NOTE - This work is intended as the beginning of a fic series that continues the adventures of the Legion of Superheroes v4 series as if it had never been cancelled at issue #125.

While recently re-reading the entire run, I was struck at how dystopian the world of the Legion became after Abnett and Lanning took over the writing of the series, especially after the Legion Lost limited series and their tenure on The Legion. In this new series, the Legion of the Damned and Widening Rifts stories take place, but diverges from the story that will be told here. In this universe, the events of Legion Lost, Legion Worlds and The Legion do not happen.

This is not to slam or detract Abnett's and Lanning's work in any way. In my recent re-read of Lost and other works, I've re-appreciated their writing talents. My intent here is to show the Reboot Legionnaires in a more hopeful, less dystopian universe.

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Issue #126 - "Signs of Life" (Part 1)
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Sometime in the year 2999, at the edge of a bright nebula in the center of the Milky way lies one among thousands of star clusters, each with a multitude of planets. In the outer reach of one of these star systems, space itself begins to bend and twist on itself before spiraling open in a brilliant light.

Suddenly, a rough cylindrical hull seems to extrude from the light, stretching in ways that it probably should not, then seems to bend itself out of the distortion of light. The hull finally completes its journey through the odd gateway as if being pushed by an unseen force and drifts listlessly, venting plasma, ceramic plating and various rubble through the void. Yet somehow, lights in a dome at the top of the structure are still flickering.

Legionnaire Roll Call:

Brainiac 5.1
LiveWire
Saturn Girl

Brainiac 5.1's eyes popped open. He wasn't accustomed to being unconscious in the normal carbon-based way, as Coluans did not sleep in the human way, and typically had multiple strains of consciousness running at any given time. When Brainiac 5.1's awakened, it was like something had been reset in his mind.

He quickly assessed his location as the bridge of the replacement Legion Outpost granted by the Science Police after the destruction of the old one by the Blight. He was laying on the deck, so there is gravity, therefore some power. That was something he could work with.

Some oxygen, but smoky, therefore a threat of fires. That needed to be addressed as soon as possible. He looked up and then remembered the last thing that had happened.

Through the smoky haze flowing around the bridge, he was able to see out the main viewport and witness a phenomenon similar to the rift they had been trying to close before he blacked out. COLLECT DATA, one consciousness thread simultaneously surfaced in his mind, and Brainiac 5.1 reflexively scanned the rift they had just emerged from with the peripheral handheld from his power belt. Another thread of consciousness took note of the sheer volume of stars within his field of vision; they were clearly no longer in the Sol system. He was only able to scan for scant seconds before the rift suddenly closed, spiraling shut with flash, generating a wave of energy that pushed the outpost hulk further into space.

"Intriguing," he said to himself as he examined the readings on the holographic display that appeared hovering in front of him.

As the outpost began to spin, he looked through the haze sparking from the system consoles. On the other side of the bridge, two limp figures were lying close to an exit. He hovered over and could make out the artificial arm of Livewire and the insignia of Saturn Girl, the Legion's leader. Both were unconscious, but a quick scan revealed they were alive, although Saturn Girl showed some signs of trauma to the head, likely a concussion. Given the evidence, Brainiac focused his reviving efforts on Livewire, but not before applying a healing kit to Saturn Girl in order to reduce the brain swelling and begin her healing process.

"Livewire? Wake up! Garth, I need you to wake up!" Brainy said in a firm voice. Sighing, he pulled out a stimulant hypospray from his equipment belt and jammed it into Garth's arm. Livewire slowly began to move and groaned heavily.

"Why does my head hurt?" Garth moaned, "what's going on?"

Brainy tapped a few controls on his holographic arm computer. "I do not have enough data as of yet to come to a full conclusion, but the observable evidence indicates that we have emerged from the other side of a wormhole created by the rift in the Sol system."

"Grife, Brainy, can you give me a second?" Garth said, rubbing his head. "We're alive... Did we close the rift?"

"Unknown at this time," Brainy replied, "If I may make a supposition, the fact that the wormhole here closed would seem to suggest that it would have also closed at the point of origin, but without more data from that location, I cannot provide a complete answer."

"'I don't know' would have been fine, Brainy," Garth grumbled. Then, finally noticing Imra lying beside him, Garth moved so that he was kneeling over her. He placed his hand against the side of her head. "Imra!!," he urged, "Imra wake up!!"

"Saturn Girl appears to be suffering from a significant concussion likely from when we transitioned through the wormhole," Brainy said, "I have already administered a healing pack to facilitate her recovery, but it is imperative that she rest in order for the healing process to reach peak effectiveness."

"Damn it", he said, gently brushing aside the blond hair on her forehead. "So what's our status?"

"The efforts made to shore up the station prior to Meta's triggering of the wormhole seem to have helped us survive the transition," Brainy updated Livewire, "The station appears to be mostly intact, however, power is at ten percent of normal, we have significant structural integrity issues causing us to leak oxygen on almost every deck, and main sensors and propulsion are completely offline. We also appear to be completely missing one docking bay."

Garth raised his eyebrows. "Ten percent, you said?" he asked. "Can we give the power plant a jump start from here?"

"My thoughts precisely, Livewire," Brainy replied. He moved over to an access port located underneath a wide workstation with multiple displays arrayed in front of a desk. "Are you able to slowly ramp up your charge? We don't want to overload any systems if we can't help it."

"C'mon Brainy," Garth said, "Let me at it." He knelt grabbing the two cables that Brainy held out before stepping back to give Garth space.

"Please start and stop precisely when I tell you," Brainy said, "I'll count down from three. To start, Three... Two... One... Now!"

Garth focused and summoned the current from inside himself, directing it out the cables so that he was slowly increasing the voltage and keeping an eye on Brainy for any warning of a burnout. The current pulsed through Garth's artificial arm, illuminating a bluish light around the bridge. Brainy was monitoring the power systems in the ship from the tools in his belt, and the light and hum of instrumentation from the bridge instruments began to come to life.

"Alright, Livewire," Brainy warned, "Stop the charge ... NOW!"

Garth stopped the current from his arms and quickly connected the two cables back to their receptacles under the console. He and Brainy looked around and saw all the warning alerts blinking red and flashing.

"Let's find everyone else," Garth said as he touched one of the consoles and a hologram appeared on the screen in front of them showing a basic layout of the station with several Legion 'L' symbols overlayed on the image at various points. "It looks like there are four clusters of flight rings across the station other than us," he remarked.

"Livewire to any Legionnaires, this is Livewire on the station bridge. Please respond if you are able, or come to the bridge," Garth called into his comm.

Almost at once the communication chatter started with overlapping voices pleading:

"...is XS... Monstress crushed..."

"...tra Boy...Umbra is blee...medical..."

"...trapped ... losing air..."

Garth and Brainy looked at each other helplessly. Behind them a faint whooshing was heard, making both of them turn around to see a green disc hovering in midair about four feet over the deck. Suddenly, the unconscious body of Chuck Taine fell to the floor with a thump, his red cap popping off his head across the deck, quickly followed by the much more slender body, but just as unconscious, of Ferro in his human form, which landed on top of Chuck. Both showed signs of vacuum exposure.

The large, red-hooded insect that followed out of the portal was also showing signs of exposure. It was also not happy. "Can someone please tell me," Gates grumbled angrily as the green portal closed with a pop, "Why no one told us to get into our transuits when we were doing deep space repair?"

Gates then collapsed to the deck.

Yay! More Post-ZH Legion goodness! I love the concept of a "What If" on Legion Lost... bigger / different cast too, it seems!

Brilliant point of view from Brainy here, with him already assessing the situation before even waking! Multiple thought tracks, check. One word calm exclamation of surprise, check!

Garth, very much Garth. Bursts of emotion followed by calm competence, check!

Ah, the perfect Gates too! "Can someone please tell me why nobody told us to get into our transuits?!?!"

You have a wonderful flair for the dramatic! That "map" with all the flight ring clusters, plus Gates suddenly porting in!

Four clusters, so: based on my memories of LSH 125:

1) Monstress, XS, Kinetix, Karate Kid...

2) Umbra, Ultra Boy, Apparition and Vi (though there was an explosion separating them...)

3) Dyrk, Lyle, Triad and Cham escaping through the vents?

4) The Gates / Chuck / Ferro cluster?

leaves a few Legionnaires unaccounted for... Kid Q and Element Lad and Wildfire were swallowed up first, Spark was with the Workforce, Sensor and M'Onel were together... and Cosmic Boy was somewhere around where Gates was, but anything could have happened... lessee am I missing anyone... Thunder and Star Boy already quit the team before all this ever began... that should be everyone.

Stoked that Chuck is along for the ride, and likely Dyrk too! They're both heroes in their own right.

oooh the mystery! I'm shaking with anticipation!

PPS thanks for the intro/explanation too, that you're not slamming DNA but am just putting the team in a more positive setting! I appreciate that a lot!

Thanks, Ibby!

So yes, I will reveal that Thunder and Star Boy aren't here at the moment since they were not on station when it went into the rift. Which kills me, cause I really like Thom's character in the reboot, but I can't use him.

But of course the challenge is that almost EVERYONE is on board here at some point, so its a lot of juggling, and no one's even really together yet!

Also, don't forget Lori!

I hope to start posting weekly, but we'll see with everything going on. I have the next part mostly ready, so that may be up tonight or tomorrow!

yeah, I feel you. it's always a struggle not being able to use a character... but maybe at the end?

Oh yes, Lori! I assumed she was with the Workforce, but indeed as things got chaotic at the end...

can't wait to see the next bits!!

Off to a good start, GL! I like how Brainy's intellect shines bright, and Garth working with Brainy to recharge the power was well done.

I'm glad to see Chuck as well, if you are doing a different riff on Legion Lost it'll be interesting seeing how a regular person copes with the challenges they'll face getting home.

Gates of course steals the show...I could see his entrance there being the last couple of pages in a comic so easily

Thanks, raz! When I started planning this, having "normals" on board was one of the interesting parts to this. Obviously, they're gonna have a big part in refitting and rebuilding, but what about when the fists start flying? Dyrk has combat training, but is used to it with his powers.

Gates is so fun to write. I can see why they kept him around across the boots.

Gates is a hoot! I love him and his hilarious one-liners

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Issue #126 - "Signs of Life" (Part 2)
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Legionnaire Roll Call:

XS
Kinetix
Karate Kid
Monstress

XS woke up in darkness and with a headache that was worse than any she had ever felt. She was trying to remember what had happened. The station was falling apart. She had raced ahead of Zoe and Val to make sure that access to the lifepods was open. She raced back in second to tell Zoe the coast was clear, then in another half second had spirited Lori to a pod to secure her and get her away. "Lori,IfIDon'tGetBackInAMinuteHitTheLaunchButton,I'llGetTheNextOne" she had instructed to the ten year old. Then in another blink of an eye, was back on the barracks deck in time to see the deck collapse on Monstress and block her way back to the pods.

Then she woke up. A wave of fear rushed through her until Jenni closed her eyes and calmed herself. OK Jenni, you got this, she thought. Remembering her training, she reached into her belt pouch and pulled out a chemical glowstick and lit it up, illuminating the wrecked corridor in eerie green light. Her adrenaline started to pump as soon as she saw the bodies and she moved into action.

The green light washed out the colors from everything in her vision. Rushing over to the first body, she recognized the sash of Karate Kid, who was laying face down, with wreckage pinning his legs. The other body ten feet away and crumpled to the floor had to be Kinetix based on the longer, auburn hair. Jenni whooshed over to her and began tapping Kinetix's face extremely rapidly, taking care to avoid the scrapes across her cheeks. "ZoeWakeUpPleaseWakeUp," Jenni urged.

Kinetix's face contorted into a grimace as Jenni's tapping started to rouse her. "Stop it," she mumbled, then louder "STOP HITTING ME!" she swatted at Jennis slapping hand. "Ow! My head..." she moaned and grabbed at her head with both hands.

"OhThankGrifeYou'reAwake, Zoe" Jenni said, "IthinkWe'reinBigTrouble."

Suddenly the deck lights started to flicker back on and air systems started to irregularly pump air. Their flight rings started to buzz and the message rang out. "Livewire to any Legionnaires, this is Livewire on the station bridge. Please respond if you are able, or come to the bridge."

"OhThankGrife," Jenni said, "Livewire, thisisXS." MonstressisCrushedAndKarateKidisPinned...We'reOntheBarracksLevel"

Zoe snapped out of her daze. "Oh God, Candi," Zoe popped up, steadying herself against the warped wall and looked at where she remembered the ceiling collapsing from the superstructure of the deck above.

"Zoe,FreeValfirst," Jenni said, "he's not trappedAsBad." She grabbed Zoe's arm and pointed to Karate Kid's body.

Zoe looked over, then gestured out, focusing on the debris around Val's legs. A green field surrounded the debris and moving her arm in a raising motion she lifted it away and flung it to the other side of the corridor. Jenni immediately whooshed to Val and worked to revive him, while also checking on his leg as best she could.

Leaving Val to Jenni's care, Zoe focused back on the pile of debris where Monstress lay within. Closing her eyes to concentrate, she lifted both arms and started to slowly move large chunks of hull plating and bulkhead away in large sections, carefully rearranging the atoms on the large sections of composite material to provide a reinforced ceiling. One clump of material after another was lifted off Monstress in a green glow and transformed into part of a stronger deck above. The continuous effort was starting to wear on Zoe, as sweat started to form on her brow and her breathing became heavier over time. Jenni had revived Val, but a leg was broken and he couldn't move effectively.

"Jenni, I'm almost done," Zoe panted, "I have one more pile to lift off Candi. I need you to remotely link to her flight ring and levitate her up. I'm not sure what her condition is."

Val spoke up. "Let me do that, Kinetix," he said, "That will leave XS available to keep moving and get help if needed."

Zoe nodded. "I like the plan," she said, "Jenni, I'll need you to move Candi away from the area to a non-collapsed area, just in case. But slowly. Everyone ready?" Val worked to focus his ring's controls to connect with Monstress' and nodded to Zoe. Jenni moved to the edge of the collapsed rubble and nodded.

Focusing on the last pile of material, Zoe pulled it up with a gesture using one arm and just moved it off to the side with the other, revealing the large form of Candi's body collapsed unconscious in a shallow crater bent into the deck floor. Zoe simply moved the rubble away rather than transform it to enable access to Candi, then fell back against the wall in fatigue. On cue, Val concentrated and Candi's limp body rose into the air.

Jenni had pulled out a healing stim and injected it into Candi's arm before gently pushing her body to hover over an un-collapsed area of the deck. "How is she Val?" Jenni asked.

"Based on the readings from the ring, she appears to be alive," He said from the floor, "I can't tell the severity of her injuries, however. But she's not good."

"Let me do one more thing," Zoe said after pushing away from the wall, "I've only tried this on myself, but we're kind of desperate." Standing at Candi's head, Zoe held her arms out over Candi's body and closed her eyes again.

A green glow surrounded Monstress's body and in a few moments, her limbs shot out and she suddenly inhaled. "Zoe, dear," Candi's light voice mumbled as her eyes flicked between Zoe and the corridor, "did we make it?" then she promptly passed out again, but was breathing normally.

Jenni jumped back in surprise. "What the sprock did you just do?" she asked Zoe, thoroughly confused.

"I kind of discovered this after a training session with Vi," Zoe said as she slumped against the wall and sat down, completely spent. "I was hurt and meditated focusing on my immune system, I found my energies healing me, as I was somehow accelerating my healing matrix at a cellular level. I can only guess that this is an effect from that anomaly I went through. Vi wondered if it would work on others." She finished with a weak smile, "I can't wait to tell her."

Jenni covered her mouth with her hand in surprise. "Wow," Jenni said, wide-eyed.

"XS, you should probably run to the bridge and see if anyone can be spared to help," Val said.

"We can probably start to move Candi in a few minutes, but we also need help for Val, at least until I can recharge a bit," Zoe added.

Jenni nodded, and with a flash, she was gone.

Another awesome one, GL! and with many of my faves too!

it always bothered me, how in LSH 125, Monstress only gets trapped cause she's holding up some debris to keep a path clear for Jenni, Zoe and Val. What annoyed me was:

1) XS was running ahead and back to scout the path... she could easily have carried Zoe and Val across...

2) When the debris fell on Monstress, well... Jenni and Zoe could probably have freed her... and there was no unambiguous explosion or warping or whatever to show that they could not possibly have done anything

So this scene hits the spot, where our heroes are heroes and they did not abandon their teammate and friend

Love the little touches and throwbacks to the characterization of old, like

1) Jenni speaking fast and being a bit excitable

2) Zoe being all STOP HITTING ME, then being all Oh God, Candi! that is so her

3) Val being all silent until he speaks up with his stellar contributions. And also in a polite way. "Let me do that... you should probably do this..."

Aw, Zoe already wants to tell Vi... and I like this new application of her telekinesis, you wrote it very heal that it's basically her manipulating her own cells (and now others). coolio! she's mega powerful!

I am LOVING This! more more more

Glad you're enjoying!

Basically what XS did with Lori here, yeah.


Yeah, Zoe could have even lightened the load. That scene didn't sit well with me either.


I felt that Zoe needed more of an upgrade after the anomaly other than just a new outfit. But seriously, a character with psychokinesis can do a lot of stuff, and the Legion needs to have actors who can leverage defensive/healing capabilities along with packing a punch.

yeah, and at least the Anomaly gave her some sort of good upgrade

ah missed commenting on that, but indeed - having XS get Lori to safety first was a nice touch too!

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Issue #126 - "Signs of Life" (Part 3)
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Legionnaire Roll Call:

Invisible Kid
Chameleon
Triad
Dyrk Magz

Cham's ears began to twitch as the distinctive hissing sound of leaking air started to increase. Lights began to flicker, and the surge of air started to push through the vents.? Cham's party had tried to use the vents as a shortcut to the hangar bay airlock when running from the bridge. When there, they had become trapped again when the airlock door became crushed. Then the universe seemed to turn upside down.

Triad and Dyrk were still unconscious, but Invisible Kid was slowly waking up. Cham did a quick scan of the room and saw that the outer wall to the airlock was weakened, with the seams to the bulkhead of the hull wall warping. He stretched his arm across the room to the bulkhead and could feel the air flowing out with increasing force.

Acting quickly, Cham pulled out his transuit from his belt and morphed into it to fill it out and activate it as quickly as possible. Lyle was finally fully awake.

"Lyle, transuits!" Cham urged as Invisible Kid stood up, "We have a situation!"

Lyle nodded. As he was pulling on his own transuit, Cham stretched out part of his body to block as much of the widening hull breach as possible in an attempt to slow the flow of air out into space, and stretched the top of his torso out to Triad to pull out two transuits, one for her and one of Triad's extras and tossed one of them to Lyle. Cham felt the bulkhead breach at his back begin to widen as he grabbed the extra suit and shifted his torso to Dyrk, who was slowly reviving. Cham worked as quickly as he could to fit Dyrk's limbs into the suit as he heard someone - Livewire? - talking over their comms system and Lyle saying something back as he worked to help Triad suit up. ?Thank grife others are alive, Cham thought.

The pressure was pushing intensely against Cham's midsection as he activated the armband around Dyrk's bicep, which sealed the suit up and snapped it to fit around his body, automatically providing atmosphere. Dyrk gave Cham a thumbs up. ?"Are we good?" Cham called out to Invisible Kid.

"I'm secure," Triad called out.

"OK," Lyle replied, "everyone hold on to something!"? He reached up to grab the emergency cutoff lever on the vent they had come out of earlier and forced it down, cutting the flow of air.? The pressure immediately eased on Cham's body, so he peeled himself away from the wall, forcing the remaining air in the room rush out instantly into the vacuum of space.?

"Is everyone ok?" Cham said to the others after unreeling Dyrk from his arm and returning to his normal humanoid form.?

"I think so?" Triad said very confused.

"Yeah, what happened?" asked Dirk, "And thanks, by the way."

Cham nodded. "Anytime," he replied. "Lyle, what's going on?"

"Livewire is asking personnel to make their way to the bridge, if possible," Lyle said, "but there was a lot of comms chatter. I think we're spread out around the station, but the we'll have to go out into space and around the hull to a working airlock to get there."

"Okay," Dyrk shrugged, "let's go."

One by one, the Legionnaires pushed out of the hull breach and into space to start moving around the station.

"Wow!" Triad amazed once she was out of the hull, "I don't think I've ever seen so many stars!"

Lyle looked around and noted the sheer volume and variety of stars that seemed to surround them and almost fill the inky void, making space actually feel bright. "Its like we're deep in a star cluster or nebula," he said, "Most of the UP is way out on the edge of the galaxy, so this is not nearly what we're used to seeing. Its just so dense."

"I sure hope that Brainy can figure out where we are," Triad said.

Nice little segment here, good teamwork between this very business like team. Dyrk along for the ride too - I?m digging it, always been a big fan of Dyrk and Chuck

I like the wonder Triad shows re stars + Lyle starting to deduce where they are

And of course Cham, competent as ever.

Thanks,Ibby - I just realized there were a ton of text artifacts for some reason, so I just cleared those up. Sorry about that.

It's all business when you're running out of breathable air.

I was flipping between giving Dyrk more lines here, versus Lyle starting to think about their location, but it made more sense for Lyle to do that reasoning given his intelligence.

eh no need to apologize, those text artifacts did not detract at all from the story!

And Dyrk will get his chance to shine plus he had enough lines. i was thinking the Let's Go is quite Dyrk.

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Issue #126 - "Signs of Life" (Part 4)
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Legionnaire Roll Call:

Ultra Boy
Umbra
Apparition

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"Hey handsome, don't fall asleep on me."

Jo was drowsy, probably with too much silverale. He could hear the rushing sound of the surf and a warm breeze floating off the surf. No wonder he had dozed off, lounging in the beach chair with Tinya in his arms. They'd barely had time to have a honeymoon, so it was nice to finally get away.

"I've been awake," Jo persuaded, "every second."

Tinya gently jabbed Jo. "Do you even know you snore, Ultra Boy?" she teased with her lilting laugh.

"Okay, you got me," Jo confessed, "its just been so great to finally have you to myself, and I'm so relaxed." He rested his cheek on Tinya's jet black hair as he gave her a squeeze.

"Yeah, I'm super happy," he whispered, "its great to get all that darkness behind us."

She looked up, confused. "What ?darkness' are you talking about?" Tinya asked, "We're relaxing on Summer World!"

Something tensed within Jo, but he fought down the feeling. Just relax for once, man, he told himself, you're on vacation with your wife, no gangs or meta-freaks to chase you around.

"I don't know what I'm talking about," Jo said, "except I love you."

He looked out into the surf and saw the waves agitate and churn as a figure walked out from the ocean. The figure's black hair and clothes hung wet and clung to the body of the blue-skinned curvaceous woman to whom Jo's eyes had suddenly focused. As she walked out of the water towards the couple without breaking her stride onto the sand, Jo noticed that she had an odd, pale purple strap affixed to her chin and her eyes gleamed red as they locked on to him. He felt an odd itching underneath his own chin and he adjusted himself to aggressively scratch underneath his jaw, disturbing Tinya.

"Honey," she asked irritated, "what's the matter with you?"

"What's up with her?" He asked, pointing at the woman walking towards them.

Tinya's head shifted back and forth. "What are you talking about, Jo?" she asked, "I think you've had too much to drink."

The dark woman walked close to them and seemed to say, "Look out! Shrapnel!" She kept walking past them. Jo tensed up more.

"Honey!" Tinya said, "Please relax. I'm not leaving without you."

"What did you say?" Jo sat up bolt upright, shaking the upper half of Tinya's body.

"Jo!" Tinya yelled, "What's wrong with you? This is Livewire on the station bridge."

Jo started to look around in panic. "What? What??" The view of the sandy and warm beach started to inexplicitly fade and be replaced by a grey, cold darkness. "Tinya, did you see that?" Jo asked in a panic.

"Honey," Tinya replied as she faded out of vision, "Please respond if you are able, or come to the bridge." The voice had somehow shifted into Garth's timbre and the face in her arms turned into Umbra, passed out and bleeding from a wound in her upper chest.

"OH SPROCK ME!" Jo exclaimed, fully waking up as the chaos of the rift all came back to him in a rush. "This is Ultra Boy, Umbra is bleeding out and needs immediate medical attention, any Legionnaires please respond!" he called into the comms system.

Trying his best not to jostle Umbra more than he may have already, Jo laid her on the floor as gently as he could. He knew he had to do something, as Tasmia's blood was soaking through her cloak.

"Okay, Okay," he said to himself, "need to stop the bleeding." He cleared away the cloak from her wound then focused. I hope to grife this works, he thought to himself as he focused his flash vision on Tasmia's wound. The heat from his eyes began to sear Umbra's skin, providing a basic level of cauterization. For a short moment, Tasmia reflexively woke up and jolted, screaming from the pain generated from the heat as aa shadow burst out from the wound, almost as if to defend herself reflexively from Jo's heat vision, but not enough to rouse her to complete consciousness. Thankfully having finished the makeshift laser-suture, Jo stopped his laser vision and the screaming, and shadow stopped.

"Jo!" a woman's voice called from behind him, "heard you may need some help!"

Jo turned to see Luornu, Lyle, Cham and Dyrk in the doorway they had forced open. "Grife, am I glad to see you," he said relieved as the new arrivals rushed to assist, "We need to get Umbra to the Medbay now!"

"OK, let's be careful with her," Dyrk said as the group gathered around Umbra. He knelt beside Jo and did a quick check on Jo's cauterization job while gently pressing around the wound. "I'm not 100 percent sure without a scanner," he said to the group, "but I'd guess whatever ripped into Umbra is still there."

"Thank Grife you all got here," Jo said as he looked around at Dyrk and company, "I just cauterized her wound, but she may have more internally, so we need to get her some better care."

Dyrk knelt down beside Jo. "Hold still, Ultra Boy," Dyrk said, "Lets get her a little more stable before we move." He opened one of Jo's belt pockets to pull out a hypospray device. Dyrk pressed the device against Umbra's arm and injected the medicine. "Okay, I think that will stabilize her until we can get her to whatever's left of the Medbay," he said, "but at least you closing the wound has stopped most of the bleeding." Dyrk then addressed the rest. "Link your rings to Umbra's so we can move her."

All the team, except for Dyrk and Jo, linked their rings to Umbra's to enable her to be easily lifted.

Jo looked around to the closest door into the outpost and forced it open with super strength to enable the group to get Umbra further into the station. "Have you guys seen Tinya? I was right behind her."

things are moving along nicely!

Jo's dream sequence is excellent! also reference to the Darkness - the Blight! Now that's killer good. the scene worked so well. Tasmia-as-Tinya, shades of (pun intended) Legion Lost with Imra-as-Tinya. I like it.

So eager to see where you have Tinya and Vi ending up...

Also I like how you have Jo focus, instead of immediately panicking re Tinya. I hated that bit under DNA, with him being so clingy. DNA almost took it too far (though I admit in the context of Legion Lost, much of it made sense -- but then that made the Tinya/Jo coldness in the ongoing weirder). Here, you have it just right. He comes across way more competent and stable, with his head on straight.

Odd shadow-shape, interesting! curious where you're going with that.

Glad to see Dyrk being proactive. As many instances showed, he's still quite a hero despite losing his powers.

Also just thought of something: did Dyrk keep his flight ring? I remember Legion Worlds 4 showed him keeping it. I always assumed he did, though I'm struggling to remember an instance pre-DNA that confirmed it (if it did, I would look at the art, maybe a panel shows him still wearing his ring...)

Thanks! I really had fun with this section!


Well, this IS the reboot Jo, so I'm sure he'll eventually get to panicking at some level.


Really good question... It's not at all clear in Widening Rifts whether or not he has it. Then again, his portrayal jumps from calling the team to action after the impeachment, then all of a sudden showing up on the bridge towards the end. so....

I liked Cham just doing what needed to be done without any melodramatics....and Triad and Lyle's closing discussion about the stars is another one of those scenes I could see working really well in a comic; I could see a big Kirbyesque splash page with them really small against a sky cluttered with stars

...and poor Umbra! I suppose they couldn't all come through relatively unscathed though. That dream scene was really well done, it definitely came across like some synapses misfiring while Jo's brain tried to put everything together!

Thanks raz!!! That's actually exactly what I had in mind with that ending scene!


Well, I felt like I had to place that in the mix, as she's clearly seen being hit in the end of 125, but it added a nice sense of jeopardy to the situation.

-----------------------------------------------
Issue #126 - "Signs of Life" (Part 5)
-----------------------------------------------

With all the flight ring signatures accounted for, Livewire triaged the situation and assigned tasks to the team. XS was able to race around the outpost to shuttle necessary supplies and provide better updates across the groups coordinating repairs; Gates teleported around for similar tasks. Brainy was gradually getting systems online; the work that the team had done before the outpost slipped into the wormhole had shored up enough systems in place that basic power was starting to come online. He focused on the computers, while Chuck and Dyrk attended to repairing the station power plants with assistance from Garth. Lyle focused on the sensor array, with Cham's and Ferro's help. Triad had split herself and was assisting anywhere any of the three of her could be of use; one on the bridge, one in engineering and one in the Medbay. Kinetix focused her time working to heal Saturn Girl, Monstress, Karate Kid and Umbra, but also did any hull repairs as needed. Ultra Boy also worked to repair the hull as best he could, all the while becoming more sullen and laconic.

Several hours later, based on repair progress assurances from Chuck and Dyrk, a recovered Saturn Girl called a meeting in the deck below the bridge, typically used as the formal Legion conference room in the original Outpost. This station's version of that room was strewn with litter and debris but had no formal conference table, just several cargo containers of various sizes arranged in a rough semicircle inside a room in which the walls had been unevenly repaired. The upper walls held wide viewports that let in the light from the alien star fields outside the station and slanted up into a flat ceiling containing a holo-projector.

The Legionnaires sat or leaned on the boxes around the semicircle, with Gates, Ferro and Invisible kid at the rightmost side of the arc, Triad, and Chameleon on the next container, followed by Dyrk, XS and Kinetix, with Karate Kid sitting cross-legged on the left most box and Ultra Boy standing with his arms folded on the left side. Monstress and Umbra remained in the Medbay still recovering. All had their focus on the teammates in the center: Livewire, Saturn Girl, who had recovered thanks to Kinetix, Brainiac 5 and Chuck Taine.

The fact that an entire third of their number were missing cast a subdued atmosphere to the proceeding. Most everyone, excepting perhaps Brainiac 5.1 and Saturn Girl, were leaning against the room's objects or each other in fatigue. Many, especially Jenni, who was being comforted by both Zoe and Dyrk, were visibly upset.

Saturn Girl began the meeting. "Okay team," Imra said seriously as she looked out at her team's faces. She took a deep breath as she did not even need to use her telepathy to understand that this was not a receptive audience. The faces ranged from hostile and angry (Jo) to sad and despairing (Jenni), many leaning on one another for literal support. "First, I just want to say a word of thanks and gratitude to all of you for pulling together in this crisis like we always do. Let's start with a situation update on the station from Chuck, then Brainy will go over the rest. Chuck?"

Chuck touched a control on the tablet he was holding and a new holographic screen appeared in front of the list of the missing, displaying a three dimensional rendering of the station, complete with the damage done to the hangar. "Thanks, Imra," Chuck began, "In the last couple hours, we've secured the deck we're in here, as well as the bridge and half the deck below. Due to the damage done by the shearing of docking bay 2, the entire clockwise half of the station between docks 1 and 3, and decks 4 through deck 10 is off limits without transuits due to the damage until further notice."

Garth stepped in. "We're going to need to work a ton to get this outpost back to some semblance of operability," he said soberly, "Zoe, we're gonna need to rely on you a lot in the next couple days fixing the bulkheads."

Zoe, sitting on a container with one leg folded against herself, leaning against XS in exhaustion, signaled an acknowledgement with a silent thumbs up.

Chuck continued, "Also, we have one Legion cruiser available to us in Docking Bay 1, but we have not yet assessed its operational status." He completed his statement trying to avoid Ultra Boy's gaze, who was now wearing a deep scowl on his face.

"Full replication capability for food will be available within 36 hours but will need to be rationed based on the stores available on the station, so please use your emergency rations in your belts as sparingly as possible." Chuck looked over at Brainiac. "Lyle's team has been working to fix the sensor array at the station keel, along with Brainy's repair drones. We expect to have the barracks level ready for habitation and plumbing in the next five hours. I'm working on a schedule for repair based on everyone's abilities and rest needs, so expect that soon," he finished.

Chuck turned away and turned off his tablet display as Brainy stepped forward and new holograms projected in front of the team, a rendering of the damaged station and a whirling pool of light that stood out even against the star glow around them. "When we all started to wake up from the wormhole transfer, I was able to get some cursory readings from my personal sensor drones. The wormhole anomaly as you see here closed within 90 seconds of our precipitation. Based on the tachyon emissions detected during the wormhole's closure, there appears to be a temporal element to the wormhole."

Lyle spoke up from his seat next to Ferro. "So, what you're saying Brainy, is that you don't know where or WHEN we are?" he asked, "based on what we are seeing out there," Lyle gestured towards the windows, "we're in some kind of nebula or cluster."

"Once the sensors are fully online, I'll have a better idea of the when, however the internal chronometers do not seem to have been damaged; based on that and the rate of meson decay around the station, I do not believe that we have encountered a significant temporal displacement. Once your team has completed repairs, I will be able to ascertain that specifically. As to where we are I do have an informed opinion, Invisible Kid," Brainy answered immediately, somewhat annoyed that he had been interrupted. He presses a holo-button and the station image was replaced by a slowly rotating image of the Milky way. "As you look out the viewports, you may have noticed an extremely dense amount of stars," he continued, "so many stars, in fact, that it almost impossible to see the yellow and white spectral class stars, which makes navigation extremely hazardous. The blue, orange and red stars stand out against the collective background light, but the general star glow blends the light of the other stars together. Based on the amount background radiation and the x-ray spectrum data we are reading from the sensors, I can determine with a high degree of confidence that we are somewhere close to the center of the Milky Way galaxy, however I do not have our specific coordinates." He looked directly at Lyle. "Yet."

Brainiac 5.1 zoomed in the image to the central oval of the barred spiral galactic image, "The gravity waves and X-rays indicate a relative proximity to the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, which therefore indicates we are somewhere in the galactic core, which puts us at over 30,000 light years from Earth." The image placed one highlighted reticle along a spiral arm representing Earth, and a slightly larger solid circle near the center of the barred oval that represented their current location.

"Regarding getting back to United Planets space, we will need to work on assembling some kind of interstellar drive. I have full schematics for six different FTL variants. Unfortunately, all of them, apart from the Brande Stargate, will result in over a decade of travel to get back to UP space, and require precise navigational accuracy to travel through and out of this region of the galaxy due to the stellar density and gravity wells."

Jenni stifled a sob as Dyrk placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"As you are all well aware, the capability to use the Stargate network is compromised," Brainy concluded, "Also the person that would usually help us craft the necessary stardrive components is unaccounted for." Brainy changed the view so that a screen was brought to the forefront.

The holo generator projected a virtual screen above the team with the heading:



LEGION


Apparition

Cosmic Boy

Element Lad

ERG-1 (presumed dead)

Kid Quantum

Leviathan

M'Onel


Sensor

Spark


The presentation of the list was somewhat sudden to the assembled Legionnaires, but visibly affected several of them, especially Jo who scowled, Jenni who silently wept, and Zoe, who hung her head, unable to look at the names. Cham looked at the away from the list glumly.

"As part of the sensor work, Invisible Kid will be fine tuning the active and passive sensors to a greater range to scan for Legion Flight Rings, radio communications, anything else we can think of that can help us find our teammates," Brainy finished.

Imra stepped forward, her face was stern. "Thanks, Brainy," she said, "I've reviewed the log footage of activity prior to the rift entry with Livewire. Our expectation is that Spark is with the Workforce, as they were able to launch escape pods, as did Lori. With luck, they are all home safe and sound. We think Tinya, Vi and Cos are in the other cruiser. We don't know at all about Jeka, M'Onel, Jan or Jazmin. All four were outside the station, but Jan and Jazmin were stabilizing the rift. We have not been able to detect any evidence of their fate. Once we get the station shored up, we'll split work between drive propulsion and working on the cruiser to scout for worlds that can help us with resources and resupply in the nearby star cluster; even be prepared for first contact scenarios."

Jo chose this moment to break his silence explosively. "So that's it, Imra!?" Jo spouted as his frustration finally got the better of him. "When are we going search for them?!" he shouted as he jabbed his hand toward the list.

Imra leaned away from the intensity in Jo's expression but held her ground. "Jo, we're in a completely unknown and uncharted part of space," she said coolly. "Our sensors are not picking up any readings from Legion flight rings. Do you think I'm ignoring our friends?" she asked as she gestured to the list above them. "If we don't have any mode of travel or way to detect or communicate with them, or even take care of ourselves, we can't help anybody. We have to prioritize our efforts."

Jo snapped, "Just admit it, you have no idea where we are or what's happening! You can't even tell me what happened to my wife!"

Garth immediately became defensive and jumped to Imra's defense. "What the sprock are you talking about?!" he shot back, "We're trying to find everyone! My sister is on that list! Don't you think I care about that?!"

Jo was becoming more agitated. "The reason we are in this mess is because your girlfriend, our leader," he said the word mockingly, "sprocking panicked and made everyone run for their lives!" he yelled, "and now Tinya's missing!" His eyes started to gleam red and he balled his fists as he took steps towards Garth.

Garth's eyes narrowed. "You think carefully about the next words that you say, Ultra Boy," Garth seethed, emphasizing on the second word and preparing himself defensively, his hands closed as sparks started to course around his forearms. The assembled Legionnaires all started to move in anticipation of an explosive confrontation.

"Typical humanoid problem resolution," Gates growled as he moved farther around to the right to be almost behind Chuck, "always using fists for brains."

Suddenly a translucent green wall popped into existence between the two opponents. Both looked over to see Kinetix standing with her arm extended, having cast a green force field between the two of them, simultaneously looking angry, frustrated and exhausted.

"Boys let's stop this please," she said in a low voice, "Jo, we are all missing someone we love. You are not special in that regard."

Jo's anger turned to Kinetix. "You don't get it, Zoe," he said exasperated, "Tinya was the only one getting me through what the Blight did to me. You wouldn't understand."

"Try me," Zoe growled as her green eyes flashed angrily, "The Blight affected most of us and we're still dealing with it. I'm still dealing with it. Do you even give a sprock that the most important person in my life is missing, too? What are you going to do, fly off into the void in random directions to look for all of them? Or just your wife?" Her temper was starting to rise in the discussion as she continued. "So go on about how Tinya is the only person that can get you through! The only people you should be dependent upon right now are in this room! Its the only way we're getting back home! We all care, Jo," She said, softer, as she dissolved the force field with a gesture, "we just don't have time for this nass."

Jo relaxed his stance and a regretful expression crossed Jo's face. "Hey, Zoe, I'm sorry," he began. Zoe waved him off angrily and turned her back on him so fast that her auburn hair whipped around her face. She sat back down next to Jenni, close to tears as Jenni put her arm around Zoe in comfort. The rest of the room started to relax and most sat back down.

Imra reached out and touched Garth's shoulder, prompting him to turn and look at Imra. She nodded and said gently, "It's OK, Garth." Garth relaxed and the electricity around his arms ceased.

"Thanks, Zoe," Imra continued addressing the gathered team, "she's right. We are all dependent on each other to get through this." She looked directly at Jo and said, "But Jo, you have every right to criticize my decisions from before. Given what was happening, I was just trying to keep as many people alive as we could. We'll have elections as soon as we get out of this crisis, I promise. I just hope to grife you never have to make the same kinds of decisions as a leader."

Garth came up to him reached his hand out. "Hey, I'm sorry, Jo," he said.

I could just get out of here, Jo thought uncomfortably, and search for Tinya on my own, but Zoe's right. I'd have no idea where to go or how to get back home. "I'm sorry, too," Jo said, without taking Garth's hand. Glowering, Jo turned his back on Garth and walked do the far wall to lean against it and listen to whatever else Imra had to say. Garth looked at Jo in disbelief as he walked away, then shook his head and moved to stand behind Imra.

Imra turned to address everyone. "I know this is probably the most desperate situation we've been in, and we've had more than our share. I know that its been a brutal month for us all. Brainy says we were successful in closing the rift," she said in a louder voice that rang across the room. "So that makes our main purpose now is to get back to Earth. We're the Legion. We were able to close the rift and save Titan, save Earth, the entire United Planets, so we will get back home. Hopefully all of our friends are still waiting for us back home. If they are somewhere out here, we will find them. I swear to you all we'll see our friends and family again. Tinya, Ayla, Cos, Vi, everyone," he said to the gathered Legionnaires, "We will find them all. We will get back home. We will survive. And we'll win. Because that's what the Legion does. We endure."

Imra raised her fist in the air, scanned the team members around the room and yelled, "LONG LIVE THE LEGION!"

Imra repeated and Garth joined in behind her, then Chuck, then Cham, then Lyle and soon the entire team was on their feet, shouting almost desperately through tears and fatigue:

"LONG LIVE THE LEGION!"

Except Jo Nah, who had silently slipped out of the room.



LATER

"You sure handled that better than me," Garth said to Imra casually. The team had dispersed from the conference room after Imra had ordered everyone to get some rest, leaving just the two of them. Imra was staring out into the starglow outside of the window while Garth leaned against the wall with his arms folded and admired Imra.

She turned around and smiled. "I do have a bit of an advantage," she said, "I saw Zoe get up and figured out what she was up to. I had your back, even if she hadn't intervened. Worst case I would have put Jo to sleep, but I'm not going to be reaching into the teams' heads unless it's an emergency. The last thing we need in this situation is for everyone to think I'm manipulating them. "

"Well, no, I meant that was a good speech," Garth pushed off the wall and walked over to join Imra at the window. "It would have made Rokk proud."

"Thanks," she said with a gentle laugh, "I think I've heard enough of his pep talks over the months that it kind of seeps into your brain, you know?"

Garth leaned his shoulder against the window. "So what are we gonna do about Jo?" he asked, "He was not happy. I mean, my twin sister's missing, for grife's sake. I have no idea if she's safe and sound back home or drifting out here somewhere. But I didn't threaten to throw people out the airlock."

Imra looked troubled. "I know," she said, "I think we need to talk to him away from the crowd. He's brash, but not stupid. He'll come around. I don't want it to seem like I'm unsympathetic, but Zoe was absolutely correct."

Garth took Imra's hand. "I'm really glad you've recovered," Garth said gently, "You really had me scared there for a while. Are you OK? Because, before we went through that rift I was worried for you, too."

"I'm OK, Garth," Imra said as she stepped closer to Garth and rested her head on his shoulder. Garth wrapped his artificial arm around Imra's back. "Everything was just so chaotic before. The thought of losing mom and dad, Jancel, everything I grew up with, it made me panic. I just thought that if we were able to get off the station, we'd be able to figure out how to save everything. I just hope Brainy's right, that whatever Jan and Jazmin did, not to mention Drake, it saved everything back home."

"Its just that I've never seen you like that," Garth said cautiously, "I didn't know what to think."

Imra looked at Garth directly. "It won't happen again," Imra said, "I was serious before. I'm stepping down as leader as soon as we can get everyone back together again. Once we're back together, we hold an election so I can be done with this nass."

"Can we talk about us?" Garth whispered as he pushed a strand of Imra's blond hair away from her eyes.

Imra shifted herself to hold herself against Garth with both arms. "I don't know if this is the right time," she whispered back, "We should probably wait until we we're in a less stressful situation. Also, I don't think we should be together while our friends don't have the same luxury."

"Are you sure about that?" Garth asked.

Imra looked up into Garth's electric blue eyes and shook her head slightly with a small smile. "No..." she responded.

"Besides," Garth said with his own sly smile as he leaned into kiss Imra, "We don't have to talk."



MEANWHILE, HUNDREDS OF LIGHT MINUTES AWAY...

Footsteps echoed in the dimly lit marble hallway as the figure ran down the long hallway with urgency. The main ways into the Imperial center were closed this late, but he happened to have access into the power plant facility and knew of a shortcut. Delivering this information could elevate his status and provide for his clan for months. He was traveling with such speed that he rammed into the door at the end of the hall which slammed open with a loud crash.

"What do you think you're doing?" a voice boomed out as a gravelly tendril grabbed the person by the throat and lifted him off the ground, legs still kicking. "This room is off limits to you."

"Please...forgive..." the man choked out, "but we were told... to tell... his majesty if anything were to appear again." He waved a printout desperately as he started to black out from asphyxiation.

The tendril split so that a smaller shoot grabbed the paper while the main element flung the man against the stone wall. The man slid down the wall with his neck facing in an impossible direction. The vine then slipped back to the person controlling it, hissing as its component particles rubbed against each other, pulling the document to its owner. The wielder of the grainy vine grunted in what could best be described as laughter as it looked at the images on the paper.

"What the sprock is going on around here?" another voice chimed in as another door to the chamber opened, revealing a flickering light. "None of the natives are supposed to get through here. Can't you do your frakking job?"

"Look," grunted the voice of the tendril's owner and handed over the paper to the newcomer.

The newcomer started to laugh himself when he saw the series of long-range telescopic images of the Legion Outpost emerging into deep space and drifting after being spat out of the wormhole.

"Let me take this to him," the newcomer said, "Things just got VERY interesting. It looks like we just might get to do the job we signed on for buddy. Clean this up, then go to the others to make sure we can increase production." He slapped the large figure on its back with a thud, then moved back to the room from which he had come earlier and shut the door.

The room kept surging regularly with white electrical pulses. The man walked over to a desk and set down the paper, then moved to a cabinet which he opened and pulled out a tapered translucent bottle and shook it vigorously before setting it on the desk. He then bent down to caress the face of the girl with long, strawberry hair laying on the gurney with the back of his gold-gloved hand.

"Well, delicious," Repulse said as he manipulated his suit to reach out and pull the expended nutrient bottle out on one side of the table and attach the fresh bottle on the other, "It looks like your ol' Legion came to visit." He manipulated the controls so that the intravenous food supply would be uninterrupted. "We'll be ready and take them like we did you all those months ago. And when we get your brother, I'll get you all to myself." He traced his finger across the girl's jawline.

He adjusted a dial next to the platform, stood up from attending to the girl, picked the paper back up and rolled it into a scroll, then left the room. Electricity began to course faster from the young lady and into the receptors around her body.

Spark's head lolled to the side, her eyes barely focusing. "Garth...?" she said weakly.



TO BE CONTINUED...

Okay, folks, that's the end of the issue. Sorry about the weird formatting for the list. There's no real good way to render that kind of stuff in this editor without too much work.

After I finish my house move, I'll get to work on issue 127. I just needed to get this out of the way so I could focus on the real world events.

lots of awesome here!

Jenni being one of the most visibly upset is a great reference to her canon personality.

Imra steeling herself was good too. leadership ain't easy, and it never seemed to come super easy to Imra either! another great reference to canon. you rock!

Chuck getting screen time, thumbs-up Zoe, and Imra/Garth tag-teaming the briefing, all great stuff

Jo's slow smoldering, and Chuck avoiding looking at him, was well done and a bit funny.

Sharp Lyle, understanding Brainy's science speak! Also Brainy being annoyed at getting interrupted. and the "yet" at the end!

I like how they are not too immensely far from home. gives a bit of hope, though the situation remains dangerous and heavy - especially that bit about "it might take a decade to get home, AND we need precision..."

Such a Brainy segue into the missing list. including the Workforce, very Legion-y to think of them. The Workforce likely would not care. And glad you referenced the somewhat abrupt segue, also very Brainy to not care about (I did not use think of, Brainy for sure thought about it but...) the reaction of his audience. I do like he ended with hope: we gonna do things to help find them.

The argument with Jo was very well done. Realistic dialogue, realistic reactions. Liked Garth stepping up. Zoe's intervention and dialogue were awesome!

Imra's "you have the right to criticize my decisions" was an excellent touch!

Also the apologies. Now that's the Legion I know! But also leaving it with a half-accepted apology from Jo, adding to drama that will bubble up later...

Loved the rousing end to the briefing!

Great convo with Imra/Garth after, how Imra is determined not to erode trust with the team by using her telepathy. Funny reference to Cos pep talks!

Jo is brash, not stupid. exactly!

Imra talking through her earlier panic, well done. and she did indeed panic... I'm glad you addressed this bit. She was the one asking to abandon ship, when Jan and Jazmin were focused on getting the job done.

I loved the end about their relationship. Lost always bugged me with Imra being so standoff-ish to Garth. Now you have Imra trying to be, because she's overwhelmed, but admitting to Garth she still likes him. that was an excellent scene, very excellent!

Oof. you really have the Workforce being unmitigated bastards here. that poor man, losing his life for doing his job... they do make good villains though

Great cliffhanger for Ayla there...

and now that I think about it, this has some parallels to Jan as Progenitor, and the distrust in the Second Galaxy of the Legion because Jan was Legion... how will the natives react to learning that some of the Legionnaires were used by the Workforce?

all in all, extremely awesome! I love it to bits!

Thanks, Ibby!!

I didn't realize it until I turned around and looked, but that last bit was about the length of all the other sections combined!

And this was part of the thing - I wanted to show that there could be tension, mystery, drama, etc. to allow the reboot Legionnaires to "grow up" without completely deconstructing them. They are far from home - not "lost" per se, but in a situation where technologically they can't get back easily, yet also have more immediate issues to deal with.

Garth and Imra are always a thing. So it is written, so shall it be done.

The events of Rifts could not be addressed without talking about Imra's behavior. I get that the story was a setup for Lost, but yeah, she totally panicked, and that needed to be addressed in this universe.

I'll also say that Zoe's speech was kind of therapy for me talking to reboot Jo.

Also, I'm learning that underlines make a better emphasis here than bolds...

Garth/Imra is love they just go so well together, and without being too co-dependent (ahem Jo lol)

Underlines are indeed more visually... outstanding lol

Just made the change.

Wow, I love the tension in that scene...the characterisation for everyone was really good; Brainy just casually figuring out there hasn't been much temporal displacement, Garth jumping to defend Imra, Zoe nearly losing her temper herself, even XS who didn't really do anything was still more than just wallpaper with how you mentioned how upset she was.

And I do feel sorry for Jo even though he was being a nasshead...I had stopped reading the reboot before the Blight came along so I only really know about it from y'all mentioning it here but it sounds like something really traumatic, and as codependent as Jo and Tinya were it doesn't surprise me that he'd be handling her absence so badly. I like that you still write him as being aware enough to realise that the others were right and he's just mad and feeling helpless too, it humanises him because we've probably all been in situations where our concern for a loved one is at war with our rational selves.

I thought the convo between Garth and Imra was very well done too, and it's so like Imra to still be trying to put the team's needs before her own but I'm glad she's not just shutting Garth down.

Very excited about that cliffhanger with Ayla! Looking forward to seeing where this goes next!

Thanks Raz!

One of the things that really bothered me in the reboot was the Tinya/Jo relationship. So, I'm trying to see how they can grow past that co-dependence, but its a fact about their characters, so his reaction had to ring true. Of course, the team has had about enough of it, too, and I had Zoe do the lashing out as she was the only one with a power that could demonstrably put a barrier between Jo and Garth. Imra could have stepped in, but that would have been too easy.

Like I told Ibby, Imra and Garth are the heart of the Legion to me and they really didn't get a fair shake in the reboot, so its important to me that they are together.

And thanks for the vote of confidence!! I'm in the middle of a house move, so once all that settles down in the next week or so, I'll be able to focus on the more specific plotting of the next couple issues.

Hey Gl, I must preface this by saying I don't really know this era at all so I'll just roll with it though may have a couple of silly questions as I go.

"When Brainiac 5.1's awakened, it was like something had been reset in his mind." - that's how I feel every morning at 0530 when my alarm goes off. Though seriously, nice that Coluans don't sleep in a way that we would relate to, that makes sense that they wouldn't want to 'waste' tht many hours in the day. Also good to see him immediately asessing the situation. Also, nice that he made sure Imra had a healing pack on before reviving Garth and didn't try to bluff him when he woke up, just straight to the logical answers. And of course, Garth's responses were cute - "I don't know would have been fine" haha.

The snippets of conversation from the other groups dotted about the station are intriguing, worrying even. Gates' line is great! And a good entrance, I do like the little bugger.

Jenni and Zoe to the rescue! And while I never read a comic with Lori in it I'm glad you wrote her out - 10 year olds really have no place in the violent world of comics. Ouch! A broken leg - ow! poor Val, though no doubt he'll be stoic about it. Remote linking flight rings is a great idea - I will borrow it, thank you Great use for Zoe's powerset, the team need a healer.

