Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business Post-ZH Legion: Legion Of Superheroes #126-130

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...