable to do so. Further, it’s just one of several systems, including the three Weber satellites that are blacked out from her, and therefore everyone else’s, scanning.

Gahiji tells them he’ll be in touch if he finds anything. As he’s about to sign off, a figure lurches, moaning, from a doorway in some of the rubble. The woman is wearing the expensive clothing of a dignitary. Gahiji adjusts the snub nosed rifle on his shoulder, and reaches for his medi-pack. As he moves it from its place beside his side arm (Note: Salu also carries a side arm), he wonders why this wealthily dressed woman was not evacuated.

He reaches to give aid to the woman, only to duck back instinctively as metallic claws sweep past his throat. The woman raises her head and her blood spattered face has metallic protrusions down one side. Clearly in pain, she advances on the Legionnaire, her nails glinting in the emergency lightning. He retreats even as there are more disturbances in the shadows around him.

The closest support, Salu leaves a tracer in the room, shrinks and flies through the blocked doorway of the central reactor facility. With Brek to remain and coordinate a further evacuation of relief agencies from the area, Violet directs the others to converge on Mwindaji’s signal, with Tel to provide aerial support. It’s clear that, when the team are in the field, she’s in command.

As Gahiji reaches for his rifle, the dignitary advances more confidently, a lopsided expression both pained and pleased to see a Legionnaire. Several administrators and technicians enter from openings, or from around the corners of previously innocuous looking buildings. None are in control of themselves and all have various self-inflicted injuries from metallic parts. As he looks for escape routes, Brainy asks if he could immobilise one of them for study. Gahiji is reluctant to use his weapon, even a non-lethal charge, and fends off the first blows. As he retreats further, Salu reminds the new Legionnaire of his flight ring. As grasping hands seek to stop him, Mwindaji flies beyond their reach and towards a shadowed spire beyond the nearby ruins. Salu tells him that she will meet him there.

(Note: The spire looks a little like the tuning fork from Crisis. It’s a bit Kirbyised)

Arriving at a UP relief station, Brek questions the new recruit’s inexperience to Brainy and Violet on a private channel. Salu defends him, reminding them that they know how his powers work best on the ground. Brek retorts that his reliance on them, and lack of training, may get him killed.

Continued...

...Issue 1 continued...

The residents of Webers left behind after Gahiji’s departure raise their eyes passively to the skies as another quake hits the area, scattering them and bringing down more structures. In the distance the flying silhouettes of Tel and Jed can be seen approaching.

In central control Danielle alerts them to the fact that the dead zone around the spire has just expanded. It could be in response to the quake, the discovery of what’s happened to the people or to Mwindaji’s approaching the spire. But something has triggered it. A display shows a large blackout zone around where the spire should be.

A relief team, near where Gahiji encountered the Altered, hear the orders to retreat, but they are attacked by more of the transforming people. Tel and Jed arrive to subdue them. Tel uses his gravity powers to make them either lightweight or to create a barrier from the debris. Jed is a little less subtle using his increased density to knock them out, while his toughened skin protects him from injury.

As the Altered scrabble in the ruins, the pair see them actively thrusting metal into themselves, their limbs changing as they do so. They aren’t undead, like the minions of Mordru, but what is causing them to act this way while others are unaffected is unknown. There are a number of broken blue probe droids lying around, but these don’t seem to be behaving in the same way. An analytical person, well suited to his time in the Science Police, Tel does see a pattern emerging from the alterations. Jed tells Brainy that they have reached Gahiji’s last position.

Salu’s signal has already been lost in the darkened zone, as Brainiac looks closely at the images Jed and Tel relay back. He too sees some regularity to the changes the people of Webers world are undergoing.

Tel and Jed finish flying the rescue workers to safety as further crowds of the altered centre on their position. Jed tells Brainy that they are about to head towards the spire. Of the pair, it’s Jed who takes more of a lead, more used to working in a Legion organisation.

A blast of energy fire singes Power Boy, his toughened skin preventing serious damage. Altered limbs have taken on new capabilities, and Tel thinks that the people are transforming themselves into Proto-Tharoks.

Further away, Brek is concerned about the vulnerability of the Rescue Centre, in the face of what the others have discovered. He creates street wide walls of ice to protect it and flies up to help his teammates.


Salu disrupts the bioorganic circuitry of altered worker’s arm, preventing it firing, before flying up to knock him unconscious. Staying in miniature form, she dispatches a second, and evades a criss-cross of energy blasts as she flies towards an opening in the side of the communications spire. There, she meets a tired and bruised Gahiji alert against the frame of the portal. Beneath him are the unconscious forms of two who were guarding the opening. He’s holding his rife, and it looks as though he’s had to use it.

She expresses some mock surprise at him waiting for her. He rises to the bait for a moment, before respect for Salu’s experience takes over. He’s not used to working in a team, but he’s not stupid, and has had to learn from a few recent mistakes. He’s not just a guide now, but part of a team.

He tells her that the people are becoming more robotic the closer they are to the tower. Salu looks at the two, still living, forms hit by Gahiji’s disrupter blasts. She notices that they are different from the others. These have metallic parts across their bodies, and no longer on only half as Tharok would have had.

Her portable devices aren’t working without a signal, and she can’t raise the rest of the team. So Salu’s plan is to use Gahiji’s tracking abilities on the comms circuits, to trace their source. She invites the newer recruit to go into the spire first, with a firm smile. She’s testing the rookie Legionnaire.

In response to Gravity Kid’s conjecture concerning Tharok, Brek protests that he ended that threat by encasing him in absolute cold. Brainy recalls telling Mon El and Ultra Boy that the people who stole the Tharok chip, will have duplicated it, and sent it off in a fleet of drones (see v7 #8). He fears that this action may have created the capability for Tharoks to appear at any time.

Brainy asks Danielle to dive into the systems to see if she can find any trace of Tharok.
If he’s there, he will be affecting them in the same way he manipulated the whole Quark Network that brought the United Planets to the brink of destruction.

Querl relives his sense of guilt at Tharok’s origins and the damage caused by his Fatal Five towards the end of v7. The insanely regal Emerald Empress and the Persuader, a super human mercenary with a physics defying atomic axe. Behind them loom the forms of the Promethean Giant and Validus. The former, an ancient being from a galaxy of giants, the latter a colossal, twisted mockery. Both used by the New God Darkseid, the worst threat the 30th century faced.

Danielle’s virtual is reluctant to dive too deeply into Webers World. She worries that if Tharok is present, that he would be able to affect her, perhaps even her body back on Earth. She doesn’t tell Brainiac that her bigger fear is that he could make her lose control of what’s already inside her.

But, knowing that she has the best chance to determine the source of the problem, she begins her dive into the glittering information nexus of Webers world. As she effortlessly breaks the first security barriers, the quakes increase in frequency in the material world.

Brainy decides that the rest of the Legion should be brought to Weber’s to deal with the threat. As he pulls up their holos to get their help, the main display in the control centre changes.

It switches to show something spherical approaching the Yod system, where Colu is located. It then splits to show the Pheobian system that is home to Naltor and the Sol system of Earth.

Viewing one of the satellites, Brainiac 5 realises that the three mobile satellites of Webers World are on a collision course with key planets of the UP. On their surfaces, modifications are being conducted by workers who have been altered for deep space.

Querl alerts both the rest of the Legion and the UP Council. We see holos of Harmonia Li (Harmonia) and Reep Daggle (Chameleon Boy) appear. The Legion will not be brought to Webers. It will have to deal with a new threat.

A powerful drive activates on one of the satellites, sending the deep space workers spinning to their deaths in the cold of space. It warps from view and Brainy realises that the threat is responding to their actions on Webers. It is monitoring their every move.

Tel’s gravity powers are only partially successful in deflecting the sudden increase of energy blasts targeting the Legionnaires, and he is forced back. In trying to reach the spire they have faced more of the people able to fire energy bursts, and have been forced from the skies. The residents’ alterations are advancing rapidly.

He spins at a noise behind him. A skull faced robot form stands behind him. It wears the ragged clothing of one of the engineers helping Shrinking Violet. In its arms, it clutches a small device. Its red glow matches the one seen earlier from the reactor.

The explosion creates a pillar of flame, rising above the futuristic ruin of Webers World.

Roll Call

An introduction to some of the team's new members...




And in case the images don't load:-

Gravity Kid: Tel Vole from Earth. Abilities: Change personal or nearby gravity.

Power Boy: Jedidiah Rikane from Earth. Abilities: Personal Density Control.

Mwindaji: Gahiji from Kirinyaga. Abilities: Long Range Tracking.

Computo: Danielle Foccart from Earth. Abilities: Computer Manipulation.

This is great Thoth, particularly pleased to see Jed, Tel and Gahaji straight off the bat getting stuck in. Nice recap too btw, it's nice to remember what had gone before. The Proto- Tharroks are pretty scary already, with the team so fractured it'll be interesting to see how they deal with this threat.

Looking forward to more, more, more!

Thanks very much for reading Harbinger.

I had planned to just recap the last arc, but it had been so long since I had written my notes, I had to read the rest of it again. So, I thought I might as well share those too.

One of the goals in the first story is to establish at least some of what everyone brings to the team. From previous volumes, we get a lot of cameo appearances from Legionnaires basically filling the background. Just to remind us that they're still alive and that they're still part of the team.

That's not helped by some panel hogging in recent volumes by the likes of Earth Man, Harmonia and the previous new recruits. So two things I'd like to avoid.

Happy to see Tel, Jed, Gahaji and Danielle as part of the team. And good to see that the Legion won't have to be rebuilt from scratch, but that the team is still hanging in there.

Nice to see you continuing so well from the Retroboot. Curious to see where this goes...

Thanks for taking the time to read it Ibby.

On Rebuilding
Brainy revealed a master plan to get the UP back on its feet in #23. He needed Mon El to do some of it, and hadn't counted on Tasmia removing him back to Daxam. His reaction to the group's disbanding, indicated that he needed the Legion to keep functioning too.

He was exorcising a number of personal demons through that plan. So it simply had to keep going. Or rather, pick up as many of the pieces as quickly as possible before it all drifted away. That meant he had to compromise right from the start when it came to control of the group, as we'll see. A few of the others needed the group around for their own reasons too.

I'm glad you like the four new recruits. The more I went on, the more I felt they settled in. Tel was an SP officer, few would know the Legion handbooks more than Jed after the time he's waited for this. Gahiji has "years of experience" before the Legion Academy and Danielle was the co leader of the Legionnaires.

More new recruits in the next issue too!

Hey, Thoth,

A very atmospheric, ominous start, which I think shows a lot of promise. I agree with Harbi that the Proto-Tharoks are genuinely scary.

I'll be especially interested to see in future posts of yours how the new Legion attempts to circumvent the U.P. That's something I haven't quite figured out yet how to deal with in my own Retroboot fics.

Thanks Fanfic Lady.

I'm glad you liked the Proto-Tharoks, as they're in the first 4 issues. Well, hopefully, they'll develop across them.

I'm hoping the UP/Legion tension will develop as a subplot while other stories take place in the foreground.

A basic point would be that the UP has just disbanded the team containing the genius who has managed to provide them with umpteen technologies *after* Tharok, to help get the UP and running (as per #23.)

