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VOLUME 4: MOVING FORWARDEarthElement Lass, Candi "Princess" Pyponte-LeParc III of Xanthu; transmutation
Magno, Dyrk Magz of Braal; magnetokinesis
Sensor, Jeka Wynzorr of Orando; sensory manipulation
Umbra, Tasmia Mallor of Talok VIII; shadow casting
XS, Jenni Ognats of Aarok; super-speed
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Omar Magz cursed as he fired at the petty crook called Gangster. One of them, anyway. The trick with Gangster, was to find and knock out the original...
... easier sad then done, when there were now dozens running around!
Thankfully, Gangster's target had been a warehouse/factory on the outskirts of Metropolis, near the park. Most of the staff in this installation were drones; and the dozen or so sentient, biological staff had been accounted for when the attack had begun.
After all, unlike some crazy villains, these ones were motivated primarily by greed.
Still, that didn't make fighting them any easier.
Omar's first shot hit one of the Gangster clones in the shoulder; the clone howled and dropped his blaster. But the second shot was blocked by a second clone carrying a shield.
Omar cursed, as he drew his blaster again...
But before he could fire, he felt himself getting thrown down! He turned to find XS looking at him in concern.
"What gives, Legionnaire gloryhound?" Omar spat. His little brother Dyrk had brought XS home one time, and Omar hadn't thought much of her, either.
"I just saved your life, brother-in-law," XS rolled her eyes. She pointed at where Omar had been sheltering behind some debris; scorch marks marred the slabs of concrete. The inertron plates were untouched, but Braalian flesh would have been. "And no, Dyrk and I aren't getting married... yet." She dashed off before Omar could say another word, muttering under her breath "and if you weren't Dyrk's brother, I would not even THINK of inviting you..."
Seconds later, XS had returned. As she came to a stop, the various Gangster clones fell.
"You missed the original!" Omar said coldly.
"Obviously," XS rolled her eyes. "Sorry if I spent most of my time evacuating civilians within a five-block radius!"
"She did a good job too!" Cill came up. The muscled officer was tapping on his Omnicom.
"Of course you would think that," Omar muttered. "One of THEM was your partner."*
"Not a very helpful attitude," XS said. "We're here to help, not to steal your glory."
Omar bristled. "You make our jobs harder, you...!"
"No, they make our jobs easier, when we work together." Cill said firmly. "We could never have taken Gangster down so quickly. And, the extra time helped me check on a few things..."
Images beamed out of Cill's Omnicom. "Like these tracks. Or these marks that look like laser damage. Or this damage that looks like something acidic was used..."
Omar took a peek. "So someone else is hiding something here..." he said pointedly.
XS decided not to rise to the bait. Magno had always described Omar was a textbook narcissist... "Or making us see things that are not there... but not removing the effects..." Her eyes widened. "I have to find the others, now! Officers, I think you'd best stay away, if I'm right... She sped off without another word.
Cill and Omar looked at each other. Omar pulled his blaster. "I'll be sprocked if I listen to her..."
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Magno pulled together metallic shields, hoping to slow down the Eye's blasts. "Umbra, I can't..." He was cut off as emerald blasts exploded around him. He was just thankful that they were in the park, far away from inhabited buildings.
"No worries, Magno." Umbra turned her darkfield over to the Eye. "I can't stop the Eye's blasts, though I can throw it's aim off." She stopped to help Magno up. "Something does not seem right, though... I've fought the Eye before. It's much more powerful than this. Why has it not just dropped an entire building on us?"
"Don't give it any ideas..." Magno muttered. "But it IS odd. I would expect the Fatal Five to go after a higher mark than this..." He put his flight ring to his lips. "Whereabouts of the Empress and the Emerald Eye?"
"Still incarcerated..." Came the reply. Umbra and Magno looked at each other. That could only mean...
"Get ready, Dyrk." Umbra waited only a second more, than focused her darkfield in on itself before unleashing it in all directions. She was rewarded by a cry of pain...
... which Magno used to aim HIS own powers, wrapping up the subject in metal. He slammed the offender into the ground for good measure.
The scene around them quickly changed. Rubble and fallen trees remained, but the Emerald Eye and Empress vanished... and in their place lay a gigantic serpent, not unlike what Sensor used to look like before her transformation**. Only, this one was a darker, moss-like green.
"That explains a lot," Magno muttered. "But if our opponent was only an illusion-caster, where did all this damage come from?"
