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

STARHAVEN CITY EST CALENDAR DATE 2999.01.12

The Emperor's arrival to his capital was heralded by a sonic boom that echoed across the city and spaceport. He drifted slowly towards his palace, dark cloak blillowing in the wind, in order to inspect the damage where his throne room was situated along the spire. Slaves and robots were inside and out, working to repair the large gap in the wall. His ire began to build, and in a second had moved through the gap to be in the throne room itself to find Dune supervising the repair.

"Move it, you dogs!" Dune growled in his raspy voice, "He'll be back soon!"

"He's back now," the emperor said darkly.

Dune turned with surprise. "Me-…My Lord," he corrected himself and gave a slight bow. Behind the Emperor's war mask, Dune could sense his anger and braced for some kind of punishment.

"What happened here?" The Emperor said directly.

"It was the Legion, my lord," he said with some reluctance, "They… resisted. They escaped. And…"

"'And' what?" The Emperor asked.

Dune looked away. "They escaped with Spark and Element Lad."

The Emperor took a deep breath to calm himself. He scanned the room, noting the ruined carpet, cracked walls all over, and a ruined dais. He clenched his fists. "Where is Repulse?" he asked Dune.

"He- He's taken a strike force to retrieve them, your majesty," Dune answered, "Amber is down below in the lab with the prisoner." Dune delivered the last news with a more upbeat tone as if to provide a silver lining to the news.

"Take me there."

Farther down the spire of the spire, Ferro, Amber and Kid Quantum were in a lab where Ferro happened to be strapped down onto a couch. Amber hovered over Ferro holding a syringe, while Kid Quantum stood in the corner, staring blankly. "You can't hold out forever, Ferro," Amber whispered, "Just let me give you this and everything will be OK."

Andy called over to Jazmin. "Hey, Kid," he said, "C'Mon give me a hand and knock her out!"

"Everything will be OK," Jazmin echoed.

"Well, Ok," Ferro said. Amber leaned in to inject him with the solution, only to have Ferro transform himself to iron just before the needle made contact with his skin. Ferro's voice, now with a metallic echo, laughed at Amber. "I could do this all day," he said, "you wanna try that again?".

"You sprocking git," Amber snarled and threw the syringe across the room in frustration, "Keep that up and see if we don't figure out other ways of punishing you."

"What, are you going to try and sap me to death again?"

"What do we have here?" A deep voice asked from behind them. A hissing sound followed as both the Emperor strode into the room, still in his black transsuit, armor and battle mask, followed by Dune, who gave Amber a warning look from behind the Emperor's back.

"Th-this is Ferro, your majesty," Amber explained, "We captured him when they tried to escape."

"So," Ol-Vir began slowly but intently, "You were given the Legion to detain, and let them go ALONG WITH THE TROMMITE," he shouted the last phrase, causing Amber to flinch. Pausing to collect his breath and composure, he continued, "And in trade, we have this whelp who can simply turn into metal?"

"S-sir, we still have Kid Quantum…" Dune interjected.

"Who cannot create raw materials, nor provide a power source," the Emperor said as he swiftly turned to interrupt, "We have the energy source that can be redirected, if needed, so the girl is of lesser value, but refining the material without the Trommian will take weeks if not months." He pointed is finger directly at Dune as his eyes began to glow red with anger. "See to it that we get Arrah back and that you have set contingencies in place."

LATER IN THE THRONE ROOM

The core workforce, Repulse, Dune and Amber, waited in the antechamber of the throne room, used for preparations for attendants to the emperor, and thus lavishly decorated with mosaics and tapestries depicting battles of the founding of Starhaven. The royal office had announced that the Emperor would make a statement after the repairs had been completed to the throne room, and the Workforce were to appear at his side, so they waited.

Doors to the personal chambers swung opened and the emperor himself strode into the room. He turned and directly faced Repulse with quiet anger. "What was the job that I told you to?" he asked.

"B-boss, they got out of hand – I tried to…" Repulse began. Sweat immediately started to bead on his brow beneath his spiked blond hair.

"What. Was. It." The Emperor repeated.

"Subdue the Legion," Repulse said softly.

"Exactly right," The Emperor said, "that was exactly what I told you to do." He turned and Repulse could feel the scowl on his face, hidden in the shadow of his hood, "So why did you do the EXACT opposite?"

"We went after…" Repulse tried to respond.

"You lost a DIVISION of Sentinels!"

"But more Legionnaires appeared!" Repulse was finally able to get out, "Even that Daxamite, M'Onel. That's why we had to retreat!"

This seemed to give Ol-Vir some pause, and he contemplated as he stared out the window for a moment. He turned back to Repulse. "Those nanofibers that you wear, are you able to manipulate them as if they were a hand?" he asked softly.

Repulse became almost enthusiastic with a topic he felt like he could discuss freely. "Sprock yeah, I can do that! I'm the best!" he said.

"Show me," the Emperor said, "Do that with your armor and expose your hand so that I can see this for myself."

"Sure, boss," Repulse said and held out his right arm. The fluid nanometals flowed back to his elbow and morphed out to the side, creating a replica forearm and hand. Showing off, and proud of himself, he moved his real hand just as the metal hand made the same find movements with the digits.

"Good," Ol-Vir said, and two beams of intense red light fired out of his eyes and disintegrated Repulse's exposed forearm, cauterizing it just before the joint. Amber gasped and stepped back, while Dune shifted his mass to the side.

Repulse stood staring at where his arm just was with his mouth agape. It took him a moment before he started screaming in pain as the reality of what had just happened connected into his brain. "My arm!"

"Yes," Ol-Vir said coolly, "Considering the magnitude of your failure, you should consider this merciful, especially since you have the capacity to effectively replace your limb." He began to stride out a side door that would take him to his living quarters and addressed the other two. "Let this be an object lesson as to the consequences of failure moving forward," he said and left the room.

"My arm!" Repulse continued to cry, "My sprocking arm!" Amber leaned in to comfort Repulse, who angrily pulled away.

"Now pull yourself together," the emperor said, "I have a statement to make." He turned and made his way to the throne room door while Repulse took deep breaths to steady himself and morphed a metallic forearm and hand over where his natural one had been.

The emperor strode out with the Workforce behind him. Repulse was breathing heavily as the shock was still settling in, but his visor allowed some degree of neutrality. With the throne room being repaired to new within hours after the Emperor's arrival, the elite Pathfinder guard had been summoned, along with several top Starhaven government chieftains who all reported to the Emperor himself. Dune and Amber stood at either side of the Emperor's dais, and Repulse stood at Amber's sideA hush settled over the crowd as Emperor Ol-Vir descended onto his throne from above, in his dark cloak and raptor-crown.