Like living in a country that goes all Brexit without a clue as to what that entails

So the UP have got rid of something that could be a thorn in its side, but it may struggle to keep things going without it.

I appreciate the elaboration, Thoth. It makes sense to me.

Or at least as much sense as post-20th Century politics can make.

Thanks for asking M'Lady. It's nice to be able to expand on it. I say "expand" but "rabbit on" would do just as well.

I'm really looking forward to finding out all sorts of things from your thread.

I've just finished linking up #2 and there are two hints at what the UP had hoped to use in place of the Legion there. Posting tomorrow.

Looking very much forward to it, Thoth!!

Hmmm...might the government meta-drones be called...



...by any chance?

Nopes, but that's a name that will be popping up just after #50.

v7.5 Issue 2 “Breath”

Energy and debris rage around Tel Vole as he’s caught attempting to fly beyond the blast radius of the explosion. His final thought is of disappointment that he should have done better.

It takes him a moment to realise that he can’t feel the heat around him. Instead, he feels the strong right arm of his partner Jed Rikane flying them both intangibly away from the inferno. Once safe, Jed holds a stricken Tel tightly, comforting him, and telling him that he can repay Jed in the future.

Firestorms rage across that sector of Webers World, as Jed reports their status to Brainy and the virtual Danielle.

Omnipaedia: Webers World: Protestations concerning the imposing colonial nature of the world prompted the United Planets to develop three smaller, more diplomatic satellites. Their increased mobility has been successful in dealing with several crises in fringe territories. Select Re System Revolt for more data.

Brainy views a replay of the explosion, the bustling Brande Industries offices, where personnel assist with the general evacuation of Webers World.It reminds him of a similar detonation on Webers involving Laurel Gand.

Viewing both, he considers and dismisses the involvement of the Khunds. They had been behind the previous blast, in an attempt to frame the Legion and destabilise the United Planets. A small group shot of the “Legion on the Run” team (v4 #54) appears when Brainy is reviewing the old footage.

While growing more diverse in their approach, the Khunds simply wouldn’t have the technological competence to alter the population in the way they were seeing. Even if they had managed to get their hands on more ancient arms caches. The holo in front of Querl shows the Red Terror from a previous Khund invasion (v4 #15) and its impact on Orando and its Queen, Projectra.

Those around him, including the virtual representation of Danielle Foccart, know of Querl & Laurel’s history. They note Brainy’s cold approach to what happened to her here. Laurel was killed by that bomb. It’s common belief that Brainy shuts down his inner feelings. But in a mind of parallel processing, it simply loses its place to what he deems to be more useful thought streams. But nothing is not thought.

Coming to no conclusion, Brainy shuts down the extraneous holos. He focuses on a single view of an alarmed UP council on Earth.

The Council are angry that they may lose Webers World, despite the predictions that this could happen from their own relief engineers. The damage inflicted by the Emerald Empress & Tharok sent massive chunks of the technologically based world hurtling into the void.

With the Council is the Legionnaire Jacques Foccart (Invisible Kid). Behind him, in a comfortable seated area, is the human form of his sister Danielle. She sits calmly, her eyes closed as she focuses her mind through her virtual on Webers World.


Other feeds from across the patchy communications network of the UP, update the Council:-

>Gil’Dishpan declare renewed sovereignty over Hykraius<

>UP warns against pilgrimages from UP space, and protection, in light of continued technological storms. Two cruisers, en route to Antares, have been reported missing.<

Querl tells them that the technology on Weber’s World is developing, changing for unknown purposes.

Holo feeds show Brek Bannin surprised by one of the Altered leaping from a building towards him. It bleeds from the wounds on its face, where metal has been rammed in. Its legs are a fleshy waste, with stronger metallic parts glinting beneath. Shocked, he reacts only at the last moment, pushing it away with a ram of ice generated from his fingers.

Indicating the Bannin footage, Brainy suggest to the Council that it is no longer safe for relief or construction crews to remain. Jacques suggests a temporary withdrawal until the threat has been assessed further. Reluctantly, the Council agree.

What was capable of hiding parts of the Webers World systems from them, Brainy continues, was also responsible for the control and obfuscation of the three satellites that now present an imminent threat to three of the UP’s key worlds.

Inserts show minimally lighted satellites, approaching the targets of Naltor, Earth & Colu.

Providing the technical details from her virtual, rather than in the council chamber, Danielle tells those present that their foe was able to take advantage of the UP’s fractured deep space senor arrays which were damaged following Tharok’s attacks.

All three satellites have modified their drives, allowing them to warp towards their destinations. This has ended any chance they had to prevent them reaching their target systems. Since that technology is only known to a handful within the United Planets (such as Professor Sayar from Action 387), it makes the threat more severe.

Each is of sufficient size to level a city and cause global disruption. Whatever is behind them has modified them in the same way that the spire and many people have been changed. There is also a suggestion that power is being diverted to internal activity on each. They are all manned, and it would seem likely that the crews will have been modified too.

In light of similar alterations on Weber’s World, Brainy determines that simple collision and/ or detonation is not what is planned.

Desperate to make a point, even in the face of catastrophe, Councillor Fujardo demands to know if the Legion’s actions have triggered the satellites. After all, the Legion had access to that technology. Jacques tells those present that to have reached so close to their target systems, before warping, the satellites would have been directed well before the Legion set foot on Webers World. Not a trace of guilt crosses Brainiac 5’s face.

Fujardo then comes close to blaming the explosion, and the events leading to it on Brainiac’s meddling. He demands that the Legion cease their activities and depart the artificial world with the rest of the crews. Danielle tells him that the Legion will do exactly that once everyone has been safely removed and their missing two colleagues have been located.

An alert tells all present on Webers that it is considered unsafe to continue operations there. Unfortunately, not everyone can hear it, especially those in the dark zone, around an altered transmission tower. In the communications spire, Gahiji and Salu work their way cautiously along the changed corridors.

With their Earth Emergency Team caught half way between Earth and Webers World, the council are frustrated at being reliant on a Legion that they disbanded. On a private channel, Fujardo, key councillors and an Interstellar Intelligence Corps representative, Holden, consider the recall of another resource. The granite faced Holden tells them that they are still in the fringe systems on Horus VI.

There’s no time for other options, the Councillor from Xanthus tells his peers. With their Protectors programme still in its infancy, the delegate from Xanthu feels they have no choice but to allow the Legion to assist. The councillors grudgingly accept, bowing to their key members and influenced by Jacques, who used to be one of their own.

The worried voice of Jed Rikane interrupts proceedings. As they approach the spire, they have been encountering increasingly robotic looking Altered. It’s not only the forms that are changing Jed tells them, it’s their function. Some look as though they have developing flight capabilities. Others, are tapping into power systems.

As the technological implications become apparent, the representative from Colu states that they will protect themselves from the threat. He deems his communication channel to be no longer secure and terminates it abruptly.

As Brainy ponders the meaning of his home planet’s actions, a flurry of confused solutions are presented around the chamber on Earth. There’s fear that Webers World is just part of something far worse. As they struggle to raise their own defences, Jacques is able to negotiate a compromised solution. The UP forces will lead on Earth, with Legion representatives in support. Meanwhile the Legion’s leader has already diverted her team to Naltor, where they can provide assistance. With High Seer Beren’s approval, naturally.

Omnipaedia: Naltor- While the precognitive powers of the Naltorians are prohibited from use in financial markets, even the possibility such powers exist has resulted in a conglomeration of wealth in the planet.

The current leader of the Legion, Harmonia Li, takes her small team of Bina Nawoti (Otaki), Hadru Jamik (Chemical Kid) and Ayla Ranzz (Lightning Lass) across the platform of a landing bay to meet their host, Nura Nal (Dream Girl) and her aide.

As Nura dispenses with custom to give Ayla a welcoming hug, Hadru is pressing a point to Harmonia. He feels that he should stay in orbit and destabilise the satellite’s systems with his catalytic powers. He argues that it would eliminate whatever plans it had. Nura tells him it would then leave the satellite to plunge straight into the planet, killing everything in the capital and beyond, which keeps him quiet. Nura knowingly assures the party that the satellite will land. Harmonia looks to the clear, cold skies, as Nura tells her there will be a storm soon enough.

Initially wide eyed and trying to soak in every detail of the planet, Bina looks positively unwell as they move through the capital’s plazas. She stumbles and bends over, trying not to be ill. Nura motions for her aide Ral, to assist her as the others move on. Li surmises that Bina just feels a little overwhelmed at being in civilisation after the flight. She presumes it’s an effect of Bina’s empathic powers.

Yes, the ship will land, repeats Nura looking into the middle distance. It’s how they deal with it from there that will be the problem.

...continued...

...continued...

Earth: Lake Tana, Ethiopia

A young, ponytailed, woman looks up at the twilit sky. She stands near a basic looking camp, carrying a duffle bag on one shoulder. She looks at the glimmer of small meteors burning up in the atmosphere. It’s said that each glow is the remnant of magic from the pre-cataclysm world, now released into the new. The woman knows all about lost worlds. She receives incoming comms from Reep Daggle (Chameleon Boy) that pick up is on the way. She tells him that she could have made her own way to the probable landing site of the threat.

But Reep’s private jump shuttle is already hovering into view above her. With one last look at the camp, Jenni Ognats (XS) smiles and is helped aboard the shuttle by Marya Pai (Dragonwing). As the craft flies past a nearby ravine, and into the evening, the outline of the Postboot Legion can be seen against the darkening sky.

On Webers World, Gahiji and Salu stand inside the reinforced door of the transmitter station in the spire. Mwindaji’s tracking powers have managed to swiftly locate it. Having immobilised several Altered on the way, the actual transmitter control room looks strangely quiet.

There is only one large individual, dominating the centre of the room. It has been waiting for them, and they can see themselves in monitors on nearby control banks. Like those outside, it too is robotic. But it is of a larger, yet more streamlined, design. A finished product, rather than the agonised parodies they have encountered.

It tells them it was once the chief engineer here. Now it has been changed to serve a higher purpose. The only thing that indicates it is not a robot, is the brain inside its metallic head casing. It looks very much like the pre-crisis robotic form of Brainiac. It tells them they will die before damaging the tower. Its eyes flash once as it attacks, and the lights go out.

In the sudden darkness, Salu orders Gahiji to hold it off for a few moments. He fires his rifle, each electrical burst pausing the creature, as it seemingly tests the extent of its new form. The young tracker’s eyes are completely black.

Salu activates a small globular drone, form her utility belt that sends light into the chamber’s shadowy depths. Gahiji adjusts his vision to prevent an overload rendering him as helpless as his colleague was moments before. Cursing the darkness that delayed her, and already shrinking, Violet avoids the crashing fist of the Engineer as it reaches her position.

It activates a force field, but is momentarily distracted by Gahiji firing at its eyes. A nearly singed Salu shrinks past the field, and enters its body. She uses her miniaturised sidearm to disrupt its core organs, organic in shape, but entirely robotic. Gahiji has to move acrobatically across the room, as the chief engineer fires panicked blasts wildly from its hands, before shutting down.

Emerging from the deactivated form, Salu notes that there was nothing human left inside it. Even the brain was synthetic. A shot from her side arm shuts down the controls that had initiated the system blackouts around the spire. She is able to update Brainiac 5 and Computo and orders the rest of the team to her position.