Cham is so super efficient isn't he? He's one Legionnaire you really want in a crisis, and stretching himself out like that to block the escaping air and grabbing the transuits for the team was great. Lyle's cool acceptance of the situation and getting on with the necessary business at hand read true as well - guess he's the same sort of character in every Boot. I hope, like Triad, that brainy can figure out where they are too, though perhaps not before a nice side adventure or two

Jo's dream was cute, bless him. Though that's not how anyone would want to wake up.And, Ouch! What a way to stop Umbra from bleeding out, that was drastic (though probably necessary as Jo never struck me as someone to carry a first aid kit in his belt pouches, more likely a 30th C Gameboy and a few chocolate bars ) Good to see Cham's team again, and it Jo did have a hypospray! I'm impressed. Again, linking flight rings to move a colleague, such a sweet idea. And there is is, co-dependent Jo is back... Oh, where is Tinya? Please don't drag it out as that is one relationship that always annoyed me (in fact I killed him in my fic because it was to irritating to write it).

So the team are all together and it's all hands on deck. These are the moments that really stand out as the best of the team, like when they rebuilt their HQ afer Omega or helped with repairs to Metropolis. It's something that so many of them are perfect for. Imra is so pragmatic calling a meeting, though getting Chuck to go first was a great way to deflect off the negativity being shown towards her. Love the tension between Lyle and Brainy, more please! The list of missing teammates is really worrying.

Jo and Imra's little scene was great - she's so cool while he's freaking out. Garth stepping in was epected but escalated quickly. Nice line from Gates, sadly all too true that fists are used before brains.

Go Zoe! Very well said, Jo isn't that special indeed.

Imra's speech was great too, and how funny that Garth said it would make Rokk proud. Jo - Brash but not stupid - I think that's the best description of his personality I've ever read. Nice scene with Garth and Imra btw, their honesty with each other was really touching. And Imra stepping down? Wonder who'll pick up the top spot after her?

No idea who repulse is so looking forward to where you take that, and glad Ayla is alive. hopefully the team won't leave her there for too long.

So, even though I never read this era of the team their characters personalities were really well written and the ongoing mystery of where and when the team have found themselves is a beaut. Looking forward to seeing where you take this, and of course more, more, more!

Thanks for the detailed review, Harbi! Made my morning.


This very specifically made my morning.






Absolutely. I'm kind of shocked that this apparently hasn't been done before. It may be that we are in such a more technical age now then the 80s and 90s. So feel free to run with that! And same regarding Zoe, actually. She had been shown as doing some healing work during the actual run, so having her be used as a team healer made a lot of sense due to her nurturing nature with her friends. The anomaly is a nice way to make that an actual thing. Someone elsewhere made a comment that she was almost too powerful, but I never really thought that, but the team needed someone to help with recovery during action.


I didn't think I'd enjoy writing Cham, but I really do. And, as you've seen, they generally know where they are, but I think the more specific reveal will be in the next issue.



LOL on the Gameboy and Chocolate bars!

Yeah Jo basically slept through the primer on first aid and what's in you belt pouches. Looking back I should have described the situation to indicate that their carried first aid kits wouldn't have really helped, so that's great feedback there. And I want to get everyone together as fast as possible, so hopefully soon, but there may be unexpected complications for Jo. I hadn't thought about killing off Jo.... interesting idea. Tinya's already been killed once, so I can't go that way...


Thank you - I had get Imra "back to herself" as I felt like the DnA version of her at the end of the LSH run was more indecisive and unfocused than we've ever seen her. Not necessarily Iron Butt, but definitely someone who has Leadership skills and can use them properly.


I'd been itching to write those words for any character for a long time. I wanted it to be Zoe as she's in a similar emotional situation. The leader election won't be for a bit yet, so that gives me time to approach who would be next.


Repulse is one of the replacement Workforce that McCauley hired at the beginning of the Widening Rifts story. So the Legion is disbanded formally by VP Wazzo, partly due to the members being "children" so McCauley fires his current workforce and replaces them with new lackeys over the age of 21. Repulse is the self-styled leader of the new squad, which went to the new Outpost to "help" in the crisis and proceeded to make everything worse, including accelerating the rift collapse and fighting with some of the Legionnaires on the outpost bridge. He, as well as the rest of the new Workforce, were last seen running for escape pods with Ayla in issue 125.


Thank you again! That is high praise indeed! Now that my move is mostly done, I can focus again on the plot and get moving again!

Ooh, a new writer debuts on Legion World! And there was much rejoicing!

While the Reboot Legion are 'after my time,' I like a lot of the new characters (Kid Quantum 2's my fave, but I also have a fondness for Gates and all his curmudgeonliness, or Monstress and her *niceness*).

I like the characterization here, as well as the practical matters being attended to, of life support and flash-vision-sutures and flight ring coordination.

I don't know as much about the characterization of the Rebooters vs. the 'classic' continuity Legionnaires, but they feel true enough to the classic continuity to feel recognizable to this old-time fan, even if they are subtly different characters. (Cham, in particular, feels very much like the experienced and competent Legion Espionage Squad leader of my own remembrances, even if the Reboot Chameleon may have been a bit younger and less experienced, from what I recall, not that I'm complaining, 'cause I love me some competence in my heroes! Situations can be dire enough if they are all on the ball, so long as the threats they face are *also* on the ball!)

Great stuff, looking forward to seeing where it goes from here, and what shenanigans the Work Force are up to!

Thank you, Set!! I very much appreciate your comments!

And great comment about the threats also being on the ball. I had to completely rewrite this as it was originally not much to the tale, but in the end, its a man v nature tale of survival.

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Issue #127 - "Love and Rockets" (Part 1) - "Zoe's Dream"
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Legionnaire Roll Call:
Kinetix
Violet
Monstress

On the Legion Outpost, stranded in the center of the galaxy...



Zoe's dreams for the last few nights had always started from the same memory.

It always started with the arboretum. Zoe and Violet had been best friends since the moment they'd met, but in recent weeks Zoe had realized she had much more serious feelings. Zoe, being who she was, couldn't bottle that up and had to say something, so one impulsive handwritten note later, here she was, waiting for Vi. Zoe knew that Vi's favorite place on the station was the arboretum deck of the Legion Outpost; a full level that had an almost unbroken transparent aluminum window to the heavens encircling a miniature forest and ecosystem that would rival many in the United Planets. It was a great place to just relax whether you wanted to meditate to nature, the universe, or both, and Zoe totally understood why the introspective Violet would love this place. Zoe sat down on a bench facing the window overlooking the cosmos and waited for while her own emotions were pinging back and forth like agitated atoms.

"You're in my spot, Zoe," Vi's voice said as her hand gently touched Zoe's shoulder. Zoe felt herself give in to the happiness of Violet's presence and tilted her head to cover Vi's hand.

Zoe smiled and took Vi's hand. "You want to make me move?"

"Yes," Violet said with a joking lilt to her voice, "Now scoot!"

"Fine," Zoe snickered and shifted to the other side of the small bench. Violet sat down facing the window, holding her hands together between her knees.

"I just wanted you to warm my seat up," Vi smiled.

"Ha ha," Zoe responded ironically while gently leaning into Violet's side, "remind me to create an engraving here with your name on it when we leave."

Vi turned with an expression of mock indignance. "Well, it IS my seat," she said, then smiled, "So what's up?" she asked.

Zoe took a deep breath. "Vi, we're best friends, right?"

"Always," Violet replied directly; this fact was an absolute truth for both of them.

"Have you felt like we've been getting closer lately?" Zoe asked, still trying to figure out how she was going to get to her point.

Violet nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I guess so, especially now that you're yourself again," she said and put her hand on Zoe's, "I'm really happy about that. I never thought you'd come back to being you again after that anomaly. You were so spaced out and losing touch with everyone. It was like you were fading away from me."

Zoe's pulse started to quicken with the touch and she turned her hand over to interlace her fingers with Vi's. She looked directly into Violet's eyes and squeezed her hand. "Yeah, I'm glad too, obviously," Zoe said with a laugh, "I've been thinking a lot about us in the last few weeks since you saved me. That just by itself - what you risked - I'm not sure I can put into words what it really means to me. But that whole anomaly experience made me think about things and realize something about myself?" she trailed off.

"Zoe, you've done the same for me. I'm not sure I can count how often we've been there for each other," Violet said, placing her other hand on top of their other clasped hands. "Are you OK?" Violet asked with concern.

"Yeah I'm fine," Zoe laughed, easing Violet's concerns, "you just caught me at the one time in my life where I can't seem to express myself. My world always seems to be a bit of a frenzied, chaotic swirl. There's only one thing in my life that's a constant - you". Zoe paused and looked out the window to the ribbon of the Milky Way.

"Zoe, what is it you're trying to tell me?" Violet asked softly as she leaned in closer.

Zoe's heart committed and took the jump off the cliff of no return, prepared for a dashing on the sharp rocks of emotional rejection. She shifted on the bench to face Violet directly and blurted it out. "Vi, I kind of like you more than just friends," she said almost too quickly. She reached out to brush back Vi's green lock of hair from her brow then leaned in, holding her free hand against the side of Violet's head and kissed her for what seemed to her like minutes.

The kiss ended and Violet blinked as her cheeks flushed. Still holding hands, both girls turned to stare out the starry viewport for another long moment. Zoe began to worry. Biting her lower lip in anxiety, she looked at Violet out of the side of her eyes.

"Vi?" Zoe asked in a whisper.

"Why didn't you say anything before?" Vi asked still staring out the window.

"I was afraid to tell you," Zoe said, "I don't want our friendship to change."

After an uncomfortably long moment for Zoe, Violet seemed to stir and relax somewhat, still flushed, but having processed what had just happened. "Why would that change anything except make it better?" Vi responded at last and squeezed Zoe's hand. She looked back at Zoe with a twinkle in her eyes and said, "You're a good kisser."

Zoe could feel the relief rushing through her body to the tips of her fingers, toes and even into her waving hair. "Oh honey, you have no idea," she said with a grin, as Violet wrapped her arms around Zoe's shoulders, moving in closer to kiss Zoe again.

Then the scene started to fade like it always did, flickering out down a dark grey tunnel.

Nononono... Stay here, please... Zoe thought to herself uselessly as her dream shifted. She tried to will her dreaming mind toy to at least move her body in the bed to force her to body awake to no affect. All she could seem to manage was a bare twitch in her shoulder while her consciousness slid deeper into the dark well.

The dream changed to Metropolis, just after the invasion. Violet's warmth had been replaced by a cold darkness with the smell of ozone and decay in the air. They had been called in to Earth from the Outpost to fight an invasion that had appeared out of nowhere. The resistance had been going on for most of a day, and the tide had turned significantly against them. What was a bright and bustling city had been turned into a dark, decaying landscape of crumbled buildings and rotting vegetation within a matter of hours. Jan and Thom had been taken alive in front of Zoe's eyes and their ring signals had disappeared from the grid. She hoped to god that they were still alive. Zoe and Violet were the last from their group to find refuge in an abandoned magnoball arena.

Zoe looked at Violet. Vi's face was smudged with grime; blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. Even her green lock of hair was obscured by dirt. "Vi, what do we do?" Zoe asked nervously, "I'm really scared..."

"Me too, Zo," Vi replied breathing heavily. She gave Zoe a quick, tight hug and said, "Let's get out of here. Open a hole and let's head to the Lanning Arcology. If there's anything left of it."

"Done!" Zoe pushed out with her expiring energy and a hole blasted in the ceiling of the stadium and both lifted off into the air. Zoe formed a shield around them, and they flew out the hole created in the wall, landing a few miles away against the ruins of the crumbled arcology. Once standing dozens of stories in the air, all that was left now was the ruined frame of a building that spanned multiple city blocks, crumbling as if the atomic forces binding the molecules together had just given up. They settled against a wall in the interior.

Zoe felt a panic set it and clutched at her partner's arms. "What's happening Vi?" She asked desperately, "Everything's falling apart so fast!" A whooshing sound echoed all around them and both girls could sense the presence of something else surrounded them, approaching and pinning them in; it was as if the decaying of life itself had been made manifest and was pursuing them.

A combination of protectiveness and anger surged through Violet. "It's an ambush! Get behind me Zoe!" She yelled as she stepped forward and increased her size to over twenty meters, sweeping her arms wide and knocking unseen invaders away like scythes through grass. From their left side, a sudden purple energy pulse connected with Violet's side and for a moment she froze, her back and head arced back then immediately shrank to her normal size around her center of gravity, which was about 20 meters forward from their original position. As soon as Vi hit the ground she was swarmed by shadowy figures.

"VI!" Zoe screamed as she rushed to help. Enraged, she cast her remaining energy out in green sweeping fields to push a path to her girlfriend, plowing the dark figures to either side. Violet was splayed on all fours on the ground, desperately trying to push herself up while alien fibers pulled her down and wove into her skin. Zoe stopped and was frozen with horror.

Violet's eyes suddenly connected with and focused on Zoe. "Zoe! Run! PLEASE!" she pleaded through labored breath. It's just a dream, part of Zoe's mind kept repeating, as she stood rooted in shock as Violet's eyes began to glow red as her face contorted in resistance. Too late to help Violet, Zoe turned to run and within a few strides slammed directly into a tall figure that stank of mold and death. Zoe looked up in horror as the alien seemed to laugh and reached down towards her.



Zoe's scream echoed in the room as she shot bolt upright in her bunk, drenched in sweat. She pulled her knees up towards her torso, held her head in her hand and rested her elbows on her knees. "God dammit," she muttered to herself. She looked at the clock. 0430 Actual.

"Zoe, are you OK, dear?" A familiar voice asked in the dim light. Of course, she'd woken Candi. The two of them were bunking together for the time being, until more individual quarters were available on the station barracks.

"I'm fine Candi, thanks," Zoe replied with an exasperated sigh, "Just that damn dream again." She ran her fingers through her sweaty auburn hair.

Candi's large figure propped up in the bunk that Zoe had augmented for her earlier. "Maybe you need to talk to Imra about it to see how she might help, honey" Candi suggested in her friendly way as she yawned and ran her large hand across her pronounced brow.

"Already did," Zoe responded. She looked towards the window out to view the odd starscape. "I just need to see her again is all," she said softly.

"I'm sure Imra will give you some time, dear," Candi responded and adjusted herself in the bunk to go back to sleep.

"I wasn't talking about Imra," Zoe muttered softly.

"What was that, sweetie?" Candi called half asleep already.

"Nothing," Zoe replied sullenly, "sweet dreams." Knowing that she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, she put her uniform on and stalked out of the room to find something to do in the station.

oooh I am clapping my hands in glee! Zoe and Vi as a couple, and very realistically developed too. I like - no, I love it!

Vi's fave place being the arboretum is so her. also Vi being "you're in my spot, Zoe." She'd pretty much only say that to Zoe. I loved the build-up with Zoe being hesitant while still taking the lead. "One time in my life when I can't express myself", yeah after all the chaos of that stupid Anomaly... and you captured Vi's anguish over that really well. (Also, no Terrorform Zoe coming up i'm sure I really hated that for basically taking everything fun about Zoe away!)

I was elated at that kiss! I love it, so well done! and the flirting at the end. what a lovely romantic scene!

the Lanning Arcology nice touch

also props re continuity, for mentioning Legionnaires taken in the first Blight wave!

great news of Zoe's powers by the way, now that's the alpha-class telekinetic and matter animator I know and love!

love Vi's protectiveness in the Blight ambush. And the moment when Vi was Blighted, and Zoe trying to save her then running when she realized it was too late...

The Widening Rifts arc made a big deal about how the Blighted Legionnaires were scarred, and you explore it well here

also love Candi being all sleepy-comforting, and the misunderstanding about whom Zoe needs to see again.

excellent bit, just absolutely excellent. can't wait for more!

Thanks for your kind words and your support!

It was important for me to continue this Legion and there be more representation in the ranks. We know that Lyle was intended to be gay, but it was never shown in frame. Given the fact the Vi & Ayla were so popular pre-ZH, and the fact that the girls way outnumbered the boys, there should be representation there in the team on that side. Vi and Zoe are the natural choice for so many reasons, and I couldn't really go reboot Vi & Ayla as Ayla is on her own journey, even though they are all good friends. It also kind of bugged that my teen daughter can't find a hero to relate to in this version of the Legion. I get that things were very different 25 years ago in the comics world, but DC is DC after all...

These two will always have each others' backs on mission.

re:Widening Rifts - Tasmia's PTSD in Lost was one of the best parts about it, even though I think they turned it to 11 then made it disappear altogether. But they did a good job showing that with Jazmin and Jo. The Legionnaires were affected for a month, which is even longer than Vi was the Empress. It'll affect these folks too, especially for someone like Zoe.

And yes - hell no to the Terrorformed Zoe.

Zoe and Vi make an excellent couple in all ways and yes, yay to representation a wonderful pair for your daughter to relate to!

yeah, agree, even having Jazmin, Jo and Tasmia troubled by being Blighted up until Lost. that was good and realistic.

Terrorform Zoe is going away, far away lol!

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Issue #127 - "Love and Rockets" (Part 2)
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Roll Call

Livewire - Garth Ranzz
Saturn Girl - Imra Ardeen
Brainiac 5 - Querl Dox
Invisible Kid - Lyle Norg
Kinetix - Zoe Saugin
Ultra Boy - Jo Nah
Umbra - Tasmia Mallor
Triad - Luornu Durgo
Chuck Taine
Dyrk Magz



The Legionnaires filed into the conference room in the early morning. It had been three cycles since the Outpost had emerged through a wormhole and into this bright area of space, where the view outside the window almost looked like a negative of the night sky from Earth, Titan or even Winath; a dull yellow haze punctuated by points of red, orange, black and blue. Much work had been done on the station, making it almost completely workable, if not yet to the homey conditions they were used to from the original outpost.

Garth wandered into the room yawning and running his fingers through his bright red, spiky hair. "Y'know, I'm really glad to be rid of the smoky smell all over the place," he said tiredly, "but this place is still a dump."

"We'll make do, Garth" Imra said reassuringly. She swept her hand across Garth's trim shoulders as she made her way to the replicator to get coffee for herself.

Brainiac 5 entered and immediately made for the computer workstation on the wall to start manipulating data. "I'm good over here," he said, then suddenly scrunched his face. "An ergonomic chair would be nice," he thought out loud.

"Imra, make way for me when you're done with that replicator," Lyle said on entry. "What I wouldn't give for a good espresso right now..."

An uninvited Zoe had followed the group in and said with an almost excessive exuberance, "I gotcha covered, Lyle!" She pushed in front of Lyle and Imra both and began rapidly pressing controls on the replicator, activating it and producing a white cup of steaming espresso in the dispensing slot. "You'll need to replicate your own sweetner or cream," she said deadpan, "I'm not a barista. But you're right, Garth. We need to do something about this room. Lady and gentlemen, please step away from the cargo containers."

All the Legionnaires backed away from any loose equipment as Zoe flourished her arms as a green energy spread out across the containers spread around the room. Like the conductor of an orchestra, Zoe moved her arms so the matter making up the cargo boxes dissolved and swept into the center of the room, reforming into a wide, circular table with the Legion ?L' logo and several chairs parked around it.

"Oh damn! Sorry Brainy," Zoe said, "I kind of got caught up in the moment." She gestured to one of the newly-created chairs and it dissolved and reformed into an ergonomic chair in front of the computer terminal. Zoe placed her hands on her hips and looked at her handiwork with pride and a huge grin on her face. "I can't believe I didn't think of this the other day."

Imra took a sip of her coffee and looked around approvingly. "Wow, Zoe!" Imra said, "Great job! We were all in a bit of an extreme situation then, so its okay," She sat down adjusting in her chair, testing out its supportiveness. Brainiac 5 looked at the new workstation chair somewhat suspiciously before sitting at the conference table.

"We still are," Lyle said in a flat voice, finally testing his espresso. He briefly looked approvingly at his cup after tasting the caffeinated liquid. "Not bad," he said to Zoe.

"Hey, I've had three already this morning once I figured out the right replicator sequence," Zoe said, plopping herself on a chair and kicking her feet up on the new table, "I've got a lot of practice." She specifically ignored Imra's glance in her direction.

The Legionnaires started focusing on holographs on the table projected from the generator in the ceiling. It showed a view of the local star group, focusing on two yellow stars, several light years apart, with tiny planets circling around them.

Lyle spoke up first. "Brainy, I've been looking at the stellar data, and there are these two star systems closest to our position," he said, suddenly focused and completely awake. "We need to go move out and explore."

Brainiac 5 turned from his workstation to address the table. "You're right Invisible Kid, but the farther we move away from here, the more dangerous travel becomes," he said directly, "Between the fluctuating gravity waves in this region of space due to the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy and the X-Ray output interfering with our sensors, ANY travel is at risk. You heard Ultra Boy's report."

"That's just it, Brainy," Lyle said, "I've worked with Dyrk and we've determined that the cruiser in docking bay 2 is in spaceworthy condition. We can take a group and investigate one of these systems since the cruiser is faster than this station." He gestured at the two holographic stars hanging over the table. "We'll be back before you know it."

Brainiac 5's hand, which had been resting at his temple, dropped to the table as he said to Lyle in a monotone, "Do you have any understanding of how I perceive time, Invisible Kid?"

Lyle shook his head in exasperation. "Imra, what do you think?" he asked her directly.

Imra sat sipping her coffee for a moment, then finally spoke up. "I think it's a good idea," she said at length, "Now that the station is in spaceworthy shape, we need to get a better idea of what's around us ? or if any of our friends might be nearby."

Garth chimed in saying, "We also need to see if we can get some supplies either to break down for the replicator, or if we're lucky, it's a class M planet with a sustaining ecosphere and we can have some edible natural food."

"Well, Garth, we've always made our own luck," she said smiling as she put her cup down, "but we seem to be at a deficit on that right now, so I'm not going to trust to it. You're right, though, we do need supplies."

Lyle pressed his case. "So?"

Imra turned her chair to look at Lyle in the eyes. "How soon can you get the cruiser and a crew ready?" she asked.

"Four hours, max."

"Very well," Imra said, "Lyle, you'll have command of the scouting mission." Garth began to move to interject but was stopped by Imra gesturing to Garth with her palm out. "Pick your team at your discretion, but please let me have right of last review," she said, "I do have specific requests. Garth, I want you on the team." Garth relaxed as he had been lobbying to fly the ship.

"Okay," Lyle said, leaning back in the chair as he folded his hands across his chest, "so that's our pilot."

Imra continued, saying, "I also have one other request for you. We have one Legionnaire in particular who needs to have something to do...."



Ultra Boy stalked through the corridors preoccupied with thoughts of his wife running through his head. It had been days since they had appeared somewhere near the center of the galaxy and Jo had tried to patrol as far away as he dared from the Outpost in search of any of their nine missing Legionnaires, but especially Tinya. Even flying through the glowing multicolored void, as he got further away from the station, he could feel the buffeting gravity forces that threatened to pull him in unexpected directions. Any time he traveled beyond an astronomical unit away from the station, the disorientation started; it was sheer providence, along with the homing beacon from his Legion Flight ring, that enabled him to focus and get back to the station as soon as he could. At least Imra had finally come to her senses and assigned him on a search mission.

All these thoughts, were running through his head as he rounded a corner and almost plowed through a darkly cloaked woman.

"Grife, Tasmia, I'm sorry!" Jo exclaimed, "I was too caught up in my thoughts."

"You never have to apologize to me Jo Nah." She stepped closer and put her hands on his chest. Almost reflexively, he put his hands on Umbra's hips.

"Umbra, I..." Jo began.

"I heard about the mission," she interrupted, "I just wanted to say thank you for saving my life earlier, and good luck." She leaned up and kissed him quickly on the cheek. "Come back safe."

She kept going down the corridor toward the station bridge as a confused Jo looked after her. He shook it off and resumed his walk to the hangar.

Just before she turned the corner to the bridge, Tasmia turned to stare at Jo's figure as he walked out of view.



Luornu made her way to the docking bay with her mission bag, always full of extra everything in case she triplicated. Lyle had messenged her to be at the hangar by 1100, so she was making sure she was a half hour early.

"Lu! Hey! Wait up!" Chuck's voice called from the end of the hall. Her heart bounced a beat, which it did every time he swept in. Chuck jogged up, a little out of breath.

"Hey, Lu," he said, quickly catching his breath. She definitely had noticed over the last few months his increased regimen and was starting to become rather svelte, which she definitely appreciated. "I heard you're going on the away mission and I wanted to see you off," he panted.

Lu scrunched her face up. "Yeah, I think I got picked so there's less mouths to feed here on the station," she said in a subdued voice, "Can't do much else in our situation."

"Hey, don't talk like that," Chuck said, placing his hand on Lu's elbow, "My inside scoop is that they have you around for the hand to hand combat."

Luornu blushed and said, "You're sweet to say that, Chuck."

"Hey, I'm being serious!" Chuck said earnestly, "I pity the fools that pick a fight with you!"

"Stop it!" Luornu laughed and jokingly pushed at his shoulder, then took his hand in hers. She could tell from his amused expression that Chuck was happy with her reaction. "Hey listen," she said seriously, nodding her head in the direction of the hangar, "I gotta get going to prep..."

Chuck nodded. "Yeah..." he said, "um... Listen..."

Lu leaned just slightly closer in to Chuck. "Yeah?"

"We all got through this rift thing and are wherever we are for a reason," he said, looking her in the eyes, "Keep yourself in one piece okay? Or is that three pieces?"

Luornu lifted Chuck's baseball cap off his head and put it on her own, ruffled his hair to fix his "hat head", then swept some of Chuck's dark hair across his brow to smooth it out. "I'll make sure that all of me is back for you, ok?"

"Promise?" Chuck asked and held out his pinky finger with a smile.

"Promise."

Both shook their pinkies, then Luornu leaned in and wrapped her arms around Chuck's neck, kissing him intensely before turning and heading to the airlock, still wearing his hat. As she approached the airlock door, she turned to smile and wave back at Chuck, who was still standing in the same spot, touching his hand to his mouth.



Imra's voice came over the cruisers's console. "Okay," her voice said, "The plan is that the scouting team will rendezvous with the outpost within four days at the other system. Based on the specifications from Brainy and Chuck, we estimate we'll be there in two days. We'll begin to prep for FTL as soon as you've jumped."

Lyle was sitting in the cruiser's co-pilot seat, and pressed a control to engage the communicator. He'd taken the time to pull Triad, Gates, XS and Karate Kid for the away team in addition to Garth and Jo, he even pulled Dyrk for an engineer, just in case, and everyone was secured in their seats. He mentally went over the preflight check again just to ensure that nothing had been omitted before he confirmed back to Imra. "Roger that, Legion Outpost," he said, "Legion cruiser Alpha is ready to depart." Lyle looked at the viewscreen as the imagery showed the ceiling of the docking bay sliding aside. "All yours, Garth," Lyle said.

Garth nodded and pushed the button to activate the repulsors and slid the control up, lifting the cruiser past the docking bay doors and into space. Garth was an experienced pilot and his first impression was to be completely disoriented in the face of an opposite void, where it seemed that the dark elements of the void were much more rare than the more ubiquitous yellow glow that seemed to surround them at all sides. It made piloting in space extremely confusing compared to what he was used to, so Garth made an extra effort to concentrate on the task of basic flight.

"We're free of the station, Outpost," Lyle said into the headset, "starting engines and heading towards the secondary M Class star."

"Good hunting, Lyle. Let's hope you find our comrades," Imra's voice came over the intercom, "Legion Outpost out."

"Bye Imra," Garth said softly as he engaged the engines to full speed, but Lyle still heard.

Lyle looked over at Garth and measured him up for any signs of stress that he may have to account for. "You OK Garth?" he asked.

Garth quickly looked back over to Lyle and acknowledged with a nod before turning his attention back to the controls. "Yeah, I'm fine Lyle," he said, "It's just really hard leaving the ones you love behind, after all this."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Lyle said softly, staring out into space.

Garth looked back over to Lyle with curiosity etched all over his features. "Okay mister secrets, what are you talking about?" Garth asked directly. "Spill. We're only tens of thousands of light years from home. You don't have to keep everything to yourself all the time."

Lyle looked over at Garth with a stare and finally signed and said, "Fine. I'm dating Condo. I have been for months now."

Garth blinked in surprise. "Arlik? The reporter?" he asked, "Hey, that's awesome!" Garth familiarly slapped Lyle's arm with the back of his hand. "I'm really happy for you," Garth said genuinely, "You know, you don't need to keep that kind of stuff from us!"

Lyle looked back at Garth directly. "I'm just a...," he began.

"A private person," Garth finished, "Yeah, believe me, we all know."

"Yeah," Lyle said settling down further into his seat, "I figure if something happens to me out here before we find some way home, someone should know. Just in case."

Not sure exactly how to respond to that, Garth turned back to the controls. "Yeah," he said at length, I get it buddy. We'll get home and you can tell him what you did out here in person."


--------------------------------

A BIG Thank you to Invisible Brainiac, who kept me on track with this particular chapter, as well as providing good feedback for a lot of the ideas in the first one!

Yay! more good stuff! and thanks for the recognition

Heh, I love these little bits re the station being a dump. Brainy's back hurting in the chair was hilarious! I love it. Also humanizes him a bit.

LOL at Zoe walking in uninvited and staying there, despite not being part of the "leadership council"! And ignoring Imra's side glance. perfect! also perfect use of her powers, while still setting limits - and i like how the good coffee was her figuring out how to use the replicator. (also: three coffees, wow, she really couldn't sleep...)

Jo as scout, nice touch there

also the Brainy/Lyle debate, with Lyle just giving up and asking Imra to referee

Garth as pilot, nice. Funny bit with Garth about to protest, but Imra giving him what he wanted too. Your Imra is a great leader, I would follow her. She knows when to step in, and when to let people do their thing

The gravity waves bit adds to the danger, and more importantly sets boundaries on how far anyone can go

Whoa, Tasmia! Jo's reaction mirrored my own, she was being unusually touchy. I would have been afraid of her snapping at me... uh oh. Is Tasmia feeling some overly strong gratitude, or... and I remember that shadowy thing when Jo was patching her up, any relation? Gosh! Well, with Jo pining after Tinya I think he'll be faithful, but he can also be a bit dense so I wonder if he realizes just what Tasmia seems to want...

I like that Lu was picked by Lyle. Lu being uber-prepared and early is cool

aw, Chuck trying to get fitter. I like it! very relatable also Chuck encouraging Lu re why she was picked! I love it, and a nice reference to her excellent tri-jitsu skills. very sweet scene with Lu and Chuck!

nice away team you have! logical choices in Gates and XS too.

Yeah, what Garth said about leaving loved ones behind... and also Lyle being secretive but spilling - but only spiling for practical reasons. so very Lyle.


Loving it, and can't wait for more!

Thanks!

I find that I enjoy the Brainy/Lyle dynamic a lot; Lyle the practical genius butting heads with the hyperintelligent overthinker.

I'm exploring where Tasmia's journey will take her. I think her brush with death just after the blight is making her re-evaluate some things.

And I am very specifically making Chuck and Lu closer. I know they were getting friendly by the end of the PMS run, but were they ever shown as a couple under DnA?

Maybe Tasmia is beginning to think about her legacy. after all, she still has that whole "they kicked me out of the role of Planetary Champion!" thing hanging over her head. and it's a hereditary title, passed down... so she also needs to produce an heir

no, I don't think DNA gave Lu and Chuck any couple moments or any acknowledgement that they were! but indeed, in PMS, Legionnaires 66 and 77 made it super clear that Chuck and Lu liked each other. Jenni and Dyrk too for that matter...

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Issue #127 - "Love and Rockets" (Part 3)
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Roll Call

Saturn Girl - Imra Ardeen
Brainiac 5 - Querl Dox
Umbra - Tasmia Mallor
Chameleon - Reep Daggle
Ferro - Andrew Nolan
Kinetix - Zoe Saugin
Monstress - Candi Pyponte-Le Parc III
Chuck Taine



Imra watched out the bridge viewport as the cruiser maneuvered away from the station and quickly accelerated, leaving a dissipating bluish-white trail in its wake. She turned to see the Legionnaires on bridge detail: Chuck and Ferro at the main control center, Umbra monitoring communications, Chameleon there for anything else, and the ever-present Brainiac 5.

"All right, gentlemen," she called to the others, "are we ready to start moving?"

"If the cruiser is clear, we can spin up the engines and start moving towards the closer star system," Brainiac 5 said in agreement as he walked around the bridge with his holographic screens following him around, constantly updating data flashing across the displays.

Chuck and Ferro were seated at the main bridge console with Cham standing behind them with his arms folded.

"So what is this drive system, Brainy?" Cham asked.

"It's called a Stutterwarp drive," Brainiac 5 replied without looking up from his work, "It produces a series of microjumps through space to move the ship. It's crude, but effective."

"Ferro, how are we looking, buddy?" Chuck asked the teen in the metallic mask.

Ferro responded with a thumbs up. "Systems are a go," he said, "initiating the FTL sequence."

Cham glanced over at Brainy, but Cham couldn't tell if the Coluan was concerned about something or just keeping busy. "What do you think, Brainy?" he asked, "Are we getting there in one piece?"

Brainiac replied, "It's certainly not the fastest FTL drive ever made, but it will at least get us there in a day or two. It was the only drive we could adapt for this station in the time we had. Over the next day or two we can modify some of the remaining life boats as landers for when we arrive at any world that may have an atmosphere."

"Well, let me get on that with Ferro and Kinetix once we are well enough along," Cham said, "I think we were able to salvage enough station debris to make those modifications."

Still not looking away from his screens, Brainy responded, "A fine idea, Chameleon, provided that Kinetix doesn't start changing the lander designs mid way through because she's bored. Or worse yet... decorate them up in silly paint jobs every ten minutes."

"It wasn't that funny, Cham!" Kinetix's voice cut through his laughter at Brainy's comment. Surprised, Cham turned to see Monstress entering the bridge trailing an annoyed Kinetix.

Umbra looked over at the commotion and rolled her eyes before turning back to her station. Imra turned to the new arrivals with a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth; she had also found Brainy's comment amusing, but didn't want to add fuel to Zoe's fire of annoyance.

"Kinetix, Monstress, what brings you to the bridge?" Imra asked, trying to get everyone back on track.

"We had finished with getting the infirmary squared away, so we wanted to see the new drive in action," Monstress replied back, "but it looks like we just missed the grand launch." Kinetix was still looking daggers at Brainiac 5, who completely ignored her.

"Well, why don't you two and Cham head to the conference room to review those schematics..." Imra began.

"Saturn Girl," Umbra interrupted suddenly from her station, "This is really strange. I've lost telemetry with cruiser Alpha."

Fighting a sudden urge of panic, Imra strode over to Tasmia's station to look at the same displays with Brainiac 5 in close behind. "WHAT? Did something happen to them?" she asked directly.

Brainiac pulled one of his floating displays to be directly in front of him and examined the data.

"Based on the data signature, it just cuts off without any other data or energy signatures, which implies a blocked signal," Brainy said after a moment, "The probability is that we would hear some kind of communication or have an indication of an energy surge in the data stream prior to the interruption if the cruiser met an unfortunate fate." He tapped at a few other controls. "Not only that," he added, "but it appears that our flight ring communications are also affected."

Chameleon was confused. "So our flight rings are inactive?" he asked.

"No, only the communications seem to be affected," Brainy replied.

Just to prove the point, Kinetix pushed off the deck and did a flip in the air. "This seems to be about right. I'm able to float and fly with this like normal," she said.

"Communications block confirmed," Umbra said addressing Brainy and Imra, "I am not reading any ring signatures on my console."

Alarms started flashing on all the screens and everyone scrambled as the Outpost shook suddenly. Chuck and Ferro focused their attention on the engine controls.

"Brainy! The engine's getting shut down somehow!" Ferro called out. "Some kind of damper is affecting the propulsion systems!"

"Shut it all down!" Brainiac 5 called back, "Take the engines offline before the station shakes apart!"

Chuck deftly swept his fingers over the console and momentarily the shuddering of the station vanished, as it stopped its micro-warping through space, once again drifting in the void. Everyone slowly came to a stand as they looked out the viewport and saw they were not alone.

"Whoa," an amazed Ferro walked closer to the window to get a better look. Brainiac immediately began collecting data from his sensor arrays.

Looming in space ahead of their trajectory hung a large spacecraft, more along the size of a UP destroyer versus the smaller, more agile Legion cruisers. The spacecraft was vaguely wedge-shaped with large wings on either side that swept forward. A mosaic of decorative angular shapes, primarily triangles and trapezoids of red, blue, and green stretched along the hull and wings.

What made Andrew Nolan much more fascinated were the floating figures flanking the spaceship. Filing out from the ship and moving towards the Outpost were dozens of winged humanoid figures. The leaders, probably a dozen in all, appeared to be men and women, most with longer dark hair wearing a bodysuit that was mostly a blood red in color except for a thin diagonal white line from the right shoulder to the left waist, separating it from the upper left side of the suit, which was a burnt yellow, studded with red, orange, black and blue; somewhat resembling the star fields of this region of space. Their white wings stretched out as if they were providing buoyancy in the airless environment.

The rest of the figures, the vast majority, appeared to be humanoid as well, but encased in a type of mechanized armor, even around their wings and a helmet that bore a blank facemask. All the new arrivals, with armor and without, bore a type of laser weapon; each armored figure had the same kind of long rifle, while the winged humanoids all bore a similar weapon or wore sidearms.

Saturn Girl turned to Umbra. "Please send a signal on all known channels and languages," Imra ordered, "Tell them we are requesting assistance."

Before Tasmia could send the message, the unknown vessels sent a message of their own, crackling over the Outpost speakers, "Attention unidentified vessel. You have entered the borders of the sovereign Empire of Starhaven without authorization. Please state your intentions or be fired upon."

Brainiac 5's head snapped up from his screens. The rest of the Legionnaires looked at each other in confusion. "Our translators barely flipped a cubit working out that language matrix," he said to the rest in surprise, "No one from the UP has been to this region of space, but they are speaking some early derivative of Interlac."

"How is that possible?" Imra responded. Then to Umbra, "Open a channel to the unknown ships." Following a nod from Umbra, Imra began, "Unknown vessel, this is the Legion Outpost. We have come to this area of space by accident and are in desperate need of assistance."

Long moments passed, as the Legionnaires waited for any kind of response as the winged soldiers surrounded their Outpost. Imra closed her eyes and reached out to try and glean some sort of intent from the minds of the individuals surrounding the station. Her face grimaced in confusion.

"It's the strangest thing," she said, still concentrating with her eyes closed, "I don't believe they are actively hostile; it appears they are all just following their protocols. But with the winged men and women, its almost like I'm reading a human mind, but that's impossible!"

"What about those others?" asked Ferro, indicating the armored figures who had all trained their weapons on the outpost.

"Whatever it is they are wearing is interfering with my telepathy," Imra replied, "I'm getting nothing from them."

"Prepare to be towed," the message came simply, finally breaking the silence. The ship maneuvered around the outpost and in a wide circle. When the ship had almost completely circumnavigated the outpost, a beam came out and latched itself to the hull. The Outpost gently shook as the sensation of movement was abated briefly after the inertial dampers kicked in. The armored soldiers around the station moved in close and magnetically clamped their boots on to the outer hull.

"Saturn Girl we can't just sit here!" Monstress interjected angrily, "We have no idea where they are taking us! This just seems bad all over!"

Imra coolly looked out the window, but still addressed Candi. "Maybe," she said evenly, "but right now, they're getting us to some type of civilization a lot faster than we were able to just a few minutes ago." She looked back at Monstress and finished, "Besides, the only thoughts I was sensing were those of vigilance and curiosity. I'm thinking that we should have the same outlook."

Imra looked over at Ferro who was still staring out at the ship and the figures now escorting the Outpost through space. She walked over and touched his elbow. "What is it, Ferro?" Imra asked quietly so others would not overhear, "I'm sensing a lot of confusion coming from you."

"I don't know, Saturn Girl," he replied, "There's something about these aliens that kind of seems almost... familiar." He folded his arms. "I'm just not sure what it is yet."

"Well, let me know first thing if you figure something out," she said.

Outside the unsuited aliens flew in front of the cruiser and, one after another, seemed to accelerate in a red blur before the towing vessel shifted faster than light and space turned into a blue tunnel.



Thirty light-minutes later, in the region of space where the Outpost had originally emerged, the wormhole flickered to life for a bare instant.

Another excellent one! Brainy's new drive is similar to Legion Lost 4, but yours takes so much less time - a testament to Brainy's brilliance.

Starhaven!!! Whooa!!! Way to find a good middle ground between the Shikari / Dawnstar thing!

Lol at the good-natured teasing by Brainy/Cham, Zoe's angry reaction, and Imra trying not to laugh. And Tasmia just being done with it all and rolling her eyes.

poor Candi, I can feel how upset she is!

Why did the wormhole flicker, was it related to Brainty's drive? Or the Starhavenites showing up?

another excellent segment!

I probably should provide attribution here and in the original post - the Stutterwarp concept was introduced in the 2300 AD RPG. There are a couple other cool applications for it too, but its not very fast....


Just you wait.


Zoe's a hot tempered redhead, so easy to make angry, especially when the caffeine starts to wear down. She wears her outfit changing with pride, but wouldn't like people laughing about that.


I'm trying to decide if I dig into THAT in 128 or in an epilogue for 127....

always great borrowing ideas from other sources

yeah, Zoe can have a temper but it's different from, say, Tasmia's or Brainy's or Garth's temper hee hee

ooh i'm excited to find out

Hey GL, I haven't been online much lately so lots of catching up to do - this is really fun! Some thoughts:

- Zoe falling for Vi was really sweet...I don't know if you ever read Avengers comics in the 80s but I'm starting to get a Janet Van Dyne feeling about your Zoe, I feel like she's gonna become a really core part of the team's backbone without compromising the fun part of her personality (and 80s Wasp is probably my favourite Avenger so I'm here for it!)

- Starhaven!! I am dying to see what you're doing with these guys! I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that Ferro recognises some cultural stuff about them from the 20th century

- Umbra rolling her eyes is me with morning people, highly relatable

- generally speaking I really like the focus on characterisation and I appreciate that you've spent time establishing where everyone's at physically and emotionally before introducing any other elements...also, the visual description of space is great, it brings home the sense of disorientation really well!

Looking forward to more!

Thanks, raz! No worries - I'd been pre-occupied for a chunk of time too, so these are all fairly recent.

re:V&Z - thanks so much! To me, the way that their friendship had been portrayed for 5-6 years, whatever it was, was a highlight of the Legion that was completely dropped on the floor with DnA's writing, so I wanted to put it back along with taking it to the next level. I'm actually only familiar with Janet from the MCU in the Antman movies, so I'm curious to understand where your parallels are with Zoe. But yeah, she's going to be integral given her power set can be used for offense or defense/repair, and her 'brand' is to be fun! Any time writers have moved away from that, it doesn't seem to work.

I really hope the Starhaven stuff comes across as intended. When it and Dawnstar were introduced in the 70s, it was dripping with stereotype, so much so that I think DnA just sidestepped by making Shikari someone totally other. I really think that Starhaven can be done keeping faith with the cultural background, but be sci-fi and not stereotypes with buckskin and frills. So fingers crossed. But we probably won't get to that until next issue.

And thanks on the characterization comments - That's an important detail for me.

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Issue #127 - "Love and Rockets" (Part 4)
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Legionnaire Roll Call:

Livewire - Garth Ranzz
Invisible Kid - Lyle Norg
XS - Jenni Ognats
Triad - Luornu Durgo
Ultra Boy - Jo Nah
Gates - Ti'julk Mr'asz
Karate Kid - Val Armorr
Dyrk Magz


Typically, interstellar navigation is easy enough; you just point the ship in a direction and hit the burners. This time was much different. Garth kept having to adjust the cruiser back on course, thrusters and speed every five minutes as the ever-shifting pull of gravity kept pushing the cruiser one way or another.

"Wow, this was really difficult to navigate," Garth said, concentrating. They'd been flying for hours.

"Need a break?" Lyle asked from the co-pilot's seat.

"No, I got this," Garth replied, "We're coming up on the planet in a few. The choppiness is getting smoother the further we get in the planet's gravity well. In fact, I'm gonna slow down here." Garth slowed the cruiser's velocity so that it they smoothly slung into the planet's orbit. "Take a look at that planet. Pretty lush, yeah?"

"Wow! Yeah, you're right," Lyle whistled. The new planet looked like a paradise from orbit, with Earth-type ice caps at both poles, large bodies of blue water, and tracts of continental land covered with mountains and green. "Okay come into that planet nice and low from the southern pole," Lyle said, "Nice and easy. If there's anyone let's try to be as inconspicuous as possible."

"Always the Invisible Kid, right?" Garth teased. Lyle acknowledged with a laugh. "Planetfall commencing," Garth said louder to the Legionnaires strapped in behind them. He moved the control stick to gently drop the cruiser into reentry and the shields buffeted the process so that no turbulence was felt by the riders, even as the atmospheric friction showed flames arcing over the external display screens. Finally, the small cruiser fully emerged into the atmosphere and dipped lower to the planet's surface.

During the descent, Lyle had been busy working at the co-pilot's console. "Okay now make your way over that large body of water to the east," he said, "Keep Nap-Of-The-Earth speed and altitude, just in case as we come over the first land mass. If anyone here has sensors, this altitude should help hide us."

"Already done," Garth replied confidently. They flew on for several minutes without incident. The oceans and occasional forested islands rolled beneath them.

"This place is really beautiful," XS said from farther back, looking at her screen.

"Uh, Garth?" Dyrk called from the sensor station behind Lyle.

"Maybe we can get the Outpost over here and just have some R&R time," Triad said.

"Garth!", Dyrk said more urgently, "There are a bunch of energy surges coming from starboard!"

Lyle quickly switched his view to Dyrk's to see what he was talking about.

"Garth!" Lyle yelled, "Take evasive action!"

"Hold on!" Garth cried, as he instinctually rolled the cruiser avoiding a barrage of plasma bolts and missiles that missed the space the cruiser had been a moment before. Jenni and Luornu grabbed on to each other's arms in support with the sudden move. "Lyle, I don't think your stealth approach worked!" Garth grated.

"Lyle, let me jump out here and help with this," Ultra Boy called from the back.

"Great idea," Lyle said, "Since they know we're here, let's take the fight to them." He took a brief look at the scanner. "Garth, change course to move towards whatever's firing at us, it'll throw off their targeting," he called back to Jo, "Ultra Boy, fly ahead of the cruiser and play defense!"

Jo jumped out of his seat and used super speed to cycle out of the cruiser hatch and into the air, getting his bearings for a moment, then flying in advance of the cruiser. In just a few minutes, their flight path had crossed over land, and moments after that a dozen missiles were on their way towards the cruiser.

"Garth we need to keep the cruiser moving," Lyle said, as he got up from his seat, "We need to make sure that this is a hard target to hit. Land the ship as fast as you can. Dyrk, take over as co-pilot and help Livewire! Legionnaires, prepare for action! Everyone out of the boat!" The rest of the passengers got out of their seats and prepared to bail out.

"Roger that, Invisible Kid," Garth gave a thumbs up as Dyrk settled into the seat next to him.

Triad had moved to the rear of the craft and opened the rear hatch, filling the cabin with rushing air, and exposing the surface speeding beneath them only a few hundred feet below. One by one, Triad, Gates, XS, Karate Kid and Invisible Kid jumped into the rushing air and forced their rings to catch up with Ultra Boy as Livewire peeled the cruiser off to the right. The missiles locked on to the cruiser and changed course to follow, ignoring the flying superheroes.

"Ultra Boy, can you see who's shooting at us?" Lyle called as they all flew forward.

Jo peered out with his ultra vision and made out a small fortress embedded in a mountainside in the distance. "Yeah, it looks like three energy cannons and a missile launcher protected by that mountainside," he said, "It looks like humanoid operators. Let me take care of the energy blasts; if I try to take out the cannons from here, I may kill someone."

"Good idea," Lyle said, "It looks like this has turned into a first contact situation."

"This is a great way to make a first impression," Gates muttered.

"Shut up, Gates," Triad snapped.

"Everyone else, in formation behind Ultra Boy," Lyle called, "Close up the gap so those long-range guns can't hit us! Move!"

"XS, get to the ground," Lyle ordered, "Scout ahead and let us know what to expect inside."

"You got it!" Jenni replied immediately and flew down to the surface. In a moment, the team could see her speed lightning zipping ahead in the terrain rushing beneath them just as more energy bolts were coming in their direction from the mountains ahead of them.



On the cruiser, the weapon lock alarm started blaring as the missiles started to gain ground despite Garth's maneuvering. "Grife," Garth growled, "Dyrk take over for me." He unstrapped and headed to the control panel behind him to port that contained screens and two large metallic braces jutting up from the panel surface, and a targeting reticle eyepiece that hung from the ceiling.

"What?" Dyrk said, "I'm not flight combat trained!" He grabbed the yoke and started to move the cruiser back and forth.

Garth steadied himself. "Hey, take it easy!" He yelled above the klaxons, "Just let me activate the power amplifier, and we'll be good to go!" Garth tapped a control to activate the panel, lighting up all the controls, including a display screen with a targeting reticle. He jammed his arms into the braces and gripped two handles embedded deep into the console. "Just keep her steady for a minute!"

"Steady!?" Dyrk yelled, "They're gaining on us, for grife's sake!"

Garth concentrated, then discharged his lightning into the handles. From behind the cruiser, out of the pod resting on the dorsal surface of the ship, an amplified lightning bolt ripped out and connected with the lead missiles, detonating them instantly, which then triggered the rest of the missiles to explode as they passed through that inferno. The missile lock alerts turned off.

Garth released himself from the machine and went back to the pilot's station, running his hand through his hair. "Whoo," he breathed, "That was close." He glanced over at Dyrk. "Nice flying."

Dyrk just stared straight ahead, wide eyed. "Uh huh," he said. Garth took over the controls and turned the ship around in a wide loop, flipping the ship over on its axis.

"You did good, buddy," Garth said with a wry smile.


The energy pulses kept coming towards the Legionnaires after the missiles stopped. Ultra Boy easily blasted two of the energy discharges while the others were able to dodge the others before reforming their phalanx. Another missile came close behind the barrage that Jo blasted easily as it was unable to lock on the smaller figures of the Legionnaires.

"On the ground, heading over." They see Jenni's speed lightning race towards the mountainside.

"Team, stay in formation!" called Invisible Kid, "Close up the gap so that those long range guns can't hit us! Move!"

XS chimed in over the comm unit, "Team! Go to the upper left battery ? it looks like it's the missile battery and was under remote control, so take it out! I'll meet you there!"

Immediately, Jo saw the mountain opening Jenni was referring to and shifted his trajectory towards it, as the rest of the Legionnaires followed. As the phalanx moved closer in and up towards the gun embankment, XS rans up the mountain and into the carved out chamber of the missile launcher bay. The Legionnaires enter in after, following Ultra Boy into the corridor behind, leading down into the mountain.

"There'sABigChamberDownBelowFollowMe!" Jenni said.

Legionnaires jogged down a stepped ramp that curved down the heart of the mountain into a large cavern turned into a large control center lined with monitors and machinery, both controlling weapons and devices as well as collecting data. The cavern was high as well as wide, with large, arched openings to the outside carved into the cavern near the ceiling. As soon as the Legionnaires arrived into the center of the chamber, dozens of soldiers streamed in on foot and surrounded the Legionnaires. Many of these were humanoid, but other species were in the group as well; some hexipedal insectoids, with four feet and two arms, others humanoid with four arms. One species was not humanoid at all, and had a sensory stalk as one appendage and four others used for mobility around a central shell. Regardless of the species, all were armed with some kind of dangerous weapon.

Without a command, all the Legionnaires prepared for action. Triad immediately split into her three selves. Ultra Boy rose into the air, his eyes glowing red. Karate Kid took a quick survey of the situation and prepared himself to fight. Gates looked around taking stock of the situation to determine his best course of action.

"I think we're outnumbered ten to one here," Val said to no one in particular.

"Don't worry, Kid," Jo said confidently, "I have the high ground here."

Almost on cue over a dozen humanoids in tan jumpsuits but with brilliant, wide white wings growing from between their shoulders flew into the large chamber, hovering above Jo. Most, especially the women, wore their dark hair long, some in braids or ponytails, and all were ready to fight, sporting weapons similar to their counterparts on the ground.

"Uh, Invisible Kid," Gates said, "Now might be a great time for some diplomacy?"

One of the winged humanoids drifted in closer. He was a burly man by human standards, maybe in his early twenties, and had his long, dark hair in a braid that fell over his left shoulder. The right upper breast and shoulder of his tan jumpsuit bore a decorative pattern. "It is in your best interests to surrender immediately," he said directly in a deep voice. He pointed his rifle at Ultra Boy, and all the rest of the winged soldiers did the same.