"Subjects of Starhaven," he began, "As you may have heard, a tribe known as the Legion of Super Heroes has come to our empire and joined forces with the rebels that would aim to reduce this empire and our way of life into dust. They attacked this very throne room two days ago and are on the run on this world with assistance from the rebels. While we are grinding away the Manitouan resistance even as we speak, a team of these radicals is here. Make no mistake we will spare no effort to destroy this Legion and wipe them out of the universe. We will scour this world until every trace of a Legionnaire is found and eliminated.

"We will scour every building, every street, every starship to find them. If you see any trace of these criminals, or even anyone helping them, contact the authorities at once.

"Any citizen of Starhaven found to be providing assistance of any kind to this Legion will be subject to immediate execution.

"Let it be done."

yeah, expected Meta to dash off because of an emergency - good scene here, showing that the other Workforce members are not Meta's equals. You've already foreshadowed it well of course. *wonder if you'll have some of the Workforce switch sides later? Amber seems the most redeemable (Dune's already killed someone, and Repulse is echhh**

I'm guessing Repulse is the main responsible when Meta's away eh? after all, he WAS the Workforce "leader" during the Rift.

ooph, nice showcasing of how out of it Jazmin is. (reminds me of my version's Mordru's magical slaves smile)

haha smart of Ferro turning to iron... guess they don't have any chems that will KO him right away.

Yup, I figured Meta would be displeased at losing Jan and only getting Ferro in return. not exactly an equal trade.

whoo! nice scene, showing just how "above" Meta is. and boy, I sure would not want command responsibility here, as Repulse is the one getting punished! (also smart of Meta, I hate to say - he even made sure Repulse could replace his arm...)

nice way to up the ante...

now that pretty much everyone has met up with a contingent of rebels, I'm predicting a big reunion soon, am I right?

Gads! I realized I never responded to your comments earlier this week. First of all, thank you!


The idea for that came from Legionnaires annual 2. I loved it so much that the shy quiet one has this totally risky side, so I nicked it. Besides, that role is traditionally Dirk's and he's still dealing with his weird powers back home.


I must have made that connection subconsciously, as I didn't even THINK about that, and I'm not even a big fanboy of our friends from Thanagar.


The one nice thing about scenes with Daxamites is that all the action centers around them! And Val basically can only get in one shot with these guys.


Indeed - it makes me wonder now that he has what is essentially a replaceable body part, does it enable him to take more risks?


Thanks! I'm getting nervous about it, as I've outlined what I want to do, but these Daxamanians are a pain.

----



Hmmmm, that's actually an interesting idea...


Exactly right.


Yep, not when he's iron, anyway.


Yes, and originally my idea was that Meta was gonna take that out on Ferro, but I thought after some of the torturing/mind controlling I've done it would be a bit much. Then I read what raz was doing.


Meta, probably like McCauley, realizes that Repulse is a friggin idiot, but has some good specific uses, so is not going to discard him.

My initial plan was a five story arc for this, so that would be the next one! My only challenge is making sure I can keep it relatively short. These things have had a way of expanding with each new story!

yeah, there's a lot that can be done with this, so keeping short won't be easy

re the Workforce, they're kept in line by fear of Meta. Repulse is certainly amoral and selfish, and Dune seems to be too. Amber though, not clear yet.

heh! well Ferro in iron form is quite tough... also shows they don't have a telepath, or anyone who can force Ferro to power down...

and yeah, Daxamite fights are tough just because of how powerful one is!!

My turn to catch up! These were great fun GL, I really like how you give eveyone on the team something to do even with wildly different power levels.

Part 1:
Dayvid and Greatfire are really fun, I like their addition to our little crew!

Monstress bowling people over to check on Jan is adorable and funny, and Cham and Ayla's reunion was really cute as well.

OOH nice cliffhanger!!

Part 2:
Imra manouvering the Sentinels closer to her more physical teammates without actually coming out and announcing a plan is a nice way of showing both how capable Imra is and how accustomed she is by now to working with the team.

Zoe's idea was clever as well, literally turning the Sentinels against their own allies!

People being exasperated at Brainy is always fun to read, and I liked the visual of Chuck doing his best to keep up with the chaos only to notice Brainy just standing there calmly in his own little world

Backup to the rescue! And I love the Starhavenites mistaking Sensor for Quetzalcoatl without her needing to even do anything - I have to imagine that would have been a wtf moment for her

HAHAHAHAHA this made me laugh out loud for real, nice callback!

Part 3:
Dawny with an energy mace! Now I wanna see a JLA crossover so she and Hawkgirl can bust some heads!

I liked Jo rising to the occasion when someone else decided to take the hothead stick off him, and it makes sense for Garth to be the one to lose his cool with Ayla in danger (and maybe Imra as well!)

Jo did well one on one with Meta actually (well, for a while anyway...though maybe just staying alive against a Daxamite counts as doing well tbh)! And I liked the flow of battle once the rest of the team took him on...I also like the idea that Karate Kid has the skill to keep a Daxamite off-balance temporarily but at the end of the day there's only so much a human being can do against someone on Superman's level.

I actually forgot this Garth has a prosthetic arm, I was worried he was gonna lose his real one again for a sec!

I nearly forgot to mention - I liked Lyle doing what Lyle does best and sneaking off to do something awesome. He must be nearly as annoying as Brainy to be around sometimes though when he just up and vanishes like that lol

The Epilogue!
Yay for Andy holding out!

This Meta guy doesn't seem like someone you want mad at you...

...oh, I was right. Repulse is an ass, but still - nasty! This Meta is sure good at being a bad guy! I actually really like how he has some intelligence guiding his actions and isn't just relying on being the strongest guy in the room, it makes him a much more interesting threat!

hahaha evil sorcerors do bring out the Clive Barker in me I think

I am looking forward to seeing how this all comes together! And put me on board for seeing M'Onel and Meta get into some big time smash-ups together!

Thanks, raz! Appreciate the kind words.


Thanks, I enjoyed writing them.


Never underestimate the power of a rewrite! The first version of this was so bland then it all kind of clicked to how everyone would use their own powers.


The fact that this powerful illusionist can just show up and not have to do anything seemed fun, so I went with it - and it deepened the Starhaven backstory in its own way.


I had to do it. I mean c'mon, its part of the mission statement for this whole thing.


Originally it was gonna be a sword, but I thought her slicing and dicing folks would go too far.


At some point, Jo either stays as an indestructible punching bag, or he tries to get the eventual punch in, but at some point that switching is gonna get him in trouble.


I was toying with the idea of not even showing what happens here, but I think this worked out better!


OMG, I was not reading yours & Harbis for fear of stealing something too recent, but I don't think I need to worry about that! Instead I have to worry about getting too nasty to the characters! It was good stuff, so maybe its not that bad of a thing.



