Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business Legion Worlds Eight (end 19 Dec 22)

Also whoo, loved Lexikon stepping in and making the Prime Auditor shut up - after others like Retro tried. Also LOL at Lu glaring at Marmud, she does have problems, as if other more experienced Legionnaires haven’t been a bit indiscreet before (and Marmud’s speaking was not even that bad? Whybdidnt she glare at Kid Pulsar?)

Nice resolution here and am looking forward to the royal wedding!

Harmonia - Senior Team member, Professor Harmonia Li of Earth - manipulation of the natural environment
Sister Eclipse - of Rhoohanisett iii - durability, heightened senses, physical possession of any living being
Intern:
Tesseract - Sar Jerash Mor Toark of Mars - access to intra-dimensional space
Science Police Liaison:
Mama Tank - Science Police Lieutenant Lolla Grayfrau of Badenhoff vi - cybernetics giving incredible strength, invulnerability, AI manipulation


The warp opened into the centre of a platform surrounded by large dark buildings.

The team could hear noises from within the dark buildings that surrounded them. A few cries and the sound of smashing objects. There were obvious signs of destruction; torn up metal sheeting, blaster scorch marks on buildings, broken glass strewn across the platform.

There was a group of over a hundred uninfected settlers five hundred metres from the team holed up within a large cargo craft with lights blazing from around the edges of it. This was their last refuge and as it appeared the central power had been turned off plunging the satellite into darkness, they had wisely lit up their surrounds as they took shelter.

Sister Eclipse could taste human blood on the air and there were definite notes of pheromonal fear lingering alongside it, but she kept that information to herself.

The team knew they would need to get on board and offer their support, though their scans had shown fourteen other settlers that had no symptoms of the virus also hidden around this satellite that they would need to rescue. All of them were aware that this might not be an easy task.

Harmonia levitated above the team and hovered over towards the cargo vessel. The team followed, though Mama Tank stayed at the rear watching the buildings behind them.

"Hello!" Harmonia had activated her flight ring loudhailer app and her voice echoed around the metal structures, "My name is Harmonia Li, I am with the Legion. We wish to assist you. Will you let two of my colleagues on board your craft while I take another colleague to search for anyone else needing assistance? We have medical supplies and once we are certain you are all uninfected, we can take you to safety."

There were shouts and crashes from behind them. A loud cry, like a beast might howl in the middle of the night that echoed around the space. It was taken up by other voices from within the buildings all around them.

<We will have company in about a minute> Mama Tank sent to her team. Her cybernetics had picked up motion and heat approaching them in the darkness.

A whooshing sound indicated a large panel halfway up the side of the cargo ship had creaked open and voice shouted for them to hurry up.

"Thank you." Harmonia said through the loudhailer while to her teammates she sent <Sister Eclipse, Tesseract, take care. We will be back shortly>

"If we can get to a system interface point, I'll see what I can do to help about the lighting and ensuring the air flow is running for Orion when he delivers his package." Lieutenant Grayfrau said as she walked underneath Harmonia who hovered ten feet in the air. As they stepped outside of the light that the cargo ship was directing at the concourse floor, the Science Police Lieutenant switched on her belt buckle spotlight function giving them a cone of white light. Somehow it made the darkness around them seem even darker.

"Lola, are you able to make a fire? Any size will do." Harmonia asked.

"Easy." Mama Tank took a small blaster from one of her belt pouches and pointed it at a pile of debris. A pencil line thin beam shot out and the debris was ablaze in a second. Harmonia reached out her hand and the fire leapt into the air and spun into a streak that circled several feet above the ancient elemental's head.

"My thanks... I much prefer this more natural lightning." Harmonia said as she floated above her Science Police colleague and led them towards a building where their sensors said there were five uninfected settlers. It was also the building where they had heard the initial howl when they had arrived.

Sister Eclipse flew through the gap the opened panel had made in the upper side of the cargo craft, closely followed by the intern Tesseract. Almost immediately the panel slammed closed behind them. There were a crowd of settlers, several of them heavily armed, stood in a semi-circle around them, weapons pointing towards the Legionnaires. They also held torches that they shone into the two new arrivals faces.

Sister Eclipse stepped forward, raising her arms. "Good people, I..."

"Where are the Legionnaires?"
"This is wrong..."
"Who are you freaks?"
"Is this a trick?"

The group did not back down and kept their lights and weapons trained on the Legionnaire and the intern.

Tesseract touched her hand to her sternum and as she pulled it away it appeared as if a medi-kit appeared in her hand before her.

"Does anyone need medical help? We're here to help you..." The intern said, her tone didn't show just how scared she was feeling at that moment but she was desperate to present something to the armed group that would hopefully make them more friendly.

"I recognise that one..." A woman pushed through the armed group and walked towards Sister Eclipse, "I know you, you save my Tomasz's life after the flare, dincha? You were with that Sistahood..."

"That's right," Sister Eclipse's reptilian face broke into a smile. "And you were part of the engineering team, I remember how brave you all were."

"Right!" The woman turned back to face the armed mob. "...stop yer posturing. This one is good an' if she says she's with the Legion now I believe her. Let 'em do their job and get us outta here."

The weapons were quickly put away and the group came closer asking questions about what the Legion were doing to help. Tesseract summoned half a dozen medi-kits to share with the people as they approached, and she even remembered some of her Academy training and introduced herself as she handed the kits out and asked the names of those that did speak to her. Sister Eclipse meanwhile had asked if there were any within the cargo craft that needed urgent care, and was thankful when she was told that other than a broken limb or two - easily fixed with the provisions they had brought - there was nothing major to deal with though several mentioned they had run out of water.

<Tesseract> Sister Eclipse sent across the telepathic grid <do you have drinking water within your...>

<Of course! I emptied two big water tanks getting ready for this, just in case. Thats a basic!> the snappy response.

<I will ask the settlers to bring containers to you then, thank you for your assistance. You are a true asset to this mission>

<Phh! You only figured that out now?>

Sister Eclipse smiled as she saw the intern walk towards a young couple carrying a wide brimmed basin. Tesseract held out her hand and a stream of fresh water spung from her palm to fill the container. For all of her attitude, Sister Eclipse thought, she was grateful that the intern had chosen to join Hope World as Tesseract really was an asset on their mission. As much as the girl from Mars hid her heart behind her unkind words, Tesseract's actions showed her true and much kinder nature.

...............................


Titan - Nasir N’Cube of Titan - alpha-level telepathy
Southern Lights of Starhaven - spaceflight, magic user
Intern:
Dragon Lass - Mari Baertling of Rimbor - enhanced strength, durability, echolocation and flight
Science Police Liaison:
Magnetix - Science Police Officer Jooli Esra of Braal - manipulation of magnetic fields

The team were aware that there were sixty desperate people hiding behind a makeshift barrier of pallets and agri-equipment so Titan and Magnetix approached cautiously.

While they did Southern Lights led the intern Dragon Lass into the air and both activated their search lights on their belt buckles and swooped through the fields of corn and wheat, small orchards and hydroponic units within this dome searching for any others that may not be within the barriers. Mari closed her eyes and opened her mouth: she had been given extensive training with her echo-location skill and she used that as she swooped across the fields. The high frequency sound bouncing off her surroundings gave her a decent mental map so that she easily avoided trees and tall posts and pillars despite the darkness. Her echo-location also allowed her to differentiate between the hardness of objects the sounds reflected off, meaning she was able to quite quickly find a young girl trying to hide behind a toppled barrow.

<Southern Lights, here!> she excitedly sent as she circled the area using her spotlight to pinpoint the hidden child..

The winged mystic approached the child, his mystic senses giving her the all-clear from being infected by the virus. Southern Lights landed lightly in the dirt three feet from her and bent over towards the terrified child.

"We are Legionnaires here to help you, do you want me to carry you to your friends?" His voice was soft as he held his hand out to her. The girl looked up at him, her face tear streaked, her expression was confused though she nodded mutely. The Legionnaire gently picked her up and flapped his mighty wings to take them into the air. She yelped and her eyes went wide though when she saw the smile on the mystic's face, she grinned back at him and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug. In seconds he had her back with the settlers, several of whom immediately recognised the child and rushed to help, thanking Southern Lights as they did.

Titan stood with a group to the side, obviously discussing their plans, while the science Police Officer from Braal they had taken to call Magnetix was using her magnetic abilities to strengthen the barrier around the group, much to the relief of many of them.

"Southern Lights..." Nasir called out to the winged mystic, beckoning him to join the group, "Officer Esra and I will search the agri-domes for anyone else that is uninfected if you and Mari can get these folks to Hope World safely while we get the others away."

"Of course." He replied.

Dragon Lass swooped around the dome, her senses were perfect for these conditions, and she was fast and strong enough to deal with most situations so Titan sent her a quick message to reassure the intern that she was doing a great job. He then told her that he was taking Magnetix to find any other settlers that they needed rescuing from within the adjoning hydroponic zones. Mari responded by thanking the deputy leader and wishing him luck. Titan liked Dragon Lass, she was focussed when she needed to be and despite her insecurities could be relied upon to do what she needed to for a job to get done. Several of the settlers were watching the intern's belt spotlight in the darkness as she seemed to glide across the crops they tended, obviously amazed that she seemed so assured in the dim light.

After Titan had shaken the hand of the man in front of him and led the Braalian SPO out into the darkness of the agri-dome to locate any other uninfected settlers, Southern Lights took the time to look around at the huddled and desperate people and one glowed... they were infected.

<Titan, one of these people has the virus>

<Ah... Can you get them away from the others and hit them with a cure ampoule?>

<I will try. There is a spell I can use that may help>

<Okay, good luck> and with that Titan ended the telepathic conversation.

Southern Lights palmed one of the small circular pads that the team had been given with the cure to the virus to use if they had the chance and thought about a couple of spells that he could use on the settler. Dream Girl had told them that the cure was not pleasant for the sufferer so the young mystic was planning on making this as pleasant as possible for the settler - they were suffering enough!

A group of half a dozen settlers were curled up behind two agri-seed dispensers that had been lain on their sides. As he got closer Sothern Lights could see that they were all elderly, and obviously scared. A heavy set man sat in the middle, sweating and clearly in some discomfort.

"Hello. my name is Southern Lights and I need your assistance. Please come with me now." He pointed to the man who groaned as he started to stand up. A few of those around him protested, saying he had been injured, but the compulsion spell ensured that the infected man did as he was asked. This was a very minor enchantment that would usually only last a couple of minutes but that was more than enough time for Southern Lights to do what was needed.

"I will put this on your arm and you will feel better. Please hold your hand out." Southern Lights had shown him the small disc with the cure in it, and as the elderly man was compelled by the magics the Legionnaire had whispered, the infected man held his arm out. It was clear that he had been scratched along the inside of his forearm and had been trying to hide it by holding his arm tightly against his torso. Several of the settlers noticed and quickly backed away. Southern Lights gently whispered a sleep spell as he pushed the disc onto the man's bicep. The older man started to struggle before collapsing with a loud thump onto the ground. Two settlers ran over and pulled guns on the fallen man.

"No, he has been given the cure and in two hours will be clear... let him sleep. And as no-one else is infected that I can see..." Southern Lights glanced around at the scared people huddled behins makeshift barriers, "I believe it is time to get you all to safety."

The winged mystic floated into the air and raised his hand to his face, activating the loud hailer function on his flight ring.

"Please listen, I will call a warp to our base. If you wish refuge while we deal with the infected, please just walk through and my colleagues will assist." With that he switched off the loudhailer and called on Henry to open a warp to take these people to the safety of Hope World.

In the darkness from a connecting tunnel, they heard a howl.

"Let's hurry." Southern Lights added.

.......................

Dream Girl- Team leader - Nura Nal of Naltor - precognition
Star Boy - Senior Team member, Thom Kallor of Xanthu - stellar mass transference
Intern:
Orion -Science Police Cadet Tw'gg of H'lven - tracking skills, agility, enhanced senses and awareness of flaws or weaknesses
Science Police Liaison Team:
Groovy - Science Police Officer Droo Vri of Daxam - incredible strength, speed, stamina, senses, laser vision, space flight, invulnerability

Nura took immediate charge of the situation.

They had warped into the central concourse of the mega-mall at the heart of the satellite. It was in darkness with the only light being an off ruddy glow from the nebula above them leaking through the transparent dome many storeys above and the temperature was only a degree or two above freezing. There were signs of terrible actions having taken place all around them; scattered debris, broken glass, stains that looked like blood in the dim lim. The noises they heard were animalistic, threatening, coming from the groups of dark figures that had obviously seen the Legionnaires arrive and were coming towards them.

The Legionnaires knew from their scans that there were several hundred of the uninfected barricaded inside two stores as well as smaller pockets scattered throughout.

There were also several hundred of their infected neighbours outside each store raging to get in and at least the three times that number throughout this satellite..

<Everyone, activate your belt's spotlight, they won't come close if you shine it at them. Thom, if you could fell that group> She pointed towards the largest group, <Groovy, be a dear and direct that super chilling breath of yours to the others to scatter them please. We need to get into those stores to make sure the people within are okay>

Star Boy stretched both hands out and his tell-tale energy signature streamed out towards the largest group of infected settlers. Within seconds they were all flattened to the floor as the Xanthuan mutant moved a miniscule fraction of the mass from the nearby nebula. As he did, the Daxamite they had taken to call Groovy flew around the space at speed freezing the feet and legs of infected settlers to the ground with his breath. Dream Girl and Orion flew across to the nearest barricade.

"Hello in there, I'm Dream Girl from the Legion. We're here to help. Can we come in?" The loudhailer function on her flight ring meant her voice echoed around the mall. Even as part of the barricade shifted and cautious settlers peered out, they could all hear screams of rage and hunger from infected residents alerted to the Legionnaires presence.

In seconds part of the makeshift barrier was pushed aside and Dream Girl and Orion quickly flew through.

<Thom, Groovy, I need you two gents to stay out here and contain any problems. Orion and I have work to do inside> Nura sent as she vanished into the barricaded store.