We can understand them without much need for the translator. Lyle thought. Its like an early version of Interlac.

Lyle raised his hands open palmed. "We're here in need of assistance," he said, "Our vessel came through space in a wormhole and we need help. We're not here to fight you."

"Don't listen to him, Grey! You saw what they did to the missiles!" one of the four-armed humanoids yelled.

An insectoid agreed, "That's right! Just more metas from rimward here to assist the empire!"

Grey, the burly leader, re-aimed his weapon straight at Jo's face. "State your business here outlanders," he said flatly. Jo smiled in response.

"I think you need to put down your weapons and talk nicely," Garth's voice said from behind the humanoids hovering over the crowd. He was floating behind them, lightning crackling from his hands, clearly threatening the two closest to him.

One of the soldiers on the ground yelled, "ITS ANOTHER LIGHTING WIELDER! THEY'RE WITH THE EMPIRE! THEY'RE HERE TO DESTROY US!" The soldiers began to open fire, making the Legionnaires spring into action as energy bolts shot through the air.

As soon as the soldier screamed out, XS sprang into action, running around the soldiers clustered around the Legionnaires on the ground, and ran in a tight spiral, quickly disarming the closest soldiers of their weapons. Within a second, she had rushed to the soldiers who had begun to fire and adjusted their blaster rifles to impact harmlessly against the wall.

Jo kept his invulnerability up but first threw a right hook at Grey, taking him by surprise and knocking his rifle to the ground, hitting the soldiers below. He began to fly around the chamber to block as many energy and plasma bolts as he could, using his fists to crack soldiers in the air or on the ground in the face as the opportunity presented itself. Similarly, Livewire kept active in the air with his flight ring, shooting electrical blasts out to keep the winged humanoids off guard.

As soon as the remaining Legionnaires on the ground realized what XS had done, they immediately jumped into action. Invisible Kid disappeared and began throwing invisible punches at the disarmed soldiers nearest to him. Triad's three selves leapt at their closest opponents, each fighting another one on one, given the fact that they were outnumbered. Triad found very quickly that each of her was able to easily take out the soldiers they were fighting. "Nice job, sisters!" Neutral said. "Yeah, something tells me these guys haven't had much combat training," Purple replied. The two of them joined Orange, who had already begun attacking the next opponent. Purple and Neutral straightened their arms and grabbed each other's shoulders. Orange pulled the four-armed soldier off balance straight back to her sisters, who knocked him out by clotheslining him in the face.

Karate Kid found himself in a similar situation with his combatants. He easily stunned the soldiers nearest to him once XS had disarmed them and quickly began to use his martial skills to elbow and kick the weapons out of the next wave of attackers, even as XS had begun another round of interference. "Indeed, Triad," Val called out, "these people seem to be overly dependent upon their weaponry, so focus on disarmament."

"Not all of us, alien," a female voice said from above as one of the winged soldiers swept down and knocked Val off his feet with her wing. Tucking himself, Val rolled out of the next swipe of the woman's foot before flipping back to his feet and facing his new opponent in a combat stance. She was probably around his age, no more than sixteen, but she wore the same dark tan tight jumpsuit as the rest of the soldiers, although the upper chest of her uniform was black and bore a gold eight pointed star on each shoulder. Her long hair was jet black and Val was momentarily struck by her beauty, coming back to his senses barely in time to dodge a very well placed strike at his face. He struck back but was surprised to discover that his new opponent was able to easily parry or avoid his attacks, even with the extra bulk of her wings, which had folded close to her back.

The woman made a sudden move, and just as Val was contemplating how to include her wings in his combat calculus, she spun around, suddenly spreading her wings, which clipped Val forcefully in the arm and set him again off balance. As she completed her spin, she kicked him squarely in the chest and forced him back against the wall. "I won't make that mistake again," he said to her, regaining his composure in a combat stance.

"We'll see," she replied and went on the attack again.

Gates had taken the opportunity to use his green portal abilities to randomly pop around the large room, cracking solders in the head with his claws, or interfering with their weapons from behind, whether they were floating in the air or ground-based soldiers. One particular insectoid soldier was giving Gates a challenge due to the wide range of vision its eyes provided and kept on adapting to Gates' attack strategy. "Hold still, you Imperial gonk!" it clicked in frustration.

"You clearly don't know me if you're going to insult me like that," Gates retorted angrily, "anything Imperial is inherently fascist, and I hate fascists!" He opened a port to fall through, and another opened above the insectoid, enabling Gates to drop directly on top of it, enabling him to knock its rifle to the floor as well as wrestling it of its legs.

Livewire kept up his strategy of distraction through action, continuing to throw electrical bolts around, stunning a few fighters. He looked down to see the progress his companions on the ground were making and called to Ultra Boy, "Jo, grab the leader!" Ultra Boy looked up and flew directly at Grey, shifting into Ultra-strength. Jo moved behind and quickly overpowered him, grabbing Grey's rifle and ripping it apart, then moving behind him, and pinning his arms behind.

"Call off your men," Jo said to his struggling captive.

"CEASE FIRE!" Grey yelled. The soldiers, most of whom had been disarmed and were losing the battle against the more powerful Legionnaires, stopped fighting and, if they had them, put down their weapons. Many of those who had been stunned were trying to make their way back to standing or were being helped up by their fellows.

Garth flew over to hover directly in front of the pinned Grey. With a scowl, he looked Grey in the eyes and lifted is sparking fist in the air. "One of your people said something about another one of me," Garth said sternly, "And I want to hear all about that person." Grey grimaced back.

A new voice called in from the side of the chamber, "Grey! Dawn! Stop! This is a big misunderstanding!"

All the Legionnaires eyes turned and stared at the blonde teenager wearing her hair in a long braid. She was wearing a similar tight tan jumpsuit as the rest, but her shoulders were covered in an purple mantle. She was flanked by three more female uniformed soldiers.

Jenni was dumbfounded as she recognized the girl immediately. "Lori? Is that you?" she asked in disbelief. She rushed forward to hug her, then was shocked to find everything stopped around her, as typically happened when she used her speed in a sudden burst, but this time Lori jogging to her as well. As she approached, Jenni could see that Lori was just slightly taller than her; not quite the full-grown woman that had been artificially aged by Chronos and left in the 30th century, but certainly not the ten-year-old troublemaker that Jenni had last seen playing with a Hero dial just a few days before. Even stranger, Jenni suddenly realized that even with her super speed, she was frozen in place while Lori was still running towards her; none of the usual speed lightning or any wind was moving around her space.

Lori grabbed Jenni in a big hug, and as soon as she was touched, Jenni felt like she could move again. But now everything was frozen in time around them. When she would move at super-speeds, things would slow down to almost a standstill. But she could tell in the here and now, that everything had stopped. Even still, Jenni looked into Lori's eyes that were starting to run with tears and realized that her own eyes were blurring with tears. "Jenni, I never thought I'd see you again," she cried, "its been so long!"

"Lori, what's happening?" Jenni asked in complete confusion, "why are you so grown? Why is everything stopped?"

Wiping her eyes, Lori looked around in surprise. "Oh gosh," she said in surprise, "Sorry, this still happens sometimes. I'm still practicing." She closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment and everything started moving around them again. Lori's escorts jumped as Lori was suddenly a dozen meters ahead of them. Jo and Garth were completely surprised so that Jo relaxed his grip and Grey floated out of his grapple, and Garth's electricity faded. Grey looked back at Jo with a scowl.

Lori looked in turn up at Grey and then back to the woman who was fighting Val. "Grey, Dawn," she said, "These are my friends. They can help us."

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Issue #127 - "Love and Rockets" (Epilogue)
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For many years, the Orandan royal policy had been to eliminate any official state religion. Still, many Orandans still followed the old ways, and the royal family at least had to appear to do so, even if many of them never believed in any of the teachings. But they were still taught the religion.

So when Jeka Wynzorr, the Legionnaire known as Sensor, woke up floating in a golden haze, she had a passing thought that the old religions were true. All she could feel was weightlessness and see a dull golden sky flecked with red, blue and black. Then her floating turned her around and she saw the twisted remains of the hangar deck drift into view, followed by a seemingly disabled Legion Cruiser and...

Oh stars!! M'Onel!? Jeka projected with her thoughts. She concentrated her flight band to take her over to his drifting body. "Mon...?" she repeated aloud over her communicator. The waldos on her Legion band around her midsection weren't working, so she couldn't shake him with her artificial hands, resorting to gently nudging him with her nose, which also pushed him in the direction of the cruiser. As they floated along, she wrapped her serpentine body around his and effectively carried him through space.

"You saved me before whatever happened here," she said to his unconscious form, "Now I've got you. I just hope there's someone else on that cruiser that can help us." She floated through space and remote activated the cruiser airlock, thankful for the refuge in the unknown void.



TO BE CONTINUED

more good stuff!!

Loving the banter. Garth and Lyle did spend quite some time together during the Team 20/30 split, and on the Outpost, so makes sense they'd develop some sort of friendship.

Great work referencing the no-killing bit, with Jo shifting tactics to avoid that.

great leadership from Lyle, great use of everyone's powers

Makes sense Dyrk would not be flight combat-trained, as he was a Legionnaire for weeks... Maybe it was coming up, but he left too soon for it? and of course, being Outpost support means no need for combat flight training. Nice scene for Dyrk and Garth!

Classic line from Gates as usual!

Nice seeing Dawnstar be the combat specialist in this group. And Greybird too!

Also, great work coming up with enemies that provide a challenge to individual Legionnaires.

nice touch having Jenni recognize Lori! great pay off here, having aged Lori appear with Dawny and Grey!

oh, Lori has some kind of time powers now! cool!!! nice illustration of how Jenni's speed makes her peceive things versus how Lori's power thingie works.

this is a cool installment! and i;m also curious, we have some Starhavenites here - why are they separated from the main group that Imra and co encountered?

and gasp! Sensor and M'Onel! nice bit about religion on Orando... uh oh, Sensor's arms are damaged, not that she got much use from them that I remember in the Reboot (did we see her drinking and eating with them? probably...!) - but they still would have been helpful!

another great installment, lots of great action and characterization!

Thanks as usual for the kind comments and advice!!!

We will be addressing the different groups in the next issue. Which I have to get started on.

And yeah, Sensor doesn?t do much with her arms, but she could have dragged Mon by the cape or something

But the concept of a space snake wrapping Mon to carry him was too good not to do.

Hi Gaseous Lad,

I've finally gotten some time to give your fic a read through. My review comes as I read. so sorry if it's all over the place.
Thank you for the disclaimer and it will be interesting to see where you take the team without the events after Widening Rifts happening.

I really enjoyed your Brainy in the first scene. The multiple thought tracks and taking data even before waking is so Brainy.
Garth and Brainy bounce off each other well. Its easy to forget some of the chemistry they have.
I'm with Gates. How come no one was in a transuit? Looks like its time for the eco-protect function of the flight rings to make an appearance.

I like your XS and her hyper talking, well the way you do it with words still capitalized. it makes it so much easier to read.
The slow and careful work to free each of the team was well done.

Zoe, has a healing factor to her powers? hmm i guess that could make some sense. TK has been used in many versatile ways. But I wonder if its from the Anomaly or maybe even rooted in her magics from when she first healed her mother years ago.
Loved that Zoe was excited to tell Vi about the application of this new ability. Their friendship was always something I enjoyed in the actual series.

I'm enjoying the small teams you've got going.
Cham did a really good job saving everyone and getting them into their transuits. I'm just glad Cham wasn't sucked out before he got them into their suits.
I was surprised to see Dyrk just as IB was. I totally forgot him and Lori were on the station when it was about to go into the rift.
A sea of stars? hmm now I'm really curious just how far that wormhole threw them.

Ultra Boy's delusion was really well done. I was confused for a moment and thought that Jo and Tinya weren't there. Then as it went on i thought maybe they were trapped on a holo-deck or something that had been activated during the craziness. It wasn't until what I'm assuming is Blighted Umbra coming for him that I knew they were still on the outpost but that he was having a nightmare.
I hope their able to get to Umbra and help her....oh ok...Jo you got this. But wait that shadow jumping out...could that still have been her powers leaving?
Wait...Tinya isn't really with Jo right now? that doesn't sound good. I had to reread that nightmare a couple times to realize she wasn't really there.

The team has done some good work and its nice to know that their still in the Milky Way galaxy and not lost in time.
Lyle interrupting Brainy was good. showing their little rivalry.
Glad to see Saturn Girl up and ready to lead.
Zoe really is a power house.

Ok so they aren't totally out of luck. At least the outpost is holding and they have a cruiser if needed.

all of their reactions to the list of the missing was spot on and the Work Force is with them too. I had forgotten they were on the station too.
I'm glad Spark and Lori are both safe for sure.

I was waiting for Jo to fly off the handle and here it is. But I'm glad Garth stood up to him. the tension was done really well.
I loved Zoe standing up and coming between the two. She's always so much stronger than we giver her credit for. All of her points were great. They have to prioritize and Jo needs to realize that. The affect of the Blight on the Legion was always something I wish we got to see more of. We know it was hard and some like Umbra enjoyed the rush from being blighted. But we don't know much else. So if you're going to show us that, I'm all for it.

I guess Jo and Garth are fracturing a little bit. I know its stress but that snub and not shaking his hand. Jo's always been a little rough around the edges. But this is the first time in a while we've seen him thinking that he could set out on his own. Idk Jo's always been such a supporter of the Legion. The blight must have really done a number on him to feel like the rest of the Legion outside of Tinya aren't on his side.

Imra's speech was inspiring but also heartbreaking. Even though they aren't the "lost Legion" we know. They are truly fractured more so than I've ever seen before.
Imra taking responsibility for her actions before going into the rift was well done. Her panic to save everything makes sense.

Very good tension and well done!

It's interesting how you speckle in things that did happen in the Legion Lost series and the series that came after. But more in the sense of a commentary on those actions. Like Saturn Girl not wanting to get into any of their minds for fear of manipulation which is something she would worry about seeing how the UP treats telepaths.

Gath and Imra's moment was very sweet and I understand her thinking about not wanting to flaunt their relationship. especially around Jo.

Wow, wait, Spark isn't safe back in the UP with the Work Force? Repulse is her captor? And that was months ago...So they all were spit out at different times but relatively close to each other instead of billions of years apart? So many questions. Which i can't wait for the answers!

#127 review ~
Poor Zoe, to have that dream every night. I might be in the minority on this one. But I've always enjoyed Zoe and Vi's relationship as just a close friendship. I never really thought about them as being more than friends. But you've written a very quiet but sweet moment between the two. Now I know why Zoe really got so upset and angry when Jo went off.

Another aspect of the Blight Invasion we never got to see. Even if it is just a dream/memory.
The description of the Earth dying from the invasion was well done.
Vi and Zoe running from the Blight was scary indeed.
my heart breaks for Zoe it really does. But maybe she should talk to Candi and Saturn Girl about this instead of just wishing and searching for Vi. That was always the thing I had wish Vi had done in cannon about Zoe. Then the EmeraldVi storyline might have gone a different way.

So the teams coming together and getting the station working.
Zoe seems to be a bigger star in your series than in the cannon one. Which i'm fully enjoying. Loved seeing her whip the room into a proper meeting room.
Some fun bits. Although i'm surprised they still have espresso in the 31st century.
Brainy being somewhat wary of the chair was funny and probably by fav moment besides Zoe putting her feet on the table and Imra glaring at her.

I'm glad we're going to get out into space and hopefully find some more of the missing team.
Garth and Jo on a mission together...at this point idk how its going to go.

Man, i get Umbra is grateful. But why is it when Jo is away from Tinya all the ladies are like give me some Ultra-loven. lol. DNA used Saturn Girl because of the intimacy of and now Umbra because Jo saved her life. I get being bonded to someone.

Triad and Chucks relationship is super cute and I'm glad he went to see her off. Their playfulness was well done. gushingly sweet and sickening. lol.
Its really nice to see more from them in this aspect as we never got much outside of a mini date if i recall correctly.
Chuck is soo adorable.

Garth and Lyle's moment was well done. Finally Lyle sharing a secret with someone whose not Cham. lol.
I'm glad they were able to get a drive together.
Cham being distrustful of Brainy's drive and not sure if he's just trying to be distracted is funny. Brainy is known for his explosion's. lol.
Brainy's comments about Kinetix was funny too. she would change the colors for the heck of it.
Oh come on Zoe, take a joke. Brainy doesn't crack them often.
The teams cut off...and by the Empire of Starhaven...and maybe combined with Shikari's people.?
I bet Ferro is seeing the Native American connection.
I'm with Monstress. Need to be a little bit on the defense.
Wait so did they take the cruiser too?

The rift opened back up? That sounds like trouble!

The away team are attacked too? I wonder if its the Starhaven Empire, this could be good. But if not....
The team is working well together.
Good idea Jo!
I couldn't help but laugh at Dyrk after Garth got back into the pilots seat. Fun to see even a practiced Legionnaire unnerved by something small like flying in combat. It allows for a very human element with the Legionnaires. They maybe super heroes but they can still get scared too. Good job!

So there's two factions, one being the Empire of Starhaven?
Some more tense moments here that were really good. loved their team work to get to the mountain.
Loved Triad's fight sequence and calling back to why Chuck said she was there. Good moment.
Val's fight was very dance like. I kept picturing the winged attacker dancing around Val with each movement.
another insectoid who might be able to best Gates, that is a great way to take him on...more so the vision abilities. May have to work on something like that for myself with my own Gates

Loved Gate's line, "You clearly don't know me if you're going to insult me like that," Gates retorted angrily, "anything Imperial is inherently fascist, and I hate fascists!" He opened a port to fall through, and another opened above the insectoid, enabling Gates to drop directly on top of it, enabling him to knock its rifle to the floor as well as wrestling it of its legs.

Go Garth and Jo!
Holy nass, Lori is here? What? And she's older too? Lori can freeze time? is the Dial still working somehow? uggg still so many questions. I love it...

Sensor before her transformation! it's been so long. thinking of her nuzzling M'Onel was fun. But now where is their cruiser?

this has been a fun ride so far and look forward to where you take us next!

Hi Omni!!

Thank you for taking the time to read AND leave such a thoughtful reply!! I love it - its really cool to see this reaction real-time to two issues!

I'm glad I did the disclaimer - I'm rereading the DnA stuff with a more critical eye, and while I still disagree with some of the creative decisions overall with their Legion, I'm finding I'm enjoying it more as I get away from the end of v4. At least for now.

Oddly enough, the transuit issue will be dealt with soon.

I'm glad you liked the Jo dream. It was originally not in my outline but then it wrote itself in like 10 minutes. Crazy....

Zoe's powerful, but will run out of gas the more she expends powers, so her use has to be strategic - i.e., she can play an active offense/defense OR be a healer, but not both without wearing her out faster. Gotta have some limitations.

Imra addressing both her panic moment as well as end-running around the mind control plot was very intentional. I wasn't a fan of either moment in Rifts/Lost, as both seemed out of character (Imra's typically hyper-competent and should have learned her lesson about the mind control stuff previously. In Lost she could have just made Jo go to sleep to buy the rest time... stuff like that, so I wanted to address that straightaway.

Re: Vi/Zoe - I remember this as always being debate point 20-plus years ago online. I'm actually good with either way, as you're spot on - they're relationship was a special thing in v4 and Legionnaires. I always thought that the creators gave enough content to have that go in this direction if they wanted it to, and also, as I said to Ibby, the fact that there isn't a lot of - or any - LGBT representation in the reboot Legion is a deficit, and with there being more girls than boys on the team, it seemed like Zoe & Vi is the natural path vs. Ayla, which I considered. Also, my daughter read this version of the Legion and asked if there was anyone like her in the book, so in some ways, this is for her.

You raise a great point about Zoe searching for Vi, and I wish I had thought of it! It would have made a great echo of their searching for each other moments in Legionnaires! And she has more to do (so far, anyway) 'cause I'm making up for lost time!

What can I say? The ladies like Jo and Jo likes the ladies!

Glad you liked Triad and Chuck. I really love them as a couple, next to Garth & Imra, and while the latter are much more serious together (mainly because they are working together much of the time), Chuck and Lu have their separate jobs, so I think they enjoy each other in a fun way. And I agree with you - they never got a chance to really be a couple in the reboot. Heck, the only girl Chuck kisses on the lips was Vi!!

That fight scene - I'll tell you what, that took something out of me. I think I made like four passes on it. But the idea of Dawn using her wings in battle was kinda cool and I had to do it.

I came thiiiiis close to writing "Sensor 'booped' M'Onel"

Thank you thank you thank you for all the great comments and feedback! I have the basics for the next one and I just have to flesh out the details in between work and all the rest of my ADHD pursuits!!!

Re Jo, he does hit all the spots - handsome, muscular, rough, bad boy, scruffy, good powers. I mean, I get the attraction factor even the boots on his costume add to it... sigh...

now that you call it out, I agree - Imra COULD have done so many other things in Lost than create a fake Tinya. the only thing that saved her for me there were her good intentions... but IMO that was even worse than her unconsciously animating a comatose Cos back in LSH 93-96, at least then she was not aware at all of what she did.

and fully support more LGBT representation in the comics. plus, you write the Zoe/Vi relationship in an organic, realistic way. so I am all for it.

Hey, he's Han Solo of the Legion:)


I think that was my challenge on that aspect was that it was just a way to have Tinya in play and create extra drama to pad out to 12 issues, and in doing so, they made Imra into a person who doesn't learn from her earlier mistakes. And it led to the whole horrible Jo/Imra kiss. It really set Imra's character back a great deal, IMO.



Thank you! And if representation should be in any team it should be in the Legion!

GL, hi, I'm making notes as I read so this may be a stream of consciousness...

That was a sweet dream with Vi and Zoe - Zoe being Zoe couldn't bottle her feelings is the perfect description of her. The change to the Blight invasion was a dark twist I didn't see coming. And, how sweet is Candi? She's such a great haracter.

"Like a negative of the night sky" - what a great visual description!

Zoe buzzing on coffee was a hoot, we've all been there. Great that she figured out how to make a decent cup before Lyle or Brainy, honestly boys where are your priorities Again Zoe saves the day by fixing the furniture, which is a nice touch making sure her colleagues are comfortable, including an ergonomic seat for Brainy (of course).

Zoe is clearly a favourite.

The little spat between Lyle and Brainy was a hoot, I don't get why people put them in a romantic relationship as this one-upmanship is more how I see their relationship

Imra wanting Garth to feel useful by joining the away mission was sweet.

Jo missing Tinya is about right. Co-dependency is so unattractive, but those two have it bad. Nce that for all his powe he's at the mercy of the extreme forces outside. And Tasmia, oh that was kind of creepy... An obsessive Umbra doesn't bear thinking about really.

Lu's bag being full of extra everything in case she triplicated - are you saying the things she carries don't triplicate or just she's hyper-organised? the scene with her and Chuck was cute, and no matter which 'boot you follow these are such true words - "I pity the fools that pick a fight with you!" And she's a total flirt too, kissing him and stealing his hat like that, nice!

The splitting of the team is a good idea, will give you the opportunity to focus on other Legionnaires, and it's always fun watching the smaller groups get into trouble and have to think heir way out of it.

Garth getting Lyle to open up was an unexpectedly sweet scene.

I like the image of Brainy's holo's following him around. Stutterwarp is a great name, nice one! Nice also that Brainy has a dig at Zoe, I can understand why he would find her frustrating.

The shuttle is gone! I was expecting that but not so quickly - and the loss of communication functionality on their rings as well, and the engines are playing up - the team(s) are not having a good start to this mission. Well, not good for them, great for us

Is that the Kwai or are you just teasing us? I loved the Kwai in the original Legion Lost storyline. Hippy space-nomads are cool!

Ah, Starhaven - excellent! I'd forgotten Dawny's people were on a planet near the galactic core originally. The armoured beings standing on the hull of the Outpost are a little ominous, but again it's a cool visual image to have.

Imra is so pragmatic! Her telling Candi that they were making their way to civilisation quicker than before is a perfect Iron-Buttism. Does Ferro recognise the ethnic designs? Be interesting to see where you take this.

"Typically, interstellar navigation is easy enough; you just point the ship in a direction and hit the burners." great line! and nice that Garth isn't having it so easy.

Jo wants to get out to take the fight to them - same old Jo though good thinking that Lyle has him 'play defense'

Gates first line in ages and it's a beaut - "This is a great way to make a first impression," he has all the best lines.

Is that power amplifier from canon? It does seem like the sort of thing Brainy would build and Lyle would tinker with.

Jenni speaking so fast her words run into each other is always cute!

The winged opponents - more Starhavenites, cool. The descriptions of the other aliens was fun, I do love a decent non-humanoid.

The fight scen was well written - great to see the individual members getting into the action. Dawnstar's fight with KK was really well done, you showed how effectively she could be in a hand-to-hand-to-wing situation.

Lori to the rescue! Haha, never saw that one coming. And whats with her powers? I'm sure you'll explain them soon enough.

Nice epilogue, introducing us to another two of the cast, be interesting to find out what situation they get into.

Oh, and that's it.

Looking forward to what you serve up next, more, more, more!

Apologies to all - A two month delay (well, almost three to be honest) delay in episodes was not at all what I intended, but I will be releasing the installments of 128 very soon. Good thing too 'cause I've been specifically not reading the stuff that all you other fine folks have been releasing just so I can focus on getting done! So once I get this finished, I can sit back and enjoy everyone else's works!

Stay Tuned...

I honestly, don't know how I missed this response, Harbi, but thank you for the lovely, lovely feedback!!

Many of your questions will be answered in the next installment - its the necessary exposition-heavy interlude - but I hope to do some of the world of Starhaven and its people some justice.

I felt like I had to split the team - the station was getting crowded. I mean, I totally get why almost EVERY writer does this except for special occasions. Unless you have the right villain, you have a lot of folks sitting around. But I really like it so that you can focus more into the characters.

More to come, I promise!

"Galactic exploration beyond the known space borders of the United Planets has historically been limited to the space travel ranges of the member systems. Before the introduction of the Brande Stargate Network in 2995, interstellar navigation had to be carefully plotted to avoid gravity wells such as stars, novae, gas giants and other known stellar anomalies.

Due to the high density and variability of stellar phenomena in the region of the galactic core, navigation is extremely hazardous and not recommended. Of the two dozen core expeditions sent by Earth, Imsk and Xanthu, only three have been able to penetrate as far as twenty parsecs into the core, finding no signs of life or civilization. All other expeditions have been lost." - Astrogator's Guide to the Milky Way, 2998.


Legionnaire Roll Call
Cosmic Boy - Rokk Krinn of Braal, Control of Magnetism
Leviathatn - Salu Digby of Imsk, Size Variability
Apparition - Tinya Wazzo of Bgtzl, intangibility
Sensor - Jeka Wynzorr of Orando, Illustionist
M'Onel - Lar Garnd of Daxam, Super Powers provided by a yellow star


Before the Rift....

The moment Saturn Girl had given the signal to evac the station, Rokk Krinn ran through his section of the station, making sure that Legionnaires made their way into what escape pods were available on this second-hand space station. Then he made haste to the docking bay where he had landed the Legion Cruiser just a few hours earlier, before the Workforce had made a mess of the situation by igniting a wormhole that threatened to swallow the entire Sol system and perhaps even the galaxy. A cruiser should be able to maneuver far enough away from this singularity to act as its own lifeboat, Rokk reasoned, but also possibly be able to rescue any of the Legionnaires lucky enough to get away from the disaster. Rokk powered up the spacecraft and signaled the bay doors to open overhead; they swung outward like house shutters looking out into a stellar hellscape. His pulse quickened at the sight and he wondered if he shouldn't have gone to the escape pods himself.

A voice popped to life over the comm system. "This is Violet, is anyone in docking bay 2?"

"Vi, this is Cos," he responded, "I'm here, standing by with the cruiser online and ready."

"Roger, four of us inbound, be ready to evac," she said. Rokk could hear the effort in her voice as she ran.

"Understood," he replied and moved to the cruiser's entrance ramp. Within moments, he could see Violet sprinting up the steps leading to the landing zone twenty yards from the ship when an explosion ripped across the inside wall of the station, pushing the docking bay itself away from the station while simultaneously removing the sense of gravity, the force of the shifting hull bringing Rokk to his knees. The cruiser itself was still magnetically moored to the floor of the severed docking bay wing.

"Grife," Rokk said to himself as Violet and Apparition began hurtling towards an expanding rip in the separating hull. Stretching both arms to each side, he concentrated on pulling Violet and Apparition in towards him by magnetically latching on to their Legion utility belts, while the other hand concentrated on pulling himself, with the girls in tow, into the cruiser. As he concentrated, his eyes shifted upwards to the open bay doors and he could see the energies of Kid Quantum and Element Lad pushing down into the rift and said a quick prayer to any gods who would listen that the rift would be closed. In a few short seconds, he found himself inside the cruiser, followed a few seconds later by the limp forms of the girls. He gently lowered them onto the cruiser's deck floor then slammed the emergency shut control lever for the cruiser door, closing it with a loud snap.

The cruiser pitched around him as Rokk unsteadily made his way to the pilot's seat, the inertial dampers unable to compensate enough for the shifting deck below. He detached the cruiser from its magnetic moorings and angled towards the open bay. Turning on a scanner screen to display the view behind the ship, he helplessly watched as the second Legion Outpost, missing the docking bay they were still housed in, get stretched and pulled into the wormhole, no sign of Jan or Jazmin any longer.

Rokk focused on the screen showing the path ahead and pushed the throttle as far as it could go, but only seemed to gain a small amount of forward momentum despite the straining of the engines. A loud thump reverberated on the hull of the ship and he changed the view of the secondary monitor to show M'Onel and Sensor outside the ship, the Daxamite holding on to Sensor's waldo arm in one hand and trying to push the cruiser away with the other. The strain of M'Onel trying to outrun the gravity of the rift's pull presented itself in a red blurring effect around his body as the maw of the wormhole began to loom larger behind them. With a last push, M'Onel was able to shove the cruiser out of the remains of the ruined docking bay, just to have the cruiser's nose pitch up and back into the swirling bright threshold of the rift. The last thing Rokk remembered was the universe filling up with light.


Beyond the Rift....


"Help me wake him!"

"Give me a minute. For grife's sake, Vi."

"Just give me the damn stim, Tinya," Vi said with an exacerbated sigh. She frowned and held her hand out expectantly.

"Give me a break, Vi, my head's still pounding," Tinya complained while digging in the medkit. "Where's Jo? I don't even know where he is! He was right with us!"

A hypospray slapped into Violet's outstretched hand. "We'll figure it out, Tinya," she groused, forcing any similar concerns she had about Zoe out of her mind. She twisted the medicine container on the hypo to activate the contents, and said earnestly, "I just really need you focused right now." She pressed it into Rokk's arm as the contents hissed. "Rokk, can you hear me?" Violet asked as she touched her hand onto the crown of his dark hair.

Rokk began to blink and slowly move. "Wha-what? Vi? Where are we? What's going on?" he groaned as he started to shift into a sitting position.

"I don't know, but we need you, awake," Violet said urgently staring into Rokk's blue eyes with her own, "We need to get this cruiser back in working order in order to go anywhere..."

"The problem is, we don't know where anywhere is," Tinya interrupted with an edge of panic creeping into her voice, "and it's only the three of us! Where's Jo? He was right behind us! He stopped to grab Tasmia..."

Rokk stood up, steadying himself on Violet and made his way to one of the side viewports. "The explosion that sent you two flying sheared the entire docking bay off the station," he said looking back at Tinya seriously, "It was all I could do to get you two into the cruiser before you got sucked into space." Pressing a button on the side, the display opened and an incredibly bright starscape appeared before the three Legionnaires.

"If they got sucked into the same rift as we did," Rokk said in astonishment as he looked at the stars of the galactic core, "I'd be willing to be that the outpost is out here somewhere." He thought a moment then turned around with a plan. "Ok, let's get the repair kits and start running some diagnostics on anything that has power. We need to get moving."

Tinya turned away to find a kit as she wiped away the tears that were blurring her vision. "Grife, here we go again," she said to herself.

Hours later...

"Well, at least nothing's smoldering anymore," Tinya said absently as she stared out the viewport and reclining in the pilot's couch.

"I know, Tinya," Rokk said from underneath a bridge console, "small victories. Nice work."

Violet's grime-smudged face looked up at Tinya from a sensor console she had been working on for hours by herself with an expression of disbelief.

"You too, Vi," Rokk added, "Next up is..."

Rokk was suddenly interrupted by the sounds of the cruiser's ventral airlock droning in its cycling program.

"Someone's boarding the ship!" Violet exclaimed.

"Brilliant observation, Brainy," Tinya muttered.

Vi felt a surge of anger at Apparition that she couldn't contain. "What the sprock was that for, Tinya?" she asked in frustration.

"I'm just teasing..." Tinya replied innocently before being interrupted by Cosmic Boy.

"Stow it, you two, then stow yourselves!" Rokk exclaimed. He moved over towards the airlock and crouched with a spanner in one hand and prepared to magnetically fling the metallic discs on his uniform at any hostile intruders. Violet and Tinya traded dirty looks at each other before Vi followed Rokk's lead and shrunk down to an inch on the other side of the airlock entrance, while Tinya phased and slipped belowdecks.

"Oh thank grife!" Tinya's voice called.

"Apparition, what is it?" Rokk called immediately.

"Sensor and M'Onel!" Tinya called back, "they're alive!"


30 minutes later...


"...and then I saw the ship and I carried M'Onel over. I used my flight ring to access the airlock," Sensor concluded her tale to Tinya and Rokk. Tinya was kneeling on the deck, tending to M'Onel who was still unconscious.

"Well, thank grife you're here," Rokk sighed as he repaired the servos of her arm waldos, "We have no idea where we are, but we can use all the help we can get. Both of you are a sight for sore eyes."

Tinya bent down closer to M'Onel. "M'Onel?" she whispered, "Hey, wake up. I can't jab you with these stims! M'Onel?" She placed her white-gloved hand gently beside his cheek, almost as a caress. "Lar?"

"Hey, Phase," M'Onel muttered as his consciousness began to surface, "ready to go another round at the casino?" A smile began to spread across his face.

"M'on, it's Tinya," she said, "You know, thirtieth century?" Whenever she spoke directly with M'Onel, the memories of time a millennium ago began to surface, when one of the three selves of her Carggite half had been sent back in time and worked as Phase to Lar's Valor in the 20th century L.E.G.I.O.N. before being re-integrated.

M'Onel's blue eyes snapped open. "What?" he said as his torso lifted up suddenly. Reacting quickly, Tinya shifted into her phased form so that his body swung right through her. "Oh lords, the rift! Did we make it out?"

"M'Onel! We don't know where we are specifically," Rokk replied to the re-orienting Daxamite, "Vi's working on that as we speak." Almost as if on command, the console he was gesturing at with his thumb began beeping excitedly.

Still phased, Tinya rolled her eyes and said, "Sprock, Vi, what did you break?"

A miniaturized Violet flew out from inside the console and enlarged herself to her standard size aggressively in front of the console. "Come over here and I'll show you what's broken!" she shot angrily at Tinya.

"What the sprock is your problem?" Tinya yelled back.

Rokk placed himself in front of Violet and put his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, we're all good here, ok?" he assured her, "I need your head in the game here."

"Rokk, she's barely been helping with repairs, spending most of her time moping for Ultra Boy!" Violet seethed.

Tinya haughtily crossed her arms and said, "Excuse me for having someone to mope over!"

Vi surged forward towards the still-phased Tinya, but Rokk held her back. "Hey!" he said urgently holding her by the shoulders. "Vi, I really need you to cool down!" M'Onel stood up to intervene if needed.

Jeka chimed in, "Yes, we're all friends here, Violet," she said as soothing as possible.

Violet forced herself to relax, closed her eyes in frustration and took a deep breath to settle herself down. "I'm sorry, Rokk" she said brusquely, "I'm just on edge since we woke up, and I don't know if.... Ugh, nevermind." Vi passed her hand across her face in weariness. The last thing she wanted to do was to drag her personal life into the current crisis.

"I know, Vi, we're all stressed out at the moment," Rokk said and reassuringly gripped her shoulder. He glared at Tinya significantly with a look that was clearly designed to stop her from making any further comments. Tinya folded her arms and turned around in anger. "What did you find?" He asked Vi.

Glancing between the Rokk, M'Onel and Jeka, she said evenly, but with a hint of a smile, "I just detected flight ring signatures from 3 parsecs away, but I think you were right, Cos. It's too distant to get anything specific, but they are definitely Legion signals. I don't know WHO it is, or how many, but I know its some of US."

The Legionnaires looked excitedly at each other. Even Tinya turned around with a measure of hope in her eyes. "Violet!" Rokk exclaimed with a smile, "That's the best news we've heard yet! Let's go!"

Violet raised her hands in exasperation. "Well, we kind of need some working engines first," she said sullenly, "so more repair work, and not to mention navigation is next to impossible out there!"

"Well if you'd let me catch my breath, I might be able to help with that," M'Onel said with a smile. "Let's go find our lost Legionnaires."

Another great installment, GL!!!

Awesome first scene - I like having Cos and MOn strain themselves to get out, and being all altruistic and heroic just like Legionnaires should be. Also the implication and stressing that Vi and Tinya were thrown by the explosion, barely being able to get out too, with Vi and Tinya also concerned about Jo and Tasmia the whole time.

The budding conflict between Vi and Tinya is interesting and very realistic, well done! I liked the slow build-up about it, with Vi also worrying about Zoe in secret. And it makes sense Vi would be resentful of Tinya for moping a lot more openly (and in her view, not doing as much). Cos warning Tinya to shut up was great. And as for Tinya, you slipped it in very well that this isn;t the first time she's being separated from Jo, so that's also on her mind.

Liked the boomerang here with Sensor pulling MOn in, and the strain knocking MOn out. Cos, Tinya and Vi preparing for violence was a good scene too.

"phase". heh funny one, and nice call back to the 20th century LEGION days. Smart of Tinya to phase, smashing into a Daxamite isn?t fun (imagine if anyone else had been there?)

I now have images of these 5 riding in like the cavalry... yay!

so by my count, we're only really missing poor ERG-1 (is he dead here? ), Jan and Jazmin... and Meta from the Workforce side. I assume Amber is with Dune and Repulse and the captive Ayla?

Thanks, Ibby! Stay tuned on all of the above!

I felt like I really needed to address what happened to Tinya and Vi from what happened in 125, as they were clearly shown being violently thrown by the explosion that apparently trapped Jo & Tasmia for Legion Lost, so I was actually surprised that neither of them were actually in Lost itself, unless they were blown INTO an escape pod and then jettisoned.

I also wanted to introduce some friction in the team, and those two seemed like natural candidates.

I found it very organic, how you built up to it - both are worried about someone, both kind of get annoyed at how the other is, and in a stressful situation it just gets magnified.

and great catch on LSH 125, indeed, we see them getting blasted forward - in a way that would likely have knocked both out (we know Tinya wasn't phased at the time, either).

ooh Tinya and Vi gettin' feisty!

I like the L.E.G.I.O.N callout! Also the way you described the ship going into the wormhole, sometimes being strong isn't enough if you don't have the leverage!

Looking forward to seeing everyone catch up!

Thank you for the feedback, Raz! (Just as an aside, my autocorrect automatically adjusted "raz" to "Ra's". )

More coming soon, cause I want to catch up on your stuff!!

I was thinking about it this morning, and I'm just dying to see Zoe come charging in and verbally snipe Tinya for upsetting Vi!

I wonder what Jo would do in that situation...

Legion of Super Heroes 128 - Answers and Questions

Chapter 2 - Starhaven

Legionnaire Roll Call

Saturn Girl - Imra Ardeen of Titan, powerful telepath
Brainiac 5.1 - Querl Dox of Colu, 12th level intellect
Ferro - Andrew Nolan of Earth, turns to iron
Monstress - Candi Pyponte-Le Parc III of Xanthu, immense strength and invulnerability
Chameleon - Reep Daggle of Durla, shapeshifter
Kinetix - Zoe Saugin of Aleph, telekinetics, manipulates inorganic matter, healing
Umbra - Tasmia Mallor of Talok VIII, control of mystical shadows
Chuck Taine of Earth - Genius level engineer



Imra Ardeen was the last to arrive at the command deck. Brainiac 5.1 had signaled the rest of the Legionnaires, having kept watch while the others tried to rest. They had been in tow for several hours, so Brainy kept watch on the bridge. As soon as he had detected a change in velocity, he sent an alert to the rest of the team. By the time Imra had arrived, Chuck Taine, Ferro and Umbra were already manning their stations, while Chameleon, Kinetix and Monstress stood by Brainy, who was surrounded by several holographic readouts as usual.

"What's our status?" Imra asked as the brilliant glow of hyperspace sped around the Outpost and the warship towing them.

Brainy turned to face Imra. "After six hours of travel, our velocity has significantly slowed in the past thirty minutes, Saturn Girl," he said directly, "I anticipate precipitation into normal space within the next ten minutes."

Imra nodded in response. The Empire of Starhaven. The winged men and women that they had encountered seemed deadly serious, and she couldn't yet get a good read on whether their new acquaintances were friend or foe. Her instinct told her that she would be getting answers - one way or another - very soon. Ferro seemed to have some reaction to the people and the symbology on their ships and uniforms. What appeared to be an animal similar to a Terran bird adorned the ship in front of the outpost, with outstretched black wings and talons encasing whole worlds in their grasp, with over a dozen more circled around the animal. The bird most notably had unnerving red eyes. But Andrew was no closer to any realization now than he was hours ago.

An indicator began to blink on one of Brainy's holo-panels. "We appear to be emerging into real space," he called out to the team, "Stand by."

In a matter of moments, the swirling colors of hyperspace were replaced by a brilliant green planet, half lit in the yellow sun around which it traveled. Two small moons hung in the distance on the other side of their orbit. While half of the world was illuminated by the yellow start at the center of the system, the nightside was still dimly illuminated by the light gathered from the density of stars around them. Still, the darker side was bristling with lights across the major continent where land was present, but the dayside shone green and blue, looking like a paradise from above. A large amount of spaceship traffic moved around them, some warships like their tow craft bearing the same birdlike imagery, others unmarked or bearing unique mosaic patters from each other. Most ships, or groups of ships, had a winged man or woman flying in front of the craft. In the far distance, Imra could make out a large space station hovering over the planet, with a tether that ran to the planet's surface.

"Starhaven, I presume," said Monstress, "Is that space station connected to the planet?" she asked noticing the same detail as Imra.

"Yes, it's an orbital space station connected to the planet by a cable that serves as an elevator," Cham replied, "It's a little old by UP standards, but its an efficient method for getting into orbit. Most planets back in the UP stopped using this technology a few centuries ago." He crossed his arms and contemplated the scene as ship ahead of them pulled them towards the space station. "It looks like they are going to take us there," he said.

As the ship drew near to the planet, it changed course slightly to head towards the orbital facility bristling with docking facilities around the edge of the flattened toroidal station. The hole in the center of the torus housed a smaller facility connected to the ring by several spokes, and the cable coming up from the planet connected there. The cable had a wide diameter, enabling several cars to move up from the surface, or back down from the station, with ease. The towing warship gently brought the outpost to one of the station docking gangways, where the sound of connecting metal echoed through the command center from the deck below. The warship released the station and turned itself around in space to train its weaponry on the Legion's station.

Chuck looked up and called out, "Well team, it looks like we're safely in orbit connected to their space station. And our hosts will make sure we stay put."

A few squads of winged soldiers in armor dispatched from the ships around them and began to patrol around the Outpost and its guardians. Kinetix, who had been fidgeting with the gold medallion around her neck, muttered sarcastically, "I don't know about you, but I sure feel welcome."

"Saturn Girl, I'm receiving a message over the comms," Umbra said, "There is a representative from Starhaven that would like to speak with us waiting on the station."

"Let's meet our hosts, Tasmia," Imra said by way of acknowledgement. She then turned to the rest of the Legionnaires and said, "Team, we need to be extremely careful. We need to be able to communicate covertly, so everyone enable your telepathic earplugs. This is obviously an advanced civilization and we don't yet know if they are hostile to us or not."

The Legionnaires went to the airlock to walk across the gangway into the Starhaven space port. A young man with dark hair, dressed in a spartan grey uniform met them inside the station proper, accompanied with two guards armed with rifles. He bowed his head briefly. The black bird insignia stood out on the left breast of his uniform. "Greetings, travelers from afar! Welcome to Starhaven! My name is Dayvid Strongroot. I am a member of the Imperial staff. I'm here to afford anything you need during your stay."

"I'm Imra Ardeen from the United Planets," Imra said in response, "We've been through an unstable wormhole that almost destroyed our outpost. We are in desperate need of supplies and repair. We would be most grateful for any assistance that you can provide."

"Of course," Dayvid replied with a professional smile, "we will arrange all of that. However, your arrival has generated a lot of interest within the imperial palace. I've been told to take you directly to see his majesty!"

The Legionnaires all looked at each other. "Excuse me?" Imra said, "We simply need assistance. We really don't want to inconvenience anyone."

"We don't get visitors from outside the core often, so when we do get them, its important! My orders are to take you down to the capital palace," Dayvid said brightly. Seeing their confusion, he added, "It's a beautiful day on the surface and I'll brief you on our history and answer any questions that you may have as we go. The emperor is eager to speak with you! Please follow me."

He turned and walked forward towards an enclosed cylinder with doors that slid apart at his approach. The two guards took a step back and to the side, effectively flanking the Legionnaires.

Imra broadcast her thought to the team, "Let's go Legionnaires. We don't want to pick any fights if we don't have to, especially if we need their help." Imra stepped forward to follow Dayvid into the vehicle, followed by the rest of the team.

Ferro quickened his pace to walk next to Imra. "Saturn Girl," he said quietly, "I think I know what looks familiar here!"

"What is it, Andy?"

"These symbols," he said, "the images, the designs - they look a lot like the native American art that I used to see growing up!"

"But you grew up in 20th century Earth," she replied skeptically, as she stepped into the craft..

"I know, that's why this doesn't make any sense," Andy replied, "but that's what this looks like to me."

Andy's first thought when he stepped into the vehicle was that he was on a luxury train car. Dayvid was busy working some controls at the front, but the entire car was roomy and comfortably appointed with seating areas and even refreshment. Candi, while needing to hunch over to get through the entrance, had enough room to be comfortable inside. Last aboard were the guards, who stood at attention at the doors, which slid shut behind them.

Dayvid flipped a few switches on his console and the car swiftly and quietly began to move through the station, eventually traversing one of the spokes inside the station ring, the world of Starhaven gleaming below them. As their car approached the hub structure, it slowed down and connected itself to a mechanism on the central cable and the passengers could feel a slight change in momentum as the car began to descend down the cable from the station. The Legionnaires looked out the windows out of curiosity to watch the process, especially Brainiac 5, who had been silently gathering data as soon as they had set foot on the station.

Andy leaned forward. "Dayvid," he said amplifying his voice, "a lot of your designs look really familiar to me. They look like symbols I remember from the past of my world. I come from a place called..."

"Earth?" Dayvid finished.

Andy looked over at Imra who was just as confused. "Yes?" he said hesitantly.

"I beg your pardon," Dayvid said, "based on the appearances of most of you I just made an assumption that most of you were human. But yes, more than ten generations ago, our ancestors left the mother world and came here in a way very similar to your arrival. They made their way to Starhaven and founded our world." He made a gesture over his heart, as if in a sacred tribute, and gestured to the world below them which was slowly starting to get closer.

After Dayvid's mention of Earth, the rest of the Legionnaires were immediately interested in what he had to say. Brainiac 5.1, who was standing behind Ferro, spoke up. "Excuse me," he called out, "but how could early space travelers from Earth be able to get this far into the galactic core? We can't even get there now, much less navigate through this area of space."

"Many generations ago, our ancestors had grown weary of being treated at the heel of others and not having a true measure of freedom," Dayvid began, "after repeated promises and scraps of handouts from other governments at the time. With the advent of interstellar travel, the First Ones banded together and launched many tribal colonization ships. Somehow, that fleet fell into a wormhole similar to what brought you here. And since then, we have built a mighty civilization." As Dayvid finished, the outside view had significantly changed from the curve of the planet with its moons, to a pale gold and pink sky with wisps of cloud around them.

"I remember learning about that time in school," Andy interjected, "the native Americans in my time had been uprooted from their original homes and relocated to areas that weren't as livable. It wasn't very fair. It was called the Trail of Tears."

Dayvid glanced back with a nod and an expression of pride. "That's right. You will marvel at what we have done on our own," he said, "We are unifying many worlds in the core to be a true power."

The passengers were now able to get a better view of where they were headed. Below, they could make out a large metropolitan area on the coast of a continent. The city sitting at the edge of a large bay that led to a vast ocean, but it's structures sprawled inland for many kilometers up to the edge of hills that turned into snow capped mountains further kilometers away still. A river wound its way out of the hills, feeding the bay. In the center of the city a few kilometers from the elevator's terminus, an immense silver spire shot 200 stories into the sky, like a sword pointing up from the ground. The sprawl of the city around the central spire consisted of many stylized buildings, but dozens of other much shorter spires in the same design of the one they were headed for were arranged for kilometers around the city, each seeming to have their own city unto themselves.

"The large spire that you see is the Imperial palace and is the center of our government," Dayvid announced, "the smaller spires around the city are the government centers of the various tribes that make up the empire, who all report to the emperor." Their car had finally started to lower into the city and sank into the surface terminal of the elevator. It came to rest with a gentle nudge and the doors slid open. The guards stepped out and stood at either side of the entrance. A hover transport pulled up to the side of the shuttle as the doors opened and a rush of fresh air swept into the cabin.

Dayvid turned to address the Legionnaires. "From here, we'll take the transport to the palace, so please make your way there and we'll be on our way." He exited the shuttle followed by the Legionnaires, making their way to the transport.

Zoe paused a moment to bask in the sun on her shoulders and take a deep breath of fresh air. "Oh its been days since real sunlight and unscrubbed air!" she said with satisfaction.

"Yeah if there only weren't folks pointing guns at us the whole time, it would be a real vacation," Tasmia pointed out flatly as she walked past.

Zoe shook her head slightly and followed the rest of her team into a transport which began to move immediately towards the capital spire, several miles away.

"If you are all originally from Earth," Andy asked curiously, "Why is it that some of you have wings?"

Dayvid nodded in return. "As far as what our scientists have been able to determine," he replied, "it is a natural change due to the stellar radiation in this part of the galaxy. When our children come of age, we perform a ceremony that reveals one's destiny, and if they are destined to have the gift, it is revealed then. Our pathfinders can find anything and guide any starship through this region of the galaxy. That is how we first started to grow our civilization; within a century of our arrival here, we had mastered these gifts and we would hire out our services as navigators and so built up our reputation and influence. Of course, some of us did not have that blessing," he humbly gestured to himself, "but we serve as best fits our own personal gifts."

The bright daylight dimmed as the transport approached, then moved beneath a wide dome, which housed three smaller structures laid out next to each other in turn. A mix of several species, both human and not, wearing olive coveralls, watched over by human guard with rifles, were laboriously slinging bags of material onto a conveyance that led into the dome closest to their vehicle.

From the back of the vehicle, Candi noticed these workers and furrowed her large brow. She cleared her throat audibly. "Ahem, Excuse me, Mr. Dayvid," she began, "what are those people doing over there?" She gestured to the workers under guard.

"Oh, they are just feeding the raw materials into our assembly line," he responded amiably.

"What, exactly, are they assembling?" Candi replied.

"We will see in a moment," Dayvid responded, gesturing to the driver to slow down a bit, "These workers are prisoners we've had the good fortune of capturing after they attempted to commit terrorism against the empire," he explained in more detail, "They are serving... a penance of sorts."

Candi's fist began to tighten when Kinetix reached out and gently placed a hand on her forearm. "Take it easy, Monstress," she thought at Candi, "we don't want to attract any attention."

"Sorry, Zoe dear," Candi replied quietly, "You know how I get about things like this."

Their transport had traveled far enough to the other side of the fist sub zone so that the party could see the molds coming out of the dome, where more guarded prisoners were removing the components as they came out and assembling the smaller crystalline components onto a skeletal humanoid frame, which then went into the second dome.

The gap between the second and third domes only had armed guards along the assembly line, as fully formed winged armored figures emerged out of the second dome and traveled via conveyance into the final area which was lit with an irregular blue light.

"These are the same things we saw when we first encountered your patrol," Cham said.

Dayvid nodded. "Yes," he replied, "these are our Sentinel troops, designed to augment our pathfinders' capabilities. We would not have been able to expand our empire so fast in the last few months without them."

"What do you mean," Umbra asked sharply, "Why do you need robots to expand your power?"