Jed has been phasing through the spire while Tel has tried to find an entrance, careful not to use his powers to cause any damage to the spire.

Among the sparkling nodes of the Webers World datanet, a virtual Danielle Foccart looks at the dark sphere surrounding the communications spire. The rest of the field team’s signals had been lost to her as they approached the spire. She can’t detect anything resembling Tharok, either in technology or presence.

The obfuscation vanishes as Salu destroys the controls but Computo witnesses a final command pulse being sent out across the network of other towers on the world. The glow from this final pulse fades, and Danielle is able to access the plans for the satellites. She confirms to the UP Council, and the Brande Industries staff that they are not going to collide with their target worlds. They are part of a wider invasion force. As her virtual figure focuses on talking to her colleagues, Danielle does not notice as darkness begins to spread out from the datascape below her.

Bristling with activity, the Altered workers complete landing apparatus on the surface of a satellite. Their faces have been transformed, enabling them to breath and see and little else. Their limbs have been adapted for their work, and anything unnecessary has been left to the ravages of their void.

As they cross the boundary of the Yod system, the vacuum around the satellite ripples. The distortion expands and then engulf the globe, entirely disassembling it. Space returns to normal, as if the threat had never existed.

The inhabitants of Naltor and Earth have visual contact with the satellites as they complete their warp within their systems. The threat to Naltor will arrive first.

Interfaced with the Weber’s systems, something inside her alerts Danielle to the darkening virtual world below her. A strong glow can now be seen from the network of communication towers. The systems are changing once again. She alerts Salu to the danger.

Amid the rumbling of fresh quakes, Violet confirms that she’s done everything she can from where she is. Behind her, Gahiji crouches near the former chief engineer. He takes his hand from his glove and places it on the robotic skull. He is shocked as his psychometry based powers detect a familiar reading. This is something he’s been near before. He recalls moving trophies from beneath the old Metropolis base to the Outpost. This is something from the Legion’s past. The blocking signals were transmitting from where they are, but whatever was controlling the transmitter originates …

Elsewhere in the spire, a well-proportioned, white-cloaked figure views key locations of Naltor, Colu, Earth & Webers World. It is also viewing the Brande Industries suite, where Brainiac and Danielle confer with the council. As no holo channels have been seen from him in those locations, it seems he is capable of viewing almost anything form this command centre.

The Engineer was as effective as your last robotic partner, he tells a slim, female figure, who rests easily nearby. She’s dressed for a much warmer climate, in little more than an elaborate bikini and jewellery, but seems comfortable in the cold, metallic surroundings.

He tells his underling that she will have to delay the arriving Legionnaires until the pulse completes the transformation of the world’s systems. Only then will the United Planets and Brande’s Legion act on the threat he presents to them.

Languorously leaving into a connecting chamber, the lady is met by the figures of two Legionnaires. Gahiji has traced his prey, far faster than his foes could have anticipated. Salu stands behind him, almost eagerly anticipating the confrontation. Instead, their foe turns the ceiling above the doorway to liquid, as the two Legionnaires move forward. She retreats a few steps, as the two heroes quickly change their plans to deal with the effects of her powers.

Back in the command centre, her employer chooses another course of diversion.

The main screen in the Brande Industries suites changes from a schematic of the pulse affecting the world to a single word.

“Son”

Roll Call

New members introduced this issue...




XS: Jenni Ognats from Aarok. Abilities: Super Speed

Otaki: Bina Nawoti from Earth. Abilities: Mindsense.

Uh-oh. "Son"... And I'm guessing that heralds the return of the lovely and enchanting Quicksand?

It's great to see Brainy working with people instead of acting like the dictatorial jerk as he has sometimes been portrayed.

You really capture the personalities in very few words - Tel's disappointment with not doing better, Nura's protocol-breaking hug, etc.

Good to see some minor and forgotten characters, like M'windaji, XS and Otaki (I don't even remember Otaki).

So Imra, Garth and Rokk can guzzle their drinks on Winath and laugh at Brainy, while Brainy's team kicks ass. Yeah!

Thanks for reading Cramer!



It is the delectable Quicksand. The chief engineer is a reprise of the giant robot that thumped Superboy around in an earlier issue that Quicksand was in too.



Thanks. Without dialoguing it, getting some characterisation through other channels is something I’m trying to do. But please let me know if it’s not coming across. Please bear in mind that if a character comes across like a plank of wood, it may just be the return of Thom Kallor, who’s like that.



Otaki and M’winadji were both in the rescue of Brainy and Dreamy in the Dominator story in v7. They were Levitz’s reaction to the less mature new members like Dragonwing, Glorith and Chemical Kid, oh and Comet Queen of course

XS was popular enough to get punted out of the postboot, but then Levitz chose not to use her, leaving her very much in the background.

All three get their stories at some point, so they’ll get to develop more as we go. Otaki, for example, is struggling not to throw up when we first meet her. There’s a reason for that, and it can only get better from there. Well, I say “better”…



He’s probably still a *little* like that. He has questions that are occupying him, and he’s happier as a result. There are others such as Jacques, Harmonia and Danielle around him, who are more tactful. That’s all fine when they agree, of course. Besides, what we’re seeing here is the team responding to a crisis. Who knows what was going on just before it started.

We'll get to drop in on Rokk, Garth and Imra as we go too.

I'm really enjoying this, Thoth.

There's so much I want to say that I'm going to comment on the two portions of the second issue separately.

- First off, nice economical job of reminding readers that Jed & Tel are loving, affectionate partners.

- Secondly, I'm very impressed by the following original notion of yours:



It makes perfect sense to have the three satellites, yet the fact that they turn out to be a collective double-edged sword also makes perfect sense...unfortunately. Technology will always be on the knife-edge of affecting sentient life either for better or for worse.

- Now, the sequence quoted below, I have to admit that it left me confused. Is Brainy viewing an alternate timeline where the events of 5YL and beyond did occur?? And, of course, it's entirely possible I'm not remembering something from the previous installment.



- I like the way you seed subplots without calling more attention to them than they require at this moment:



- I particularly liked the scene I quote below, finding it an effective way of showing both the hopeless self-interest of politicians, and the self-preserving callousness of an intellect like Brainy's:



- Can't wait to learn more about the Protectors program, and I think the Coluan's actions are as keeping with their natures as Brainy's non-action above.

- I found this little character moment to be a nice touch:



- And, finally, I'm worried about Bina, and hope the machines haven't gotten to her as well.



Comments on the second half of issue 2 coming later.

They provide a nice bit of loving relationship stability to the team.



I was half expecting someone to be a little critical of these, since I just made them up. So I made sure to give them a bit more of a back story and, should I do the Issue 0 of this run, you’ll see them before Stargrave got his mitts on them. Thank you. That double edge of technology was just what I was going for.



I might have over egged this one. So, here’s the planning and you can let me know. I put together rough plots for the issues. From a few notes they become (sometimes several) paragraphs with scene descriptions. That was all done over 3 years ago. When putting them on here, I have to link them all up.

When I was doing that, I noticed the parallel between the Webers explosion here, and the one from the late 5YG run. Now, I *want* Brainy to remember Laurel Gand. I just didn’t think I’d be mentioning it for quite a while. I had another scene in mind that you'll see in #7 I think. With this explosive connection in mind, it seemed like a good idea to use the scene to set that up in Brainy’s memory.

I was quite happy with that. Where I might have over egged it was in adding the Legion on the run holo. I did that just before posting, just as a throw away. It wasn’t a popular part of the book, and I could just have easily not bothered. Actually, I added in the Orando v4 connection too, just at the end.

This isn’t a v4 homage, I should say. If anything, it’s just establishing the behaviours we’ve seen form everyone before, as a starting point to move off into new territory.

Back to your question. Brainy’s memory here did just as intended, in that it’s supposed to raise questions. So big thanks for posting about it.

Brainy's memory of Laurel is part of the timeline, and it doesn’t (at least that I’m aware of) get in the way of what we saw in the actual pages of v6 & v7. I should also say that I’m not cherry picking favourite bits from the past either. There is an explanation for it all.



Thanks. I could have spent a lot more time on that, but I’ll just put up a few at a time. It’s a way of showing that there’s always much more going on in the United Planets, than just the Legion. Especially at such a tough moment.



Thanks. You’ve put that better than anything I had written down I hope to also show just what makes both men think they’re right too.


The Protectors, or at least the name, was used back in Action 382. Thanks for the Coluan compliment. Hopefully, I’ll keep getting it right as they appear again.



I enjoy putting those little bit in. They aren’t in the original paragraphs, but they do seem to change the plans I have ahead. Characters getting a life of their own.


Our resident empath definitely has a tough mission... But is it the machines?

v7.5 Issue 3 “Falling Star”

Omnipaedia: Naltor- An escalation in geological disturbances across the planet was countered by the development of gyrostabilisers. Subsequent data leaks fuelled speculation that the device designs were at an advanced stage well before the first warning signs occurred.

Fires burning across its blackened surface, the Webers World satellite’s charred landing apparatus unfurls against the bright, cloudless blue skies of Naltor.

Watching from a safe distance, The Legion, Dream Girl and an elite squad of the Naltorian guard stand prepared. Harmonia notes on how fortunate it was that the ship landed in an open plateau, enclosed on three sides by the marble effect buildings of the capital. Nura assures her, with a teasing smile, that perhaps fortune played no part in the city planning.

As it splinters the hard ground of the large slabs, scores of portals open from the craft’s smoking surface. The satellite’s modified crew begin sprawling out, accompanied by Brainiac-like robotic creations.

As a strong, cool breeze sweeps the area, Harmonia tells Hadru that now the craft has landed he should use his powers to inhibit their progress. Pushing an embarrassed memory of his original plan that would have destroyed the city from his mind, he focuses behind his shades. Flares of light form from his hands and a number of the Altered stumble and fall. Hadru’s powers seem to have an effect, interrupting their biotechnological power supplies. Using them on such large numbers pushes against Chemical Kid’s limits. As the strain shows on his face, Hadru knows that this would not be so difficult if Element Lad were there to guide him.

Still nauseous for reasons she doesn’t understand, Otaki has more limited success. Influencing the emotions of the non-human forms is beyond her capabilities. But some of the crew still have the last remaining vestiges of humanity. She feeds their confusion and fear, causing some to turn on their fellows and others to fall fighting their changing nature. By connecting with their human aspects, Bina realises that she is fuelling their horror and suffering. She is forced to break off contact, reeling back behind the Naltorian defensive lines. As she withdraws, the final strands of human life are consumed, leaving only Altered constructs for Stargrave’s plans.

Harmonia watches dozens of Altered sweep across the contained open space, despite the efforts of the two youngest Legionnaires on her field team. She chooses to engage the enemy more directly from above. She uses her control of the elements to create huge air currents to stall the attacking force, followed by more targeted flame based attacks on the robots among them. Pitons appear form the feet of some of the Altered, driving themselves into the ground, only to rise and push forward against the gales. Traces of redundant flesh can be seen falling away during such changes.