Star Boy swung his hips back and forward so the spotlight from his belt buckle would illuminate any of the infected settlers if they tried to cross the concourse. Groovy arrived at his side in a blur of speed and smiled.

"We got this, haven't we?"

"Yeah son, I think we ..."

There was a bang as a blast struck the Daxamite on the shoulder and spun away.

"Blaster fire!" He said before vanishing at hyper-velocity. Thom looked up, aware that if the SPO hadn't arrived when he did then the chances were the Xanthuan would have been shot. Groovy was flying around the mezzanine floors of the mall that towered above them using his freeze breath to create barriers of ice.

"Zombies with guns! Wow, this is the best adventure." Science Police Officer Droo Vri called out cheerfully as he flew upwards to continue creating these frozen barriers.

"Oh, look what I found..." Groovy said as he deposited a young man on the ground in front of Star Boy. " He tried to shoot you." A snapped blaster fell from the Daxamite's hand.

"Don't kill me!" The boy protested, clearly terrified.

"Ah, we're Legionnaires here to help, son, now get up and tell us what's happening here." Thom sounded a lot sterner than he felt. He was actually relieved that is was just a scared kid who had taken the shot as the idea of an infected mob with guns was terrifying. While the young man got to his feet Groovy vanished at speed and crashed a ceiling down about three hundred metres away in a hall that led to this open space.

<there's a mob coming and thought best to delay them> Groovy sent, his emotional subtext was a radiant happiness.

Thom had been a Legionnaire since he was sixteen and had witnessed and participated in an awful lot of truly outrageous events but as he watched how quickly and efficiently the Daxamite dealt with this threat he realised that despite his protestations to the opposite he would never get bored of it! And with that thought he heard a roar of a crowd in the darkness to his left... there was a mob approaching fast from one of the side entrances.

Well, he thought as he turned towards the approaching hoarde and held his hands out towards them, Groovy doesn't deserve all the fun!

One of the first things Nura did when she had entered the store was ask for directions to the main pumps for the satellites ventilation systems. She explained that the schematics they had didn't make sense so she assumed there had been an upgrade. There was a group of engineers present who explained that after the flare had destroyed part of the satellite a couple of years before they had to rebuild many of the primary systems. Orion called up a hard light schematic and the engineers pointed at a route that the intern could take to get where they needed to be to release the cure for the Daluvonnian Red Eye Plague.

Orion scanned the map that the residents had proposed and scratched his chin. The intern blew out a big breath before asking if they knew a route that wouldn't take him through any of the main walkways or intersections. The engineers all looked momentarily surprised before they realised that the intern was not one of the physically powerful Legionnaires that would clear a path through the zombie hordes with a wave of his paw so they spent a further minute working out a route that would switch between small passages and the ventilation system itself. After they had agreed on the route that would most likely get him safely to the ventilation hub the intern loaded it into his flight ring database feeling a lot more confident that he might complete the mission intact.

<Dream Girl, I'm going now, good luck with the evacuation> he sent.

Nura waved to him and sent a quick message wishing him luck before turning back to deal with the scared settlers that had crowded around her.

Orion thanked the engineers again and scurried up a ventilation shaft... he was grateful that in the darkness no-one could see how scared he felt.

Hey guys, thank you for your kind words above, they are appreciated.

yeah, I think the moral is don't mess with Vegan princesses I'll touch on Lexikon and Annan'ha's future next time as I start to finish off the zombies-in-space story.

Thanks again, more hopefully coming next week.

C

nice stuff, Harbi! as usual, you mix action and characterization so well

re Tesseract, I wonder and apologies if you had already established it, can she use her Tesseract space as a warp gate? or is it strictly for storing objects (i.e., only one entrance and exit point)?

interesting bit re Harmonia, that she would need Mama Tank to create a fire for her to manipulate. it also helps limit her, she's already so dang powerful

ah, thankfully someone in the group had a cool head. It makes sense that newer Legionnaires and interns are not as well known as the more established Legionnaires, I like that you reference this element in your stories

Sister Eclipse is really a saint... I would have been tempted to snap at Tesseract myself, so I admire the Sister for both her patience and her seeing the inner goodness... but whew, I am also glad Harmonia put Tesseract in her place last installment!

also really love how you capture the fear and confusion the uninfected must be feeling!

ooh a compulsion spell, interesting one. I wonder if the team has discussed the ethics of that - perfectly justified in this case of course, and I trust Southern Lights. just brainstorming here

thank you for referrencing how Star Boy's powers originally worked; taking mass from stars and giving them to others! his powers have evolved in the Reboot so I just run with the new gravity control bit, but it's also nice to see the original powers!

love how Groovy is just having so much fun. and I agree with Thom, zombies with guns would be terrifying!

love how the engineers worked together to help Orion find a path!

whoo, this is shaping up to be quite an epic mission for Hope World, love it!

Yay, more! I have been looking forward to the zombie team's little outing!

- I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before but I love Mama Tank's codename

- Good job showing the creepiness of the situation, with the beast-like cries and the surrounding darkness!

- I like the settlers not recognising Sister Eclipse and Tesseract, and Tesseract trying to hide her very reasonable fear at being surrounded by a bunch of people with guns...it was a nice character bit for both of them as well that Sister Eclipse sees past Tesseract's facade to realise there is a good person in there. It showcases Sister Eclipse's empathy nicely and also shows that Tesseract does have a good heart despite being an annoying squaj

- Southern Lights has become a really solid member of your team! It has been really fun watching him develop!

- Dreamy being Dreamy is always fun to see - instantly takes charge of the situation in the smartest way while still coming off as vaguely flighty...I liked the mention of Star Boy drawing mass from the nearby nebula too



- I like the Daxamite enjoying himself; when you're not a morose stick in the mud like Mon-El it must be fun having Superman-like powers in a much weaker universe (and I like the juxtaposition with Thom's reaction as well)

- Orion is brave heading off on his own like that! Let's hope it doesn't come back to bite him as it were!

This is good stuff Harbi, looking forward to more zombies in space!

Thanks guys, really grateful for your very kind words. I think zombie movies are my least favourite genre of film or TV so I'm pushing myself to write this

IB, Tesseract's dimensional pocket is entirely storage and retrieval, I need to keep limits on my team as they are pretty buff already. and, speaking of such, I can't remember Harmoonia ever creating stuff, ony using what was around her so I'm going to stick with that as her limitation. Sister eclipse is a saint, isn't she? I may have to concoct some story where she loses her cool now

Raz, Mama Tank was a nickname of a colleague of mine about ten years ago and I always loved it - she did too btw, she reveled in it at times, using it as a good excuse to push into queues or the like. She was a real character, and my MT is very loosely based on her. Southern Lights has become a bit of a favourite to write, his magics are a lot gentler than Dragonmage or Glorith's so I don't feel he can just wave his fingers and a solution appear, he needs to think about it. Still, he has had quite a bit of screen time lately so I may give him a rest for a story or two after his.

More next week when we'll catch up with Lexikon and her fiancé and I hope you'll like my plans for them, and we'll of course carry on dealing with these perky space zombies... eek!

Thanks again,

C

Totally agree re limitations, Harbi, else things won’t be fun oooh an angry Sister Eclipse would be a sight to see!

Tyroc – Team Leader - Troy Stewart of Marzal city pocket dimension - sonic control
Retro - Deputy Leader - Deen Toro of Ventura - limited reversal of personal timeline
Duplicate Girl - Senior Team member, Luornu Durgo of Carggg - creation of multiple identical duplicates
Lexikon - Princess Daheenisha of Tamaran iv - enhanced speed, strength, durability, flight, omni-linguist


Duplicate Girl and Retro sat in the Second Base Senior Team meeting room with Tyroc.

"We don't know anything about him Troy, we can't just have him hang about like a lost puppy..."

"It's what Drinchnar did, an' he turned out fine." Tyroc responded with a small smile. Lu gave a small laugh before shrugging. The three Legionnaires were discussing what they could do about Lexikon's fiancé Sky-Lieutenant Annach'ha now that he was remaining within the United Planets and presumably with the team.

"We know he has military experience and Lexi said he was a 'X'halkin', a descendant of their goddess, so he may have abilities too. I'd suggest a beginner's course at the Academy at the very least." Retro said this softly and the two senior teammates nodded in agreement.

"I feel we're missing a trick here to be honest." Duplicate Girl said, "not that an induction into the Legion via the Academy isn't a good idea, but still... he's literally just left the military. Perhaps, and hear me out here guys, we could encourage him to become a tutor? I mean, after he's gone through a basic training module obviously. He must have combat experience and would bring a level of discipline that our Science Police trainees might respect... what do you think?"

"Okay... I get that, so let's speak with Lexi and Annach'ha to gauge it. If it's a workable plan we'll need to get Rokk on side too." Tyroc said before lifting his hand to his face. He activated his flight ring comm circuit and asked Lexikon and the Sky-Lieutenant join them in the Senior Team meeting room.

Within minutes the two Tamaraneans entered the room. The three Legionnaires present could all immediately see a lightness about Lexikon's body language that she had never exhibited before. The golden princess was clearly very happy that her fiancé had joined her on second Base.

After they had sat down Tyroc explained the discussion the three senior members had just had and asked if it was an acceptable solution - they could continue their relationship while both would have roles to fulfil within the team. Annach'ha smiled broadly and thanked the three Legionnaires sat opposite, saying that he had been involved in the training of new recruits to the Vegan Fleet so this would be a good use of talents he already had. Lu smiled as she insisted that he take a month course at the Academy to get him into the way of how the Legion worked, just in case Tamaranean training wasn't entirely appropriate to the United Planets. She ended by reaffirming that the skillset required to pass the academy training would be similar even if not all the processes were the same.

Tyroc asked the Sky-Lieutenant if he had any abilities beyond the norm that could help with training recruits. Annach'ha smiled as he answered.

"My family are of X'hal lineage and I have been extensively trained in the use of my abilities..."

"So, you're strong and tough like Lexikon?" Retro asked.

"Oh, no, I definitey have other skills though." With that he pointed his finger towards cup on the table and a blast of energy shot out and exploded the ceramic container.

"Whoah!" Tyroc said as he got to his feet.

"Please, my love, let's not destroy things." Lexikon put a hand onto her fiancé's arm, her tone was gentle though it was a small shift in her expression that told Annach'ha that he had over-stepped a line.

"My apologies. I can absorb solar radiation and release it in blasts like that." The Sky-Lieutenant said as he quickly stood up and began cleaning up the mess his exhibition had caused.

"So... you can blast things, anything else?" Lu appeared quite cool as she scrutinised him.

"Ah... well, I believe as a race we're a bit stronger than humans, have our language absorption ability and I can do this..."

He placed a hand upon Lu's shoulder.

<My mind-speech needs physical contact to work>

"You okay Lu?" Tyroc asked, his expression serious as his eyes darted from the sky-Lieutenant and the Cargggite.

"He has tactile telepathy." She said as she turned to the team leader. "So... A good mix of skills. You would be an asset to the team if you decide to take up a post in the Academy." Lu smiled as she said this to the Sky-Lieutenant. The Tamaranean would be a great addition to the tutors over there, she thought; he was disciplined and had a range of abilities too. He might need a bit of moulding to fit into the Legion ethos but she had no doubts that he was keen to create a new life here. Also, she had to admit, like all of his people he was fairly easy on the eye so the students were more likely to turn up to the classes he ran.

"Okay... I'm going to speak to Rokk and see what we can do. Do you have any questions Annach'ha?" Lu stood up as she said this.

"I may have some as the training progresses, though for now I only have one: there is a custom amongst your Legion that I take another name... you call Princess Daheenisha by Lexikon, so what would you call me?"

"Well... as no-one else is usin' it right now I think you could be our new Sun Boy." Tyroc said as he stood up and held his hand out for the Tamaranean to shake.

"That is a good name, I think." Annach'ha said with a broad grin as he stood up.

"Well, it's agreed then. Welcome to the Legion, Sun Boy." Troy said as he shook the athletic Tamaranean's hand.

................................


Hope World mission - the edge of the Wilderness of the Sassanaboan Nebula

Orion -Science Police Cadet Tw'gg of H'lven - tracking skills, agility, enhanced senses and awareness of flaws or weaknesses


Orion turned off the spotlight from his belt buckle as he reached the ventilation shaft.

The intern from H'lven knew that his natural senses were more than efficient in the dark; his sight touching upon both ultra-violet and infra-red sections of the spectrum, while his hearing and sense of smell were much better than a human's. He also knew that stealth would be his best approach so having a shiny beam of light blasting out from his belt wouldn't help any.

He had memorised the map that the engineers had come up with and ran through the vents as fast as he could. There were quite a lot of old cobwebs and at least half a dozen small rodents that squeaked angrily at him but none of these slowed him down.

He stopped at a junction of four airways and called up a hard light screen from his flight ring to double check he was going the right way. He could see that he was only a third of the way but felt like he had been travelling for at least an hour! Right, he thought, let's show the Legionnaires that he deserved his internship... and with that he scurried along the vent to his left. He could hear rough scrambling underneath him and some guttural noises so activated his flight ring to tear off as quickly as he could - the risk of being trapped in one of these vents scared him! The two pouches he carried with him that had containers with the cure for this awful virus that needed to be placed into the central ventilation pump rattled against him. He sped up so the noise wouldn't attract attention.

As he flew through a ventilation shaft, he could see the section he was approaching was damaged: the thin metal had been crumpled and was bending downwards. Before he flew down the tube the intern stopped - there was a schlurping noise with the odd scuffing sound and his acute sense of smell alerted him to the stick of unwashed humans and blood... there was someone down there! Orion crept downwards in silent paws.

The ventilation shaft had been ripped off the ceiling, snapped so the end of it dangled down to hang about three feet from the ground. Orion knew he would need to get out at the bottom of it and find the other side if he had a chance of getting to the main ventilation pumps.

Just before he reached the bottom Orion willed the distorter on his belt to 'Hide' mode.