Dayvid seemed in thought for a moment, as if to figure out how to best proceed. "When the emperor first came to us decades ago, he saw our plight and made common cause helping grow our empire, even discovering new sources of energy to make our presence here much more in balance with the natural spirits of the planet. Then much more recently, he and our scientists developed our first sentinels. They cannot navigate like our walkers but they can be mobile soldiers so that our walkers in the space forces can focus on their job of navigating our forces through the core, and not as troops. It's helped us add three more worlds to the empire in the last month!" He grinned. "Extremely effective, yes?"

"Saturn Girl?" Candi thought to the channel.

"Now's not the time, Monstress," Imra replied back quickly through her thoughts.

Their transport had crossed to the other side of the last sub-dome as one after the other, new sentinels emerged out the other side to be plugged into a diagnostic system for final evaluation before autonomously marching off under their own power to stand in formation with squads of identical sentinels.

"Don't tell me," Candi asked with an edge to her voice, "let me guess. You've been getting more prisoners to help make these sentinels the more sentinels you make, right?"

Dayvid looked back at Candi with bewilderment. "Well, yes," he said simply.

The transport finally passed out from underneath the larger dome and sped towards the Imperial spire that now loomed over them. An entrance area lined with guards lay directly in their path at the base of the tall building. "And here we are!" Dayvid said brightly, "Please be careful as you leave the speeder."

As the Legionnaires began to file out of the transport, Dayvid reached out to Imra, and shook her hand. "This is where I must say goodbye," Dayvid said to them with a brief bow of his head, "I hope I have been of service to you and that his majesty treats you well."

"Thank you, Dayvid," Imra replied looking him directly in the eye, "I hope we meet again." She resiste the urge to invade his mind, but she could sense without probing that he had become very nervous as he walked away. Imra turned and walked to join the rest of her team as they all went into the building directly to the elevator. Rows of armed guards stood flanking the entrance to the Imperial tower.

The elevator rapidly ascended to the upper reaches of the tower, with the doors sliding open to reveal a long chamber with a deep orange carpet stretching dozens of meters to a wide dais with a throne sculpted with a bird of prey motif, the head and beak at the apex of the throne with the taloned feet at the arms. The Legionnaires moved towards the dais, with their guards lining up in front of the elevator, preventing any access back. As they walked forward, they could see oval openings along the lengths of the passage that led outside. The outer walls curved up towards the ceiling, a section of the wall's upper curve being transparent revealing the sky beyond.

Twenty meters away from the throne, the Legionnaires stopped when they heard a voice say, "How about that? The Legion of Super Heroes. It's a long way from the United Planets." A hissing stomp grew progressively louder from the side of the throne. Slowly, out of the shadows, three familiar figures to Chuck Taine emerged. The first hulking figure shambled out into the light, a large humanoid form the size of Monstress, but seemingly made of sand. The female of the group was cloaked and hooded, floating a half meter above the floor by some unseen means. And the final form to emerge was a man with short, spiked hair encased in gold armor, a visor across his eyes and a wicked grin on his lips.

Chuck's eyes boggled in recognition. "Repulse??" he asked in shock. "How are you here?!"

Repulse, "What, Chuckie? Not happy to see me?"

"Last time we had to deal with you all, we ended up here!" Chuck shot back angrily.

Repulse folded his arms across his broad chest. "Hey, that was months ago," he said casually, "Besides, I'd forgotten how hot the ladies back home were." Repulse leered at Zoe, quickly flicking his tongue at her. Zoe had a look of disgust on her face as she extended an insulting hand gesture at him. "Anyway," Repulse continued, "the Workforce has done pretty well for ourselves here. Isn't that right, boss?"

A low voice, calm but with the edge of threat came from above. "Indeed we have. Some of us better than others." All looked up and saw a powerfully built man in a flowing black cloak and wearing a dark bodysuit fortified with bracers around his forearms, chestplates over his breast and armor on his left leg. The man had with long black hair pulled back into a ponytail and he was wearing the headgear that resembled a black eagle's head with the upper beak jutting out over his face, casting it in shadow, leaving his eyes gleaming from underneath. I trust you are well and have weathered the wormhole well enough," Meta says as he floats down onto the throne from above. "Welcome to Starhaven."

Even Brainiac 5.1 showed a measure of surprise. "Meta?" He said with surprise, "How? I thought you had to be vaporized in the blast that opened that rift!"

"Wait, you're the emperor?!" Imra interjected, "Just what exactly is going on here?"

Meta coolly scanned the Legionnaires. "Let's be done with these formalities first," he said with an icy calm in his voice and a red gleam in his eyes, "You may address me as Emperor Ol-Vir Tauren. But to answer your question fifteen years ago I was attempting to save your little station when you failed to warn me of the consequences, Coluan," he said with drops of contempt in his voice, "I blacked out and woke up close to where our teams found you. This gentle society of explorers took me in and nurtured me back to health. It helped that there is such a large concentration of yellow sun radiation here in this part of the galaxy. There happened to be a large enough faction in this society that wanted to be a bit more? expansionistic, so we built an empire. And naturally the most powerful gets to lead." He concluded his story with a smile that made all the Legionnaires very uncomfortable.

"So you failed to listen to me, caused a rift that almost wipes out the galaxy, get sprinted across space and time and you set yourself up as a dictator," Brainy replied, "That sounds stable to me."

Ol-Vir scoffed. "A dictator? These people have been stagnant for hundreds of years. I spurred this civilization to a greater height. The expansionists made their case to me, and I agreed with them. And it was I who enabled them to prevail in the political battles."

"Wow and super humble, too," Zoe groused as she folded her arms, unimpressed.

"You all have seen what we've been able to do in just a few short months," Ol-Vir countered, "Thanks to me, we've been able to create a society that fool McCauley could only see in a fever dream. We've advanced at an even faster pace since the Workforce arrived. But now that you all are here, we can reach even greater heights, expand beyond the core. Perhaps even include the United Planets as part of our commonwealth."

"All of this is predicated by the assumption that we will be actively helping you," Brainiac retorted, "and as of the last time my dictionary was updated, an Empire and a Commonwealth are mutually exclusive."

"My friends," Ol-Vir said, suddenly standing from the throne, "This is not a matter of debate. You know that I have the upper hand here. You can actively help us, or we can find other ways to convince you. At the very least, we have possession of your space station. There is much for my scientists to glean from that alone."

"Imra?" thought Candi. There was an increasingly impatient edge to her thoughts.

"Monstress, wait," Saturn Girl replied.

Emperor Ol-Vir began to hover above the orange carpet that led to the throne. "You'll have to forgive me if your welcome was rather abrupt," he said, "We are having some problems with some rabble who would undo all the work I have done, so I will need to cut my welcome to you short in order to personally deal with these troublemakers permanently. Please, my friends, I want this to be a happy reunion." He smiled his unsettling smile again.

"Be very careful everyone," Imra thought to to the team, "It looks like Meta is leaving, so we can deal with the rest of this Workforce. I'm not going to let them hold us prisoner. Chuck, I need you to stick with Brainy. Umbra, you know what to do with the shadows. Zoe, take care of the guards behind us. Wait until I give the signal."

"Now I have pressing matters to attend to," the emperor said tersely. He turned to Repulse, "See that our friends' comfort is situated to our benefit. You CAN handle the Legion as you said you did before, correct?"

Repulse shifted slightly and looked uncomfortable as his gaze flicked between the group of Legionnaires and his master. "Y-You got it boss," he stammered.

Keeping the Legion in his vision as he drifted, Emperor Ol-Vir floated out of one of the openings to the side of the chamber. In a dark blur, he launched into the sky with a sonic boom. Moments after that, several red streaks flashed in the distant sky, marking the Imperial fleet's departure from orbit.

Monstress finally was unable to contain her anger. "What, are you going to put us to work like the people assembling your robots?" she shouted at the remainder of the workforce.

"That all depends on you," Amber said in her silky-soft voice, "You can help us whether you are willing or not." The guards behind them armed and pointed their weapons at the Legionnaires. "That choice is completely in your hands. We'd much rather have you using your powers for us."

Repulse pressed a tab on his wrist. "So what's it gonna be?" He asked arrogantly, "The easy way or the hard way? I'm rooting for the hard way," he said with a wink as he leered again at Zoe.

Zoe looked at Repulse tilting her head to the side in mock sympathy. "Oh, honey," she teased, "Are you sure? Daddy's gone."

"Imra?" Candi asked aloud.

"Now Monstress," Imra said, then louder, "LET'S GO LEGIONNAIRES!" and the team sprang into action, many things happening within seconds.

As if she had been bottling up her force until the right moment, Umbra lifted into the air and generated a large shadow resembling a winged demon that swept at the Workforce causing them to scatter around the throne area, Repulse going to the left Dune to the right, and Amber hiding behind the throne itself.

The guards coming up the rear from the elevator began firing their rifles, but at the same time, Kinetix lifted herself in the air with a spin and blocked an initial volley of plasma bolts that bounced harmlessly away with a quickly summoned energy field. She reached out and gestured to pull a two meter wide strip of fabric from the carpet off the floor and with a flourish whipped the cloth around the guards, tying them together in place. "Sorry to leave you all tied up, boys," she teased with a wink as they struggled to get out without accidentally shooting themselves or each other, "maybe we can play a little later."

Chuck immediately moved over to take station behind Brainiac 5.1, and on cue, Brainy had enabled his force field, just in time to protect against a volley of metallic needles shot at them from Repulse's liquid armor. Repulse himself began to wildly thrash as Umbra's shadow demon began to swirl around the trio randomly. Amber began wildly flinging balls of sap that she had conjured, one of which had hit Ferro across his upper chest and hitting Imra directly in the face, knocking her to the ground.

Within seconds of the command to fight, Chameleon stretched himself out to engage Dune, who was distracted by the Shadow demons and enlarged his fist to swing at Dune's head, but Dune shifted his head to the side at the last minute causing Cham's fist to swing wide and into the wall.

Ferro was struggling with the sap bubble encasing his arms, so he turned his form to be completely metallic and launched himself at Amber's location behind the Imperial throne, hitting the throne and knocking it backwards from the momentum, but also requiring Amber to move and breaking her concentration, dissolving the sap spheres she had projected, including the one that had blocked Saturn Girl's air passages.

"You're superpower is projecting SAP? Really?" Ferro said in surprise, "I don't really know this McCauley guy well, but he doesn't really know how to hire the right people, does he?"

Monstress had immediately moved in on Repulse who had formed a shield using the metal on his left arm and a large mace in his right with which to combat Umbra's shadow demon, but soon saw Candi rapidly approaching. He dodged Candi's powerful attacks as best he could, lofting his shield up in protection. Candi easily avoided his wild swings. With a quick punch, Candi sent Repulse flying against the back wall, where he slid down in a crumple. Refocusing her attention to Amber, Monstress strode towards the cloaked woman who kept flinging more sticky spheres in an attempt to immobilize Monstress, but it barely slowed her down. "If any of this mess gets in my hair," Candi said as her orange brow furrowed, "I will tie you up with your cape and dangle you from the top of this tower."

After avoiding Cham's attack, Dune side stepped and extended his arms, turning them into many sandy tentacles hissing towards Umbra. As she was shielded by the shadow, Dune kept swinging his arms wildly and eventually connected with Umbra, knocking her to the ground with an abrasion along her shoulders and her shadow disappeared. Chameleon kept slowly advancing on Dune, who called out to his partner. "REPULSE!" Dune boomed out, "CALL THE OTHERS!" Dune looked over and realized that Repulse had been knocked against the wall and was struggling to get back up. "Already... Did," Repulse gasped.

As Dune watched Monstress knock out Amber with a flick of her finger, Cham transformed into a large four legged beast with overpowered arms. With a roar, Cham charged at Dune swinging again, connecting with his jaw and stunning him, but not without damage to himself, as Dune formed a meter square block out of his fist that also connected to one of Cham's legs.

"Frak, that hurt," Cham yelled and turned around to assess the rest of the team and was stunned to see three familiar figures fly into the room. Reep's eyes instinctively drifted to the petite girl in the blue nod white Legion uniform with bright red hair that hung down to barely touch her shoulders. "Ayla?" he called in relief as he transformed back into his humanoid form. "AYLA!" She was flanked by Element Lad and Kid Quantum. A number of hovering Sentinels drifted outside behind them, starting to drift in through the portals in the wall.

Monstress and Ferro started moving towards Cham. "Ayla, Jan, Jazmin you have to help us out here before?" Cham was interrupted as Spark shot a bolt of lightning directly at him and knocked him unconscious. No words were spoken by the three new arrivals, and their faces showed no trace of emotion.

"Cham!" Imra called out, and Ferro and Monstress sprinted to aid Chameleon. Umbra rose back into the air, soon joined by Kinetix to charge at the rogue, blank faced Legionnaires. With a gesture, Element Lad removed the oxygen around Monstress and Ferro, and they started to choke immediately. Golden spheres appeared around Kinetix and Umbra, who stopped in midair.

"Element Lad, what are you doing?" Imra yelled out. She reached out to touch their minds and found extreme confusion. "Brainy, I'm touching Ayla's mind and its like a fog," she said, "I think they may have been drugged.

"Based on observable evidence," Brainy replied, "I think that we can say they are certainly not themselves. Saturn Girl, this situation is decidedly turning against us." Ayla had begin to throw repeated lightning blasts against the force field. "Can you handle Ayla, while I address the other two?"

Imra nodded and planted a single thought in Ayla's mind. SLEEP. Ayla fell to the floor as Brainy gestured, causing his force field reach out and slow her fall, then whipped his arm up in a striking motion, making the energy field curve and connect with Jan and knocking him into Jazmin. Both were stunned and caught by Brainy's field, releasing Umbra and Kinetix from the quantum spheres slowing them to imperceptible movement and the air to return for Monstress and Ferro, who started gasping in fresh oxygen.

"Team we need to get out of here," Imra mentally projected to the team. The sentinels with a couple winged soldiers were now starting to drift into the throne room and opening fire. Similarly, the royal guard by the elevator took advantage if Zoe's stasis and made progress freeing themselves from her tie-up. Repulse was beginning to get his second wind, and Dune was back on his feet. "Monstress, you grab Cham and Ayla, Zoe, blast a hole out of here and pull out Jan. Ferro, link to Kid Quantum's ring and pull her along. Umbra, you cover us."

Zoe reached out to the opposite side of the room, concentrating on the wall between two flyer portals and pulled with her mind. Green energy wrapped around the wall section and ripped out into a giant chunk which she formed into a blocky sphere and hurled across the room, causing Dune to flatten himself to granules to avoid the flying boulder before it slammed into the incoming Sentinels and the side of the opposite wall, blocking and distending one of the portals. A few of the Sentinels were caught in the crush and many robotic parts scattered with fading electricity.

Monstress gently slung Ayla over her shoulder and picked up Cham under one arm, while concernedly looking at Jan a few meters away. Kinetix's energy wrapped around Jan and he floated into the air. Ferro knelt by Kid Quantum and fiddled with his flight ring to connect it to hers.

"Ferro, hurry!" Umbra yelled as the others flew out of the ripped wall. The Imperial guards had pulled out of the carpet and began firing a volley of blasts at her as well as the Legionnaires hovering outside. Umbra dodged the bolts and sent a small darkfield their way to block them.

"Something's wrong!" Ferro called back, "its not link-" he was cut off as Dune's oversized fist connected with the base of Andy's skull, and he fell forward over Kid Quantum's unconscious body.

"Ferro!" Umbra called again in desperation.

"We have to go!" Imra called, "Umbra, we'll come back for them!"

Umbra cried out in frustration as she pushed herself backwards out of into the sky and cast a massive darkfield that surrounded the outside of the tower, and crept through the inside of the throne room like a living entity, then she turned to join the rest who were flying away.

"Head north as fast as you can fly!" Imra called out, "Tighten up in formation delta! We need to get to some kind of cover and regroup!"

"I'll cover our backs," Umbra growled and cast a second darkfield below and behind them as the group formed a tight wedge in the air with Saturn Girl at the apex.

Imra fought to keep herself calm. Good job, she thought to herself, you just lost two Legionnaires. She quickly forced that thought out of her mind and scanned the horizon, seeing a series of large conduits leading north from the city into the hillier area as the sounds of alarms blaring in the city below started to reach them, fading as they passed the city limits.

As the city began to disperse into more and more open land below, she could see ahead of them, a stone carving reaching over a hundred meters into the air with stylized carvings stacked upon the other, a massive bird at the top and its wings curved up to meet the sky.

"Brainy," Imra said, "find us somewhere safe to set down." Imra felt a fresh wave of guilt in leaving Andy behind. And more than anything, she missed Garth and hoped for his safety.

Oh, I hadn't thought of that... I'll have to see if the situation resolves itself but its an interesting idea...

Also wanted to drop chapter 2 as I'll be busy with the holiday the next few days, so enjoy!

yay!! part 2 is here!

I think a Zoe-Tinya word war would be hella entertaining maybe I'll have to write that into my own stories...

Now on to Part 2 -

Nice slow unveiling of the scene, I really liked the journey from Outpost to Starhaven. You kept it interesting all throughout.

Good bit having Ferro recognise the symbols from Native American art!

Wonder why Candi didn?t recognise the space elevator - not used in the present day UP anymore?

I like how earnest and excited Daviyd Strongfoot seems to be... though I wonder why he got nervous. Is he secretly one of the good guys? I hope so, I kind of like him!

Good explanation re why some Starhavenites have wings.

Nice Q from Brainy referencing your encyclopedia entry re galactic core. Does this bit of info give Brainy an idea of where everyone is then? Ah maybe not, because they also fell through a wormhole...

I think you did very well in bringing the Native American history into this, using it as a motivation to get off Earth! I think you updated Starhaven very well for modern times.

I liked Candi getting angry at the treatment of prisoners. I also wondered about that? whether there was something more sinister behind it. That's a very Candi reaction for sure

Also liked Umbra questioning re adding more worlds. Makes tons of sense considering her Legends spotlight. (also her snark about the gun-pointing, ha!)

Nice bit stressing that Meta is the boss, with Repulse nervous. I like Candi champing at the bit and Imra waiting for tbe right time, and thinking of Chuck?s safety

Nice banter from Zoe! She has a sharp tongue

Well done, well done. I honestly didn?t expect Starjaven to be Meta?s empire, the revelation came very well! Whoa! I also thought he was dead! Also like Repulse's obvious fear of Meta.... and the Legion playing it smart and waiting until Meta was gone.

Great action scene! I love how well-oiled the team is.

Re Ferro laughing at Amber?s power, I actually thought the sap itself was formidable (it did take Imra out for a bit,a nd it gave Jan trouble earlier in Rifts!), but having it dissolve when she's knocked out does seem pretty weak.

Candi and her hair, that is so her, Love it

Whoa! Ayla, Jaz and Jan!!! nice seeing them again, not nice that they're apparently drugged...

Awesome battle, awesome nod to Cham and Ayla, the confusion in their brains, Candi glancing at Jan... all wow.

Super cool that they escape with Ayla and Jan, while Andy and Jazmim get left behind. Wonder how this will play out? will Meta?s side have power enough left without Jan?

Imra taking charge and Brainy scanning the card into memory, and Umbra caring so much for Ferro, all awesome.

Can't wait for the next bit!

I like this update for Starhaven, it fits thematically and feels organically different rather than just throwing stuff at a wall to see what sticks....I also really liked Dayvid, I'd be okay with him sticking around!

Love that Monstress was the one to be concerned about the workers and that Imra had to keep telling her to chill...and that line to Amber was perfect

Zoe giving lip to Repulse cracked me up as well....Repulse by name, repulse by nature I guess but I love that she wasn't even remotely intimidated.

The fight was really well done, everyone got a chance to throw down and I'm glad we didn't have to wait too long to see what was going on with Ayla (and Kid Q and Jan it turns out!)...I am kinda surprised that Ferro needs to breathe in his iron form, but speaking of Ferro I liked the little touch that connecting his flight ring up to Kid Q's doesn't come as naturally for him as it would for one of the 31st century kids. It's a good way to show us he's from the past without hitting us over the head with it.

These guys are gonna have a fight on their hands if they have to deal with an angry Daxamite on top of everyone else - unless they can get Jan turned around in time they don't really have anyone near that power level, I am looking forward to seeing where this goes!

EDIT: forgot to say, looks like my cover's blown!

Yeah, as I come to think of it, I'm not sure those two interact all that much over the course of the series...


Thank you - I did a significant re-do there, as its a new world, so we need to see at least what it looks like from space, as well as the immediate surrounds of the capitol. We've seen it only a couple of times pre-ZH, and they were both technological as well as pastoral, so I wanted to make sure we saw them as an advanced and truly sovereign society.


It was very important for me for the ancestors of the Starhavenites to have agency as to why they were there. More to come on that in the next installment.


Hope to get that out by the end of the week. I kind of checked out last Thursday!

But thanks for the great feedback as always!

Thanks! Like I said to Ibby, I wasn't in love with how Starhaven and its inhabitants were portrayed pre-ZH, so I put a bunch of thought into this version.


Yeah, I'm really glad I did the re-read of The Legion, as I had his personality in my head, probably from the remembrance of the original read, where I remembered him being kind of a sleaze, and I tried to keep that in mind here and lean on the name being descriptive, so a big Thank You to DnA there. The original version of this scene had Zoe being more revulsed by Repulse, but I thought about it and figured she'd just throw it back at him and not give him the satisfaction of getting to her.


I hadn't really thought too much about the oxygen/Ferro thing - we know he won't need to eat... Maybe I'll just have him change back real quick in a revision! But thanks for the compliment on the action!


Thanks for the great feedback! Meta's not gonna be a happy camper soon.

Legion Of Superheroes #128 - Part 3: Planet Manitou

Legionnaire Roll Call

XS - Jenni Ognats of Aarok, Super Speed
Invisible Kid - Lyle Norg of Earth, Invisibility
LiveWire - Garth Ranzz of Winath, Generates lightning
Triad - Luornu Durgo of Cargg, Triplication
Karate Kid - Val Armorr, master of martial arts
Gates - Ti'julk Mr'asz of Vyrga, controls teleportation portals
Ultra Boy - Jo Nah of Rimbor, ultra-vision, speed, strength and invulnerability, used one at a time.



Garth Ranzz, along with his teammates, a fourteen-year-old Lori Morning, and several rebels against the Empire of Starhaven, hurried as fast as they could along the mountain fortress corridors and control rooms, reinforcing and helping the rebels fortify their tunnels with lead curtains to prepare for the battle to come. After the Legion engaged the Starhaven Rebels when they had come under attack, the Legion, while holding their own in the melee, was severely outnumbered in the hidden mountain fortress. Lori's sudden stoppage of time - much less her sudden appearance - shocked all the Legionnaires and stunned the fight into instantly ending. Once the Rebels understood that the Legionnaires were old friends of Lori, and more to the point friends that she trusted, the Legionnaires were given a wary welcome. The Legionnaires, Lori, and a few of the winged Starhaven fighters, including the leader named Greybird and the one closest to Lori, Dawnstar, along with several non-human sentients, began working to repair the damage done.

Lori had told them about her appearance in the core four years ago, Meta rescuing her and bringing her to the capital to live as his ward in the palace. Lyle had started droning about space-time continuums or something. After some time to reunite and rest, word came out from the rebels' network that an attack force was on the way. The Legionnaires, Lori, Greybird, Dawnstar and several other rebels rushed to perform as many last-minute fortifications as they could before the attack. Even though he lacked Imra's telepathy, he could sense stress levels among all of their new comrades had significantly elevated; he was acutely reminded of the stress during the time of the Blight resistance a few weeks ago. So here they were bracing for an attack.

Along with Jo Nah, Garth was working to weld together iron and lead plates to protect the interior of the base, with Greybird supervising. "I still don't get it," Garth asked Greybird, "How did Meta end up as your emperor? I mean with all the other time anomalies we've experienced here with Lori, I get that he got thrown backwards in time, but how did he create an empire?"

Greybird paused from his work and folded his arms across his broad chest, his wings pinned close to his back, in thought for a moment. Garth noticed that the black mantle of his tan bodysuit had on each shoulder the images of a bird with wide outstretched wings, each feather a separate color with its beak pointing up at the image of a star. He then realized that all the rebels had the same insignia on their uniforms. "The man you are calling Meta, we call Ol-Vir. He appeared many years ago, or so our mother and father told us. I was but a child at the time. Starhaven was a society at one with our universe, and simply wanted to explore, but we had a faction of restless expansionists that grew over the centuries. They took him in - embraced him as a means to an end - but he ended up taking control of everything."

Without realizing it, Greybird's story had drawn a small group around them, including the other Legionnaires, and the work had stilled so that people could hear the tale.

"But there were those in our world who wanted more," Grey added, "The gifts that we were given to find paths through space wasn't enough. Some wanted to impose our ways on to others. And so the same divisions and lusts for power on old Earth that our ancestors had turned away from had started to appear here; they began to take our gifts and the balance that we have with the universe for granted and instead using them to selfishly take for their own lusts."

"Really, brother, I think we don't have time for history lessons," Dawnstar interjected as she glided in with an older Starhavenite beside her. All eyes turned to the newly entered figures. Several other rebels, including Lori, had also entered the large chamber.

"If this 'Legion' as Morninglory calls them is going to help us, they deserve to know why, Dawnstar," Greybird said. An edge of annoyance crept into his voice. "Mother, you were supposed to have evacuated to the Pedase system for your safety!"

The newcomer gently set down as her wings closed behind her back, followed closely by Dawnstar. She wore a similar bodysuit as the other Pathfinders like her children, but slightly more decorative, with more angular patterns below the black mantle instead of the light tan of the others. Her graying hair, tightly tied back at the nape of her neck, contrasted with her tan, oval face with its sharp, stern features. "You are absolutely correct, John," she said, "Our new friends need to understand what's going on here, but I won't run. When I heard he was coming and that we had new allies, I had to come back."

Garth stepped forward extending his hand, "Ma'am my name is..."

"Yes, I know who you are LiveWire," she interrupted shaking his hand, "I'm General Owena Walker. Morninglory has told us many times of your teams' bravery. I wanted to ask for your help personally, given what we're up against." She acknowledged her son with a nod of her head. "What Greybird has told you is true," she continued, "Over the years, the expansionists used Ol-Vir, or maybe he manipulated them; it's unclear. One by one, star systems in the core were forced into the commonwealth, and anyone who resisted was enslaved."

"He even personally enslaved my world!" one of the six-legged non-humanoid rebels in the room shouted. Several others yelled out in agreement.

Walker acknowledged this with a serious nod. "Then, five years ago, he declared himself emperor and murdered the Starhaven council, including those who were his fiercest backers. He singlehandedly developed a way to provide our warships with seemingly unlimited power, which he uses on all his subjects. He's built an empire of fear. His powers ensure only bootlickers are his fiercest supporters, and none stand against him out of terror of instant death or torture." A shadow crossed over her face as though she may briefly lose her composure, but it quickly passed. "He has plenty of supporters and enough people who say they believe in his cause, but we think that support is paper thin, only in place because of his superpowers."

"Unsurprisingly, his actions sparked a revolution that has grown over the years," Dawnstar finished, "it encompasses almost every planet in the empire. This world, Manitou, is one of our important bases due to our proximity to Starhaven. While we Pathfinders can find almost anything across space, we also have a few tricks up our sleeves to hide ourselves if necessary."

Jenni, had been listening next to Lori, finally broke her silence. "So that explains the history," Jenni said, "But why is Lori here and not on Starhaven?"

Lori looked almost ashamed as she sat and explained her story. "I was kind of pampered living in the palace and I had no idea of any of that history," she said, "But then six months ago these time powers started manifesting. I started to be able to freeze time."

"I was working in the palace as part of the royal guard," Dawn interjected, "And was there during her Wysoccan ceremony, Lori's coming of age. She took the solution that is made from the plants that grow here for her ceremony and I realized she is special. So... I abducted her." She looked at a confused Jenni and the rest of the Legion almost apologetically as she put her arm around Lori protectively.

Lori became angrily animated. "Yeah, right when Meta was going to try and off me!" she exclaimed. "He saw what was happening to me and he started to freak out!"

Lyle nodded. "I guess your temporal powers make sense with how much you've bounced around in time," he said, "But why did Meta have a problem with your power? Surely he would try to use it to his advantage?"

Dawnstar looked at her mother, who said, "Hundreds of years ago, shortly after we arrived, one of our ancestors, we think under the influence of the wyssocan herbs, wrote a prophecy of someone from beyond time taking control of our people, but would be defeated by a child." She paused for a moment and looked at Lori. "We think this is Morninglory. And we think Ol-Vir fears her enough to have her killed."

"Wow, no pressure, right?" Gates groused, "I get the need to overthrow a despot, but why not throw in a messianic prophecy in the mix? What's the worst that could happen there?" Triad, who was standing next to Gates and was listening with interest to Lori's tale, scrunched up her face in frustration, took off Chuck's Legion ballcap she had been wearing and swatted him.

"Fine," he muttered, waving his arms to ward off Triad's attack, "let's go tell ghost stories around the campfire later..."

"Shhh!" she hissed, "Listen!"

"Dawn showed me what's really been happening across Ol-Vir's empire," Lori continued, "I didn't believe it at first until I took a trip and saw one of the Imperial processing centers up close. Most of the non-Starhavenites here come from one of those. The conditions are horrible and they are made to do the most dangerous and back breaking things. She and the others have been helping me with my powers ever since."

A non-winged rebel ran into the room, out of breath into the slowly building crowd. "General Walker, ma'am," he gasped and handed her a flimsy printout. "We've just received this from our contact at the palace."

She scanned the paper grimly and addressed the soldier. "Thank you, major," she said, "Prepare the fortifications and troops for imminent attack." She then turned to Garth, "So there it is. The emperor is on his way here with an attack fleet. He also has your friends, so we will need to confront him imminently. Will you help us?" Her grey eyes locked with Garth's.

Garth felt the pit of his stomach turn with the news that Imra was likely a captive of Meta, but there was only one course of action that he could take. "We'll help," Garth said immediately, "but we have one condition - we do not kill. Ever."

Greybird scoffed, "This is war! We don't have that kind of luxury!"

"Legionnaires don't kill," Garth turned to face Greybird and continued, "You have stun settings on those weapons, and I suggest you use them. I know it's been hard for you, as you're in a civil war. Emotions are running high. But think about it - every person you kill, if you are able to succeed in your rebellion, is someone who can't help you rebuild. We will help you in this fight, but you have to understand that we will not take part in any killing."

Grey sneered in frustration, but the general considered Garth's words thoughtfully. "There is wisdom in what you say, young man," she said at last, then directly to her son, "Send the order: weapons to stun only, Ion cannons for the warships."

"WHAT?!" Greybird shouted. He was incredulous. Dawnstar looked curiously at their mother as well.

"Carry out my orders, please," she said directly. Muttering, Greybird spread his wings and flew out of the room, passing on the orders on his commlink.

A massive boom reverberated through the mountain, shaking dirt and debris from the ceiling and all the rebels in the chamber reacted with unease.

"They're here," Dawnstar said, simply.

Her mother nodded. "I'm taking Lori to the deep command center," she said, "Array the forces according to plan." Dawnstar nodded. "Move, everyone, move!"

Dawnstar rose up and began barking orders into her comm-link as the non-winged rebels began hurrying and dispersing to their respective duties as gunners or infantry. The Legionnaires remained behind and looked to Garth.

"Okay team," he began looking around at his assembled team, "We're going up against a pissed off Daxamite again, so we need to be really careful. Everyone activate your earplugs so that we can stay in touch telepathically. XS, Triad, Karate Kid - I'll need you on the ground supporting the infantry. Invisible Kid, since you'll be able to fly AND be invisible, I need you to be flexible enough to go where it makes sense. Ultra Boy and Gates - Jo, I think we're gonna have to rely on your invulnerability here."

Jo smiled. "Oh, this is gonna be fun," he said and gave Garth a fist bump.

Garth wasn't as enthusiastic. "This is going to be a tough fight, Jo," Garth said seriously, "Meta will have years more of experience with his powers than most of the Daxamites we know, so be on your toes."

Jo nodded in response. "What about me, boss?" Dyrk asked.

"Dyrk, take the cruiser and try to jam any communications for the other side," Garth ordered.

"And me?" Gates croaked.

"I'll need you in the air with me and Ultra Boy," Garth said, "I have a plan."

"Oh. Great." Gates replied.

"Let's Go Legionnaires!" Garth said and the team cheered as they ran to the fortress entrance, XS speeding off to get a handle of the ground arrangement while Triad and Karate Kid flew down to talk with the ground commander. Triad triplicated as soon as they touched the ground. Invisible Kid simply vanished. LiveWire, Ultra Boy and Gates flew into the air. Garth could see all the ground forces arrayed themselves in their places around the base. The rebel pathfinders swept into the air, all armed with their plasma rifles. Ion cannons popped out of their hidden emplacements ready for battle.

Garth looked to the east and saw the cause of the earlier sonic boom. Flying in from the east, three large Imperial warships, clouds peeling away from the front of the ships as they decelerated, while Imperial pathfinders and Sentinels poured out, ready for battle. With another sonic boom, Olm-Vir himself flew in front of his forces arrayed behind him and hovered with his dark hair and black cape flowing behind in the wind.

The three airborne Legionnaires flew to the sides of Greybird and Dawnstar who were floating scores of meters across from Ol-Vir and his forces. The scores of rebel pathfinders gathered behind them. Dawnstar advised the Legionnaires, "The ones without faces are machines. They can be torn into scrap and not shown any compassion."

Ultra Boy's eyes narrowed. "Got it," he said, "machines get trashed."

The emperor drifted forward. "Subjects of the empire," his voice boomed, both vocally and across the comm channels, "You are in a state of rebellion. If you surrender now, you will be shown mercy. If you continue this futility, you will receive none." He scowled at the forces amassing opposite him.

Dawnstar called back, "All of us here know your idea of mercy. Go to hell. Meta."

Ol-Vir's scowl of displeasure was clearly visible beneath his cowl. The red glow of his eyes continued to grow until destructive energy blasted from his eyes.



TO BE CONTINUED....

yay more new stuff!

Great idea lining everything with lead. I suppose Meta still has a working transuit though.

Karate Kid and Ultra Boy together should hopefully be able to stymie a Daxamite...

DAWNSTAR!!!

LOL at Lyle droning on about space-time whatever.

Meta saving Lori was interesting, he does not strike me as the altruistic type... why did he do it?

How did Lori get away from Meta though? What triggered her to rebel? And ah, you answered it - I like Lori's self-reflection here.

oooh it just hit me - did you have Kid Q remain captured because Lori now basically has the same power! aaah!

nice comparison to the Blight rebellion... that was a stressful time indeed, always having to hide.

I like the twist of a people escaping former colonizers, ended up becoming colonizers themselves. Well, some of them anyway.

Lori = Morningglory, i like that they gave her a name!

Heh, I like that their mom sided with Grey. I like wise older people!

Manitou is the world, I like it - throwback to Manitou Raven and Manitou Dawn?

Ah, you answered it - a prophecy. Guess Meta isn't that altruistic after all...

the herbs are a nice touch

Heh, Gates. And heh, Triad swatting Gates. Nice seeing Triad having Chuck's cap!

ah, so the contact isn't 100% updated - the message was sent before Imra's group escaped

whoo! I really love the General. and you go Garth. Indeed, many/most of those fighting alongside Meta are just acting in fear...

I like Jo fist-bumping Garth Bygones gonna be bygones eh?

whoo! here it goes! badass of Dawny to tell Meta to go to hell, whoo

looking forward to the battle!!!

I hinted at this earlier in the story, but yes. This will be dealt with more later.


Well Jo, yes. Val hasn't had the best of luck with Daxamites, but at least it wasn't fatal.


Yeah, I was trying to show this from mainly Garth's view - so he kind of tunes out with all that.


Their powers definitely overlap, but aren't quite identical.


This was a very intentional choice on my part and I think will be discussed more in the future. People, unfortunately, are people.


Yes! Her original name was going to be Glory, then it changed to Lori Morning, so transposing her first and last name became a nice reference to her. This is a common practice for the Starhavenites when coming of age, where there is some blending of their given and surname to their true name.


I'm pretty sure its the Algonquin word for spirit, so the intent was that this was a world teeming with life, one of the first discovered when the first explorers came across their own rift, so its "life force" in a away.


Oh god no. LOL


Or was it tampered with?


Basically, yes. Their prior friction will likely come up again, but Jo has an idea of what's coming.


They REALLY don't like Meta. .

And Thank You for the support! This damn thing was literally dogging me for three months. No idea why it took me so long to get my butt in gear for this. Now I just have to get the battles together!

LOL If I look at myself, I've been even more delayed...

This cracked me up, as did Triad swatting Gates....I could totally see the look on her face too

Morninglory is a perfect comic book name for Lori and I am really digging her position of importance here! I always thought she had potential to be a cool character!

I liked the discussion about not killing....I am probably dating myself but I miss when the line between heroes who killed and heroes who didn't was very clear-cut. It may be unrealistic to expect that someone throwing lightning bolts around can disable an army troop without killing anyone but that's why it's called escapism, right? On that note, I just realised that when the Starhavenites freaked out about Garth using lightning before they would have already come across Mekt AND Ayla....no wonder they were so antsy about it lol

Dawnstar giving Meta lip was excellent, it will be fun seeing him get what's coming to him!

Funnily enough, I had a recent conversation about her with someone familiar with the matter, and was told that the idea for her character was to be a cipher of sorts to allow the readers to experience the UP worlds in the eyes of the 20th century readers.


Our Starhaven friends have only met Ayla so far; Mekt is still back in UP custody and I plan to get to him and his friends once everyone gets home. But to the point about no killing - I think we're probably of similar age, and yes - It may be a quaint trope, but I wanted to discuss WHY that's important for both the heroes as well as the people they're fighting for. It's a big deal, especially in the strained world in which we live today.


There's gonna be a lot of fighting going on soon. I know, I know, get back to work!!!

As always, Thank you for your feedback!

Oh forgot to comment on this - yes, the scene draws itself, right? It was in my head and almost axed it but it was too good not to do.

I very much am in favor of the no-killing rule as well! It just flows back into the whole concept of the Legion as a symbol of hope and optimism

Wait why did I think Mekt was there? I blame a week off work and not enough excuses to be sober, sorry GL

LOL a tough work week lends itself to alcohol...

Hey, I resemble those remarks!

*hic* not only you *hic*

Finaly got an hour to myself to catch up, so here's my stream of consciousness as I'm reading:

V nice that you're setting the scene with the 'before the rift' section.

Mon El is so powerful! His and Rokk's pushing themselves like that was well in character. And of course Rokk is getting on top of the situation! He is the ultimate Boy Scout.

Love Tinya and Vi's little spat. Tinya kind of bugged me with her snotty attitude she often displayed (in part why I killed off Jo in my fan-fic), and it's only right she gets called out.

Intersting that Mon call's out for Phase, we've all had those moments of not quite being awake and aware.

Interesting team, Cos, PG, Vi, Mon and Jeckie. I could see Rokk and Lar being very take-charge, and getting on well until they rub each other the wrong way then it would get really difficult.

Liked Brainy keep watch while the others rested. Imra isn't used to uncertainty so it'll be interesting to see how she deals with it. Oooh, a space elevator! Fab And Imra is all business with Dayvid, so in character. Nice history of starhaven, and good that they went their on their own not as some great alien saviour moved them like in canon. also, interesting that you chose to not give all the Starhavenites wings. Candi is such a sweetheart, and it was good thatshe's the one getting so angry about the slaves.

I don't know Repulse or Meta, or the workforce really but take it they're not exactly friends? Loved Brainy challenging their 'history' and Zoe's comment "Dady's gone" haha. Candi's line to Amber not to get her sap in the hair was great too. Ayla, Jan and Jaz, yay! ... ah, not a happy reunion. Hopefully Imra or Brainy can get them sorted out.

Well at least the majority got out, so it's not a Wolverine at the Hellfire Club scenarion next. Ferro and Jaz are still prisners, I wonder if Meta will take his anger out on them, or Repulse?

Looking forard to how Imra and Brainy, etc., will get the team back together and get the Workforce out of the royal palace.


If I can make a suggestion, that last post was very long and there were points it could have been split which would have added to the excitement. If it had been two or three posts instead it would have been a bit easier to read, not that I don't recognise the urge to write and write some more when in the flow, it's totally understandable.


And now the other side of Starhaven's empires history, and no urprise it isn't so nice. Loved the sbling spat between Dawny and Greybird. Ad I don't really know Lori at all, though have read how hated she was by the fans generally - a child in amongst the violence that the team deal with is pretty awful imo, but nice that you've aged her and developed her a bit. And Lyle droning on, haha.

"I get the need to overthrow a despot, but why not throw in a messianic prophecy in the mix? What's the worst that could happen there?" haha, best lines always go to Gates.

Nice to see Garth take charge, and he has a plan - let's hope it isn't a disaster. Hopeflly the lead lined walls will help the team, if they don't poison the Daxamite they'll at least stop him from xraying the stucture.

You're characters are really well written GL. I don't know this era very well but an totally following and understanding and appreciating them. Great stuff!

Looking forward to more, more, more!

Thank you for the R/R, Harbi! Now I'm more motivated to get my butt in gear for the next issue while I'm on my winter break!


I think I mentioned elsewhere that I feel similar regarding Tinya, but that having friction among the team is a good thing. Tinya and Vi seemed to be like oil and water - opposites in the bad way, not like with Zoe.


Thank you! This (and the telling of the same from the other side that you noted) was a really important aspect to me for the introduction of this world.


That would be telling. It *is* one thing I do have in the outline already.


I know, and I appreciate the feedback here - this chapter was SO exposition heavy, I was debating that exact thing, as I essentially reworked most of that middle chapter a few times completely. I've also noted that my stuff is getting longer generally with each new installment, so I need to watch myself there. If I ever get another big chapter like that again, I'll definitely chunk it out more, I promise!


Yeah, Lori was brought in to be the "eyes of the reader" in the 30th century, but she kind of got shafted. Good intentions that never worked out, I guess. So it was important to make her a peer of her friends in the Legion.


Wow, thank you! This is high praise indeed.

FOUR MONTHS GAP. I really apologize all. I was not in a good place in January, was coming out of it in Feb, had too much fun in March. I told myself I'd write when I started travelling, but that was a big old LOL. So I finally got myself to it.

Here's part 1.

A big shout out to Ibby for proofing a couple things here!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Titanians are quite unique in how they view the perception of identity when in their thought-forms. For most of us in the UP, people shun them because they don't want their mind to be read, when the truth is that none of them WANT to read your mind. It's noise. They spend most of the time off Titan filtering out our thoughts like you'd wear a pear of earplugs. But the real beauty of the Titanian mindset is what happens when the mental link is made. It is something few people ever get to experience. But the projection and perception of astral forms into a combination of thought and emotion is at once beautiful and frightening."

Raj Sanocheev, "Thoughts on Thoughts – A Human Among the Titans, Metropolis University Press, 2991.

Legionnaire Roll Call

Saturn Girl – Imra Ardeen of Titan, powerful telepath
Brainiac 5.1 – Querl Dox of Colu, 12th level intellect
Monstress – Candi Pyponte-Le Parc III of Xanthu, immense strength and invulnerability
Chameleon – Reep Daggle of Durla, shapeshifter
Kinetix – Zoe Saugin of Aleph, telekinetics, manipulates inorganic matter, healing
Umbra – Tasmia Mallor of Talok VIII, control of mystical shadows
Spark – Ayla Ranzz of Winath, Lightning Caster
Element Lad – Jan Arrah, Last survivor of Trom, Elemental manipulation
Chuck Taine of Earth – Genius level engineer

Chapter 1 - Peace of Mind

PLANET: STARHAVEN. EST CALENDAR DATE 2999.01.11

"Jan, please wake up..." Zoe said quietly, "what happened to you?" She had been carrying Element Lad and Monstress carried Spark and Chameleon, all of whom were unconscious, while Brainiac 5.1 pulled Chuck Taine along in his force field for what seemed like hours. Ferro, who had been with them when they arrived at Starhaven, had been injured and left behind once they discovered that Spark, Element Lad and Kid Quantum had been held under some kind of control by Meta and the Workforce for months prior to the rest of the Legion's arrival.

The squad had flown for hours into a forested mountain region, and Imra and Briany finally began to descend to a small, flat area on the side of a forested mountain as the sun began to set. In what can be called ‘night' in the world of Starhaven, a dull golden light replaced the teal skies of the daylight. The crescents of two moons hung in the sky, but most of the satellite features could still be made out due to the bright ambient starglow of dense stars and nebulae. The net effect was one of perpetual twilight, so while the band of Legionnaires flew over the Starhaven wilderness seeking shelter, they could still see a the ground with clarity. A cave entrance lay to the side of the clearing and Zoe had set down Element Lad to the ground very gently inside.

"This should provide a decent shelter for the time being," Brainy said as he walked into the cave. He threw out a small orb that hovered near the cave roof and illuminated the walls. "We should all put on transsuits in case it gets too cold."

Monstress, her muscular frame barely fitting into the cave, came over and laid Ayla and Cham next to Jan. Imra and Brainy came by to examine them. Brainy's sensors floated over Jan and Ayla while Zoe tended to Cham, who was beginning to rouse.

"Brainy, what's wrong with them?" Candi asked, more than a hint of concern in her voice.

Brainiac 5.1 scanned the results on his display. "Based on what I'm seeing here, they have been exposed to an unknown psycho-active substance for weeks," he said, "I'm unfamiliar with this specific chemical, but it bears similarity to drugs that enable suggestion or personality control." Brainy looked up at Imra, "I can formulate something to help them counteract the affects, but I may need some assistance from you to do it sooner."

"You want me to probe their minds?" Imra asked directly.

"Yes, you can at least see the states of their psyches," Brainy replied, "If we don't snap them out of whatever control they are under, they could turn on us as soon as they wake up."

Imra nodded and knelt by their heads, closed her eyes and concentrated, touching each of them on the forehead and creating a mental bridge as her consciousness sank into a world of memories of two people. She felt Jan's memories of floating over the rift, summoning chunks of intertron out of the void to force into the rift, Jazmin Cullen at his side, with a singleminded intensity until she could feel him being pulled into a maelstrom of whirling colors. Ayla was running through the Legion Outpost, goading the remaining workforce members into a lifepod, launching with them and feeling the rush of fear as the pod was inevitably pulled into the rift.

She saw Ayla's memory of waking to find Jan and Jazmin floating outside their lifepod, miraculously alive, pulling them into the pod, much to Repulse's protest. She could feel Ayla's contempt of the Braalian, who did nothing but complain as they sat adrift in a completely unknown area of space. Then the relief of rescue and the confusion of the rest of the Workforce seeing a Meta who was not only alive but had been thrived in this area of space for well over a decade.

A blur of images, feelings almost, of what happened after seemed to rush by Imra's perception. Relief and relaxation of being found and nurtured back to health. Wonder at meeting another offshoot of humanity in another location in the galaxy; the Starhavenites with their winged Pathfinders. Concern with the seeming servitude and fascism many seemed to live under Meta's rule. Jazmin's discovery of Meta's secret energy source and the three Legionnaires planning to sneak in to discover what it is. Then, Amber showing interest to find out that secret, but instead leading them into an ambush where the three Legionnaires were gassed into unconsciousness...

<<NO!>> Ayla and Jan's psyche's seemed to scream at her. Imra mentally flinched, completely unprepared for the reaction. She quickly recovered and could perceive the astral images of Ayla and Jan with her mind's eye. <<You can't look past there!>> Ayla begged. <<It's not our fault,>> Jan's image pleaded.

<<I need you both to come back to us,>> Imra responded, <<The Legion, your friends, are here with you, on Starhaven, and you tried to attack us. We can't get you back if I don't unlock these memories!>>

Jan seemed to slump. <<They did something to us,>> he said, <<made us do things for them.>>

<<Sapped our will to resist,>> Ayla said. Imra could feel the waves of sadness and hopelessness emanating from both of them. <<We couldn't resist anything they made us do>> her mind whispered.

<<Please,>> Imra thought to them gently, <<Let me look.>>

With great reluctance, the astral forms of Jan Arrah and Ayla Ranzz seemed to separate, showing another set of images. The three Legionnaires working alongside the Workforce on pacification campaigns across Meta's empire. Forcing innocents into concentration camps. Using their powers as enforcers and torturers. Meta and his scientists using their powers to be the assembly line of the Starhaven Sentinel program, Element Lad creating the raw materials for assembly, Kid Quantum "evolving" them in time spheres, Spark giving them energy to function.

Imra shuddered and mentally backed away before any more possible personal horrors could be revealed. She reached into their psyches to find the effect of the chemical that had taken control of their minds and was able to trigger both subjects to mentally counteract it. <<Ayla. Jan,>> Imra thought to them, <<Its going to be OK. We need you to come back to us. We can't undo what Meta has done to these worlds without you. And we still need to rescue Jazmin. And they took Andy.>>

Both Ayla and Jan's mental projections began to burn with a determination, almost seeming to change from a pale blue to a golden aura. <<We need to make this right,>> Jan's projection said, <<I've not been me for months now. First the Blight, now this. We need to make this better.>> Ayla remained silent, but determined. Both seemed sad, yet tired and relieved, and were changed in a way where Imra sensed they were going to be all right.

<<I'm going to let you go now,>> Imra warned the pair, <<but wake up on your own. We'll help you, but you both need rest. Just remember, we're here for you.>>

<<Imra, one thing,>> Ayla called, <<Where's my brother? Where's Cham?>>

<<Cham's with us,>> Imra replied, <<but Garth is on a mission nearby. He's desperate to see you again, Ayla.>>

<<Thank you, Imra,>> Ayla said as her astral image began to settle into sleep.

Imra focused and began to separate her own consciousness from Jan and Ayla's as she surfaced back into the waking world, as a swimmer would emerge from underwater. She opened her eyes to find Brainy closely monitoring all three of them and the rest of the team standing around, concerned. Cham, looking a bit haggard, had fully roused and had joined the team around the trio on the ground.

"Brainy," Imra said, "I was able to reach them mentally. They'll be oks and are on the way back, but they need rest."

Brainiac 5.1 nodded. "Yes, the instruments seemed to indicate that whatever was controlling them seemed to ebb somewhat," he said with a slight smile, "I added a little help with 20cc's of psychophedrin. That should help physically bolster whatever you did in their minds."

"Are they OK? How's Jan?" Candi asked.

"Yes, I think so," Imra replied, "Jan will be all right. They just need to rest." She closed her eyes suddenly noting her own fatigue. "I think I need to lie down for a bit as well." She stood up, walked over to another side of the cave, donned her transsuit and lay on the ground to fall fast asleep.

*

"Saturn Girl.... Imra, wake up!" Kinetix hissed as she shook Imra awake. "Brainy detected someone coming our way, and Spark and E-Lad are still out of it!"

Imra shook herself awake and looked up at Zoe's urgent expression. She propped herself up and shook out the fog from her mind, feeling like she had barely slept. She slowly began to focus. "Make Umbra is hiding the cave with a darkfield. Have Chuck here in the cave with Brainy protecting with his force field," she said, standing as her senses cleared, "You and Monstress up in the air to see what's coming."

Zoe nodded and moved to execute Imra's orders. Imra looked over at Cham and Ayla. Both lay motionless yet breathing. Cham sat leaning against the stone wall at Ayla's feet staring helplessly at her. Despite the lack of rest, let the adrenaline take over and found herself completely alert. "Cham, you're with me," Imra said as she walked out of the cave. Cham pushed himself up and moved to walk out of the cave with Imra even as Chuck and Brainy walked in, and a darkfield settled over the cave entrance.

"What's your plan, Saturn Girl?" Cham asked.

Imra stopped after they had walked a few meters out of the cave, closed her eyes and concentrated, reaching out with her mind.

*

A beam of light swept across the steep forest floor as two men made their way closer to the encampment. "I'm telling you, they are up here," the first man said as they worked their way through the woods. The pair was doing their best to avoid tripping over pits or roots in their path. Even though the night sky was not exactly dark, the forest canopy still cast enough shade to require some kind of light to avoid trips and falls.

"Man, you're such an idiot," the second man said, "You know they'll be able to see us with that stupid light of yours. I told you we could have brought some infrareds."

"Shut up, Fire," said the first man annoyance creeping into his voice, "all the time with you its, ‘you shoulda done this, you shouda done that.' Will you just trust me for once?"

"I don't know why I let you talk me into this, Day," said Fire, sounding quite exasperated, "We could have had a nice quiet night at home..."

"Not with what we saw yesterday," Day shot back, "This could be the break we've been waiting on for years now! With these new visitors we actually have a chance this time to make a real difference. And by the way, you don't hear me giving you a hard time because your brother and sister were born pathfinders. You could be flying us in here instead of riding a damn bike... Wait what's over there?"

