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

This cracked me up, as did Triad swatting Gates....I could totally see the look on her face too

Morninglory is a perfect comic book name for Lori and I am really digging her position of importance here! I always thought she had potential to be a cool character!

I liked the discussion about not killing....I am probably dating myself but I miss when the line between heroes who killed and heroes who didn't was very clear-cut. It may be unrealistic to expect that someone throwing lightning bolts around can disable an army troop without killing anyone but that's why it's called escapism, right? On that note, I just realised that when the Starhavenites freaked out about Garth using lightning before they would have already come across Mekt AND Ayla....no wonder they were so antsy about it lol

Dawnstar giving Meta lip was excellent, it will be fun seeing him get what's coming to him!

Funnily enough, I had a recent conversation about her with someone familiar with the matter, and was told that the idea for her character was to be a cipher of sorts to allow the readers to experience the UP worlds in the eyes of the 20th century readers.


Our Starhaven friends have only met Ayla so far; Mekt is still back in UP custody and I plan to get to him and his friends once everyone gets home. But to the point about no killing - I think we're probably of similar age, and yes - It may be a quaint trope, but I wanted to discuss WHY that's important for both the heroes as well as the people they're fighting for. It's a big deal, especially in the strained world in which we live today.


There's gonna be a lot of fighting going on soon. I know, I know, get back to work!!!

As always, Thank you for your feedback!

Oh forgot to comment on this - yes, the scene draws itself, right? It was in my head and almost axed it but it was too good not to do.

I very much am in favor of the no-killing rule as well! It just flows back into the whole concept of the Legion as a symbol of hope and optimism

Wait why did I think Mekt was there? I blame a week off work and not enough excuses to be sober, sorry GL

LOL a tough work week lends itself to alcohol...

Hey, I resemble those remarks!

*hic* not only you *hic*

Finaly got an hour to myself to catch up, so here's my stream of consciousness as I'm reading:

V nice that you're setting the scene with the 'before the rift' section.

Mon El is so powerful! His and Rokk's pushing themselves like that was well in character. And of course Rokk is getting on top of the situation! He is the ultimate Boy Scout.

Love Tinya and Vi's little spat. Tinya kind of bugged me with her snotty attitude she often displayed (in part why I killed off Jo in my fan-fic), and it's only right she gets called out.

Intersting that Mon call's out for Phase, we've all had those moments of not quite being awake and aware.

Interesting team, Cos, PG, Vi, Mon and Jeckie. I could see Rokk and Lar being very take-charge, and getting on well until they rub each other the wrong way then it would get really difficult.

Liked Brainy keep watch while the others rested. Imra isn't used to uncertainty so it'll be interesting to see how she deals with it. Oooh, a space elevator! Fab And Imra is all business with Dayvid, so in character. Nice history of starhaven, and good that they went their on their own not as some great alien saviour moved them like in canon. also, interesting that you chose to not give all the Starhavenites wings. Candi is such a sweetheart, and it was good thatshe's the one getting so angry about the slaves.

I don't know Repulse or Meta, or the workforce really but take it they're not exactly friends? Loved Brainy challenging their 'history' and Zoe's comment "Dady's gone" haha. Candi's line to Amber not to get her sap in the hair was great too. Ayla, Jan and Jaz, yay! ... ah, not a happy reunion. Hopefully Imra or Brainy can get them sorted out.

Well at least the majority got out, so it's not a Wolverine at the Hellfire Club scenarion next. Ferro and Jaz are still prisners, I wonder if Meta will take his anger out on them, or Repulse?

Looking forard to how Imra and Brainy, etc., will get the team back together and get the Workforce out of the royal palace.


If I can make a suggestion, that last post was very long and there were points it could have been split which would have added to the excitement. If it had been two or three posts instead it would have been a bit easier to read, not that I don't recognise the urge to write and write some more when in the flow, it's totally understandable.


And now the other side of Starhaven's empires history, and no urprise it isn't so nice. Loved the sbling spat between Dawny and Greybird. Ad I don't really know Lori at all, though have read how hated she was by the fans generally - a child in amongst the violence that the team deal with is pretty awful imo, but nice that you've aged her and developed her a bit. And Lyle droning on, haha.

"I get the need to overthrow a despot, but why not throw in a messianic prophecy in the mix? What's the worst that could happen there?" haha, best lines always go to Gates.

Nice to see Garth take charge, and he has a plan - let's hope it isn't a disaster. Hopeflly the lead lined walls will help the team, if they don't poison the Daxamite they'll at least stop him from xraying the stucture.

You're characters are really well written GL. I don't know this era very well but an totally following and understanding and appreciating them. Great stuff!

Looking forward to more, more, more!

Thank you for the R/R, Harbi! Now I'm more motivated to get my butt in gear for the next issue while I'm on my winter break!


I think I mentioned elsewhere that I feel similar regarding Tinya, but that having friction among the team is a good thing. Tinya and Vi seemed to be like oil and water - opposites in the bad way, not like with Zoe.


Thank you! This (and the telling of the same from the other side that you noted) was a really important aspect to me for the introduction of this world.


That would be telling. It *is* one thing I do have in the outline already.


I know, and I appreciate the feedback here - this chapter was SO exposition heavy, I was debating that exact thing, as I essentially reworked most of that middle chapter a few times completely. I've also noted that my stuff is getting longer generally with each new installment, so I need to watch myself there. If I ever get another big chapter like that again, I'll definitely chunk it out more, I promise!


Yeah, Lori was brought in to be the "eyes of the reader" in the 30th century, but she kind of got shafted. Good intentions that never worked out, I guess. So it was important to make her a peer of her friends in the Legion.


Wow, thank you! This is high praise indeed.

FOUR MONTHS GAP. I really apologize all. I was not in a good place in January, was coming out of it in Feb, had too much fun in March. I told myself I'd write when I started travelling, but that was a big old LOL. So I finally got myself to it.

Here's part 1.

A big shout out to Ibby for proofing a couple things here!!!

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"Titanians are quite unique in how they view the perception of identity when in their thought-forms. For most of us in the UP, people shun them because they don't want their mind to be read, when the truth is that none of them WANT to read your mind. It's noise. They spend most of the time off Titan filtering out our thoughts like you'd wear a pear of earplugs. But the real beauty of the Titanian mindset is what happens when the mental link is made. It is something few people ever get to experience. But the projection and perception of astral forms into a combination of thought and emotion is at once beautiful and frightening."

Raj Sanocheev, "Thoughts on Thoughts – A Human Among the Titans, Metropolis University Press, 2991.

Legionnaire Roll Call

Saturn Girl – Imra Ardeen of Titan, powerful telepath
Brainiac 5.1 – Querl Dox of Colu, 12th level intellect
Monstress – Candi Pyponte-Le Parc III of Xanthu, immense strength and invulnerability
Chameleon – Reep Daggle of Durla, shapeshifter
Kinetix – Zoe Saugin of Aleph, telekinetics, manipulates inorganic matter, healing
Umbra – Tasmia Mallor of Talok VIII, control of mystical shadows
Spark – Ayla Ranzz of Winath, Lightning Caster
Element Lad – Jan Arrah, Last survivor of Trom, Elemental manipulation
Chuck Taine of Earth – Genius level engineer

Chapter 1 - Peace of Mind

PLANET: STARHAVEN. EST CALENDAR DATE 2999.01.11

"Jan, please wake up..." Zoe said quietly, "what happened to you?" She had been carrying Element Lad and Monstress carried Spark and Chameleon, all of whom were unconscious, while Brainiac 5.1 pulled Chuck Taine along in his force field for what seemed like hours. Ferro, who had been with them when they arrived at Starhaven, had been injured and left behind once they discovered that Spark, Element Lad and Kid Quantum had been held under some kind of control by Meta and the Workforce for months prior to the rest of the Legion's arrival.