As he had crept down the tube the intern could clearly hear four people stumbling about and he knew even before he peeked out that they would be infected. The nearest that he could smell was less than three feet away. Just as he reached the very bottom of the hanging tube something heavy banged against it and a slurred voice grunted something unintelligible.

Orion froze for a split second before instinct took over and he shot out of the pipe into the darkness.

.......................................


Titan - Nasir N’Cube of Titan - alpha-level telepathy
Magnetix - Science Police Officer Jooli Esra of Braal - manipulation of magnetic fields


Both the Legionnaire from Titan and the Science Police Officer from Braal had extended their abilities outwards.

While they both had their belt buckle spotlights streaming bright beams pf white light in front of them, they were both fully aware that they really didn't know his environment and it would be easy to hide from them in this darkness.

Usually, SPO Esra didn't mind being shorter than standard, as it meant people would underestimate her, though in this environment where there were fields of tall grasses all around, she knew that if it weren't for her flight ring she would be at a total disadvantage. As she hovered six feet in the air at the side of the Legionnaire, the young Braalian extended a magnetic bubble around them - she was aware of anything metal that came into contact with the edge of the bubble and, she hoped it would alert her if anyone were hiding or attempting to sneak up on them.

The Legionnaire below her walked confidently along a pathway between the crop fields and Jooli knew better than to distract him as his prodigious psychic abilities scanned their surrounds.

"There’re half a dozen of the infected ahead of us... one o'clock about thirty meters, if I draw them out can you get ampules of the cure on them?" Nasir had spoken softly, but in the silent darkness his voice was a surprise. Jooli magnetically levitated six ampules from the pouches on her belt as she answered her affirmative.

"Okay, their minds are a bit hazy what with the virus hi-jacking their motor functions but I think if I give them a poke..."

Two seconds later there were several loud howls and six people stood up from the corn field where they had been hiding from the spot lights. The infected continued to howl and screech though were unable to move out of the spotlights as Titan took hold of their minds.

"Their minds are difficult to manage... I won't be able to hold them for long." Nasir said as he concentrated on the infected group before them. Jooli smiled as she hovered by his side. Her magnetic abilities had sent six of the small ampules that carried the antidote spinning through the darkness towards the group that had just sprung up. As both the Legionnaire and the SPO had their searchlight beams on full and pointed towards the group she could clearly see hem to direct an ampule towards each on of the infected. There were thud! sounds as the antidote ampules smacked into the infected.

"Well, that was satisfyingly easy." the short Braalian said.

"yeah.... though I wonder if it worked in our favour."

As the Titanian Legionnaire spoke they heard several howls from around the huge agri-dome; the infected had called out to their own and now the scattered mob were coming for them.

.......................


Harmonia - Senior Team member, Professor Harmonia Li of Earth - manipulation of the natural environment
Mama Tank - Science Police Lieutenant Lolla Grayfrau of Badenhoff vi - cybernetics giving incredible strength, invulnerability, AI manipulation


There had been a couple of small groups of infected settlers approach them.

Mama Tank had set the brightness of the spotlights on her belt buckle to its brightest setting, and this kept the infected groups backed away.

Their flight ring scanners had alerted the two women that there were eight uninfected settlers holed up in a side room, thirty metres from the main concourse where they currently stood. Lola had scanned the area and found the room where these settlers were hiding was down a side corridor though there were several large barriers in their way - broken furniture and doors, cabinets and chairs, torn down fencing and solid looking posts, and behind that were two automatic blasters rigged up to shoot anything that got too close.

"I can overwrite the blasters control matrix if you keep the mobs away." The Science Police Officer said as she called up a hard-light screen from the cybernetics in her left arm.

"Be careful please, the settlers will be scared."

"Uh huh..." Lola Grayfrau muttered as she walked into the barricaded corridor. There were crunching noises as she tore through the barriers in her way. Several large objects were hurled out of the corridor, landing with a crash. As she approached the settlers, Mama Tank scanned for any signals indicating a communication device she could contact them through.

Harmonia Li had levitated above the entrance to the corridor and stretched her arms out. As she did, the thin ribbon of flame she had hovering above her head stretched out and split into two before streaking off and landing at either side of the entrance to the corridor. Both roared upwards creating a wall of flame that threw light and heat along the concourse. Harmonia concentrated on keeping the flaming walls high, well aware that the virus hijacked the more primitive parts of the infected settler's brains. And fire was something all primitive brains feared, so Harmonia hoped that these flaming walls would deter any of the sick to attack them while they rescued the uninfected. The ancient elemental was also aware that with the sudden light and roar of the flames she had just announced their presence to every infected person on this satellite...

Mama Tank had found an open comms link.

"Hello there, I'm Lola Grayfrau from the Science Police. I'm here with the Legion to get you to safety. Can you tell me if there is anyone needing medical help with you?" After she had sent the message, she used her cybernetics to access the control matrix of the two blasters that had been propped up on the wall twenty-five feet in front of her. She had accessed the schematics as she got close and knew that they were set to fire if she moved any closer.

"Get away from the doors!" A voice shouted through the comm unit, "we don't want you here, find your own place to hide."

"I'm not going to hide, and I'm not going away. We're here to help." As she replied she switched off the auto-shoot order in the blasters. Mama Tank strode forward, casually battering the barricades out of her way. There was one final mass of broken furniture before a tall steel door. Lola pulled this final barricade apart before she knocked on the door.

"Now, you don't think one of those poor souls that have the virus would knock, do you?" There was an obvious edge of humour in her voice as she spoke into the open comm link. There was silence for five long seconds before she heard what she imagined were large tumblers and bolt move within the door. It creaked as it moved open and a bright light shone through the crack.

"Do you need any medical help?" Lola asked. "C'mon, Science Police and the Legion... we're here to help and we can give aid if you need it." Her face broke into a wide grin.

"She's safe!" A voice shouted, and she heard several people cheer.

"Okay, now I've already asked this but... seriously... do any of you need medical assistance? Once you let me know we'll get you to safety." Lola gave a wide grin again as she said this, happy that this small group hadn't been too difficult to persuade that they were here to help.

.........................


Orion -Science Police Cadet Tw'gg of H'lven - tracking skills, agility, enhanced senses and awareness of flaws or weaknesses

There were four infected settlers in the room.

As the young intern slid out of the broken ventilation shaft, he smacked into the leg of one of them, who roared and quickly reached down to grab him.

Orion twisted out of the way and quickly looked around the room. The infected settler he had crashed into was carrying an arm... yes, he thought, it was definitely a torn off arm of another person bleeding onto the floor, and it appeared the other three infected settlers were trying to take it from them. He scurried between the legs of one and scampered under a nearby table. The four infected settlers all turned towards him and two lurched forward, kneeling down as they approached to reach under the table. Orion had a momentary panic, his instincts telling him to flee. For a second he froze until his training kicked in.

Tw'gg knew he was no physical match for the infected settlers, but they needed to get their hands on him first! He turned off the distorter and willed the spotlight function on his belt buckle to flash its brightest beam towards them. As it erupted in light the infected settlers stumbled backwards, colliding with the other two in the room. Orion quickly switched it off and scrambled out from underneath the table and took to the air.

One of the settlers reached out and clawed at the air, desperate to grab the intern. Orion swerved and easily dodged before turning again and barrelling into that settler to slam him into the two behind him. He quickly flew up to the ceiling and took stock again, his breathing was ragged but he was proud that he had managed to control himself to deal with the situation. He looked around and saw where the other side of the ventilation shaft was...

Even as he had this thought a hand grabbed his tail and pulled him down - he hadn't noticed the fourth settler was substantially taller than the others so could easily reach him at the ceiling. Orion twisted and willed the spotlight to shine straight into the face of the infected man. He let go of the intern and stumbled backwards, tripping over the settler that was behind him.

Orion activated the hide function on the distorter and flew to a dark corner of the ceiling to take stock of the situation. As he took several deep breaths, he realised that he had dropped one of the two capsules that contained the concentrated antidote that he needed to get to the main ventilation pump. He desperately looked around the room and finally spotted it under the table where he had first hid. Two of the infected settlers fighting over the bloody arm that he had seen earlier close to the table while the other two were on the floor, scrambling back to their feet nearer the centre of the room. Tw'gg took a deep breath and darted down under the table and grabbed the capsule. It was about half the size of his head so he clutched at it tightly and flew out from under the table.

In front of him were the two fighting infected settlers, directly underneath the ventilation shaft he needed to get into. Orion balled himself up and rammed into the back of the closest of the fighting men, knocking him flying into the one that held onto the bloody arm. They tripped over the two that were on their knees behind them and howled in rage!

Orion flew up into the broken end of the ventilation shaft and quickly glanced down at the room below: The four infected settlers were fighting amongst themselves on the floor, no longer focussed on trying to grab him. The fox-like intern gave a small chuckle to himself as he flew along the ventilation shaft towards the main pump where he could finish his task and release the cure to the damned virus into the satellites ventilation systems.

yay more good stuff! ooh, Lexikon's fiance is joining the Academy, so cool! and I like Lu's idea to make him a tutor - after all, he does have military experience, joining as a student might be deemed insulting

so nice to see Lexikon in so much love

oooh, starbolts! or at least solar radiation. Heh at Lexikon telling her hubby not to smash things...

ooh, tactile telepathy, cool

heh at all Tamaraneans generally being attractive. will they give the Naltorians a run for their money?

oooh a new Sun Boy... is it a good idea? what will Dirk think?

I'm also hoping that this meeting will soon lead into Troy talking to Lu about Mindbender and her overall behavior, you can tell I am super invested in that plotline

more great scenes re the Hope World mission, I love how you split the team up into pairs to show a lot of characterization. and go Orion, seriously impressive!

Another update, awesome!

hahaha this got a laugh out of me, and Annach'ha cleaning up his mess as well...shades of every couple where one of them is a bit more rambunctious than the other one

Considering how Starfire generally uses her language absorption ability, I half-thought Annach'ha's little display of tactile telepathy was gonna end up being much more of a faux pas...Lu acknowledging that he's a hottie was a fun bit too!

Sun Boy! It certainly fits him power-wise, I wonder what kind of reception it's gonna get from some of the old-school Legion?

I have been looking forward to Orion's little trek through the vents!

Harmonia's approach with the flames was clever, but I really love the way Mama Tank introduced herself! I dig her!

Orion did really well, considering he's just an intern and a little guy compared to the zombies! Good for him!

Hey IB, Raz, thanks again for your reviews.

Yup, Annach'ha has starbolts so he's basically - power wise anyway - Starfire, and using the name Sun Boy will be a talking point when we get onto his arc. As for Dirk... funny you mention him as he is slated to appear in LW9.

IB, funny you mention the talk between Tyroc and Lu as it's written out already and ready to go with the next lot of posts. It won't be comfortable and will have fall-out later on.

Raz, I was definitely thinking of couples where one is more rambunctious as you say than the other when I wrote that scene. The way I see it is Annach'ha is just so overly excited that he's free of the Vegan controls and his princess has agreed to marry him that he'll be an over excited puppy man. For a while anyway. And Mama Tank is based on a person I used to work with who was an absolute hoot to be around, so I hope I'm capturing her tremendous energy even when the situation is pretty dire. Her name Lola comes from my friend's love of the Kinks btw.

Next up, Jaz has news to share with her besties, Troy and Lu have a serious conversation, and there's those blinkin' zombies to deal with and let's hope they are behaving themselves or thinks might get tough!

Thanks again guys,

C

ooh nice Harbi, I figured you had things planned for calling Annach'ha "Sun Boy". and yay, Dirk will show up!

re Mama Tank, you definitely capture her awesome energy. I'm loving her

and yay, looking forward to the up next bits... wonder what Haz's news is. and of course the Troy/Lu one, whooo! sparks will fly! and of course the Hope World zombie eradication mission

looking forward to the next batch Harbi!

First Base:

Kid Quantum - Jazmin Cullen of Xanthu - creation of temporal quantum fields, flight
Kinetix - Zoe Saugin of Aleph - telekinetic animation
Shield - Laurel Kent of Earth - physical invulnerability, tactile psychometry


Jazmin sat at a round table with Laurel and Zoe.

The three young women had met ten minutes before in the Romper Room on First Base and currently all leant forward over their table so their heads were close together as they spoke - a sure sign to anyone watching that they were gossiping.

Jazmin was recounting the journey back from the Magus' retreat on board the cruiser the team had taken. In particular she was keen to tell her friends about a conversation she had overheard between Element Lad and Dr Shakespeare. As she had only returned the night before Jazmin had called her friends up to join her for breakfast and a catch up.

"Yeah, Jan was saying that he had been proud to 'give samples of his seed' to the Magus' wives..."

"That's gross!" Laurel said as she leaned back on her chair. She had found out not long after she had joined the team that their resident physician was distantly related to her and consequently, despite their not being particularly close, she felt protective of him.

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad... I'm sure he didn't have to... ah, y'know, actually deliver the samples in the natural way and for all we know Kent might've... well... given him a hand to get the deed done. He is a doctor after all." Zoe smiled broadly as she said this. Laurel and Jazmin both laughed.

After that, their conversation got onto far more personal and juicy topics which had the three friends laughing loudly.

............................................


Hope World, on the edge of the Wilderness of the Sassanaboan Nebula

Sister Eclipse - of Rhoohanisett iii - durability, heightened senses, physical possession of any living being
Tesseract - Sar Jerash Mor Toark of Mars - access to intra-dimensional space

Sister Eclipse had carefully set the medi-pack down next to the patient.

The young man had hurt his ankle as he carried his much younger sister away from a crowd of the infected settlers. They had been lucky to get into the cargo ship before those inside sealed it shut. Sister Eclipse had smiled and chatted amiably while putting the synth-split against his leg; she knew that the treatment here would hurt, and she hoped to spare him some of that. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Tesseract struggle to keep the queue they were getting ready to the warp in order so Sister Eclipse patted the young man on the shoulder and asked him to excuse her for a moment.