Nura is wearing something a bit more appropriate for combat than her old bathing suit. She’s made very sure it still shows off her figure. She protects Bina and her soldiers, as some of the Altered break through. From her training with the formerly deceased Val Armorr, she has developed an edge to her precognitive skills. It has been a long time since she could only foresee the future as she slumbered or had a sudden vision.

Dream Girl moves confidently into melee range, evading laser, claw and weapon. Her combat precognition enables her to predict the moves of her enemies faster than even their now processor based minds can compute. Knowing their every move, she deactivates their power packs by hand where she can, or by using a crackling bronze hilted dagger, where she cannot. (Note: A bronze age look is present in many of the Naltorian weapons.)

Nura is assisted by some of Naltor’s elite soldiers. As some of the defenders fall, metallic protrusions infect them, making them look to incorporate anything metal into their own bodies, spreading the technological plague. Nura realises that the threat must be eliminated rapidly before it breaks from their cordon. Realising that there are too many foes for her powers to contend with, Nura begins to fall back, swearing an oath to Cassandra as she does so.

High above the battle, Ayla is told by Nura that she is the one who has been foreseen saving Naltor. Seeing the Altered gather for a final push through to the city, and the world beyond, the Winathian’s mind is clear. Dark clouds gather around her as Harmonia uses her atmospheric control to assist Ayla’s powers. Elemental fires sweep up hot air to the skies to meet the unnaturally cold Naltorian sky. A giant electrical storm, controlled by Lightning Lass is unleashed from the heavens. Bolts surge around, and through each of Stargrave’s minions, ending the threat in sudden and devastating fashion.

Lights around the conflict zone go out to be replaced by an emergency power system. A system that is not there by chance, to aid the Legionnaires in ensuring that there are no active foes remaining. Ayla looks at the results of her work with some surprise. She has known that she is now considered to be one of the team’s powerhouses for some time. But she has rarely felt so connected to her abilities. Almost not since Orando and Korbal before that. Harmonia reminds her of the strength in teamwork, and the bond of a shared purpose.

Omnipaedia: Webers World: Many consider the career opportunities at the hub of the United Planets to be balanced by the high insurance premiums staff on Webers World have to pay, following attacks by the Khunds and mind controlled Daxamites. Select Pam’s Policies for more data.

In the Brande Industries office, Brainiac 5 refutes the single word that lingers on the central display in the room. “Son”. Beside Querl is a distracted Danielle Foccart, travelling in the systems of the artificial world. Brainy offers a single word in response: “Stargrave.” Although, he remains to be convinced that their foe is even Pulsar Stargrave and is completely dismissive of the idea that the villain is his father. He does make sure to warn the field team that it took Superboy and Wildfire punching Stargrave into Colu’s sun to end his previous threat.

Jed Rikane tells Brainy that his pep talk hasn’t exactly filled him with confidence as he phases through the levels of the altered communications spire to assist Salu and Gahiji. With the rest of his Legion team having to deal with attacks on Naltor and Earth, Brainy summons Ultra Boy from near Daxam in another view of the conversation from #1. Behind Jo, he sees Tasmia and the injured Lar Gand. The Daxamite would have been ideal for his plans for connecting the galaxy. But he knows better than to ask Shadow Lass for assistance, considering their parting back in Metropolis. “There was a reason we didn’t elect you, Brainy. And that was before this disaster.”

The air chills noticeably around Brek Bannin as he makes his way through the spire. His powers stray when he’s lost in thought. Exposed cables spark and sputter against the chill and moisture.

Brainy continues to tell the field team that Pulsar Stargrave pitted the Legion against the Time Trapper, solely in an attempt to test the worth of both parties in aiding him in a war to defeat Mordru. Despite Jed telling him that this information really isn’t helping them, Brainy also adds that the villain next attacked Colu directly after Brainiac 5 learned that the villain was really a time displaced Brainiac from the 20th century.

Querl wonders if the original Brainiac’s obsession with collecting miniature worlds has grown to include larger ones.

Brek tries to separate what he thinks of as the useful information provided by Brainy from the Coluan’s speculation. With Webers being so central to the UP, he knows that this is a great opportunity to show that the Legion is still a viable solution to protect their worlds. They must succeed, especially in such harsh times.

Bannin tries to focus on the mission at hand, but is ambushed from the shadows by a fast, orange humanoid that seeks to pin him to the ground. Nothing can break its grasp it declares in wide, eyed scream. Slumped against a wall, Brek struggles for purchase. The creature’s hands grab his throat, closing his air supply. Struggling to breathe and unable to break the thing’s super human grip, he brings his hands to either side of its head. Clutching his frozen skull, Holdur screams and falls backwards, only to be taken further away by ice slides, giving the Polar Boy some breathing space.

Clutching his throat where the creature had tried to throttle him, Brek tells it that it can’t hold what it can’t reach. He creates large ice manacles around Holdur’s wrists and secures them in a solid ice construction. His enemy is glassy eyed and his high pitched voice screams about protecting its master. An ice formed gag allows Brek to continue his search more quietly.

Continued...

...Continued

Near Stargrave’s command centre, Gahiji is washed backwards in a metallic wave. He tries to avoid as much of it as he can, using the mechanical clutter to climb onto the top of a console. The surface turns to gas beneath his hands, sending him back into the now deep, rushing liquid. He’s agile, but not superhumanly so. He struggles to the surface only to find it begin to solidify around him. With no purchase, Mwindaji is knocked unconscious against a wall, and begins to sink once more.

Suddenly, the metallic sea forms a stationary rain, and ascends to the ceiling in large droplets. Gravity Kid has arrived.

Tel Vole walks steadily towards Quicksand. He notices changes to the air around him, as it takes on a distinctive colour. A keen student of the SP files, Tel realises that his foe seems to have developed her powers to affect gases. He tells her that she should be aware of the Transsuits they all wear. Quicksand threatens to turn them into inertron shrouds. A calm gesture sends the gas towards a gravity source Tel sets up at the far end of the chamber.

Quicksand reaches for a knife she keeps in a scabbard on her belt, even as she begins to use her powers again. But she finds that she struggles to close the distance to the Legionnaire. Gravity increases around her. Cursing in desperation, she uses her powers to transmute the floor around her to liquid, and escapes by falling through it.

A spark falling through the bright nodes of Webers systems, Danielle delves further into its infonet. It has reconfigured itself, as the world has changed to its new master’s wishes. It changes still, as the resistance of the last United Planets defences begin to falter. She sees the network of spires, stretching across the globe, looking like a collection of tuning forks. Focused on the transformation, Danielle does not see the dark tendrils forming from the void around her until it is too late.

She panics as she realises that she is not alone in the system. Could it be the electronic form of Tharok, after all? He had fully cast off his flesh with his humanity. Who knows what he could be now? Danielle pulls away, looking to escape. But an inner voice calms her, focusing her back into solve the dilemma.

Programmes race from Computo’s virtual skin to combat the engulfing darkness. Stargrave is the foe here, not Tharok. The systems have more ancient traces than anything she has seen from Tharok’s devastation. More ancient than the voice inside her has known. She hasn’t felt the voice displaying caution before. The defences react to her as a living thing would, and she wonders if Stargrave is connected to the systems in the way she is.

She breaks past the barriers, scattering the darkness and revealing its secrets. As her virtual form races past, the shadows flail like branches preventing an escape from a tortured mental forest. One touches her neck, and there her golden form is blackened by a small fading dot.

Computo sees that the alterations they all witnessed to the spires and the satellites have only been part of a larger change. She views a schematic of the world. The spires she has just seen are connected to a central core. The changes to the world are of voyage, not conquest.

Instinctively, Danielle Foccart fights to take control of the remaining Webers World systems. She looks to form a final defensive barrier. A last show of resistance. Whatever the purpose of the power source, she must stop it from activating. Around her, the darkness responds. In Danielle’s mind the programmes take on the form of half formed insectoid nightmares, scuttling to protect their master. She reaches out her mind to combat them.

Tel pushes on, having checked quickly on the concussed tracker. Hearing voices in a further room, he arrives to hear Stargrave’s taunts at Shrinking Violet. The villain intends to not only infect Earth, but to complete the final transformation of Webers World into an extension of himself. It will blight the worlds it travels to, altering the populations to become his servants.

The quakes that brought the Legion to assist Brande personnel, have been part of his alteration of the very foundations of this world. A power source exits here, that is capable of warping space on a massive scale. Stargrave is proud to boast that it’s a feat worthy of the Coluans. The towers have been altered to create a protective field, facilitating the world’s travel to any target. Places beyond humanity’s comprehension. They now wait only for his command.

Vi hesitates only for a moment. She’s encountered, and has been defeated by Stargrave before. She knows that the villain is capable of bringing even Superboy to his knees. Of course, she’s changed a lot since those days. She flies at her target. As her determination pushes her power, a small emerald spark can be seen as she shrinks once more to microscopic size, traveling in the darkness between molecules.

Querl receives word of the success from Harmonia’s team, as he looks at Computo with some concern. Her virtual form flickers. Querl looks to the equipment around him. If Computo can’t halt the threat remotely, he will have to go into the field to face Stargrave again. The Naltorians have isolated the area, and will incinerate the remains to prevent any further signals from activating a further threat.

Councillor Fujardo is more concerned about Earth’s response to the satellite landing there. Behind him, Danielle’s physical body sweats profusely, tended to by her brother in the UP Council’s chamber. He wants to stop her, but knows her determination only too well.

Reep Daggle’s holo states that his team are in position. Without Coluan technology or the gift of Naltorian prediction, he observes wryly.

Brainiac 5 tells them they will have to succeed without them. Colu would not countenance the spread of robotic life forms in any UP system. The Coluans didn’t withdraw from the council meeting in order to prepare for the defence of just their own world, continues Querl to shocked holos. They did so to initiate their solution to the threat wherever it appears.

If any world becomes infected, Colu will sterilise it.

J'ADORE!!

Thanks for bringing Jenni back. I'm especially glad you did, because I decided recently that she won't be appearing in my Retroboot fics (E-7.5), since the 7WoW XS is closely tied to the Legion of another world, the Legion of Titans (E-7.2), which I probably will only do vignettes for, at least in the foreseeable future.





Just gets creepier and creepier.

In a good way.

Nice, unshowy nod to Pre-Crisis continuity, too.



Hmmm...very reminiscent of Alan Moore's new origin for Swamp Thing.

It goes without saying that that's a good thing.



I'm especially intrigued, if a bit fearful, to see where this goes, as I am of the opinion that the end of LSH v.7 #23 should have been the last time we ever saw Nura or Naltor.

But variety makes the world go round, and I have full confidence in you that no matter where it goes, I will definitely be entertained.





Stargrave!!

Wow, you certainly don't back away from a creative challenge.

Can't wait to see what his origin turns out to be, though with Quicksand's presence and that "Son" bit, it appears you're going all the way back to his first appearance.

My origin for him was that he was a possible future version of Querl himself.

As I said before, I look forward to reading your take on from whence he came. Compare & contrast.

Good stuff, Thoth. We're already at the halfway point and the tension is still nice and thick. Awaiting the second half with great anticipation.

Got it now. Thanks for clearing that up.