Before Umbra could answer, she cried out. But Magno barely had time to register, as he felt a painful blow on his head, then felt himself being dragged through the air. He hit the ground with an oomph!
Through groggy eyes, he recognized a half-dozen figures moving towards him. Gigantic brute Bronto. Pollen, already generating a cloud of plant-based spores. The Sarccan called the Undertaker, who could control bodily functions. What looked like a Vyrgan, though unlike most Vyrgans this one was teleporting closer. A Silvan, its light-based body glowing bright. And, of course, Gangster.
... and wrapped around his leg, he noted with disgust, was the long, prehensile tongue of Ze Tongue. "Ah-haha! My lasso-tongue wins ze day, again!"
Illusions can be used to hide as well... of course... Dyrk thought. He raised a hand and pulled Gangster's weapon out of his hands. But before he could pull it to himself, he began to cough up blood.
Undertaker smiled. "Sorry, cutie. Too late... oh!"
Undertaker bounced onto her behind.
"Wat is zis!" Ze Tongue exclaimed. "Zut alors, stupid woman, you should have keeled the boy when... AH!"
Before Magno's eyes, someone had pulled Ze Tongue's tongue off his leg and had tied it into knots. Ze Tongue knelt down, making incomprehensible babbling noises as he desperately tried to un-knot it.
Seconds later, XS pulled Magno and Umbra up. "I always wondered how Ze Tongue could talk, while his Tongue was making all sorts of shapes..." She helped steady Umbra and Magno. "I see you figured out there was an illusion-caster too, huh?"
Umbra rubbed her head. "Yeah, this one was nowhere near as crafty with her illusions as Sensor is. Don't tell her I said that."
"You won't be telling anyone anything!" Pollen snapped as she sent a cloud of deadly spores at the trio. "You're already dead... what?" She stood in shock, as the spores fell to the ground.
XS smiled cheerfully. "Oh, I woke our teammates up first, of course."
"I changed the arsenic in your spores to harmless nitrogen," Element Lass chirped. "Good for the soil, too! Ah, remind me to thank Brainiac 5 for all his chemistry lessons..."
"But even without MY illusions, I doubt you would have perceived that," Sensor smiled as she wrapped her tail around Pollen's leg and tripped the woman. Pollen flailed around, crashing into Ze Tongue, who slumped unconscious onto his still-knotted tongue. But before Sensor could finish Pollen off, the Silvan fired a laser at her tail. Sensor cut off a curse as she jerked her tail involuntarily.
"Are you okay?" Element Lass ran up to Sensor, her arm stretched out. "Some soothing Balmium should help..."
"Am... fine..." Sensor said through gritted teeth. "Let's... regroup... my fellow Orandan and Ze Tongue are still out, so we have six left..."
"Allow me." Umbra covered the field in darkness. But XS and Magno beside her, could see her smile. "Time to divide and conquer."
*************************************************
The Silvan glowed brightly in the dark. "Licht is not afraid of the dark, Legionnaire! Lume is not the only brave Silvan!"
"Perhaps." Licht fired a blast in the direction of Umbra's voice. "But Lume is much more honorable than you are."
"Lume is a fool!" Licht snapped. "Having itself be used as a tool by your United Planets... when Lume could enrich itself instead!"
"Lume works for what it believes in..." Umbra's voice called out. "Lume is not at all selfish."
"Licht will not be used again!" Licht kept firing blasts off. Where was that blasted Talokian?
"You will have to do better than that, to break through my darkfield," Umbra laughed.
"Oh, then take this!" Licht exploded its body, sending its light energy cascading in all directions... too late, Licht realized what it was doing. It had let itself be goaded... and instead of focusing its light, it had unleashed a fairly harmless attack...
"Too... weak..." Licht faded into merciful unconsciousness.
Umbra snorted with contempt as she wrapped the Silvan in a darkfield bubble. "So easy, preying on these crooks' egos..."
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"So they sent you after me, eh?" Pollen faced the crystalline behemoth looming in front of her. Though darkness was all around, pockets of light had opened up courtesy of Umbra's darkfield, to allow her teammates to see their opponents. "You may be big, but I'm not scared!" She fired off another spore cloud at Element Lass.
Candi stood, hands in front of her. "I assure you, you cannot do anything to me. And I don't want to muss up that fabulous outfit of yours. So I suggest you just surrender and... oh!"
She felt... not quite pain, but she could feel her crystalline form being eaten up. She looked down in horror. "How..."