The squad had flown for hours into a forested mountain region, and Imra and Briany finally began to descend to a small, flat area on the side of a forested mountain as the sun began to set. In what can be called ‘night' in the world of Starhaven, a dull golden light replaced the teal skies of the daylight. The crescents of two moons hung in the sky, but most of the satellite features could still be made out due to the bright ambient starglow of dense stars and nebulae. The net effect was one of perpetual twilight, so while the band of Legionnaires flew over the Starhaven wilderness seeking shelter, they could still see a the ground with clarity. A cave entrance lay to the side of the clearing and Zoe had set down Element Lad to the ground very gently inside.

"This should provide a decent shelter for the time being," Brainy said as he walked into the cave. He threw out a small orb that hovered near the cave roof and illuminated the walls. "We should all put on transsuits in case it gets too cold."

Monstress, her muscular frame barely fitting into the cave, came over and laid Ayla and Cham next to Jan. Imra and Brainy came by to examine them. Brainy's sensors floated over Jan and Ayla while Zoe tended to Cham, who was beginning to rouse.

"Brainy, what's wrong with them?" Candi asked, more than a hint of concern in her voice.

Brainiac 5.1 scanned the results on his display. "Based on what I'm seeing here, they have been exposed to an unknown psycho-active substance for weeks," he said, "I'm unfamiliar with this specific chemical, but it bears similarity to drugs that enable suggestion or personality control." Brainy looked up at Imra, "I can formulate something to help them counteract the affects, but I may need some assistance from you to do it sooner."

"You want me to probe their minds?" Imra asked directly.

"Yes, you can at least see the states of their psyches," Brainy replied, "If we don't snap them out of whatever control they are under, they could turn on us as soon as they wake up."

Imra nodded and knelt by their heads, closed her eyes and concentrated, touching each of them on the forehead and creating a mental bridge as her consciousness sank into a world of memories of two people. She felt Jan's memories of floating over the rift, summoning chunks of intertron out of the void to force into the rift, Jazmin Cullen at his side, with a singleminded intensity until she could feel him being pulled into a maelstrom of whirling colors. Ayla was running through the Legion Outpost, goading the remaining workforce members into a lifepod, launching with them and feeling the rush of fear as the pod was inevitably pulled into the rift.

She saw Ayla's memory of waking to find Jan and Jazmin floating outside their lifepod, miraculously alive, pulling them into the pod, much to Repulse's protest. She could feel Ayla's contempt of the Braalian, who did nothing but complain as they sat adrift in a completely unknown area of space. Then the relief of rescue and the confusion of the rest of the Workforce seeing a Meta who was not only alive but had been thrived in this area of space for well over a decade.

A blur of images, feelings almost, of what happened after seemed to rush by Imra's perception. Relief and relaxation of being found and nurtured back to health. Wonder at meeting another offshoot of humanity in another location in the galaxy; the Starhavenites with their winged Pathfinders. Concern with the seeming servitude and fascism many seemed to live under Meta's rule. Jazmin's discovery of Meta's secret energy source and the three Legionnaires planning to sneak in to discover what it is. Then, Amber showing interest to find out that secret, but instead leading them into an ambush where the three Legionnaires were gassed into unconsciousness...

<<NO!>> Ayla and Jan's psyche's seemed to scream at her. Imra mentally flinched, completely unprepared for the reaction. She quickly recovered and could perceive the astral images of Ayla and Jan with her mind's eye. <<You can't look past there!>> Ayla begged. <<It's not our fault,>> Jan's image pleaded.

<<I need you both to come back to us,>> Imra responded, <<The Legion, your friends, are here with you, on Starhaven, and you tried to attack us. We can't get you back if I don't unlock these memories!>>

Jan seemed to slump. <<They did something to us,>> he said, <<made us do things for them.>>

<<Sapped our will to resist,>> Ayla said. Imra could feel the waves of sadness and hopelessness emanating from both of them. <<We couldn't resist anything they made us do>> her mind whispered.

<<Please,>> Imra thought to them gently, <<Let me look.>>

With great reluctance, the astral forms of Jan Arrah and Ayla Ranzz seemed to separate, showing another set of images. The three Legionnaires working alongside the Workforce on pacification campaigns across Meta's empire. Forcing innocents into concentration camps. Using their powers as enforcers and torturers. Meta and his scientists using their powers to be the assembly line of the Starhaven Sentinel program, Element Lad creating the raw materials for assembly, Kid Quantum "evolving" them in time spheres, Spark giving them energy to function.

Imra shuddered and mentally backed away before any more possible personal horrors could be revealed. She reached into their psyches to find the effect of the chemical that had taken control of their minds and was able to trigger both subjects to mentally counteract it. <<Ayla. Jan,>> Imra thought to them, <<Its going to be OK. We need you to come back to us. We can't undo what Meta has done to these worlds without you. And we still need to rescue Jazmin. And they took Andy.>>

Both Ayla and Jan's mental projections began to burn with a determination, almost seeming to change from a pale blue to a golden aura. <<We need to make this right,>> Jan's projection said, <<I've not been me for months now. First the Blight, now this. We need to make this better.>> Ayla remained silent, but determined. Both seemed sad, yet tired and relieved, and were changed in a way where Imra sensed they were going to be all right.

<<I'm going to let you go now,>> Imra warned the pair, <<but wake up on your own. We'll help you, but you both need rest. Just remember, we're here for you.>>

<<Imra, one thing,>> Ayla called, <<Where's my brother? Where's Cham?>>

<<Cham's with us,>> Imra replied, <<but Garth is on a mission nearby. He's desperate to see you again, Ayla.>>

<<Thank you, Imra,>> Ayla said as her astral image began to settle into sleep.

Imra focused and began to separate her own consciousness from Jan and Ayla's as she surfaced back into the waking world, as a swimmer would emerge from underwater. She opened her eyes to find Brainy closely monitoring all three of them and the rest of the team standing around, concerned. Cham, looking a bit haggard, had fully roused and had joined the team around the trio on the ground.

"Brainy," Imra said, "I was able to reach them mentally. They'll be oks and are on the way back, but they need rest."

Brainiac 5.1 nodded. "Yes, the instruments seemed to indicate that whatever was controlling them seemed to ebb somewhat," he said with a slight smile, "I added a little help with 20cc's of psychophedrin. That should help physically bolster whatever you did in their minds."

"Are they OK? How's Jan?" Candi asked.

"Yes, I think so," Imra replied, "Jan will be all right. They just need to rest." She closed her eyes suddenly noting her own fatigue. "I think I need to lie down for a bit as well." She stood up, walked over to another side of the cave, donned her transsuit and lay on the ground to fall fast asleep.

*

"Saturn Girl.... Imra, wake up!" Kinetix hissed as she shook Imra awake. "Brainy detected someone coming our way, and Spark and E-Lad are still out of it!"

Imra shook herself awake and looked up at Zoe's urgent expression. She propped herself up and shook out the fog from her mind, feeling like she had barely slept. She slowly began to focus. "Make Umbra is hiding the cave with a darkfield. Have Chuck here in the cave with Brainy protecting with his force field," she said, standing as her senses cleared, "You and Monstress up in the air to see what's coming."

Zoe nodded and moved to execute Imra's orders. Imra looked over at Cham and Ayla. Both lay motionless yet breathing. Cham sat leaning against the stone wall at Ayla's feet staring helplessly at her. Despite the lack of rest, let the adrenaline take over and found herself completely alert. "Cham, you're with me," Imra said as she walked out of the cave. Cham pushed himself up and moved to walk out of the cave with Imra even as Chuck and Brainy walked in, and a darkfield settled over the cave entrance.

"What's your plan, Saturn Girl?" Cham asked.

Imra stopped after they had walked a few meters out of the cave, closed her eyes and concentrated, reaching out with her mind.

