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

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...