The pair entered the edge of a small clearing, one end of which was darker than any shadow they had ever seen on Starhaven. Day shone his light to the other side and the beam seemed to be swallowed into a patch of pitch blackness.

"Are you guys lost or something?" a man's voice seemed to ask out of nowhere. The men froze in their tracks as the grey limbs of a tree with greenish-purple leaves began to entwine around them, creating a living tunnel of roots that directed their path towards the darkness. They backed up in fear until their backs hit the solid trunk wall behind them.

Day cried in terror as a six-legged predator seemed to emerge from the darkness ahead. "Spirits save us!" He grabbed on to his friend Fire in desperation who drew a blade in defense of whatever was approaching.

A woman's voice called out from above. "Okay, team, back off," it said, "these two aren't here to harm us."

"Aw. This was just getting interesting," Day and Fire heard the earlier male voice say and watched in amazement as the tree that had been growing around them, quicky reversed and disappeared. The shadow reversed and like liquid swirled back into a black-cloaked woman with dark blue skin. They turned around to find an orange-skinned man with antennae smiling at them. "Hi guys," he said causally.

Both men cried out in surprise and jumped back. "I'm really sorry for the scare," the woman's voice said and they looked up to see three women descending out of the air, a blonde in white and red with a friendly expression on her face, a redhead in green and a large muscular orange skinned woman, neither of whom looked nearly as friendly. "It's good to see you again, Dayvid," the blonde said as Dayvid Strongroot promptly passed out.

"Dammit, not again," Fire said shaking his head as he laid Dayvid to the ground.

Imra, Candi and Cham worked with Fire to revive Dayvid, while Zoe landed in front of Tasmia. "What the hell was that, Umbra?" Zoe asked, almost aggressively, "I've never seen you do that before. How are you doing that with your powers?"

"Why do you care?" Tasmia asked in reply, with more than a little bit of a defensive attitude, "I have it under control, and that's all you need to know." She turned and started to walk away from Zoe.

"Don't you walk away from me! I'm just saying that you were particularly enthralled by the Blight," Zoe said through gritted teeth, "And we need to be sure you are OK for the team."

Tasmia spun around so fast that her cloak cracked like a slap and got right into Zoe's face. "How dare you, Kinetix!" Tasmia said balling her fists. She was visibly angry. "You were just as ‘enthralled' as I remember it, and no one is concerned with anything new you're manifesting, just like everyone welcomed your ‘special friend' back after she nearly killed the team! They're certainly not concerned about anything more than you changing their wardrobe."

Now Zoe began to get mad. "Why you..." Zoe began as she balled her right fist as it began to glow green and she stepped forward, "I'm HELPING the team, I don't know what it is that you're doing!" Tasmia sneered with contempt at the thought of fighting Zoe and shadowy wisps began to form around her own fists as she moved into a fighting stance.

Overhearing what was happening, Imra strode over to where Zoe and Tasmia were arguing. "Hey, enough!" Imra said, "This is not the time. We're all stressed and have had too little sleep. Umbra take a walk, or better yet, patrol the area in case we have any more inbounds. Kinetix, I need your help over here with these two." She gestured to where Dayvid lay with Fire kneeling nearby.

Both ladies backed off, letting their powers fade back as they stepped away, but still glaring at each other. Finally, Tasmia took off into the air. Still angry, Zoe stalked after Imra.

*

High above the Starhaven mountains, a lone Finder who was invisible against the golden sky spread her wings and glided over the wilderness. She focused her goggles to the infrared spectrum and looked for anything out of the ordinary. When she found the heat signature of a lone body shooting up into the sky, with multiple bodies in the valley below, she signaled the alarm to Imperial Security.

Another great entry!

the despair and guilt from Ayla and Jan is palpable. any thoughts on comparing that to the Blight? that is, they had already been Blighted... and now this. (or maybe the being Blighted made them easier to control?) I do like that they plus Jazmin were already investigating before they were jumped. Amber leading them into an ambush is plausible, after all we've seen other Workforce members like Repulse act a bit intimidated by Meta...

nice touch re Ayla asking for Garth and Cham!

LOVE the encounter with Day and Fire. it's so Legion - entrapping them, but "laying down arms" once they proved to not be a threat

LOL at Imra looking friendly, while Candi and Zoe are not

nice altercation between Tasmia and Zoe... whoo! lots of drama potential here!

Looking forward to seeing what comes next, and what you have planned for Day and Fire... also nice to have Jan and Ayla back so soon... worried for Jaz and Ferro of course!

Both of the items that you touched on will be addressed both very soon and ongoing, so great observation there.


Thank you! This whole sequence kind of wrote itself once I figured out who Greatfire was, and they're a lot of fun to write!

For the Legionnaires at the end there, they all met Day earlier, but Imra had the more direct discussion with him and could sense that he was a friend based on the distractions of Cham and Umbra; it made their intentions easier for her to read.

And I think writing overtired stressed out Legion teens is my brand.


Man, I have so much to say that I can't right now!!!

Day is already one of my faves - his desire to fight for freedom, but also his being extremely funny and passing out lol

Yay, more!!

I am always a fan of a telepathic journey through someone's mindscape, and it makes sense that Jan and Ayla were ashamed of what they'd done while under control...I hope it's not something that weighs on them too heavily moving on (also, I have probably said this before but I'm glad you didn't go the whole Progenitor route with Jan....even though the only version of him I ever really liked was the 5YL version, I still feel like he deserved better)

I liked the banter between Fire and Day, and the way the Legion confronted them. It will be interesting to see what happens with Umbra here knowing how it all went down in Legion Lost!

The end makes me think a confrontation is coming maybe sooner than the Legion would like...which I am not opposed to because it has been fun seeing them in action!

Thanks for that raz! I've never really agreed with the path DnA went down with Jan (although I totally get why from a story perspective), so between this and Zoe, I wanted to keep them as the characters we know. After finishing reading "The Legion" I kind of wish I had picked up from there in some ways, but then I'd have to fix the Jarth thing right out of the gate, along with Zoe.



Definitely soon!

Legion Of Superheroes #129 - Chapter 2 "With a Little Help from Our Friends(part one)"


"So how did you find us?" Imra asked Dayvid Strongroot. He and his friend, introduced to the team as Greatfire Walker, were sitting with Imra, Brainy, Zoe and Cham around a lamp just inside the cave entrance. "We kind of left your palace in a hurry."

A grin broke out across Day's tan face. "I tagged you with a tracker, and knowing the direction that you went, it wasn't that hard to find you." He waved a small tablet in his hands at the group. "I wasn't sure if you were there to join with the Emperor or oppose him, so I had to wait and watch. Once I saw what happened, I knew I had to get to you all first."

"Wait," Zoe interrupted, "Don't you work for the palace?"

Day nodded. "I do," he said, "but I serve two masters. You see, for many years now, a resistance has been growing as the Emperor's overreaching has become more extreme with every passing month. He has to be stopped. Our people settled this world on the principle of freedom, and there are many of us who feel this way across the worlds he has conquered. A majority in my opinion. But when we're on the job, we have to play the part." His expression became grim. "There are eyes everywhere."

"So you're their man on the inside," Cham observed with a wry smile.

"Exactly," he nodded, "people like me and Greatfire here have been working as part of the Resistance movement for months now. Fire's sister was part of the Emperor's guard until a few months ago. The Empire has already found our main base on Manitou just a few light years from Starhaven; that's where he was going when you met him yesterday. They would have left sooner but for your arrival. I sent out a signal alarming our people there to both his force and your presence. I only hope the message got there in time."

A sudden realization dawned on Imra and an immediate concern for Garth shot through her body. "Brainy," she said with trepidation in her voice, "that world…"

"Is the planet our scout team went to," Brainy finished for her. "Half of us went to investigate that planet as we came here," Brainy continued, addressing the confused looks on Dayvid's and Greatfire's faces, "Its entirely likely that they have already met Meta and his forces."

"That's not all," Greatfire said, his dark eyes serious and urgent, "They are going to have to fend for themselves, but we need to get you somewhere safe. That's why we're here. We have a few resistance safe houses that are hidden from the Trackers. We can relocate you there so that you aren't sitting out in the open like this."

"Trackers?" Candi asked, "What are Trackers?"

"Similar to the Pathfinders, but where the Pathfinder is able to track things and find paths through interstellar space," Fire said, "The Tracker is the type who can find anything with precision within a planetary gravity well. Their winged gifts are tuned slightly differently for planetary uses."

"But how did you guys get here?" Zoe asked, "You're not…"

Greatfire chuckled as he shifted his bulky form as he stood. "We're not Pathfinders, I know. I don't have the same gift as my siblings, but we all have our purposes. Instead of wings, I have these," and Fire, partly in jest, paused to flex his massive arms to which Zoe and Dayvid both chortled, "I also have a speeder bike at the bottom of the hill," he said as he gestured outside. Everyone appreciated Fire's humor to diffuse the atmosphere. "Day navigated for us from the city, but when we got to the bottom of the hill, these trees were too dense."

Dayvid grabbed Fire's arm. "But we have to get moving soon," he urged, "We had our own tracking device, but the Imperial Finders will have tracked you on their own soon enough."

"But we still have two injured teammates!" Zoe protested.

"We don't have a choice," Fire said, "The enemy will be here before you know it. We want to help you, but I'm afraid you'll have to move them as best you can."

Chuck interrupted the conference by excitedly jogging up from the back of the cave. "Ayla and Jan," he said, "They're waking up!"

Cham was first to his feet as everyone stood up to check on the waking Legionnaires. Jan and Ayla were propping themselves up and blinking with confusion and fatigue as Cham knelt and put his hand on Ayla's shoulder. Candi, who had been outside on sentry, rushed in, almost bowling people out of the way with her large size in the small space. "Jan? Jan?" she asked, "Is he OK?"

"Easy, Ayla," Cham said, "take it easy."

Ayla's eyes took a moment to focus as she brushed some of her long hair out of here eyes. "Cham? Is it really you?" she asked. Tears started to well in her eyes and she pulled him tightly to her, "Mother Goddess, I didn't think I'd see you again, its been so long." She looked around at the team gathering around her. "I didn't think I'd see any of you again."

"I like your hair," Cham said while holding her.

"I hate having long hair," Ayla laughed through her tears, her voice muffled against Cham. Zoe, smiling sadly, put a hand on Ayla's shoulder for support and Ayla blindly moved her hand to grasp it tightly.

Candi knelt on one knee and allowed Jan to use her arm to help himself stand then awkwardly and silently embraced Candi as best as he could. He turned to the rest of the team who were all clearly relieved and moved by their teammates regaining consciousness, but Jan faced them all with an expression of resolve. "We allowed ourselves to be used for sinister purposes by Meta and these Workforce thugs of McCauley's," he said, "This following on the perversion of the Legion from the Blight. I can't ask any of you to follow me back there to correct what I've been a part of, but the Legion was used to create thousands of machines that have been used to subjugate millions, and I aim to correct that wickedness."

"We're all with you, Jan," said Imra, "as we've seen them, too. And we have to rescue Kid Quantum and Ferro. But we need to be smart about how we do this. We need to get moving. Do your flight rings still work?"

"Yes I think so, that's how we've been…" Ayla began, but was interrupted both by an indicator beeping on Brainiac 5.1's belt, but also Umbra's voice on the comm links.

"I'm sorry to interrupt this touching reunion," she said tersely, "but there are a lot of inbounds flying in from the south!"

"Dammit," spat Fire, "They've already found us! We need to move as fast as we can!"

Element Lad had a grim expression on his face. "Maybe I can start making amends now," he said.

Cham helped Ayla up as the team exited the cave. Imra turned to Dayvid. "You need to get out of here as fast as you can, "she said to him, "We'll meet you in two hours."

"But what if…," Dayvid began as he swept his fingers across the map.

"No time for that!" Imra ordered and Dayvid, "Now get out of here!"

Greatfire and Dayvid began moving through the forest as fast as they could as all the Legionnaires except Brainy took to the sky.

"Damn it," Chuck cursed as he watched the rest of the squad fly away. "I hate being stuck here useless!" He said aloud, aimlessly.

A floating holographic display drifted in front of Chuck. "Here," Brainy said, "I can use the help analyzing the enemy force. You can help with strategy, so keep your comm channels to the team open." Chuck nodded and pressed a few indicators on the display as data began to stream in front of them. A visualization of the unfolding scene with miniature figures of the Legionnaires and their incoming opponents appeared in the air between Brainy and Chuck.

From the south, dozens of airborne Sentinels flew towards the Legion's position, led by ten winged Starhaven Pathfinders, including one entirely in tan from head to toe; dark wings, and a full bodysuit that included the entire head, only goggles and a mouthpiece as features. Leading all these airborne troops was the leader of the Workforce; Repulse was flying at the lead with the use of an anti-grav harness next to the Tracker. Repulse's squad of Starhaven warriors flew up to face Imra and the airborne Legionnaires, while the Sentinels silently fanned out and around on either side to effectively contain them from all angles. Every soldier was armed with a plasma rifle.

Repulse touched a control at the base of his neck and his voice came out amplified. "Legionnaries, you are hereby ordered to return to the Imperial Palace at Starhaven City," he called out. "Dead or alive," he added, "And I don't give a sprock which one." He raised his arm and all the winged soldiers, organic and synthetic, raised their rifles.

---CONTINUED---

yay, more stuff!!

so the Resistance - is it connected to Lori's group? ... and yes, you just confirmed that, with Greatfire's sis being Dawnstar. cool smile

brilliant, having both Pathfinders and Trackers exist, and also delineating their abilities! space vs. not-in-space wink easy!

yay! Jan and Ayla awake. Candi bowling people over is hilarious. (nice touch re Zoe comforting Ayla too)

yes, Jan mentioning the Blight, thank you! it was such a big thing for many, and it just kinda vanished after Lost...

"touching reunion," oh Tasmia

Day and Fire are kinda like a comedy duo. very likable guys!

thanks for giving Chuck something to do! and also him expressing very loudly how useful he felt. that was great.

yay battle! looking forward to seeing Repulse get his butt handed to him!

PART 2:

Kinetix looked around at the gathering force. The sheer numbers of the enemy gave her concern, but she didn't let them see it. "This is all you have to show, Repulse?" Kinetix called out, "Honestly I'd say you're at the disadvantage, but then again, you seem to be the type to overcompensate for just about everything."

"It doesn't matter to me, babe," Repulse replied casually with a sneer on his lips, "You'll find out one way or another."

Ayla suddenly flew in front of the Legionnaire squad. "YOU'RE NOT TAKING US ANYWHERE, YOU BASTARD!" she shouted as electricity arced around her lithe form making her long strawberry hair flew out behind her.

"Ya know what, babe?" Repulse responded casually, "I don't give a sprock what you think." With that he whipped his arm forward as he flew towards Imra, flinging his tendrils of nano-metals towards her to snare the Titianian. All the other Imperial forces took that as their cue to open fire, and all the Legionnaires scattered to engage.

Ayla shot a large bolt out from her arms towards Repulse, but he had already moved towards Imra, so the shot went wide, hitting a Sentinel, making it immediately overload and explode, debris raining below. A dozen more immediately took chase, requiring Ayla to shoot at them on the fly. Given her speed and evasive flight path, she was only partly successful in overloading the enemies she shot at; many of her shots went completely wild and ended up arcing on to the ground.

Shortly after forcing Saturn Girl to avoid her Sentinel pursuers, Repulse himself had broken off that chase and flew up and above most of the battle area. From here, he started coordinating his teams' attack on the Legionnaires, forcing them to split apart so that they could be individually overwhelmed. Saturn Girl, meanwhile was actively being pursued her own crowd of Sentinels, none of whom could be manipulated telepathically. She flew near her teammates like Spark, Kinetix and Element Lad in the hope that they might be able to dispatch some of her pursuers.

Another dozen Imperial Sentinels, led by the Tracker, immediately focused on Monstress and while she began to rip apart several of the closest sentinels to her, but the overwhelming numbers of attackers eventually shifted her attention to a defensive stance, holding two inanimate Sentinel husks on either side of her body as shields as plasma bolts relentlessly rained upon her.

Element Lad was swarmed immediately, by a Sentinel squad led by two Pathfinders. Jan was able to target his powers towards the Sentinels and dissolve the metals in their skeletons to nitrogen gas, making them literally fall apart in mid-aid. However, he could only affect one android at a time and quickly found himself outnumbered, as did all the Legionnaires.

Umbra began her engagement with a simple darkfield which the enemy Sentinels simply began to fire into, even disregarding the bolts that would pass through the field and hit another android. Eventually, a winged shadow-beast emerged from the dark cloud and ripped through several of the synthetic figures, but that effort helped the surrounding Sentinels target Umbra herself. Umbra cursed and flew towards one of the Pathfinders to engage the winged man in direct hand to hand combat, but the Sentinel androids kept following her relentlessly.

Immediately moving when the shooting started, Kinetix tried to move around the aerial battlefield as randomly as she could, using her telekinetics to throw Sentinels into each other, or even the Pathfinders themselves. Occasionally she would fly past Spark or Umbra and kinetically pull one of the Sentinels away and into another, only to be replaced by one waiting in the wings, soon finding that she was drawing attention and becoming quickly outnumbered. "Grife," she muttered to herself. Her brow was becoming damp with sweat as she kept concentrating on shielding from incoming fire on one side, and ripping Sentinels apart on the other. "Let's see what you sprockers do when you get a taste of your own medicine!" she said. Zoe slammed two Sentinels apart so that they were destroyed into pieces, then reassembled those into two jagged-looking androids with mismatched limbs, but were under her control. The sudden shift in strategy took the enemy off guard as Kinetix controlled her puppets to attack the surprised Starhavenites.

When the battle began, Cham first transformed himself into a thirty foot long space dragon, attempting to take out as many enemies as possible at once, but found himself an extremely large target, so began changing his forms as fast as he could to throw off his attackers. This meant that he was highly mobile on the battlespace, but wasn't able to attack enemy forces very effectively, and spent most of the battle dodging melee and weapon attacks. Eventually, Cham transformed into an insect, flew behind a Sentinel that Spark had overloaded and was in freefall, shifted his form again to be a Sentinel, then stole the falling android's weapon to start attacking the unaware enemies.

From in the cave, Chuck and Brainy began to provide cues on when and where to fly for maximum evasion, and when forces where in their blind spots. Unfortunately, it was evident to both of them that this was quickly becoming a losing battle. Monitoring from his station on the ground, Chuck flew through the information on the screens hovering in front of him and blew out his breath in exasperation. "This does not look good, Brainy," he said, "We are really outnumbered here. The team has taken out only a third of the Sentinels, and there are still the Pathfinders waiting to pick our team off when they wear out."

"Hmmm," Brainiac responded noncommittally.

Chuck looked over at Brainy like he had gone crazy, but just found him studying a screen that was not even related to the battle at hand that contained almost no information. "What do you mean, ‘hmmmm,' and why are you not paying attention to the action?!" Chuck yelled.

Brainy ignored Chuck's protests and flipped a virtual control on his screen then with a swift gesture moved a control indicator to the maximum setting.

"Brainy," Chuck protested, "You've just amplified our distress signal! Everyone will know where we are!"

Brainy cooly looked back at Chuck. "The Starhaven Imperial forces already know where we are," he said evenly, "And I am taking a calculated risk here, but its one I believe will have a beneficial payoff." He turned back to his displays and studied them intently. Chuck shook his head and returned his attention to the tactical display and began communicating moves to the Legionnaires in the air.

Meanwhile, Imra found herself losing ground to her pursuers. They quickly gained on her and had her trapped. "A little help here!" Imra called into her telepathic ear plugs as the androids closed in around her.

Ayla flew past and destroyed a couple of Sentinels around Imra. Sentinel-Cham shot at and destroyed another, but there were always more to take over. After Ayla flew by to help Jan, more Sentiels surrounded Imra and began to close in on her. Two Sentinels, one on each side, grabbed on to her biceps and began to move her away from the field of action as she struggled.

Jan and Ayla both were similarly outnumbered, with Sentinels all around them. Jan reacted to convert carbon to oxygen to as many targets as possible, but rapidly became overwhelmed. Similarly, Ayla was also firing electrical shots to overload as many Sentinels as she could but was quickly surrounded by more targets than she could shoot at. Monstress was swarmed by multiple Sentinels holding on to each of her limbs, countering her strength.

Kinetix glumly surveilled the situation as she flew desperately around the battle. "Guys," she said, "I'm really not liking the way that this is turning out."

From below a movement caught Kinetix's eye and she saw a small grav vehicle moving up the slopes of the valley. She could clearly see the bulky shape of Greatfire driving the grav bike, but Dayvid was mostly obscured, hanging on to the bike with one hand while brandishing some kind of cylindrical weapon on his shoulder. He fired it at Monstress and a sparkling charge quickly crossed the distance and enveloped her and all the Sentinels grappling her in a flickering ball. The end result left all the Sentinels holding her deactivated and falling to the ground, leaving Monstress unharmed and able to fight a new batch of enemies alongside Element Lad and Spark.

"I told Dayvid to get out of here," Imra said as she struggled, "He's gonna get himself killed!"

Chuck's urgent voice came back on the comm channel. "Team, I have two signals coming in from orbit," he said, "they're headed right this way, extremely fast!"

*

Twin sonic booms echoed across the mountains and a blue and red blur flashed into the crowd of Legionnaires, Sentinels and Starhaven warriors, and the dark haired young man dressed in red with a blue cloak took a quick assessment of the situation. "You all need a hand?" he called to his friends. He immediately became a target as dozens of plasma bolts were shot at him and bounced harmlessly off.

"M'Onel!" Saturn Girl said in relief, "The metallic ones are drones! You can bust them up all you want!"

A wry smile crossed M'Onel's face. "This'll be fun," he said and immediately flew into one of the two Sentiels holding Saturn Girl, smashing it to pieces, and firing a laser burst from his eyes through the other.

As M'Onel began to take out Sentinels, a Legion cruiser raced out of the sky and passed through the battle airspace. Two figures, the ghostly white figure of Apparition flew out of the cruiser's hull and the golden snake form of Sensor dropped out of the cruiser's hatch and immediately started to engage the enemy; Apparition phasing into the Sentinels to then rip out critical circuitry and Sensor whipping her tail to send Sentinels flying, all to the cheers of the fighting Legionnaires.

After circling back on to the battle, the cruiser began to fly in a tight spherical pattern around the battle area in the sky twisting like a corkscrew, and as it flew, the cruiser emitted a powerful force pulling the Sentinels into its wake so that within a few passes, most of them had been caught up in the cruiser's magnetic path. Once the tractor beam pulled in as many Sentinels (and Sentinel debris) as it could collect, the cruiser broke off its maneuver and raced at full speed towards a rocky mountainside when it pulled straight up at the last second and shot into space. As soon as the cruiser was shooting skyward, the magnetic beam pulling the crowd of Sentinels disengaged so that the momentum of their passage smashed them to bits along the mountain side.

"Aw, Frak," Repulse said with unease as he recognized both the M'Onel and the implication of who may be in the cruiser.

As soon as the cruiser had passed with it's magnetic tow, Sensor curved through the air and made way towards the Pathfinders who had gathered below Repulse, who was attempting to salvage the battle from above. She stopped in midair, and her momentum made her anterior half swing forward so that it seemed as if she was coiled in front of the Starhaven warriors.

"Great Spirits!" Some of them said, "Quetzalcoatl has come for vengeance!" and half of the dozen remaining pathfinders immediately turned and fled away.

"You scaz freaks!" Repulse yelled after them, "Its just a slimy Orandan! GET BACK HERE!" But they were gone.

The Legionnaires they quickly dispatched the rest of the remaining few androids, until only Repulse and his remaining escorts stayed before the rest of the Legion squad reformed together around Sensor in opposition to Repulse. Spark drifted up and nearly spat with electricity. "Go back home and lick your wounds, scumbag," Ayla yelled across the space, "before I fry you alive!"

Repulse sneered in reply. "This isn't over, Legion," he said saying the last word mockingly and then addressed Ayla specifically, "We got you once. We'll get you again. All of you." He and his team turned and flew south with haste.

As what remained of Repulse's team fled, the Legionnaires in the air cheered and quickly came together and traded hugs with M'Onel, Sensor and Apparition, with many questions from both Imra's team and the newcomers.

"We were flying into the system and could see that there was a lot of activity. We detected your signals hours ago but we weren’t sure where any of you were until we saw the distress beacon," Jeka said, "Then we got here as fast as we could!"

"But how long have you been out there?" Imra asked.

"Oh only a day or two," Sensor replied.

"Is Jo with you all?" Tinya asked urgently to Imra, who started to answer while shaking her head but was interrupted. The newly arrived Legion cruiser flew back from its flying stunt that had taken it up and back out of the Starhaven atmosphere. The pilot found a location as close to the team's cave as possible outside the forest and set down the cruiser in a tight clearing. Below the Legionnaires, Greatfire steered his grav bike to rendezvous at the cruiser.

Flying as fast as they could to get to their newly arrived teammates, the airborne squad arrived at the foot of the cruiser just as its ramp had lowered and Cosmic Boy walked down the ramp with a broad smile on his face. Imra ran up and gave him a tight embrace. Finally on the ground Cham left Ayla and Tinya to run over to Sensor, and gave her a tight hug by stretching his arms around her scaled body.

Rokk grinned broadly at the site of the other Legionnaires. "Are you all a sight for sore eyes!" Rokk said.

"That was some fancy flying you did there, Cos," Monstress said, clapping him forcefully on the back.

Rokk regained his balance after the contact and laughed. "Oh no, I was using the cruiser's power amplifier to drag those robots or whatever they were," he said. Winking at Zoe he pointed his thumb over his shoulder and said, "Our crazy pilot is still securing the cruiser."

Zoe felt her insides twist upside down and began pushing her way through the crowd of her teammates, irreverently shoving her way between Tinya and Ayla to make her way up the ramp. "Hey!" Tinya yelled in annoyance. Violet appeared at the top of the ramp and Zoe stopped short.

A small smile turned up the corners of Vi's mouth, even as her eyes smiled more broadly. "Hi," she said simply.

"Hi?" Zoe asked, "That was you flying like that?" Her breath was getting tighter, and her eyes were starting to burn as tears started to build. "You could have gotten hurt doing those stunts!"

Vi's smile tugged farther up as her eyes twinkled in both amusement and emotion. "No, I was in too much of a hurry to rescue you," she replied.

In a blur, both girls rushed into a tight embrace and kissed. The two held on to each other as the reunions continued below. After a few moments, Zoe realized that she was crying. A few moments later, she realized that Vi was as well.

"Vi… oh my god, its really you. I thought…" Zoe started through her tears as she pulled away to look into Violet's eyes.

"Of course it's me," Vi said wiping her own tears, "Someone had to save your butts."

"I had this stupid thought that maybe Imra may be making you all up to calm us down or something," Zoe said.

"That's silly," Violet said, "She'd never do something like that to her team."

"I know, its just that I didn't know if I'd ever see you… I mean if you were…" she wiped at her face, "Grife… I'm just babbling like an idiot now but it's been, like days, and I had no idea what happened and…"

Violet smiled more broadly now, her own tears still tracking down her face. "Zoe, honey," Vi said softly.

"Yeah?" Zoe sniffled.

"Sometimes you talk too much," Vi finished and kissed Zoe. Holding hands, they walked down the ramp together to be with the rest of the team where she was piled on in hugs by Ayla, Candi and Cham.

*

"So you're telling me that McCauley's new Workforce has taken over this world and turned it into an empire?" Rokk asked the others. The Starhaven-bound segment of the Legion was regrouping before heading over to the safe location provided by Dayvid and Greatfire.

"Not all of the workforce, just Meta," Imra responded. She had just finished telling Rokk the tale of the outposts emergence, the trip to Starhaven and the encounter at the palace the day before.

"The rest of the workforce came with me, Jan and Jazmin," Ayla injected. "They threw in with Meta's plans without question – which had been going on for years before we got here. It's the three of us they had to coerce using chemicals."

"So who is Meta, anyway?" Tasmia asked, locking eyes with M'Onel, "That Workforce popped in out of nowhere. I'd never heard of any of those losers."

"Hey don't look at me," M'Onel protested, "I don't keep up with the goings on of Daxam these days. I have no idea about anyone from there.It's too bad Laurel isn't with us; she might be able to help." He thought about it some more. "Either way, he's clearly a force to be reckoned with. He's had his powers for years at this point, so has had more experience with using them."

"The one you call Meta has been here for almost 20 years," Dayvid told the Legionnaires, "He's always been close to power, but only was this ambitious in the last few years. And his power accelerated once you first arrived." He nodded towards Ayla and Jan.

"But what about Repulse?" Tinya asked from the back directed at Rokk, "He's Braalian. Surely you've heard of him, Cosmic Boy?"

Rokk nodded. "Unfortunately yes," he said, "His name is Kort Grezz. He's been on the Magnoball circuit for years. You know the phrase never meet your heroes? I think it was written with Grezz in mind. Once I got to know him and hear about him from the other players, I found a man who not only would take every shortcut he could to get what he wanted, but ingratiate himself with the worst people. His team was the easiest for mine to pick apart because he was such a horrible team captain. Gods knows how Meta is going to treat a failure like him."

"Hopefully fry him," Ayla said darkly.

"The guy is a major creep," Zoe added.

"You have no idea," Ayla said.

Imra collected everyone's attention. "OK, Let's get going," she said, "If Meta only has his Workforce goons as his main support base, we can take him down, along with his empire. We have a lot of work to do."

I mean to reply to this prior to posting the rest of the chapter Oh well...


Yeah I always thought that the Starhaven people were a little too much of the funny hat syndrome, and felt like they should have more depth to them.


Yeah its kind of a big deal IMO. Most of them are still dealing with the Blight as is (Zoe and Tasmia, certainly) then you have these three who just after being released from the Blight are coerced again for a longer time. That definitely won't go away quickly. I think Jan may be able to handle it pretty well, but Ayla may have some bumps in the road.


Yeah I'm finding Chuck and Dyrk are hard to write for without powers.

And you'll have to wait to see what gets handed to Repulse.

Maybe Jan's Spiritual side will come into play and help him deal with everything



and yay for the new chapter! yay fight!

Yes, keep the snark going, Zoe!

and yes, righteous fury from Ayla!

Repulse is smart enough at least to go for the leader...

nice highlighting of the limitations of individual Legionnaires. esp. Umbra, with her updated darkfield powers. (also the hand to hand is a great reminder of what a badass fighter she is)

ooh yes, telekinetic puppets!

and Cham masquerading as a Sentinel, brilliant!

ah classic Brainy, thinking by himself and not explaining anything to Chuck...

WHOA! I did NOT expect M'Onel's group so soon, awesome!

Great tactics too - Sensor tapping into ancient mythology to scare the Pathfinders, and Cos and his magnetic tricks

lol, oh Tinya is not gonna be best friends with Vi or Zoe after all this

hahaha re Imra making Cos and Vi and everyone up!

the best reunion scene ever, Vi and Zoe smile

hmmm Tasmia and Mon... Mon is stronger than Jo, so if that's what Tasmia is after...

brrr, i'm a bit afraid for Ayla, has Repulse done anything to her...

smart indeed though, if only the Workforce members are truly meta-powered then it shouldn't be too hard to take Meta's empire down... though they do have Jazmin still, and she's extremely powerful...

yay! this was epic! I thought M'On's group would come in later, but it's a treat to see 'em already! (Tinya will have to wait a bit for Jo though... and looking forward to more little bits of interpersonal drama lol!)

bye Repulse! (not for good, but I'm waiting for his comeuppance lol)

He's mostly a dumb meathead, but he does have SOME qualities...


Its funny - all of that came rather late to the process. This is exactly why I try to let things sit before re-reading/editing. I have the same process at work for sending emails that can be ranty.


The Aztec angle came of two things completely out of the air - first off, Sensor's not even doing anything, so to her she's like, "why y'all running away?" But also, the inclusion of native American civilizations from all over the continent being blended together after 700 years seemed to be a neat idea.


I think I can say this is an accurate statment.


I know, I know, but I had to go there.


Thanks - I figure I had to give some payoff for introducing that idea two issues prior.





Yeah, I don't think I'll go too far down that path...


We'll see Repulse again in a bit. But I can safely say that a good amount of this will be wrapped up in the next full issue. At least I think so. Every time I do one of these the word count gets larger.

Ah good, yeah let’s keep Ayla and Jan and co as being used for their powers

Repulse is also arrogant and selfish, besides dumb and lazy lol

Legion Of Superheroes #129 - Chapter 3 : "Unstoppable Force, Immovable Object"

Legionnaire Roll Call

XS - Jenni Ognats of Aarok, Super Speed
Invisible Kid – Lyle Norg of Earth, Invisibility
LiveWire – Garth Ranzz of Winath, Generates lightning
Triad – Luornu Durgo of Cargg, Triplication
Karate Kid - Val Armorr, master of martial arts
Gates - Ti'julk Mr'asz of Vyrga, controls teleportation portals
Ultra Boy – Jo Nah of Rimbor, ultra-vision, speed, strength and invulnerability, used one at a time.



PLANET: MANITOU. EST CALENDAR DATE 2999.01.10

"Okay, Dyrk, you got this," Dyrk whispered to himself as he gripped the controls of the Cruiser. He tried to remember everything he could between the flying simulations and Violet's coaching sessions as he maneuvered the cruiser between the three large wedge-shaped starships, hovering over a steppe facing to a large cliff that was the beginning of a mountain range. The plain was filled with rebel soldiers of many different sentient species, while the air was filling with winged soldiers in their tan and black uniforms and mechanized Sentinels exiting from the ships. The heavily armed starship pointed themselves at the clff face, to prepare to bombard the base within the stone. Dyrk was flying the cruiser in an attempt to jam the communications between the enemy forces, but also was trying to avoid getting shot, or running into anyone else. Dyrk looked out the viewer at the center point of the confrontation to get a sense of what was happening with Ultra Boy and Livewire.

A very specific group hung in between the warships and the cliff faces; one figure hovered, cowled in a raptor-like headpiece in a dark suit with a dark cloak flowing behind him, flanked by a dozen mechanized winged hovering figures on either side.

Opposite of this dark figure hovered eight Starhaven rebels in their tan and black bodysuits joined by the bright Legionnaire uniforms of Lightning Lad and Ultra Boy, with insectoid form of Gates hovering behind. The rebel leader, Greywind had armed his plasma rifle while Dawnstar, his sister pulled out a rod, then activated a switch which created a large spherical ball of energy at one end, effectively creating an energy mace. She gripped the mace preparing to engage in battle as she spat out a curse at the enemy leader.

Twin lasers shot from beneath the Daxamite's hood, heat vision aimed directly towards Dawnstar. In a blur, Ultra Boy flew in front of her and absorbed the blast of heat, having switched his powers to be invulnerable.

"Come on now, Meta," Jo said with a smirk as the heat vision faded, "you really need to pick on folks with your own power set."

The emperor's eyes glowed from beneath his cowl but his voice became silkier. "Ah, more Legionnaires," he said, "I've met your other ragtag team already, and I'm sure they'll be helping me keep everyone in line by the time I return. Why don't we just save some time now and have you fight on my behalf?"

Live Wire hovered next to Ultra Boy. "What do you mean ‘more Legionnaires'?" he asked. Garth balled his fists as he floated and lighting started to course around his forearms. "What have you done with them?"

They could feel the Emperor leering at them beneath his cowl as he spoke. "Ah, the other lightning Legionnaire," he said, "I can put you to use as well. I wouldn't want my other battery to run dry now, would I?"

The Lightning arcing across Garth's arms expanded to his entire body as the anger in him rose. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH AYLA?" he shouted as energy popped from his eyes.

"Done?" Meta countered, "I've done nothing my friend, but she has been dutifully helping me build my empire for months now." He swept his arms around to indicate the mechanized Sentinels hovering behind him.

"My sister would never help you willingly!" Garth shouted, and swept his left arm out, releasing a huge bolt of lightning with a loud thunderclap. The bolt hit Meta square in the chest, knocking him back into his sentinel guards, but leaving him otherwise unharmed.

"Attack," Meta said calmly, and the Sentinels and the rest of his troops broke formation and started shooting their weapons, making all the Rebel soldiers in the air scatter as they returned fire. The forces on the ground also started firing up into the air as full battalions of sentinels landed to engage directly on the ground while others hovered above and provided air cover. Simultaneously, the three warships began to bombard the ground with laser blasts aimed at the mountain fortress, which returned fire from its hidden laser and missile arrays. The air began to smell like ozone.

"Dammit," Greywind cursed, "All units attack!" he cried into his comm link. All the rebel forces in the air scattered and began directly engaging their winged counterparts, as a roar came up from the ground as the infantry cried out and began to attack, shooting their weapons at the loyalist forces. Dawnstar herself charged into the fray, wielding a mace that both absorbed the energy bolts shot at Dawnstar, but then used the contained energy to stun the loyalist Pathfinders and smash into the armor of the mechanized Sentinels.

In a rage, Garth began to throw volley after volley of lightning bolts at Meta, who slowly drifted forward towards him. In a flash, Ultra Boy dove right at Meta and quickly changing to super strength, grabbed Meta by the ankle and flung him into one of the starships, ripping a hole in the side of the hull as Meta passed through. "Man, what the frak are you thinking?" Jo asked as he turned to Garth, "Meta's a Daxamite! Leave him to me, will you?"

"He's done something to Ayla, and maybe Imra and the others," Garth protested, "and I'm gonna make sure he pays for it!"

"Garth, if you go at him alone, you're a dead man," Jo said, "I know we haven't been seeing eye to eye recently, but you're making a pretty good leader. You know I'm the only one who has a change at taking out this sprocker. So just watch my back."

A dark blur raced from the hole in the ship and slammed into Ultra Boy, sending them both into the ground below so hard that the force of the impact jolted everyone; the fliers in the air in addition to the foot soldiers. Garth opened a commlink to the team. "All Legionnaires, converge on Ultra Boy's location," he said, "We need to distract Meta. Dyrk, keep jamming their ships communications so that they can't coordinate their attacks." With that he flew as fast as possible down towards the crater that Meta had created with his impact, dodging energy blasts from the fighting and firing lightning blasts as fast as he could towards the bottom of the crater.

Invisible Kid took note as soon as he saw Meta streaking out of the damaged cruiser and took action. "Triad, I'm leaving you in charge on the ground for now," he said into the comm, "I'll signal you when I'm ready. Get close to Gates if you can."

"What are you talking about?!" Triad purple replied. They was incredulous as they attacked three Pathfinder soldiers hovering over them. "You can't just leave us down here!" But Lyle had disabled the comm and disappeared from sight and sensors. Livewire chimed in, "Kid, what the nass do you think you're doing?"

XS had already arrived at the battle site and was zipping around Meta in a pattern to fast for him to keep up with and his heat vision uselessly blasted a hole in the crater wall. This gave Ultra Boy enough time to switch to super strength again and put his entire shoulder into a punch that knocked Meta face first into the dirt of the crater. Almost as fast as XS, Meta turned around and rushed at Ultra Boy, slamming him into the far crater wall and began to pummel him with fast punches at his own super speed, getting in a few good blows before Ultra Boy could switch to his invulnerability.

"Jo!" Garth yelled out as he landed meters behind Meta and let loose more lightning directly at his back. Meta angrily turned and shot his heat vision at Garth, who was whisked away just in time by XS. "Let's not do that again, shall we?" XS quipped as she let Garth go and he flew into the air above the crater. XS continued to move around the nearby battlefield to ensure that no ground troops tried to take any potshots at the Legionnaires battling Meta as Gates did the same from the air, porting winged combatats, biological and artificial or maybe sometimes just their weapons, to completely other sections of the battlefield.

Ultra Boy jumped out of the hole that Meta had beat him into, with torn uniform and bruises, and tackled Meta from behind using ultra strength, and switching invulnerability while he pinned him down as Garth blasted into him with an even larger lightning surge than before. Karate Kid landed nearby to assist in the fighting when Ultra Boy was launched into the air by Meta with a single powerful blow to Jo's midsection. Meta stood and looked around, seeing Karate Kid, rushed over to him, towering over the martial artist.

"Not very smart, Human," Meta said in his deep voice. Meta swung his powerful arm directly at Karate Kid's head, but Val had seen the telltale body movements and knew exactly when to dodge. Twisting his body to dodge the blow, Val shifted his hips and swung his leg up to connect it to Meta's jaw, knocking him back in stunned surprise. Val grunted in discomfort and grabbed at his calf, but the damage had been done. Meta recovered and shot another burst of heat vision towards Karate Kid, but Dawnstar had flown in and blocked the beam with her mace. When the beam was done she spun around to gain momentum and hit Meta square in the chest with the mace, which discharged its energy and knocked him on his back. Ultra Boy and Livewire returned, firing his Ultra Vision at Meta from one side and Live Wire shooting lightning at him from the other. Meta cried out, more in annoyance than pain, as Ultra Boy flew in closer to Meta, closing the distance between them while Val and Dawnstar flew up above to assist in covering Livewire and Ultra Boy.

"Thanks for the save," Val said to Dawnstar.

She gave him a half smile. "You fight well," she said in return, "It would be a shame to lose that."

As the battle with Meta raged on in one part of the battlefield, Triad continued her best to coordinate attacks of the ground forces, leveraging Dyrk's communication jamming to split the forces into separate areas for a more organized strategy. The aerial rebels were able to make more of an impact in the fight, but were sorely outnumbered, and it was difficult for the ground forces to target anything in the air; the weapon batteries in the cliffsides and mountain were doing more damage to the enemies in the air.

Being assaulted by heat and lightning, Meta roared out and closed the distance with Ultra Boy, seizing him by the collar and tossing him into the air for what seemed like miles like a rag doll. "Oh nass," Garth said as Meta turned briefly to Live Wire and shot a burst of heat vision at him. Garth raised his right arm reflexively to shoot a bolt of lightning in a futile effort to block the energy beam, but the energy of the electricity helped diffuse the heat vision burst. It did, however, overload Garth's artificial arm, which fizzled out and grew so hot that Garth had to press an emergency release to let it drop to the ground as he cried out in pain from the heat. He looked up, but Meta had already flown away in pursuit of Ultra Boy's path.

"Dyrk, are you able to track Ultra Boy's location?" Garth asked into the communicator as he inspected the smoking artificial limb lying on the ground. "Yes, he was thrown 2 miles south of your location into the foothills," Dyrk quickly radioed back, "But you'd better hurry. Meta's already on him." A boom echoed from the direction that Dyrk had indicated, and Garth knew that Meta was doing his worst. "Karate Kid, with me!" He called, "XS, Gates, do what you can to help Triad." He willed his ring to carry him as fast as he could as Val swung in beside him, dodging fire with Dawnstar's aid.

As they approached Jo's location, they could clearly see Meta hunched over Ultra Boy in another cratered space in the ground, alternately beating him with massively powerful punches, and firing heat blasts from his eyes. Suddenly, Meta stopped and stood up, looking into the sky as if he was listening to something. Then, in an instant, he shot up into the sky leaving a vapor trail after creating a sonic boom and left the atmosphere.

"Live Wire," Dyrk called into the comm as he flew overhead in the Legion cruiser, "Sensors are reading that Meta just went into lightspeed! He's left the system!"

Val and Garth dropped to the ground to meet Ultra Boy. Jo was still breathing, but Meta had left his mark, as his uniform was in tatters, his body covered in bruises and burns. "Nass," Garth muttered, "Just what the sprock is going on here?" He pulled out a medstim from his pouch and pressed it against Jo's neck to help revive him, but as soon as he activated it to inject the medicine into Jo the device whined and cracked. "Wow," Val said, "he's still in Invulnerable mode. But Meta still did this much damage." Garth nodded. "It may have saved his life."

The commlink crackled to life with Invisible Kid's voice. "Gates, can you get Triad over to me?" he called, "I could use a set of hands."

"Gates the taxi service needed again right?" Gates' voice croaked, "Where do you need us to be?"

"Just aim for the hole in the cruiser," Lyle's voice said, "I could use some extra hands up here driving this ship." Garth and Val looked up and saw that the damaged cruiser was turning in the air and aiming its forward facing weaponry at the cruiser closest to it. Blue energy bolts shot out from the wounded cruiser and hit its neighbor, and the targeted ship's engines began to sputter and fail as it slowly drifted towards the ground. With a loud cheer the rebel footsoldiers ran across the battlefield to intercept and board the fallen ship.

In spite of the destruction around him, Garth smiled. "Kid, I don't know if your more smart or crazy," he said, "but that was pretty amazing."

Planet Manitou!

great that Vi is also now THE team's best pilot, apparently smile

Dawnstar with a mace, I love it! Shades of Hawkgirl!

ah yes, Jo being the level-headed one. good one having Jo call Garth out re attacking Meta!

beautifully crafted battle scene vs. Meta: realistic too, having Val get a shot in while injuring himself, and highlighting Dawny's speed

nice use of Dyrk too! at least he played a tangible part

Ooph, losing the robot arm. Better than the real one though...

nice tactics and payoff from Lyle!

sure is tough giving everything something to do, but you did it! another nice scene! can't wait to see Meta and M'Onel go head-to-head later on.

STARHAVEN CITY EST CALENDAR DATE 2999.01.12

The Emperor's arrival to his capital was heralded by a sonic boom that echoed across the city and spaceport. He drifted slowly towards his palace, dark cloak blillowing in the wind, in order to inspect the damage where his throne room was situated along the spire. Slaves and robots were inside and out, working to repair the large gap in the wall. His ire began to build, and in a second had moved through the gap to be in the throne room itself to find Dune supervising the repair.

"Move it, you dogs!" Dune growled in his raspy voice, "He'll be back soon!"

"He's back now," the emperor said darkly.

Dune turned with surprise. "Me-…My Lord," he corrected himself and gave a slight bow. Behind the Emperor's war mask, Dune could sense his anger and braced for some kind of punishment.

"What happened here?" The Emperor said directly.

"It was the Legion, my lord," he said with some reluctance, "They… resisted. They escaped. And…"

"'And' what?" The Emperor asked.

Dune looked away. "They escaped with Spark and Element Lad."

The Emperor took a deep breath to calm himself. He scanned the room, noting the ruined carpet, cracked walls all over, and a ruined dais. He clenched his fists. "Where is Repulse?" he asked Dune.

"He- He's taken a strike force to retrieve them, your majesty," Dune answered, "Amber is down below in the lab with the prisoner." Dune delivered the last news with a more upbeat tone as if to provide a silver lining to the news.

"Take me there."

Farther down the spire of the spire, Ferro, Amber and Kid Quantum were in a lab where Ferro happened to be strapped down onto a couch. Amber hovered over Ferro holding a syringe, while Kid Quantum stood in the corner, staring blankly. "You can't hold out forever, Ferro," Amber whispered, "Just let me give you this and everything will be OK."

Andy called over to Jazmin. "Hey, Kid," he said, "C'Mon give me a hand and knock her out!"

"Everything will be OK," Jazmin echoed.

"Well, Ok," Ferro said. Amber leaned in to inject him with the solution, only to have Ferro transform himself to iron just before the needle made contact with his skin. Ferro's voice, now with a metallic echo, laughed at Amber. "I could do this all day," he said, "you wanna try that again?".

"You sprocking git," Amber snarled and threw the syringe across the room in frustration, "Keep that up and see if we don't figure out other ways of punishing you."

"What, are you going to try and sap me to death again?"

"What do we have here?" A deep voice asked from behind them. A hissing sound followed as both the Emperor strode into the room, still in his black transsuit, armor and battle mask, followed by Dune, who gave Amber a warning look from behind the Emperor's back.

"Th-this is Ferro, your majesty," Amber explained, "We captured him when they tried to escape."

"So," Ol-Vir began slowly but intently, "You were given the Legion to detain, and let them go ALONG WITH THE TROMMITE," he shouted the last phrase, causing Amber to flinch. Pausing to collect his breath and composure, he continued, "And in trade, we have this whelp who can simply turn into metal?"

"S-sir, we still have Kid Quantum…" Dune interjected.

"Who cannot create raw materials, nor provide a power source," the Emperor said as he swiftly turned to interrupt, "We have the energy source that can be redirected, if needed, so the girl is of lesser value, but refining the material without the Trommian will take weeks if not months." He pointed is finger directly at Dune as his eyes began to glow red with anger. "See to it that we get Arrah back and that you have set contingencies in place."

LATER IN THE THRONE ROOM

The core workforce, Repulse, Dune and Amber, waited in the antechamber of the throne room, used for preparations for attendants to the emperor, and thus lavishly decorated with mosaics and tapestries depicting battles of the founding of Starhaven. The royal office had announced that the Emperor would make a statement after the repairs had been completed to the throne room, and the Workforce were to appear at his side, so they waited.

Doors to the personal chambers swung opened and the emperor himself strode into the room. He turned and directly faced Repulse with quiet anger. "What was the job that I told you to?" he asked.

"B-boss, they got out of hand – I tried to…" Repulse began. Sweat immediately started to bead on his brow beneath his spiked blond hair.

"What. Was. It." The Emperor repeated.

"Subdue the Legion," Repulse said softly.

"Exactly right," The Emperor said, "that was exactly what I told you to do." He turned and Repulse could feel the scowl on his face, hidden in the shadow of his hood, "So why did you do the EXACT opposite?"

"We went after…" Repulse tried to respond.

"You lost a DIVISION of Sentinels!"

"But more Legionnaires appeared!" Repulse was finally able to get out, "Even that Daxamite, M'Onel. That's why we had to retreat!"

This seemed to give Ol-Vir some pause, and he contemplated as he stared out the window for a moment. He turned back to Repulse. "Those nanofibers that you wear, are you able to manipulate them as if they were a hand?" he asked softly.

Repulse became almost enthusiastic with a topic he felt like he could discuss freely. "Sprock yeah, I can do that! I'm the best!" he said.

"Show me," the Emperor said, "Do that with your armor and expose your hand so that I can see this for myself."

"Sure, boss," Repulse said and held out his right arm. The fluid nanometals flowed back to his elbow and morphed out to the side, creating a replica forearm and hand. Showing off, and proud of himself, he moved his real hand just as the metal hand made the same find movements with the digits.

"Good," Ol-Vir said, and two beams of intense red light fired out of his eyes and disintegrated Repulse's exposed forearm, cauterizing it just before the joint. Amber gasped and stepped back, while Dune shifted his mass to the side.

Repulse stood staring at where his arm just was with his mouth agape. It took him a moment before he started screaming in pain as the reality of what had just happened connected into his brain. "My arm!"

"Yes," Ol-Vir said coolly, "Considering the magnitude of your failure, you should consider this merciful, especially since you have the capacity to effectively replace your limb." He began to stride out a side door that would take him to his living quarters and addressed the other two. "Let this be an object lesson as to the consequences of failure moving forward," he said and left the room.

"My arm!" Repulse continued to cry, "My sprocking arm!" Amber leaned in to comfort Repulse, who angrily pulled away.

"Now pull yourself together," the emperor said, "I have a statement to make." He turned and made his way to the throne room door while Repulse took deep breaths to steady himself and morphed a metallic forearm and hand over where his natural one had been.

The emperor strode out with the Workforce behind him. Repulse was breathing heavily as the shock was still settling in, but his visor allowed some degree of neutrality. With the throne room being repaired to new within hours after the Emperor's arrival, the elite Pathfinder guard had been summoned, along with several top Starhaven government chieftains who all reported to the Emperor himself. Dune and Amber stood at either side of the Emperor's dais, and Repulse stood at Amber's sideA hush settled over the crowd as Emperor Ol-Vir descended onto his throne from above, in his dark cloak and raptor-crown.

"Subjects of Starhaven," he began, "As you may have heard, a tribe known as the Legion of Super Heroes has come to our empire and joined forces with the rebels that would aim to reduce this empire and our way of life into dust. They attacked this very throne room two days ago and are on the run on this world with assistance from the rebels. While we are grinding away the Manitouan resistance even as we speak, a team of these radicals is here. Make no mistake we will spare no effort to destroy this Legion and wipe them out of the universe. We will scour this world until every trace of a Legionnaire is found and eliminated.

"We will scour every building, every street, every starship to find them. If you see any trace of these criminals, or even anyone helping them, contact the authorities at once.

"Any citizen of Starhaven found to be providing assistance of any kind to this Legion will be subject to immediate execution.

"Let it be done."

yeah, expected Meta to dash off because of an emergency - good scene here, showing that the other Workforce members are not Meta's equals. You've already foreshadowed it well of course. *wonder if you'll have some of the Workforce switch sides later? Amber seems the most redeemable (Dune's already killed someone, and Repulse is echhh**

I'm guessing Repulse is the main responsible when Meta's away eh? after all, he WAS the Workforce "leader" during the Rift.

ooph, nice showcasing of how out of it Jazmin is. (reminds me of my version's Mordru's magical slaves smile)

haha smart of Ferro turning to iron... guess they don't have any chems that will KO him right away.