I don't think it'll be that much of a spoiler to say that things will go in this direction. The trick will be seeing how that all works out! I have ideas, but my original ideas have already started changing in a few ways as I fill out the outline!

Quick heads up - I have more stuff coming out, but I'm going to try and do things a little differently. After doing most of the first chapter, I'm realizing this is going to be a pretty big installment, so I figure if I start to actually post stuff, it'll motivate me to keep moving.

Looking back, it seems that a revolution was inevitable. The founders of Starhaven were determined to create an egalitarian society for all, so when the alien we now call Meta crowned himself an emperor during a time of immense prosperity, those who should have stood up and resisted were either lulled into complacency or shamed to silence. After years of his increasingly brutal rule and stratification of society with the star walkers being given undue power, while the non-gifted humans and other conquered peoples given menial jobs, the arrival of the Legion of Super-Heroes was like throwing a match on a fuel-soaked bonfire. Some say prophecy from the first medicine men of our settlements envisioned all of this hundreds of years ago, but who can really say? The Legion's arrival became a turning point in our history, but like all uprisings, not without cost.

-Armstrong Walker, Professor of History, Starhaven University, 3085

Roll Call

Saturn Girl – Imra Ardeen of Titan, powerful telepath
Brainiac 5.1 – Querl Dox of Colu, 12th level intellect
Monstress – Candi Pyponte-Le Parc III of Xanthu, immense strength and invulnerability
Chameleon – Reep Daggle of Durla, shapeshifter
Kinetix – Zoe Saugin of Aleph, telekinetics, manipulates inorganic matter, healing
Umbra – Tasmia Mallor of Talok VIII, control of mystical shadows
Spark – Ayla Ranzz of Winath, Lightning Caster
Element Lad – Jan Arrah, Last survivor of Trom, Elemental manipulation
Cosmic Boy – Rokk Krinn of Braal, Magnetic manipulation
Shrinking Violet – Salu Digby of Imsk, Size changing from subatomic to 50+ feet
Apparition – Tinya Wazzo of Bgztl, Phases through matter
Sensor - Jeka Wynzorr of Orando, Illusionist
M'Onel – Lar Gand of Daxam, Superpowers
Chuck Taine of Earth – Genius level engineer

STARHAVEN CITY EST CALENDAR DATE 2999.01.15

"…rounding up more suspected traitors in the Chippewa-Modoc district after discovering caches of weapons stored in dwellings as the Imperial Guard continues its search for the so-called Legion for the third day. Loyal subjects to the Emperor are required to immediately contact the Ministry of Security should evidence of this Legion, or anyone sympathetic, arise.  As a reminder, the penalty for anyone harboring these terrorists is death.

Now time for sports! The Shoshone lacrosse club won an overtime match against…"

The flat video display, the newscast having shown scenes of various people being rounded into personnel carriers at gunpoint, with more than a few shots fired into the crowds, switched off.  Most of the Legionnaires were in the common room of the third safe house lodge in as many days, either leaning against the walls or seated in the chairs and couches of the long room, watching the video feeds and the argument between Dayvid and Saturn Girl.  Dayvid Strongroot and Greatfire Walker had been desperately pleading his case to the Legion to intervene and overthrow the Empire of Starhaven, the creation of the former Workforce Daxamite Meta, who had been thrown back in time and space to the center of the galaxy.  Meta had taken a peaceful republic and turned it into an oppressive empire by means of his Daxamite powers.

"This is exactly what I'm saying here," Dayvid said passionately, "Your arrival - here and now - is the chance we've been waiting for; not waiting, DYING for!  It's a sign from the spirits!" He reached his arm out to the video screen to emphasize what they had just seen as part of his argument. "Our own citizens are being rounded up without evidence. I guarantee you that half of these people getting arrested are just people turning in their neighbors out of spite, or to gain favor."

"It didn't used to be like this," Greatfire added.  He stood looming behind Dayvid, his muscular arms folded against his chest. "There used to be friendly debate between the tribes, diversity of opinion, until this interloper changed what we had built into his personal playground. "

Imra, standing on the other side of the screen next to Brainiac 5, frowned and shook her head.  "I sympathize with you, Dayvid, I really do," she said with as much empathy she could muster in her voice, "but our priority is to get our team members out of that palace! With what you've shown us, we can't risk any chance that Meta will use Kid Quantum or Ferro to hurt more of your people with their powers."

Dayvid pointed at M'Onel across the room.  "You have someone with the Emperor's powers, here and now.  You have everything you need to take him on!" he said, loudly objecting.

Imra nodded, trying to keep her own voice as even as possible.  "That's true," she said, "but I'm in command of this team, and I can't risk Meta or his lackeys retaliating against the people he has prisoner!"

"They're already retaliating against US!" Greatfire countered angrily.

"We will help you," Imra continued, "but we have to get our team out of there first."  Dayvid shook his head in frustration.

Chameleon, who was sitting in a chair by the wall, looked up at Imra. "We do have most of the Espionage Squad here in the room, Saturn Girl," Cham said, indicating Violet, who was sitting across the room from him on the couch with her forearm casually resting on Zoe's shoulder, and Tinya, who was sitting in the back of the room. "Let us go in and at least recon what's going on in the control chambers that Spark was debriefing us about."  Spark and Element Lad had been mind-controlled captives of Meta, helping him build his empire in the last six months, before being freed by the Legion days ago.  Cham looked at Violet, who uncomfortably shifted her eyes between him and Tinya.

"Good idea, Cham," Imra said, looking hopeful. She turned back to Dayvid. "What's the best way in?" she asked him, "These three can get in anywhere," Imra continued, "but the more inconspicuous the better."

Dayvid frowned but nodded.  "There's a maintenance access hatch located two kilometers north of the palace that leads from the main power station into the building," he said, "It's probably your best way in. I'll send you the location."

"Okay," Imra said, "That's our next move. Espionage squad, your mission is to gather as much intelligence as you can about the layout of the palace and the prison within. No unnecessary risks." Imra firmly stated the last sentence as she looked in turn at Reep, Violet and Tinya. She then turned back to Dayvid. "But we DO have a plan once we get our people back," she said, hoping to relieve some of their new ally's concern.  "Brainiac 5?"

Brainy took his place at front and center of the room, made a gesture on his holo-tablet and a series of holograms began to shimmer into view in the center of the room and a three dimensional tactical map of Starhaven City resolved. Several labels appeared on the map; Power Generation at the extreme north, Imperial Grounds at the northern end of the city proper, Android Factory directly to the southeast of the palace grounds, Spaceport below that adjacent to the coastline, and then smaller tags around a grid overlaying the city that identified the various tribal districts.