"Excuse me," Sister Eclipse held her hand up to her mouth and used the loud-hailer setting on one of its lowest settings. These people were scared enough without her adding to it with an unexpected loud noise. The crowd moved apart and she walked through.

"Please prioritise those that are most vulnerable. Our medical team will be on hand to make sure they are treated quickly." She indicated two elderly women to come with her to the front of the queue. As she confidently moved through the crowd people started shuffling around, allowing the elderly and infirm, and those with young children to move forward. All the while Sister Eclipse kept thanking the crowd as she encouraged them to give up spaces nearer the front of the queue to get away from this desperate situation.

Tesseract fell in line behind her, indicating where people should line up, thanking them as she did. She even summoned some protein bars from her intra-dimensional space to hand out as she moved people back and encouraged those less physically able to move forward.

<thank you, Sister,> The intern sent her message across the telepathic matrix.

<my pleasure. Crowds are tricky, aren't they? I've learned they are more amiable when two people talk to them than one>

Both knew this wasn't true; Sister Eclipse simply had far more experience and it showed, though neither gave any further comment on the matter.

Tesseract smiled to herself, perhaps Sister Holier-Than-Thou Eclipse wasn't such a drag after all... so long as she stopped preaching, she wasn't too bad in small doses really.

................................


Titan - Deputy Leader - Nasir N’Cube of Titan - alpha-level telepathy
Magnetix - Science Police Officer Jooli Esra of Braal - manipulation of magnetic fields
Dragon Lass - Mari Baertling of Rimbor - enhanced strength, durability, echolocation and flight

"I hate zombies!"

Jooli Esra announced as she used a thin strip of metal fencing to block a group of infected settlers as they lunched out from the darkness towards her. Titan was about ten feet behind her on her right dealing with a woman and her small child who had hidden underneath an upturned seed container.

The echoes in the side agri-dome where the two Legionnaires currently were made it difficult to know exactly which way the infected settlers were coming from. It didn't help that the spotlights from their belts could only illuminate a very small portion of the darkness around them and the plants in this dome were all arranged on tall trellis that gave plenty of hiding places.

The magnetic bubble Jooli had placed around them alerted her to something small and metallic approaching from her 8'o clock. She spun around and shone her spotlight on two infected settlers. They screeched at the light as it burned into their eyes and stumbled forward. Titan was closer than Magnetix but she knew he was dealing with the pressure of keeping the two settlers they had rescued calm as well as the headache that the infected gave him every time he used his psionics on them.

The Science Police Officer reached out with her magnokinesis desperately searching for something metallic she could use to slow them down... there were small staples and nails close by but nothing else large enough that she hadn't already used to trap other infected threats.

She concentrated and pulled the small metal forms she could sense close-by and just as she was away to meld them together into something large enough to use as a weapon, she heard a thwhup! thwhup! thwhup! noise and the two infected settlers were suddenly up in the air! Dragon Lass, using her echo location had been searching for her colleagues and swooped in just in time to protect them. The intern's bat-like wings sounded loud in the ominous silence of this agri-dome.

<Southern Lights is getting the uninfected through the warp, anyone you want me to carry back?> The young intern sent across the telepathic matrix as she dumped the two howling infected settlers into a fenced off area that Jooli had created earlier.

Within moments Dragon Lass was swooping back through the connecting strips between the agri-domes carrying the woman and child that Titan had been tending to with Nasir and Jooli continued searching for other settlers to get to safety.

Mari thought to herself that she had made the right choice volunteering to be part of Hope World; the team were great and their missions were the absolute best!

...........................


Harmonia - Senior Team member, Professor Harmonia Li of Earth - manipulation of the natural environment
Mama Tank - Science Police Lieutenant Lolla Grayfrau of Badenhoff vi - cybernetics giving incredible strength, invulnerability, AI manipulation

Lolla Grayfrau had called on a warp and ensured the settlers were safely through it before returning to Harmonia.

In the corridor there were sounds of an approaching mob, scuffling feet and howls from the shadows. Harmonia levitated twelve feet above the ground, sheets of fire streaked along the platform in front of them.

"I believe I have located a central system interface. According to the schematics..." She held up her hand indicating a hard light data screen from her flight ring, "We need to be up a level and half a klick ahead. There are two more settlers to retrieve en route.."

"Come on then." Mama Tank strode along the platform appearing confident as she went. In the flickering light of the fiery wall Harmonia had created along the centre of the broad space every side corridor and doorway seemed to be an impenetrable darkness. Lolla's hearing was enhanced so she was aware of the three infected settlers well before they jumped out of the doorway, though even as she turned to deal with them the air spun around them and they were engulfed in a mini-whirlwind that threw them back into the door they had just lurched out of. The wall of flames moved to block the doorway. Lolla could hear the howls of frustration from the infected settlers.

<thank you, Harmonia> she sent to the ancient elemental that hovered above her.

<my pleasure, now... are you used to your flight ring? We should pick up the pace>

Lolla felt as if there was a slight hint of admonishment in Harmonia's comment but she smiled and willed her flight ring to take her int the air. The hard light screen that Harmonia had projecting from her flight ring showed that there were two uninfected settlers on the level above them and several hundred metres ahead.

"Let's go get the settlers out of here then I'll make sure the AI have all the systems ready for when Orion releases the antidote." The Science Police Lieutenant said as she sped ahead of the Legionnaire.

................................


Dream Girl- Team leader - Nura Nal of Naltor - precognition
Star Boy - Senior Team member, Thom Kallor of Xanthu - stellar mass transference
Groovy - Science Police Officer Droo Vri of Daxam. of Daxam - incredible strength, speed, stamina, senses, laser vision, space flight, invulnerability

Dream Girl had the settlers' full attention.

She announced that due to the sheer number of settlers to be rescued she would be opening the warps for limited groups initially - those that needed medical assistance or were infirm or nursing babies were to go through first. Several in the crowd tried to push their way through, clearly not following her instructions but the Naltoran beauty dealt with them.

Nura floated slightly above the crowd and twisted so the spotlight from her belt buckle shown directly on the angry bearded man, pinning him to the spot as the crowd around him all turned to face him.

"If you can join the queue in an orderly fashion, I'm positive we'll get you all off this station safe and sound." She smiled and her positivity and confidence were contagious. Several of those nearer to the man who had been pushing his way forward started encouraging him to step back. Nura knew she needed to quell this quickly so she lowered herself close to him.

"What's your name?"

"Ellis Drugjjid... I need to get off this station ... I need outta here now!" His eyes were wide with fear.

"I promise you we will make sure you get out of here. My partner Thom is out there right now making sure none of the infected get in. You know I see the future, yes?" He nodded, "Well believe me, if I saw anything happening to Thom, I wouldn't be here talking to you," The man's expression softened as he understood what the Legionnaire was telling him, "...so please have some faith, I will personally ensure that every single person here that wants to be evacuated will be."

His eyes dropped to the floor and he nodded before turning back to the crowd.

In a surprisingly loud voice, he announced "C'mon you heard the Legionnaire, get in the queue and let those that need medical help get to the front! Quicker we do this the quicker we'll all get outta here."

Nura smiled as she took to the air again and found someone else trying to push their way to the front.

Outside, Thom hovered in the air, his eyes searching the dimly lit mall for signs that more of the infected were close-by though he had only seen about half a dozen since Groovy had created barriers by tearing off entire sides of some of the stores and placing them in front of major walkways and connecting corridors. The enthusiastic Daxamite was off searching for more uninfected settlers to rescue - so far, he had found over fifty that had been happy to let him bring him to the barricaded store where the Legionnaires were arranging for them to be warped to safety.

Thom heard a buzzing from above and looked up: floating down from the dome many stories above were a dozen circular objects.

<Uh, guys, were we expecting a delivery as I got a dozen drones above me>

<Star Boy> Strategic Analyst Graq Maurus of Colu sent from Hope World where the Coluan had been monitoring the mission <those were sent from the UP Disaster Relief Team to help, so don't destroy them>

Thom Kallor laughed to himself but didn't respond. One of the infected had broken out from the icy trap that Groovy had stuck them in so the Xanthuan extended and arm and project a field of mass around them. Thom didn't want to hurt them, they weren't in full control of their senses and looked to be in a pretty awful state already, but he knew better than to turn a blind eye to them.

As he watched the infected man collapse onto his knees, Thom spotted out of the corner of his eye several of the drones approaching a barrier that Groovy had set up, blocking one of the main arterial routes through the mall. The Legionnaire knew that behind that wall were hundreds of infected settlers eager to storm the barricaded store where Dream Girl was helping with the evacuation.

On the floor another of the infected howled as they snapped through the ice that Groovy had blown across their legs to stick them to the floor. Thom turned and send a stream of his mass inducing power towards them, immediately throwing them to the floor. Thom could see that the icy traps were all melting in the warm mall so more of the infected were almost free. He took a few seconds to direct his power to them, knocking a group of them down.

In those few seconds, the drones had made their way to the barrier and having heard the yelling from behind it followed their primary task and used their robotic arms to pull the barrier back and release the settlers that was stuck. Unfortunately, in their rush to get support to the Legionnaires, the Disaster Relief Team had not programmed the parameters of the plague that was infecting the population.

With a roar, several hundred infected settlers charged out onto the mall's main concourse and ran towards Star Boy and the uninfected within the barricaded store.

Even as he heard their roar and turned to face them, Thom saw the drones were trying to free other groups of infected settlers from behind barricades that Groovy had created.

"Dammit!" Thom swore as he used his ability to smash all the drones onto the mall's tiled floor.

<Groovy, get back here please, and Graq... we don't need any more help right now, those bloody drones are a pest!>

After sending the message Thom released fields of starmass strategically, felling those at the front of the infected mob so they would trip up the roaring mass behind as they surged forward. Even with this tactic, the mob had covered half the ground between the corridor where they had been and Thom and the barricaded store in ten seconds. Star Boy knew he needed to do something more drastic...

A continuous sweeping blast of his power and the floor in front of the mob collapsed. Thom was thankful that, despite the virus affecting the settlers' minds, they still had enough sense not to charge and none fell through the gaping hole into the darkness below. Instead, they bayed and howled at him from the other side.

"Hey Thom!" Groovy said as he appeared in a blur of super speed, "you wanna hand there?"

"Nah, I think I got it now, thanks anyway." Thom Kallor gave the young Daxamite soldier a big smile and pointed towards the huge hole in the floor, "...that should stop them for now."

"Yeah" the young Daxamite replied, "...though I hope we don't have to clean it up. Y'know we've made quite a mess here."

................................


Second Base:

Tyroc – Team Leader - Troy Stewart of Marzal city pocket dimension - sonic control
Duplicate Girl - Senior Team member, Luornu Durgo of Carggg - creation of multiple identical duplicates


After Lexikon and her fiancé had left the meeting room with Retro, Tyroc asked Duplicate Girl to stay behind.

Troy was not relishing the idea of speaking to Lu but knew that the longer he held off the worse it would be. Lu had reached the door before he had asked her to remain. She turned to Troy and gave him a questioning smile.

"Everything okay?" She asked.

"Can you take a seat; we need to talk."

Troy's tone of voice, while mild was serious enough to alert her that this was not going to be an easy conversation. Lu stayed where she was, standing by the door and raised her chin as she looked at her team leader. Tyroc remained quiet and looked at her, his dark brown eyes conveyed some sympathy though his expression was serious.

"Okay..." Lu said, breaking the tense atmosphere in the room as she took a seat opposite Troy, "what's going on?"

"So... are you okay Lu?" She blinked several times as Troy asked this, as if surprised by his interest in her welfare.

"Absolutely." Her expression took on a slightly bored look.

"Okay... so, I just gotta say it..."

"Go on."

"What's goin' on wit' you an' Marmud? Seriously, you've been too tough on that kid'."

"He needs reminding he's part of a team not a solo star. When he was at the academy..."

"He's not at the academy anymore. He's a full Legionnaire now Lu, the team voted him in ...an' just to remind you in his first mission as an intern he saved six Legionnaires lives. He's no' a wild horse t' be broken in."

"He's too cocky and..."

"Oh, bullshit!" Tyroc rarely swore so Lu raised her eyebrows at this. "He's not the cockiest we've got here by a mile! Have you spoken to Drake or Laurel... or Monica lately?" Troy's voice had become hard and his expression flashed anger momentarily before he took a breath and forced himself to calm down. There was a silence between them for several long seconds.

"Okay... enough Lu, ah'm only askin' you treat the boy with a bit o' respect."

"Oh... okay. Though I'll remind you that I'm currently the most experienced team member you have and have years of experience at the academy as well so I'd appreciate a bit more respect..." Lu's voice was snippy, her own anger was beginning to show but before she could finish Tyroc interrupted her.

"I'm your team leader and he's a full Legionnaire. Respect that or you can leave." As soon as the words left his mouth Troy regretted saying them but he refused to back down. Lu wasn't listening to him so if he had to make a strict edict to enforce his request then he would, as painful as it was.

"You cannot be serious Troy. You're taking the opinion of that arrogant boy over mine?"

"I'm taking the opinion of half o' the team who talk about witnessing you undermining... bullying the kid. You gotta see it'll cause damage to morale if you don't reign it in."

This time the silence was painful for Troy as he could see Lu's hurt expression as his words sunk in.

"Ah have an option for you though..." his voice was soft, conciliatory, "Cece told me she wants to borrow one o' our Senior Team to help 'em out on First Base. When she asks, you could volunteer maybe?"

"Yeah, I think we both agree that First Base looks like the best option going forward." Lu's tone was sharp again as she got up from her seat. She had turned towards the door when Tyroc spoke again.

"I haven't finished yet Lu, sit down please." Troy's voice was calm but his expression was angry again.

Lu stood behind the chair, her back still turned to the team leader and turned her head so she was half-facing him, "ach, what now?" Her tone was cold, dismissive.

"Oh, ah'm calling an end to the mentor scheme effective immediately 'cause of your poor behaviour... So, you'll not need t' work 'side him if it's too much for you to deal with professionally."

Lu's tongue clicked in her mouth and she let a deep breath out.