Yup, I figured Meta would be displeased at losing Jan and only getting Ferro in return. not exactly an equal trade.

whoo! nice scene, showing just how "above" Meta is. and boy, I sure would not want command responsibility here, as Repulse is the one getting punished! (also smart of Meta, I hate to say - he even made sure Repulse could replace his arm...)

nice way to up the ante...

now that pretty much everyone has met up with a contingent of rebels, I'm predicting a big reunion soon, am I right?

Gads! I realized I never responded to your comments earlier this week. First of all, thank you!


The idea for that came from Legionnaires annual 2. I loved it so much that the shy quiet one has this totally risky side, so I nicked it. Besides, that role is traditionally Dirk's and he's still dealing with his weird powers back home.


I must have made that connection subconsciously, as I didn't even THINK about that, and I'm not even a big fanboy of our friends from Thanagar.


The one nice thing about scenes with Daxamites is that all the action centers around them! And Val basically can only get in one shot with these guys.


Indeed - it makes me wonder now that he has what is essentially a replaceable body part, does it enable him to take more risks?


Thanks! I'm getting nervous about it, as I've outlined what I want to do, but these Daxamanians are a pain.

----



Hmmmm, that's actually an interesting idea...


Exactly right.


Yep, not when he's iron, anyway.


Yes, and originally my idea was that Meta was gonna take that out on Ferro, but I thought after some of the torturing/mind controlling I've done it would be a bit much. Then I read what raz was doing.


Meta, probably like McCauley, realizes that Repulse is a friggin idiot, but has some good specific uses, so is not going to discard him.

My initial plan was a five story arc for this, so that would be the next one! My only challenge is making sure I can keep it relatively short. These things have had a way of expanding with each new story!

yeah, there's a lot that can be done with this, so keeping short won't be easy

re the Workforce, they're kept in line by fear of Meta. Repulse is certainly amoral and selfish, and Dune seems to be too. Amber though, not clear yet.

heh! well Ferro in iron form is quite tough... also shows they don't have a telepath, or anyone who can force Ferro to power down...

and yeah, Daxamite fights are tough just because of how powerful one is!!

My turn to catch up! These were great fun GL, I really like how you give eveyone on the team something to do even with wildly different power levels.

Part 1:
Dayvid and Greatfire are really fun, I like their addition to our little crew!

Monstress bowling people over to check on Jan is adorable and funny, and Cham and Ayla's reunion was really cute as well.

OOH nice cliffhanger!!

Part 2:
Imra manouvering the Sentinels closer to her more physical teammates without actually coming out and announcing a plan is a nice way of showing both how capable Imra is and how accustomed she is by now to working with the team.

Zoe's idea was clever as well, literally turning the Sentinels against their own allies!

People being exasperated at Brainy is always fun to read, and I liked the visual of Chuck doing his best to keep up with the chaos only to notice Brainy just standing there calmly in his own little world

Backup to the rescue! And I love the Starhavenites mistaking Sensor for Quetzalcoatl without her needing to even do anything - I have to imagine that would have been a wtf moment for her

HAHAHAHAHA this made me laugh out loud for real, nice callback!

Part 3:
Dawny with an energy mace! Now I wanna see a JLA crossover so she and Hawkgirl can bust some heads!

I liked Jo rising to the occasion when someone else decided to take the hothead stick off him, and it makes sense for Garth to be the one to lose his cool with Ayla in danger (and maybe Imra as well!)

Jo did well one on one with Meta actually (well, for a while anyway...though maybe just staying alive against a Daxamite counts as doing well tbh)! And I liked the flow of battle once the rest of the team took him on...I also like the idea that Karate Kid has the skill to keep a Daxamite off-balance temporarily but at the end of the day there's only so much a human being can do against someone on Superman's level.

I actually forgot this Garth has a prosthetic arm, I was worried he was gonna lose his real one again for a sec!

I nearly forgot to mention - I liked Lyle doing what Lyle does best and sneaking off to do something awesome. He must be nearly as annoying as Brainy to be around sometimes though when he just up and vanishes like that lol

The Epilogue!
Yay for Andy holding out!

This Meta guy doesn't seem like someone you want mad at you...

...oh, I was right. Repulse is an ass, but still - nasty! This Meta is sure good at being a bad guy! I actually really like how he has some intelligence guiding his actions and isn't just relying on being the strongest guy in the room, it makes him a much more interesting threat!

hahaha evil sorcerors do bring out the Clive Barker in me I think

I am looking forward to seeing how this all comes together! And put me on board for seeing M'Onel and Meta get into some big time smash-ups together!

Thanks, raz! Appreciate the kind words.


Thanks, I enjoyed writing them.


Never underestimate the power of a rewrite! The first version of this was so bland then it all kind of clicked to how everyone would use their own powers.


The fact that this powerful illusionist can just show up and not have to do anything seemed fun, so I went with it - and it deepened the Starhaven backstory in its own way.


I had to do it. I mean c'mon, its part of the mission statement for this whole thing.


Originally it was gonna be a sword, but I thought her slicing and dicing folks would go too far.


At some point, Jo either stays as an indestructible punching bag, or he tries to get the eventual punch in, but at some point that switching is gonna get him in trouble.


I was toying with the idea of not even showing what happens here, but I think this worked out better!


OMG, I was not reading yours & Harbis for fear of stealing something too recent, but I don't think I need to worry about that! Instead I have to worry about getting too nasty to the characters! It was good stuff, so maybe its not that bad of a thing.



I don't think it'll be that much of a spoiler to say that things will go in this direction. The trick will be seeing how that all works out! I have ideas, but my original ideas have already started changing in a few ways as I fill out the outline!

Quick heads up - I have more stuff coming out, but I'm going to try and do things a little differently. After doing most of the first chapter, I'm realizing this is going to be a pretty big installment, so I figure if I start to actually post stuff, it'll motivate me to keep moving.

Looking back, it seems that a revolution was inevitable. The founders of Starhaven were determined to create an egalitarian society for all, so when the alien we now call Meta crowned himself an emperor during a time of immense prosperity, those who should have stood up and resisted were either lulled into complacency or shamed to silence. After years of his increasingly brutal rule and stratification of society with the star walkers being given undue power, while the non-gifted humans and other conquered peoples given menial jobs, the arrival of the Legion of Super-Heroes was like throwing a match on a fuel-soaked bonfire. Some say prophecy from the first medicine men of our settlements envisioned all of this hundreds of years ago, but who can really say? The Legion's arrival became a turning point in our history, but like all uprisings, not without cost.

-Armstrong Walker, Professor of History, Starhaven University, 3085

Roll Call

Saturn Girl – Imra Ardeen of Titan, powerful telepath
Brainiac 5.1 – Querl Dox of Colu, 12th level intellect
Monstress – Candi Pyponte-Le Parc III of Xanthu, immense strength and invulnerability
Chameleon – Reep Daggle of Durla, shapeshifter
Kinetix – Zoe Saugin of Aleph, telekinetics, manipulates inorganic matter, healing
Umbra – Tasmia Mallor of Talok VIII, control of mystical shadows
Spark – Ayla Ranzz of Winath, Lightning Caster
Element Lad – Jan Arrah, Last survivor of Trom, Elemental manipulation
Cosmic Boy – Rokk Krinn of Braal, Magnetic manipulation
Shrinking Violet – Salu Digby of Imsk, Size changing from subatomic to 50+ feet
Apparition – Tinya Wazzo of Bgztl, Phases through matter
Sensor - Jeka Wynzorr of Orando, Illusionist
M'Onel – Lar Gand of Daxam, Superpowers
Chuck Taine of Earth – Genius level engineer

STARHAVEN CITY EST CALENDAR DATE 2999.01.15

"…rounding up more suspected traitors in the Chippewa-Modoc district after discovering caches of weapons stored in dwellings as the Imperial Guard continues its search for the so-called Legion for the third day. Loyal subjects to the Emperor are required to immediately contact the Ministry of Security should evidence of this Legion, or anyone sympathetic, arise.  As a reminder, the penalty for anyone harboring these terrorists is death.

Now time for sports! The Shoshone lacrosse club won an overtime match against…"

The flat video display, the newscast having shown scenes of various people being rounded into personnel carriers at gunpoint, with more than a few shots fired into the crowds, switched off.  Most of the Legionnaires were in the common room of the third safe house lodge in as many days, either leaning against the walls or seated in the chairs and couches of the long room, watching the video feeds and the argument between Dayvid and Saturn Girl.  Dayvid Strongroot and Greatfire Walker had been desperately pleading his case to the Legion to intervene and overthrow the Empire of Starhaven, the creation of the former Workforce Daxamite Meta, who had been thrown back in time and space to the center of the galaxy.  Meta had taken a peaceful republic and turned it into an oppressive empire by means of his Daxamite powers.

"This is exactly what I'm saying here," Dayvid said passionately, "Your arrival - here and now - is the chance we've been waiting for; not waiting, DYING for!  It's a sign from the spirits!" He reached his arm out to the video screen to emphasize what they had just seen as part of his argument. "Our own citizens are being rounded up without evidence. I guarantee you that half of these people getting arrested are just people turning in their neighbors out of spite, or to gain favor."

"It didn't used to be like this," Greatfire added.  He stood looming behind Dayvid, his muscular arms folded against his chest. "There used to be friendly debate between the tribes, diversity of opinion, until this interloper changed what we had built into his personal playground. "

Imra, standing on the other side of the screen next to Brainiac 5, frowned and shook her head.  "I sympathize with you, Dayvid, I really do," she said with as much empathy she could muster in her voice, "but our priority is to get our team members out of that palace! With what you've shown us, we can't risk any chance that Meta will use Kid Quantum or Ferro to hurt more of your people with their powers."

Dayvid pointed at M'Onel across the room.  "You have someone with the Emperor's powers, here and now.  You have everything you need to take him on!" he said, loudly objecting.

Imra nodded, trying to keep her own voice as even as possible.  "That's true," she said, "but I'm in command of this team, and I can't risk Meta or his lackeys retaliating against the people he has prisoner!"

"They're already retaliating against US!" Greatfire countered angrily.

"We will help you," Imra continued, "but we have to get our team out of there first."  Dayvid shook his head in frustration.

Chameleon, who was sitting in a chair by the wall, looked up at Imra. "We do have most of the Espionage Squad here in the room, Saturn Girl," Cham said, indicating Violet, who was sitting across the room from him on the couch with her forearm casually resting on Zoe's shoulder, and Tinya, who was sitting in the back of the room. "Let us go in and at least recon what's going on in the control chambers that Spark was debriefing us about."  Spark and Element Lad had been mind-controlled captives of Meta, helping him build his empire in the last six months, before being freed by the Legion days ago.  Cham looked at Violet, who uncomfortably shifted her eyes between him and Tinya.

"Good idea, Cham," Imra said, looking hopeful. She turned back to Dayvid. "What's the best way in?" she asked him, "These three can get in anywhere," Imra continued, "but the more inconspicuous the better."

Dayvid frowned but nodded.  "There's a maintenance access hatch located two kilometers north of the palace that leads from the main power station into the building," he said, "It's probably your best way in. I'll send you the location."

"Okay," Imra said, "That's our next move. Espionage squad, your mission is to gather as much intelligence as you can about the layout of the palace and the prison within. No unnecessary risks." Imra firmly stated the last sentence as she looked in turn at Reep, Violet and Tinya. She then turned back to Dayvid. "But we DO have a plan once we get our people back," she said, hoping to relieve some of their new ally's concern.  "Brainiac 5?"

Brainy took his place at front and center of the room, made a gesture on his holo-tablet and a series of holograms began to shimmer into view in the center of the room and a three dimensional tactical map of Starhaven City resolved. Several labels appeared on the map; Power Generation at the extreme north, Imperial Grounds at the northern end of the city proper, Android Factory directly to the southeast of the palace grounds, Spaceport below that adjacent to the coastline, and then smaller tags around a grid overlaying the city that identified the various tribal districts.

"Based on what we have learned about Meta's ambitions and methods of maintaining power, it is vitally important that we remove the Legion Outpost, currently docked in the orbital Starhaven High Port, from the equation," Brainy said.  He made a gesture with his arm, and the map shrunk and tilted to include the tendril of the space elevator linking up to the orbital space station above them, with the Legion Outpost represented alongside.  "It contains Library Data from the United Planets which Meta can then mine for his own purposes, using UP technology to further consolidate his power in this region of the galaxy. Predictive analytics indicate that he would double the size of his Imperium within a year with access to this information, and over time find his way back to UP space, therefore it is vital that we get the outpost away from Starhaven via the drive technology currently on board."

Umbra, sitting on a couch taking all of this in, spoke up. "The Starhaven Navy already captured us once," she pointed out, "what's to say that they won't do it again?"

"Indeed," Brainiac 5 replied, "so while Charles and I go to the Starport with Sensor providing illusion to cover our borrowing of a shuttle," on the tactical, two dots rose up from the Starhaven surface to the Outpost hologram, "The rest of you will be diverting attention from us." The hologram zoomed back to the city. "One strike force will attack the Sentinel manufacturing facility and the adjacent prisoner labor barracks.  We know that with Spark and Element Lad with us, they aren't able to produce any more at a rapid pace, but destruction of this facility ensures that more will not engage in the operation. And if we are fortunate, some of the prisoners may join in the fight." The holo-map shifted to focus on the manufacturing area that the team drove through with Dayvid just a few days prior.

"Oh, Brainiac, dear," Candi called, "I hereby volunteer for that mission!"

Imra smiled. "I figured you would, Monstress," she said, "You, Kinetix and Umbra will handle that task and then join in with the rest of the group as the situation develops."

Tasmia folded her arms. "Great," she said, completely unimpressed. Zoe shot her a dark look from her seat.

Brainy continued.  "The other group will engage the Starhaven warriors and Sentinels on the other side of the Imperial facility. Sensor, you will join this team to throw off the Starhaven organic forces." The holo zoomed over to the other side of the palace. "My analytic modeling projects a 97.99 percent probability that Meta will focus on recapturing Spark and Element Lad, so the rest of you will lure out the Workforce and destroy as much Imperial fighting equipment – Sentinels and ships – as you can."

"We will draw them out by attacking and disabling any spacecraft grounded at the downport." Imra chimed in, "The core strike force will include M'Onel, Cosmic Boy, Spark, Element Lad and myself. Sensor, once Brainy and Chuck are away, you will join the main forces to subdue the imperial forces; same for Monstress, Umbra and Kinetix.  Cosmic Boy, once the Workforce is engaged, you will need to handle Repulse directly.  Similarly, and obviously, M'Onel's target is Meta." Both Rokk and Lar nodded in understanding.  

"Thank you, Brainy," Imra stepped up as the holograms disappeared, "We need to focus the fighting around the palace area to avoid civilian casualties." She turned to Dayvid and Greatfire. "So you see we have a plan," she said, "How do we signal your resistance to join in?"

Dayvid thought for a moment. "I can help get you that shuttle," he said to Brainiac who took notes as he was talking, "but the majority of the resistance is offworld on Manitou.  We haven't heard from them in days.  Obviously we have some capability here," he gestured around him to indicate the building they were in, "but we are significantly outnumbered."

"Not with the Legion here, you're not," Rokk said.

"Let me do what I can to get our people ready by dawn," Greatfire said.

Dayvid nodded.  "I still think we should do this attack sooner than later," he said, "but when Brainiac 5 is safely off the ground, I'll signal our people here, Saturn Girl."

Imra nodded in agreement.  "Very well," she said, "When the Espionage squad comes back with Ferro and Kid Quantum, we will begin Operation Coriolis. Dismissed."

The gathered Legionnaires stood up and started to move to other locations in the lodge, but Cham indicated to Violet and Tinya that they consult with him for a moment. Tinya walked forward from the back of the room, while Vi walked up to Cham.  Zoe grabbed Vi by the elbow. "C'mon let's talk to Cham to convince him to take me along too," she said with a grin.

"Zoe, no this'll just be the Espionage Squad. You heard Imra" Vi said softly while taking her hand.  "We will need stealth for this mission." A smile crossed her face. "You know I adore you," she said," but stealth is kind of not your thing.  And anyway you'll be needed for the breakout."

"I can do the mission with Candi as soon as we get back!" Zoe said with determination in her voice, "You think I'm not letting you out of my sight?"

Tinya walked up just to hear what Zoe had said and rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. "Oh, here we go," she said sarcastically.

Zoe spun on Tinya. "What did you just say, Wazzo?" Zoe glared at Tinya. "Tired of the drama not revolving around you for a nano?"  Tinya reacted in surprise, clearly not expecting Zoe to have responded as she did. Violet stepped in front of Zoe, gently placed her hands on Zoe's shoulders and looked her in the eyes in an attempt to calm her down. 

"Let me handle this, Zoe," Violet said quietly.  She turned her head and glared at Tinya as Imra walked up.

"Zoe," Imra said calmly in an attempt to ease tensions, "I need this team to be as small as possible, and these three are the right team, provided they can work together?" She looked between Vi and Tinya.

Steeling her eyes at Tinya, Vi said, "No problems here, Saturn Girl."

"Me neither," Tinya replied icily returning Violet's stare.

"Good," Imra said, "Cham, you'll lead the mission. You head out at 0400."


It was hours before dawn when the Espionage squad gathered quietly at the back door of the safe house, but the Starhaven night cast the same illumination as a full moon; the sheer density of stars and interstellar gas made for a dull golden glow in the air. Their lodge was located in the edge of the Cree district, on the exterior rim of Starhaven city, fifty kilometers away from the Imperial plaza to the southeast, but the squad's destination was to the north, as the power station was located twenty kilometers further from the city's edge. Imra, Brainy, Zoe, Violet, Cham, Ayla and Tinya were under the wide up-angled awning that circled the round structure. The mood was tense, as the goodbyes had yet to be said, but there was also the knowledge that very soon a battle would be underway.

"I'm sending you Dayvid's coordinates," Brainy said quietly as he pressed a button on his work tablet, and the flight rings of the three squadmates all chirped. "Follow these coordinates and you should arrive at the access corridor within three kilometers of the city's edge.  According to Dayvid, it should be unguarded on the outside, but there are regular patrols inside the tunnel.  Follow the conduit tunnel directly south until you open into the palace complex.  Once there, look for the Legionnaires, but note any internal fortifications and guard capacities, as we will leverage this information when we are ready to engage."

"When you find Ferro and Kid Quantum," Imra continued, "Subdue Kid Quantum with this formula that Brainy has created." Brainy handed over two hypospray vials to Cham. "If Ferro has been controlled, use one for him as well.  Chameleon, you'll be responsible for their transport back."  Cham nodded in acknowledgement. "Good luck," Imra finished.

Cham quickly and lightly hugged Ayla before transforming into a hawk while Tinya went intangible enough to be barely visible. Violet turned to Zoe, who was visibly glum, and hugged her tightly.  "Don't worry," She whispered and kissed Zoe quickly, "I'll be back before you know it."  She turned and shrank while jumping into the air and landed on Chameleon's hawk-back and the three Legionnaires sped through the air into the northeast.

Zoe, Ayla, Brainy and Imra watched the Espionage Squad quickly disappear from view.  Zoe hugged her arms into herself as if to keep her heart in her chest and said as she turned to Imra, "Is it always like this when they leave?" she asked, "Does this get any better?"

Imra looked at Zoe and said, with the a hint of sadness in her eyes as she shook her head, "No, it doesn't."

more great stuff GL, and I agree, sometimes posting in bits is more motivating as it creates momentum

so cool that you added a quote from the future!

lol at M'Onel's description just being: "Superpowers" hahaha

yay Espionage Squad! and yay long-term plan! this is shaping up to be an epic operation and conflict!

also, smart re not letting Sensor join - though she can hide herself, she can't really sneak around as well as the three named.

ooh smart use of Sensor, Brainy and Chuck to get the Outpost! I love this.

nice callout having Candi go free the prisoners, that is so her. Also, Brainy anticipating she would want that is great!

oh wait, is Sensor going to hide Brainy/Chuck, or is she with the Imperial team? ah ok, she does both! got it.

yeah, with the Legion backing the resistance up, the numbers are more balanced

so Espionage Squad is not just for intelligence, but to try and free Ferro and Kid Q. I like this plan!

great drama here. so natural of headstrong Zoe to want to go with Vi, and props to Vi for being professional. Ah, Tinya and Vi/Zoe won't be friends for a while (they used to get along much better, hee hee... but indeed, Tinya does NOT have the moral high ground here lol)... also props to Imra for shutting the drama down, at least enough so that everyone can do their job!

also looking forward to more sparks between Candi, Tasmia and Zoe


I like how Tinya's intangibility also reduces her visibility, good one! also a way for everyone to know that she is phased - great tactical advantage for the team

great installment, GL! really looking forward to the next one!!

It does - I have the rest of the chapter mostly done, but I need to think if I'm going to make it its own chapter or just an extension of part 1. I reordered some things at the last minute, so I need to think on it.


This is a sci-fi trope that I love, and having read Dune again recently, I thought it might be a fun thing to do. The date is so far out that the context can go any which way, and there are no spoilers!


HAH - I mean, listing them all out would take forever, right?


Yup, and the Starhaven resistance has some agency and say in their own battles.


Did they really, though? Well, maybe Tinya and Zoe...


Thank you, as always, kind sir!

re Tinya and Zoe, I will always remember both of them telling Andromeda to shut up when she was being racist vs. Cham (LSH 68), and Zoe teasing Tinya about "hey, what's it like being married to Jo now that you're tangible!" in LSH 100!

re VI/Zoe, well I don't really recall them having many 1-1 moments other than Vi's recruitment in LSH 66 with Ayla.

Yep, those extremely few interactions, especially your last comment, is what I'm keying off of for the friction. Three interactions over, what, six years (ish) of comic book issues?

Fair enough, they may have “gotten along” before but they were hardly best friends

Indeed! LOL

I'm actually trying to clean up the next chunk to post that digs in exactly that point, but I've been too busy!!!

Yay! more good Vi/Tinya drama lol

I bet a double date between Zoe/Vi and Tinya/Jo would be hella awkward

Legion Of Superheroes #130 - Coriolis, Chapter 1, Part 2....

The flight had gone on in silence for minutes over the farms, fields and forests.  Tinya's ghostly form flickered several meters ahead of Reep's bird form.  Reep turned off the comm channel and finally spoke up. "Vi, you don't have to squeeze so tight," he said. 

Violet immediately relaxed her grip.  "Omygosh," she said softly, "I'm sorry, Reep.  Did I hurt you?"

"Nah," he said, looking back with a wink, "I just wanted to break the silence. Its about as icy as a comet on this trip."

"Apparition and I just aren't communicating very well," she said evenly, outside of the comms channel, "Not like we ever really did."

"Well, you know you could always....," Cham began.

"I mean I get that we're a big team," Vi interrupted, "and we have our own little groups and everything, so it makes getting to know everyone kind of hard."

"But..."

"Still," Vi continued, her grip on Cham's neck was starting to grow tighter again, "We're on the same squad for grife's sake.  You'd think that she'd at least spend ten minutes engaging me in polite conversation."

"I know but you have to consider..."

"I mean I get that we're from totally different sides of the tracks, right?" Vi's grip squeezed just a little tighter. "But that doesn't excuse someone from treating you like you're practically non-existent, right?"

"That must have been – ow! – a fun trip on the cruiser..."

"Oh, you have no idea, Cham!" Vi gritted squeezing even harder, "The little princess wouldn't even get her fingernails dirty to help fix up the ship!"

"Vi, speaking of fingernails?" Reep finally asked.

"Yeah, Cham?"

"Yours are digging into my back!" Reep said gasping. "NOW, you're squeezing too tight. It's a good thing this form doesn't have tear ducts!"

Violet immediately relaxed her grip, letting one hand go and using it to cover her mouth in embarrassment. "Oh gods," she said, "I'm so sorry!"

"Maybe we can continue this conversation after we get back?" Reep suggested.

"I'd like that," Vi said trying to smile and changing the subject. "How are you and Ayla doing? She seems excited to tell Garth she's his older sister."

Reep paused a moment before answering. "Yeah.  I guess things are OK," he said, "It's a relief to see her and she's certainly happy to be back with the team again.  It's just that she seems a little more... distant I guess. She's much more on edge than she used to be."

"I think that's just a natural side effect of being controlled by others," Vi said seriously, "Trust me on this.  But just be there for her.  She's going to need her friends." She thought about Ayla's situation for a minute. "Maybe when things calm down a little and we put Meta in his place, I can talk to her."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Reep said at length. This had been more difficult for him to talk about than he had expected. "Thanks for that."

After twenty more minutes of flight and sporadic conversation, the gray reinforced passage that led kilometers to the city off to their right and towards the mountains and a large reinforced large boxy structure to the left appeared on the horizon.  The Legionnaires slowed down so as to not overshoot the passage, and Vi jumped off Cham's back growing as large as his avian form to keep up the same speed.

"It should be just down this way a few meters," Reep said and banked to the right, following the outside of the passage until a large rectangular hatch could be seen one one side of a connecting building that served the purpose of connecting two sections of the tunnel together.  He transformed back into his humanoid form. 

"Let me take a look first," Apparition said, and drifted to the top of the structure, phasing her head through the roof in order to look inside. After a moment she pulled back.  "We need to be careful," she said, "Inside the tunnel there is a power line with a catwalk on either side running down the length of the tunnel. There are two guards below, so you'll need to go in as low as you can."

Reep switched his communicator to message Saturn Girl. "E-Squad to base. We're heading in," he said quickly. "OK, let's go," he said and turned himself into a gelatinous form that oozed down the side of the outer wall towards the ground and into the construction seams.   Violet shrank down to follow in Reep's path, while Tinya went down the outer side of the tunnel wall, then simply floated right through the ground to emerge on the bottom of the tunnel's interior.

Once inside and on the bottom most surface of the tunnel, Reep reconstituted himself into his humanoid self and Tinya phased into physical form.  A moment later, Vi re-emerged from the seam, still tiny. "Sorry that took so long," she thought over the telepathic ear plugs, "It was pretty tight in there." The interior of the tunnel was rather wide, around ten meters diameter.  A scaffolding ran the length of the tunnel parallel to a wide translucent power conduit that ran from its source to the north all the way, presumably, to a transformer station at Starhaven City.  At regular intervals, a scaffolded stairway led over the conduit to enable a person to cross to the other parallel catwalk.  A dull grey light shone in the chamber punctuated by a pulse of blue-white energy that moved from north to south.  Two human Starhaven guards clad in their black and scarlet uniforms, one on each side of the conduit, stood watch, clearly bored.

"I'll get the one on the far side," Vi said and flew to the further catwalk.

"Wait for my signal," Reep replied and turning into a fly, flew up to be behind the closer guard.  Tinya had moved to be on the other side of Reep's guard, but just below the catwalk and again had turned herself intangible. Reep then morphed into an identical copy of the man standing in front of him. "Now," Cham said aloud.

The guard in front of Reep started and turned quickly, but was shocked to stillness as he saw his own face staring back with a smile.  "Hi there," he said, "Terribly sorry about this." As he spoke, Tinya floated up through the catwalk, turned tangible and threw a punch at the back of the guard's head, knocking him unconscious.  Meanwhile, on the other side of the conduit, Violet had taken the direct approach and used the momentum of her shoulder as well as growing from a centimeter to normal size to connect her fist with the side of the other guard's head, also knocking him out.  Vi drifted over to the other side to join Reep and Tinya.

"Nice work, team," Reep said.  He looked down at himself and said, "I think I'll stay in this form for a while.  It may come in handy."

Tinya was focused on the energy conduit. "Was this why they were holding Ayla captive?" Tinya said as an energy pulse passed them by briefly illuminating them in blue light.

Reep shook his head.  "No, she distinctly remembers her cell to be adjacent to the palace," he said, "They kept her near that facility creating the Sentinels to energize them.  This has to be something else.  A more powerful source of energy."

"I wish Brainy were here," Violet said, "I don't know what this energy is, but it seems like it should be too advanced for Starhaven from what we've seen."

Tinya turned and looked up the tunnel.  "You two head down to get metal boy," she said determinedly, "I'll check out what's this way." She flew off in the tunnel using her flight ring to find the source of the energy pulses.

"Tinya!" Reep hissed, "Grife, we're supposed to stay together!"

"Keep in touch," Tinya's voice came over their earpieces, "I'll signal you!"

Vi stared at Reep and raised her eyebrows at him in exasperation.  "See?" she asked, "Now come on, let's find Andy!" Vi took off and started flying down the tunnel in the opposite direction.

Reep closed his eyes and shook his head.  "Okay, Reep, sure you're in charge of the mission," he said to himself and took off to the south, catching up to Violet.  "Vi," he called using the telepathic earplugs, "make sure you're beneath the catwalk level. There's sure to be more guards."

Vi adjusted her flight accordingly as Reep caught up to her.  Both reduced their physical sizes to have a lower profile as they flew swiftly south. As expected, there were more guards at other intervals, but the pair easily flew beneath them, every few minutes a pulse of energy passing them from behind as it followed the passage south until the passage stopped at large alcove that spanned the width of the tunnel.  The power conduit entered the wall at a junction into what they assumed to be the main power distribution facility for Starhaven city.  The junction area had two doors on either side of the conduit junction leading to the facility on the facing walls, and doors set in both walls on the sides.  Guards were positioned in front of each door.  Reep and Violet shrunk even smaller and drifted up to decide their plan.

"We need to go through the power station," Reep thought via earplugs, "so let's straight ahead.  I'll get down into an insect form, while you do your thing and we can go under the door." Vi nodded and shrank down to a centimeter while Reep changed into a Sklarian sandfly. Within moments they had slipped under the door and were in a new cavernous building, where the conduit continued to travel into a massive transformer, diverting the energy to the palace, the starport and the city itself.  They flew as high as they could in the chamber to survey the area.

"We're gonna need to split up, aren't we?" Violet asked.

"Looks like it," Reep replied then called into the comm channel, "Apparition, we've entered the main power station, do you read?"

Tinya's voice filtered into their earplugs with some static. "I read you ...ameleon...," it said, "I... still traveling... the tunnel."

Reep shook his head in frustration.  "This is not good. Here," he said as he reached into his belt pouch and grabbed one of the two solutions that Brainiac 5 had handed to him then tossed it to Violet, "Pick a direction and try to keep in contact.  Hopefully we won't have much interference back here."

Violet caught the hypo and stashed it in her belt. "I'll go right, you go left," she said and flew off.

Reep turned left then flew down and to the left, slipping under another door.  In a corridor with no guards, he transformed back into the shape of the guard they had encountered earlier, he started walking down the marble surfaced hallway, the heels of his boots echoing through the empty space.

yay! so stoked to see the next part up so soon!

great bit with Vi and Tinya, I expected you would go that route re why Vi has issues. And you executed it very well, I can totally imagine poor orphaned Vi being resentful that rich pampered Tinya did not really deign to get to know her. And this ties into why/how Vi originally attracted the Eye: feeling ignored.

Excellent reference to Vi's possession by the Eye, and how it gives her insight into what Ayla is going through

"metal boy?" umph lol, and I thought Tinya had bonded a bit with Ferro in the 20th century makes sense Vi would use Tinya's going off on her own as an example of her being all princess-y

and also LOL at Reep sighing at Vi ALSO taking off...

I do think Tinya is on to something, so hope the splitting up will pay off (after all, part of the mission IS recon...!)

Thanks! I'm trying to chunk these out, as its looking like all of chapter 1 is going to be as big as issue 126!!!


Bingo - and even though she's grown from the experience, she's still going to have residual issues from it, as well as the people that made her feel that way. And when the pressure's on and your stuck with that person, those feelings tend to release in unhealthy ways. Coincidentally, I just watched "Last Night in Soho" and this very much reminded me of the experience that Ellie, the protagonist, has her first night in college with her dorm mates.


Yep, those two will have a lot more common ground after this is all done.


Dunno if I went too far here - I need to revisit the 20th C stuff again. Its an easy change, if so.


I had to do it, cause I can just see Reep doing that. Its also a bit of a reflection of Vi and Tinya each being headstrong characters in their own rights, but coming at it from totally different starting points.

Hi GL, now that I am caught up some thoughts!

I really liked the quote from 3085, nice take on the old Encyclopedia Galactica entries that Levitz used to do!

The debate between the Starhavenites and Imra was well done also, I like that it came up because while Imra as usual is right I can see how it just looks like self-interest to someone who doesn't know the Legion that well yet.

Good team breakups - Vi trying to diplomatically tell Zoe she's not the most subtle person in the universe gave me a laugh

Vi seeing Ayla's perspective on being mind-controlled was something I probably wouldn't have thought of but makes total sense and was a good inclusion! Another thing that never really occurred to me was that of course Tinya would be able to make herself difficult to see, it's such an obvious application of her powers in retrospect! I might steal that one from you somewhere down the track!

I am enjoying the Espionage Squad in action...maybe two thirds of them aren't exactly best buddies but I like that they're still basically professionals and good at what they do!

Looking forward to the next bit!

re Tinya calling Ferro "metal boy", it could work. I guess I'm just laser-focused on the period from LSH 102/L* 58 to LSH 121, where Tinya was generally very level-headed and kind (after resolving many of her issues with Winema, and getting therapy to sort out her origins). highlights: L*74, she befriends Mysa, calls Jo out for not caring about Dragonmage being grievously injured; L*58 she helps support Ferro when he is considering switching to metal form forever so he can be resculpted into a handsome man (Vi and the rest of the Squad were also there, come to think of it, and that was a very positive scene so it fed into my (mis)conceptions that Vi/Tinya were closer than I thought they were!)

and while intangible in LSGH 93, Tinya was the one who picked upt that Ferro was distracted by twin bro Andy, and she got Jo to lend his flight ring to Ferro(and this was during her big drama jealousy re Jo being able to touch Shvaughn, but not herself)

totally agree that Vi and Tinya both tend to be very headstrong; while Cham is a more sensible and sensitive and thoughtful type very attuned to the feelings of those around him!

Thanks, raz! I really liked those Levitz bits too - those (as well as in other works like Frank Herbert or Douglas Adams, hell, even DnA!) add a lot of cool elements that add texture to the world and you can even add other bits of texture that are fun!


Yeah, I felt like this needed to be addressed - when I did the first pass, it felt like it was missing, so added at least a page of text!


Thank you. That was the intent, as Zoe is not. At all.


You are absolutely welcome to! I feel like they've done this (especially Jeff Moy) visually a bunch without calling it out too much, so I'm kinda stealing that. And Ayla (and Jan for that matter) is a pretty good friend to Vi, so it felt like it's in Vi's nature to want to help Ayla, especially when it is on something where they have common ground.


Thanks, Raz! I appreciate it!!

I definitely need to go back and go through those issues....


Those antennae are useful to get things in tune!

Hey GL, just noticed how much I've missed, I have some time tomorrow and Friday so will try to give you a decent review then.

Thanks Harbi! No rush as I'm just about to post the end of chapter 1! (yikes)

Then I can take a small break and catch up on y'all's stuff before I polish up what I have for chapter 2. It never ends, right?

Reep turned left then flew down and to the left, slipping under another door.  In a corridor with no guards, he transformed back into the shape of the guard they had encountered earlier, he started walking down the marble surfaced hallway, the heels of his boots echoing through the empty space. A wave of apprehension pushed through him as two more uniformed soldiers were walking towards him.  He carried on, without breaking stride, as they approached.

"Hey, Seth," one of them called, "Get out of sleepy detail?"

Reep gestured to his throat, and coughed, trying to indicate that he was sick as he kept walking.

"Oh, OK," the man called as his voice receded, "feel better, mate!"

Reep quickened his pace down the hallway faster, passing several doors on either side until the hallway ended in a single door. He opened it to find a large rectangular room with doors on all the other three walls and a large desk with a guard seated behind it to the right.  The door behind the desk was labeled RESTRICTED.  The man finished tapping something out on a keyboard and looked up.

"Martinez, what are you doing here?" the man asked.  His eyes squinted and he frowned as he looked over Reep. "You are not supposed to be off your shift for hours yet."

"Uuuuh, sorry sir," Reep said, trying to be as calm as possible and continued on in a raspy voice, "I had to step back.  Was feeling sick." He started to affect a cough, covering his mouth.

The man shook his head. "This is not the kind of thing you need on your record, Martinez," he said. "Get on with you then." He punched a couple of other keystrokes on his keyboard and gestured with his thumb at the door to Reep's left.

"Thanks," Reep said and shifted his eyes to the door behind the desk.  He turned to go out the left door as the man turned his attention to his workstation.  Reep opened the door and as he swung it open, he transformed himself into a centipede, crawling along the corners of the room until he could crawl under the restricted door.  As soon as he crossed under the door, he morphed back into his usual Legionnaire form.

The room had just the one door and had a plain medical recliner in the center sitting atop a low platform.  A table and IV stand were next to the chair and wires ran from the chair out to receptacles in the wall. Reep glanced at the recliner and noticed the ankle and wrist shackles and with a shudder realized that this was where Ayla had been captive and drained of her energies.

As he stood and took in the scene, almost as if his thoughts were being listened to, the lights in the room began to surge wildly.  Outside in the antechamber, Reep could hear a commotion beginning to build. With nothing else to view here, he transformed again into a small insect and flew under the door, just as a series of troops ran back towards the power plant, including the officer who had been sitting at the workstation.  Taking advantage, Reep transformed back again to duplicate the guard he had been impersonating and pulled up a map of the facility on the workstation to find the detention wing.  Checking his bearings, he went back out the door leading to the power station and sprinted.

Reep was approaching the door leading to the Detention block when he saw a large group was coming around the curve in the corridor, among them the two guards they had overpowered earlier.  He stopped short of the door just as the group stopped at seeing him.  They looked at Reep, then at the bruised authentic copy in their ranks.  "Hey, that's not Martinez!" one of them shouted, "Get him!"

Opening the door and moving as fast as possible, Reep pounded down the hallway with the group of guards on his tail.  He turned his head to gauge how much distance he had when Reep heard a sandy slither and slammed into what felt like a gritty wall.

"Where do you think you're going, Legionnaire?" Dune asked as a surprised Reep looked up at the massive, sandy form in front of him.


Violet found several passages on her side of the power plant, most of which went to more machinery that fed conduits that ran to other parts of the city. Finally, she found a sublevel maintenance corridor that ran towards the palace, construction grey filled with multicolored pipes and conduits. At the end of the passage, she slipped through an access grate above her and sped through what was still an empty gray corridor, but this at least had a sign at the closest intersection and arrows directing to several areas in the complex including one that said "DETENTION." 

She flew through the corridors, following the directions while staying small and high to avoid detection from the occasional guards who she would pass, eventually slipping into the detention area itself.  As soon as she flew in, the lights inside began to surge and the guards went on alert.  Thinking it she may have triggered an alarm, Violet shrunk even more and scanned the inside of the block for any signs of her being discovered when she noticed the barred door of the high-security unit. Behind that were another, smaller number of cells, one of which had a light glowing under the door gap.  She flew through the bars of the gate, then shrank down to a centimeter to fly beneath the cell the door and grew back to a foot in size once through.  Vi swung up into the air and covered her mouth with both hands in shock.

Andrew Nolan was splayed out in the air, his limbs bound behind him as he hung in the air with his head lolling down. His forearms were encased in some kind of alloy that matched what encased his legs below the knees.  Ferro had clearly been subjected to torture; blood seeped through his torn uniform at various parts of his torso with several burn marks. Blood also dripped onto the floor from his helmet.

Violet's eyes started to water as she saw her friend in such distress and she swung close to Andy's face.  "Andy," she called, "Andy, can you hear me?" She grew to normal size.  "ANDY?!"  Her panic started to ease a bit as she felt a thready pulse at his neck. Andy stirred at Vi's touch and his head rolled over and focused on her.

"Vi..." he said in a scratchy voice, "You need to get out of here."

"Not without you," she said as she touched the side of his helmet, "What did they do to you?"

"It was Meta," he said, "The only one who could really work me over." His voice started to gain strength. "Listen you just need to get out of here..."

With that the cell door flew open and time stopped for Violet.



Tinya's passage north was a very similar to that of Reep and Violet's south in that the tunnel seemed to never end.  She was concerned that the interference seemed to grow the closer that she came to the energy source; every time an energy pulse passed through the conduit, it seemed to scramble any communication capability from the flight ring as she would temporarily loose the homing signal indicating Reep and Violet's relative locations. Before long the end of the tunnel was in sight; the northern terminus was a curved wall with two armed guards standing on either side of a reinforced hatch of thick metal.  On either side of the hatch were signs stating "DANGER: PROJECT STARFIRE ENERGY GENERATION SYSTEM. ACCESS BY IMPERIAL DECREE ONLY." She easily passed through the wall from below and entered a spherical chamber.

Within the sphere, the interior wall was lined with hexagonal tiles that surrounded a platform holding eight power receiving nodes arranged as in the corners of a cube.  Within the cube space floated a shifting blob of energy that would discharge randomly into one of the nodes which would slowly brighten the room until the collector dimmed as the collected energy discharged down the conduit towards the capitol.  The process would repeat every few minutes.

Tinya drifted up to get a better look.  "Oh grife...." She gasped and turned on the communicator to the entire Legion, "This is Apparition to Chameleon, I found the energy source...Come in Cham... Cham?  Violet?  Anyone?" The energy began to pulse faster and more erratically as she spoke, almost as if it were trying to communicate.



Zoe had been pacing the floor in the common room at the safehouse lodge, watching one of Brainy's screens that was tracking the espionage squad's progress along with Imra and Brainy himself, who was also occupying himself with several other tasks, including monitoring the existing location and status of the Legion Outpost, docked on the orbiting spaceport that was tethered to the planet.  Zoe and Imra were solely focused on the three dots on the screen tracking the team's entry into the access tunnel. Two dots moved south, while one moved north.

Imra zoomed in on the sole blip and saw Apparition's avatar on the screen. "What the nass does Tinya think she's doing?" Imra asked aloud to no one in particular.  Zoe saw what was going and began to fidget with the insignia badge hanging at her neck.  After some time, Reep and Vi had reached the southern end by the power plant, while Tinya was still some ways away from the northern terminus.  Reep and Violet split up and meandered from the power station to various locations closer to the palace before seeming to start converging.  Around this time, Tinya's marker drifted inside the northern end and stopped

Her voice popped over the in room speakers. "...pparition...energy...Cham...Viol..." before it cut out completely, along with the tactical display icons of the Legionnaires.

"Grife, Brainy, what just happened?" Zoe asked.

Annoyed, Brainy switched his focus to the screen that had been the tactical display. "I do not know," he said. His eyebrows drew in from concentration and frustration. "It looks like there is massive interference from that power source that is affecting the entire palace," he said, "I don't have readings from anyone."

Before he had even finished speaking, Zoe had conjured a thick hooded poncho over her uniform, decorated with curved patterns in gray and gold, similar to a style that she had seen on the streets and vids of Starhaven.  Imra turned to see Zoe in her new cover and said, "What are you doing Kinetix?"

Zoe looked Imra in the eye. "They need help," she said, pulling hood over her head, her determined eyes flashing green from underneath. She turned to leave the lodge.

Imra reached out to grab Zoe's arm. "Kinetix?!" she called, "Stop!  Do not go out that door! We need you here!"

Zoe pulled her arm away.  "No," She said, "Vi needs me there. You heard the transmission." Zoe turned to leave. "Don't try to stop me, Imra," she said then paused a moment and looked back. "I have to help," she said in a softer tone, "I wish I could be like you and let her go off like you can with Garth, but I just can't."  She rushed out the back door and leapt into the air, focusing on her flight ring to move close to the speed of sound straight at Violet's last known position – the Imperial Palace.  She was gone in the blink of an eye into the yellow sunrise.

Imra stared at the direction Zoe had sped off and frowned. Zoes comment had brought her thoughts for Garth, abs well as the rest of the Manitou team, to the forefront. No one had heard from anyone there, Legion or Resistance, for days. "Grife," she said in frustration and fought down the sudden welling of emotion for Garth.  Imra turned to go back into the dining room of the house where most of the Legionnaires were gathering for a small breakfast and found Rokk, Dayvid and Greatfire.  "We need to get everyone prepared," she said, "It looks like the diversions are starting earlier than we expected."

End Chapter 1

Whoo way to up the ante!

Zoe to the rescue - headstrong, but she didn’t give Imra too much attitude . That’s what I like about Zoe, she gives bass only to those who deserve it

Lol at Imra calling Tinya out

And the worry for Garth…

The energy source is Wildfire!!! It must be!!! Whoohoo

Poor Ferro… and what can Vi do against Jaz… and uh oh, that’s the problem with impersonations, if there’s a dupe…

This is gonna be epic.

It's funny, Ibby - almost everything you're commenting on for this last part were all last minute adds/revisions.

But Thank you!

Poor Andy!!

Poor Vi!! Although if this leads to a Kinetix/Kid Q tussle, that could be interesting to see! They are both pretty powerful but in very different ways!

I am not too worried about Cham, he's a smart cookie

And I am with IB, that has gotta be Wildfire! I was suspicious with the energy pulses on their own, but now I'm positive! Or whatever the anti-energy equivalent of positive is lol

shows that revising is good hee hee

man, a Kinetix / Kid Q battle would be super interesting! Reminds me of the couple of panels we got of Kid Q vs. the Progenitor in Legion Lost 12

First off, sorry for the gap between reviews - please message me when you put up new sections so I can keep up-to-date, thanks.

My thoughts as I'm reading this:

Imra is the go-to Legionnaire in every boot, isn't she? Her telepathically trying to wake up Jan and Ayla was nicely written; well done filling in their back storyleading them to this point, and their shame at what Meta had them do is understandable. Ayla asking after Reep and Garth was sweet.

Dayvid and Greyfire aren't experienced at being stealthy, are they?

Tasmia and Zoe's little spat was fun! Hope that leads somewhere as friction in a team is always an entertaining read, especiallly when neither are entirely in the wrong.

Glad to hear the resistance has a man on the inside, that'll definitely help! Not sure if he's all that competent given what we've seen so far but he's survived this long so fingers are crossed! Trackers and Pathfinders are different, good, there was too much overlap with Shikar's abilities back in the day.

Good to see Ayla and Jan back on their feet, hopefully they'll keep it together enough not to lose it if/when they go face to face with Meta and his crew.

Nice to see Chuck being useful and helping Brainy with strategy.

Great cliffhanger - 'dead or alive!' eek!

Ayla is pissed - watch out! Pity she missed Repulse as he really does deserve a bolt of lightning to the face.

Smart of Imra to stay close to her more physically destructive teammates. Also, nice you're limiting Jan's powers so he can only ifluence one sentinel at a time, no changing the plaanetary atmosphere to defeat an overpowering force in this story! Zoe puppeting he sentinels was clever, good move!

Brainy being Brainy... yeah, it always looks bad when he does these random stunts but I'd trust him amping up the distress signal. The guy ain't stupid y'know Chuck

Mon El to the rescue! Fantastic, he's the Legionnaire you'd most want to arrive when you're being overpowered isn't he?

Sensor being mistaken for Quetzacoatl was strange - were their ancestors Aztecs in your version?

Great use of Cosmic Boy slamming the sentinels into the mountain!

Very sweet reuinion of Zoe and Vi, bless them.

"If Meta only has his Workforce goons as his main support base, we can take him down, along with his empire. We have a lot of work to do." umm counting chickens before they've hatched I fear.

Is Dawnstar using Hawkgirl's mace there? Nice

Meta is a nasty man, taunting the Legionnaires like that. I can just imagine how much he'd enjoy doing it too. Garth being anxious over Ayla is understandable.

Jo throwing Meta through one of his own ships then telling Garth off for being a hothead was great. Nice character growth there.

What is Lyle up to? TBH he's one Legionnaire I never really liked so if he vanishes and isn't seen again I won't mind

XS and Gates being tactical in the battle is god to read, not all Legionnares are impulsive (Garth I'm looking at you)

Val really is fearless isn't he? Going up against Meta is pretty suicidal. Nice save from Dawnstar.

You write the fight scenes really well. I don't like writing them so struggle but yours really flow well. Well done!

Poor Jo taking that beating, but he's the only one who could survive it on this team. So why did Meta leave? I take it that Lyle did something sneaky to distract him?

Ah, there's Lyle on the cruiser, nice save there.

So, Meta's gone to check on his palace and situation at home. Wouldn't want to be Dune having to explain what hapened.

Good to see Ferro have some fun despite his dreadful situation - "I could do this all day" haha

Is Om-Vir the real name of Meta? I didn't read the reboot so have no clue.

Ouch! Blasting an arm off id serious punishment! Repulse should have seen that coming really as Meta is clearly crazy.

"Any citizen of Starhaven found to be providing assistance of any kind to this Legion will be subject to immediate execution." Ah, things just got even more serious! Another great section there GL.

Not sure I agree with Imra not getting involvedand focussing on retrieving her teammates first, but okay... it does lead to the espionage Squad getting some action though so I'm not complaining too loudly

Zoe and Tasmia on the same team - there's going to be fireworks, isn't there?

Brainy's plan seems quite sound, distract while removing the Outpost, destroying the factory where sentinals are built and confronting Workforce.

Zoe doesn't really scream competent espionage team member really, does she, so wise to keep her off that team. Her lashing out at Tinya was unexpected though not uncalled for, PG can be a princess and does need reminding of facts from time to time. Your Zoe is a lot more fiesty than I usually think of her and I really like it.

Right, I've run out of time now but will get back next week to finish this review.

GL, this is great fun and I've thoroughly enjoyed it, please do message me when you put anything more up as I'm often not around so can easily miss things.

Anyway, thanks again for sharing as this has been fun, and I'm looking forward to more, more, more!

C

Oh no worries at all! I'm just happy you're reading!


With Jan, I feel like he's too often portrayed as almost god-like, when he actually has a limited power set when you think about it. Don't get me wrong, he's powerful, but there has to be some kind of a focused range. For Zoe's little stunt, my first envisioning was that she'd build it around herself like some kind of mecha, but I thought that might be a bit too much.


This is a really good question, as I've been wondering how much backstory to shove into this. The main thread here is that the scientists from First Nation tribes in the US decided on this plan to rally their tribes to leave Earth and settle elsewhere; they knew that there was power in numbers. To boost their population, they reached out to indigenous peoples outside of the US and to the broader American continents, as well as a few other places, so some of these folks brought their own mythologies with them. Space travel would naturally alter the view of myth and religion, and even more so when some of the population gained the pathfinder gifts. So now, hundreds of years later, you have this society where some tribes have merged and beliefs altered, so certain archetypes and deities can merge or alter as well. Who knows, maybe the Orandans visited the ancient meso-American civilizations?


I felt like Dawny needed something to kick ass with.


Wow! Thank you, Harbi! High praise indeed! Truth be told, I agonize over these, and its part of the reason it takes me so long!


Another great question! Meta, as far as I'm aware, did not have a civilian name, as he was only in two issues (maybe only the one). Come to think of it, I don't think ANY of the Workforce were given actual names. But I wanted to go for something that sounded Daxamite-ish, then I remembered Ol-Vir from the classic Legion, so I just changed the 'L' to an 'M' to be kind of an homage, but not using the character himself.

Repulse as Kort Grezz, of course, is Magno Lad of the LSV from the prior continuity. I don't think DnA ever made that connection there.


Repulse isn't too bright.


As I see it Zoe is the nicest person in the world. But if you somehow cross her, prepare for her wrath.


Absolutely! I really appreciate you reading and your comments!

good point re the "powerful" trio of Element Lad, Kinetix, and Kid Quantum II. I will add Zoe and Jazmin here, all three cna do a lot BUT they do have a range and mass limit - so they can't make magic happen, let's say



I gotta say GL, your version of Zoe speaks to me so much. you take the elements of classic Zoe and highlight them, and I can relate - I am also nice, but when crossed I can really lay it down and that is exactly how I read your Zoe, she's generally nice, kind and caring - but can give a talking-to to those who deserve it!!

I don't think that they ever really say what most of their limits are in the reboot; its just whatever the story needs. Which I guess is one of the reasons why Legion Lost rubbed me the wrong way - Jan's depicted as godlike AND a theoretical physics genius! The 3boot had a good angle that they started with for him where his power only lasted for a limited amount of time (a couple minutes IIRC), but it made no sense in practice, as if he would convert one element, let's say nickel - into a gas like Argon, physics dictates that it would disperse, so either that destroys the thing or does some kind of damage.