"Based on what we have learned about Meta's ambitions and methods of maintaining power, it is vitally important that we remove the Legion Outpost, currently docked in the orbital Starhaven High Port, from the equation," Brainy said.  He made a gesture with his arm, and the map shrunk and tilted to include the tendril of the space elevator linking up to the orbital space station above them, with the Legion Outpost represented alongside.  "It contains Library Data from the United Planets which Meta can then mine for his own purposes, using UP technology to further consolidate his power in this region of the galaxy. Predictive analytics indicate that he would double the size of his Imperium within a year with access to this information, and over time find his way back to UP space, therefore it is vital that we get the outpost away from Starhaven via the drive technology currently on board."

Umbra, sitting on a couch taking all of this in, spoke up. "The Starhaven Navy already captured us once," she pointed out, "what's to say that they won't do it again?"

"Indeed," Brainiac 5 replied, "so while Charles and I go to the Starport with Sensor providing illusion to cover our borrowing of a shuttle," on the tactical, two dots rose up from the Starhaven surface to the Outpost hologram, "The rest of you will be diverting attention from us." The hologram zoomed back to the city. "One strike force will attack the Sentinel manufacturing facility and the adjacent prisoner labor barracks.  We know that with Spark and Element Lad with us, they aren't able to produce any more at a rapid pace, but destruction of this facility ensures that more will not engage in the operation. And if we are fortunate, some of the prisoners may join in the fight." The holo-map shifted to focus on the manufacturing area that the team drove through with Dayvid just a few days prior.

"Oh, Brainiac, dear," Candi called, "I hereby volunteer for that mission!"

Imra smiled. "I figured you would, Monstress," she said, "You, Kinetix and Umbra will handle that task and then join in with the rest of the group as the situation develops."

Tasmia folded her arms. "Great," she said, completely unimpressed. Zoe shot her a dark look from her seat.

Brainy continued.  "The other group will engage the Starhaven warriors and Sentinels on the other side of the Imperial facility. Sensor, you will join this team to throw off the Starhaven organic forces." The holo zoomed over to the other side of the palace. "My analytic modeling projects a 97.99 percent probability that Meta will focus on recapturing Spark and Element Lad, so the rest of you will lure out the Workforce and destroy as much Imperial fighting equipment – Sentinels and ships – as you can."

"We will draw them out by attacking and disabling any spacecraft grounded at the downport." Imra chimed in, "The core strike force will include M'Onel, Cosmic Boy, Spark, Element Lad and myself. Sensor, once Brainy and Chuck are away, you will join the main forces to subdue the imperial forces; same for Monstress, Umbra and Kinetix.  Cosmic Boy, once the Workforce is engaged, you will need to handle Repulse directly.  Similarly, and obviously, M'Onel's target is Meta." Both Rokk and Lar nodded in understanding.  

"Thank you, Brainy," Imra stepped up as the holograms disappeared, "We need to focus the fighting around the palace area to avoid civilian casualties." She turned to Dayvid and Greatfire. "So you see we have a plan," she said, "How do we signal your resistance to join in?"

Dayvid thought for a moment. "I can help get you that shuttle," he said to Brainiac who took notes as he was talking, "but the majority of the resistance is offworld on Manitou.  We haven't heard from them in days.  Obviously we have some capability here," he gestured around him to indicate the building they were in, "but we are significantly outnumbered."

"Not with the Legion here, you're not," Rokk said.

"Let me do what I can to get our people ready by dawn," Greatfire said.

Dayvid nodded.  "I still think we should do this attack sooner than later," he said, "but when Brainiac 5 is safely off the ground, I'll signal our people here, Saturn Girl."

Imra nodded in agreement.  "Very well," she said, "When the Espionage squad comes back with Ferro and Kid Quantum, we will begin Operation Coriolis. Dismissed."

The gathered Legionnaires stood up and started to move to other locations in the lodge, but Cham indicated to Violet and Tinya that they consult with him for a moment. Tinya walked forward from the back of the room, while Vi walked up to Cham.  Zoe grabbed Vi by the elbow. "C'mon let's talk to Cham to convince him to take me along too," she said with a grin.

"Zoe, no this'll just be the Espionage Squad. You heard Imra" Vi said softly while taking her hand.  "We will need stealth for this mission." A smile crossed her face. "You know I adore you," she said," but stealth is kind of not your thing.  And anyway you'll be needed for the breakout."

"I can do the mission with Candi as soon as we get back!" Zoe said with determination in her voice, "You think I'm not letting you out of my sight?"

Tinya walked up just to hear what Zoe had said and rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. "Oh, here we go," she said sarcastically.

Zoe spun on Tinya. "What did you just say, Wazzo?" Zoe glared at Tinya. "Tired of the drama not revolving around you for a nano?"  Tinya reacted in surprise, clearly not expecting Zoe to have responded as she did. Violet stepped in front of Zoe, gently placed her hands on Zoe's shoulders and looked her in the eyes in an attempt to calm her down. 

"Let me handle this, Zoe," Violet said quietly.  She turned her head and glared at Tinya as Imra walked up.

"Zoe," Imra said calmly in an attempt to ease tensions, "I need this team to be as small as possible, and these three are the right team, provided they can work together?" She looked between Vi and Tinya.

Steeling her eyes at Tinya, Vi said, "No problems here, Saturn Girl."

"Me neither," Tinya replied icily returning Violet's stare.

"Good," Imra said, "Cham, you'll lead the mission. You head out at 0400."


It was hours before dawn when the Espionage squad gathered quietly at the back door of the safe house, but the Starhaven night cast the same illumination as a full moon; the sheer density of stars and interstellar gas made for a dull golden glow in the air. Their lodge was located in the edge of the Cree district, on the exterior rim of Starhaven city, fifty kilometers away from the Imperial plaza to the southeast, but the squad's destination was to the north, as the power station was located twenty kilometers further from the city's edge. Imra, Brainy, Zoe, Violet, Cham, Ayla and Tinya were under the wide up-angled awning that circled the round structure. The mood was tense, as the goodbyes had yet to be said, but there was also the knowledge that very soon a battle would be underway.

"I'm sending you Dayvid's coordinates," Brainy said quietly as he pressed a button on his work tablet, and the flight rings of the three squadmates all chirped. "Follow these coordinates and you should arrive at the access corridor within three kilometers of the city's edge.  According to Dayvid, it should be unguarded on the outside, but there are regular patrols inside the tunnel.  Follow the conduit tunnel directly south until you open into the palace complex.  Once there, look for the Legionnaires, but note any internal fortifications and guard capacities, as we will leverage this information when we are ready to engage."