I've actually never read Legion on the Run, even though I've gained a great deal of respect for Tom McCraw in recent years, for coming up with the Cos-as-Time-Trapper concept. And as for illuminating unpopular eras of superhero teams that've been around for decades, I actually like that a lot, and it's something I like to do. Sometimes one turns up gold nuggets in the most unexpected comic books.



Yay! Glad to hear that, because Colu is one of my favorite worlds in the Legion mythos.

As for the Protectors, thanks for mentioning that they'd been in the "official" Legion continuity. I rarely re-read the Action installments, so I remember very little about them.



Can't wait to find out. As with the Naltor thing I mentioned in my previous post in this thread, I'm both excited and nervous, but I'm certain I will be entertained by whatever comes next.

EDIT: Ah, I had forgotten you've already posted issue #3 in its entirety.

Will save that one for savoring this coming weekend.

You're welcome Mr Levitz did go to the trouble of giving us a back up story to at least acknowledge her, while firmly showing he had no intention of using her. I had read that before I had read the Superboy Prime Lo5Ws thingy. I might not have really noticed she was available to use otherwise.



Thanks on the pre crisis Brainiac. I had wondered if people would remember the visual, and I was going to put up piccies of characters. Actually, I've forgotten to put in proper roll calls.

I felt that bringing back a green humanoid Brianiac, in the Byrne reboot era, was a step back, as I'd seen glimpses of the pre crisis creepy robotic version. That was back before I knew about the character's history. But I still prefer that robotic look.




I hadn't thought of that. But happy to be in the same sentence The synthetic brain line was a very late addition to 1) show that the infection progresses each time you see it and 2) ease readers minds about any deaths, and the Legion code. The Altered reach a point where they're just robotic puppets (not that everyone is going to see it like that). I've a Swampy sort of 2/3 parter planned for waaay down the line.




Really interesting point. I had more of a "well, what do they all do next?" sort of thought for everyone, rather than taking advantage of Mr Levitz parking them away.

Nura is arguably part of the Legion cornerstones, which is something I'll be making use of throughout. I think I visit everyone in #23 at some point. Element Lad takes ages to get around to though. I think it also helps to have some familiar faces, with their own subplots on the side, when the team has a lot of new members.



I had done a update post to the Grand Totals thread. As I went, I'd been taking notes of the villains too. So, I just had a big list of them. From that, Stargrave was the big hitter who hadn't been used much in the Legion. A bit of digging through the back issues brought out why (the various writers and not the disco flares as I had first suspected )




I am. He gets messed around with quite a bit between writers. To the extent that...well, that's next issue.



Lots of good mileage to be had in that one. You have the versions of Superboy Prime in Lo5W to use as an example... of what not to do



Thank you for reading as always!

Also happy to see Jenni back in action, where she belongs.

Poor Otaki, it was great having her realize that using her power on the infected meant amplifying their horror and pain.

Great visuals of Danielle using her power.

Excited to see how Nura's vision will pan out, and how Vi's assault will go.

Nice work by Brek taking out Holdur. I never found Holdur's power impressive, but you showed how dangerous he is if he catches someone by surprise or if he attacks without the right powers to defend themselves.

And especially great work with the dangerous Quicksand.

Agreed. And credit where it's due, it was Ed Hannigan, a very underrated artist IMO, who came up with that particular design.



Thank you.



Heh. I'm the opposite, I'm all like, "I know there's really no such thing as Happily Ever After, so I don't want to find out what happened next after "Point B," or whatever."



Hmmm. I love Nura, but I've never thought of her as a cornerstone, more like a character who started out as something of a cipher, but was fortunate enough to enjoy the creative confluence of the sensibilities of Karen Berger, Paul Levitz, Jenette Kahn, and Legion fandom in general, circa 1983-1987. But nothing lasts forever, and even before the end of the Baxter Era, it already felt to me like she should have "exited the stage", so to speak -- if nothing else, it would have spared us both the creepy Atmos crap and the Nura-as-obnoxious-matron crap from the TMK era.

That said, I remain confident that what you've come up with for Nura will prove interesting and entertaining.



Because I consider you both a talented creator and a friend, I will give you the benefit of the doubt on this, but I'm convinced that Preboot Jan is just as much "damaged goods" as Preboot Erin. Hope that didn't sound too harsh, but as pretty much everyone at Legion World already knows by now, that's a very delicate topic for me personally -- TMK really pushed my buttons in the worst way.



Indeed. That's why my upcoming 2nd Retroboot arc will focus mostly on the old favorites lost in the 21st Century, while the 3rd will have substantial roles for other old fan-faves like Ayla, Vi, and a couple others who would spoil plotlines if I named them here.



LOL



LOL even louder!!

And FTR, this weekend will be all about me reading and commenting on your 3rd installment.

Thank you Mr Hannigan. It's cool, futuristic *and* creepy!






We agree on there's no happily ever after! I just like to see it through to the bitter end.



Yeah, but your paragraph was still waiting in the future. If it was there when I was typing, I could have just copied and pasted it.

I did say arguably! I think it would be Superboy as inspiration, Imra as leader, Brainy as the future's potential, and ... that's where there could be some room. Nura really came to the fore exactly as you say. Laughing in the face of Darkness. Cham for diversity or Rokk for his sense of ...well, whatever it was has been a bit tarnished over the years.



After that, they let Atmos *join* in the 5YG. I guess Earth Man was busy. Creepy is right. I can't say her TMK matron character did much for me either.




No pressure



You forgot vain so this gets it's own little spotlight for an "aw shucks"




Not harsh at all. I'm aware it's a *very* contentious part of that run, and I'll tread accordingly. Jan, and therefore any version of Officer Erin as they were hinted at being together in #23, are not in the immediate plans due to something completely unrelated to TMK. So that's a plus right there. Their reappearance depends on a few other plots, and they don't get their chance for quite a while.

As for damaged goods, I remember that Jan pulled that trigger on Roxxas. Like Rokk, there's a lot of stuff going on beneath that Legiony façade.




I shall be reading your first arc very soon... But first a sneak peak at the end of my #4.

Through a haze of pain, Vi looked across the spire's central command. Something else else sharp and painful had brought her back. She felt a darkness pulling her back down. But the piercing, sharpness returned. Something else else revolved above her. Something else else metallic and reflective, casting horrific shadows across the chamber.

Disco Mirror Balls! Stargrave had transformed Weber's World into a giant warping discotheque. Soon the United Planets would know the meaning of Funk! Vi looked desperately across at her fallen comrades. She focused her thoughts, sending soft, country ballads through the telepathic earplugs...



Really looking forward to it. I'll be taking some time after 4, and a little after post, to finally get a better look at Bits.

Thanks for reading Ibby! I thought it odd that she wasn't in v7 after they drafted all the kids in. It was disappointing for a lot of fans that the graduated students (Power Boy, Lamprey, Nightwind etc.) hadn't made it in. But to also pass up Legionnaires and an inheritor of the Flash legacy?



That was a late addition. She was initially unable to contribute. But I wanted these early issues to give a flavour of what everyone could do. So, I started that part only to realise what would happen. So, it still didn't go well for her. Poor Bina!



Thanks a lot. I wondered if I'd have to edit that even more than I did. I went so far as to dig up the old Legionnaires issues to see how they handled it there. She's co leader, but powers-wise she just stands there all the time. So after that, I felt pretty comfortable doing what I liked. Lots more on Danielle's powers to come.



You just reminded me of set up I've forgotten to put in for Nura. Thanks! As for Vi, well they've met before...



That scene was added as I had to change the pacing of the story. Where I thought Holdur originally was, is given in #4. Besides, I needed to give Brek something to do before #4 too. Holdur could pin down Superboy, but his powers allow him to pin the air in victim's lungs as he super-strangles them. So not a very balanced guy.



She's very resourceful. More so, if you allow her powers to work in 3D. It's less standing around changing things, and more moving in a rapidly changing environment of her own making. A teaser for more Quicksand will be in #4

Re: Issue 3:

Hadru...nice to see him finally prove himself. I may even end up liking him.

Bina...oh my Gods, the best intentions gone awry, and all that. There was such a terrible sense of her being caught between the proverbial devil and the deep blue sea. I eagerly await to find out how she deals with this horrific experience, and hope she eventually realizes that, no matter what she did, there was no malice behind her actions. But self-forgiveness *can* be very difficult for some people...



Nura Nal in a nutshell. Nicely done.

Re: Ayla & Harmonia as a double-team -- love it!!



Yes, if any Legion villain is all about hubris, it's Stargrave.

Re: Brek -- As with Nura, I think you've captured the essence of the character in a nice, economical way.

On to the remaining portion of #3...

Re: The rest of #3...

I think it's all coming together beautifully. I especially appreciate that you don't sugar-coat the icy callousness of the Coluans, their infuriating combination of soulless logic and the prioritizing of their self-preservation.

It even makes me question my tendencies until now to shrug off the darker implications of the Coluan philosophy, and wonder just how that might reflect my own outlook on the world we live in and the people in it, and how the time has come for my way of thinking to evolve into something more humanistic. No small feat, that. Good work, Thoth.

Can't wait to see how you bring it all to a close.

Thanks for reading!


He's got a distinctive path, mainly due to his personality and approach being different from a lot of the others. Particularly the earnest Adventure lot.



This is why comments are so great. The follow up scene I had planned for Bina touched on her experiences on Naltor, but you've added a deeper emotional layer to the one I would have ended up with. So, thank you very much for that, as I'm sure it will influence the way I approach it.

Bina is actually very capable, which we'll see, but she's not faced anything like the tests the Legion offer her.



Thank you.



Yeah, he going to appear just as we last saw him. Posing with his power and his diploma in Villain monologues. Then...




Thanks very much. The feedback is really helping in my Bits baby steps.




This is undoubtedly part of the wider picture. How they act in this first story will start to raise a number of questions in the UP and elsewhere. And our resident genius won't be able to avoid that.

I'm hoping to get to play with the worlds of the UP as we visit them more, finding out why they ended up as we see them. And how their philosophies seek to shape the galaxy that they are in. The trick will be to manage it as an integral part of the story and not as infodumping.



Wow. Even if I've assisted in some small way there, I don't think I'm going to have more of an impact. It's a shame to end on issue #3 but...



oh rats. I've still to finish it...


Issue #4 is not far away...

LOL But good point there. Generational tensions and so on...



Awwww...thanks, Thoth. Harbi and Ibby and Emily and others in this forum have had similar positive effects on my writing through their comments on it. The Bits forum is truly the gift that keeps on giving!!



Excellent. And I've faced that exact trick before myself. It is a tough knot to undo, but I have full confidence that you'll do it.





Storytelling is magical, it really and truly is.



Tee hee.

Think of it as your Christmas gift to your fellow Legion Worlders.




YAY to the max!!

v7.5 Issue 4 “Stargrave” – Special Sized Issue!

Omnipaedia: The Great Sandy Desert, Australia, Earth. Mining has returned to this region, boosting the low population numbers. Millennia old dig sites have also been found, marking a resurgence of archaeology in the area.

Blaster fire lights up the desert sky as Earthgov troops fell a number of the robotic Altered. They are taking casualties of their own, and are forced back into defensive positions on the ridges of the taller dunes. Injured Earthgov soldiers are being transformed, their screams as unsettling as the attackers’ metallic forms.