*

A beam of light swept across the steep forest floor as two men made their way closer to the encampment. "I'm telling you, they are up here," the first man said as they worked their way through the woods. The pair was doing their best to avoid tripping over pits or roots in their path. Even though the night sky was not exactly dark, the forest canopy still cast enough shade to require some kind of light to avoid trips and falls.

"Man, you're such an idiot," the second man said, "You know they'll be able to see us with that stupid light of yours. I told you we could have brought some infrareds."

"Shut up, Fire," said the first man annoyance creeping into his voice, "all the time with you its, ‘you shoulda done this, you shouda done that.' Will you just trust me for once?"

"I don't know why I let you talk me into this, Day," said Fire, sounding quite exasperated, "We could have had a nice quiet night at home..."

"Not with what we saw yesterday," Day shot back, "This could be the break we've been waiting on for years now! With these new visitors we actually have a chance this time to make a real difference. And by the way, you don't hear me giving you a hard time because your brother and sister were born pathfinders. You could be flying us in here instead of riding a damn bike... Wait what's over there?"

The pair entered the edge of a small clearing, one end of which was darker than any shadow they had ever seen on Starhaven. Day shone his light to the other side and the beam seemed to be swallowed into a patch of pitch blackness.

"Are you guys lost or something?" a man's voice seemed to ask out of nowhere. The men froze in their tracks as the grey limbs of a tree with greenish-purple leaves began to entwine around them, creating a living tunnel of roots that directed their path towards the darkness. They backed up in fear until their backs hit the solid trunk wall behind them.

Day cried in terror as a six-legged predator seemed to emerge from the darkness ahead. "Spirits save us!" He grabbed on to his friend Fire in desperation who drew a blade in defense of whatever was approaching.

A woman's voice called out from above. "Okay, team, back off," it said, "these two aren't here to harm us."

"Aw. This was just getting interesting," Day and Fire heard the earlier male voice say and watched in amazement as the tree that had been growing around them, quicky reversed and disappeared. The shadow reversed and like liquid swirled back into a black-cloaked woman with dark blue skin. They turned around to find an orange-skinned man with antennae smiling at them. "Hi guys," he said causally.

Both men cried out in surprise and jumped back. "I'm really sorry for the scare," the woman's voice said and they looked up to see three women descending out of the air, a blonde in white and red with a friendly expression on her face, a redhead in green and a large muscular orange skinned woman, neither of whom looked nearly as friendly. "It's good to see you again, Dayvid," the blonde said as Dayvid Strongroot promptly passed out.

"Dammit, not again," Fire said shaking his head as he laid Dayvid to the ground.

Imra, Candi and Cham worked with Fire to revive Dayvid, while Zoe landed in front of Tasmia. "What the hell was that, Umbra?" Zoe asked, almost aggressively, "I've never seen you do that before. How are you doing that with your powers?"

"Why do you care?" Tasmia asked in reply, with more than a little bit of a defensive attitude, "I have it under control, and that's all you need to know." She turned and started to walk away from Zoe.

"Don't you walk away from me! I'm just saying that you were particularly enthralled by the Blight," Zoe said through gritted teeth, "And we need to be sure you are OK for the team."

Tasmia spun around so fast that her cloak cracked like a slap and got right into Zoe's face. "How dare you, Kinetix!" Tasmia said balling her fists. She was visibly angry. "You were just as ‘enthralled' as I remember it, and no one is concerned with anything new you're manifesting, just like everyone welcomed your ‘special friend' back after she nearly killed the team! They're certainly not concerned about anything more than you changing their wardrobe."

Now Zoe began to get mad. "Why you..." Zoe began as she balled her right fist as it began to glow green and she stepped forward, "I'm HELPING the team, I don't know what it is that you're doing!" Tasmia sneered with contempt at the thought of fighting Zoe and shadowy wisps began to form around her own fists as she moved into a fighting stance.

Overhearing what was happening, Imra strode over to where Zoe and Tasmia were arguing. "Hey, enough!" Imra said, "This is not the time. We're all stressed and have had too little sleep. Umbra take a walk, or better yet, patrol the area in case we have any more inbounds. Kinetix, I need your help over here with these two." She gestured to where Dayvid lay with Fire kneeling nearby.

Both ladies backed off, letting their powers fade back as they stepped away, but still glaring at each other. Finally, Tasmia took off into the air. Still angry, Zoe stalked after Imra.

*

High above the Starhaven mountains, a lone Finder who was invisible against the golden sky spread her wings and glided over the wilderness. She focused her goggles to the infrared spectrum and looked for anything out of the ordinary. When she found the heat signature of a lone body shooting up into the sky, with multiple bodies in the valley below, she signaled the alarm to Imperial Security.

Another great entry!

the despair and guilt from Ayla and Jan is palpable. any thoughts on comparing that to the Blight? that is, they had already been Blighted... and now this. (or maybe the being Blighted made them easier to control?) I do like that they plus Jazmin were already investigating before they were jumped. Amber leading them into an ambush is plausible, after all we've seen other Workforce members like Repulse act a bit intimidated by Meta...

nice touch re Ayla asking for Garth and Cham!

LOVE the encounter with Day and Fire. it's so Legion - entrapping them, but "laying down arms" once they proved to not be a threat

LOL at Imra looking friendly, while Candi and Zoe are not

nice altercation between Tasmia and Zoe... whoo! lots of drama potential here!

Looking forward to seeing what comes next, and what you have planned for Day and Fire... also nice to have Jan and Ayla back so soon... worried for Jaz and Ferro of course!

Both of the items that you touched on will be addressed both very soon and ongoing, so great observation there.


Thank you! This whole sequence kind of wrote itself once I figured out who Greatfire was, and they're a lot of fun to write!

For the Legionnaires at the end there, they all met Day earlier, but Imra had the more direct discussion with him and could sense that he was a friend based on the distractions of Cham and Umbra; it made their intentions easier for her to read.

And I think writing overtired stressed out Legion teens is my brand.


Man, I have so much to say that I can't right now!!!

Day is already one of my faves - his desire to fight for freedom, but also his being extremely funny and passing out lol

Yay, more!!

I am always a fan of a telepathic journey through someone's mindscape, and it makes sense that Jan and Ayla were ashamed of what they'd done while under control...I hope it's not something that weighs on them too heavily moving on (also, I have probably said this before but I'm glad you didn't go the whole Progenitor route with Jan....even though the only version of him I ever really liked was the 5YL version, I still feel like he deserved better)

I liked the banter between Fire and Day, and the way the Legion confronted them. It will be interesting to see what happens with Umbra here knowing how it all went down in Legion Lost!

The end makes me think a confrontation is coming maybe sooner than the Legion would like...which I am not opposed to because it has been fun seeing them in action!

Thanks for that raz! I've never really agreed with the path DnA went down with Jan (although I totally get why from a story perspective), so between this and Zoe, I wanted to keep them as the characters we know. After finishing reading "The Legion" I kind of wish I had picked up from there in some ways, but then I'd have to fix the Jarth thing right out of the gate, along with Zoe.



Definitely soon!

Legion Of Superheroes #129 - Chapter 2 "With a Little Help from Our Friends(part one)"


"So how did you find us?" Imra asked Dayvid Strongroot. He and his friend, introduced to the team as Greatfire Walker, were sitting with Imra, Brainy, Zoe and Cham around a lamp just inside the cave entrance. "We kind of left your palace in a hurry."

A grin broke out across Day's tan face. "I tagged you with a tracker, and knowing the direction that you went, it wasn't that hard to find you." He waved a small tablet in his hands at the group. "I wasn't sure if you were there to join with the Emperor or oppose him, so I had to wait and watch. Once I saw what happened, I knew I had to get to you all first."

"Wait," Zoe interrupted, "Don't you work for the palace?"

Day nodded. "I do," he said, "but I serve two masters. You see, for many years now, a resistance has been growing as the Emperor's overreaching has become more extreme with every passing month. He has to be stopped. Our people settled this world on the principle of freedom, and there are many of us who feel this way across the worlds he has conquered. A majority in my opinion. But when we're on the job, we have to play the part." His expression became grim. "There are eyes everywhere."