"Acidic spores from the Crystal Forests of Ventura!" gloated Pollen. "Give me enough time, and I will think of something deadly enough for anyone. Now, you surrender!"
Candi didn't even bother to respond. Instead, she turned the ground beneath Pollen into mercury. As the woman gasped and coughed, she turned all the air around her into neon... and Pollen slumped into blissful unconsciousness. Candi immediately reversed her transmutation, restoring the air that Pollen needed to keep alive. Then, she looked at her own form and began reinforcing it.
"I guess I'm going to have to ask Brainy for botany lessons, too..." she muttered.
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"I don't care how fast you are," Undertaker snarled. "You still can't stop my power!" The Undertaker used her ability to control bodily functions to latch on to the systems governing Aarokian's body temperature. "I'll make you overheat, you super-speed freak!"
She laughed in contempt as XS knelt down, sweat pouring from every pore. "No... too warm... going to..."
"You're going to explode in a puddle of hot blood, you..."
She never finished her sentence, as an arm slammed into the back of her neck.
As Undertaker fell, the kneeling XS vanished. She was replaced, instead, by a smiling Sensor.
"You just used your own illusion trick on us," she laughed as she picked Undertaker up. "But why am I not surprised you fell for it yourself?"
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"You're a big one, aren't you?" Magno levitated out of Bronto's reach.
"And you're a puny Braalian!" Bronto bounced in anger. "But if Bronto can't hit you, Bronto smash you!" Bronto reached down to pick up a rock, and hurled it at the blonde Legionnaire.
Magno dodged it easily. "You're just wasting your time..."
"Bronto no surrender!" A fallen tree branch followed next. Magno simply drew one of the metallic orbs on his armguard, honed it to a point, and used it to slice the branch in half.
"I guess if you won't let this go the easy way..." Magno sighed. He quickly shaped the metal into strips, and fired them at Bronto. One strip caught the giant under his outstretched arms, and the other strips followed to form a sort of metallic corset. Then, Magno concentrated as he slammed the strips into the ground with just enough force to knock Bronto out.
Magno held his flight ring to his lips. "Magno, my target's done."
"Mine too!" Element Lass cooed. Umbra and Sensor added their reports.
"That leaves the fastest of us..." ribbed Umbra.
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"I knew you would get back at me for that crack in the restaurant..." XS quipped back as she ran outside the perimeter of Umbra's shadow. "Give me a break, I have to fight a teleporter...! Another one of the messes Ra's al Ghul left us..."***
"Sprocking imperialists!" The Vyrgan popped out of a glowing, green disk. "You want to keep us downtrodden! Well, Disks won't let you!"
"Vyrga is a respected UP World!" XS called back as she ran to where Disks was. Just as she reached him, he began to teleport anyway; XS knew not to go closer, else she would risk losing a body part if she touched the edge of the disk. Wise of her; cut flower stems and blades of grass littered the area where Disks had teleported from. "But you're not doing it any favors by committing crimes!"
"Is it a crime to enrich oneself?" Disks snapped back as he teleported again. "I won't be a martyr like Gates. I... oh!" As Disks exited another teleport gate, he felt his world turn upside down. He slumped to the floor.
XS stood above him. "Sorry, a little whirlpool action. And now..." She pummeled him with half a dozen punches, and he fainted.
"Was this fast enough for you guys?" XS called. "Now, that only leaves Gangster!"
"And you will let me leave!"
XS turned, and her eyes widened in shock.
An army of Gangster clones were standing in a cluster. And the one in the middle was holding Officer Cill in a chokehold. A second one had his blaster pointed right at Officer Cill's neck.
"Sorry..." Cill coughed weakly. "Came... to help..."
XS held her arms up. "Okay, don't hurt him. If you do, there's no turning back..."
"I'm not stupid, Legionnaire," Gangster snarled. "I'm going to use him as a hostage to escape. So you're going to sit still and get blasted." At least ten Gangster clones raised their weapons and fired.
XS, by instinct, dodged the blasts with her super-speed. But as soon as she stopped, she heard a cry of pain. She gasped as she saw blood spurt from Cill's arm.
"He can still walk even without arms!" Gangster snapped. "Stand still, Legionnaire, or we'll see what other body parts he can lose while still being a hostage..."
XS scowled as she raised her hands up, and willed herself to stand still. She was too far to risk it... "Fine, do what you will."
Gangster smiled as he fired, and XS was blown backwards off her feet.