"When you find Ferro and Kid Quantum," Imra continued, "Subdue Kid Quantum with this formula that Brainy has created." Brainy handed over two hypospray vials to Cham. "If Ferro has been controlled, use one for him as well.  Chameleon, you'll be responsible for their transport back."  Cham nodded in acknowledgement. "Good luck," Imra finished.

Cham quickly and lightly hugged Ayla before transforming into a hawk while Tinya went intangible enough to be barely visible. Violet turned to Zoe, who was visibly glum, and hugged her tightly.  "Don't worry," She whispered and kissed Zoe quickly, "I'll be back before you know it."  She turned and shrank while jumping into the air and landed on Chameleon's hawk-back and the three Legionnaires sped through the air into the northeast.

Zoe, Ayla, Brainy and Imra watched the Espionage Squad quickly disappear from view.  Zoe hugged her arms into herself as if to keep her heart in her chest and said as she turned to Imra, "Is it always like this when they leave?" she asked, "Does this get any better?"

Imra looked at Zoe and said, with the a hint of sadness in her eyes as she shook her head, "No, it doesn't."

more great stuff GL, and I agree, sometimes posting in bits is more motivating as it creates momentum

so cool that you added a quote from the future!

lol at M'Onel's description just being: "Superpowers" hahaha

yay Espionage Squad! and yay long-term plan! this is shaping up to be an epic operation and conflict!

also, smart re not letting Sensor join - though she can hide herself, she can't really sneak around as well as the three named.

ooh smart use of Sensor, Brainy and Chuck to get the Outpost! I love this.

nice callout having Candi go free the prisoners, that is so her. Also, Brainy anticipating she would want that is great!

oh wait, is Sensor going to hide Brainy/Chuck, or is she with the Imperial team? ah ok, she does both! got it.

yeah, with the Legion backing the resistance up, the numbers are more balanced

so Espionage Squad is not just for intelligence, but to try and free Ferro and Kid Q. I like this plan!

great drama here. so natural of headstrong Zoe to want to go with Vi, and props to Vi for being professional. Ah, Tinya and Vi/Zoe won't be friends for a while (they used to get along much better, hee hee... but indeed, Tinya does NOT have the moral high ground here lol)... also props to Imra for shutting the drama down, at least enough so that everyone can do their job!

also looking forward to more sparks between Candi, Tasmia and Zoe


I like how Tinya's intangibility also reduces her visibility, good one! also a way for everyone to know that she is phased - great tactical advantage for the team

great installment, GL! really looking forward to the next one!!

It does - I have the rest of the chapter mostly done, but I need to think if I'm going to make it its own chapter or just an extension of part 1. I reordered some things at the last minute, so I need to think on it.


This is a sci-fi trope that I love, and having read Dune again recently, I thought it might be a fun thing to do. The date is so far out that the context can go any which way, and there are no spoilers!


HAH - I mean, listing them all out would take forever, right?


Yup, and the Starhaven resistance has some agency and say in their own battles.


Did they really, though? Well, maybe Tinya and Zoe...


Thank you, as always, kind sir!

re Tinya and Zoe, I will always remember both of them telling Andromeda to shut up when she was being racist vs. Cham (LSH 68), and Zoe teasing Tinya about "hey, what's it like being married to Jo now that you're tangible!" in LSH 100!

re VI/Zoe, well I don't really recall them having many 1-1 moments other than Vi's recruitment in LSH 66 with Ayla.

Yep, those extremely few interactions, especially your last comment, is what I'm keying off of for the friction. Three interactions over, what, six years (ish) of comic book issues?

Fair enough, they may have “gotten along” before but they were hardly best friends

Indeed! LOL

I'm actually trying to clean up the next chunk to post that digs in exactly that point, but I've been too busy!!!

Yay! more good Vi/Tinya drama lol

I bet a double date between Zoe/Vi and Tinya/Jo would be hella awkward

Legion Of Superheroes #130 - Coriolis, Chapter 1, Part 2....

The flight had gone on in silence for minutes over the farms, fields and forests.  Tinya's ghostly form flickered several meters ahead of Reep's bird form.  Reep turned off the comm channel and finally spoke up. "Vi, you don't have to squeeze so tight," he said. 

Violet immediately relaxed her grip.  "Omygosh," she said softly, "I'm sorry, Reep.  Did I hurt you?"

"Nah," he said, looking back with a wink, "I just wanted to break the silence. Its about as icy as a comet on this trip."

"Apparition and I just aren't communicating very well," she said evenly, outside of the comms channel, "Not like we ever really did."

"Well, you know you could always....," Cham began.

"I mean I get that we're a big team," Vi interrupted, "and we have our own little groups and everything, so it makes getting to know everyone kind of hard."

"But..."

"Still," Vi continued, her grip on Cham's neck was starting to grow tighter again, "We're on the same squad for grife's sake.  You'd think that she'd at least spend ten minutes engaging me in polite conversation."

"I know but you have to consider..."

"I mean I get that we're from totally different sides of the tracks, right?" Vi's grip squeezed just a little tighter. "But that doesn't excuse someone from treating you like you're practically non-existent, right?"

"That must have been – ow! – a fun trip on the cruiser..."

"Oh, you have no idea, Cham!" Vi gritted squeezing even harder, "The little princess wouldn't even get her fingernails dirty to help fix up the ship!"

"Vi, speaking of fingernails?" Reep finally asked.

"Yeah, Cham?"

"Yours are digging into my back!" Reep said gasping. "NOW, you're squeezing too tight. It's a good thing this form doesn't have tear ducts!"

Violet immediately relaxed her grip, letting one hand go and using it to cover her mouth in embarrassment. "Oh gods," she said, "I'm so sorry!"

"Maybe we can continue this conversation after we get back?" Reep suggested.

"I'd like that," Vi said trying to smile and changing the subject. "How are you and Ayla doing? She seems excited to tell Garth she's his older sister."

Reep paused a moment before answering. "Yeah.  I guess things are OK," he said, "It's a relief to see her and she's certainly happy to be back with the team again.  It's just that she seems a little more... distant I guess. She's much more on edge than she used to be."

"I think that's just a natural side effect of being controlled by others," Vi said seriously, "Trust me on this.  But just be there for her.  She's going to need her friends." She thought about Ayla's situation for a minute. "Maybe when things calm down a little and we put Meta in his place, I can talk to her."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Reep said at length. This had been more difficult for him to talk about than he had expected. "Thanks for that."

After twenty more minutes of flight and sporadic conversation, the gray reinforced passage that led kilometers to the city off to their right and towards the mountains and a large reinforced large boxy structure to the left appeared on the horizon.  The Legionnaires slowed down so as to not overshoot the passage, and Vi jumped off Cham's back growing as large as his avian form to keep up the same speed.

"It should be just down this way a few meters," Reep said and banked to the right, following the outside of the passage until a large rectangular hatch could be seen one one side of a connecting building that served the purpose of connecting two sections of the tunnel together.  He transformed back into his humanoid form. 

"Let me take a look first," Apparition said, and drifted to the top of the structure, phasing her head through the roof in order to look inside. After a moment she pulled back.  "We need to be careful," she said, "Inside the tunnel there is a power line with a catwalk on either side running down the length of the tunnel. There are two guards below, so you'll need to go in as low as you can."

Reep switched his communicator to message Saturn Girl. "E-Squad to base. We're heading in," he said quickly. "OK, let's go," he said and turned himself into a gelatinous form that oozed down the side of the outer wall towards the ground and into the construction seams.   Violet shrank down to follow in Reep's path, while Tinya went down the outer side of the tunnel wall, then simply floated right through the ground to emerge on the bottom of the tunnel's interior.

Once inside and on the bottom most surface of the tunnel, Reep reconstituted himself into his humanoid self and Tinya phased into physical form.  A moment later, Vi re-emerged from the seam, still tiny. "Sorry that took so long," she thought over the telepathic ear plugs, "It was pretty tight in there." The interior of the tunnel was rather wide, around ten meters diameter.  A scaffolding ran the length of the tunnel parallel to a wide translucent power conduit that ran from its source to the north all the way, presumably, to a transformer station at Starhaven City.  At regular intervals, a scaffolded stairway led over the conduit to enable a person to cross to the other parallel catwalk.  A dull grey light shone in the chamber punctuated by a pulse of blue-white energy that moved from north to south.  Two human Starhaven guards clad in their black and scarlet uniforms, one on each side of the conduit, stood watch, clearly bored.

"I'll get the one on the far side," Vi said and flew to the further catwalk.

"Wait for my signal," Reep replied and turning into a fly, flew up to be behind the closer guard.  Tinya had moved to be on the other side of Reep's guard, but just below the catwalk and again had turned herself intangible. Reep then morphed into an identical copy of the man standing in front of him. "Now," Cham said aloud.

The guard in front of Reep started and turned quickly, but was shocked to stillness as he saw his own face staring back with a smile.  "Hi there," he said, "Terribly sorry about this." As he spoke, Tinya floated up through the catwalk, turned tangible and threw a punch at the back of the guard's head, knocking him unconscious.  Meanwhile, on the other side of the conduit, Violet had taken the direct approach and used the momentum of her shoulder as well as growing from a centimeter to normal size to connect her fist with the side of the other guard's head, also knocking him out.  Vi drifted over to the other side to join Reep and Tinya.

"Nice work, team," Reep said.  He looked down at himself and said, "I think I'll stay in this form for a while.  It may come in handy."

Tinya was focused on the energy conduit. "Was this why they were holding Ayla captive?" Tinya said as an energy pulse passed them by briefly illuminating them in blue light.

Reep shook his head.  "No, she distinctly remembers her cell to be adjacent to the palace," he said, "They kept her near that facility creating the Sentinels to energize them.  This has to be something else.  A more powerful source of energy."

"I wish Brainy were here," Violet said, "I don't know what this energy is, but it seems like it should be too advanced for Starhaven from what we've seen."

Tinya turned and looked up the tunnel.  "You two head down to get metal boy," she said determinedly, "I'll check out what's this way." She flew off in the tunnel using her flight ring to find the source of the energy pulses.

"Tinya!" Reep hissed, "Grife, we're supposed to stay together!"

"Keep in touch," Tinya's voice came over their earpieces, "I'll signal you!"

Vi stared at Reep and raised her eyebrows at him in exasperation.  "See?" she asked, "Now come on, let's find Andy!" Vi took off and started flying down the tunnel in the opposite direction.

Reep closed his eyes and shook his head.  "Okay, Reep, sure you're in charge of the mission," he said to himself and took off to the south, catching up to Violet.  "Vi," he called using the telepathic earplugs, "make sure you're beneath the catwalk level. There's sure to be more guards."

Vi adjusted her flight accordingly as Reep caught up to her.  Both reduced their physical sizes to have a lower profile as they flew swiftly south. As expected, there were more guards at other intervals, but the pair easily flew beneath them, every few minutes a pulse of energy passing them from behind as it followed the passage south until the passage stopped at large alcove that spanned the width of the tunnel.  The power conduit entered the wall at a junction into what they assumed to be the main power distribution facility for Starhaven city.  The junction area had two doors on either side of the conduit junction leading to the facility on the facing walls, and doors set in both walls on the sides.  Guards were positioned in front of each door.  Reep and Violet shrunk even smaller and drifted up to decide their plan.

"We need to go through the power station," Reep thought via earplugs, "so let's straight ahead.  I'll get down into an insect form, while you do your thing and we can go under the door." Vi nodded and shrank down to a centimeter while Reep changed into a Sklarian sandfly. Within moments they had slipped under the door and were in a new cavernous building, where the conduit continued to travel into a massive transformer, diverting the energy to the palace, the starport and the city itself.  They flew as high as they could in the chamber to survey the area.

"We're gonna need to split up, aren't we?" Violet asked.

"Looks like it," Reep replied then called into the comm channel, "Apparition, we've entered the main power station, do you read?"

Tinya's voice filtered into their earplugs with some static. "I read you ...ameleon...," it said, "I... still traveling... the tunnel."

Reep shook his head in frustration.  "This is not good. Here," he said as he reached into his belt pouch and grabbed one of the two solutions that Brainiac 5 had handed to him then tossed it to Violet, "Pick a direction and try to keep in contact.  Hopefully we won't have much interference back here."

Violet caught the hypo and stashed it in her belt. "I'll go right, you go left," she said and flew off.

Reep turned left then flew down and to the left, slipping under another door.  In a corridor with no guards, he transformed back into the shape of the guard they had encountered earlier, he started walking down the marble surfaced hallway, the heels of his boots echoing through the empty space.

yay! so stoked to see the next part up so soon!

great bit with Vi and Tinya, I expected you would go that route re why Vi has issues. And you executed it very well, I can totally imagine poor orphaned Vi being resentful that rich pampered Tinya did not really deign to get to know her. And this ties into why/how Vi originally attracted the Eye: feeling ignored.

Excellent reference to Vi's possession by the Eye, and how it gives her insight into what Ayla is going through

"metal boy?" umph lol, and I thought Tinya had bonded a bit with Ferro in the 20th century makes sense Vi would use Tinya's going off on her own as an example of her being all princess-y

and also LOL at Reep sighing at Vi ALSO taking off...

I do think Tinya is on to something, so hope the splitting up will pay off (after all, part of the mission IS recon...!)

Thanks! I'm trying to chunk these out, as its looking like all of chapter 1 is going to be as big as issue 126!!!


Bingo - and even though she's grown from the experience, she's still going to have residual issues from it, as well as the people that made her feel that way. And when the pressure's on and your stuck with that person, those feelings tend to release in unhealthy ways. Coincidentally, I just watched "Last Night in Soho" and this very much reminded me of the experience that Ellie, the protagonist, has her first night in college with her dorm mates.


Yep, those two will have a lot more common ground after this is all done.


Dunno if I went too far here - I need to revisit the 20th C stuff again. Its an easy change, if so.


I had to do it, cause I can just see Reep doing that. Its also a bit of a reflection of Vi and Tinya each being headstrong characters in their own rights, but coming at it from totally different starting points.

Hi GL, now that I am caught up some thoughts!

I really liked the quote from 3085, nice take on the old Encyclopedia Galactica entries that Levitz used to do!

The debate between the Starhavenites and Imra was well done also, I like that it came up because while Imra as usual is right I can see how it just looks like self-interest to someone who doesn't know the Legion that well yet.

Good team breakups - Vi trying to diplomatically tell Zoe she's not the most subtle person in the universe gave me a laugh

Vi seeing Ayla's perspective on being mind-controlled was something I probably wouldn't have thought of but makes total sense and was a good inclusion! Another thing that never really occurred to me was that of course Tinya would be able to make herself difficult to see, it's such an obvious application of her powers in retrospect! I might steal that one from you somewhere down the track!

I am enjoying the Espionage Squad in action...maybe two thirds of them aren't exactly best buddies but I like that they're still basically professionals and good at what they do!

Looking forward to the next bit!

re Tinya calling Ferro "metal boy", it could work. I guess I'm just laser-focused on the period from LSH 102/L* 58 to LSH 121, where Tinya was generally very level-headed and kind (after resolving many of her issues with Winema, and getting therapy to sort out her origins). highlights: L*74, she befriends Mysa, calls Jo out for not caring about Dragonmage being grievously injured; L*58 she helps support Ferro when he is considering switching to metal form forever so he can be resculpted into a handsome man (Vi and the rest of the Squad were also there, come to think of it, and that was a very positive scene so it fed into my (mis)conceptions that Vi/Tinya were closer than I thought they were!)

and while intangible in LSGH 93, Tinya was the one who picked upt that Ferro was distracted by twin bro Andy, and she got Jo to lend his flight ring to Ferro(and this was during her big drama jealousy re Jo being able to touch Shvaughn, but not herself)

totally agree that Vi and Tinya both tend to be very headstrong; while Cham is a more sensible and sensitive and thoughtful type very attuned to the feelings of those around him!

Thanks, raz! I really liked those Levitz bits too - those (as well as in other works like Frank Herbert or Douglas Adams, hell, even DnA!) add a lot of cool elements that add texture to the world and you can even add other bits of texture that are fun!


Yeah, I felt like this needed to be addressed - when I did the first pass, it felt like it was missing, so added at least a page of text!


Thank you. That was the intent, as Zoe is not. At all.


You are absolutely welcome to! I feel like they've done this (especially Jeff Moy) visually a bunch without calling it out too much, so I'm kinda stealing that. And Ayla (and Jan for that matter) is a pretty good friend to Vi, so it felt like it's in Vi's nature to want to help Ayla, especially when it is on something where they have common ground.


Thanks, Raz! I appreciate it!!

I definitely need to go back and go through those issues....


Those antennae are useful to get things in tune!

Hey GL, just noticed how much I've missed, I have some time tomorrow and Friday so will try to give you a decent review then.

Thanks Harbi! No rush as I'm just about to post the end of chapter 1! (yikes)

Then I can take a small break and catch up on y'all's stuff before I polish up what I have for chapter 2. It never ends, right?

Reep turned left then flew down and to the left, slipping under another door.  In a corridor with no guards, he transformed back into the shape of the guard they had encountered earlier, he started walking down the marble surfaced hallway, the heels of his boots echoing through the empty space. A wave of apprehension pushed through him as two more uniformed soldiers were walking towards him.  He carried on, without breaking stride, as they approached.

"Hey, Seth," one of them called, "Get out of sleepy detail?"

Reep gestured to his throat, and coughed, trying to indicate that he was sick as he kept walking.

"Oh, OK," the man called as his voice receded, "feel better, mate!"

Reep quickened his pace down the hallway faster, passing several doors on either side until the hallway ended in a single door. He opened it to find a large rectangular room with doors on all the other three walls and a large desk with a guard seated behind it to the right.  The door behind the desk was labeled RESTRICTED.  The man finished tapping something out on a keyboard and looked up.

"Martinez, what are you doing here?" the man asked.  His eyes squinted and he frowned as he looked over Reep. "You are not supposed to be off your shift for hours yet."

"Uuuuh, sorry sir," Reep said, trying to be as calm as possible and continued on in a raspy voice, "I had to step back.  Was feeling sick." He started to affect a cough, covering his mouth.

The man shook his head. "This is not the kind of thing you need on your record, Martinez," he said. "Get on with you then." He punched a couple of other keystrokes on his keyboard and gestured with his thumb at the door to Reep's left.

"Thanks," Reep said and shifted his eyes to the door behind the desk.  He turned to go out the left door as the man turned his attention to his workstation.  Reep opened the door and as he swung it open, he transformed himself into a centipede, crawling along the corners of the room until he could crawl under the restricted door.  As soon as he crossed under the door, he morphed back into his usual Legionnaire form.

The room had just the one door and had a plain medical recliner in the center sitting atop a low platform.  A table and IV stand were next to the chair and wires ran from the chair out to receptacles in the wall. Reep glanced at the recliner and noticed the ankle and wrist shackles and with a shudder realized that this was where Ayla had been captive and drained of her energies.

As he stood and took in the scene, almost as if his thoughts were being listened to, the lights in the room began to surge wildly.  Outside in the antechamber, Reep could hear a commotion beginning to build. With nothing else to view here, he transformed again into a small insect and flew under the door, just as a series of troops ran back towards the power plant, including the officer who had been sitting at the workstation.  Taking advantage, Reep transformed back again to duplicate the guard he had been impersonating and pulled up a map of the facility on the workstation to find the detention wing.  Checking his bearings, he went back out the door leading to the power station and sprinted.

Reep was approaching the door leading to the Detention block when he saw a large group was coming around the curve in the corridor, among them the two guards they had overpowered earlier.  He stopped short of the door just as the group stopped at seeing him.  They looked at Reep, then at the bruised authentic copy in their ranks.  "Hey, that's not Martinez!" one of them shouted, "Get him!"

Opening the door and moving as fast as possible, Reep pounded down the hallway with the group of guards on his tail.  He turned his head to gauge how much distance he had when Reep heard a sandy slither and slammed into what felt like a gritty wall.

"Where do you think you're going, Legionnaire?" Dune asked as a surprised Reep looked up at the massive, sandy form in front of him.


Violet found several passages on her side of the power plant, most of which went to more machinery that fed conduits that ran to other parts of the city. Finally, she found a sublevel maintenance corridor that ran towards the palace, construction grey filled with multicolored pipes and conduits. At the end of the passage, she slipped through an access grate above her and sped through what was still an empty gray corridor, but this at least had a sign at the closest intersection and arrows directing to several areas in the complex including one that said "DETENTION." 

She flew through the corridors, following the directions while staying small and high to avoid detection from the occasional guards who she would pass, eventually slipping into the detention area itself.  As soon as she flew in, the lights inside began to surge and the guards went on alert.  Thinking it she may have triggered an alarm, Violet shrunk even more and scanned the inside of the block for any signs of her being discovered when she noticed the barred door of the high-security unit. Behind that were another, smaller number of cells, one of which had a light glowing under the door gap.  She flew through the bars of the gate, then shrank down to a centimeter to fly beneath the cell the door and grew back to a foot in size once through.  Vi swung up into the air and covered her mouth with both hands in shock.

Andrew Nolan was splayed out in the air, his limbs bound behind him as he hung in the air with his head lolling down. His forearms were encased in some kind of alloy that matched what encased his legs below the knees.  Ferro had clearly been subjected to torture; blood seeped through his torn uniform at various parts of his torso with several burn marks. Blood also dripped onto the floor from his helmet.

Violet's eyes started to water as she saw her friend in such distress and she swung close to Andy's face.  "Andy," she called, "Andy, can you hear me?" She grew to normal size.  "ANDY?!"  Her panic started to ease a bit as she felt a thready pulse at his neck. Andy stirred at Vi's touch and his head rolled over and focused on her.

"Vi..." he said in a scratchy voice, "You need to get out of here."

"Not without you," she said as she touched the side of his helmet, "What did they do to you?"

"It was Meta," he said, "The only one who could really work me over." His voice started to gain strength. "Listen you just need to get out of here..."

With that the cell door flew open and time stopped for Violet.



Tinya's passage north was a very similar to that of Reep and Violet's south in that the tunnel seemed to never end.  She was concerned that the interference seemed to grow the closer that she came to the energy source; every time an energy pulse passed through the conduit, it seemed to scramble any communication capability from the flight ring as she would temporarily loose the homing signal indicating Reep and Violet's relative locations. Before long the end of the tunnel was in sight; the northern terminus was a curved wall with two armed guards standing on either side of a reinforced hatch of thick metal.  On either side of the hatch were signs stating "DANGER: PROJECT STARFIRE ENERGY GENERATION SYSTEM. ACCESS BY IMPERIAL DECREE ONLY." She easily passed through the wall from below and entered a spherical chamber.

Within the sphere, the interior wall was lined with hexagonal tiles that surrounded a platform holding eight power receiving nodes arranged as in the corners of a cube.  Within the cube space floated a shifting blob of energy that would discharge randomly into one of the nodes which would slowly brighten the room until the collector dimmed as the collected energy discharged down the conduit towards the capitol.  The process would repeat every few minutes.

Tinya drifted up to get a better look.  "Oh grife...." She gasped and turned on the communicator to the entire Legion, "This is Apparition to Chameleon, I found the energy source...Come in Cham... Cham?  Violet?  Anyone?" The energy began to pulse faster and more erratically as she spoke, almost as if it were trying to communicate.



Zoe had been pacing the floor in the common room at the safehouse lodge, watching one of Brainy's screens that was tracking the espionage squad's progress along with Imra and Brainy himself, who was also occupying himself with several other tasks, including monitoring the existing location and status of the Legion Outpost, docked on the orbiting spaceport that was tethered to the planet.  Zoe and Imra were solely focused on the three dots on the screen tracking the team's entry into the access tunnel. Two dots moved south, while one moved north.

Imra zoomed in on the sole blip and saw Apparition's avatar on the screen. "What the nass does Tinya think she's doing?" Imra asked aloud to no one in particular.  Zoe saw what was going and began to fidget with the insignia badge hanging at her neck.  After some time, Reep and Vi had reached the southern end by the power plant, while Tinya was still some ways away from the northern terminus.  Reep and Violet split up and meandered from the power station to various locations closer to the palace before seeming to start converging.  Around this time, Tinya's marker drifted inside the northern end and stopped

Her voice popped over the in room speakers. "...pparition...energy...Cham...Viol..." before it cut out completely, along with the tactical display icons of the Legionnaires.

"Grife, Brainy, what just happened?" Zoe asked.

Annoyed, Brainy switched his focus to the screen that had been the tactical display. "I do not know," he said. His eyebrows drew in from concentration and frustration. "It looks like there is massive interference from that power source that is affecting the entire palace," he said, "I don't have readings from anyone."

Before he had even finished speaking, Zoe had conjured a thick hooded poncho over her uniform, decorated with curved patterns in gray and gold, similar to a style that she had seen on the streets and vids of Starhaven.  Imra turned to see Zoe in her new cover and said, "What are you doing Kinetix?"

Zoe looked Imra in the eye. "They need help," she said, pulling hood over her head, her determined eyes flashing green from underneath. She turned to leave the lodge.

Imra reached out to grab Zoe's arm. "Kinetix?!" she called, "Stop!  Do not go out that door! We need you here!"

Zoe pulled her arm away.  "No," She said, "Vi needs me there. You heard the transmission." Zoe turned to leave. "Don't try to stop me, Imra," she said then paused a moment and looked back. "I have to help," she said in a softer tone, "I wish I could be like you and let her go off like you can with Garth, but I just can't."  She rushed out the back door and leapt into the air, focusing on her flight ring to move close to the speed of sound straight at Violet's last known position – the Imperial Palace.  She was gone in the blink of an eye into the yellow sunrise.

Imra stared at the direction Zoe had sped off and frowned. Zoes comment had brought her thoughts for Garth, abs well as the rest of the Manitou team, to the forefront. No one had heard from anyone there, Legion or Resistance, for days. "Grife," she said in frustration and fought down the sudden welling of emotion for Garth.  Imra turned to go back into the dining room of the house where most of the Legionnaires were gathering for a small breakfast and found Rokk, Dayvid and Greatfire.  "We need to get everyone prepared," she said, "It looks like the diversions are starting earlier than we expected."

End Chapter 1