"So you're their man on the inside," Cham observed with a wry smile.

"Exactly," he nodded, "people like me and Greatfire here have been working as part of the Resistance movement for months now. Fire's sister was part of the Emperor's guard until a few months ago. The Empire has already found our main base on Manitou just a few light years from Starhaven; that's where he was going when you met him yesterday. They would have left sooner but for your arrival. I sent out a signal alarming our people there to both his force and your presence. I only hope the message got there in time."

A sudden realization dawned on Imra and an immediate concern for Garth shot through her body. "Brainy," she said with trepidation in her voice, "that world…"

"Is the planet our scout team went to," Brainy finished for her. "Half of us went to investigate that planet as we came here," Brainy continued, addressing the confused looks on Dayvid's and Greatfire's faces, "Its entirely likely that they have already met Meta and his forces."

"That's not all," Greatfire said, his dark eyes serious and urgent, "They are going to have to fend for themselves, but we need to get you somewhere safe. That's why we're here. We have a few resistance safe houses that are hidden from the Trackers. We can relocate you there so that you aren't sitting out in the open like this."

"Trackers?" Candi asked, "What are Trackers?"

"Similar to the Pathfinders, but where the Pathfinder is able to track things and find paths through interstellar space," Fire said, "The Tracker is the type who can find anything with precision within a planetary gravity well. Their winged gifts are tuned slightly differently for planetary uses."

"But how did you guys get here?" Zoe asked, "You're not…"

Greatfire chuckled as he shifted his bulky form as he stood. "We're not Pathfinders, I know. I don't have the same gift as my siblings, but we all have our purposes. Instead of wings, I have these," and Fire, partly in jest, paused to flex his massive arms to which Zoe and Dayvid both chortled, "I also have a speeder bike at the bottom of the hill," he said as he gestured outside. Everyone appreciated Fire's humor to diffuse the atmosphere. "Day navigated for us from the city, but when we got to the bottom of the hill, these trees were too dense."

Dayvid grabbed Fire's arm. "But we have to get moving soon," he urged, "We had our own tracking device, but the Imperial Finders will have tracked you on their own soon enough."

"But we still have two injured teammates!" Zoe protested.

"We don't have a choice," Fire said, "The enemy will be here before you know it. We want to help you, but I'm afraid you'll have to move them as best you can."

Chuck interrupted the conference by excitedly jogging up from the back of the cave. "Ayla and Jan," he said, "They're waking up!"

Cham was first to his feet as everyone stood up to check on the waking Legionnaires. Jan and Ayla were propping themselves up and blinking with confusion and fatigue as Cham knelt and put his hand on Ayla's shoulder. Candi, who had been outside on sentry, rushed in, almost bowling people out of the way with her large size in the small space. "Jan? Jan?" she asked, "Is he OK?"

"Easy, Ayla," Cham said, "take it easy."

Ayla's eyes took a moment to focus as she brushed some of her long hair out of here eyes. "Cham? Is it really you?" she asked. Tears started to well in her eyes and she pulled him tightly to her, "Mother Goddess, I didn't think I'd see you again, its been so long." She looked around at the team gathering around her. "I didn't think I'd see any of you again."

"I like your hair," Cham said while holding her.

"I hate having long hair," Ayla laughed through her tears, her voice muffled against Cham. Zoe, smiling sadly, put a hand on Ayla's shoulder for support and Ayla blindly moved her hand to grasp it tightly.

Candi knelt on one knee and allowed Jan to use her arm to help himself stand then awkwardly and silently embraced Candi as best as he could. He turned to the rest of the team who were all clearly relieved and moved by their teammates regaining consciousness, but Jan faced them all with an expression of resolve. "We allowed ourselves to be used for sinister purposes by Meta and these Workforce thugs of McCauley's," he said, "This following on the perversion of the Legion from the Blight. I can't ask any of you to follow me back there to correct what I've been a part of, but the Legion was used to create thousands of machines that have been used to subjugate millions, and I aim to correct that wickedness."

"We're all with you, Jan," said Imra, "as we've seen them, too. And we have to rescue Kid Quantum and Ferro. But we need to be smart about how we do this. We need to get moving. Do your flight rings still work?"

"Yes I think so, that's how we've been…" Ayla began, but was interrupted both by an indicator beeping on Brainiac 5.1's belt, but also Umbra's voice on the comm links.

"I'm sorry to interrupt this touching reunion," she said tersely, "but there are a lot of inbounds flying in from the south!"

"Dammit," spat Fire, "They've already found us! We need to move as fast as we can!"

Element Lad had a grim expression on his face. "Maybe I can start making amends now," he said.

Cham helped Ayla up as the team exited the cave. Imra turned to Dayvid. "You need to get out of here as fast as you can, "she said to him, "We'll meet you in two hours."

"But what if…," Dayvid began as he swept his fingers across the map.

"No time for that!" Imra ordered and Dayvid, "Now get out of here!"

Greatfire and Dayvid began moving through the forest as fast as they could as all the Legionnaires except Brainy took to the sky.

"Damn it," Chuck cursed as he watched the rest of the squad fly away. "I hate being stuck here useless!" He said aloud, aimlessly.

A floating holographic display drifted in front of Chuck. "Here," Brainy said, "I can use the help analyzing the enemy force. You can help with strategy, so keep your comm channels to the team open." Chuck nodded and pressed a few indicators on the display as data began to stream in front of them. A visualization of the unfolding scene with miniature figures of the Legionnaires and their incoming opponents appeared in the air between Brainy and Chuck.

From the south, dozens of airborne Sentinels flew towards the Legion's position, led by ten winged Starhaven Pathfinders, including one entirely in tan from head to toe; dark wings, and a full bodysuit that included the entire head, only goggles and a mouthpiece as features. Leading all these airborne troops was the leader of the Workforce; Repulse was flying at the lead with the use of an anti-grav harness next to the Tracker. Repulse's squad of Starhaven warriors flew up to face Imra and the airborne Legionnaires, while the Sentinels silently fanned out and around on either side to effectively contain them from all angles. Every soldier was armed with a plasma rifle.

Repulse touched a control at the base of his neck and his voice came out amplified. "Legionnaries, you are hereby ordered to return to the Imperial Palace at Starhaven City," he called out. "Dead or alive," he added, "And I don't give a sprock which one." He raised his arm and all the winged soldiers, organic and synthetic, raised their rifles.

---CONTINUED---

yay, more stuff!!

so the Resistance - is it connected to Lori's group? ... and yes, you just confirmed that, with Greatfire's sis being Dawnstar. cool smile

brilliant, having both Pathfinders and Trackers exist, and also delineating their abilities! space vs. not-in-space wink easy!

yay! Jan and Ayla awake. Candi bowling people over is hilarious. (nice touch re Zoe comforting Ayla too)

yes, Jan mentioning the Blight, thank you! it was such a big thing for many, and it just kinda vanished after Lost...

"touching reunion," oh Tasmia

Day and Fire are kinda like a comedy duo. very likable guys!

thanks for giving Chuck something to do! and also him expressing very loudly how useful he felt. that was great.

yay battle! looking forward to seeing Repulse get his butt handed to him!

PART 2:

Kinetix looked around at the gathering force. The sheer numbers of the enemy gave her concern, but she didn't let them see it. "This is all you have to show, Repulse?" Kinetix called out, "Honestly I'd say you're at the disadvantage, but then again, you seem to be the type to overcompensate for just about everything."

"It doesn't matter to me, babe," Repulse replied casually with a sneer on his lips, "You'll find out one way or another."

Ayla suddenly flew in front of the Legionnaire squad. "YOU'RE NOT TAKING US ANYWHERE, YOU BASTARD!" she shouted as electricity arced around her lithe form making her long strawberry hair flew out behind her.