"Okay, that's fine. Anything else?" She still hadn't turned to face Troy, and her tone was still dismissive. He couldn't help himself as his disappointment and anger pushed him to say more.

"You're going to make an appointment with Dr Falkner and until she gives a clean bill o' health you're off active duty. Ah'm finished now. Now you can go."

Luornu's back was poker straight as she marched out the meeting room without saying another word.

Tyroc knew Duplicate Girl would take a long time to forgive him, but he had to put the team first no matter who it was that was causing the problem and if she didn't understand that then he didn't care if she forgave him or not. For a second he felt the urge to scream, but instead he picked his hand up to his face and activated his fight ring comm circuit. There was only one person Troy could think of that might be able to salvage this situation, and that person was Lu's oldest remaining friend on the team...

"Cosmic Boy, ah really need to talk wit' you."

oooh I've been looking forward to this Harbi, and it delivered in spades!

Hee hee, oh Jazmin is such a gossip. I like Laurel's protectiveness of Kent, and Zoe's pragmatism re "how" Jan delivered the samples. And of course, to repopulate a dead race/species, it makes sense... Jan can do his duty in a way that keeps his relationship with Kent whole + does not compromise on his own principles! Loving the friendship between these three young women

what a lovely scene between Sister Eclipse and Tesseract. for one, it shows the Sister's continued magnanimousness but also her experience; and for another, it shines a small light on why Tesseract was so, ahem, b*tchy to the Sister. the preaching thing, I think if I connect the dots you also mention before that Tesseract is not particularly religious, and maybe scoffs a bit at organized religion. great scene for both characters!


yes, I would hat zombies too if I were in that situation great teamwork among this group, and I also like Jooli's creativity in melding together smaller pieces of metal.

heh re Harmonia's slight admonishment re Mama Tank (not) using her flight ring...

Dream Girl would have anyone's full attention methinks! She just knows how to capture a crowd! and she dealt with the crowd's panic so elegantly too

ah, Coluans are so useful aren't they? oh poop, now those drones are hindering instead of helping... great use of Thom's power, I think he is often one of the most under-estimated Legionnaires. Collapsing the floor like that was genius!

yes! finally Troy talks to Lu!

go Troy, I cheered when he reminded Lu sternly that several others of their teammates are also quite cocky.

You wrote this difficult convo really well, Harbi. Neither side is completely in the right - or wrong - here. I understand and agree with Troy's regret re "I'm your team leader", while he was correct he should also have acknowledged Lu's long years of experience. On the other hand, Troy was also right pointing out that half the team had been noticing and commenting on and judging Lu negatively for what she's been doing...

Super eager to see the next bits: Lu meeting with Anje, and Cos stepping in. Should be interesting, Cos and Lu go wayy wayy wayyyy back; and Cos has had (in some incarnations) his overbearing moments too (see: Reboot Cos with Superboy/Connor/Kon-El, and animated Cos when Timber Wolf went on the run). also, Troy's acknowledgement that the situation was not completely resolved is a sense/sign of good leadership.

well done Harbi, as usual I am hooked and eager for more more more more!

Mining platforms 4Bravo, 4Delta and 4Epsilon, on the edge of the Wilderness of the Sassanaboan Nebula

Dream Girl- Team leader - Nura Nal of Naltor - precognition
Harmonia - Senior Team member, Professor Harmonia Li of Earth - manipulation of the natural environment
Titan - Nasir N’Cube of Titan - alpha-level telepathy

Interns:

Dragon Lass - Mari Baertling of Rimbor - enhanced strength, durability, echolocation and flight

Science Police Liaison team:

Magnetix - Science Police Officer Jooli Esra of Braal - manipulation of magnetic fields
Mama Tank - Science Police Lieutenant Lolla Grayfrau of Badenhoff vi - cybernetics giving incredible strength, invulnerability, AI manipulation


Harmonia and Mama Tank had rescued another couple of the residents of the satellites that were hiding from their infected neighbours.

The ancient elemental had successfully used the wall of fire to keep groups of the infected that lurched around in the darkness away from them. There were a few close calls but a blast of air soon dissuaded those infected that were brave enough to risk the flames. They had been on the satellite for a little over twenty minutes when Lolla finally reached an interface panel that would allow her to contact the central AI's that ran the infrastructure around them.

"I'll need to concentrate here Harmonia." She said as she touched both hands to the hard light screen, her eyes closing as she did. As Lolla had suspected, the AI and command codes within the central mainframe that kept the interconnected satellites running were a hodge-podge of technologies from the last century. While her cybernetics allowed her to directly interface with advanced technologies, she knew her skills were nowhere near as strong as Danielle Foccart's, and consequently this might take her some time.

Harmonia hovered above her Science Polce colleague and with a wave of her arms the wall of fire that had followed them extended and encircled them. She could hear several grunts and groans from the darkness around them as the infected settlers were pushed by the virus' primal urges. Harmonia prayed that Lolla would get the ventilation systems up to speed quickly enough for the cure to be dispersed once Orion delivered it to the central pump. Until then, she concentrated on keeping her colleague safe.

The satellites air flow and filtration system was massive and intricately laid out. Lolla sunk her consciousness into the mainframe, eventually finding the command codes and pushed them to speed up the flow of air throughout each area. This would ensure that the air that included the cure Orion added would be pushed into every nook and cranny. She estimated that within thirty minutes their work should be done, and their airborne cure would have been dispersed throughout these people's homes and workplaces... With a smile on her face, Mama Tank took her hands off the control and looked around her.

"All done, Lolla?" Harmonia asked from above.

"Yup, right let's go rescue some more folks." She replied with a wicked grin.


Titan had a sharp headache.

He found that the minds of the infected were disgusting and treacherous places, with multiple bitterly sharp impressions overlapping within each creating a chaotic cacophony. While he could use his telepathy to stun them, any form of communication or control sent a dagger of pain through his head. The low-level buzzing from the infected minds was too distracting. Nasir had quickly explained this to SPO Esra and allowed her to float in front of him, effectively taking the lead.

The satellite they were in was a geodesic dome used for growing crops the settlers would need. Both were aware that they should try to preserve as much of this as possible so had been carefully keeping to pathways between the flowering plants and fungus vats. They had both seen bodies lying in amongst the plants, dismembered and bloody. In amongst the smells of damp earth and flowering plants was the tang of blood, and worse.

Their searchlights shone out into the acres of agriculture around them. There were at least another two uninfected settlers a hundred meters ahead according to their scans. From out of the darkness there was a roar and twenty infected settlers charged towards them. Titan stepped in front of Magnetix and assumed a fighting stance while he tried to subdue as many of them as he could psionically.

<above their heads Legionnaire, get out of reach> Jooli sent as she floated upwards <One thing being short has taught me is to pick the fights carefully, and we may be immunised but do you really want to be bitten?> There was a clear sense of mocking in her tone.

Nasir N'Cube smiled to himself as he took to the air. Of course, the SPO was correct, they should avoid physical interaction if at all possible. He usually would have been more careful, but the headache was interfering with his training. He calmly set a reminder on his flight ring calendar to book a session with Dr Falkner after this mission was over, just to check that he hadn't been adversely affected by the minds of the infected settlers. And as he had this thought he heard Dragon Lass's wings beat as she flew past and there was a series of loud thumps!

<got 'em!> Mari sent as she flew into the cones of light being produced by Nasir's and Jooli's belt buckles. The bat-winged intern was carrying a long wooden fence post, and she grinned triumphantly. Below them they could hear the groans of the infected that were still conscious as they lay on the rough ground.

"C'mon, Southern Lights says the last two are close by and once they're out of here we can get a warp to help the refugees over on Home Base." And with a graceful swoop she turned and flew ahead.

"I miss having that much energy... youth really is wasted on the young." Jooli muttered as she flew behind the intern.

Nasir laughed.


Dream Girl had no doubts that between Thom's skills and experience, and Groovy's raw power and exuberance, the two men had the situation under control outside.

Inside the barricaded store she was impressed by how orderly the settlers had become. They had arranged themselves into queues, prioritising the sick and elderly, and families with small children. She smiled to herself as she realised it was exactly how spaceports arranged boarders onto flights.

There were about two dozen of the settlers that had refused to go through the warp, saying they wanted to remain on the satellite. Nura calmly explained that the antidote that the team were going to pump through the ventilation system included an anaesthetic so the infected, and anyone else who breathed it, would fall asleep for a few hours. She had hoped that the UP Disaster Relief team and drones along with a few from her team would use this time to clean up some of the more disgusting mess that those infected by this plague had left behind. Perhaps even remove and prepare the dead in a morgue so when their families returned, they would be spared the worst of sights.

She gently explained this though it only reinforced the determination to remain among the group. Eventually Nura acquiesced and asked them to get breathing apparatus as they would be fast asleep pretty quickly if they weren't prepared. Perhaps, she realised, their knowledge of the satellites would come in handy... and seeing their reactions would help keep the experience real for the more junior members as they got through the heartbreak of the next few hours.

It would be tough but ultimately, they would all know by the end of it that their struggles had been worthwhile as the Legion had saved a lot of lives today.

........................


On Hope World:
Invisible Kid - Jacques Foccart of Earth - personal and tactile invisibility
Intern:
Army of One - Ashia Servito of Luzonus Prime - self-replication
Support Staff on Hope World:
I.Z.O.R. - Gear iv – infrastructure manager - nannite collective being, technomorph
Drura Sehpt - Infectious Lass – medical officer - containment and control over bacteria and viruses
Henry – Anti Lad – Spatial warp controller
J2351 of the Dominion - Ivy - bio-manipulation of Hope World's chloro-technology
The Bludgers - clone-grown Dominion workforce with enhanced strength and durability though with 28 hour lifespan
Science Police Liaison Team:
'Smart Boy' - Senior Team liaison, Strategic Analyst Graq Maurus of Colu - 10th level intelligence specialising in disaster relief scenarios
Sheesa Frimld of Rimbor - trainee nurse's assistant (and beautician).


Even with Invisible Kid personally welcoming each group through the warp and dozens of Arny-of-One's duplicates acting as guides, the refugees were clearly confused and scared.

Henry opened each warp precisely in the centre of the huge room. Once a group of settlers came through, they were scanned for any illness or injury and treated accordingly. A basic medical triage unit was at hand, along with dozen of Army-of-One's replicants who offered food and water as they guided the scared settlers to either the medi-bay or temporary quarters.

The medi-bays had been quickly over-run and Gear had altered the structures of three adjacent rooms so they too could be used as clinical facilities. In total, Drura was looking after sixty one patients. She was thankful that none had life threatening injuries, but even with the assistance of two dozen auto-docs - small hovering boxes with rudimentary diagnostic skills. and a corresponding number of Army-of -One's duplicates, the young woman from Somahur felt very aware of her limited clinical skills. In the back of her mind, she knew that with one call to First Base Kent would bring a team through that could sort this out in half an hour... and as tempting as it was to ask for help Drura wanted to prove to herself that she was ready for this, so she focussed on the job at hand and got on with it. She knew that if anyone presented with serious injuries she would call for help, but until then she would carry on and prove Kent's faith in her was justified.

On the control deck, Graq Maury's directed Ivy to produce several organic substances from the Dominion bio-tech that could be used as an anaesthetic salve which would help Drura in the medi-bay. The Coluan had spent quite a few hours researching the Dominion technology and he had come to some startling conclusion, primary amongst these was an understanding that the bio-tech was far more adaptive than almost anything available from within the United Planets. And, with Ivy on their side to telempathically manipulate the Dominion technology they could have a lot of options at hand that would greatly assist the team in their mission. The Coluan had arranged for all information the team had gathered to be shared with the UP Disaster Relief team, so there wouldn't be any mis-haps once the team left. The commanding officer for the UP was a testy Imskian that didn't understand why her team were being told to hang back until Graq shared footage from Star Boy's flight ring that showed the hundreds of zombified settlers that were trying to get to him. She had backed down immediately after that, agreeing that the Legionnaires needed to ensure the satellites were safe before she would allow any of her crew onto it. Graq also sent through samples of the antidote, insisting that she offer it to anyone that was planning on going in, and she gave him a very relieved thank you.

Dragon Lass had brought her friend Sheesa from Rimbor to help the team. The young girl had seen violence and some horrific events while growing up under the Gray Sisterhood as a street orphan, but the scale of what was unfolding on Hope World was beyond what she expected. Initially she had followed Drura's order with total concentration but after an hour she had spent her time wandering amongst the injured asking if they needed anything; a drink or food, or just someone to hold their hand. She had hugged several people and brushed the hair of one elderly woman who was speaking about her missing children and grand-children. Drura kept an eye on her and afterwards asked Nura to praise her as the empathy Sheesa had shown in the face of such horrors and the compassionate assistance she gave to the hurt and scared refugees had been exemplary.

Jacques felt a warm glow of pride with the team as they settled each group into their temporary quarters. Those that needed medical assistance had been prioritised by the teams that were on the other side of the warps and if the injured were with immediate family they had been quartered close to the medi-bay. For the most part, the settlers that had come through the warps were very grateful for the Legion's help. A few had wanted to go back, but Jacques had persuaded them to stay for a short while until Orion had delivered the virus' antidote through the ventilation system.

.........................................


Orion -Science Police Cadet Tw'gg of H'lven - tracking skills, agility, enhanced senses and awareness of flaws or weaknesses

The small fox-like intern crept through the last stretch of corridor before he reached the main ventilation pump housing room.

The room was cavernous! There were several large machines in the centre of the room that went from the floor all the way up to the top of the room, almost sixty feet above. There were several walkways above him with link bridges to the towering machines. What struck Orion most strongly though was that the floor stunk of blood and viscera - there had obviously been some terrible event that had happened here recently. He could hear scuffling movement from ahead so quickly flew up to the ceiling and squeezed himself in-between pipes that ran along the underside of a mezzanine and peaked out to see who, or what, was there.