"Jenni!" Magno called as he flew into view. He landed beside her, cradling her form in his arms. Still alive, thank grife. He looked at Gangster. "She's already out. What do you want?"
"I want you to call the other Legionnaires off and let me go!" Gangster yelled.
"You know I can't do that..." Magno answered as he put XS gently to the side and stood up.
Gangster smiled as he fired at Cill's other arm. The officer yelled in pain.
Magno thought. Maybe he could stall until Sensor or Element Lass arrived... either could take Gangster easily, without him even noticing. "Let's talk about this. You let him go, and take me instead. A Legionnaire is more valuable than a Sci-Cop."
"And risk you tricking me with your powers?" Gangster barked. "I'm more experienced than most of those fools you took down. My time in Cortex's gang taught me a lot. And now..." Gangster aimed his weapon at Magno. "You're going down!"
Magno braced himself for pain... but it never came. Instead, a bright red laser blasted into the face of the Gangster body aiming at Cill!
Magno gasped as he watched an explosion of blood. Someone had sniped Gangster...!
The other Gangster clones also stood in shock.
"Sprock it!" yelled a familiar voice. Magno jerked in recognition. Omar?
"Do something!" Omar yelled as he shot again. Magno could see him now, hiding in a tree, arms and blaster resting on one outstretched leg. Two more Gangster bodies' heads exploded, including the one holding Cill.
"Omar, no! Don't kill him!" Magno quickly pulled a metallic cocoon around Cill, carrying the Science Police officer to safety. He had to act fast and stop the carnage. Another Gangster body fell, this one bleeding from a stump that had been his arm. Magno sensed Omar's blaster and pulled it from him.
"You criminal, letting this guy go!" Omar snarled as he jumped from the tree.
"We can stop him without killing him!" Magno yelled back as he lowered Cill's cocoon gently to the ground. "Cill is safe now!"
The Gangster bodies began to regroup, and Magno tripped a few with metallic projectiles.
"Give my blaster back!" Omar began running at Magno. But some Gangster bodies were running at him. Magno took those out first.
"I'll take care of this!" A groggy XS stood up, though blood was streaming from her forehead. She dashed off... and Gangster bodies began to fall to the ground.
As one of the last ones fell, all the Gangster bodies disappeared... including the dead ones.
Magno sighed in relief as Omar ran up. "You didn't kill the main one... None of them are really dead!"
"Sadly!" Omar's eyes blazed with anger. "This sprock does not deserve to live!" He shoved Magno away as he knelt beside Cill.
"I'm... am... glad you didn't kill em..." Cill muttered in pain.
"Omar..." Magno stammered. "You really meant to kill him?"
"I was hoping the first one I shot would be the real Gangster," Omar spat. "Would have saved a lot of pain and trouble."
"I can't believe what I'm hearing..." XS ran up, dumping the unconscious Gangster beside Disks. "I knew you were a hothead, but..."
"But you were always so proud of being a Sci-Cop..." Magno continued. Blasted arrogant about it, but Omar had tried his best. "Now... I don't even recognize you anymore."
"Threats have become increasingly dangerous!" Omar snapped. "As you would have known, if you had been on Legion World when we were all taken hostage!***** But if we had killed these criminals, they would not have hurt anyone else!"
"Omar... I think you need help." XS said gently. "I don't think you're over the trauma of what happened.
"Yes..." Magno's eyes watered. "Yes you do need help." In one swift move, he grabbed Omar and fished for the plastic cuffs that Braalian Science Police Officers carried. Like Dyrk once did. And he placed them on Omar.
"What... let me go!" Omar snapped as he tried to kick Dyrk.
"I'm sorry, Omar, but..." Tears began to well up in Dyrk's eyes. Not that he felt any sort of brotherly love for Omar... but this would kill his parents. "You're under arrest for attempted murder."
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IB's notes:
1) Officer Cill was Kinetix's partner when SHE was a Science Police officer! Only appearance, the Legion 4.
2) Legion 17-18, when Sensor was hit by hypertaxis energy
3) Ra's al Ghul, while masquerading as UP President Leland McCauley, kidnapped and experimented on Vyrgans to reproduce Gates' teleportation abilities. Most of the results were Vyrgan clones cross-bred with Winathian or Carggite DNA so they could produce more teleport-ready clones.
4) In my Volume 3, when the Monitor's army invaded Legion World. Omar was one of those taken hostage and left behind when the Legion had to escape...
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