"Ya know what, babe?" Repulse responded casually, "I don't give a sprock what you think." With that he whipped his arm forward as he flew towards Imra, flinging his tendrils of nano-metals towards her to snare the Titianian. All the other Imperial forces took that as their cue to open fire, and all the Legionnaires scattered to engage.

Ayla shot a large bolt out from her arms towards Repulse, but he had already moved towards Imra, so the shot went wide, hitting a Sentinel, making it immediately overload and explode, debris raining below. A dozen more immediately took chase, requiring Ayla to shoot at them on the fly. Given her speed and evasive flight path, she was only partly successful in overloading the enemies she shot at; many of her shots went completely wild and ended up arcing on to the ground.

Shortly after forcing Saturn Girl to avoid her Sentinel pursuers, Repulse himself had broken off that chase and flew up and above most of the battle area. From here, he started coordinating his teams' attack on the Legionnaires, forcing them to split apart so that they could be individually overwhelmed. Saturn Girl, meanwhile was actively being pursued her own crowd of Sentinels, none of whom could be manipulated telepathically. She flew near her teammates like Spark, Kinetix and Element Lad in the hope that they might be able to dispatch some of her pursuers.

Another dozen Imperial Sentinels, led by the Tracker, immediately focused on Monstress and while she began to rip apart several of the closest sentinels to her, but the overwhelming numbers of attackers eventually shifted her attention to a defensive stance, holding two inanimate Sentinel husks on either side of her body as shields as plasma bolts relentlessly rained upon her.

Element Lad was swarmed immediately, by a Sentinel squad led by two Pathfinders. Jan was able to target his powers towards the Sentinels and dissolve the metals in their skeletons to nitrogen gas, making them literally fall apart in mid-aid. However, he could only affect one android at a time and quickly found himself outnumbered, as did all the Legionnaires.

Umbra began her engagement with a simple darkfield which the enemy Sentinels simply began to fire into, even disregarding the bolts that would pass through the field and hit another android. Eventually, a winged shadow-beast emerged from the dark cloud and ripped through several of the synthetic figures, but that effort helped the surrounding Sentinels target Umbra herself. Umbra cursed and flew towards one of the Pathfinders to engage the winged man in direct hand to hand combat, but the Sentinel androids kept following her relentlessly.

Immediately moving when the shooting started, Kinetix tried to move around the aerial battlefield as randomly as she could, using her telekinetics to throw Sentinels into each other, or even the Pathfinders themselves. Occasionally she would fly past Spark or Umbra and kinetically pull one of the Sentinels away and into another, only to be replaced by one waiting in the wings, soon finding that she was drawing attention and becoming quickly outnumbered. "Grife," she muttered to herself. Her brow was becoming damp with sweat as she kept concentrating on shielding from incoming fire on one side, and ripping Sentinels apart on the other. "Let's see what you sprockers do when you get a taste of your own medicine!" she said. Zoe slammed two Sentinels apart so that they were destroyed into pieces, then reassembled those into two jagged-looking androids with mismatched limbs, but were under her control. The sudden shift in strategy took the enemy off guard as Kinetix controlled her puppets to attack the surprised Starhavenites.

When the battle began, Cham first transformed himself into a thirty foot long space dragon, attempting to take out as many enemies as possible at once, but found himself an extremely large target, so began changing his forms as fast as he could to throw off his attackers. This meant that he was highly mobile on the battlespace, but wasn't able to attack enemy forces very effectively, and spent most of the battle dodging melee and weapon attacks. Eventually, Cham transformed into an insect, flew behind a Sentinel that Spark had overloaded and was in freefall, shifted his form again to be a Sentinel, then stole the falling android's weapon to start attacking the unaware enemies.

From in the cave, Chuck and Brainy began to provide cues on when and where to fly for maximum evasion, and when forces where in their blind spots. Unfortunately, it was evident to both of them that this was quickly becoming a losing battle. Monitoring from his station on the ground, Chuck flew through the information on the screens hovering in front of him and blew out his breath in exasperation. "This does not look good, Brainy," he said, "We are really outnumbered here. The team has taken out only a third of the Sentinels, and there are still the Pathfinders waiting to pick our team off when they wear out."

"Hmmm," Brainiac responded noncommittally.

Chuck looked over at Brainy like he had gone crazy, but just found him studying a screen that was not even related to the battle at hand that contained almost no information. "What do you mean, ‘hmmmm,' and why are you not paying attention to the action?!" Chuck yelled.

Brainy ignored Chuck's protests and flipped a virtual control on his screen then with a swift gesture moved a control indicator to the maximum setting.

"Brainy," Chuck protested, "You've just amplified our distress signal! Everyone will know where we are!"

Brainy cooly looked back at Chuck. "The Starhaven Imperial forces already know where we are," he said evenly, "And I am taking a calculated risk here, but its one I believe will have a beneficial payoff." He turned back to his displays and studied them intently. Chuck shook his head and returned his attention to the tactical display and began communicating moves to the Legionnaires in the air.

Meanwhile, Imra found herself losing ground to her pursuers. They quickly gained on her and had her trapped. "A little help here!" Imra called into her telepathic ear plugs as the androids closed in around her.

Ayla flew past and destroyed a couple of Sentinels around Imra. Sentinel-Cham shot at and destroyed another, but there were always more to take over. After Ayla flew by to help Jan, more Sentiels surrounded Imra and began to close in on her. Two Sentinels, one on each side, grabbed on to her biceps and began to move her away from the field of action as she struggled.

Jan and Ayla both were similarly outnumbered, with Sentinels all around them. Jan reacted to convert carbon to oxygen to as many targets as possible, but rapidly became overwhelmed. Similarly, Ayla was also firing electrical shots to overload as many Sentinels as she could but was quickly surrounded by more targets than she could shoot at. Monstress was swarmed by multiple Sentinels holding on to each of her limbs, countering her strength.

Kinetix glumly surveilled the situation as she flew desperately around the battle. "Guys," she said, "I'm really not liking the way that this is turning out."

From below a movement caught Kinetix's eye and she saw a small grav vehicle moving up the slopes of the valley. She could clearly see the bulky shape of Greatfire driving the grav bike, but Dayvid was mostly obscured, hanging on to the bike with one hand while brandishing some kind of cylindrical weapon on his shoulder. He fired it at Monstress and a sparkling charge quickly crossed the distance and enveloped her and all the Sentinels grappling her in a flickering ball. The end result left all the Sentinels holding her deactivated and falling to the ground, leaving Monstress unharmed and able to fight a new batch of enemies alongside Element Lad and Spark.

"I told Dayvid to get out of here," Imra said as she struggled, "He's gonna get himself killed!"

Chuck's urgent voice came back on the comm channel. "Team, I have two signals coming in from orbit," he said, "they're headed right this way, extremely fast!"

*

Twin sonic booms echoed across the mountains and a blue and red blur flashed into the crowd of Legionnaires, Sentinels and Starhaven warriors, and the dark haired young man dressed in red with a blue cloak took a quick assessment of the situation. "You all need a hand?" he called to his friends. He immediately became a target as dozens of plasma bolts were shot at him and bounced harmlessly off.

"M'Onel!" Saturn Girl said in relief, "The metallic ones are drones! You can bust them up all you want!"

A wry smile crossed M'Onel's face. "This'll be fun," he said and immediately flew into one of the two Sentiels holding Saturn Girl, smashing it to pieces, and firing a laser burst from his eyes through the other.

As M'Onel began to take out Sentinels, a Legion cruiser raced out of the sky and passed through the battle airspace. Two figures, the ghostly white figure of Apparition flew out of the cruiser's hull and the golden snake form of Sensor dropped out of the cruiser's hatch and immediately started to engage the enemy; Apparition phasing into the Sentinels to then rip out critical circuitry and Sensor whipping her tail to send Sentinels flying, all to the cheers of the fighting Legionnaires.