From out of the shadows a small cleaning bot appeared, running small circles as it polished the granite floor. The intern let out a deep breath and slowly slid out from between the pipes where he had hidden. The bot had obviously been damaged as it scratched the floor with a piece of its metal casing that hung off. As Tw'gg reached across to pull the loose piece of metal off he heard something move behind in the shadows and he quickly took to the air.

"Come back here you wee monster!" He heard as he flew away, followed by the loose bit of metal flying past him, obviously ripped off and thrown.

Once he was thirty feet above Orion turned and looked back. There was a man, clearly injured, standing beside the cleaning bot, holding onto a wound on his side breathing raggedly.

"You're not one of them, are you? I never saw your like before..." The injured man said.

Orion switched on his belt light and stared, he could see the blood streaming down the left had side of the injured man beneath him and had not heard the infected settlers speak before, so instinct kicked in and he lowered himself down towards the floor.

"I'm from the Legion. I'll throw you down some first aid..."

He coughed painfully before replying, "Damned zombified came through here, managed to fight them off but I've been bitten and I know what's coming next, so maybe don't waste your meds as I'll gone soon...."

"We have an antidote..." Orion flicked open a pouch on his belt and withdrew a small ampule with a circular disc on one side. "Press this against your skin. I promise I'll get you to a medi-bay as soon as I finish here."

The injured man reached up and grabbed at the antidote and quickly pressed it against his neck, saying his thanks to the intern as he did.

"Don't suppose you can help me in return?" Orion asked wistfully, "I've got these two pods to put into the air pump..."

"You need the second level up there... a panel marked 'Filtration'... in there." Again, the injured man coughed before he lowered himself to the floor.

"You sure you're okay there? Here's some torniquet paste and a synth-wrap bandage..." Orion took the two medical supplies from his belt-pouch and dropped them onto the sitting man's lap.

"Forget me, get that antidote out there..."

Orion knew the man was right, he had to get the antidote into the ventilation pumps as fast as he could. As he flew up the young intern remembered something from his days at the academy regarding dealing with seriously ill humans - they shouldn't be allowed to fall asleep while waiting for help to arrive, so he started asking questions.

"Sir, what's your name? Mine is Tw'gg." The intern shouted down just as he reached the panel that the injured man had indicated.

"Hey Tw'gg.., pleased to meet you, I'm Alnn Stiabls, Second Engineer to the Big Pump there... This tourniquet paste sure is cold."

"You just rub it on your wound there Mr Stiabls, it'll help you heal up." Orion replied as he worked at the edges of the panel to pull it off. It was tightly jammed into the metal facing before him but the intern pulled with all his might, willing his flight ring to fly him away as fast as it could. There was a loud squeal and he shot backwards, clutching at the panel. He managed to stop only inches from the far wall and took a deep breath. "Did you see that Mr Stiabls? That was fun." And, after dropping the panel onto the mezzanine below, Orion flew back to the filtration pump.

The intern quickly called up a schematic on a hard light screen from his flight ring database, double checking that he had planned to remove and replace the right parts. He took a deep breath before he grabbed at a pod on the inside of the machinery before him and teased it out. Several red lights started blinking in front of him. Orion quickly replaced it with one of the pods attached to his belt. The lights stopped and he repeated the process with the pod from the other side of the grid that had been behind the panel he had removed.

<Dream Girl, everyone, the antidote is in the ventilation system now> The intern hoped they couldn't hear the relief he felt as he sent the message across the telepathic matrix.

"Hey, we've done it, Mr Stiabls, the pump blowing the cure through the satellites." As he said this Orion could see that the injured settler was laying on the floor, "Hang on there, I'm going to get you to safety right now."

The intern landed beside the now unconscious man and considered his options. He checked for a pulse then held his flight ring up his mouth and yelled: "HENRY'! I need a warp to the medi-bay right now!"

A spinning honey and violet warp opened up in front of the intern and spun across the floor, scooping both Orion and injured man through it to the medi-bay on Hope World.

............................


It was seven hours later that Jacques and Drura met up in one of the small rec rooms; both were exhausted.

"Did you hear, they found out how the virus got all the way out here. Supposedly, one of the local salvage hunters found an escape pod just floating out there on the edge of the nebula. The resident was obviously dead inside it as it had been drifting for so long, at least a century they estimated, but the scavenger took it back here about three days ago to open it up and investigate." Drura gave a small sad smile as she said this.

"And the virus got out.. 'ow sad. Zo many dead..." Jacques shook his head as he replied. He had been part of the team that had went in to clean up the satelites once the gas Orion had placed within the ventilation system had done its work and knocked out all the residents. It had been a horrific experience; there had been many dead and mutilated bodies and so much destruction of the satellites that the residents had only just rebuilt.

Once the anaesthetic gas was released along with the cure through the ventilation system, Thom had taken Groovy, Dragon Lass, Tesseract, Orion and a dozen of the clone grown Bludgers with him as they ensured structural integrity of the satellite. Even before the Legionnaires had arrived there had been a lot of damage done to the satellites. Groovy, of course, had announced that if he knew he would have to clean it up he wouldn't made such a mess. The rest of the small team had laughed but gotten on with the work at hand without much further conversation.

Nura and Harmonia took the rest of the team, with the exceptions of Army-of-One, Gear and Drura with them to aid the UP Disaster Relief crew. There were a lot of wounded and dead residents, and sometimes it wasn't very clear which they were... In total two hundred and seventy four dead bodies were recovered. The UP team set up make-shift morgues in the hospital unit in the main satellite. As much dignity as possible was given to each body as they were cleaned and made ready for their family to claim. The two dozen or so residents that had opted to remain helped identify the majority of these.

Four hours after Orion had released the cure into the ventilation pump and they were certain that the virus had been killed off, Graq Maurus put two new pods in that would introduce a small short-life nannite into the atmosphere that would reverse the anaesthetic in the air. Within half an hour the residents that were still on board the satellites awoke. The majority were clearly very upset as they remembered what they had gone through. The UP team and Legionnaires were on hand to support them. Sister Eclipse proved to be especially adept at assisting those that had lost loved ones.

Drura and Jacques shared their stories, comforting each other as they did. They knew that Nura had estimated they would remain for another seven or eight hours as they evacuated the refugees off Hope World back to their homes or into the near-by UP hospital cruiser that was on hand to support those with serious injuries. Outside of the room they could hear laughter. Jacques shrugged as Drura gave him a quizzical look. They went to the door just as it irised open. Outside was Nura, Thom, Nasir and Graq Mauras. Nura was laughing and Thom grinned from ear to ear.

"What's goin' on?" Jacques asked.

"Oh, I just told them..." Nasir began to answer.

"It's the Squids of Infinity.." Thom said with a snorting laugh.

"Most intriguing." Graq added.

Both Jacques and Drura had forgotten all about the strange sightings that had been made recently of the immense and mysterious creatures that lived within dense nebulas throughout recorded space.

"It's odd but I think I've been aware of them since we arrived, like a small buzz at the back of my mind, and I put it down to the virus affecting the people here. Once the cure had been given, I realised it was still there so I meditated and followed the thought patterns back to its source. It was the Squids... it's like laughter... or teasing, it's I suppose an analogue of playful chatter." He gave a small smile as he continued. "When I probed a bit deeper, I realised the ones that are outside the nebula are all very young... I checked and the largest sighted was only a thousand klicks long, a third of what's been seen before."

"Yeah, only a thousand klicks long!" Thom laughed as he repeated what Nasir had said.

"It seems they're playing a game with each other. It's like they're seeing which one can survive the longest outside the nebula and they're egging each other on."

"Like kids challenging each other to see who can hold their breath the longest at the pool." Thom interrupted with another laugh.

Drura and Jacques exchanged a glance as they took it in. The Squids of Infinity were one of the most elusive and mysterious creatures ever discovered and here they were playing games with each other.

"Isn't it marvellous?" Nura asked Jacques and Drura. Her smile was infectious and both smiled back.

After the abject horrors they had all witnessed that day, this news of the spectacular display of innocent fun being had by the magnificent creatures that lived within the nebula was like a breath of fresh air, reminding them of the simple positives that were around them if they only looked.

Hey IB, thanks for your kind words above, they're appreciated.

There will only be a couple more posts here before I bring LW8 to a close.

The way it's looking, Legion Worlds 9 will focus more on the personnel on the various planetoids as there are a few that haven't had the character moments they deserve yet. It will start with Lu's therapy session then after that we'll see what some of the newbies get up t on a night off, we'll check out a few of the students as they get into trouble, Tel and Jed have a heart to heart, Tyroc has still to take his team up against an angry tree - I promise it'll be more fun than it sounds, there will be another planetoid for the taking, we may pop by the League of Super Heroes and find out what they've been up to since not graduating from the Academy, and we are overdue a visit from the Justice Legionnaires which will bring a few changes in the ranks. That's what I've started plotting and writing out so far so wait and see if it goes to plan

As next year will be the tenth anniversary of me starting writing this I may end this series after that and start on something very different, wait and see how I feel...

Thanks again,

C

hi Harbi, what a treat to read more! and thanks for sharing a bit of "what is to come!"

1) On the new entry

nice to see Mama Tank's cybernetic interfacing in action!

being a hero is tough isn't it? good on Titan for soldiering through the headaches. And I like the attention being paid to minimizing collateral damage / keeping the infrastructure and resources whole. Ah, Titan is such a good guy, and so disciplined - the "setting a reminder" thing is also something I do all the time (if I don't, I will forget) - I feel a kinship with Titan already!

there are always some who don't want to leave, eh? I like how Nura did her best, but saw the wisdom in letting them stay

go Drura, go! I like her quiet determination, coupled with her good sense to call for help if truly needed

heh at Graq dealing with the testy commanding officer, and I like the Legion putting the Dominion tech to very good use!

Go Sheesa, I like her already; and I really love the idea of the Legion welcoming even non-powered folk to join their staff!

what a touching scene between Orion and Mr. Stiabis!

And excellent work showing the after-math and after-care... of course, there would be a lot of upset and trauma after all that the settlers had gone through...

and what a nice bookend re the Squids! Some beauty in the midst of the darkness!

2) On "what is to come"

super eager to see what you come up with re many characters who will get a spotlight! ooh, yet another planetoid... and I have every confidence you will make the angry tree super fun!


goodness, it has been a decade eh! good job for bringing the Legion to life, and growing it so well... and after a decade, I totally understand wanting to take a break and do something new!

First Base:
XS - Jenni Ognats of an alternate dimension Aarok - phenomenal speed
Cosmic Kid - Po Miman, Justice Legionnaire of alternate dimension Mars - energy manipulation and flight


XS and Cosmic Kid packed up some of their non-essential belongings.

The day before, they had visited several planets as tourists. Their belt distorters had ensured no-one recognised them as they travelled around natural beauty spots, museums, shopping malls and markets.

Po was becoming increasingly home-sick and Jenni wanted to ensure that whatever time they had left in this reality would be as enjoyable as possible, and would leave them with happy memories, so they had drawn up a wish list of places they wanted to visit. Jenni had refused to call it their bucket list... they would return at some point in the future, even if it was just for brief visits, they had both made strong friendshipsthat she didnt want to lose.

By Jenni and Po's reckoning they had four weeks left until the team from this reality were due to have an annual meeting with the Justice Legion from Po's home reality.

Jenni had lost her home reality several years before and still wondered about the friends from that reality's Legion who she had left behind when she had opted to remain here. She found it difficult sometimes to reconcile that she would likely never see them again, and she didn't want Po to ever feel like that. So, they would return to his home reality where he could spend some quality time with his family and friends and they would figure out their next adventure together from there. Whether it was continuing as Justice Legionnaires or not was still undecided. Po, being Po, was comfortable with this indecision but Jenni really wanted to at least have something planned...

She had spent the majority of her teens desperate to find a partner, as she genuinely believed that they would complement her character in ways that would only make things better for her. And while that was usually true with her relationship with Po, it hadn't been nearly as seamless as she had hoped - her initial attraction to his calm and laid-back approach was proving to sometimes be the character trait that irritated her the most. She had spoken to Jazmin, Laurel and Grava about it and they had all said the same thing - it's growing pains and you need to set your boundaries but show a bit of flexibility... exactly what Jenni had been thinking to herself.

It was often said that men and women operated differently on the emotional level, but Jenni had never really believed that until recently... Po could shut himself off without warning and retreat into his own thoughts even while in the middle of the most innocent of conversations. While he was never rude when he did, it was so blinkin' frustrating! At times she had to go out and have a run around the planetoid. She remembered how her mother would sometimes go and manually clean their kitchenware rather than let the auto-bots deal with it and Jenni now understood exactly how she had felt in those moments.

Po Miman knew that Jenni loved him as much as he loved her. They were compatible in ways he had never experienced before. Her energy and enthusiasm were what attracting him to her initially and they still made him praise the Eternal every day when he woke up beside her. He was looking forward to returning to his home reality as he wanted to set a date to get married to her, the love of his life. His people's traditions meant that he needed to request a family elder to research their Star Charts for the most fortuitous date for their union to be blessed and it would be up to him to arrange the wedding ceremony. He had mentally mapped out where he wanted to ask her to marry him, where they could hold the ceremony and who he really wanted to invite. He knew Jenni would have her own thoughts, and he would accommodate them of course, but he needed to make sure he had enough planned so that they could get married as quickly as possible.

There had been a couple of conversations lately when he thought Jenni was getting close to this topic so he had shut up and let her talk, avoiding giving away his thought. He knew it frustrated her but he always made it up to her later in other ways.

He only hoped Jenni hadn't guessed what he was planning...

..............................


Home Base Academy:
Senior Tutor: Night Girl - Lydda Jath of Kathoon - incredible strength and durability out of direct sunlight

Legionnaires from First Base:
Lightning Lass - Deputy Team Leader, Ayla Ranzz of Winath - electrical generation and manipulation
Strobe - Denal Lort of Dryad - assume electro-magnetic energy form


Lightning Lass and Strobe walked through Henry's warp together, onto Home Base.