The Altered have had more time to develop since the attack on Naltor. All have the grinning skull likeness of the Brainiac. Many have lost their bipedal form and human sizes. Some have flight capability while pits close to the ship suggest burrowing activity.

The outline of their burning craft arcs behind the battle, its fires casting a bloody glow across the night sky. The satellite is tilted at an odd angle, almost as if some of it has subsided into the desert floor.

A Legion field team view the attack from a command point behind the main Earthgov assault force. Scans confirm that there’s no life remaining on the craft. Jenni Ognats is looking at speed through a cargo pack marked with the Brande Industries logo. In her hands she has a small device and is checking how it works. She wants to be prepared when the battle comes, and begins putting some of the devices into her belt pouches.

Marya Pai is tense, scanning the land ahead. Her pupils are vertical reptilian slits. She tells the others that’s she’s impatient for the battle ahead. She’s too keen, her bravado only showing her inexperience. Dragonwing feels she has something to prove. Since he helped her against her sister in China, she doesn’t want to let Cham down. Or herself.

Naltor: Many Naltorians call on Cassandra in times of need. This has been interpreted in a number of ways: An extension of the Naltorian dynasty, tribute to the trials of a heroine; and as a warning of the power of prophetic vision in an unbelieving world. - Myth Cycles and Human Expansionism.

On Naltor, Harmonia, Ayla, Hadru & an unsteady Bina look take their leave to support their colleagues. Nura passes a flirtatious message along to Brainiac, as the Coluan tells her and a holo of Cham that a communications block from Webers World to the satellite is in effect. Whatever the creature calling itself Stargrave intended to instruct the satellite to do, is restricted to its original commands. Nura teasingly comments that it would have been nice to have had the block a few hours before, but that it will help them destroy the Altered in safety. Perhaps Brainy misses her in the lab?

Nura then leaves the Legion team at their landing port, flying back to the crash site and her duties there. She still wears her flight ring.

Looking down from a tower onto the landing berth Beren, the High Seer of Naltor, views the Legionnaires and the departing Nura. His hand rests on an orrery of the galactic centre. Behind him, a scratchy, taut voice expresses concern that “the girl” suspects. “Will it alter our designs?” asks a second. There’s an uncomfortable noise resembling bone shifting on marble. Beren does not look round. “No. we wait for the inevitable.” concludes a third.

Omnipaedia: Earth. The Australian continent has been the beachhead of a number of alien invasions. Critics of Earth’s role in the United Planets claim that many of those races are still UP enemies due to the “mother world’s” influence.

As Reep Daggle receives confirmation from Querl, a weather lined, moustachioed Earthgov colonel approaches. Colonel Kilder dismissively tells Chameleon Boy that additional support is on its way from the Montauk Point facility…thanks to his friend Foccart. Reep is keen to intervene now, but is ordered to stand down. Used to acting on his own initiative, having to support Earthgov doesn’t sit too easily with the Durlan. Let their own boy puts things right, the Colonel tells him.

Timothy Santoza races into the thick of the combat. He is fast, strong and tough, absorbing, deflecting or reflecting the kinetic energy of anything around him. He is The Westerner, and he arrives surrounded by a host of tiny drones. Santoza’s combat techniques are not his own. He is run by complex algorithms that control his every reaction and movement. Not only to defeat a foe, but to promote his brand. He takes plenty of bruises, but has never been so popular. Santoza’s dark blue body suit changes shades as the light sources alter around him, always showing him in the best possible way.

Tactically astute, perhaps due to his info feeds, he draws fire away from the Earthgov forces while targeting the creatures wielding larger weapons. The attackers struggle to adapt to having their energy siphoned. They overcompensate just as Santoza returns it to them, resulting in several crashing over. The Westerner’s borrowed and deflected strength causes further damage and confusion.

The dronelets simply adore the rending of the metal invaders. It’s all looking like a publicity coup, until he is surprised by the speed of one of the larger robots. A giant punch to his abdomen doubles him up. Winded, he can’t avoid the second blow. A punch to his face knocks him crashing back through forces from both sides, sending his cracked helmet into the sand. The robots are altering further. An aerial assault pushes the defenders further back. A large metallic maw bursts from the sand to consume three Earthgov soldiers, churning silver coloured teeth turning blood red. Infection is imminent.

Reep Daggle doesn’t wait for further debate. If the troops fall, then the Altered will infect the Earth. He orders the Legion to move in. He changes form as he flies ahead of Dragonwing. The signature speed lines of the Flash legacy blur ahead of them both, leaving an enraged Colonel shouting through holos to his commanding officers.

Weber’s World: “The watching eye of colonial oppression” – Tsauran Times Editorial

From the Brande Ind. Suites, Querl Dox views the Earth field team entering battle on a holo beside one showing Salu Digby’s team facing a ranting Stargrave in the altered transmission tower. He wonders why, for something of Coluan origin, Stargrave has never presented himself as anything other than a maniacal villain. Universal conquest, elaborate plans with decoy versions of himself, and pitting rivals against each other to become worthy to serve him. Ridiculous. “Father” indeed.

Beside Brainiac 5 is the flickering virtual form of Danielle Foccart. In a holo to the Earth council chambers he sees her brother, Jacques, tending to her physical form. There, she is clearly strained and overheating. There is a physical cost to controlling her powers, and containing the entity that she shares her body with. The comms from Webers to Earth has some interference. Q-Storms, formed from Tharok’s takeover of UP, still surge across the galaxy.

Within the Weber systems, code forms shells around the virtual of Danielle as she blocks attacks the world’s defensive systems centred on a virtual of its glowing red power source. A central spike of code pushes ahead of her, into the red glowing centre of the world’s altered reactor. The calming voice within her keeps her from panicking, leading her thoughts and her powers. She gains access to the main power systems and begins isolating them.

With some effort, she tells Querl that she has broken through, but that they’re going to require a more permanent solution to keep it offline.

Brainiac 5 concurs. Even if Salu’s team can restrain Stargrave, he may have infected the world to carry out his plans without him.

Many UP councillors are upset at the thought of their administrative hub being closed down. But Jacques advises them of the alternatives. A wave of more satellites attacking UP worlds, perhaps, or Webers World warping space to infect a whole planet itself. He stresses that the threat needs to be contained and that the Legion field team need to deal with the immediate threat. With the unpredictability of the Q-Storms, they must take action while they are in a position to do so.

It’s Councillor Shahna Closen from Ventura who promotes Jacques view, and calms angry voices, with her reasoned, clipped tones. She reminds them that this is an opportunity to show they can be proactive in the face of a possible Tharok level event. She asks them to reflect on this, as they think on the current destruction on the worlds they represent.

En route from Naltor, a static filled image holo of Harmonia (with Bina, Hadru and Ayla seen on duty at consoles behind her) asks them what Colu will do if they don’t contain the threat. The continued silence form that world makes up the councillors minds.

Querl weighs up assisting the field team, viewing their holo again. But taking the Computo module that allows Danielle to have a presence here into combat, would be too great a risk. Likewise, he can’t leave it in the emptying office suites, as the personnel evacuate. (Note: They have taken key systems with them, leaving open consoles and unsafe looking access points behind.) Stargrave’s twisted Altered could be anywhere. Thinking about Computo modules sparks an idea, and he looks towards the crates containing the Computo major-domos (seen in #1).

Continued...

... Continued

Earth: Several globular media dronelets hover around Dragonwing creates a perimeter around the fallen Westerner and Earthgov troops with her fiery green breath. Once this is in place, she uses acid spit to disable blaster carrying foes. Her fingers flex in anticipation around the Electro-Nux, charged knuckle dusters, she wears for the close combat she feels will be inevitable.

Above, a large winged creature descends with gleaming talons on the robotic enemy, scattering them across the battle field. Chameleon Boy enters combat. From his vantage point, he can see the blur of XS approaching the rear of the Altered forces

There was a time when the thought of fighting an inhuman threat looking to kill her, would have terrified Jenni Ognats. But that was before the Legion helped her find her confidence. It was certainly before the Blight. At super speed there’s time to think, but not to take chances, and she places magnetic disrupter bomblets from her utility pouch onto the robots.

XS sweeps up an injured Earthgov soldier, who had been holding off robots from infecting him, using her momentum to carry the weight back to her own lines. Behind her the bomblets explode, disrupting their attackers. Chameleon Boy’s skin smoulders from blaster fire. In pain, he switches between smaller forms to gain a tactical advantage before striking again. He targets the largest of the robots and those transformed to attack from the skies.

Dragonwing is used to close combat, where her powers are most effective. She dispatches a few of the robots directly with emerald fire from her mouth. Its nature is more than heat, and the toughened metallic Altered can’t cope for long with its mystical energies. She uses her Electro-Nux to stun those that don’t fall immediately. Marya taunts an enemy that’s not human enough to react to it. Her cape is grasped by one of them and she falls backwards, flailing against her foes as she does so. Two larger robots approach her position. As they loom over her, they are both suddenly lifted and crushed in the fists of a new giant form taken by Chameleon Boy.

Refilling her pouches in the Earthgov lines, Jenni sees an angry Dragonwing struggle to her feet, and Cham’s giant form becoming the target for more blaster fire. She grabs the cargo pack, and taking a deep breath, heads directly towards the satellite. With Computo occupied on Webers World, Jenni is the team’s best chance of reaching the source of their problems here. She can’t evade the blaster fire, particularly in the sand, but can avoid the enemy movements to get inside at super speed.

XS is uncomfortable in the confined spaces within the satellite. Its corridors have been changed for an inhuman crew. Broken walls, dead ends, debris and fire all impair her movement. Not all of the crew have left the ship either. Some remain awaiting further orders from Weber’s World. The claustrophobic space reminds her too much of the ship from her first Legion mission. She may have overcome her fears, but she has no intention of reliving them, or needlessly trying to prove a point. She activates the pack of bomblets at speed, in the most central part of the craft she can reach, and runs for safety.

Out on the desert, the Altered fire on her, looking to force her back towards the ship. One of their own smashes through them causing a rout. Santoza has not recovered, but his functions have been taken over by his employers. His swarm of dronelets drink in every angle as the partially conscious youth becomes a target for the enemy. His efforts have cleared a path for XS, and she takes the opportunity to get them both clear as the bomblets detonate the ship’s core systems, also incinerating the robots close to the ship.

As she reaches the Earthgov lines, XS sees a Montauk Point shuttle arrive overhead. From its open side door, Lydda Jath firmly tells the pilot, Mara, to return to a safe distance unless called upon. She uses her Legion flight ring and flies down to reinforce the Earthgov troops; her black leather outfit, beehive hairdo and retro goggles stepping from a particularly dangerous retro spy vid. With the ship and many of its crew disabled, the remaining Altered are no match for the Earthgov forces and Night Girl, with her super strength optimised by the Australian night.

The ground nearby erupts as a serpentine, burrowing robot writhes from its tunnel, entwined with the tentacle, crab clawed Vormian Octocrawler (Superboy #228) form of Chameleon Boy. Reep maintains his grip as Lydda rips through it, disabling its synthetic brain. As relieved as he is to see her, Cham notes an edge to Lydda’s tone. It’s only a matter of time before the robots will fall.