After circling back on to the battle, the cruiser began to fly in a tight spherical pattern around the battle area in the sky twisting like a corkscrew, and as it flew, the cruiser emitted a powerful force pulling the Sentinels into its wake so that within a few passes, most of them had been caught up in the cruiser's magnetic path. Once the tractor beam pulled in as many Sentinels (and Sentinel debris) as it could collect, the cruiser broke off its maneuver and raced at full speed towards a rocky mountainside when it pulled straight up at the last second and shot into space. As soon as the cruiser was shooting skyward, the magnetic beam pulling the crowd of Sentinels disengaged so that the momentum of their passage smashed them to bits along the mountain side.

"Aw, Frak," Repulse said with unease as he recognized both the M'Onel and the implication of who may be in the cruiser.

As soon as the cruiser had passed with it's magnetic tow, Sensor curved through the air and made way towards the Pathfinders who had gathered below Repulse, who was attempting to salvage the battle from above. She stopped in midair, and her momentum made her anterior half swing forward so that it seemed as if she was coiled in front of the Starhaven warriors.

"Great Spirits!" Some of them said, "Quetzalcoatl has come for vengeance!" and half of the dozen remaining pathfinders immediately turned and fled away.

"You scaz freaks!" Repulse yelled after them, "Its just a slimy Orandan! GET BACK HERE!" But they were gone.

The Legionnaires they quickly dispatched the rest of the remaining few androids, until only Repulse and his remaining escorts stayed before the rest of the Legion squad reformed together around Sensor in opposition to Repulse. Spark drifted up and nearly spat with electricity. "Go back home and lick your wounds, scumbag," Ayla yelled across the space, "before I fry you alive!"

Repulse sneered in reply. "This isn't over, Legion," he said saying the last word mockingly and then addressed Ayla specifically, "We got you once. We'll get you again. All of you." He and his team turned and flew south with haste.

As what remained of Repulse's team fled, the Legionnaires in the air cheered and quickly came together and traded hugs with M'Onel, Sensor and Apparition, with many questions from both Imra's team and the newcomers.

"We were flying into the system and could see that there was a lot of activity. We detected your signals hours ago but we weren’t sure where any of you were until we saw the distress beacon," Jeka said, "Then we got here as fast as we could!"

"But how long have you been out there?" Imra asked.

"Oh only a day or two," Sensor replied.

"Is Jo with you all?" Tinya asked urgently to Imra, who started to answer while shaking her head but was interrupted. The newly arrived Legion cruiser flew back from its flying stunt that had taken it up and back out of the Starhaven atmosphere. The pilot found a location as close to the team's cave as possible outside the forest and set down the cruiser in a tight clearing. Below the Legionnaires, Greatfire steered his grav bike to rendezvous at the cruiser.

Flying as fast as they could to get to their newly arrived teammates, the airborne squad arrived at the foot of the cruiser just as its ramp had lowered and Cosmic Boy walked down the ramp with a broad smile on his face. Imra ran up and gave him a tight embrace. Finally on the ground Cham left Ayla and Tinya to run over to Sensor, and gave her a tight hug by stretching his arms around her scaled body.

Rokk grinned broadly at the site of the other Legionnaires. "Are you all a sight for sore eyes!" Rokk said.

"That was some fancy flying you did there, Cos," Monstress said, clapping him forcefully on the back.

Rokk regained his balance after the contact and laughed. "Oh no, I was using the cruiser's power amplifier to drag those robots or whatever they were," he said. Winking at Zoe he pointed his thumb over his shoulder and said, "Our crazy pilot is still securing the cruiser."

Zoe felt her insides twist upside down and began pushing her way through the crowd of her teammates, irreverently shoving her way between Tinya and Ayla to make her way up the ramp. "Hey!" Tinya yelled in annoyance. Violet appeared at the top of the ramp and Zoe stopped short.

A small smile turned up the corners of Vi's mouth, even as her eyes smiled more broadly. "Hi," she said simply.

"Hi?" Zoe asked, "That was you flying like that?" Her breath was getting tighter, and her eyes were starting to burn as tears started to build. "You could have gotten hurt doing those stunts!"

Vi's smile tugged farther up as her eyes twinkled in both amusement and emotion. "No, I was in too much of a hurry to rescue you," she replied.

In a blur, both girls rushed into a tight embrace and kissed. The two held on to each other as the reunions continued below. After a few moments, Zoe realized that she was crying. A few moments later, she realized that Vi was as well.

"Vi… oh my god, its really you. I thought…" Zoe started through her tears as she pulled away to look into Violet's eyes.

"Of course it's me," Vi said wiping her own tears, "Someone had to save your butts."

"I had this stupid thought that maybe Imra may be making you all up to calm us down or something," Zoe said.

"That's silly," Violet said, "She'd never do something like that to her team."

"I know, its just that I didn't know if I'd ever see you… I mean if you were…" she wiped at her face, "Grife… I'm just babbling like an idiot now but it's been, like days, and I had no idea what happened and…"

Violet smiled more broadly now, her own tears still tracking down her face. "Zoe, honey," Vi said softly.

"Yeah?" Zoe sniffled.

"Sometimes you talk too much," Vi finished and kissed Zoe. Holding hands, they walked down the ramp together to be with the rest of the team where she was piled on in hugs by Ayla, Candi and Cham.

*

"So you're telling me that McCauley's new Workforce has taken over this world and turned it into an empire?" Rokk asked the others. The Starhaven-bound segment of the Legion was regrouping before heading over to the safe location provided by Dayvid and Greatfire.

"Not all of the workforce, just Meta," Imra responded. She had just finished telling Rokk the tale of the outposts emergence, the trip to Starhaven and the encounter at the palace the day before.

"The rest of the workforce came with me, Jan and Jazmin," Ayla injected. "They threw in with Meta's plans without question – which had been going on for years before we got here. It's the three of us they had to coerce using chemicals."

"So who is Meta, anyway?" Tasmia asked, locking eyes with M'Onel, "That Workforce popped in out of nowhere. I'd never heard of any of those losers."

"Hey don't look at me," M'Onel protested, "I don't keep up with the goings on of Daxam these days. I have no idea about anyone from there.It's too bad Laurel isn't with us; she might be able to help." He thought about it some more. "Either way, he's clearly a force to be reckoned with. He's had his powers for years at this point, so has had more experience with using them."

"The one you call Meta has been here for almost 20 years," Dayvid told the Legionnaires, "He's always been close to power, but only was this ambitious in the last few years. And his power accelerated once you first arrived." He nodded towards Ayla and Jan.

"But what about Repulse?" Tinya asked from the back directed at Rokk, "He's Braalian. Surely you've heard of him, Cosmic Boy?"

Rokk nodded. "Unfortunately yes," he said, "His name is Kort Grezz. He's been on the Magnoball circuit for years. You know the phrase never meet your heroes? I think it was written with Grezz in mind. Once I got to know him and hear about him from the other players, I found a man who not only would take every shortcut he could to get what he wanted, but ingratiate himself with the worst people. His team was the easiest for mine to pick apart because he was such a horrible team captain. Gods knows how Meta is going to treat a failure like him."

"Hopefully fry him," Ayla said darkly.

"The guy is a major creep," Zoe added.

"You have no idea," Ayla said.

Imra collected everyone's attention. "OK, Let's get going," she said, "If Meta only has his Workforce goons as his main support base, we can take him down, along with his empire. We have a lot of work to do."

I mean to reply to this prior to posting the rest of the chapter Oh well...


Yeah I always thought that the Starhaven people were a little too much of the funny hat syndrome, and felt like they should have more depth to them.


Yeah its kind of a big deal IMO. Most of them are still dealing with the Blight as is (Zoe and Tasmia, certainly) then you have these three who just after being released from the Blight are coerced again for a longer time. That definitely won't go away quickly. I think Jan may be able to handle it pretty well, but Ayla may have some bumps in the road.