As full Legionnaires they were tasked with giving one full day a month minimum to the Academy. Ayla rather enjoyed it, though Denal was nervous as this was his first visit as a full Legionnaire having just gone through the internship with Chameleon Boy as his mentor. The young man from the dead world Dryad was expecting a lot of questions today, and when he mentioned his concerns to Ayla she just laughed and patted him on the shoulder.

"Lydda, hola!" Ayla called out to Night Girl as she stepped out of her office.

"Hey folks," the Academy tutor gave the Legionnaires a wide smile as she waited for them to reach her.

"What you got for us today?" Ayla said as she gave Lydda a quick hug.

"Well... I know Gim is giving his class a test mission, so if one of you wants to add an extra pair of eyes to that...?" Denal took a second to realise that he was included in the offer, before volunteering. Lydda smiled and gave him directions to the test environment that Colossal Boy was using.

After he had gone, Lydda turned to Ayla and gave a small smile. "I'm supposed to be setting up an induction for Lexikon's fiance... Annach'ha, he's joining us in two days for a month of compressed learning before, hopefully, joining the staff here."

"I heard he's utterly gorgeous..." Ayla said with a cheeky smile.

"Tamaraneans... yup, definitely no complaints in that department, though he's going to be called Sun boy and I'm not convinced if that's going to work out really."

"He's ex-military, isn't he? Are you getting one of the SP's to show him around when he gets here? Those military types need a certain sort of handling, don't you think?" Ayla asked, intentionally side-stepping the conversation about the potential new tutor's use of codename.

"No, not straight away anyway, see I have an idea..." Lydda replied before the two women walked down the corridor towards the lecture theatre. They discussed in detail who they needed to help and how they could arrange for the best of outcomes.

Strobe had transformed into x-rays and made his way to the lower training space. It had been retro-fitted with several industrial scale hard-light projectors and a Gear-infused nanobot that could create and dissolve objects at speed. This was relatively new and Denal had never had the opportunity to train in this area.

As he reached the cavernous room, twice if not three times bigger that the Meeting Hall that the Dryad Survivors used when they held their town meetings, he realised he hadn't called ahead so Colossal Boy may not be expecting him. Still, Reep had taught him to use every opportunity to gain information so Denal remained in his invisible energy form and scanned round the room. There were four students with the tutor, and he recognised a few of them.

On the other side of the room where two more. Granite Girl had been at the academy for over six months and so was seen as fairly reliable student. Still, she could argue with the best of them, and right now she had a finger pointed in the face of one of her teammates. Colossal Boy was at the opposite end of the room with the rest of his student team, apparently oblivious to what was happening.

Strobe zapped down to the side of the two arguing students and spent a couple of seconds watching as they hissed at each other.

"... not your property!" The young woman wearing green that stood opposite Granite Girl was saying. Denal recognised her as the Atlantean that had recently joined the Academy, though he couldn't remember her name.

"Yeah, and if you go near him again, you'll be having your meals through a straw!"

"Hey ladies..." Denal materialised beside them, careful to appear out of arms reach in case they struck out in surprise. That was a lesson he had learned the hard way when he first received his abilities.

Both students jumped!

"Don't do that, please... Keep your fights for outside of training time." Denal said this as sternly as he could in a quiet voice, as both tried to argue their points over the top of him.

"Hey strobe! Lydda said you might pop by, glad to have you. How're you finding life in the big team?" Colossal Boy shouted across at him. <and thank you for sorting those two out, I was just away to reprimand them. They really need to keep their arguments about boys to outside of my class> Gim sent across the telepathic matrix in a private bandwidth between them.

"Hey Gim, great to be back, wotcha got planned for us? ... I mean, planned for the students?" Strobe felt the blush rise on his cheeks.

Gim laughed as he explained how the team were going to be timed as they attempted to rescue a kidnap victim. Pretty basic training, though they both knew that it would not be set up to be so simple. Denal smiled, grateful for the chance to see this new training environment in use, and to help out as a full Legionnaire!

As far as the young man from Dryad was concerned, he really was living his best life!

...................................


Second Base:
Duplicate Girl - Senior Team member, Luornu Durgo of Carggg - creation of multiple identical duplicates

She took a deep breath and despite not wanting to, Luornu contacted Thunder.

The team leader of First Base was currently on a mission so the Cargggite's holo-message was stored, waiting for Cece's return.

"I believe you have an opening on First Base for a Senior Team member... I've arranged for a therapy session tomorrow with Dr Falkner. I know Tyroc will have told you about our meeting earlier so you know that he wants her to agree to my... ah, worth to the team. If she agrees that I'm fit for duty, and of course if you'll have me when can I move over to your team?"

Luornu knew better than to add any sentiment to the message; she was quite sure that Cece would be fully aware of how she felt at having been ousted from Second Base. Nevertheless, hopefully Cece would realise what an asset her experience and abilities would be to the First Base team and they could arrange the transfer quickly.

Duplicate Girl hoped she could transfer across as soon as her bloody therapy session finished tomorrow afternoon.

..................................


Hope World:
Dream Girl- Team leader - Nura Nal of Naltor - precognition

Support Staff: Henry – Anti Lad – Spatial warp controller

Nura was alone in her apartment, lying on a Seer's Daybed with her eyes closed.

Thom had taken Matti out in her stroller-globe to see the nebula that Hope World was currently close to. The lights that shone within its ruddy clouds were newly born stars, something that very few people would get to see with their own eyes. Their daughter's stroller had been adapted to easily survive the rigours of space so Thom's plan was to slave its functions to his flight ring and take her out sight-seeing. Having been raised by two eminent astronomers, it was no surprise that Star Boy had a life-long love of star gazing and he wanted to share his pasion with his daughter.

"Hello Henry."

Nura sat up from her day bed as she spoke. The holo-man from the 75th century who controlled the teams' spatial warps, appeared at the foot of her bed and smiled as he nodded his head towards her.

"Your mission was a success." He said with another smile.

"We both knew it would be. Our next one will be more high profile, but this was a good way to get the team together. Nothing like a little blood and guts to cement strong friendships..." She gave a cheeky smile and stood up, stretching her arms over her head as she did.

"Yes, the team from Hope World will inspire so many more than you ever did as Legionnaires fighting meta-villains." As Henry spoke, Nura bent down to touch her toes, then stood up and stretched her arms out to the side.

"I know that already... what is it, Henry? What do you want to speak about really?" She flicked her hair from off her face and looked directly at the holo-man.

"We will need to ensure the recent separation of teams runs smoothly: there is a risk..."

"The right people are in charge, aren't they?"

"Of course, you saw to that when you nudged Timber Wolf to encourage the junior members to block vote..."

"As you ...encouraged Babbage's systems to pick those candidates to suggest to the group." Nura smiled as she said this.

"Of course. There is one that can alter this though and unfortunately her abilities make it difficult to always predict..."

"Luornu will be fine Henry, don't worry. After the recent trouble she had on Second Base she'll keep her head down and won't rock the boat."

"Thank you, I hope you are right Nura. Unfortunately, Luornu has enormous potential to damage the foundations of the Legion at this critical time in your history. There are certain current junior members who must become established as they have important..."

"Oh Henry, you must know that Cece is a smart girl, she'll keep her on a short leash, and anyway Lu has far too much pride to sabotage her own career intentionally. She won't want the rumours of her being a bully to stick as she knows full well she'll be out and then both hers and Chuck's legacies will be worth nothing."

"Of course... yes, thank you for your time again, Nura. I'm always grateful for your insights."

"Any time sweetie. Toodle-ooh." Nura said as the holo-man faded away.

......................

So, as things stand, Legion World's Nine will open with this as the team set-up:

Legion World Home Base - the Academy:

Former Legionnaires:

Triplicate Girl - Luornu Durgo of Carggg - able to split into three identical duplicates (part of Duplicate Girl)
Cosmic Boy – Rokk Krinn of Braal - manipulation of magnetic fields
Night Girl - Lydda Jath of Kathoon - incredible strength and durability out of direct sunlight
Colossal Boy - Gim Allon of Earth - increase personal size and mass at will
Wildfire - Drake Burroughs of Earth - composed of sapient anti-energy, extreme strength, speed, durability, space flight, anti-energy blasts
Chameleon Girl - Yera Allon of Durla - shape changer
Shadow Lass - Tasmia Mallor of Talok viii - summon and manipulate total darkness

Science Police training staff:

Jumping Jack - Science Police Senior Training Officer Jaxi Delgrado-Hynd of Morshesh 5 - hyper-awareness, reflexes and agility
Ms Big - Science Police Officer Erikka Chowdrey of Venus - increase her own muscle mass and density at will, combat specialist
Brain Girl - Science Police Officer Ella Drottmi of Titan - telepathy and telekinesis
Dream Boy - Pre-Commando Sergeant Rol Purtha of Naltor - precognition
Tues El - Science Police Officer Vae Loct of Daxam - incredible strength, speed, stamina, senses, laser vision, space flight, invulnerability.

Probational tutor:

Sun Boy ii - Sky-Lieutenant Annach’ha of the Tamaranean Sun-Corps - combat specialist - flight, strength, solar energy absorption and projection, tactile telepathy.

Support Staff on LWHB:

I.Z.O.R. - Gear ii – infrastructure manager - nannite collective being, technomorph
Henry – Anti Lad – Spatial warp controller
Numbers Guy - M’Rissey of Earth - super-efficient business management skills
Dr Boom - senior physician and United Planets Government envoy - Danii Schwartz-Geltt of Myar - physician and alchemist


.........................................


Legion World First Base:

Thunder - Team Leader, Cecelia Becks of 21st Century Earth, immense strength, speed, indestructibility, space flight, wisdom
Lightning Lass - Deputy Team Leader, Ayla Ranzz of Winath - electrical generation and manipulation
Duplicate Girl - Senior Team member, Luornu Durgo of Carggg - creation of multiple identical duplicates
Chameleon Boy – Espionage Squad leader, Reep Daggle of Durla - shape changer
Tellus - Ganglios of Hykraius - telepathy and telekinesis
Comet Queen - Grava of Extal colony - spaceflight, comet gas extrusion
Otaki - Bina Nawoti of Earth - mind-sense
Kid Quantum - Jazmin Cullen of Xanthu - creation of temporal quantum fields, flight
Ferro - Douglas Nolan of Earth - can assume invulnerable iron isotope form
Dragonmage - Xao Jin of Earth - dragon magics
XS - Jenni Ognats of an alternate dimension Aarok - phenomenal speed
Kinetix - Zoe Saugin of Aleph - telekinetic animation
MWindaji - Gahaji of Kiringyaga - super tracker, carries the Ruby of Life allowing tactile transformative magic
Backlash - Mrruaw MNau of Simballi - enhanced strength, speed, senses, absorbs kinetic energy to boost own size and mass
Comet King - Drinchnar Lamment of Extal colony - spaceflight, comet gas extrusion
Atom Girl - Sylva Nrilsan of Imsk - can shrink to microscopic size
Ultra Girl - Li-Fahn Qiong of Xanthu - incredible strength, speed, indestructibility, spaceflight, and projection of force blasts, effectively limited to one at a time
Polar Girl - Mel Lassar of Tharr - cryokinesis
Friction - Janee Whittakka of Xanthu - manipulates the force of friction
Spoiler ii - Gord Eno of Naltor - precognition, specialising in short range visions for combat situations
Solar Gorilla - D'Nadka Endarooga of Dmansca - generate and project extreme heat and light
Strobe - Denal Lort of Dryad - assume electro-magnetic energy form
Triple Nova - Elthur Mundo of Carggg - split into three separate bodies, each with either strength and durability, speed and reflexes, or laser vision

Science Police meta-squad seconded to Legion World First Base:

Captain Heavyweight - Senior Team liaison, Science Police Captain Tuk Shir of Daxam, Senior Team liaison - incredible strength, speed, stamina, senses, laser vision, space flight, invulnerability
Replicator - Science Police Officer Tarev Jusool of Talok viii - can mimic meta-abilities of those nearby for limited periods of time
Gravity Kid - Science Police Officer Tel Vole of Earth - manipulation of personal or nearby gravity
Power Boy - Science Police Officer Jedidiah Rikane of Earth - personal density control

Other seconded members currently based on Legion World First Base:

Gazelle - J'izl Dtutuu from the Khundian Battle Brigade, of Khundia Prime - enhanced strength, speed, agility and metabolic control
Cosmic Kid - Po Miman, Justice Legionnaire of alternate dimension Mars - energy manipulation and flight

Support Staff on Legion World First Base:

Dr Richard Kent Shakespeare - Impulse - Chief Medical Officer and Support Team manager - enhanced strength, speed, durability, stamina
I.Z.O.R. - Gear iii - infrastructure manager - nannite collective being, technomorph
Danielle Foccart - Kid Computo - Technical support - technopathic communication and control over advanced technology
Henry - Anti Lad - Spatial warp controller
Ming Sul - Amp Girl - investigative officer - hyper-enhancement of her own sensory capacities
Shardwurd Gandussen of the Ten Peaks from Avalon - Silver Shaman - Medical Officer - biokinetic healing
Science Police Psychiatrist - Doctor Anje Falkner - alpha-level telepath
Flaurianarelle of Zerox - Greensleeves - orchard and farm caregiver - magical manipulation of plant life
Theena Greglenn of Silgor Marregorraus - Network - Communications Officer - hyper-pathic communication through symbiote
Solstin Wang of Earth - Booster - medical support - awareness and manipulation of physical properties of those around him
Gloriana Crestellen of Grighshtall iv - Glory - medical support - awareness and manipulation of bio-auras

Szenlong - newly hatched Spirit-Dragon... of Space!

Currently missing in action:

Phantom Girl – Tinya Wazzo of Bgtzl Dimension - intangibility

.............................................