Thank you, Ibby! Coming from the worlds biggest Kinetix fan, that is high praise! I just tried to take what Stern & Merlo put on the page, as there are plenty of examples. She's not that difficult a character to write, at least I find it so(I think I need to work on more sarcasm, tbh ). I don't know why she got sidelined so much in the McAvennie era. Maybe he had a problem with the character, I dunno, as it was when he took over when she went sideways.

re Jan in Legion Lost, yeah... the power usage was OK in my mind, as he "evolved" before he became the Progenitor. I can gloss over the "using his powers to keep the Legion alive, keep himself alive, AND bring the Outpost back into reality" bit as he has shown similar levels before, barely. and I agree, the 3boot went too far in the other direction.... having to touch the objects he transmutes, oh dear, makes it tougher for gases. and the time limit, also oh dear. for reasons you said, but also... in a combat situation, then he has to keep touching say, an enemy's weapon? not very handy...

but the calculations bit before jumping back into reality, like HOW was he smart enough to do that? but ok, handwaving.

Zoe was also not written consistently all the time, although one saving grace is they limited the amount of mass she can affect from her first appearance ("no turning buildings into monsters" as she put it, which is still quite high but not too bad).

Jazmin, do not get me started. Even before DNA she was already doing some new things, and after DNA her levels slowly skyrocketed. in the Robotica story she suddenly became able to speed time up too...

and yeah, re Zoe's history. a bit sad, as she added a lot of spice to the mainly nicer team. DNA's treatment of her also baffled me, as her few lines of dialogue under them showed they "got"
her, and they gave her a couple decent power displays. it is like they badly needed a deus ex machina and thought Zoe's background would fit it... but what a waste of her personality! and the deus ex machina- Terrorform powers did NOT help!

So, I'm back to get up to date - my thoughts as I'm reading:

Vi having a little rant to Cham was interesting. We're used to her being quite meek so it's good to see the stresss getting to her a bit and her needing to vent. And her empathy with Ayla being distant was sweet; nice insight. A more powerful source of energy... Wildfire perhaps? It wouldn't be the first time he's been siphoned to provide energy for a moraly bankrupt empire.

Tinya being the princess and deciding to go alone is kind of in charcter, she's always been a bit cocky.I guess being literally untouchable would make you like that. So, Reep and Vi are splitting up too to cover more ground - this isnn'y going to plan, is it? And, let's hope Tinya doesn't need a hypo...

Clever of Cham to feign illness rather than confrontthe guards. Oh dear. changing into an unconscious guards form only works as long as they remain unconscious and don't raise the alarm... And running into Dune is bad luck, things are away to get tricky for our favourite Durlan!

Poor Ferro, but at least it was him taking the beating and not one of his less durable teammates. Time stopping - ah, Jazmin?

Starfire energy - haha wasn't Starfre the original codename Dave Cockburn wanted for Drake?

Bless Zoe's impatience, we've all paced at one time or another the floor so know how she feels. Brainy getting annoyed at being distracted was cute, it must be really annoying being the go-to person whenever anyone wants some impossible bit of information. Zoe to the rescue! She can be impulsive but storming into an enemy's stronghold takes it to a new level.

Great stuff GL, very nice characterisation and action scenes, well done!

Now I'm up to date I need to ask, will there be more, more, more soon?

you got some things I didn't, Harbi! like Starfire being an original name for Drake! and there only being two hypos, leaving Tinya without one and also indeed Brainy's annoyance at being disrupted, especially when he is thinking about something else! all great bits!

I'm going to try for later this week! I wanted to get to it last week, but things were REAL busy. The good news is that I have it outlined, I just need to add to the skeleton, so it's just a matter of sitting down with enough time and silence.

I'd love to ask Waid about this at some point - did he realize he overstepped then just ignored it? It will be interesting to see if Shooter does anything with this. But to your other point, I can see Jan somehow evolving himself - he was able to un-crystallize himself after Mordru, for example.


Yeah that had to be plot-required, but it would have been better done if Brainy had left some notes or something....


Yep, and didn't it change a bit from when she was pre-tail to post-tail?


I mean I get that they could have a hero figure out new tricks, but you're right. Hey, it helps when you're the writers favorite.


It's another "if I could ask the editor" things - like you said, DnA could write her personality (to a degree, anyway, we only get a few pages worth of "real" Zoe from them, but it stands to reason they could have kept going), but it's literally McAvennie's stewardship - as soon as he takes over she goes to the anomaly. Luckily we get a few issues of her normal before she's Terrorformed! It's only when Wacker is editor when she starts talking normally again, but that was literally for one panel.

yeah agree, thanks for pointing out re McAvennie - I should have checked that he had the helm during both the Anomaly and with DNA!

re pre-tail and post-tail, I do not remember any comment re Zoe's mass/size power limit, but I do remember her only being able to affect inanimate objects before tail... then immediately after tail, with her first power usage, we see her smack Empress into a wall. Then blast Persuader directly with a raw bolt of power. So... there goes the inanimate objects thing. funny enough, in that horrible Titans/Legion Universe Ablaze story, Zoe's power is given as "controls inanimate objects"... but we never once see her use her powers in that story, lol! just lol at how bad that was!


re Jan, I guess what they were banking on was that we would just be stunned enough by everything being revealed, to buy the Progenitor story as barely plausible lol

As Starhaven's sun began to climb over the capitol city, people were already out of their houses and lodges, as an Imperial search force had raided the Nez Perce district just after dawn.  The force, consisting of ground troops reinforced by several winged soldiers from above, had pulled out a score of tribesmen, both winged and original human, and were herding them at gunpoint towards the district's central spire, while dozens more followed out of fear and curiosity to witness the scene and state media cameras filming the event.  One older Pathfinder was pushed to the forefront by the armed soldiers, his grey hair pulled back in a disheveled ponytail contrasting against his dark clothes. The white wings of the man seemed atrophied somewhat from disuse, but he held himself proudly as he was ushered forward to stand before a visored man partially encased in a metal sheath and a cloaked woman who stood atop the steps leading up to the  building entrance. 

The old man was roughly shoved up the steps until he was a few steps beneath the scowling, visored man, standing beneath the building's awning, which wrapped around the perimeter with decorative supports jutting upwards at an angle every ten meters, hung with orange and red decorative banners. The visored man looked down, reached out his arm as a silver filament shot out and wrapped itself around the old Pathfinder's neck. "TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE," Repulse yelled as another filament tendril lashed out and struck the Starhaven elder across the temple. "WE KNOW THEY WERE HERE."

The man, even with cold liquid metal wrapped around his neck, appraised Repulse with an air of derision. "Why should I talk to a bootlicker like you?" he croaked out with as much disdain as he could muster, "You aren't the true chiefs of Starhaven," he gasped, "You never were. You think your powers make you invincible, but your pride will be the end of you." The man's grey eyes burned with defiance.

A steady, deep voice, but one full of menace, spoke from behind the spire as its owner drifted down and around the face of the building from above. "Kort," Meta said, "Allow me." His dark cloak billowed behind him as he drifted down towards the scene, flanked by personal aerial guards.  His eyes gleamed from beneath his hood as he drifted closer, but still above the awning around the spire. "Chief Martinn Joseph of tribe Nez Perce," he said, "You can spare yourself, and your tribe of all this suffering. You just have to answer a simple question." He stopped drifting and hovered above all. "Where is the Legion?"

"I don't address those who have not undergone the trial of Wysoccan as an equal," the old man said defiantly.

"Very well," the emperor said simply. "Kort?"

Repulse, still holding the chief around the neck via a filament extending from his arm, nodded and sent two more strands out, wrapping around the man's forearms and lifting him into the air.  With his free hand he signaled soldiers to the side who were guarding the other prisoners.  Those soldiers pulled three of the prisoners, fellow Starhaven citizens, aside. "Your turn, Amber," he said.

The cloaked woman lifted an arm and with a gesture three ochre bubbles formed around the heads of the three prisoners. Instantly they began to convulse from the lack of air, which only became worse over the course of the next few moments. Joseph's face twisted in a combination of anger and fear at the torture of his friends.

"All this humiliation and torture you and your fellows are facing in front of your tribe for what? Some outworlders?" Meta asked with mild amusement. He nodded to Amber, who snapped her fingers and the bubbles of viscous liquid disappeared as fast as they had been conjured. The three prisoners gasped noisily and spat sap onto the ground. "You have served the citizens of the Nez Perce, and Starhaven as a whole, for most of your life," Meta concluded.

The old Chief glared at Meta and even with his throat constricted managed to shout. "Outworlders?  Who is the real outworlder here? Starhaven was a wonderful republic before you arrived. We built the society that we had always wanted until you came here and ruined it! Outworlder. Now you've corrupted it all! We've become the society we left behind to follow your false promises..."

Repulse hoisted him up farther and tightened the grip around the chief's throat, cutting off his speech. "We'll find out where the Legion is eventually, old man," Repulse said in an almost tired voice, "even if we have to tear this world apart."

A rasping sound came from the old chief, and it took a moment to realize that he was laughing.  Meta scowled and said, "Very well."  Two red beams shot out from Meta's hood and burned through the chief's chest, instantly killing him.  His body went limp in Repulse's bonds as he hung in the air.  Meta then fired his eye beams at the three prisoners and sliced them apart as he burned them.  Much of the crowd screamed and surged away from the building's perimeter "Let this serve as a warning and a reminder to all who choose to aid the Legion," he said then rose up into the air, "Retribution will be swift on conspirators and their communities."   Meta fired his beams into a nearby building, crumbling the façade and instantly setting it ablaze.  With that signal the imperial forces began to swoop in and target citizens from the air while the ground soldiers started ransacking the nearby structures.  As a final statement, Repulse swung the chief's body around and impaled it on the supports surrounding the lodge.  The dead chief's limbs dangled as Repulse retracted the metal filament tendrils back into his suit.  The gathered subjects began to flee in terror.

Meta drifted down to the steps of the lodge, standing next to Repulse and Amber.  "What do you think?" Amber asked in her silky voice, "Will this flush them out?"

Meta crossed his arms across his muscular chest. "The Legion are soft," he said, "They'll run out of hiding to defend the weak as we cull more of the sheep here."

"Well get ‘em, don't worry," Repulse said.

"You should guarantee that," Meta said as he turned to Repulse.  Even behind Meta's dark mask Repulse could almost feel the sneer on the emperor's face. "Unless you are looking forward to returning to the so-called United Planets?"

"No way boss," Repulse said as he shook his head, "I like being at the top of the food chain here."

Meta uncrossed his arms and levitated a meter off the ground. "I've spent years here building my empire. I will not let it go," he said. His eyes narrowed, "And never forget that I am atop your ‘food chain' here."

"Y-yes, boss," Repulse stuttered as he averted Meta's gaze.

At that moment, a large explosion erupted from the north and the power feeding the area failed. Meta quickly rose straight up in the air, paused a moment, then shot away, his winged forces stopping their assault on the citizens and following him as fast as they could keep up. 

Repulse turned to Amber who was staring at him with disappointment. "What are you looking at?" he said to her, "Let's get out of here." He bounded down the steps to the nearest hovercraft.

yay, more!

ugh... the chief was a great man. Meta did think this through, re the Legion would be compelled to help if they were here....

I like Amber staring at Repulse in disappointment. There's hope for her yet!

Legion Of Superheroes #130 - Coriolis, Chapter 2

Apparition stared at the energy discharges happening faster into the relays. "Cham, come in!," she shouted into her ring. "Sprock it! What's wrong with this stupid thing?" Tinya changed the ring mode to pull up homing signals for Chameleon and Vi, but only saw two faint signals that kept wobbling in and out of reception; she couldn't even determine which of her teammates the signals were supposed to be. "Grife, I'm gonna need to find them," she thought, then stared at the energy mass for a moment.

"Hey," Tinya said directly to the energy, "I'm just taking a wild guess here, but you're Drake, aren't you? All the Legionnaires who were on that station arrived here at different times and you were one of the first of us to disappear into the wormhole. Can you flash or something if you're Drake?"

The golden-orange mass of energy began to pulse rapidly at regular intervals in response.

"Holy sprock!" Tinya whispered. "Okay," she said aloud, "Since I don't have any way for you to talk to me, I need you to pulse once for 'yes' and twice for 'no', okay?"

She was returned with two distinct pulses.

Tinya rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but smile. "Really?" she asked, "You're going to joke at a time like this?"

One pulse.

She grinned despite herself. "Are you working with Meta?"

Two pulses.

"Is Meta holding you captive?"

One bright pulse. Meta found Drake after he came through the wormhole, and somehow is harnessing Drake's power, Tinya realized.

"How'd you like to help us take down Meta?"

Another single, brilliant pulse in response, so much so that Tinya had to shade her eyes and turn away for a moment.

"Okay then," she said blinking her eyes clear, "If I'm able to get you out of this contraption, I need you to travel down the conduit they've hooked you up to and take out their power station. It'd be pretty good payback for however long you've been stuck here."

Drake flashed another energy pulse.

Tinya looked around and saw the eight nodes pulling in Drake's energy were connected to posts that led to the walls of the spherical chamber. The posts connected to eight smaller conduits that collected into a black box set into the bottom curve of the chamber that led directly to the conduit itself on the outside as some kind of transformer.

"Drake, are you able to control which of these energy nodes you can discharge into?"

Two flashes.

"Okay, we just need to be careful then," Tinya said to herself.

Still intangible, Tinya floated up and passed her hand through one of the collection nodes, taking care to do it while missing a discharge, and the node popped and smoked in a short circuit. The result was Drake's energy starting to distend out of the virtual cube it was being held in, but still contained. "So it looks like we're going to do this the hard way," Tinya muttered. She repeated the process with three of the other nodes that faced the entrance to the energy discharge tunnel and Drake's energy mass started to push out of the cube and towards the transformer.

"Get into the circuit and go as fast as you can down the conduit!" Tinya called out as a tendril of Drake's energy touched the black box and created an arc from his old housing into the transformer, "I'll be right behind you!"

Drake's energy arc finally subsided as his essence fully transferred out of the cube and the chamber, so Tinya flew up, phased through the door and chased the brilliant flash of Drake's energy passing down the tunnel, illuminating the entire length with brilliant yellow light and wrecking the conduit from the northern source as it passed down towards the city. Tinya flew as fast as she could to chase him, phasing through all the catwalks, equipment and rocky barriers that were in the way, even as the guards began to panic and flee in confusion down the catwalk towards the main power station.

Tinya finally got to the end of the tunnel and flew straight through the wall into the main power plant chamber, where Drake's energy was still pouring in from the conduit, but it was quickly overloading every transformer and energy transfer unit within the building. Maintenance staff and guards alike dropped whatever they were doing and bolted for the exits as massive power arcs jumped between components and showers of sparks rained from more and more quarters, until finally the core of the building exploded. Tinya had to resist the urge to dodge as metal and concrete debris flew through her harmlessly.

As the smoke cleared, she could see Drake's amorphous energy shifting below, so she drifted down closer. "Drake, I need you to wait here," she said, "I'm going to get some help."

Drake pulsed several times as Tinya pulled up the tactical map from her ring to find her squadmates. To her pleasant surprise, her team signals were stronger and she dove towards the closest one.

yay! more good stuff.

Clever Tinya. thanks for writing her in a balanced way, despite her being the "bad guy" to Vi and Zoe, she's still a hero after all

So cool that Drake can still control his energy form well enough, despite a containment suit...

... and I guess whatever they destroyed was also what was dampening the ring signals eh?

Yeah, I mean c'mon, while she may be a snob, she's still a hero

Drake's had a lot of time on his hands to practice.

And yes, on the last question.

"As long as you stick with me, people will just see us as three Imperial guard officers," Jeka said as they landed discreetly outside a building by the Royal spaceport, "Just stay calm and stick to the plan."

Brainiac 5 disabled the force field which had carried Chuck Taine as they had flown from the safehouse. Imra had quickly gathered them after Kinetix had run off and told them they needed to accelerate the schedule. They quickly took off, using Sensor to hide their presence. "I’m still skeptical of this illusion casting," Brainy said.

Jeka’s tongue flicked briefly in annoyance. "Just think of my powers as a kind of science, Brainiac 5," she said, "Just because you can’t yet quantify their existence doesn’t make them less powerful in the right situation."

"Is that a challenge?" Brainy asked as his eyebrow shot up.

"It is a fact," Jeka replied simply and curled herself up into her hovering form so her space was compacted and no one would accidentally trip over a tail they couldn’t see.

"Can we just get moving?" Chuck urged, tired of the debate.

The three moved out of their cover and walked behind Jeka, who appeared as a ruddy woman with long silver hair in the black and red imperial uniform of a colonel. Chuck and Brainy, by comparison wore the illusion of two tall dark haired guards serving as escort. As the trio approached the base entry point the guards took note of her rank insignia and stood at attention. They walked past without incident and turned towards the landing fields, the space elevator tower base looming kilometers in the distance.

"Well, that wasn’t so bad, was it?" Chuck asked as they increased their pace towards the shuttles.

"A little trust goes a long way, doesn’t it, Charles?" Jeka asked. "Now once we get to a shuttle, I’m going to..." She was cut off as a loud explosion from the north, setting of chain reactions that reached the spaceport, igniting underground power cells and fuel storage. Instinctively, Brainy activated his force shield around himself and Chuck, deflecting some of the debris, but a chunk of tarmac hit Jeka square in the head. At once, the illusion faltered and they appeared as normal and her floating, coiled form dropped to the ground.

"Sensor!" Chuck cried and knelt down to help her only to be stopped by the force field. Several of the Starhaven Pathfinders had already lifted into the air when the explosion happened, and immediately saw the Legionnaires revert back into their natural forms. They tried to signal to others over their wireless systems, but they were useless, so they opted to charge the three instead and began to open fire shooting directly at Brainiac 5 and Chuck, with the bolts glancing harmlessly off Brainy's force field, but forcing the two of them away from Jeka's unconscious body as the Pathfinder squad formed a perimeter around her.

Brainy did a quick scan.  "She'll be fine, the team will get her later," he said, "but we need to get to that shuttle.  Move!"

Leaving Sensor, Chuck and Brainiac 5 moved as fast as they could, the force field adjusted to deflect any fire from the pursuers, half of whom had stopped to apprehend Jeka.  Sprinting as best as they could for fifty yards, Brainy jumped into an open shuttle's door as Chuck closed in, ten yards behind. Brainy reconfigured his shield to enclose the shuttle so that Chuck would be protected, then began the launch sequence.

Chuck finally dove on board and pressed he button to close the door and retract the ramp. "Brainy they’re shooting at us!" Chuck cried, as the pinging of deflected bolts bounced off the shield.

"Hang on!" Brainy called out as he deactivated his shield and pulled the control yoke back to hover into the air. With the shield down, the weapon fire could be heard impacting the actual hull of the shuttle, and Brainy steered the craft around so it faced their attackers, then hit the afterburners to surge towards the soldiers. Brainiac pulled back and the shuttle pointed up and shot into the sky as their pursuers scattered on the ground.

Chuck clambered into the co-pilot’s seat. "Nice flying, Brainy," he said, "But I think they are following us." He pointed at the proximity sensor and several armed Sentinels could be seen closing in from behind.

"I think I should confess that while my 12th level intellect allows for expertise in many subjects," Brainiac 5 said as the wing of their shuttle was clipped by blaster fire, "being a pilot is not one of them."

"Well, that’s just great," Chuck said, "Give me the controls. I’ve played enough Star Force Command to practice this in simulation." He took over and immediately put the craft into a barrel roll that had them pointing back down to the ground.

"Charles!" Warned Brainy.

"I got it I got it!" Chuck replied, "I just need to get my bearings with the controls!"

"Please do it before impact."

"Okay, here we go!" Chuck said and the shuttle leveled out and shot back into the sky. He banked the craft over so that he could see the path of the space elevator reaching out into the sky, with the orbital space port gleaming white beyond the atmosphere. Their pursuers, however, kept on their tail. "I can’t shake these guys," Chuck said in frustration.

"You boys need a little help?" a bright voice called over their earplugs.

The orange form of Candi Le Parc flashed by them for a moment then one of the Sentinels vanished from the sensor display.

"I’ve got the first ones, don’t you worry," Candi said, "I’ll let Umbra take the others." Brainiac 5 adjusted the sensors so that he could see behind them and saw Tasmia cast a large inky cloud around three more Sentinels that she dove directly into. In a moment, one Sentinel dropped out of the sky, followed by the other two with smoke trailing their metal husks. The cloud retracted into Tasmia, where she hovered brandishing one of the Sentinel’s blaster rifles.

"Good luck up there boys!" Candi called into the comms.

"Thanks, Monstress," Chuck responded, "and thanks Umbra. We’re gonna need it. Sensor might be captured down there, she got knocked out when the explosion happened."

"I’m on it," Umbra said at once and she dove towards the ground, "This’ll be fun."

The shuttle cleared the Starhaven atmosphere and began its approach to the space station, growing rapidly in the viewport as they closed in. The Legion Outpost sat untouched but tethered to the edge of the outer station ring. Brainy touched one of his holocontrols and the doors to one of the remaining docking bays of the Legion Outpost swung open silently.

"We need to hustle when we get in there," Chuck said as he started the landing sequence to enter the waiting landing area. He pointed to the sensor array. "I’m seeing multiple Starhaven cruisers inbound on an intercept course."

yay! there was more!

Wise of Imra to accelerate things after non-espionage-y Zoe stormed off

lol at Brainy questioning Sensor's illusions. what does he think about telepathy then? I like this, as I cannot really remember Brainy and Sensor every talking even when they were on the Outpost together! and I love how Jeka handled it, classy, like a princess

ooh, and Jeka getting in one last potshot at Brainy lol. A little trust indeed


Oy, now that I think about it, Tinya's and Drake's explosion was very definitely not subtle and espionage-y... at least the wrecked systems will give the Legion some advantage!

lol at the convo while flying, and Chuck learning to fly through video games...

wait, Monstress is yellow and not orange? but it was a treat seeing Candi and Tasmia swoop in!

also digging Tasmia's expanded darkfield powers, and having Candi and Tas go for Jeka.

yay! lots of nice action!

That was fun - I may poke around with some of that to tighten it up, but I love the idea of a man of science like Brainy having issues with an Illusionist.



Yep, that was Tinya's thinking.


Thank you - need to fix that!

PS - you'll like what I post tomorrow.

Looks like Tinya made the right call and Drake joking around even then was hilarious and so him too

yay can't wait!

Reep shifted his form to duplicate Dune as closely as he could in order to confuse the guards that had been following him, as they started to open fire. He grappled Dune and they began slamming each other into the wall in an attempt to get an upper hand in the battle as blaster bolts rained around them, some hitting and stinging both Reep's and Dune's bodies.

"Stop shooting, you fools," Dune called out, "You're hitting me!" The guards stopped firing and lifted their weapons in the air as he and Reep struggled. "There's one problem you have in your strategy, Legionnaire," Dune rasped so that only Repp could hear, "You haven't been me long enough." Dune formed a rectangular surface almost the area of his broad chest and it fired out and hit Reep as a piston with full force.  Reep was flung back, stunned and crashed into the wall behind him, reverting back into his Legionnaire form. The soldiers again brandished their weapons and aimed squarely at Reep.

"Enough," Dune said, "This one is mine to handle."

An explosion rocked out and shook the entire structure, knocking many of the soldiers off their feet and decreasing the structural integrity of the room even further from the damage caused by Reep and Dune. The lights in the corridor also went out completely leaving everything in pitch blackness until emergency lights came on at intervals in the corridors, small spotlights compared to the standard bright illumination, leaving most of the hallway in a dim light.  Shaking off his lethargy as the others still were recovering from the blast, Reep picked himself up and ran down the hall towards the detention blocks, only to find the passage collapsed. He stopped briefly to consider how to get himself through the debris when an anvil slammed into his left shoulder.

"You're not getting away from me," Dune said. His form had been traveling as a sand slide down the corridor and he built himself into a wall surrounding Reep, pinning him against the wall. Before he could transform into something small, a tendril swept out from Dune that hit Reep behind the head, stunning him again. Dune struck Reep again with a double punch, one to the face, then another to the chest, causing him to double over.  "Too bad there won't be anything left of you to prove I killed you," Dune rasped in what passed for his laugh while he closed in himself around Reep, causing a mini sandstorm with his granules, moving fast enough to erode the skin from the Durlan.

For Reep, the sound of the rushing sand filled his hearing as he tried to clear his head. He was starting to shake it off until Dune's sand started to scrap and bite through his uniform and hands, filling his mind with nothing but pain.  It felt as if he were being rolled endlessly down a finely graveled hill after being tossed from a fast-moving speeder and Reep couldn't help but cry out in pain.

He thought he heard another explosion; the rumbling of structures tearing down again led him to believe that another explosion had ripped through the facility, and he could see the wisps of sky and daylight through the sand and in the eye of the sandstorm above him. All at once, he felt an energy surrounding himself and the feeling of being lifted up through the opening of the spinning vortex of sand around him and he was carried over the air in a green force field.

"Cham, can you hover on your own?" a woman's voice asked him through the fog of pain in his head.  Thankfully, it was starting to fade now that he was out of the sand, but much of his arms, legs and back stung as if he'd been dragged across a spaceport tarmac.  He focused on the voice and found Zoe Saugin hovering above him as they both hung twenty meters in the morning air, a grey poncho whipping in the wind over her green uniform.

Reep focused as he was used to and found the ring easily responding to his willpower, enabling him to hover without Zoe's assistance. He nodded back to Zoe and said, "Kinetix, Dune is still down there! And what happened to the guards?"

Zoe looked down and saw Dune reforming reorienting himself after using his form as a miniature sand dervish.  He stood in a curved alcove blasted into the debris where Reep had been standing. "Don't worry about the mooks," she said casually pointing her thumb behind her, "and I'll have Mister Sandman here busy in a quick sec."  Reep looked around the ground and saw a rough pyramid made from the building debris while Zoe scanned the ground for any exposed plumbing conduits.

"Did you do that?" Reep asked looking at the pyramid.

Zoe looked over briefly and flashed a quick smile. "You have to understand, Cham," she said casually while pulling up a water pipe out of the rubble with her telekinesis, "I've spent a lot of time on archaeology digs, so I have an idea of how pyramids are put together." She swirled her hand and a large stream of water arced from the pipeline and shot directly at Dune.  "Here's mud in your eye, Clayface," she called with a wink.  Before he could significantly react, the blast of water hit him straight on and turned into a slow moving lump of wet sand piled in the alcove.

With the water still slamming into Dune, Zoe turned to Reep.  Her green eyes showed concern as she looked him over. "Are you feeling ok, Cham?" She asked, "You look pretty rough."

"I'll be ok," he said, "I won't be able to transform until I've healed a bit.  It's not great for a Durlan to transform when we're not all in one piece."

Zoe's face softened in worry. "I'm sorry Cham," she said, "I don't know Durlan physiology well enough yet, otherwise I'd try my healing on you." She returned her attention to the water, increasing its force until Dune was reduced to a wet sandbar that stretched several meters out of the alcove.  "Now, where's Vi?"

yikes! nice try from Reep, mimicking Dune to at least confuse the guards (and focus on Dune itself). Ah, at least Tinya's gamble is paying off re causing a distraction

and thankfully, Zoe's rushing off paid off too! yay! and hah, thank you for referencing Zoe's archaeological knowledge. turning Dune into a pyramid, priceless! and wow, Zoe is being cautious re trying her healing, what character growth

I wonder if I should change that bit with her new powers....

Also, I may have to make that a bit clearer - Zoe makes a pyramid out of the debris, and turns dune into a wet pile of mud.

nah, I think it works fine. After all she's been through, I'd expect she'd be cautious... and it's wise to have some limitations re she would need some knowledge of physiology to make sure she doesn't cause more harm

I got a lot of catching up to do! I will try and do some reading and commenting later tonight!

Okay, I am all caught up! These encounters are really fun, GL!

Thoughts as I go:

- the public torture and execution of the Starhaven folk was a sobering display of how evil Meta and his cronies are...it will make it feel that much better when the Legion kick their asses!

- I don't actually remember Amber from the comics, I don't think I was reading at that stage....I really like her power set though, it is nasty and pretty unique!

- Tinya has been the annoying one up till now, so I liked seeing her being clever and heroic by figuring out that the energy was Wildfire, how to communicate with him, and forming a plan from there (also yay! I knew it was Wildfire!!)

- I am loving the way Chuck and Brainy bounce off each other in your fic, they are so fun together!

- the description of Dune hurting poor Cham was great! I love a good Sandman-type bad guy!

- also quite liked the callback to Zoe's familiarity with archeology and the very comic-booky way she beat Dune, as well as showing her limitations by not being able to heal Cham

Hey Gl, apologies for the delay, thought I'd have more time yesterday than I did...

Anyway, I'll post my thoughts as I go along:

Repulse and Amber, to a degree, may be thugs but Meta is the rea villain here - how savage is he? Killing the chief and the hostages like that. I can understand how someone so brutal (and powerful) can become the abslute ruler.

I had never heard of the Wysoccan ritual before, nice tit-bit of real life info there.

A large explosion and the power goes off? Has Tinya succeeded in freeing Drake (if it is Drake of course )

Ah, Tinya and drake - love his enthusiasm flashing away like that, bet he waseager to get loose and get payback. Using Drake to power a city reminds me of that story at the end of the reboot where he was trapped on Qward - are you planning on limiting his power after this as it was hinted they were back then?

Glad that the team will be getting back together now that their signals aren't being blocked.

I like Brainy questioning Jeka's illusions - are they magical in this 'boot like they were in the original? Chuck as the peace-maker is very in character.

"A little trust goes a long way..." haha, nice dif.

I'm surprised Brainy and Chuck were prepared to leave Sensor behind, I appreciate the pragmatism but it seems reckless given that they are already missing teammates. Brainy admitting he's missed out on becoming a pilot was interesting - a rare gap in his knowledge and rarer still admission to it! AndChuck knowing how to fly from his gaming experience was fun.

Monstress and Umbra to the rescue! In the original Legion Lost they really didn't get along so it's nice that you show them working together here without any barbs between them.

Dune's another character I don't know, so am assuming they're a walking sandpit - Kind of the equivilent to Marvel's Sandman? If so they'll prove pretty tricky to deal with so good luck Reep! And Zoe arrives! Making mudpies from Dune is a funny image, how undignified an ending is that, haha.

Okay, so am caught up now and it was a fun ride - you've progressed the story along and still left us with a couple of cliff hangers so looking forward to Meta arriving, finding out what's going on with Vi, and seeing if Chuck and Brainy can get away from the cruisers in time to actually do anything useful.

More, more, more!

Yes Meta is definitely the big bad, and I made the conscious decision to make him so from the go a year ago (has it been that long!?!?!) as it fits nicely into the "Bad Superman" trope. Of course, in the interim, I've watched (not read, mind you) The Boys on Amazon, so that has definitely informed how I write him, but I have the luxury of not having to get too deep into Meta's psyche, so its more about the keeping ultimate power angle.


Yeah, she was in for a hot second in the Widening Rifts story at the end of the LSH v4, but then we never see her again.


Yeah, like I said to Ibby, Tinya is snobby, but she's intelligent and resourceful and heroic.


Should it be now when I mention the idea of Dune creating a mini coriolis came well after I slapped a title on this thing?

Yes I am debating on how deep to go into this in a potential future story for however long the Legion stays in this neck of the woods before they make their way home.


Not at the moment - I thought about that, but I'm going to use the excuse that the Qward story took place in the antimatter universe and the energy drain works differently there.

Glad that the team will be getting back together now that their signals aren't being blocked.




This is probably the part that I'm least happy about - I'm considering altering this for the AO3 version somewhat to make it more a forced moment than intentional.

Brainy admitting he's missed out on becoming a pilot was interesting - a rare gap in his knowledge and rarer still admission to it! AndChuck knowing how to fly from his gaming experience was fun.


They're being professional for sure, as Umbra doesn't really get along with anyone. Yet.


Yep, we only see him in action for a couple pages, but that is basically what's conveyed. But I wanted to give him a bit more of an edge. And to take him down, I felt like having him turned into glass seemed kind of fatal, but washing him away allows him to dry out and come back if needed.


Soon! I should be rounding out the chapter this week!! Y'all have been adding your own new stuff and I need to catch up!

And a HUGE thanks to you, raz and Ibby for reading and commenting! It's very appreciated.

Andrew Nolan struggled in his bonds as Kid Quantum entered the room and promptly encased Violet's half-meter long body into a Q-sphere, immobilizing her completely. Vi hung in mid-air reaching out about to say something. "Kid, let her go!" he yelled, but no response came from Jazmin, as she just stared out, glassy-eyed.  An explosion rumbled through the facility shaking the room, making Andy sway as he hung from his bonds and Jazmin lost her balance.  The room went completely dark, with the lighting quickly switching over to the emergency lights.

With the power out, Andy found that whatever was nullifying his powers had stopped. "All right!" he said to himself and transformed into pure Iron.  He ripped his legs and arms out of the shackles easily while powered up just as Jazmin came to her feet and began to cast Q-spheres in his direction.  He dodged as best he could while trying to close in but was unable to get close enough due to Jazmin's ability to project her powers, so they were in an effective stalemate, striking, casting and dodging until someone got sloppy.  Andrew knew it was just going to be a matter of time until one of Jasmin's spheres clipped him.

Andy lunged at Jasmin, swinging his arm in a punch as she dodged to the side.  As he recovered his balance, he saw a white figure float through the wall behind Jazmin.  "Apparition!" he said, but in that moment, Jazmin sent him into stasis as well.

"Grife, what's going on here?" Tinya said as she took in the scene. Jasmin turned to face Tinya and began to fling stasis spheres towards her, but they just passed through harmlessly.  Tinya closed the distance between them, then passed through Jasmin's body.  Before Jazmin was able to turn around, Tinya turned her leg solid and tripped Jazmin across the ankle, forcing her off balance. Tinya turned and quickly aimed a punch across Jazmin's face as she timed her phase perfectly.  Jazmin crumpled to the floor.  Both Violet and Andy's Q-spheres released with Jazmin unconscious.

"Sorry, Jaz," Tinya said while shaking out her hand and turning fully tangible, "Hope that doesn't leave too much of a mark."

Violet, now free from stasis, flinched in surprise to the suddenly missing Ferro. She spun around to find him picking himself up from the floor and Tinya standing over Kid Quantum's body.  "Apparition!" she said with surprise, "Ferro! What happened?  What's with the lights?" Andy was also reorienting himself to Jasmin suddenly being laid out on the floor.

"Short version, you were frozen in stasis by Kid Quantum, and I had Drake overload the power grid," Apparition said, "Then I came in and rescued you."

Violet looked absolutely confused. "What?" was all she could manage to say.

Tinya started to get impatient. "I'll explain later," she said, "Just jab KQ with the antidote before she wakes up!"

Violet drifted to the ground, then grew to her standard size. "Hey, thanks for the save, Apparition," Vi said begrudgingly.  She looked up at Tinya briefly as she knelt beside Jazmin and pulled the hypospray out of her belt pouch.

"Don't mention it," Tinya said with similar reluctance, "Like, please don't mention it.  I have a reputation to maintain." Vi looked up at what Tinya had said, but found Tinya had a half-smile on her face.  Violet smiled slightly herself and focused on Jazmin, injecting the contents of the hypo into the side of her neck.

Jazmin inhaled shakily.  "Ow, what happened?" she said as she tried to sit up and rub her jaw.  Vi looked up at Tinya who shrugged apologetically.  Andy turned back to normal and knelt to help Jasmin to her feet. 

"How much do you remember?" Tinya asked.

"Oh my gods," Jasmin said with sudden realization, "Tinya, Vi!  Ferro!" A sudden rush of memories flooded in and her body sagged with a combination of grief and rage as she leaned on Andy. Jazmin gripped Andy's shoulder tightly.  "I'm so sorry, Andy," she said as tears of frustration started to build in her eyes. "I tried to stop them, but I couldn't," she said, "None of us could resist that compound that Amber created.  This whole time has been a nightmare that I couldn't stop!"  She fumed as the tears started to drip down the sides of her face.

"Hey, its ok," Tinya said, "We're here now and we were able to rescue Ayla and Jan." She put her arm around Jazmin, who folded into Tinya's shoulder for a moment to get herself under control. 

Violet put her own hands on Andy and Jazmin's shoulders in reassurance. "We're going to bring them down, Jazmin," Violet said, "You want in?"

Jazmin's gold eyes looked up at Violet with determination. "Let me at them," she said and wiped here cheeks dry.

A rumbling started shaking the room from above and a hole began to form with construction materials whirling out of the way.  The four Legionnaires in the cell felt like they were looking up from the eye of a tornado made from building materials.  In the center of the eye floated Zoe in her poncho, with Reep right beside her, a magenta rash on the sides of his arms and back. "Is there room enough for more in this group hug?" Zoe asked as they floated down to their teammates.

"Zoe!" Vi exclaimed and almost bowled Zoe over when she landed with an embrace as she rushed into her arms.

"Cham, are you ok?" Tinya asked as she saw Reep's appearance, "You look like you've been dragged kilometers by a horse!"

"I'll be fine," Reep said, "Kinetix applied some first aid, and I'll be ok.  Won't be able to change for a bit though."

"What's with the poncho?" Vi asked Zoe asked stepping back to look at the grey and gold fabric draping over her shoulders.  She took a swath of it into her hands and appreciated the feel of the cloth.

"What? It's my disguise!" Zoe responded, "I'm going incognito to rescue the espionage squad!"

"Incognito doesn't rip apart buildings, dear," Vi said with a slight smile as she playfully Zoe's hood over her head and down over her nose, "but I love it."

Zoe flipped the hood back, put her hands on her hips and looked crossly at Violet. "Well, at least I wasn't the one who blew up the power plant!"

"Umm, yeah," Tinya said looking almost embarrassed, that might have been me, "I kind of found Drake Burroughs being held captive.  Meta captured him and was using him to power Starhaven, so I set him loose."  She paused and smiled. "So technically speaking, Drake did that."

Reep rubbed his temples and shook his head. "This mission definitely took an unexpected turn," he sighed, "Well, we're going to need to get Drake to Brainiac 5 at some point, but Brainy will be busy. Where's Drake?"

"Follow me," Tinya said and flew into the air.  The rest of the Legionnaires followed, with Zoe casting a field around Andy, and pulling him along after her as she flew up and outside.  Tinya led them half a kilometer or so in the air to the wreckage of the power plant and found the energy field of Drake Burroughs undulating in the center, occasionally discharging energy into the ground.  The Legionnaires landed around Drake at a safe distance.

"So what do we do?" Andy asked Reep.

"We can't just leave him here," Jazmin added as she looked on him with relief, "Drake, gods, I thought we'd lost you!" Drake pulsed rapidly.

"Drake, can you help us even without the ability to move in a suit?" Tinya asked. Drake's energy pulsed again.  "That's a yes, he said yes!" Tinya said to the team.  Drake's energy moved toward Jazmin and Andy, who moved aside – but only at a slow drift.   

Vi looked over at Reep. "Cham, things are going to go to nass in a flash, with all of this," Vi said, indicating the wreckage around them.

"I agree," he said, "Drake, we can't get you to the station in time to get you a new suit..."

"Can't we?" Zoe chimed in. She looked around, reached out and started to pull various components out of the debris; some metal, several swaths of insulation and mesh, a power plant worker's suit, pockets of rubber, some glass.  The components drifted together as Zoe closed her eyes and focused her will on a very specific output, with the fabrics binding together into a humanoid form, reinforced and grounded gloves and boots, and a metallic dome for the head with an inline faceplate.  All of this surrounded a ten-centimeter transparent aluminum window in the middle of the suit which flew open.  The grey suit hung lifelessly empty in the air as Zoe concentrated.  "Now would be a great time to make your way in there, Drake," she said with some effort.

Drake's energy funneled into the suit opening and gradually filled out so that the empty suit floating in the air looked as if a body was contained within.  Gradually, Zoe eased the suit to the ground as more of Drake came to be in the container.  Here and there, a seam would expose where the merging of components didn't quite fit well, but Zoe would focus and pull other material to reinforce the seam.  Finally, all the energy had entered the suit and Drake's new arm reached out and closed the window on his torso.  He slowly looked up at Zoe and gave a thumbs up.

"Sorry I couldn't find a voice box here in this mess," Zoe added, "but we can give you the top-level trim later."  Drake shrugged in his new suit.  The Legionnaires looked in amazement at Zoe; Vi beamed at her with pride.

A loud pop echoed and the Legionnaires looked up. Meta hung over them looking down at them from under his cowl; his dark cloak drifted out behind him to the side.  "Well isn't this the reunion," he said as his eyes gleamed cold behind his mask, "You have stolen two things from me, and I will have them back. Whether you do this willingly or not is entirely your decision."

"You don't own me, freak!" Jazmin spat and prepared to fight as several Sentinels and Pathfinders flew to flank their emperor.  She cast a Q-Sphere at one of the artificial Sentinels and it decayed rapidly, falling apart in mid-air.

Violet grew to fifty feet.  "Go to hells you nasshead!" she yelled and swatted her arm, taking Meta and most of his guard by surprise and knocking them back; Sentinels were short circuited and fell to the ground while the Pathfinders simply fell to the ground unconscious.  Meta, however, recovered immediately and hovered back into the air.   He flew right at Violet's midsection and knocked her back, sprawling over the wreckage of the power plant and gasping for air after Meta knocked the wind out of her.

"Oh gods, Vi!" Zoe cried, and flew to try and help Violet, even though she was so small by comparison.

"I see you've made your choice then," said Meta.

END CHAPTER 3

yay! more good stuff!

Ferro put up a good fight! and makes sense that intangible Tinya is immune to Kid Q's powers.

ah, nice dialogue between Vi and Tinya. maybe this is the beginning of... well, not friendship, but at least mutual respect lol

it's so good to have Jaz back!

so it was Amber who did the hypnosis thingie!

yeah, that's the strong-willed Jaz, you go girl!

heh, that group hug line is so Zoe!

loving that humor re incognito blowing up buildings, and Tinya admitting she let Drake loose

ohh yeah, you have an amazing handle on Zoe's powers - if anyone could have built Drake a suit, it would have been her! (well, also Brainy and maybe the speedsters and Jan...) and also a good idea to not have the suit come out perfect, with Zoe constantly making adjustments to reinforce! (after all, she's not a top scientist...)

nice Q-sphere decay courtesy of Kid Q - absent the DNA Robotica issue, this would be the first time she's had something age to dust instead of hanging in stasis!

least giant Vi did a lot of damage before being felled by Meta... ooh, can the combined powers of this little team stop him? Well, with Kid Q and Drake and Zoe all here, plus Tinya's intangibility, I think they have a decent chance!

looking forward to the next bit!!

I know this low-key animosity has been getting some comments, but this bit was actually in the first draft.


Yep, I'll probably be getting into that a little more if not this story, the next.


This is one of those things that came out very late - I had originally had the team go to Drake but he was just gonna kind of hang out since I literally had Cham say the line "we have no way of making you a containment suit." But of course we do! Its also a nice way to seed an idea I have for the next issue. (If I ever get done with this one! It's already longer than any of the others and I think I'm only halfway through!)


Her who's who entry does say she's not yet tapped her full powers! But yes, the time acceleration was part of the Sentinel production process.

the Sentinel production process as a catalyst for Kid Q learning how to speed time up... is a nice bit. it just came out of nowhere in DNA/Robotica, so having a reason for it here makes more nice sense

The shuttle engine was still shutting down when Chuck and Brainiac 5 ran to the control center of the Legion Outpost.  They raced to the main control panel and sat side by side monitoring the telemetry of the approaching ships; at least ten cruisers were centering on the outpost and the orbital space station to which it was tethered.

"Take us out of here, Charles," Brainy said, "Just follow the course I've programmed into the nav-computer."

"You got it, Brainy," Chuck replied, and he punched in the course on the console. He pushed a final button, and the outpost shook as it pushed away from the space station, ripping away from the docking gantry and all the moorings. 

"As fast as you can, please," Brainy urged.

"I got this," Chuck said, somewhat annoyed, "But those cruisers are a lot faster than we are."

"Just get us as far away from the high port as you can," Brainy replied evenly, "I'll make sure we're prepared for when hey catch up to us." He returned to his computer and focused on the FTL drive.

"So what's Plan B?" Chuck asked, "I'm not sure what you're planning, but there's definitely more of them than of us."

"In the worst case, we scuttle the outpost."

Chuck looked over at Brainy wide-eyed. "Excuse me?"

"We'll be fine," Brainiac said nonchalantly.

Chuck gulped and kept moving the Outpost as fast as he could, even as multiple cruisers moved from every direction.  "Brainy, they're cutting us off!" Chuck exclaimed, "We're being surrounded!" The holographic tactical display showed a dozen cruisers, some trailing, others flanking the Outpost and closing in from ahead.

"Bring us to a stop," Brainy ordered.

Chuck pressed the controls and the Outpost slowed. "I sure hope you know what you're doing." Brainy regarded him with an upraised eyebrow.

A stern voice came across the comm channel speakers. "Attention alien vessel," it said, "You are ordered to halt and prepare for towing back to Starhaven High Port. Any attempt to resist will result in your destruction."

Brainiac opened the channel while examining the holographic display and entering a rapid number of commands on the navigation console.  "Oh, I don't think so," Brainy said conversationally into the comm.

"You will comply…Wait, what did you say?" said the voice.

"You won't destroy us," Brainy said smugly, "Your master, wants us and everything on this station in one piece. And we are not about to let ourselves be towed back. So, you can let us go or face the consequences, either from us or your master."

The voice on the comm channel sounded annoyed. "Now just wait a minute," it said, "We have plenty of ways to make your unarmed station helpless, so STAND DOWN."

"No," replied Brainy.

"Prepare to be fired upon," the Starhaven voice said.

"Brainy their charging their weapons!" Chuck said.

Brainy turned to Chuck. "Charles, please execute FTL maneuver Brainiac 5.5," he said.

Chuck looked at the console and saw the program listed at the top of the navigation screen and executed the jump, or more accurately, series of jumps. Chuck felt the stutterwarp drive kick in. "Charles, I'd recommend that you not look out any viewports during this," Brainy said.

In the void of space, the lone Outpost, surrounded by a dozen Starhaven cruisers from almost every angle, winked out of existence from one spot, then immediately reappeared in another, immediately in front of one of the cruisers.  It kept doing this until it had appeared afore of every cruiser, but somehow it kept warping from one spot to another faster, until within a matter of a few minutes, there were at least a dozen copies of the Outpost amidst the Starhaven fleet.

"Brainy," Chuck said urgently, "it looks like the fleet's is almost charged up!"

"Perfect," Brainy said.  He cooly looked over at Chuck. "On my mark, execute Brainiac 5.6." Brainy kept an eye on the sensor readings as the Outpost kept micro-jumping from spot to spot, then commanded, "Now!"

 Chuck executed the new command and the Outpost warped outside the circle of Starhaven cruisers, just as they all opened fire and hit each other.  The entire fleet of a dozen ships drifted motionless in space.

"Uh, Brainy?" he asked, "What just happened?"

Brainiac 5's fingers flew over his holographic keyboards. "The Starhaven cruisers have a capability to disable and overload other craft," he said in a lecturing tone, "We kept jumping fast enough so the light from the Outpost would fool the cruiser sensors into thinking we were in front of every ship. When they went to fire, the shot went through the ghost image and hit the ship behind it." He looked over at Chuck smugly. "We used their own weapons against them."

Chuck wasn't impressed. "That's great and all but the Pathfinders are leaving the ships to come after us," he said even as he fired up the thrusters to start moving. He steered towards the most open area of space he could find away from the disabled fleet. Brainy looked at Chuck with almost disappointment as he plugged his force field belt into the console.  The outpost was now surrounded by Brainiac 5's force shield.

"But what about that!?" Chuck exclaimed as three Starhaven cruisers, led by squads of winged Pathfinders, emerged out of hyperspace on a direct course to intercept the outpost. Brainiac 5 furiously turned back to his sensors and started working out some new plans.

"Attention Legion Outpost," a female voice called, "This is Legion Resistance One inbound to Starhaven, may we offer assistance?"

Chuck gasped. "Lu, is that you?" he asked with a hopeful grin.

The holo screen blinked and a window appeared with Triad-purple on the screen grinning. "Hey there, Chuck," she said, "Am I glad to see you! Let's get out of this in one piece so I can give you a proper welcome, if you know what I mean." She gave a suggestive wink.

A second window appeared with Triad-orange. "Sister, keep your mind on the mission please!" she said, then into the camera shyly, "Oh, hi Chuck."

A third window appeared with Triad-Neutral, wearing Chuck's Legion baseball cap. "Girls, stay on task, please," she said, "Hey Chuck."

Invisible Kid popped into the window for the third window. "Brainy, is that you?" Lyle said grinning, "Thank grife! We need to get down to the surface ASAP!"

"Fine, but we need some help up here as well," Brainy opened a new channel and sent Lyle information to his flight ring. "That data burst should give you all the information you need for the main city below," he said, "But we still need at least one of your cruisers up here.  There are just too many Imperial forces at play up here."

"Understood," Lyle said, "Our ship has need to get to the surface. Legion Resistance Three, you have the high guard. No unnecessary risks."

Triad Orange almost looked disappointed. "Understood, Invisible Kid," she said, and all the comm channels shut off. Two of the cruisers broke off and changed course to the main planet, while the third kept its course to the Outpost.  Dozens of Pathfinders poured from all the ships; some to engage the forces approaching the Outpost, some to the orbital high port tethered to the space elevator, but the majority heading to the surface of Starhaven.  Now without pursuers, Chuck changed trajectory back towards Starhaven and called up the holoscreen to display the re-entry of the rebel warships.

Each ship was surrounded by dozens of Pathfinders in their tan and black resistance uniforms.  To enter the atmosphere, each soldier folded her wings in front her body, effectively making a cocoon against the atmospheric friction of reentry. As both ships streaked down towards the planet, the were escorted by a multitude of streamers through the sky, which all unfurled into pairs of wings once the fiery plasma faded away.  Once fully in the atmosphere, the resistance ships began a broadcast as they descended towards the capital spaceport, already under siege by resistance forces.  The image of an older pathfinder appeared on the screen, her graying hair combed down and arrayed across her shoulders.

"Citizens of Starhaven, this is General Owena Walker. We have allied with the Legion of Super-Heroes to remove the Emperor and his regime. Those who can fight may join us, or see to the safety of those who cannot. To those of you of Starhaven and the worlds of the former Republic who have been unjustly detained by the Emperor and his forces: we are coming, and we ask you to stand with us.  To the Emperor and his allies: We are coming for you. If you value the lives of Starhaven you will surrender immediately.  If you do not, make no mistake, you will pay the consequences of your actions. Long live the fighters."

The transmission cut off as the first cruiser landed.  A large ramp on the ventral side of the ship angled down and scores of resistance soldiers rushed out, a loud cheer coming from the force as they rushed towards the palace. Bursts of energy and loud thunderclaps carried from the north, and the cloudy haze of dust and dirt that hung in the air from the power plant's destruction began to drift south so that it hovered like a blanket over the city, obscuring the top of the palace spire and the space elevator's cable reaching into the sky. But the clouds would glow white and red as the battle raged within, and fires began to feed it smoke as skirmishes broke out across the city.

yay! more stuff! what a treat


lol, you write classic Brainy SO well. giving an answer, but that's it. "We'll be fine," and no doubt the rest of this thought goes "it will take me longer to explain it to you, than to actually prepare the plan, so..."

and also Brainy's shade and upraised eyebrow at Chuck muttering "I hope you know what you're doing", priceless!

a maneuver named after him, hah!

I also like his bluff-calling!

WOW that was a brilliant plan! Who knew the Outpost could warp so fast! I love it! And also "I wouldn't look out a viewport", hahaha!

Legion Resistance One! I love it! I was wondering when Lu's away team would return... perfect timing! the gang is almost all here then!!

And great scene showing each Triad reacting to Chuck differently, but all very much wanting him, hee hee. and the baseball cap!

ooh, now why does Lyle need to get to the surface so fast? Some plan obviously, color me curious. and Orange's reaction also makes me even more curious!

I love how t he Pathfinder wings are super strong and tough! nice bit!

oh yeah, go General Walker!!!! that was a great bit!

also a very poetic last sentence.

gosh I am so eager to see what happens next! rarely have we seen the Legion in such a situation as a war!

Poor Andy being stuck there only able to watch as his friend gets caught. Though goood that he takes advantage of the power outtage to bust free. Though he doesn't really stand much of a chance against a long range power like Kid Q's.

Tinya to the rescue! ood application of her abilities too, partially phasing while giving Jaz the smack-down. Nce exchange between Vi and Tinya, maybe things are thawing a bit between them...

And now Zoe's joining the party, it's going to be fun watching them deal with Meta's guards and crew. Zoe creating a suit for Drake to inhabit was well done, hopefully it'll be able to hold his energy in a cohesive form until Brainy can get him into a proper containment suit. Ah, Meta has arrived - that's going to be tough! Looking forward to seeng how they deal with him!