Webers World: Pulsar Stargrave tells his Legion attackers that it is only a matter of time before they will fall.

Shrinking Violet has been unable to get past Stargrave’s defences. She rises groggily from the floor near the protecting position of Gravity Boy, telling the others that their foe has some sort of force field. Typical of a Brainiac she says grimly. Polar Boy fires ice shards at the Coluan villain. Stargrave radiates enough energy from himself to reduce them to so much steam.

Stargrave raises his hands, and fires a wide arcing energy blast across the room at the Legionnaires. It’s a deadly blast but harms no one despite reaching its target and passing out through the opposite wall.

Power Boy holds onto Stargrave’s shoulder phasing them both, and his blasts. The purple skinned Legionnaire switches his density, and lands a staggering punch on the villain. But it isn’t enough to fell him. Stargrave turns his attention to Jed, positioning himself even against the added abilities of Gravity Kid. He will break through their powers he tells them. Then he will break them.

Danielle tells Querl that it’s only a matter of time before Stargrave’s defences break through her control. He must be altering them, even as he battles the others. She can’t stay with the power source forever, and can feel the effects it’s having on her physical form.

Beside her virtual self, Brainiac 5 focuses on modifying one of the Computo Major-domos. He takes cold comfort form holo audio telling him that the Coluans have begun to provide defensive strategies for other key UP worlds. With the Earth invasion defeated, they must have concluded that the odds were in the UP’s favour. But that only makes him wonder if there’s a deal to protect those worlds at the cost of Webers World, and the Legionnaires on it.

Alone, and focused on his work in the Brande suites, Querl only notices the shambling shadow at the last moment as it lurches from the doorway. He activates his force field belt, protecting himself but realises that the creature is looking for the Computo module. Brainy adjusts his force field to throw the twisted robot back against some consoles, electrocuting it.

A scan reveals that it was not alone in the building. Half a dozen dark outlines approach his position. Brainy asks Ultra Boy what’s taking him so long, as he sets up his force field against the doorway and returns to his work.

A long haired, masculine green and red blur of flight sees a crippled Webers World from above. Sections of it are missing entirely, following the Emerald Empress’ attack. As the figure approaches at super speed, he sees the altered towers crisscrossing what remains of the surface; part of Stargrave’s plans to transport the world away. The flier focuses on one of the towers, slightly larger than the others. He sees the evacuating relief ships take off, as he closes in on his target, muttering darkly about Brainiac 5. He reminds himself that he has to time the power switch perfectly to avoid becoming a smear on the side of the building.

Ultra Boy smashes through the side of the tower just as Stargrave delivers a glancing blow to Power Boy, who has been too slow in switching his own powers. Jed collapses to the floor. But the villain is unable to take advantage as Jo crashes into him, flying them both across the chamber, and out of the other side of the tower into the devastated cityscape below.

Able to use only one power at a time, Ultra Boy switches from strength to invulnerability, punching Stargrave as they descend at speed into the street. Jo then flies clear. He knows that if he’s caught using the wrong ultra-power, a single strike from the villain would kill him. Pulsar rises slowly from the crater in the street, eyes blazing with anger and energy. A large rockcrete block, taken from a damaged walkway, crushes him back down, courtesy of Gravity Boy who flies down from the transmission tower. A determined Salu and Brek descend on either side of him. In the background, a stranded Weber relief duo can be seen hiding in the rubble, recording the events unfolding in front of them.

Tel lets the others know that the block won’t hold Stargrave for long, and they’ll need to come up with a solution quickly before he, or any remaining fake Brainiac Altered crawl out from the wreckage. Querl suggests that Salu switches her powers to hold onto their foe, but Violet dismisses him, saying that they need to use reliable tactics. She thinks on Tel’s mention of fakes. The last time the Legion faced Stargrave, he used two duplicates before revealing himself. Could this one be one of them? Neither were seen again after Wildfire and Superboy punched the real one into Colu’s sun.

In the Brande offices, Querl tells Salu that there’s no data available to be able to confirm. He has activated a number of floating Computo Major-Domos and Danielle, now with blank eyes, is programming them remotely.

The rockrete block shudders and breaks apart, revealing Stargrave, an aurora of energy rising above him. The Legionnaires stand ready for his next attack. Behind them, the relief workers continue to record.

Elsewhere, Quicksand quietly walks through darkened service tunnels in the rocky heart of Webers World. Surrounded by a glowing protective field, she is carrying a small monitoring device. With it, she listens to the tormented sounds of the badly damaged world around her.

Continued...

...Continued

Energy begins to crackle around Stargrave’s eyes, as it erupts towards Ultra Boy, Violet shrinks and flies once more towards her foe. Jo is saved only by his Ultra invulnerability, but is still sent reeling back, the top half of his uniform a charred mess.

Salu has breached Pulsar’s force field, realising that it must drop for him to be able to fire his energy blasts out of it. Through her telepathic earplugs, she tells Brainy that she just needs to find out if it’s the real thing that they’re dealing with.

Jo moves in, keeping his invulnerability on and trying to hold onto the villain. Distracted, Pulsar doesn’t detect Salu entering his body. It takes only a moment for her to confirm her suspicions. Pulsar may have been altered by strange alien beings to become the holder of huge power reserves. But Stargrave was not them, and his own designs used more mundane materials.

Violet flies back out, using her earplug to warn the others that it’s not the real Stargrave they face and leaving an Imskian disrupter device behind.

With no Legion code to prevent her actions, Salu’s device explodes. Only a small area of Stargrave’s bioorganic circuitry is revealed. Although it begins to heal rapidly, the impact of the device is enough to disrupt his powers.

As the battle reaches its climax above her, Quicksand enters a reinforced room and approaches a pod, its dreaming occupant a shadow under its thick protective cover.

The Legion still keep their distance. It may be a construct, but it was made by one of the most powerful foes in their history. Jo uses his ultra-vision to immolate Pulsar, focusing on the open biocircuitry. Now white hot, and having to divert reserves away from his wound, Stargrave tells them that he is heat. He is the power of a star. He raises his hands to unleash an energy attack of his own. Every star fades in the end, Polar Boy tells him, and reduces the temperature of his enemy to as near absolute zero as he can.

Stargrave screams, the cold crippling his exposed internal systems, his compromised shell fracturing. The villain slumps to its knees, offering no pleas for help, or entreaties to a creator. It only promises a return and revenge.

Salu instructs Gravity Kid to finish it and the former science police officer brings his powers to bear. He reaches the sides of the exposed circuitry and sets up conflicting, points of gravity ripping the metallic form open. The surrounding buildings also react to the gravitational forces, creating fresh tremors as their foe finally falls. Salu remarks that the construct may never have known that it was a creation. The Legion depart back to the transmission tower, to retrieve their friends.

The Legion team fly form the collapsing tower, as the Stargrave construct is crushed in a tomb of debris from the world he would have used to conquer the galaxy.

Australia: Prior to Earthwar, the Dark Circle’s agent Governor Deregon nearly instigated World War VII. Stopping his Cosmic Force Sphere cost Legionnaire Chemical King his life.

The Earthgov troops work to secure the landing site, but are obviously jubilant to still be alive. Lydda is instructing the Academy cadets who arrived with the shuttle on what they have witnessed. With the Legion now disbanded, she tells them, the Academy students are one of Earth’s resources against such threats. Their tutors are keen to show them what is required.

One is a large eyed girl with distinctive reddish, brown skin, wearing an animal print outfit (Tiger Girl). A second is a small hovering box with the scratched remains of a small Legion L on it (Host). A third is a tall, four limbed, insectoid creature whose mandibles click as it takes in details around it (Arkheia). Flying above them is a pale green, winged girl with antennae and prismatic extensions behind her ears (Dragonfly).

One student who isn’t paying attention is a small grey humanoid with large eyes (Urk). It has descended to the battle field where it is feasting on the metallic wires from one of the fallen robots.

Jath takes them past the Legion group, towards the shuttle where a short haired blonde woman in a UP Militia flight suit works on a diagnostic scan (Rush). As Jath walks past, Jenni sticks out her tongue at her behind her back. After her work in destroying the threat, a number of Santoza’s dronelets now surround Ognats.

Back in his usual orange skinned form, Chameleon Boy hears Jath tell the students that the Legion may be temporarily operating as Brande Industries employees, but not to let that cloud their judgment when making career decisions. “Organisations have to change to survive,” she tells them. Cham remembers Rokk Krinn using the same quote before he retired, opening a path for his younger brother to join their team. An exhausted Reep returns to treating a large burn on his shoulder, caused by the blaster fire to the larger forms he took during the battle.


Webers World: Data Preservation methods include packet backups across twenty UP Worlds. Nostalgically known as “Tapedumps,”no one world receives all data. The UP has dismissed claims that secret information is retained in the core world, citing its data transparency legislation. – Top Quark Omnizine.

Glimmering lights rise from the broken world’s surface, taking up geosynchronous orbits above Webers World. The Computo Major-domos, once incorporating the remnants of a technological threat, have now been modified to contain one.

Below, Querl tells the Council, with a returned Coluan delegate, that his countermeasures will protect the United Planets from anything in the Webers World systems breaking out. The inner glow of the Major-domos changes to amber.

Through the Q-Storm affected comms, Councillor Fujardo thanks Brande Industries for support in this crisis. He trusts that Querl will be used alongside those supplied by their Coluan friends. Harmonia’s holo interjects diplomatically, before Querl can retort. Beside Brainy, the holo of Danielle finally relaxes. With a brief show of support to the team, she vanishes, and Brainy deactivates the golden module that she was projected from.

The last of the relief teams move past the Legion, elated at having survived. The Earth Emergency Team has finally arrived, with attendant drones. It’s operatives including the famous Zall Morgan. Morgan is a rugged, older man, with greying hair around his temples and an attitude of a hero of old.

Jo looks worryingly at the hourglass nose art on the EET craft. He reminds Brainy that once things have been made safe here, the Coluan made a promise to help him find Tinya.
Tel looks with concern at the bruising on his partner Jed’s face, as Salu takes them away to rescue the workers trapped at the reactor.

With drones professionally positioned, Morgan firmly shakes Brek’s hand, thanking him personally for saving so many lives on Webers World. News feeds relate Brek’s inspirational stand against Dominator invasion; his Earth saving career as an underdog hero, and his decisive action in defeating Tharok and now Stargrave to the UP Citizens.

Brek remains dignified, if enthusiastic, as his footage of freezing Stargrave circulates. There are few traces of his years out of the spotlight as a Sub. At the centre of attention, and trying to follow Superboy’s unassuming heroism, he doesn’t notice that the Legion are never mentioned.

The inner glow of the Computo Major Domos changes to red as Brande, EET & UP ships pass their protective network. The scene is being viewed by Quicksand from one of the levitating monitors Stargrave previously used. With the Computo network now sealing off all comms to the outside, she activates the suspension chamber.

Inside dreams the sleeping, or possibly deactivated, form of another Pulsar Stargrave. The patterns of condensation on the hibernation capsule become the shifting anti matter laced skies in Stargrave’s mind. He creates a fissure in the fabric of space which threatens to consume half our galaxy by opening it onto an anti-matter universe. He cuts space and time, remoulding it in the way that his metallic coated, serpentine alien savours changed him when they tried to save him from his shuttle malfunction.