Yeah I'm finding Chuck and Dyrk are hard to write for without powers.

And you'll have to wait to see what gets handed to Repulse.

Maybe Jan's Spiritual side will come into play and help him deal with everything



and yay for the new chapter! yay fight!

Yes, keep the snark going, Zoe!

and yes, righteous fury from Ayla!

Repulse is smart enough at least to go for the leader...

nice highlighting of the limitations of individual Legionnaires. esp. Umbra, with her updated darkfield powers. (also the hand to hand is a great reminder of what a badass fighter she is)

ooh yes, telekinetic puppets!

and Cham masquerading as a Sentinel, brilliant!

ah classic Brainy, thinking by himself and not explaining anything to Chuck...

WHOA! I did NOT expect M'Onel's group so soon, awesome!

Great tactics too - Sensor tapping into ancient mythology to scare the Pathfinders, and Cos and his magnetic tricks

lol, oh Tinya is not gonna be best friends with Vi or Zoe after all this

hahaha re Imra making Cos and Vi and everyone up!

the best reunion scene ever, Vi and Zoe smile

hmmm Tasmia and Mon... Mon is stronger than Jo, so if that's what Tasmia is after...

brrr, i'm a bit afraid for Ayla, has Repulse done anything to her...

smart indeed though, if only the Workforce members are truly meta-powered then it shouldn't be too hard to take Meta's empire down... though they do have Jazmin still, and she's extremely powerful...

yay! this was epic! I thought M'On's group would come in later, but it's a treat to see 'em already! (Tinya will have to wait a bit for Jo though... and looking forward to more little bits of interpersonal drama lol!)

bye Repulse! (not for good, but I'm waiting for his comeuppance lol)

He's mostly a dumb meathead, but he does have SOME qualities...


Its funny - all of that came rather late to the process. This is exactly why I try to let things sit before re-reading/editing. I have the same process at work for sending emails that can be ranty.


The Aztec angle came of two things completely out of the air - first off, Sensor's not even doing anything, so to her she's like, "why y'all running away?" But also, the inclusion of native American civilizations from all over the continent being blended together after 700 years seemed to be a neat idea.


I think I can say this is an accurate statment.


I know, I know, but I had to go there.


Thanks - I figure I had to give some payoff for introducing that idea two issues prior.





Yeah, I don't think I'll go too far down that path...


We'll see Repulse again in a bit. But I can safely say that a good amount of this will be wrapped up in the next full issue. At least I think so. Every time I do one of these the word count gets larger.

Ah good, yeah let’s keep Ayla and Jan and co as being used for their powers

Repulse is also arrogant and selfish, besides dumb and lazy lol

Legion Of Superheroes #129 - Chapter 3 : "Unstoppable Force, Immovable Object"

Legionnaire Roll Call

XS - Jenni Ognats of Aarok, Super Speed
Invisible Kid – Lyle Norg of Earth, Invisibility
LiveWire – Garth Ranzz of Winath, Generates lightning
Triad – Luornu Durgo of Cargg, Triplication
Karate Kid - Val Armorr, master of martial arts
Gates - Ti'julk Mr'asz of Vyrga, controls teleportation portals
Ultra Boy – Jo Nah of Rimbor, ultra-vision, speed, strength and invulnerability, used one at a time.



PLANET: MANITOU. EST CALENDAR DATE 2999.01.10

"Okay, Dyrk, you got this," Dyrk whispered to himself as he gripped the controls of the Cruiser. He tried to remember everything he could between the flying simulations and Violet's coaching sessions as he maneuvered the cruiser between the three large wedge-shaped starships, hovering over a steppe facing to a large cliff that was the beginning of a mountain range. The plain was filled with rebel soldiers of many different sentient species, while the air was filling with winged soldiers in their tan and black uniforms and mechanized Sentinels exiting from the ships. The heavily armed starship pointed themselves at the clff face, to prepare to bombard the base within the stone. Dyrk was flying the cruiser in an attempt to jam the communications between the enemy forces, but also was trying to avoid getting shot, or running into anyone else. Dyrk looked out the viewer at the center point of the confrontation to get a sense of what was happening with Ultra Boy and Livewire.

A very specific group hung in between the warships and the cliff faces; one figure hovered, cowled in a raptor-like headpiece in a dark suit with a dark cloak flowing behind him, flanked by a dozen mechanized winged hovering figures on either side.

Opposite of this dark figure hovered eight Starhaven rebels in their tan and black bodysuits joined by the bright Legionnaire uniforms of Lightning Lad and Ultra Boy, with insectoid form of Gates hovering behind. The rebel leader, Greywind had armed his plasma rifle while Dawnstar, his sister pulled out a rod, then activated a switch which created a large spherical ball of energy at one end, effectively creating an energy mace. She gripped the mace preparing to engage in battle as she spat out a curse at the enemy leader.

Twin lasers shot from beneath the Daxamite's hood, heat vision aimed directly towards Dawnstar. In a blur, Ultra Boy flew in front of her and absorbed the blast of heat, having switched his powers to be invulnerable.

"Come on now, Meta," Jo said with a smirk as the heat vision faded, "you really need to pick on folks with your own power set."

The emperor's eyes glowed from beneath his cowl but his voice became silkier. "Ah, more Legionnaires," he said, "I've met your other ragtag team already, and I'm sure they'll be helping me keep everyone in line by the time I return. Why don't we just save some time now and have you fight on my behalf?"

Live Wire hovered next to Ultra Boy. "What do you mean ‘more Legionnaires'?" he asked. Garth balled his fists as he floated and lighting started to course around his forearms. "What have you done with them?"

They could feel the Emperor leering at them beneath his cowl as he spoke. "Ah, the other lightning Legionnaire," he said, "I can put you to use as well. I wouldn't want my other battery to run dry now, would I?"

The Lightning arcing across Garth's arms expanded to his entire body as the anger in him rose. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH AYLA?" he shouted as energy popped from his eyes.

"Done?" Meta countered, "I've done nothing my friend, but she has been dutifully helping me build my empire for months now." He swept his arms around to indicate the mechanized Sentinels hovering behind him.

"My sister would never help you willingly!" Garth shouted, and swept his left arm out, releasing a huge bolt of lightning with a loud thunderclap. The bolt hit Meta square in the chest, knocking him back into his sentinel guards, but leaving him otherwise unharmed.

"Attack," Meta said calmly, and the Sentinels and the rest of his troops broke formation and started shooting their weapons, making all the Rebel soldiers in the air scatter as they returned fire. The forces on the ground also started firing up into the air as full battalions of sentinels landed to engage directly on the ground while others hovered above and provided air cover. Simultaneously, the three warships began to bombard the ground with laser blasts aimed at the mountain fortress, which returned fire from its hidden laser and missile arrays. The air began to smell like ozone.

"Dammit," Greywind cursed, "All units attack!" he cried into his comm link. All the rebel forces in the air scattered and began directly engaging their winged counterparts, as a roar came up from the ground as the infantry cried out and began to attack, shooting their weapons at the loyalist forces. Dawnstar herself charged into the fray, wielding a mace that both absorbed the energy bolts shot at Dawnstar, but then used the contained energy to stun the loyalist Pathfinders and smash into the armor of the mechanized Sentinels.

In a rage, Garth began to throw volley after volley of lightning bolts at Meta, who slowly drifted forward towards him. In a flash, Ultra Boy dove right at Meta and quickly changing to super strength, grabbed Meta by the ankle and flung him into one of the starships, ripping a hole in the side of the hull as Meta passed through. "Man, what the frak are you thinking?" Jo asked as he turned to Garth, "Meta's a Daxamite! Leave him to me, will you?"

"He's done something to Ayla, and maybe Imra and the others," Garth protested, "and I'm gonna make sure he pays for it!"

"Garth, if you go at him alone, you're a dead man," Jo said, "I know we haven't been seeing eye to eye recently, but you're making a pretty good leader. You know I'm the only one who has a change at taking out this sprocker. So just watch my back."

A dark blur raced from the hole in the ship and slammed into Ultra Boy, sending them both into the ground below so hard that the force of the impact jolted everyone; the fliers in the air in addition to the foot soldiers. Garth opened a commlink to the team. "All Legionnaires, converge on Ultra Boy's location," he said, "We need to distract Meta. Dyrk, keep jamming their ships communications so that they can't coordinate their attacks." With that he flew as fast as possible down towards the crater that Meta had created with his impact, dodging energy blasts from the fighting and firing lightning blasts as fast as he could towards the bottom of the crater.

Invisible Kid took note as soon as he saw Meta streaking out of the damaged cruiser and took action. "Triad, I'm leaving you in charge on the ground for now," he said into the comm, "I'll signal you when I'm ready. Get close to Gates if you can."

"What are you talking about?!" Triad purple replied. They was incredulous as they attacked three Pathfinder soldiers hovering over them. "You can't just leave us down here!" But Lyle had disabled the comm and disappeared from sight and sensors. Livewire chimed in, "Kid, what the nass do you think you're doing?"

XS had already arrived at the battle site and was zipping around Meta in a pattern to fast for him to keep up with and his heat vision uselessly blasted a hole in the crater wall. This gave Ultra Boy enough time to switch to super strength again and put his entire shoulder into a punch that knocked Meta face first into the dirt of the crater. Almost as fast as XS, Meta turned around and rushed at Ultra Boy, slamming him into the far crater wall and began to pummel him with fast punches at his own super speed, getting in a few good blows before Ultra Boy could switch to his invulnerability.

"Jo!" Garth yelled out as he landed meters behind Meta and let loose more lightning directly at his back. Meta angrily turned and shot his heat vision at Garth, who was whisked away just in time by XS. "Let's not do that again, shall we?" XS quipped as she let Garth go and he flew into the air above the crater. XS continued to move around the nearby battlefield to ensure that no ground troops tried to take any potshots at the Legionnaires battling Meta as Gates did the same from the air, porting winged combatats, biological and artificial or maybe sometimes just their weapons, to completely other sections of the battlefield.

Ultra Boy jumped out of the hole that Meta had beat him into, with torn uniform and bruises, and tackled Meta from behind using ultra strength, and switching invulnerability while he pinned him down as Garth blasted into him with an even larger lightning surge than before. Karate Kid landed nearby to assist in the fighting when Ultra Boy was launched into the air by Meta with a single powerful blow to Jo's midsection. Meta stood and looked around, seeing Karate Kid, rushed over to him, towering over the martial artist.

"Not very smart, Human," Meta said in his deep voice. Meta swung his powerful arm directly at Karate Kid's head, but Val had seen the telltale body movements and knew exactly when to dodge. Twisting his body to dodge the blow, Val shifted his hips and swung his leg up to connect it to Meta's jaw, knocking him back in stunned surprise. Val grunted in discomfort and grabbed at his calf, but the damage had been done. Meta recovered and shot another burst of heat vision towards Karate Kid, but Dawnstar had flown in and blocked the beam with her mace. When the beam was done she spun around to gain momentum and hit Meta square in the chest with the mace, which discharged its energy and knocked him on his back. Ultra Boy and Livewire returned, firing his Ultra Vision at Meta from one side and Live Wire shooting lightning at him from the other. Meta cried out, more in annoyance than pain, as Ultra Boy flew in closer to Meta, closing the distance between them while Val and Dawnstar flew up above to assist in covering Livewire and Ultra Boy.

"Thanks for the save," Val said to Dawnstar.

She gave him a half smile. "You fight well," she said in return, "It would be a shame to lose that."

As the battle with Meta raged on in one part of the battlefield, Triad continued her best to coordinate attacks of the ground forces, leveraging Dyrk's communication jamming to split the forces into separate areas for a more organized strategy. The aerial rebels were able to make more of an impact in the fight, but were sorely outnumbered, and it was difficult for the ground forces to target anything in the air; the weapon batteries in the cliffsides and mountain were doing more damage to the enemies in the air.

Being assaulted by heat and lightning, Meta roared out and closed the distance with Ultra Boy, seizing him by the collar and tossing him into the air for what seemed like miles like a rag doll. "Oh nass," Garth said as Meta turned briefly to Live Wire and shot a burst of heat vision at him. Garth raised his right arm reflexively to shoot a bolt of lightning in a futile effort to block the energy beam, but the energy of the electricity helped diffuse the heat vision burst. It did, however, overload Garth's artificial arm, which fizzled out and grew so hot that Garth had to press an emergency release to let it drop to the ground as he cried out in pain from the heat. He looked up, but Meta had already flown away in pursuit of Ultra Boy's path.

"Dyrk, are you able to track Ultra Boy's location?" Garth asked into the communicator as he inspected the smoking artificial limb lying on the ground. "Yes, he was thrown 2 miles south of your location into the foothills," Dyrk quickly radioed back, "But you'd better hurry. Meta's already on him." A boom echoed from the direction that Dyrk had indicated, and Garth knew that Meta was doing his worst. "Karate Kid, with me!" He called, "XS, Gates, do what you can to help Triad." He willed his ring to carry him as fast as he could as Val swung in beside him, dodging fire with Dawnstar's aid.

As they approached Jo's location, they could clearly see Meta hunched over Ultra Boy in another cratered space in the ground, alternately beating him with massively powerful punches, and firing heat blasts from his eyes. Suddenly, Meta stopped and stood up, looking into the sky as if he was listening to something. Then, in an instant, he shot up into the sky leaving a vapor trail after creating a sonic boom and left the atmosphere.

"Live Wire," Dyrk called into the comm as he flew overhead in the Legion cruiser, "Sensors are reading that Meta just went into lightspeed! He's left the system!"

Val and Garth dropped to the ground to meet Ultra Boy. Jo was still breathing, but Meta had left his mark, as his uniform was in tatters, his body covered in bruises and burns. "Nass," Garth muttered, "Just what the sprock is going on here?" He pulled out a medstim from his pouch and pressed it against Jo's neck to help revive him, but as soon as he activated it to inject the medicine into Jo the device whined and cracked. "Wow," Val said, "he's still in Invulnerable mode. But Meta still did this much damage." Garth nodded. "It may have saved his life."

The commlink crackled to life with Invisible Kid's voice. "Gates, can you get Triad over to me?" he called, "I could use a set of hands."

"Gates the taxi service needed again right?" Gates' voice croaked, "Where do you need us to be?"

"Just aim for the hole in the cruiser," Lyle's voice said, "I could use some extra hands up here driving this ship." Garth and Val looked up and saw that the damaged cruiser was turning in the air and aiming its forward facing weaponry at the cruiser closest to it. Blue energy bolts shot out from the wounded cruiser and hit its neighbor, and the targeted ship's engines began to sputter and fail as it slowly drifted towards the ground. With a loud cheer the rebel footsoldiers ran across the battlefield to intercept and board the fallen ship.

In spite of the destruction around him, Garth smiled. "Kid, I don't know if your more smart or crazy," he said, "but that was pretty amazing."

Planet Manitou!

great that Vi is also now THE team's best pilot, apparently smile

Dawnstar with a mace, I love it! Shades of Hawkgirl!

ah yes, Jo being the level-headed one. good one having Jo call Garth out re attacking Meta!

beautifully crafted battle scene vs. Meta: realistic too, having Val get a shot in while injuring himself, and highlighting Dawny's speed

nice use of Dyrk too! at least he played a tangible part

Ooph, losing the robot arm. Better than the real one though...

nice tactics and payoff from Lyle!

sure is tough giving everything something to do, but you did it! another nice scene! can't wait to see Meta and M'Onel go head-to-head later on.