Brainy and Chuck are such good characters to work together - they're opposite ends of the emotional intelligence spectrum. Brainy's coolnes across the comms was fab, he's so assured. And the plan to get the cruisers to shoot each other was hilarious, bet you enjoyed writing that.

And Lu and Chuck ae - kind of - reunited, good to see. Is one of Lu on each of the cruisers?

Looks like the big battle is away to start - this is going to be fierce! Will everyone in the team survive?

Looking forward to whatever you have planned for next GL, more, more, more!

Hi GL, I just caught up on the past couple of posts...some thoughts!

- Tinya to the rescue! I love when the Legionnaires without big flashy building-levelling powers get to show off a bit

- Tinya and Vi's kinda friendly sniping at one another was cute, as was Vi's reaction to Zoe's poncho

- Zoe giving Drake a pseudo-containment suit was clever! I like that it's not perfect, it makes sense she wouldn't have that much technical know-how

- good cliffhanger with Meta! I see Vi is keeping the noble tradition alive of characters who can change size becoming giant targets

- Chuck and Brainy continue to be good value...trust Brainy to one-up the Picard Maneuver!

- Triad talking to herself is always a treat as well

- I really love the visual of the Pathfinders cocooning themselves in their wings to enter the atmosphere! I imagine they'd look something like shooting stars from the ground!

This has all built up quite nicely, looking forward to seeing how it all explodes from this point!

Thank you! Yes, my idea of Brainy interacting with others is to do as little of it as possible.


Yep, all except for the folks back home - I forgot to add a few lines of Dyrk flying the other cruiser!


Well, she *does* need to return it to him


Thank you! I'm wondering if you all find that this helps with your communication abilities. I'm finding its not easy to describe what you see in your head in such a way as to provide others with that framework, so I'm always impressed with the way you all do this so much

Yeah, I think they'll find their way to a professional respect. My main source of inspiration for this was the fact that even in the classic Legion there's not much friendship between the two - meaning they don't do all that many social activities together (mainly because Tinya's usually attached to Jo), but there is also a line late in v3 where they are on a mission and Vi says something to the effect of, "I know we've never seen eye to eye" with Tinya.


They are SUCH fun to write together! And I'd been waiting to write most of what's int hat last chapter for literally months! Like probably since last calendar year that's been sitting in my head.


Yep, three ships with a Triad running each.


Thank you for the nice words, Harbi! I'll be on vacation in a couple weeks, so hopefully I can get started on that then!

Thanks raz! Me too, its always fun to write as they can do subtle things, but have important outcomes.


Thank you! Like I was saying to Ibby it was quite literally a last minute idea, so we'll see how this goes.


100% And more to come! LOL


Thank you for noticing that. Years ago, when I was playing the RPG where that star drive concept came from, someone wrote an article about how a ship traveling as such would be perceived to an observer, and it was basically the Picard Maneuver, and I thought it was too neat an idea not to do.


Exactly - I was thinking about when you see a spaceship in reentry or a meteor in the day - its basically a jet plume, then multiply that by a couple hundred!


Thanks! I think I may have lost my outline somehow! But I'm definitely over the main hump so I remember most of what's next!

tbh I'm a much better writer than I am at verbal communication, and even my conversational writing is rubbish

I'm 46 and I've had guys I work with who are like 5-7 years older than me talk down to me like I'm a teenager because my normal day to day language is tumblr vomit really....people are always surprised when they see me actually put effort into writing something and they find out that I have a functioning brain in my head hahaha

haha hey at least there is a place where you communicate well, lots of people cannot speak OR write well

now that we're talking ages, I'm 34 myself. I often find ages mildly surprising when they are revealed

Chapter 5

Jazmin, Andy and Drake scattered as Meta shot beams from his eyes, shooting up more dust and steam into the air. Drake kept Meta moving in the air as more of his reinforcements began to arrive, and the other Pathfinders Violet had knocked out of the air were beginning to regain consciousness. Drake was still trying to figure out the best way to shoot beams out of the makeshift containment suit that Zoe had fashioned, which gave Meta and his fighters a movement advantage.

Meanwhile, Zoe was tending to Violet, who was still several stories tall and sprawled out across the wreckage of the power plant after Meta had rammed into her midsection at speed. Her attempts to get her breath back made loud gasping noises that added to the din of the fight's chaos. Zoe flew to Vi's face and held her cheek. "Honey, I need you to shrink back down," Zoe said.

With some effort, Vi shrunk back down to standard size to the center of her mass, so Zoe rushed to her new location, knelt down and put one hand on Vi's shoulder and one on her side. In a moment, Zoe's hands glowed green and Violet was breathing normally.

"Thanks, Zoe," Vi said as she regained her breath, "I think Meta might have ruptured something with that hit."

Zoe gave Vi's hand a quick squeeze. "Try not to be such a big target next time, ok?"

Andrew's voice urgently called across the battlefield. "Does anyone have a ring I can use?" he said.

"Ferro!" Zoe called towards him, "Heads up!" She flung her right arm out and Zoe's flight ring flew off her finger guided by telekinesis towards Andrew Nolan who had his own left arm extended. The ring slipped easily onto his pinky finger. "Don't get the wrong idea," she said, "We're not going steady or anything."

"Uh, um, OK, Kinetix," Andy said slightly embarrassed, "Thank you." He then turned completely metallic, rose into the air, and flew towards Meta, who was countering ERG-1's energy bursts. Andy increased his speed in the air and rammed into Meta as fast as he could, sending the Emperor spinning wildly into the rubble. Andy landed next to Meta and began to pummel him with super-strength blows, which Meta was unprepared to counter.

"Let me handle this, boss," a casual voice sneered. Repulse and Amber dropped out of an air speeder that was passing by. With a simple gesture as Repulse landed, Andy was pulled back away from Meta and caught in filament tendrils that Repulse had generated.

Glowering in anger, Meta stood up and drifted over to Andy, his dark-clad Daxamite body hulking over Ferro's gleaming metallic form. "You were never were of any real use to me," Meta said as his eyes began to warm up for another energy burst.

Violet looked over and saw what was happening. "Ferro no!"

Just as Meta fired his heat vision a rush of wind whipped through all the Legionnaires and Imperials, and his heat beams glanced harmlessly off of M'Onel's chest. "Why don't you try something other than punching down for a change?" Lar said, glaring at Meta. He shifted his body as he punched Meta with a right jab that sent the older Daxamite through one of the ruined buildings a half a kilometer away.

"We have you outnumbered, Legionnaire," Amber said haughtily as M'Onel turned to face her and Repulse. More Starhaven Pathfinders, foot soldiers and Sentinels were swarming in behind them, all with their weapons trained on the Legionnaires, who were beginning to circle in towards Lar's location.



STARHAVEN STARPORT

"Sensor, dear, are you all right?" Candi asked as she patted the pre-frontal area of Jeka's head. "We've taken care of the troops who knocked you out, but it would be terrific if I didn't have to carry you."

Jeka twitched and her tongue flicked out a few times to sense the air around them. She opened her eyes. "Oh! Monstress," Jeka said, "Brainy and Chuck we were heading to the ship and there was an explosion..."

"They got away just fine," Tasmia said as she brandished her fists, "then we came to check on you and punished the fools who dared touch you." The battle lust was still upon her and she was very aggressive in tone.

Jeka's snake form coiled and collected herself as she sat upright. "I do thank you, ladies," she said, "what's next?" She could see a new set of troops starting to charge at them. "I guess we should take care of them?" Jeka's waldo arm pointed out to the approaching soldiers.

Making a showy presentation, Candi bowed. "We cordially invite you to join us in freeing the prisoners..."

"Yeah, I think she gets the picture, Monstress," Tasmia said, "Just follow me!" She took off into the air towards the manufacturing area which was beginning to smolder.

"Does Umbra seem a bit... exited to you?" Jeka asked to Candi.

Candi chuckled. "Are you kidding? Laying into your attackers is the happiest I've seen her in weeks!"

"Indeed," Jeka said, "One last thing we should take care of before we go." She rose into the air and to the approaching troops, a seven-headed hydra now stood where the Legionnaires had just been. It screamed in fury and began to stomp towards those troops, who abruptly turned and ran as fast as they could in the other direction. "Lead on, Monstress," Jeka said as she turned towards Candi.

On that cue, Candi jumped into the air with her powerful legs and then let her flight ring take over, easily catching up to Tasmia's lead. "Race you, Umbra," Candi called cheerfully as they started to arc down to the prison barracks. They could see from above that a few of the buildings had already started to burn and that the Imperial guards were responsible for at some of the damage.

Tasmia's face hardened in anger. "The lack of honor these fools have with their captured," she muttered almost to herself. "Monstress, I'll handle the guards, you free the prisoners. Sensor, see to the safety of the prisoners and get them to the starport." She found groups of guards working to keep prison barracks doors shut, so she cast darkfields around each of them, throwing the guards into a panic and easily allowing her to land and dispatch the guards easily.

Meanwhile, Candi landed by a barracks entrance, coming down so hard that the door sheared off from the impact. "Rise up, prisoners!" Candi shouted, "You are free to fight in the rebellion! Down with the empire!" She then leaped up into the air and came down again on another barracks, repeating the same process.

This created quite a stir in the prison and withing less than thirty minutes, the halls had been emptied and hundreds of ex-prisoners were moving with haste across the palace grounds, led by Sensor, changing her look to appear as a pale, white haired Starhaven pathfinder wearing a red tunic. Tasmia and Candi guarded the migration, traveling under cloak of Tasmia's darkness as thunder and explosions kept ringing out just a few kilometers to their north. Candi kept looking back over her shoulder to see if she could get a glimpse of the action and hope her friends were all right.



IN THE RUINS...

Lar rose back into the air, in anticipation of Meta's return to the fight as Repulse, Amber and the gathering Imperial forces started to close in when a new voice entered the discussion. Ferro was held immobile within Repulse's filament tendrils from Repulse's natural magnetic powers.

"I have to hand it to you, Kort," Rokk said to Repulse as he, Imra, Ayla and Jan descended, "You picked yourself a pretty big army." The four of them landed with their teammates. Rokk reached out towards Repulse. "Good thing we have a Legion," he said and with a twist of his hand, the filaments holding Ferro twisted free as Repulse struggled for control of his own suit.

Ferro took the opportunity to punch Repulse in the midsection, stunning him. "Thanks, Cosmic Boy," Andy said.

"Anytime, Ferro." With Rokk's and Andy's attack on Repulse, the gathered forces exploded into action, and while Meta rushed in to directly attack M'Onel, Repulse took the opportunity of confusion to get himself away from Rokk. The rest of the Legionnaires began to focus on their attackers using their own unique gifts.

Rokk, Jan and Jazmin were primarily focused on stopping the Sentinels, either through magnetism or state manipulation. Reep disguised himself to create confusion among the organic enemy ranks, and Tinya was doing the same in her own way, floating through the enemy forces only to strategically phase in a fist to strike at the right moment or steal a blaster rifle. Violet was able to grow larger to take out multiple enemies at once, despite being stung with a few laser blasts; her combat agility even at an increased size was enough to prevent getting herself hit too often. Andy was taking out any target he could with brute force and Ayla was covering everyone from overhead, flying through the battle shooting lightning at any target of opportunity. Zoe was covering Amber to ensure that any of her sap spheres were shot towards an Imperial versus a Legionnaire.

Imra meanwhile, was using the confusion created by Zoe's interference with Amber's powers to close in to striking range. "I've got this, Kinetix," Imra thought to Zoe.

"Understood," Zoe acknowledged and she backed off her powers from affecting Amber.

Within seconds, Imra had dodged into striking range of Amber and quickly delivered a roundhouse kick to her jaw. Amber collapsed immediately.

"Nice kick, Saturn Girl," Violet said appreciatively, "But couldn't you just have turned her off?"

"Well, I could have, Vi" she said, "but this just felt better."

After several back-and-forth volleys, M'Onel was tossed to the ground by Meta, his cape showing some wear from the battle, while Meta, still enshrouded in his dark cloak and cowl, showed little signs of damage. "You can stop this, child," Meta said to M'Onel, "And save the lives of everyone around you. It would be good to have a brother Daxamite to rule with me."

"Try again," Lar leapt up and grappled with Meta just as the communications devices of the Legionnaires and the Imperial forces all came to life at once and the fighting momentarily stilled.

Citizens of Starhaven, this is General Owena Walker. We have allied with the Legion of Super-Heroes to remove the Emperor and his regime. Those who can fight may join us or see to the safety of those who cannot. To those of you of Starhaven and the worlds of the former Republic who have been unjustly detained by the Emperor and his forces: we are coming, and we ask you to stand with us. To the Emperor and his allies: We are coming for you. If you value the lives of Starhaven you will surrender immediately. If you do not, make no mistake, you will pay the consequences of your actions.

There was a brief pause and the Legionnaires all cried out and pushed the attack. Meta attempted to rocket off to intercept the arriving cruisers at the spaceport, but M'Onel intercepted him, flying to his midsection and grabbing it, making their course careen off meters to the west. Andy flew over to help subdue the rogue Daxamite.

"Imra, is there any way you can shut down Meta?" Rokk asked.

Imra looked back at Rokk while dodging some attacks. "If I could have more than a few moments to concentrate, maybe," she replied, "but right now I'm trying not to get shot. Still I do sense that he is extremely overconfident. We must be careful.

"Spark, we need to get over to the spaceport," she said to Ayla, "The local resistance team will be meeting the troops that are landing. I'll need to help coordinate with our new arrivals."

"You got it, Saturn Girl," Ayla said as she flew up into the haze. She paused a moment and looked at her ring's tracking function as Imra joined her. Multiple Legionnaire signals appeared ahead of them "You're right she said excitedly as a grin took over her face, They're here!" Ayla shot off towards the spaceport. Imra followed feeling a glimmer of hope for the first time in what felt like weeks.

Rokk turned his attention back to the battlefield and flew above the battlefield searching for one specific person. "Grez!" he shouted, "Show yourself! Fight me like a Braalian!" He scanned through the haze as he hovered over the dirty ruins of the power plant, but Repulse had vanished in the troops below when General Walker had made her announcement.

After Lar had drove Meta into the ground, he began to rapidly rain punches onto the Emperor at super speed. The blows kept slamming into Meta but there didn't seem to be any affect, especially after Meta grabbed one of Lar's wrists, halting the punches. Meta pulled down, forcing Lar's face into the rubble as Meta in turn stood and fired his heat vision it point blank on to the younger Daxamite's body.

Finally catching up to the Daxamites, Andy touched down near Meta just as he was starting to fry Lar. In an instant, Andy jumped forward again and flew a punch across Meta's face, shattering his mask and forcing his face up and to the right, so his heat shifted away before he regained focus. Meta stared at the sky for a moment.

"You again," the emperor growled once he had turned to face Andy. Meta's mask was gone, but was just replaced by his faceless transsuit, but the outline of Meta's face was clearly frozen in an angry scowl. "Why don't you Legionnaires be proper little do-gooders and save innocents from the slaughter?" he asked in a silky sinister tone. He turned his head to where he had been looking a moment before and fired an intense blast of heat vision up to the sky. Then looked slightly higher and to the right and fired again, even more powerfully.

"Ferro, stand back!" Jan called as he flew in closer. A thick shell of intertron formed around Meta, sealing him away.

Lar stood, his uniform more tattered than before and looked up in horror. "Gods, he's cut off the top of the Imperial spire!" he said, "And he's severed the space elevator!"

A stern look crossed Rokk's face. "Saturn Girl and any Legionnaires at the spaceport grounds," he called into the comm channel, "Meta's bringing down part of the palace on top of you! Be alert!"

"Cosmic Boy, this is really bad," Reep chimed in over the comms, "The space station keeps that elevator cable tethered; without it being connected, that will fall to the planet and rip through the city, or go into the ocean and cause a massive tsunami! We have to repair it!"

"Understood, Cham," Rokk responded as he threw one of his combat discs through the air to knock out three enemy soldiers, "Violet, Kinetix, you'll handle that. Get into transsuits on the way, you may be going out of the atmosphere!"

"You got it Cos!" Zoe's voice came in, "Team Vinetix is on it!" And with that, Violet shrank down and the two girls flew off towards the upper atmosphere.

Rokk pulled magnetically on the disc he had just thrown and prepared a second with his free hand. He directed them into the air again at two new targets when he heard a rushing sound getting louder from behind.

"Cosmic Boy, Look out!" Tinya cried as she glanced down and saw Repulse charging at Rokk from behind. Rokk turned just as Repulse reached out and his fist stretched out from his wrist and slammed into Rokk on his left temple. Rokk collapsed, unconscious, just as Meta's intertron sheath began to crack open and he burst out of Jan's short-lived prison.

--------

Just as a quick credit where credit is due - I cannot claim credit for the term "Team Vinetix". That honor belongs to Grant from the Truth, Justice and Hope podcast who came up with that on Twitter. It's an awesome label and I wish I had thought of it but I couldn't not use it.

yay! more good stuff!

aw, healing in action!

those flight rings sure are tactically helpful eh! if I lost mine, I would want one back pretty quick!

yes! M'On is here!!

loving how protective Tasmia is! (in her own way)

heh, I like Imra getting some catharsis from punching Amber

Team Vinetix! I love it - I have to read that podcast

loving the fight, everyone got something to do - also love Ferro stammering a bit at Zoe's quip.

and the cavalry is coming...

whew, really looking forward to the next bit!

So Grant didn't say that on his podcast. He has been reading through the reboot on the Twitter and we had a discussion about the Vi/Zoe relationship & we had the same opinion of how that should be portrayed and that's where he came up with the portmanteau.

ah that clears it up,. thanks

Still recommend the show thought if you want to listen to a Superman podcast!

thanks! my attention span is too short for listening, I prefer reading, but I will keep his podcast in mind

Yay, I have been looking forward to this!

Thoughts as I go:

Haha Andy is such a dork, I love it

- Mon taking on Meta, I am here for it!!

- Sensor, Monstress and Umbra's bit was well done...I like how you're continuing to show people picking up on Umbra's general mood shift. Also, Sensor flicking her tongue out is a clever bit of writing to remind us she's a giant snake

- Andy has gotten a couple of good shots in against Meta in this instalment, I dig it! Meta's such an easy bad guy to hate too, I like him as an opponent

- "combat discs" is cool, I always like seeing Cos use his little discs in battle and it's nice to see that's their intended purpose

(also IB, I am with you on the short attention span....I had to teach myself to start reading books again over lockdown, I blame social media )

same raz, same, social media is all about capsule comments... even when I read the news now, I usually just skim!

Finally got time to catch up GL, so I'll comment as I read:

Meta is such a good bad-guy, very scary! Drke not being able to zap things straight away was a nice touch, I mean really how much would Kinetix know about the workings of his suit?

Zoe and Vi's scene was very touching, " "Try not to be such a big target next time, ok?" sweet line. and then, "Don't get the wrong idea," she said, "We're not going steady or anything." you are giving Zoe all the best lines

M'Onel saving Andy - phew! Thought for a sec you might actually kill off one of your team.

Is it just me or is Amber being a bit hasty in their assessment of the situation?

Pre-frontal area of sensors head - umm, is that her nose?

"Are you kidding? Laying into your attackers is the happiest I've seen her in weeks!" haha, yeah, Umbra is always fun. I haven't read all that much with Candi in it so not sure if she jumped a lot in canon, but it is definitely something I can see her doing. And her hoping her friends were okay is bang on character for her. It's always fun pairing her with Umbra as they are such different characters.

With Rokk, et al, joining in with the fight in the ruins it's pretty obvious which side are used to team work, and which will get their asses kicked. Nice description of what everyone is doing, I especially like Ayla giving support from above - that's perhaps the best use of her skills in this fight. Imra taking out Amber with a kick was a surprise move!

Meta really is tough! And nasty, severing the top off the spire and cutting through the space elevator- that's great tactical thinking on his behalf actually as the Legionnaires and allies will need to deal with those too.

Team Vinetix - ha, how long have you been sitting on that? It's quite cute.

Just when I thought you were winding down up pops Repulse to take out the Legionnaire that's most likely to stop him, and Meta is breaking free! I do love a good cliffhanger!

Ah, just read your acknowledgement, well done Grant for the Team Vinetix term


Great stuff GL, you have kept the action up while using a wide range of your Legionnaires really well, and some lovely character moments too.

Looking forward to seeing how you resolve this, so hopefully you won't keep us waiting too long before you post more, more, more!

Good lord - the last time I posted here was in SEPTEMBER!?!?!?!

I apologize heartily for the delay especially as the story is rapidly heading towards the endgame here. I had that bad combination of lack of motivation, other things tempting my time in the real world and writer's block.

So last week I decided to write a little bit at a time, then ended up with one of the longest chapters of the story to date that will require and additional section I hadn't forseen. But here we are...

More to come very soon.

Roll Call

Invisible Kid - Lyle Norg of Earth, Invisibility
Ultra Boy - Jo Nah of Rimbor, ultra-vision, speed, strength and invulnerability, used one at a time
XS - Jenni Ognats of Aarok, Speedster
Karate Kid - Val Armorr, master of martial arts
Triad - Luornu Durgo of Cargg, Triplication
Gates - Ti'julk Mr'asz of Vyrga, teleportation



General Owena Walker stared out at the flat tactical display table that displayed nothing but chaos; a ruined starport, a ruined power facility and troops from both sides running in every direction, with a serious concentration of forces around the power plant. She was examining the situation on the ground after her announcement as they descended towards the ground. She was joined by her children Dawn and Grey, with the blond head of Lori Morning contrasting among them. Across the tactical table were Legionnaires Lyle Norg, a tattered Jo Nah, Jenni Ognats and Val Armorr, who had a binding around his thigh. "Invisible Kid," she said as she looked up at Lyle, "it seems your friends have been busy."

Lyle looked back with a half-smile across his features. "It appears so, General," he said, "We should probably get a hold of this situation. It appears the capital is still in one piece, so making a statement from there can consolidate your momentum."

Walker frowned. "What about the Emperor?" she asked, "He can be on us in a moment."

"Leave him to me, General," Jo Nah said stepping forward from behind Lyle, "I owe him a rematch." Jo had a serious expression on his bruised face as healing injuries could be seen on his face and chest behind a tattered and torn tunic.

Lyle's brown eyes flashed. "General, we will need to contact our other team as fast as we can," he said, "and according to Triad, we have found our missing team member who can match Meta, but I need to make contact to understand their current situation." He began to indicate to Legionnaires in turn. "Ultra Boy will take point escorting you to the capitol. XS will be with your team specifically to remain with Lori, er, Morninglori," he said, still unused to a Lori who was the same age as the rest of the Legion, much less a Lori with powers and a callsign given by their new Rebel friends, "Karate Kid and Gates will also join your escort."

The general nodded as the cruiser gently rocked at touchdown while a cloud of dust and light debris could be seen billowing in the air outside the wide bridge viewport.

"Planetfall complete," Triad's voice called from the conn.

Waker turned flipped on the communications panel. "This is General Moonwalker," she called into the system, addressing the rebel force using her callsign. Her voice echoed throughout the ship, as well as the two other ships, and to all the forces outside, "Commence operation. All ground forces move towards the capitol; all units with gravity belts engage and fly with my squadrons. Pathfinder groups sumu through pahiitu cover our movement. All others engage at will." She paused for a moment, in thought. "Where possible, use non-lethal force," she said, "these are our brothers and sisters we are fighting. They may have made unfortunate choices but should be given a chance for redemption."

Lyle smiled, even as Greybird looked uncomfortable. Through the sturdy and spaceworthy hull, the loud roar could be heard of the ground forces rushing out of the cruiser and towards the capitol. The general and her staff turned to move towards the door leading to the exit to leave the spacecraft with the Legionnaires and Lori in tow.

Gates sidled up to Lyle and said, "Did you ask her if I could write her speech when we take over the chamber, Invisible Kid? This is kind of my thing."

Furrowing his brow, Lyle shook his head and looked down at the Vyrgran. "No, I didn't and no you may not," he said quietly, "No one wants to hear your manifesto; these people have their own oppression problems. Just stick together and see how we can help the rest of our teammates."

Gates seemed disappointed and looked dejected as they walked. "I never get to have any fun," he said.

Lori had picked up a blocky belt from an equipment locker and began to fasten it around the waist of her black bodysuit topped with a mantle of blue. Jenni came up to her as they walked towards the hangar.

"Are you ready for this?" Jenni asked.

Lori secured the belt as she looked up at Jenni with determination. "I'm ready," she said, and Jenni was taken aback by the seriousness of her eyes. Jenni was reminded that Lori had been here for many years and had seen much of Meta's rise to power before joining with the Rebellion. "Just get me close to him," she said.

Jenni put a hand on Lori's shoulder. "Just stick with me as much as you can, ok?" she asked. Lori nodded and gave Jenni's hand a reassuring squeeze as they walked out into the wide bay of the ship.

The bay, once filled with non-Pathfinder soldiers of a dozen races, was now mostly empty of soldiers who were now rushing across the rough tarmac and towards the Imperial center to the northwest. The general ran to the bay opening and jumped out, spreading her wings into the air as did Dawnstar and Greywind behind her, followed by the rest of the dozen-strong escort squadron, forming a virtual shell around the trio. The Legionnaires soon joined them in the air, along with Lori, who had clicked on a belt control and flew into the air like the others, joining the general's air group within moments as they sped towards the tall Imperial spire and the wide bowl-shaped building that served as the tribal council building sitting low beside the palace. After the cruiser had emptied its passengers, the cruiser took back off into space so Triad and her crew could help with any space defenses.

Smoke was beginning to wisp through the air and the team flew over the rushing ground forces, who were following the charge. The group in the air could see the cloud that represented the destroyed power station with flashes of white and red coming out of it at regular intervals. Closer, they could see a swarm of people destroying three manufacturing buildings. Dawnstar opened a communicator channel to the Legionnaires. "It looks as if your friends are busy leveling the Sentinel factory," she said. Lyle called up the tactical view from his flight ring and found many Legion signals outside of his group escorting the general. Close to them, by the wreckage of the factory, he could see the symbols of Sensor, Umbra and Monstress. Two more signals were closing in rapidly.

"Invisible Kid, come in!" Imra's voice came over the channel. The Legionnaires and Lori stopped their flight as the Rebel force kept moving towards the capitol.

"Saturn Girl!" Lyle called out in relief. He checked his tracker on his flight ring and saw her symbol as well as Chameleon's closing in on their location. He flew towards them, with the rest of the Legionnaires and Lori in tow. Within moments, he could see their two teammates closing the distance. Lyle quickly hugged both Imra and Reep in the air as best he could. "Thank gods you're all right!" he said to the both of them. Jo rushed up to them immediately.

"Imra, is there any word about Tinya?" Jo asked urgently.

"Yes," she said then she stopped short noticing the blond teenager in their midst. "Lori Morning?" Imra asked, baffled. Lori waved at her shyly.

"Imra!" Jo asked again, this time reaching out and shaking Imra's shoulder. Imra pulled herself back abruptly.

"She's fine, Jo," Imra said, annoyance crossing her features, "She found us a few days ago."

"I NEED TO GO TO HER," Jo said urgently.

Lyle grabbed Jo's bicep. "Ultra Boy, I need you to focus on the mission," he said, "Apparition will be fine, but you have your job to do."

"She's fighting against Meta's people, giving M'Onel a chance at Meta," Imra said, "We need her doing her job there."

"But the last time we tangled with Daxamites..." Jo trailed off in a combination of fear, frustration and anger, then rocketed off towards the fight to the north.

"Gods damnit," Lyle swore as the rest of the stunned Legionnaires watched Jo's contrail. He turned back to Imra. "Listen, I don't have time to explain everything, but we're helping the Rebels take over the palace." He was interrupted by an energy blast from the dense cloud surrounding the former power station.

Pathfinders and soldiers alike stopped their progress and cried out in alarm as twin red beams shot up from the cloud and cut through the top ten stories of the pointed Imperial Spire. Freed from the floors below, the tip of the spire toppled over and fell directly towards the council chamber building. As the pointed missile fell towards its target, another blast fired out of the battle cloud, this time due south towards the starport area. All eyes turned and looked skyward to the beam's direction and saw a distant flare in the middle of the metallic ribbon that led up to the space station, gleaming white through the haze in the sun's reflection. A voice cut through the communication channels. "They've cut off the beanstalk!" it said urgently.

Just at that moment, the falling tip of the spire slammed into the council building with full force, crushing the roof in on half the structure.

Roll Call

Monstress- Candi Pyponte-Le Parc III of Xanthu, immense strength and invulnerability
Umbra - Tasmia Mallor of Talok VIII, control of mystical shadows
Sensor - Jeka Wynzorr of Orando, Illusionist


Candi ripped through the walls of the manufacturing facility, easily destroying the robotic Sentinel guards as the freed prisoners rushed in behind her, gathering whatever weapons they could grab, whether they be dropped rifles or other debris to use as clubs. She looked around the chamber stacked with various prefabricated iron and silicon components.  In the center was a spherical chamber with a chair behind a bar with a hand grip.  The sphere was designed to be able to move turn in almost any direction so that an emitter could point to any location in the room before a component would be loaded onto the conveyance to ship to the next facility. 

At once, Candi realized that the sphere was designed specifically for Jan's body, and in a blind rage she grabbed it, both crushing it in her grip and ripping it out of its base. With a roar, she hurled it through the roof of the structure landing outside, where it could be heard smashing on the ground before Candi started to rip through the entire facility with her bare hands. The freed prisoners who had followed her into the factory turned and ran outside once Candi's fury unleashed.

"Monstress, what's going on over there?" Tasmia called over the communicator.

Candi paused her rampage and drew a few breaths. "Just working out some frustrations, that's all, Umbra," she said, "This is where they were forcing Element Lad to create those soulless robots."

"Yeah, I'm in the next one over," Tasmia said, "It looks like there was a spot here for Kid Quantum to do her job and grow the bastards.  There's a ton of crystalline structures that would fit into the robot exoskeletons.  They must have used the crystals as a neural network of sorts."

Jeka added herself to the conversation. "There is a similar facility here for poor Spark," she interjected, calling from the third warehouse, "It looks like it's designed to distribute electricity to completed Sentinel robots from the central sphere."

Fury boiled up within Candi again and her eyes narrowed. "Can I help rip that place apart, too?" she asked.

"Be my guest, Monstress," Tasmia said, "Our new friends are taking care of the smaller targets around the manufacturing warehouses.  The faster we can trash this the better so that we can move on to the real battle."

"Indeed," Jeka chimed in, "Also I'm reading communications on the Legion channel.  It appears that Invisible Kid and his team have arrived with the offworld Rebel forces and are storming the capitol right now."

Candi felt a small quake and a boom as dust shook from the rafters. "What was that?" she asked.

"But I think we need to join our friends," Tasmia said, "We will cloak ourselves with the honor of battle." She paused.  "And darkness."

Candi smiled grimly.  "I like the way you think, Umbra," she said, then jumped up through the roof of the facility and down onto the next one in turn. Candi then proceeded to completely thrash the building, barely leaving the walls intact before moving to the third.

it's only a 3 month gap at least my own story got stalled for 9 months, so you're good!

awesome seeing the action from Lyle's team's point of view! I suppose Garth and Dyrk are somewhere there too?

I really like the "non-lethal force, and giving a second chance" directive from General Walker! Greywind's discomfort with that is a nice touch too

haha at Gates wanting to write the general's speech!

ah, just like Jo to zoom off. Looking forward to your pay off here!

whoa what a cliffhanger, falling building!

I can feel Candi's anger, I always thought that if I were a superhero, I would be super angry at some of the things people do...


looking forward to more more more!!

Thanks for the perspective! I felt so bad just watching my stuff sit there, and I need to catch up on all the cool things you all are writing. I feel bad reading other folks' stuff when I'm in limbo, as I don't want to accidentally put in something that you all wrote when I get back to it!



Thank you - many questions will be answered very soon!

But its funny you mentioned Jo - the original plan was for him to go along with the group, as you'll see here soon, but then when I sat down to write it was just not true. So that became a last minute changeup that I had to deal with.

And Candi was going to dismantle everything anyway, but her real rage is coming from what was done with Jan.

Roll Call

Kinetix - Zoe Saugin of Aleph, Telekinesis
Violet - Salu Digby of Imsk, Size changing from microscopic to giant



As they approached the space elevator, Zoe and Violet awkwardly donned their transuits while flying as fast as they could. "You'd think Brainy would come up with a better idea for these things," Zoe groused while fumbling her arm through the sleeve. Violet just looked at her narrowly while sealing her own suit closed with a half-smile across her lips. "What?" Zoe said as she noticed Violet looking at her quietly.  She closed the clasp of her own suit.

"Vinetix? Really?" Violet asked, her face nonplussed except for a hint of amusement at the corner of her mouth.

Zoe shrugged. "Hey, if we're gonna be the new power couple of the Legion, we have to give ourselves a catchy name!" she said with a grin.  "Now c'mon!" She took Vi's hand, "Let's go save the planet!" and the pair flew up to the silver cylinder of the elevator to the point of its separation.

From afar, the elevator seemed to be oddly still.  The structure stayed straight all the way down to the base at the starport, hundreds of kilometers below through the cloud cover, however the damage above was clear to see.  The upper section that had connected to the gleaming high port above was obviously detached from Meta's heat vision with a fairly clean break across the ten meter diameter, but effectively hovering in the air.  The lower section had begun its descent to the planet, the top reaches being pulled back by Starhaven's gravity, making it start to look like a hook anchored in the ground far below.

Zoe quickly assessed the situation. "Vi, I need you to brace the elevator to slow its fall," she yelled, "I'll get the top up to reconnect it to the station!"

"You got it!" Vi responded and grew herself to her maximum size, almost one hundred meters, and moved herself to the side where the cable was falling and beginning to buckle into itself. She pushed against the strand and gasped with the weight that was hitting her from gravity's pull against the construct, so Violet used her flight ring to help push back on the force. Even with the ring's assistance, Vi found herself straining and groaning in effort.

As Violet struggled to push the falling metallic cable back up, Zoe had moved to work on pulling the severed end of the cable up closer to the station-leading end of the cable. She hovered and reached out her arms, concentrating her powers on the top end of the cable. A green energy flowed from her hands to the top of the falling structure and it began to immediately pull back, helping to straighten the planet-based section of the cable. Zoe could hear Violet ease off her exertion as some of the force had been transferred to Zoe, but Zoe herself immediately felt the downward force pulling the cable and channeled more effort to slowly move the tip up closer to the upper section of the break in order to tie them back together.  In turn, Vi was able to push and straighten the cable up more.

Neither girl was prepared for the sudden barrage of blaster bolts that started to pepper them as a squad of Imperial pathfinders and Sentinels swept in firing. Zoe was small enough so that she could quickly project a shield, but Violet was hit directly in her torso by the bolts. However, due to her size, as well as her transuit, the bolts that hit her distributed across her body and only stung.

"Zoe, are you ok up there?" Violet grunted as she both took blaster fire and swatted assailants away from them.

"I can do this, honey," Zoe said as she concentrated, "I just need some cover."

"Did someone say cover?" A familiar voice called in over the Legion comm channel. At that moment, a Legion cruiser flew through the stratosphere with an escort of four Pathfinders directly at the beanstalk. At the last moment, it pivoted on its side to be perpendicular to the ground and an electrical discharge shot out from the cruiser's array and hit all the Imperial attackers at once, stunning them and leaving them hanging in midair.

"Magno?!" Violet said, "Nice flying!"

"I learned from the best!" Dyrk replied over the link.

"Great, Vi," Zoe chimed in, "Can you make sure that your protégé keeps these jerks off my back?"

"Aw, c'mon Kinetix," Garth's voice came in, "The Legion's a team! We're a two-for-one deal for this assignment!" Several Sentinels exploded after Garth discharged electricity from his cruiser.

"I can get us protected, Livewire," said Violet as she took advantage and grabbed the beanstalk to pull it straighter, "It's good to hear your voice! Just support the team covering Meta, they need the help the most, even though M'Onel is with them."

"Roger that, Vi," Dyrk called back.

"Good luck," Garth called as they flew away. With that, the Legion cruiser spiraled down into the troposphere and descended into the maelstrom of the fight against Meta.

"Zoe, can you pull down the upper section so that we can reconnect the cable?" Violet asked as she pulled up the planet-side section of the elevator cable as straight as she could. As green energy flowed out of Zoe's hands and into the upper cable, she began to frown in concentration and sweat began to bead on her forehead from the effort.

Violet kept pulling her end of the cable up towards the sky so that it could be connected to Zoe's side when it was close enough.  "What's wrong?" she asked Zoe, "Why is it taking so long?"

"It's a little tough pulling down a space station, kiddo," Zoe grunted, still straining from the effort. The skyward side of the ribbon was moving down and closer to Violet's end, but extremely slowly.

Vi looked down and saw at least a dozen more Sentinels and Imperial Pathfinders flying their way.  "Well, let's get a move on it, OK?" she said, "we have more company coming." Vi shifted herself so that her grown size was hauling up her end of the cable with one hand, but also blocking Zoe from the attackers as they began to open fire.  The attackers had increased the power to their blaster rifles to more than double the energy output, making each strike more damaging to both Violet as well as her transuit, wearing it down to an unsustainable level.

"Zoe," Violet said as the energy bolts kept landing on her, "They're coming in closer." She swatted and connected at a few enemies, but the bolts kept raining in on Violet. "I can't keep them off for much longer!"

"Just... Give me... a... minute," Zoe grunted as she pulled the upper cable to within a meter of the lower section that Vi holding on to and defending.  Zoe felt her energy draining and found it increasingly difficult to focus, but she caused tendrils of each side of the severed cable to animate, unfurling, then reaching out to each other so that they started to knit themselves together and keep the cable mounted and saving the planet.

"Vi..." Zoe gasped, "Almost done... so weak..."

"Hang on, Zoe!" Vi urged, but at that moment, Zoe passed out and began to plummet down through the stratosphere.  Violet reached out and was able to move fast enough so that Zoe landed into the palm of her hand.  "Gotcha!" Violet said to herself and pulled Zoe in close to her chest. However, by focusing her attention on Zoe, Vi missed the chance to dodge a bolt fired at her head, and she was knocked unconscious herself, plummeting towards the ground at giant size.

yay, Vinetix!! I always wondered that Zoe would have trouble telekinetically "wearing" a transuit, as she wouldn't be sure how to keep it functional new power couple, yeah!

awesome! nice! that's where Dyrk and Garth were!

also cool bit having Vi be a great pilot, and having Dyrk play a key role

nice writing showing how Zoe was straining. I agree, I don't think we've quite seen her shift anything that big before.

oh whoa! what a cliffhanger hope Zoe and Vi make it ok!

Nice of you to update when I have been catching up on everyone's fics, GL!

Of course Gates wanted to write a speech lol

I like everyone being a bit awkward around Lori...it must be weird for all of them, including Lori herself!

Jo was a bit of a dick with Imra, but I can also see why the idea of Tinya going up against Meta would be triggering for him (let's not mention that she probably wouldn't have gone and gotten herself flash-fried in the first place if she wasn't distracted looking after him...)

Vinetix! Trust Zoe to come up with a couple name...I liked the description with how the two of them were working together, and nice cliffhanger!!

Yeah, I think everyone posting updates helped to get me motivated!

But thanks guys - more to come today, with a possibly controversial couple of choices....

keep a pin on the transuit comment - oddly enough I'm going somewhere with this as I've found the concept problematic.

Roll Call

Ferro - Andrew Nolan of Earth, Invulnerability and super strength when turning to iron
M'Onel - Lar Gand of Daxam, Superman-like powers
Apparition - Tinya Wazzo if Bgztl, Intangibility
Ultra Boy - Jo Nah of Rimbor, Multiple super powers, used one at a time
Element Lad - Jan Arrah of Trom, Element transmutation
Kid Quantum - Jazmin Cullen of Xanthu, controls quantum spheres
Spark - Ayla Ranzz of Winath, Bioelectrical generation
Cosmic Boy - Rokk Krinn of Braal, mastery of magnetic forces


Bits of intertron rained across the ruins of the power plant.  The Legionnaires dodged to avoid the shrapnel, with bits passing through Tinya's incorporeal form and bouncing off of Andy and Lar.  Meta stood in place with his eyes glowing red in anger as another boom echoed across the battlefield.  A streak of read and green whooshed in and tackled Meta face down into the dirt and began raining blows into his back.

"Time for payback now, you sprocker," Jo gritted.

"Jo!" Tinya called and rushed down to him, still intangible.

Jo looked up at the sound of his wife's voice.  "Tinya!" he said and stopped punching Meta for a moment. Meta took that opportunity to push back, and kick Jo square in the abdomen, sending him flying back and splayed into the rubble.

"Jo!" Tinya cried out and went down to him.  He was knocked unconscious, with a massive bruise growing on his midsection. "Oh gods, he never switched back to invulnerability," she said and looked over her shoulder to see Lar and Andy again sweeping down onto Meta to continue the fight. She quickly re-materialized to pull out a spray hypo out of her belt to help stabilize her husband. The spray revived Jon instantly and he started to groan. 

"Tinya?" he said weakly.

Tinya moved in and kissed Jo passionately. "Gods, I missed you," she said, then more sternly, "Now get invulnerable so you can get healed!"

"But you're..." he began.

"I'm fine, Jo, don't worry about me," Tinya responded, "I can handle myself." With that she turned intangible as Jo struggled to pick himself up.

"I'm grow tired of this exercise," Meta growled and jabbed at Lar while Andy punched Meta from the back.

"Ferro, Kid Quantum," Jan thought to Andy and Jasmin via telepathic earplugs, "Come over to me quickly." Jan flew up and closer to where the fight with Meta was raging as Andy flew to meet him as Jazmin flew from the other side of the battlefield.  Jan reached out and a stream of energy swept out and covered Andy's metallic body, turning him into a duller grey.

"I feel kind of funny. What did you do to me?" Andy asked as he looked at his own arms.

"Congratulations," Jan said, "You are now Lead Lad." Jan indicated to Meta. "Go get him. Kid Quantum will be waiting to put him into stasis if needed." Jazmin looked at Jan and nodded, knowing instinctively what he was planning.

"My pleasure," Andy said, and dropped like a stone right at Meta, both fists stretched out.  He slammed into Meta at full force, knocking him backwards and Andy started to beat at him hard enough that the Daxamite stood there stunned for a moment.  Seizing the opportunity, Andy closed in and grabbed the face of Meta's transuit and pulled as hard as he could, tearing the dark fabric off his face. 

Meta stopped still, blinking in surprise at having his true face exposed to the air.  His face, white from being hidden from sunlight for so long, contrasted with his dark hair and beard.  His hands came to his face.  "What have you done?!" he cried, just as Andy punched him in the jaw, sending Meta reeling to the ground with a split lip. "Don't touch me!!!" he panicked and began to cough violently.

Meanwhile, On the other side of the former power plant site, Ayla Ranzz floated up above Repulse, who was holding an unconscious Rokk Krinn prisoner.  Rokk's arms were bound together above his head as Repulse had his liquid metallic tendrils wound tightly around Rokk's wrists. Rokk's head lolled to the side as he fought for consciousness.

"Let him go, scumbag!" Ayla yelled, her fists balled up in aggression and her face contorted in rage.  Her electrical discharge was increasing in voltage, making her strawberry hair stand on end.

"What are you going to do, doll?" Repulse jeered, "Take out your boyfriend, too? Oh, wait, I thought I was your boyfriend." Rokk grunted as he started to revive.

"You bastard!" Ayla yelled and sent a bolt directly next to Repulse in an attempt to startle him into making a mistake.  He kept moving backwards and to the side as Ayla kept raining bolts down on him, but just missing, so Repulse ended up carrying Rokk back almost a hundred yards when a finger tapped him on his shoulder.  Repulse spun around to see the patchwork containment suit of Drake standing in his path.

Drake waved while Repulse stood there confused, he opened his chest aperture, firing a blast of energy directly into Repulses body armor.  The Braalian was knocked back, stunned, and lost control of his suit's metallic vines binding Rokk.  They unfurled as Repulse dropped to the ground and Rokk dropped and rolled to the side, ending up on all fours as he began to get his bearings.

Ayla called down to him. "Cosmic Boy, you ok?" she asked.

Rokk struggled to his feet, feeling the bruise on his head and got a bearing on where Repulse lay sprawling on the ground, slowly moving to get back up. He quickly looked over at Drake who gave him a quick thumb up before moving off to help with the rest of the battle.  "I have a massive headache," He eventually replied, "but I'll live.  Thanks, Spark."

"What do we do with this scum?" Ayla spat.  Coming to his senses, Repulse moved quickly to get up, then fired metallic ropes to whip out at Ayla with one hand, and forming a sharp axe with his bad arm that extended out to Rokk.

With an effortless wave of his hands, Rokk altered the course of the strands to quickly wrap around and tie Repulse tightly, as well as turning the axe into an anchor and diverting it deep into the ground, effectively immobilizing Repulse.

"You know your problem, Grez?" Rokk said with some pity in his voice, "You always took short cuts to try to stay ahead of the game when you got older.  I picked your teams apart every time we played.  Easily. Just like now."

"Frack you, pretty boy," Repulse spat back, "My life has been more rewarding than you could imagine in your wildest dreams!" Ayla landed several yards to the side of Rokk, but also facing Repulse. "Isn't that right, doll?" he said to Ayla with a leering grin.

Ayla balled up her fists again, lightning crackling and about to strike out.

"Spark wait!" Rokk said, holding up his hand to Ayla. But Ayla had already sent out a bolt directly at Repulse.

Oh *(#*$##$. I've been writing GreyWIND instead of GreyBIRD. So now I'm changing that. Same with the Emperor. Well, thank goodness for an edit button!

editing is just a part of life. I've misspelled Sizzle's surname in so many posts, I just caught it yesterday...

yay more!

it's a treat seeing you write Element Lad. as a character not available to me in my own fic, it's refreshing to see Reboot Jan "alive" and kicking in yours.

oooph, Jo is still distracted AND not switching between powers very well eh? nice callback to the early Reboot, when Tinya had to coach him often... of course, Tinya DID distract him (I would have given her more of a pass if she only called his name, but she also rushed to him lol - but at least she stayed intangible!)

ah, I like that Jo's invulnerability also helps him heal faster - that makes sense actually, if his origin is ultra-energy being switched around his body/cells

I like how you have Jan showing tactics and battle smarts! and it's a great maneuver heaving him transmute Ferro, after all we've seen Jan transmute his own body

yes! go rip that transuit!!!! nice callback to the White Triangle too, where the Legionnaires tried that

ew, Repulse is so disgusting. good characterization though, making him absolutely vile.

also nice callback to the canon Legion 6, when Cos gave Repulse a similar "you always take shortcuts" speech!

poor Ayla, my heart really feels for her... also kudos for touching on this subject without going into too many details. I kinda want to give Repusle a beatdown myself for what he did!

Yep, it's also why he's back in action after the beatdown he recieved from Meta in #129. It's been a few days, and he's back in action already. But Tinya's learned from getting burned on the stove. So to speak.

Having Jan back is one of the reasons for me doing this.


Jan's had months to watch Meta in action and get an idea of what he's about, so based on what he knows from before the rift to now, he has a pretty good idea on what can make him hurt.


Yeah, Kort is a horrible, horrible person. I'm honestly surprised that DnA kind of backed off on this aspect of him, although the shortcut aspect from DnA made total sense for this jerk. (I mean wearing a whole suit of liquid armor seems like the kind of cheat you'd find in the early Image comics...)

As to Ayla, that is, as you're intimating here, intentionally vague, as she'd feel this degree of rage at any of the Workforce. But Kort's that horrible mix of jock, bully, coward who thinks he's tougher than he is when he has the cards stacked in his favor.

Imra and the Legionnaires caught up with the general's squad as they closed in on the Imperial palace, now sporting a jagged top, as the pointed tip now lay ruined, smashed into the large council building adjacent to the palace. Even though the cloud cover as starting to build around the ruined top of the spire, she could see many winged defenders beginning to gather around the throne room level, about three quarters of the way up, where they first broke out of Meta's grasp days ago.  Suddenly, the general and her immediate escort banked to the side and dove down to the plaza in front of the buildings.  Imra could see three sizeable groups gathering on the ground.  She changed her course to follow Moonwalker and her children to land with them and indicated the Legionnaires to follow suit.  As soon as she approached ground to land she saw Dayvid Strongroot and Greatfire Walker.  Greatfire embraced Moonwalker, holding each other tightly for a long moment before hugging both Greybird and Dawnstar. Even though, Greatfire was much more muscular than the sinewy Greybird, Imra could see the resemblance of features between them all and realized that Greatfire was reunited with his family.

"Saturn Girl!" Dayvid called from his group and hurried over.  "I see you have increased your ranks," he mentioned, clasping forearms with her in greeting after noticing all the new faces of the Legionnaires team.

Imra nodded. "Yes this was the team that found the General on Manitou," she explained, "But we'll have time for formal introductions later.  What news do you have?"

He looked around as all eyes had turned to him, including Moonwalker's and her team. "General," Dayvid said with a slight bow, "Most of the fighting has been the Emperor's forces taking on the Legionnaires at what remains of the power plant, and we have moved as much militia as possible that was close by to help support them from the ground," he said, then looked directly at the general, "Then once you made your announcement and landed, at least half of the forces have been making their way towards the palace."

"I've been rounding up as many militias from the western tribal districts as I could find," Fire said, "including people who could pilot vehicles and get more aerial coverage without knowing when you would arrive." Fire gestured behind him and said to his mother, "Those are all at your command, General Moonwalker."

"How about us, too?" A new voice and three new Legionnaires flew in, with their own group of disheveled, assorted races following behind.  Candi, Tasmia and Jeka, now back in her natural serpentine form, flew in to join the gathering.  The rebels were astir at the sight of Jeka, but with the more cosmopolitan rebel force, it was more of curiosity than fear.

"Monstress!" Lori yelled and ran and threw herself at Candi in a hug. 

"Lori Morning!" Candi said in shock hugging her back, "I never thought I'd see you again, much less so much older!"

Moonwalker cleared her throat sternly to regain control of the discussion. Lori broke the embrace and looked embarrassed, as did Candi, but Candi tightly held Lori's hand as they turned their attention back to the General. Moonwalker said to Dayvid, "What about civilians?"

"People are holding on and taking cover as best as they can," Dayvid said looking somewhat troubled, "But even though most of the loyalist forces are headed this way, some of the loyalist ground forces are pinning people in buildings aided by loyalist citizens, sometimes to deadly effect. Add to that general rioting... There's only so much we can do."

Imra spoke up. "Let us help there, General," she said, "We have some experience with these situations."  Turning to the gathered Legionnaires, she said, "XS and Gates, I need you to scout the city and help any civilians out of trouble. With much of the militias helping here, they may not have much in the way of defenses."

"But what about the plan?" Jenni asked, "I was supposed to stay with Lori."

"Monstress can look out for Lori," Imra replied and Lyle nodded in agreement.

"Great, I guess I get to miss the dethroning of a dictator," Gates groused, "again."

"Just get on board, Gates," Jenni said with annoyance as Gates floated up and grabbed Jenni around the shoulders. Then in a burst of yellow lightning, they were gone.

With that, Moonwalker swept up into the air thirty meters. She looked around at her gathered force, then looked up to the palace, noticing the dark clouds gathering above, but also the assembling Imperial forces in the air.  "Now is the time for the final push to take back our home!" she called to all the assembled force.  Imra couldn't tell if Moonwalker had some kind of sound amplification or if she had an immense vocal range, but the effect was the same; the General could be heard by most everyone. "To my brothers and sisters who have been living under this oppression for so long, this is our moment!" she continued, "To our friends from other worlds, we ask you to stand with us, even if you have been wrongly subjugated, as we all stand or fall together this day! We all stand for freedom!" She paused then threw her arm in the air holding a long baton that activated into a brilliant energy mace and yelled, "FOR STARHAVEN!"

The assembled forces called out as one: "FOR STARHAVEN!" and with a roar surged forward to the palace.  Moonwalker flew into the air towards the throne room of the tower, followed by Greybird, Dawnstar, who had activated her own energy mace, and the Legionnaires. 

Almost as if on cue, the unmistakable hum of a Legion Cruiser engine could be heard doppler shifting around the sky above them.  Imra looked up and saw the cruiser weaving through the sky discharging multiple lightning bolts in rapid succession, stunning some of the aerial enemy force, or in the case of any Sentinels, completely overloading them. 

As they flew, Lyle looked at her with amusement; Imra realized that she must have the strangest expression on her face, trying to stay cool and collected fighting with the relief and happiness she felt knowing that Garth was alive. "Livewire is a little late to the game, Saturn Girl," Lyle said, "But you know he wouldn't miss the party."