All a plan to test the resources of the Trapper and the Legion. The survivor would become pawns, rather than allies, against a more powerful foe: Mordru. He feels the satisfaction of his supreme power, but a shadow looms over the dream. He is but a pawn himself. The shadow looms larger…

Quicksand’s face is close to his own, as she disconnects him from the capsules systems. His robotic or armoured saviours cast Stargrave into the heart of an exploding star, and he was reborn. Now, he is reborn again, as he emerges from the capsule.

A single console boots up, casting its light across the chamber. The pair begin to monitor the systems of the now dead world.

Pulsar comments on the ignorance of his foes. Always satisfied with a simple conclusion, and not looking for the layers beneath. His feints with the satellites, the threat of an infection and giving them the wreck of his earlier form and Quicksand’s undeserving partners.

His assistant mentions that Holdur has never been the same since his capture by the Dominators. They still don’t even wonder at Quicksand’s transmutational abilities, says Stargrave. Even his son, he adds with some disappointment. But then, he has had similar failings. He was destined to take control of the known universe from the weakened talons of Mordru. Yet, it was the Time Trapper who faced his great foe. Even it failed in the end. It was the Legion who triumphed. But why was Stargrave removed from the board? What held enough power to do such a thing?

Full, uninterrupted access to the data on Webers World would provide him with the answers he seeks. And if not, then then he has relatives other than his son. Stargrave has got what he wants: undisturbed access to the heart of Weber's World and its secrets.

On Earth, Jacques worries that any continued involvement with the Legion will only make his sister’s condition worse. Brainiac is supposed to be looking for a cure for her, not to cause further episodes. But an exhausted, sweat covered, Danielle wishes to be part of this new Legion. There are too many problems that need their help, to stand back.

Behind the pair, and out of earshot, there’s a heated argument between the UP Councillors. The Coluan delegate is absent, but they are almost fearful of mentioning that world’s actions.

They reason that they were right in disbanding the Legion. The Coluan’s proximity to this latest disaster justifies it further. They have now lost their administrative hub. But the counter argument is that the Legion have saved countless lives on three worlds, and that Weber’s World was very unlikely to have survived anyway, after the Fatal Five’s attack on it.

All do seem to agree that their own Protector programme could resolve their differences. Venturan Councillor Shahna Closen seems particularly supportive, as she views holos of Brek and Jenni with a smile.

As Jacques departs, the black dot on Danielle Foccart’s neck glows. A holo appears in front of her, as her eyes turn red. It contains a single word: Granddaughter.

Next: Meet the Legion and then... "Incursion"

HOORAH!! The final installment, and just in time for Christmas. Thank you, Santa Thoth.

Will read it at my leisure, savoring it slowly, on Christmas Day tomorrow.

You're very welcome Fanfic Lady! I really wanted to get it done before Christmas as a pressie It does mean that I've now got to go and wrap pesky pressies for relatives.

Still, it gives me the excuse to watch that most festive of movies: The Thing.

I've got the next post already done, so I'm going to finally be looking at some Bits threads!

YAY and double YAY!!



(Disclaimer: I know I have been something of a Lu hater in the recent past, but I've softened up, so the above use of her likeness in this post was not intended to be ironic or negative in any way.)

You were better keeping me guessing you softie you!

I've got most of your thought provoking Fangirls and Bissette threads to catch up on too. I've been saving them for a day off, all the better to enjoy them.

Uh...better late than never?



I will do my best to read #4 tonight, as the rest of the week, even through the weekend, is shaping up to be a busy one.

Thanks for your patience.



RE:



Aww...thank you, Thoth.

I must have a subscription to The Tsauran Times!

The Westerner was a surprise, short-lived but that's the superhero biz for you.

You wrote a fine description of virtual Danielle and how she operates.

Reep's injury made me wonder about how that works when he changes form. If he's a butterfly and gets a wingtip singed, does that translate into a proportional injury when he takes on humanoid form? Could he have an tentacle chopped off as a Jovian Attack Squid but just reshape himself after? Questions to ponder.

I liked how Jo, in the middle of all this mess, reminded Brainy that they were going to find Tinya. Um, priorities?

I like the new Academy students. All very strange. But Urk... so easily distracted. Or does his meal have a purpose?

Stargrave is a really fluid enemy - lots of deception and misdirection, the altered continue to alter and the Legion must fight on multiple real and virtual fronts.

The Stargrave family! When I read that he had other relatives, I didn't make the obvious connection, later revealed. But I am wondering if there could be somebody else out there.

The deep secrets harboured by Weber's World! A fascinating concept, the deep state at its deepest. I'd bet those sneaky Coluans know more than they're letting on.

Thanks very much for reading Cramer.



Yeah, it easily outsells the Socialist Worker round here. Everyone wants to be that Minion of the Month pin-up I guess.



I imagine we'll see some more of him, at least due to other plot developments.



Thank you. I was surprised to find her doing a lot of standing around in the old Legionnaires comics. We'll be seeing a different side to Danielle's powers soon too.



I'm also reminded of Gar Logan having his fly wing tip clipped in an issue of Titans. He turns back into human form with the damage on his shoulder.

I'm vaguely thinking that there was an issue where Reep could separate parts of his body, without killing himself.

Reep's injury(ies) will be a subplot in the issue ahead, and it's been foreshadowed in v4 and in v7.



in v7 #23 Jo is less than pleased with Brainy not looking for Tinya. We've seen how besotted he is. Brainy's quite dismissive of her in the last issue. We're now several weeks further on and Jo has been used as a super fast errand boy, while Querl strings him along. It's not going to last much longer.



All the students there have appeared before in the book in some way. There was a bit of ill feeling when the likes of Dragonwing, Gorith and Chemical Kid got in ahead of Lamprey and Power Boy. So, I'm looking at the students/ characters we've seen before, to establish their stories and their place in things. I'd like it to be a natural progression. That's not to say new students can't join at varying levels though.

The Westerner was a former Academy student, and that's what's become of him. As an aside, he appeared in a single panel early in v4. He's in a Silverale commercial, indicating he has enough fame for others to want to attach their brand to him. His portrayal here started from that.

The Urk thing is just one of those nice loose ends. I'd written the line because that's just what he does. Then it occurred to me what that could mean. So, we'll see on that one. Urk will certainly be back.



I hoped that would come across without being too messy. He was massively powerful before. Even his decoys were. Add to that his background (any of them), his penchant for being both maniacal *and* creating layered fakes. Here, he's also aware that something's gone very wrong with his own perception of what things should be like, and he's operating on a lot of levels. It's just what his "son" does for the Legion and I was hoping that some of that parallel came across. In the back of their minds, they might think it's a bit like fighting a certain Coluan teammate.



Well, there were a couple of decoys in that old Superboy issue. SO, presumably there's another one out there. Here, it was intended to be Danielle. Beyond that, will depend on which one of Stargrave's origins turns out to be the real one.



There's some things from my reread posts which highlight my thoughts on what the UP have been getting away with over the years. So it's going to be a bit of a theme here.

Absolutely everyone in this is sneakier than they've been letting on. And it's not just Brainy on the Legion side either. But yeah, those Coluans for sure.

It was my considerable pleasure! Thanks for writing. This all builds very well from the Levitz issues.



I'm thinking of the v.4 issue in which he rearranged his internal organs prior to the Roxxas attack, but can't recall actual separation of body parts. It seems feasible, though and may well have been done by some creators who thought of him as silly putty.

Thoth, the first thing I feel I have to say is that your portrayal of the horror of post-humanism gone very wrong indeed is visceral on an H.R. Giger-meets-2000 AD era Kevin O'Neill level!! Out-effin'-standing!!



Was this in any conscious way a homage to Jenni's big scenes in one of the better issues of Legion Worlds?



Beautifully worded...and perhaps the seeds of future story-arcs as well?



Loved this sequence, lots of nice little touches.



Interesting original character, already showing quite a bit of potential.



Nicely put. And dare I infer that this could possibly mean the return of...





Another winning bit of characterization.



A politician with integrity and smarts?? From VENTURA, yet?? Will wonders never cease!! Strange bedfellows and all that.

As it was originally going to start with #24, my job is done. Thank you



On Cham splitting, he did it back when he was fighting Kodar in Adventure #376. That was the Elwinda issue. He uses part of himself to imitate Kodar's hammer, while the rest of him fights on.

It was the incident when he got shot by Roxxas I was thinking of. He was beaten by Phoenix in v7 too. Then there's the issue about what he had to go through to get his powers back. It's been tough for Cham.



Thanks! I just wanted to have enough to make the point, and not get in the way of the plot moving forward.

Kevin O'Neill is another one of those artists it took me a while to appreciate (see also Kirby and Infantino d'oh!) While thoth from Nemesis is my avatar, it's by Bryan Talbot, while I didn't warm to O'Neil's run on the book. It was probably Marshall Law that made me take another look, and start noticing all the subversive chaos I'd been missing from his previous work.



I was thinking of the scene where she gets Saturn Girl clear of the Blight Stem, when I showed her getting The Westerner clear. I wanted to show an interaction between her and Night Girl, following on from their v6 meeting. The tongue sticking out was a nod to Moy. There was something else too... oh where we meet her was to bring in that mosaic subplot from v6 as well. I wanted to give a montage of her strengths to show her experience as a Legionnaire, even if she's not been one in this universe.



There's lots of established Naltor bits that help to set up a strong cultural background to the planet and its outlook. So we'll be seeing more of that



Thank you. We don't say "Orrery" anywhere near enough on Legion World!



I've got half of a post on the Academy ready. As I was doing it, I was looking at how likely it would for them to end up being Legionnaires or at least strong heroes in their own right. The Westerner came out pretty well. That's a view I'm not sure I started with.



If not him, then perhaps some of his pals




It was very briefly going to be two characters. One would be the politician and the other the PR guru behind her. But it seemed more sensible to streamline it. That she's from Ventura, should also give a hint to one of the characters lined up for the Protectors programme. he's been a hero on Ventura...

As with Part 1, what I enjoyed the most here was the opening battle against the Altered. I especially appreciated the efficient and effective portrayal of Dragonwing and her powers.

Also surprisingly intrigued by this bit of possible foreshadowing of a potentially juicy subplot, especially considering how much I dislike the character:



The Stargrave battle, I'm sorry to say, did not impress me to nearly the same degree as the Altered battle did. But the hint that the real Stargrave may still be at large (unless I misread; I am, after all, at work, reading during lulls) gives me hope that you've got a surprise twist up your sleeve for the grand finale.

Hope you don't mind if I...SQUEE!!

Love that one-shot character. Baxter #14 is easily one of my all-time Top 10 Legion issues!! Thanks for saving her from oblivion, Thoth.



But your readers know better, don't we??

Can't wait to see where you go with this!!



HOLY S***!!

Did NOT see that cliffhanger coming.

Good show, Thoth!! And if, in the end, I was still left a bit underwhelmed by Stargrave, I look at it more like, "Wow, Thoth's own creations, the Altered, outshone the nominal arch-villain by yonks!!"

Overall, I give it a solid 4 out of 5 Umbras: