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Legion World One - the Academy

The Naltorian student Gord Eno, known as Prescience, had dreamt of this moment during the night and so when he awoke - twenty four minutes before the assault began - he had urged as many of his fellow students as possible to assist. He had foreseen several key moments of the up-coming event and from these had extrapolated a narrative of how their fight would progress, and ultimately how they could win it.

He woke up many of his fellow students as he had seen actively involved in the upcoming skirmish in his dreams... they would defeat the invading beast. He hoped... his vision hadn't been exactly clear on the outcome but if there was one thing he had learned while here at the academy - mostly from researching Nura Nal's many adventures - it was that he didn't need every single fact to influence an outcome in his favour. The knowledge he had been gifted with would be enough to handle the situation.

There were two matters that his gift had not informed him of: Firstly, that one of his fellow students would be brutally murdered before the squad he had called could react. Secondly, he would not be aware until the very end of the skirmish if any other of his friends and colleagues at the Academy would survive...

And as much as he chided himself afterwards for not being able to do more, Gord Eno would be responsible for saving many lives this night.

She was angry!

Her emotions were contagious, sweeping across the meta beings and troops she had gathered for the attack. The Legion had been warned of her plans, the damned precog on that cold planet had been outside of her reach and had told them... damn him, she hoped the white beast had made him suffer! She would make an example of the dingy world once she had eliminated the threat the Legion posed. She would enjoy using the Queen's own Valkyri to rip apart every petty lord and ugly peasant that scraped a living from the icy continent on which they lived, she may even keep the Sisters of the Sword as her own afterwards.

But right now she had to deal with the Legion.

This wasn't the same team she had met before... this team were older, wiser and far more powerful. This time she wasn't going to take her time bending them to her will, oh no, this time she would feel them die and revel in their fear and pain as they took their final breaths. Such a gathering of freaks would not be tolerated in her new galactic empire.

Ten armoured shuttles, each with a mix of Braalians, meta troops and synthetic soldiers were stealthily trailing Legion World Two awaiting the signal to release their deadly cargo into the Legionnaire's new base. They were fully aware that the planetoids orbit was taking it directly towards a cloaked Star Crusher Class Battle Dreadnought fitted with an array of weapons that could quite literally extinguish an entire world in moments if called upon to do so. Once the Legion had been engaged there would be a small fleet of combat drones released into Legion World Two's corridors and the metas and synthetics would wait for their all-clear before completing their search and destroy mission. A large Braalian contingent were stationed ready to keep the techno-morph known as Gear from turning the very satellite against the attacking force. A couple of Gil'Dishpan warpsmiths had been persuaded to assist and would deliver a squad of meta assassins inside of Legion World Two. This force was only half of what she had planned to attack with originally but it would do... she would get the results she needed!

The result the troops were expected to deliver was nothing less that the death of every known Legionnaire, and their support staff member and finally the complete destruction of their planetoid headquarters.

The Academy were to be dealt with as well - the orders were to leave no one alive. The current and next generations of metas were to be dealt a crushing blow that would leave their mistress in command of a large military and meta powered contingent, too strong to be resisted by any of the rag tag meta groups and planetary militia that would remain. She would not make the same mistakes as yesteryear, this time she would speedily extinguish any opportunity potential rebels had to rally around survivors, this time she wanted them all dead before she took over the galaxy. The great white beast would be backed up by a couple of shuttles full of synthetic soldiers ready to swarm in and finish off any student left alive after the initial attack.

The countdown was on.

5...

4...

3...

2...

1...

Go! Go! Go!

IB and Raz, thanks again for your feedback. Next up... *ulp* all hell breaks loose!

Gasp! This promises to be an epic battle with higher stakes than almost any you have had before, Harbi!

Legion World Two

Had the attack happened only two hours earlier there's a fair chance it might have achieved its aim and destroyed the Legion and their base.

Thankfully for the Legion they were on high alert after Saturn Girl's probing of the team's minds had discovered several different scenarios that a large number of them shared suggestions about. One of the most common psychic commands was to run towards any armed intruder on Legion World Two offering no resistance. After hearing that information both Lu and Dirk, who had taken over temporary command, gave the order to be on full alert.

After making everyone present on their new base meet up to be scanned by Saturn Girl there was no hiding that there was something very serious going on.

At first the senior team avoided directly answering questions but as more and more of their teammates were found to have telepathic implanted compulsions that were detrimental to the team it became very apparent that they needed to make an announcement to stave off the growing resentment, fear and confusion that their teammates felt. Initially there was disbelief and shock though this quickly became a resolute determination to deal with the situation they had found themselves in.

It was Gear's announcement that kick started the team into action. The Linsnarian literally grew out of the floor before the senior team and before anyone could move said that the cloud of nannites that he had currently surrounding Legion world two had encountered several large crafts with sophisticated cloaking systems. He could also feel an increasing in magnetic energy fields along the outside of Legion World two that pointed towards serious technological activity close by, yet the standard sensor arrays could not find anything within 30,000 klicks. He finished by saying he believed that given the current situation he could only assume they were away to be invaded by stealth.

Sun Boy immediately separated the team into groups and barked orders.

Tyroc had Sade, Chemical Kid, Lightning Lass, the Spear of Artemis and Karate Kid join with him to the southern docking bay. Sun Boy took Gazelle, Ferro, Kid Quantum, Dragonmage and the two Comets with to the northern. Any attempts to board the station through conventional means would be stymied by Legionnaires waiting to pounce while also providing coverage at the two ends of the planetoid.

Duplicate Girl took charge of the remaining Legionnaires and set them each with tasks.

Legion World One - the Academy

The Gil'Dishpan's warp opened before the carved wooden doors.

Two soldiers strolled out and without a backwards look kicked the doors to henry's control room open. The holo-man from the 75th century stood beside the large mushroom like structure that contained the essence of his personality and the technology that allowed him to create the spatial warps that allowed the Legion free access to the galaxy.

"Gentlemen, I would prefer not to have to hurt you so please leave at once." Henry smiled as he spoke.

The two soldiers stretched out their hands to channel their native Braalian magno-kinesis and within seconds the mushroom like structure was ripped apart and scattered across the room like litter after a storm.

"Idiots. I moved my core essence to a safe location a while back, that was simply theatre..." The holo broke into a wide grin as a warp opened under the soldiers and they vanished.

"I may not be all I was but I can still protect myself..."

Another honey and violet warp opened and three Gil'Dishpan fell onto the floor before the holo-man with a painful sounding whack!

"I don't like uninvited guests disturbing me. You will not send any more soldiers into my home." The three methane breathers fell into another honey and violet warp before they could reply, just as Henry knew they would.

This part of the team's history had been very well documented even in the far distant future when he was originally from, and in fact in under a year one of those Gil'Dishpan he had just sent to a distant world would aid the legionnaires against the resurgent Devil's Dozen... Henry waited, aware that he could not directly interfere with what must happen today any more than he already had. The legion would need to tackle this situation on their own, regardless of what it cost them.

Phantom Girl led Timber Wolf, Kinetix, Thirteen, Glorith and Babbage to protect the mammoth Q-Drive engines that powered their satellite headquarters. This group all thought that despite Saturn Girl picking up imprinted suggestions to leave the Q-Drive unprotected they had been assigned a non combat role and were disappointed by their posting.

They were the first to see action.

They had been here for under two minutes when within the huge space that housed the immense generators two large warps opened up in the air before them. The swirling circular pattern of the special warps clearly identified them as Gil'Dishpan Warpsmith creations. The team sprung in action, almost more relieved that their sentry duty would see action than worried about what was coming.

"The one on the left is mine" Thirteen yelled as his eyes started to glow.

Several dark figures appeared inside the tubular trans-dimensional construct, but even as they got close to the edge of the warp and the Legion's base the circular walls of the warp started to buckle and the beings seemed to be stretched away. As the warp became more unstable the figures all but vanished though one reached forward and flung an object towards the Naltorian as he concentrated on altering the probabilities that governed the warp. Thirteen was unaware how close he had come to having a Talokian hunters knife in his throat until he heard a clang as it rebounded off one of Glorith's mystic shields.

The quiet sorceress nodded to her teammate as he looked up with surprise. He had been lost in the moment as he focused upon removing the immediate threat. The warp started to stabilize as his concentration was broken and the three figures advanced unsteadily towards the legionnaires.

"Oh no you don't..." Thirteen said as he resumed dealing with the threat. This time his eyes shone brightly and the warp started to spin as it buckled. Seconds later it vanished with a loud pop!

While Dann and Glorith had been dealing with one warp the rest of his teammates had to deal with uninvited guests that had leapt from the second.

Four figures had jumped from that warp. Three of them had immediately been hurled into the floor by Zoe Saugin's telekinesis, her abilities not affecting the fourth as he floated across the floor towards the Legionnaires. Babbage fired a small barrage of mini-missiles from his forearm that exploded on top of these three fallen invaders. Two of these got up immediately, the third remained unconscious.

Phantom Girl approached the invader that had been unaffected by Zoe's telekinesis. She knew the man in the dark combat armour was from her home dimension, she could feel the vibrations of distant Bgztl radiating from him.

"Tinya Wazzo... the girl who will never go home." His face creased into a grin as he spoke. Phantom Girl could see he was reaching for a weapon on his belt. Tinya flew as fast as she could towards the invader. If he was also from Bgztl then his weapon would be likely to affect her and she didn't want to take that chance. As she swung a fist at him he ducked and rabbit punched her in the ribs. Phantom Girl phased back into solidity as his other fist approached her face, allowing it to pass through her. Without waiting for him to act she took an incapacity cuff in each hand and swung them both towards him. The one in her left hand caught his upper arm and curled around his muscles releasing an anesthetic to knock the invader out.

The senior team member had a lot more experience at phasing than the soldier - one of her hands had been solid while the other was phantom... Tinya made certain he was going down no matter how he reacted.

Kinetix approached the fallen invader. She recognized Tayla Skott and was appalled that one of the former academy students would be turned against the Legion. Zoe was smart enough not to touch her fallen opponent, as Lamprey could discharge potentially lethal electric bolts and Kinetix had no urge to get fried today. Using her telekinesis Zoe Saugin levitated a set of incapacity cuffs onto her former fellow student's wrist. If Zoe hadn't have been upset by the teams current situation before she certainly was now! Tayla had been one of there own.

Timber Wolf punched his opponent fully on the face snapping their head around. Still, the large invader came towards the Zuunian Legionnaire. Brin Londo flipped himself over the large man's head before kicking out at the invaders back. with this the invader stumbled and clumsily tried to regain his balance. As incredibly strong and tough as he was the invader was much slower than his Legionnaire opponent and Timber wolf took the second or two of imbalance to flip over the big man again and kick him in the throat, sending him flying into a nearby wall. As the invader shook his head and started to stand Brin slapped a set of incapacity cuffs on him, rendering him almost immediately unconscious.

Babbage struggled with the final opponent. Just as the Robotican had approached the last invader the Legionnaire had been slammed backwards by a powerful magno-kinetic blast. Babbage did not have time to recover as the wall he had crashed into was magnetically torn down upon him. As the Robotican ripped the barrier that had been put in his way apart he heard creaking and cracking alerting him to the immense wall of engineering that was part of the immense Q-Drive functions were being damaged by his Braalian opponent.

There were several loud crashing sounds and then silence... Babbage's senses had been blocked by the thick sheet of cladding that the invader had covered the Legionnaire with.

"He really shouldn't have thrown you around like that Babbage, so I gave him a taste of his own medicine." Zoe Saugin said. She had telekinetically thrown the invader against a wall then into the floor before upwards to smash into the ceiling and finally back onto the floor. She stood over the unconscious attacker and forcefully slapped a set of incapacity cuffs on his wrists.

"Legionnaires..." Babbage said loudly, "I believe we are in peril as my sensors indicate a breach forming in the anti-matter unit above." The Robotican Legionnaire pointed up towards where the Braalian had damaged the sensitive engineering works.

Thirteen looked up at the damage wall and swore before announcing to his teammates "Guys... if this goes up we'll do a lot of damage, Legion world'll be like a new star for several seconds. The chain reaction might set off Saturn... certainly irradiate the moons for a millennia. You need to evacuate... Go, get out of here. I'm going to try something..."

"What you gonna do Dann?" Brin said.

"Save you ass, if you get going now... please, this will take all my concentration to fix...."

As the Legionnaires picked up the captured invaders and flew out of the cavernous engineering deck the Natorian's eyes glowed with a fierce light as he re-wrote the very reality around hm.

Legion World One - the Academy

The great white beast had been sent to eliminate the staff and students at the Academy.

There was a small cruiser with forty heavily armed synthetic guards hidden within folds of EM and TP shielding four klicks from the northern docking bay ready to lend a hand if needed, though as the beast had served successfully on many black-op missions for the UP over the last century no-one really expected that it would need assistance.

The beast had a 100% successful kill rate.

If it weren't for the quick reactions of one of the student the great white beast may very well have succeeded on this mission as well.

The great white beast floated through the outer skin of the planetoid sensing one of its prey directly ahead of it and within its brutal mind it fantasized about the smell of its opponents blood and the taste of their fear. It had been disappointed on its last mission - the Seer on Nordhelm had remained unruffled as the great beast tore him limb from limb. The old precognitives strength of will had been too much even for this deadly creature to crack.

It intended to make sure that every one of the puny creatures it had been sent to kill this time were suitably terrified as they took their final breaths. As it would be sent back to its holding pen after this mission for an indeterminately long period of time - until the next mission - it wanted to have the memories of the victims agonising deaths to savour.

The Dryadian student called Metallix couldn't sleep. It was 0548 standard and she knew she would never get any rest so had gotten out of her bed and was making her way towards a refectory for breakfast, She had struggled with being a student at the Academy for the last month and in the last few days had found herself doubting more and more why she ever came to this place. This feeling of discontent had built up until she had argued with her friends and fellow students the night before in the refectory over a minor point that would usually have been ignored. After shouting down Kid Nimbus and Solar Gorilla - both of whom she usually rather liked - she had stormed out to go to her apartment. She hadn't replied to any of the notifications on her personal holo-comm and had shut off the door chime. It was seven hours later that she ventured out and now found herself walking the dark empty halls with her doubts and fears for company.

One of Dru Della's biggest fears was that if she were to ever become a full Legionnaire she could be brutally murdered in the line of duty. Sadly, that fear was away to come to pass before she even had the opportunity to graduate.

The beast reached out at the student as she passed it by. Its formidable psychic powers had kept it hidden from her, though she had thought she had heard a breath... her mind was focused on her own woes so she ignored it as she might a passing breeze. The beasts clawed fingers tore into her metallic torso and slowly ripped her upper torso clean free of her lower body. As it did so it telepathically projected what it was experiencing into its victim's dying mind so she too would experience her murderer's happiness at her horrific bloody death. It was a hideously long ten seconds before it was over as her nascent scream faded and her hot blood had sprayed out for metres across the walls of the corridor. The beast revelled in the sensation. It had been a long time since it had been ordered to cause such obvious carnage and the beast planned on enjoying every second of this opportunity before the UP Black-Op Security Forces took it back to its dark cell. On the periphery of its awareness the beast knew that there were more students approaching and it started to turn, eager to murder more of the potential Legionnaires.

Before the murderous beast could fully turn Ballistix flew into it, smashing against its muscular torso and painfully ramming it against a rough wall. Behind her the Naltorian called Prescience took charge as he commanded his fellow students into action, as dictated by his sleeping prophecy.

The beast swung a mighty arm and the blow threw the Zuunian synthezoid down the corridor. As it did Kid Dynamo jumped forward and punched the white horror as hard as he could muster on the jaw and followed that blow up with powerful uppercut to the sternum. The punches sounded like thunder as they landed along the confines of the planetoid's corridors, the walls shaking with the force of each blow. The beasts stumbled. Before the student could land a third punch the beast head butted him and its form twisted and bulked up as it grew two more arms to grab around the muscular youth, pinning him arms.

From along the corridor another student raced towards the beast. Bouncing Boy ii had not felt fully awake as he followed Prescience down the corridors to reach here but as soon as he had seen the blood and remains of his fellow student Metallix the young man from Pasnic's adrenaline had kicked in and he was ready for action. The beast reached out with it's telepathic might, trying to stop the young hero in his tracks, but Stoor Chamble's spherical force field dispersed the psychic assault. As Bouncing Boy reached the beast Kid Dynamo grabbed its arms and bent his knees, pushing himself backwards with all his might to throw the beast off balance and in towards the other students diamond hard and fast moving force shield.

The new Bouncing Boy rebounded unharmed down the corridor after colliding heavily with the beast though without a seconds let up Ultra Girl activated her Red Energy and tore into the beast, smashing it through the planetoids walls and out into open space outside. Ballistix had picked herself up and flew out of the gap even as a protective force field generated by the planetoid grew over the hole stopping the rest of the students from being sucked out into space after their battling comrades.

"Go Ultra Girl ... Non and Atomsmasher will be waiting for you." Prescience said to himself. "Right... " he turned around to the wall comm unit and pressed the alert code. An alarm would sound throughout the Academy and any other invaders would find that the students and staff were ready for them.

Or so Gord Eno hoped... his vision hadn't really extended that far.

Wow, Harbi! Truly chilling story here, layers of deception and frightening how widespread and deep the mental manipulation has been. Thank the stars for Imra and (it appears) that the manipulator didn't reach far enough to mess with her mind. If they could get to Aven, could Imra resist?

That 10 second countdown to the death of Metallix was also highly effective. I counted out loud and thought about what it would be like to take that long to die in agony. Brrr! (I hope I go quick!)

Also very moving is the limitation of Prescience, to know only so far how things will turn out, and of Henry, knowing, but unable to interfere.

The Star Crusher Class Battle Dreadnought initiated the program that would lead to it firing up its main weapon.

This was potentially the riskiest moment in the plan for the invading force as it needed to drop out of warp and would give the Legionnaires a twelve second window to act. The military advisors and their mistress had all agreed that it was a chance they would take as the PKB - the acronym for the main energy particle beam weapon, The Planet Killer Beam - would blow a massive hole right through the Legion's planetoid base with one blast if it had a clear shot.

In the cavernous deck that housed the delicate machinery that focused and controlled the PKB weaponry Henry's honey and violet warp spun open and Andromeda flew through, quickly followed by her teammates from the Nordhelm mission. The technical crew that witnessed the Legionnaires arrival all immediately turned on the team and attacked.

<Guys, they're all synths... I'll deal with them if you want to find other things to break> By the time Andromeda had completed sending her telepathic message she had corralled all of the attacking staff against a wall and ripped a strip of metal from the walls to construct a fence of sorts to keep them there.

"She is... ah, very impressive!" Nethrus the Valkyri said to Lexikon.

The Tamaranean smiled as she replied, "Yes. Andromeda is definitely that."

Brainiac 5 examined the engineering before him for several seconds, his eyes darting across the 100 metre long stretch of intricate wiring and plates held within a maze of energy fields - he could see the tremendous skill that had went into creating this energy amplification machinery as it spun its fields within fields...

"This needs dismantling." He pointed to a point about half way along a wall of small square circuit boards, suspended in an anti-grav environment. Before he could turn around he was slammed into the floor by a super fast opponent. Querl Dox was rarely caught of guard and was usually prepared for most eventualities. His attacker realized too late that the Coluan had activated his personal force field to automatically protect him when any fast moving object approached. While the semi-conscious Brainiac 5 bounced across the metal floor his attacker - a young wiry built man wearing a sleek armour of black and deep violet - rebounded off the Legionnaire's force field and crashed into a desk and set of chairs sending them flying.

An alarm raged in the distance. The Legionnaires knew this would not be an easy fight.

Legion World One - the Academy

Out in space Ultra Girl pushed the beast for a klick into the darkness in well under a second.

Kid Dynamo still clung on to it and silently gave thanks that the student flight ring he wore included an eco-protect function saving him from a potentially painful death in the harsh vacuum of space. He desperately tried to hurt the attacking beast by using the inch-punch technique Gim had shown the students two weeks before as its claws dug into his upper arms. Ultra Girl let go of the beast and redirected the Red Energy that coursed through her into concussive force blasts. The beast was distracted by the two students physical assaults but was not stopped as it swiped at Kid Dynamo, knocking him almost unconscious. It then turned towards Ultra Girl and slowly made its way towards her through her Red Energy blasts, its shape become more hideous as it got closer as deadly looking spikes grew out of its shoulders and skull and its claws extended...

Ballistix sped past Ultra Girl and delivered a mighty blow at the beast's face before it smashed an arm into her midriff and sent the synthezoid spinning away. From out of the darkness Atomsmasher, Southern Lights and Non arrived just as Prescience had predicted. The Wraithcat's three long whip like tails wrapped around the beasts neck and it curled itself over, its slick alien body forming the shape of a comma with its dark almost featureless head just centimeters from the beast's face as it forcefully extended its own telepathy into the beasts mind. Ergus Atomsmasher projected a full barrage of its hyper senses awareness of their surroundings into its opponents thoughts, overwriting the beasts own awareness with its own alien abstraction and logic, senses without name screeching the unknowable at maximum volume through every corner of the murderous beast's mind.

As this happened the Negative Energy being called Non phased its radioactive body into the creature to occupy the same space and activated its explosive touch on the beasts innards.

Southern Lights floated twenty five metres away, avoiding the riccochetting of Ultra Girl's Red Energy force blasts he closed his eyes to summon a spirit to guide him towards the knowledge that would help them defeat their dread opponent. In his minds eye he could see that the beast was centuries old, its race all but wiped out millennia before... the beasts homeworld was a barren red waste... its canals had long ran dry...

Mars!

It was a White Martian!

A race of beings that the Guardians of Oa, in fear of the staggering meta-potential of the Martians, had influenced many thousands of years before to include one critical weakness...

<Fire! We need fire... it's a Martian. Atomsmasher, can you project the feelings of fire into its thoughts? It is terrified of flames...> The student from Starhaven sent to his non-human teammate.

Although the Wraithcat did not respond directly, the already struggling beast started to writhe and flail in abject desperation. The Wraithcat had seen solar flares from the bloated star Betelgeuse that extended many hundred of thousands of klicks into space and a season ago had danced amongst these truly stellar displays of cosmic fire. It threw these sizzling memories in every exquisite incendiary detail into the beasts thoughts. Southern Lights hovered for another few seconds casting a second spell, one that could influence the creature to sleep. The winged student from Starhaven closed his eyes again and uttered words from a language so ancient it had no name.

It took several more tense seconds until the beast fell but the fight against the ancient beast was effectively over as the spell was cast.

Gord Eno smiled but as his colleagues cheered a series of visions flashed across his senses alerting him to a deadly fact: The students fight was far from over.

As that happened, even as the students involved in this desperate fight started to celebrate their victory, the shuttle with the synthetic troops that had been held in reserve docked at the planetoids northern bay and the deadly cargo stepped out, the soldiers activating their chameleon cloth camouflage as they charged out of their craft and into the Academy to search for students to murder.

And Gord now knew that two of his friends were unknowingly running straight towards them like eager sacrifices.

Legion World Two

XS barrelled down the corridor towards where Duplicate Girl had told her there had been a breach.

At the speed she travelled the world around her seemed to freeze. Jenni reached the area were she had been sent in under a second, the cargo bay on the 'western' side of the planetoid used mostly for storage. Ahead of her were five figures wearing SP uniforms and behind them the bay doors stood slightly open. This was a small team obviously sent for infiltration and stealth, no doubt hoping to surprise the team with their attack.

The first opponent had green skin with a large omnicrom in her hand - a Coluan! Jenni shouldered the invader aside, sending her flying across the barn like room.

The second was a young man with pale curly hair and an SP officer uniform - Jenni guessed he was a Naltorian though didn't stop to ask as she held her arm out as she passed and swept him off his feet with a thunderous blow.

The third had a wiry frame and a small dorsal fin ran along her head - she had no idea what planet this one was from but that didn't stop the Legionnaire from shoving her aside like she had the first, aware that at the speed she was moving the speed the kinetic energy would throw her opponent across the room.

The fourth made her hair start to stand on end as she approached - they were generating either electricity or magnetic fields. XS assumed they were from Braal and that was how this team had managed to open the bay door. He was also struck and would be crashing into the wall in a second.

The fifth turned towards her as she approached and smiled.

Jenni crashed to a halt, shocked by his reaction!

"A speedster, what a delicious ability to have..." The muscular pale blue skinned man sounded Talokean to XS but she wasn't sure... if he had just somehow duplicated her abilities then they were in for a tough time as someone with her speed could cause serious trouble!

He started to race off with the Legionnaire in hot pursuit. Jenni caught his heel with her toe, just enough to throw the mimic off balance and send him crashing into a stack of crates. He may have copied her ability but didn't have the experience needed to navigate the pitfalls of super-speed collisions. Before he could recover Jenni slapped incapacity cuffs on his wrist. Quickly glancing around she realised that the other four invaders had all crashed into various parts of the bay. Checking the pouches on her belt, she made sure she had enough cuffs before zipping around the large room and slapping them onto the fallen foes.

*Phew!* that was close!

She wiped her brow and hoped Po was having more luck wherever it was that Mon El had taken him...

Legion World Two - Sun Boy, Gazelle, Ferro, Kid Quantum, Dragonmage, Comet Queen, Comet King

Jazmin froze the drones as they flew into the docking bay. There were twelve in total and she thought they looked like nightmarish metal jellyfish.

Without a word she then took Dirk's hand and led him into her stasis bubbles. Once inside the senior team member put his free hand on top of the drones and blasted them into streams of melting sludge on the floor. Kid quantum had sweat pouring from her forehead and looked faint as she finally dropped her quantum field.

"Sorry Jaz, I tried to control the heat but it took a lot to get through their shielding." He took the young Xanthuian by the arm and led her to a seat. She gratefully sat down, wiped the sweat off her forehead with her hand and took several deep breaths.

"INCOMING!" Comet King shouted from above. As Sun Boy and Kid Quantum had disposed of the attacking war-drones the former soldier had flown up to the edge of the docking bay to check for any further attacks.

They all felt the electric hum of huge magnetic fields ripple across their skin. The Braalians on board the shuttles had activated their native abilities to limit the movement of the planetoid's structure.

Sun Boy used his flight ring to rise up to the lip of the docking bay, his teammates taking the cue to follow him. Against the dark sky they could see the shuttle crafts disgorge their crew. Comet Queen and Comet King flashed past him as they flew up to engage with the attacking force.

<Comets.... move out the way!> Sun Boys urgent command momentarily startled Grava but Drinchnar swept her aside protectively.

Dirk concentrated for a second before pointing his hands in the general direction and unleashing blasts of plasma. The attacking force lost formation as they scrambled out of the way of the blasts. One of the bolts of stellar energy tore through a shuttle craft causing it to erupt in explosive flames. At Sun Boy's side Dragonmage closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening his hands outwards. Small twinkling points of light issued from his palms that streaked towards the invaders. The sparkling lights grew and assumed slinky dragon forms as they reached their goals. The soldier were all armed and fired their weapons towards the glowing green dragons but their discharge passed harmless through them, unfortunately for the soldiers the dragons were not so ephemeral when they cam into contact with them. The spell summoned a small army of mystical beasts that tore their way through a large section of the advancing force, tearing armour and paraphernalia off the synthetics body before lunging their teeth and claws into the soldiers bodies.

Dragonmage fell backwards as an energy bolt tore violently through his shoulder spraying his blood and chips of shattered bone behind him. His flight ring's auto-medical app immediately pumped his body full of pain killers, effectively knocking the young mystic unconscious, in a bid to stop the intense pain. As he fell his dragons faded. The dragons had disabled almost a third of the attacking force before disappearing.

Kid Quantum flew across to the injured Dragonmage and grabbed for the medi-pouch on her belt. She had taken basic battle field first aid courses and thought she would be confident in these situations but seeing the bloody damage before her made her feel nauseated. She willed a bubble of stasis around the injury as she removed the tourniquet gel from her pouch. It was designed to be a short term solution to major injuries as it would seal any wound and release a mild anaesthetic. She liberally poured it onto Xao's blasted shoulder and checked his pulse at his throat. He appeared to be breathing fine so she turned her face up to the attacking force and flew out to stop them. They had hurt her friend so now she wanted to stop them with an added vigour!

Ferro and Gazelle pushed their flight rings to hurl them at great speed towards the invading force and within a second were engaged in hectic hand to hand fighting. Comet Queen and King returned to the fray, her speed and agility keeping the attackers from getting close while she blinded them with noxious fume, his aggression and military training gave him an edge of precision as he slammed his way through a column of attacking soldiers. Sun Boy knew it would be up to him to disable the shuttle crafts that were popping into sight with well aimed bolts of fiery plasma.

The Legionnaires fought for their lives as the sheer volume of synthetic soldiers swept towards their headquarters.

Legion World One - the Academy

Jadee Whittakka - Friction of the Senior training squad, and Josi Rista - Magno Lass from Team Cosmic, were already up and running laps around the upper corridors when the alarm screamed its warning.

The two potential Legionnaires had struck up an uneasy friendship. Both were quite focused on their reasons for being here - they wanted to be Legionnaires more than anything else - but neither had quite managed to see that having such a singular drive did not mean they had to be so competitive with their fellow students and as a result both had been marked down for their lack of initiative for team working. Both girls were disappointed but two nights ago they had gotten talking in one of the refectories and decided to meet regularly to discuss their training and what they had achieved. They had agreed to support each other as they worked towards their goals - surely the tutors would give them additional credits for that?

This morning Josi had pinged Jadee to ask if she wanted to join her on an super-early morning run. Both had early classes so they wouldn't be getting a long lie in anyway... And, thirty four minutes later here they were, approaching the Northern Docking bay... the alarm sounded and both quickly looked around but as they couldn't see anything unusual they kept on jogging.

Gord Eno screamed into his flight ring "Jadee, Josi, look out! Get ready, we're under attack! You need to get under cover!"

His vision having shown him that his fellow students would be close to the main attacking force. The Naltorian didn't bother listening for their reply as he quickly contacted other students that he knew had suites nearby. On that level it was mainly the Cosmic Crew's quarters. After waking Hardal of Granite Falls - the student called Tectonik, and D'Nadka Endarooga - Solar Gorilla, the Naltorian checked a hard light read out from his flight ring to see if any more of his fellow students were close by to assist his peers repulse the attacking force.

As their precognitive colleague focused on getting help to them many levels below Friction pushed Magno Lass into a side room.

"We need to catch our breaths if we wanna take these gits by surprise." she hissed into the Braalians ear. "I'm gonna stick the floor, they won't get too far. You get ready to pull the walls in on them, okay?"

Outside of the Northern Docking Bay the former Legionnaires Wildfireand Colossal Boy flew into action. They had been warned by the senior team to expect trouble, and after Kid Pulsar had announced that they would all be dead within a few days Duplicate Girl had been hawkishly watching the monitor board, alert for any potential trouble. When Ultra Girl had smashed the beast out of the Academy into space and Prescience had activated the general alarm the tutors all leapt into action eager to ensure none of their students were harmed in any confrontation.

Comic Boy, Night Girl and Chameleon Girl flew to support the students already in combat, each painfully aware that they were not going to be in time to save anyone that may have already fallen and determined to do their best for the students that remained.

The Star Crusher Class Battle Dreadnought

More guards streamed through the doors at one end of the large room, their blasters firing potentially lethal doses of high temperature plasma. Andromeda swooped into action again and removed and smashed each weapon at hyper velocity. The disturbed air wake from her moving so fast created a wall of air that swept the first half a dozen guards backwards to crash into the comrades that followed them.

Lexikon, Starkling and the two Valkyri - Nethrus and Astrild - ran to assist their Kryptonian colleague. Retro approached the speedster that had attacked Brainiac 5, using his chronal reversing skill to keep the attacker on the floor. After slapping a set of incapacity cuffs on him Retro checked to make sure if his colleagues needed any assistance. Invisible Kid and Magnus Laviksen rushed to help Brainiac 5 who lay groaning in a semi-foetal position on the floor.

"Can you look after 'im magnus? Per'aps you can 'ide Querl and keep 'im safe until he iz fully conscious?" Jacques Foccart asked. The young man nodded, though his expression was one of confusion and terror. Invisible Kid immediately recognized how the young man from far away Nordhelm felt - this was far, far bigger than anything he would have encountered before.

"I recall my first mission, I was 'appy to be invisible so no-one could see my teeth chatter I was so afraid! Please, mon ami, use an illusion as I need to get to work..." Jacques patted Magnus once on the shoulder in solidarity before turning and vanishing from view. Once fully invisible Jacques glanced over his shoulder and saw that the young man and Brainiac 5 had both vanished as well, the illusion was working!

As his teammates fought the security teams and automated defences that this immense battle cruiser had installed Jacques Foccart went back to where Querl Dox had been standing. What had the Coluan seen that he had tried to get his teammates to destroy? Jacques knew he would never understand this technology without assistance. He lifted his hand to his mouth and spoke into the comm on his flight ring, hoping that the only person he could think of would help.

"Danielle... ma Cherie, we urgently need your 'elp." Jacques quickly described the situation they had found themselves in all the while hoping that his sister was both listening and had calmed down enough after he had upset her to help them. After finishing talking he willed into action the scanning function of his flight ring and waved his hand in front of the bank of machinery before him.

A second later a holo of the Legionnaire's sister appeared before him, she kept her eyes low and did not acknowledge him.

After a tense couple of seconds where Jacques was suddenly very aware that his colleagues had left the bay they had transported into as they wrecked havoc on the craft, Danielle nodded and gave a very rare smile.

"It will stop now Jacques." She said in a quiet voice as her holo faded out of view.

There was a loud crunching noise before the lights flickered and the banks of energy fields that held the exotic engineering faded and fizzled out.

The Star Crusher Battle Cruiser's main weapon had failed and with it Legion World Two's chances of survival had risen exponentially.

Oh my Harbi, you do write these epic battles so well! Good job building such a diverse army, this allows you to think of such epic scenes without having to bring in established villains.

Lamprey! Is she here due to mind-control? I'm sure you will cover that soon. Nice touch showing Zoe's consternation.

Nice trick too with Jazmin pulling Dirk into her stasis bubbles. It makes sense that time would pass at the same rate for anyone IN them.

A White Martian! Good job, having the students take it down in such a convincing way, though not before it had claimed a casualty...

You certainly know how to keep the stakes high.

I also like how you use Henry, like it has a role to play in the "present", but it cannot change the history that it knows.

Eagerly awaiting more!

I'm with IB, this is really epic Harbi! There's a definite sense of it continually escalating high stakes and a great sense of tension!

Love the White Martian!! Those things are scary, I like how it was taken down and how it came across as not being something that was easy to do. I am normally not a fan of someone being slaughtered straight up by the bad guy without even being able to put up a fight, but in this case I think it really sells how dangerous he is....these guys have taken on the Justice League, they really should be as deadly as this one is shown here.

I am really liking Thirteen's ongoing competence without making him over the top...like it's obvious he has a lot to learn but also that he's very much on the way to being a really solid member of the team.

I also really liked Jacques and Danielle's scene...I like the way you write her, she's pretty unique among all the various versions of the Legion we have floating around here

Legion World Two - Tyroc, Monica Sade, Chemical Kid, Lightning Lass, the Spear of Artemis and Karate Kid

The drones flew into the southern docking bay, scanning the area for signs of life as they followed their orders to search and exterminate.

The team had had only ten seconds notice as the drones were all but invisible to traditional scanning methods. Tyroc signalled his team to wait, the distorters they each wore on their belts had been activated to mask them from any technological search and locating systems and he knew that once the team took action their element of surprise would be lost. The drones looked like techno-organic jellyfish with a dark dome on top of dozens of trailing arms that flickered with small lights and buzzed with power - these were the apex of current stealth warfare - a dozen could easily clear out a city within an hour as they tracked and ruthlessly destroyed living beings for klicks around them. Sade stood beside him, her guns already in her hands waiting for the opportunity to blast these intruders.

Hadru was at one side of the entrance way into the docking bay where he could sense the chemical reactions that were flickering like neurons within the small domed tops of the drones and he subtly activated his abilities to slow them down; once Troy had given the command the young Chemical kid intended to stop them from firing altogether. Lightning Lass was at his side, holding back her electrical energies so as not to give their position away. Amynta stood in the centre of the docking bay with her enchanted spear in her hands waiting for the opportunity to smash as many of the invaders as she could, while beside her the elf-like Karate Kid was motionless other than her dark eyes that tracked the movement of the approaching machines of war.

Ten drones were inside the docking bay, their scanners flicking fans of light across each surface. There didn't appear to be any more coming in so Tyroc thought it was time for the team to act.

<On Three... 1... 2... 3!>

Simultaneously Chemical Kid reached out and froze all chemical reaction that were taking place within the drones while Lightning Lass focussed on her electrical manipulation ability to disrupt the internal circuitry. Amynta threw her enchanted spear which then flew in an improbable curve as it explosively skewered drone after drone. Tyroc screamed at a frequency that shattered the metal of the drones while Sade blasted them with bolt after bolt of concussive blasts from her twin pistols. As the carnage came to an end Karate Kid jumped into the fray to smash any of the remaining drones with precisely positioned blows from her elbow spikes while the Spear of Artemis crushed several in her hands into powder.

The drones which were renowned to be some of the deadliest creations of war known to the UP had been destroyed in under thirty seconds

The team didn't have time to celebrate as blaster fire tore into the southern docking bay followed closely by dozens of synthetic troops looking for Legion blood.

The Spear of Artemis didn't wait for orders as she launched herself at hyper speed towards their attackers using her incredible strength to smash her way through the ranks of advancing troopers.

"I love that girl!" Monica Sade said before disappearing only to reappear not far from a column of the attackers with her guns blazing.

<Guys... you know what to do. Stop 'em!> Tyroc sent across the artificial telepathic link.

The team flew straight into action as wave after wave of heavily armoured opponents tried to invade the Legionnaires headquarters.

Mon El, Thunder, the Green Lantern and Cosmic Kid left the airlock and flew out to meet the Dreadnought Cruiser that had just dropped out from its cloaked hiding place.

Mon El and Thunder took the lead while the Green Lantern spun an emerald bubble around their new team mate from another dimension. As fast as Dkyun flew she was left behind as the Daxamite and daughter of Black Adam flung themselves at hyper velocities towards the dreadnought. Cosmic Kid watched carefully for any weapons fire, getting ready to manipulate the energy to suit his own purposes. Although Mon El and Thunder were too far away within seconds to see clearly Po Miman could clearly make out the damage they caused as they ripped weapons off the sides of the huge space vessel.

Several small explosions ripped the bottom of the Dreadnought and Po Miman reached out with his mind to capture the energy and funnel it back in towards the immense vessel of war setting off further explosions which he tried to push back into the attacking craft. By now they were less than 200 meters from the underside of the Dreadnought and it's armoury started to automatically fire on the Legionnaires. Po was perfectly safe from within the emerald bubble the green Lantern had spun so used these energy bolts and x-laser beams to destroy the large stack of sensor arrays that ran down the central spine of the craft. While Cosmic Kid dealt with the weapons the green Lantern focussed her will and prised into a big hole an explosion had gouged into the dark underside of the dreadnought.

Two beings flew out of the hole, one a winged Science Police officer with long dark hair that looked very similar to the Legionnaire's teammate Dawnstar and the other a tall man wearing a Daxamite military outfit. The Legionnaires realised that the Dreadnought had its own meta-team!

Dkyun Mu reached out with tendrils of emerald energy and caught the man in the Daxamite uniform but the winged opponent swerved and avoided the trap. In a blur the Starhavenite had flown at the Green Lantern and barrelled into her throwing the Legionnaire off balance. While the Green Lantern and her winged opponent tussled the Daxamite ripped through the strands of emerald energy and flew towards Cosmic Kid.

Po Miman had fought a Daxamite once before in his home dimension when the Squids of Infinity had invaded their galaxy. He had barely survived that encounter but had at least learned a valuable lesson. Daxamites were walking talking power cells that could absorb solar energy to charge their super-dense muscles. without light energy they were pretty much powerless so the young Legionnaire from the far away reality reached out again and this time focussed on removing the photonic energy from within the Daxamite and redistributing it into a blinding flash in front of his attackers eyes.

<Well done Cosmic Kid. I'll take care of him from here> Dkyun Mu's reedy voice said across the artificial telepathic grid that linked the Legionnaires. An emerald energy bubble expanded around the weakened Daxamite as the Green Lantern contained the two meta's that had threatened the Legionnaires.

<Thanks GL. That was exciting... so, what now? You ready to get busy again?> Cosmic Kid's exuberance shone through his reply.

Colossal Boy smashed into the shuttle craft while Wildfire chased after the soldiers that had already disembarked.

Drake Burroughs swore that if any of his team of students were hurt he would burn whoever was responsible down to ashes! As he flew into the corridor the anti-energy Legionnaire was stopped in his tracks by the sight awaiting him.

The corridor had a slight violet glow that he knew indicated the student called Friction was maximizing the effects of the interactive force she took her code name from. There were walls of flames burning brightly though both sides of the corridor walls had been ripped up. Within the flaming walls were twenty or so rocky looking cocoons...

"What the devil...?"

"Wildfire! Over here..." Solar Gorilla stood at the far end of the corridor waving her long arms at the anti-energy Legionnaire.

"D'Nadka... what are you doing?"

"We caught them all Drake but Josi... Magno Lass got shot."

Wildfire sped through the surreal corridor, aware that his suit was sparking from the sudden hike in air friction, not that that would stop him, he had a student to tend to.

Solar Gorilla, Friction and Tektonik were stood watching the strange cocoons while the Legionnaire dived down to the other students stood around a figure on the floor. The Silver Shaman, the bio-kinetic from Avalon, was knelt over the unconscious Magno Lass. The tall youth's hand were on her stomach where a lot of blood appeared to have been spilled. Wildfire rudely pushed past Kid Nimbus, Flipside and Strobe in his eagerness to check on the injured student.

"How's she doin'?"

"She will be okay now sir, her stomach and liver were perforated and there was much burning of her flesh but I believe it has been resolved..." The young healer looked up at the Legionnaire and gave a warm smile.

"Okay... good job Shardwurd. Now, can one of you tell me what's goin' on here?" He pointed to the strange rocky pods that filled the corridor.

"Oh that... we kicked their asses is what's going on!" Strobe said with his usual exuberance.

"Wildfire..." Friction began, taking charge of the conversation,"Josi and I were warned by Gord... Prescience... so we hid around the corridor. I set up slippy friction on the floor once the soldiers came in, and then Josi collapsed the walls in on them then wrapped the steel around them, then Hadral and D'Naka came along... they finished it by encasing them in rock and put up fire pens to make sure they didn't escape. One of them got a lucky shot off and wounded Josi so I maxxed out air friction to help keep them trapped... will there be any more? Do we need to get get reay for another attack..." The student spoke quickly as her adrenaline still pumped fast in the excitement.

"You did real good kids, you should be proud. This is... well, this is excellent work. Gim's out there now disabling the shuttle they came in and the rest of the tutors are helping the others..."

"What about the others? we only got here when we heard an alarm... Gord sent us here." Kid Nimbus said, suddenly anxious for his fellow students.

"We all came to help..." Strobe said, eager to join in the conversation. Slingshot and Shadowsurfer both agreed.

"And you've done a great job, though we need to secure the whole base, not just this bay." Wildfire pointed along the corridor towards the shuttle craft that had just landed these troops. "Strobe, Shadowsurfer, go help Gim disable the shuttle. Shardwurd, Flipside and Friction stay here to look after Josi and keep an eye on those guys for now. Call me if there's the slightest problem from them, okay? The rest of you are with me. We're gonna check that there's no-one else creepin' around looking to take the Academy from us. You with me?"

The students all cheered at the Legionnaire's rallying call.

Andromeda fought toe to toe against a woman in an SP officers outfit.

Kara recognised her from the Legion's files as one of the Takron-Galtos meta-team that had helped against the Emerald Empress several months before. The SP officer may have shared the same power set as Kara but she wasn't as experienced in using it so Kara quickly took charge and smashed her through an outer wall of the dreadnought into open space beyond. The Legionnaire zoomed after her opponent to continue the fight outside the main body of the ship.

The two Valkyri followed closely behind Lexikon who had taken the lead to charge down the corridor causing havoc as she went. Starkling buzzed alongside the three women, telepathically warning the two warriors if they were being approached by any attacker from out of their immediate view. Retro flew behind them, amazed at how physically powerful they each were and grateful that he wasn't having to face them in these circumstances.

The Daxamite spun and twisted out of Kara's reach and tore back into the body of the dreadnought. The Legionnaire flew right after her, determined to stop her once and for all. The Daxamite had the slight advantage as she knew the lay out of the c raft and after several seconds, in which they had zipped along several dozen klicks of corridors, she led Kara to a round door. It was spiralling open just as the Legionnaire caught up with her quarry.

The Daxamite smiled viciously at the Legionnaire as she stepped over the threshold into the room beyond. Andromeda didn't stop to consider what she may be entering into as she tore after her opponent.

Inside the room sat a dozen men and women, each with intricate head sets on. Around the edges of the room satood a couple of dozen beings in military uniforms, each working on a hard light screen. The Daxamite stood in the middle of them. Kara flew in but as she did the energy seemed to seep out of her and she lost her momentum, coming to a halt about six feet from the woman she had been chasing.

"Kara Zor-El... I've only met you once before, or at least your counterpart anyway. She wasn't nearly as angry as you. I can just tell we are going to be great friends." The woman who spoke had been stood against one wall, and stepped forward to address the Legionnaire. She appeared to be middle aged, wearing an indigo robe with long white hair and bright violet eyes.

"Oh, you can't talk right now can you? Don't worry dearie. My Titanian friends here are stopping your mind from allowing those powerful Kryptonian muscles of yours from working... I'll let you out to play soon, but first of all I think it's time we got acquainted, don't you?"

Kara had met her before... or her doppleganger at least. This woman looked exactly like Psyche, the empathic member of the Wanderers, though without being told Kara was aware that the woman that stood before her was not a friend to the Legion.

Kara Zor-El, the Legionnaire now know as Andromeda in the 31st Century did not remember much conscious thought after that as the Titanians that sat around the room dug into her mind, opening the way for their empathic mistress to take control and set about using the Kryptonian as a personal slave.

Hi IB and Raz, thanks again for your kind words. Hopefully I'm keeping the excitement up.

The part with the White Martian was originally written over a year ago when I was thinking of posting the Academy story but as the rest of the LW stories were behind it's been languishing in a word folder. Glad you liked it, and that it was realistic how tough it was for the kids to deal with a beast like that. There's still a few more Academy sections to go so hope you like them.

IB, the SP meta-team that Lamprey left Montauk Point Academy to join appear to have been compromised as the officers from Daxam and Starhaven have shown up, who knows who will be next

Also, there's a bit more of Henry coming up soon, glad you picked up on the distinction between taking action himself to resolve the problem and following history.

Raz, Thirteen is away to get a huge character development as something I planned before he joined (and foreshadowed a bit) will happen very soon. It should be a nice curve ball for you all.

More soon, hope this is okay for now.

Thanks guys

C

Gasp!

Love the action scenes - the Starhaveniteespecially was a nice touch, good work showcasing how dangerous they can be

Happy Magno Lass will be okay. you do a good job with all your created students, they shine as individuals

Oh no, an enslaved Kara...i'm very scared!

Loved the scene with Tyroc's team, that was very cinematic...I could really see them standing there while the jellyfish moved in all around them! Great tension!

I liked Wildfire's interaction with the students too, it's cool how he's such an advocate for the Academy kids

Echoing IB....Kara enslaved sounds like it's gonna be trouble! Can't wait!