Legion World Second Base team:

Tyroc – Team Leader - Troy Stewart of Marzal city pocket dimension - sonic control
Retro - Deputy Team Leader - Deen Toro of Ventura - limited reversal of personal timeline
Element Lad - Senior Team member, Jan Arrah of Trom - elemental transmutation
Mon El - Senior Team member, Lar Gand of Daxam - incredible strength, speed, stamina, senses, laser vision, space flight, invulnerability
Dawnstar of Starhaven - Senior Team member - space flight, incredible speed, tracking
Timber Wolf - Brin Londo of Zuun - enhanced strength, speed, agility, reflexes and senses
Dragonwing - Marya Pai of Earth - breathes dragon fire and acid
Glorith of Zerox - manipulation of magical energies
Shield - Laurel Kent of Earth - physical invulnerability, tactile psychometry
Monica Sade of Rimbor - strength, reflexes - line of sight teleportation
Lexikon - Princess Daheenisha of Tamaran iv - enhanced speed, strength, durability, flight, omni-linguist
The Huntress - Ambassador Amynta of Nostos ii - incredible strength, speed, invulnerability, space flight
Karate Kid iii – Mithindrivithis Ngandraffa of Lythyl - strength, reflexes, mimetic motor learning giving incredible combat skills
Thirteen – Dann Hortra of Naltor - line of sight probability manipulation
Babbage- I-45ENG/Nth Series, of the Robotica Confederated Worlds - strength, durability, internalised weapons, hyper awareness and analytical skills.
Starkling – telepathic swarm-being composed of indestructible ball bearing sized components
Spy (also team counsellor) - Dr Noah Kabbo - heightened awareness and limited telepathy
Bouncing Boy ii - Stoor Chamble of Pasnic - creation of personal spherical force field
Atomsmasher - Ergus Wraithcat of Betelgeuse - spaceflight, durability, hyper senses, limited telepathy, radiation manipulation
Kid Pulsar - Neel Koduah of Earth - incredible strength, invulnerability, projection of explosive blasts
Mindbender - Marmud Illic of Titan - alpha-level telepath
Poltergeist -Jaun Vineo of Titan - alpha-level telekinesis
Non - negative energy being - spaceflight, speed, alter own dimensions and density, explosive touch, limited telepathy

Science Police meta-squad seconded to Legion World Second Base:

Captain Phantom - Senior Team liaison, Science Police Captain Gryal Vrizza of Bgztl Dimension - intangibility
Power Lass - Science Police Officer Nel Duwi of Daxam - incredible strength, speed, stamina, senses, laser vision, space flight, invulnerability
Magno - Science Police Officer Dyrk Magz of Braal - manipulation of magnetic fields
Changer - Science Police Investigative Officer Urill Yagthal of Durla - shape changer

Other seconded members currently based on Legion World Second Base:

Green Lantern - Dkyun Mu of Xudar - wearer of a Green Lantern power ring

Support Staff on Legion World Second Base:

I.Z.O.R. - Gear iii – infrastructure manager - nannite collective being, technomorph
Henry – Anti Lad – Spatial warp controller
Hethuk Bran Drommsi - Smith from the Green Rift Forge of Talok viii - weapon maker and engineer
Dr Shoodixi Singh - Science Police Medical Officer - bio-empathic

Laipas - hunting dog from Nostos ii - enchanted to never lose a trail, fast and tough, far smarter than she looks!

....................................


HOPE WORLD is the latest planetoid base, specialising solely in disaster relief.

Dream Girl- Team leader - Nura Nal of Naltor - precognition
Titan - Deputy Leader -Nasir N’Cube of Titan - alpha-level telepathy
Star Boy - Senior Team member, Thom Kallor of Xanthu - stellar mass transference
Harmonia - Senior Team member, Professor Harmonia Li of Earth - manipulation of the natural environment
Invisible Kid - Jacques Foccart of Earth - personal and tactile invisibility
Sister Eclipse - of Rhoohanisett iii - durability, heightened senses, physical possession of any living being
Southern Lights of Starhaven - spaceflight, magic user

Interns:

Dragon Lass - Mari Baertling of Rimbor - enhanced strength, durability, echolocation and flight
Orion -Science Police Cadet Tw'gg of H'lven - tracking skills, agility, enhanced senses and awareness of flaws or weaknesses
Tesseract - Sar Jerash Mor Toark of Mars - access to intra-dimensional space
Army of One - Ashia Servito of Luzonus Prime - self-replication

Support Staff on Hope World:

I.Z.O.R. - Gear iv – infrastructure manager - nannite collective being, technomorph
Drura Sehpt - Infectious Lass – medical officer - containment and control over bacteria and viruses
Henry – Anti Lad – Spatial warp controller
J2351 of the Dominion - Ivy - bio-manipulation of Hope World's chloro-technology
The Bludgers - clone-grown Dominion workforce with enhanced strength and durability but 28 hour lifespan

Science Police Liaison Team:

'Smart Boy' - Senior Team liaison, Strategic Analyst Graq Maurus of Colu - 10th level intelligence specialising in disaster relief scenarios
Groovy - Science Police Officer Droo Vri of Daxam - incredible strength, speed, stamina, senses, laser vision, space flight, invulnerability
Magnetix - Science Police Officer Jooli Esra of Braal - manipulation of magnetic fields
Mama Tank - Science Police Lieutenant Lolla Grayfrau of Badenhoff vi - cybernetics giving incredible strength, invulnerability, AI manipulation

..................................

Current interns from the Home Base training program included on missions in a probationary status:

Imp Master - Dorrolo Capicca Redsail of Zerox - Elven strength, speed and senses, minor mystic specialising in summoning and controlling imps
Tectonik - Hardal of Granite Falls from Mondriak iv - geokinesis
Bloom - Lavender of Schentanhaumma iii - pheromone manipulation, enhanced senses
Shadowsurfer - Walyed Reeaz of D-1457H234 - strength and durability, teleport through shadows or darkness
Impact - Dillon Blackstream of Myar - incredible strength, speed, durability, stamina, motion sense
Little Loki - Magnus Laviksen of Nordhelm - illusion casting
Mosaic - Science Police Officer Rish'ha Nor of Lallor - tactile mimicry of material properties
Thunderbolt - Ness Strakinos of Gardenhome - assumes electrical energy form
Haze - Science Police Cadet Tkemwa Autmi-Hu of Ungara - strength, durability, induce confusion and senselessness
Polestar - Science Police Cadet Nykko Rine of Braal - magnokinesis
Zero - Science Police Cadet Amrendra Mayasinghar of Zuyar - multi-dimensional shifting
Snoop - Science Police Cadet Horol Gyllaspi of the Galentorio Satellites - astral projection

yay, more stuff!

I really like the belt distorters. it makes sense that the Legionnaires would want the privacy!

Crossing realities is so tough isn't it? Requires a lot of advanced planning - and Jenni's reaction is realistic, of course she'd want to come back and say HI from time to time./ what a nice couple she and Po make, supporting and understanding each other re keeping ties and being homesick. (also nice bit about Po being happy with indecision while Jenni was not). and a nice nod to Jenni's origins too

hah, and a big hah seeing Po's point of view about why he acted that way! oh, Jenni is in for a pleasant surprise. and the Star Charts and fortuitous date, sounds like it is taken from Eastern (like Chinese) practice very nice

lol, oh the Sun Boy code name IS gonna be controversial... also LOL at that whole "Tamaraneans are super attracitve" bit

Denal is already showing a lot of promise, good for him stepping up as a full Legionnaire! He handled the fight very well - Cham would be proud of his data gathering too

love that convo between Nura and Henry, whew. Cryptic and nice, I love how they are working together to nudge things into place, and wow Lu's behavior has deeper ramifications than I thought. well done, this whole scene was a nice surprise treat (it's logical and makes sense in hindsight of course!)

very much eager to see what happens next!

and LW8 was very lovely and enjoyable, please do take a well0-deserved bow!

Hi Harbi, I have been doing some catching up! It's wild that we've all been writing these fics for so long, and you've expanded your Legion's remit way beyond being just a big team of superheroes so it's understandable you might be ready for a change of pace soon...I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your team's adventures and growth though and am looking forward to seeing where they go from here!

On with random thoughts!

- the girls gossiping about Jan was cute, they come across like any other teenage girls dishing dirt

- Sister Eclipse comes off really good here as usual...her compassion really comes through in everything she does, it makes a nice contrast to some of the more bombastic Legionnaires.

- I liked seeing Thom take care of the drones and the zombie mob so easily....he is not really a showboat character so it's always cool seeing him get a bit of spotlight!

- Tyroc confronting Lu was tough to read, but also it needed to be done. I really like that he immediately called Cos to try and salvage the situation too...I honestly can barely think of an occasion where Cos and Lu have really interacted in any meaningful way so I am looking forward to seeing what kind of relationship they have!

- I always like when characters with similar powers are shown to not be generically identical so I appreciate how you pointed out that Mama Tank's cybernetics aren't the same as Danielle's power.

- Orion has been great on this mission! I love the little guy!

- finishing with the Squids of Infinity was a nice little palette cleanser after all the horror movie shenanigans

- It makes sense that Jenni would think about what it must be like for Cosmic Kid living in a universe that isn't his own, and "her initial attraction to his calm and laid-back approach was proving to sometimes be the character trait that irritated her the most" is a VERY relatable sentiment!

- Strobe kind of forgetting that he's a full Legionnaire now was cute

- Nura and Henry working together....cryptic! I hope them being subtly manipulative doesn't come back to bite Nura in the butt!

Hi Harbinger,
it has been a very long time since i have gotten a chance to come back to your stories and i'm looking forward to reading the rest of vol. 8. please note all my comments are as i read. so i'm sure a lot of my questions will be answered.

Gath and Imra's chat was well done and i enjoyed seeing the family dynamic they have. i'm also glad that Imra is on the team to look for her son. i know i wouldn't be able to sit by either if it was my child.

Nel a love sick puppy? its a nice change of pace for a Daxamite. lol
i love seeing your Gear getting to do fun things like Nel and Bina's date. So often this aspect gets over looked because of how functional he is and how integral to the Legion Worlds he on an engineering level.
This was such a cute scene. i loved that Nel didn't take her to the storage room because she knew Bina's powers would give it away.
I agree with IB you didn't a great job and recreating a small French cafe.

I never noticed that the Gil'dishpan sounded like yoda.
Damn Saturn Girl is gone? like i thought at least Thunder would have been able to move fast enough to go through with her. i do not like this...but i do love her threat. 'How much do they value their progeny.! damn!

Grava and Comet King are adorable and i love how you are growing their relationship. its great that he can support her and is realizing the way they deal with trauma is different from one another was really well done. i really do love how you show them growing together.

i'm enjoying the calmness from Garth and his faith in Imra and he makes a good point. the team rushing in could be make things worse.
Rokk really knows Garth and i'm glad he's able to see behind the façade.

Rimbor mission: Ayla's team
Great job Nord (spoiler II)! i like how quick he was to jump and help Ayla and seeing her go off like that was fun. i like when she lets loose and took out a large section of the mob.
Jed and Tel do make a good pairing on the field. i love how you described the rolling of the mob and then Jed flying through in tangible and letting the gene-mods just take each other out was well done.
This whole squad works really well together to be honest.

Gil'dishpan's world:
i really enjoy the description you've put into this world. the moss carpeting was a really neat touch. i liked the uneasiness that you created in this scene. Imra feeling the conversations happening around her. but not being able to partake was well done. ok the deal she just struck is something i do not think will go over well with the Legion and i sure do hope whatever assistance they need won't hurt the Legion...

Hope world:
I still kind of hate Nura though out this post. i can't put my finger on it. But i think you've also written her visions with more clarity than i ever have. writing a precog is a hard balancing act and she just comes off so smug about what she's doing. i could still just have a bad taste in my mouth from the meeting about Hope World. But i do enjoy that she's trying to encourage her teammates in various ways and trying to get to know her team. The legion can be so faceless and impersonal sometimes and you're showing the difference they plan to make well.
The supporting cast for this world is rather interesting and i'm looking forward to seeing more of them.
I agree with IB that its odd we've never seen a Coluian in any other roles within the Science Police. But i wonder if that's because they all don't usually leave world unless its for research purposes. Wasn't it established that they all would rather work in theoretical science instead of practical science.

Rimbor: Tyroc's team:
This mission seemed like it was going really well. i liked Sade's work and her short range teleporting was well done.
What's a strop? is that like a tantrum? based on the rest of the post i'm going to have to say yes.
Huntress - love her fiery spirt.
I'm sorry but tyroc's getting made at Poltergist but it was Jan who started the conversation and i wish that he could have gotten that across to Tyroc. i get they are all heroes but sometimes it feels like the senior team doesn't remember what it was like to be teens and on this team. Not that Tyroc ever had that and joined as an adult. But man he was way too harsh, imo.
Ok, this is the second time a team has been affected by someone who can change moods, maybe each team needs a telepath and or empath to help negate this particular gene-mod.

First Base:
a Dragon is born!!!
i have to agree that its odd how out of his depth Dragonmage feels with a dragon egg. it was a cute moment.

Unknown Location:
the Shadowmancer rears its head again! Not surprised he double crossed those working for him already. But i am pleasantly surprised by how Mekt feels about kidnapping his nephew and as it seems children in general.
But Esper Lass, War Wolf and Mekt could make a rather powerful team. but could they take the Shadowmancer?

hope base # 2: sister Eclipse's chapel
I always enjoy seeing Sister Eclipse pop up. She's a very calming character. But i wonder how she will deal with the Shadowmancer coming back...
Tesserect - oh boy. is that one going to have some issues with communicating with her teammates. But i kind of agree with her and that the preaching tends to be needless and gets in the way of helping a lot of times.

first base: dragonmage/dragon egg:
this was a really cute moment and loved the playfulness of the baby dragon and thank you for the explanation of what a Szenlong. But i do wish he had waited until he was with the senior team to ask where Imra and Garth's son is.
i really enjoy these small moments between your team. it really helps to make them feel like real people.
i chuckled a little bit at the naming of the chess pieces. Backlash and Lexicon were my favorites because its soo true!
Glad Henry gave the warning. i was scared Xao would be missing for sometime before anyone noticed.

unknown location:
Damn that little dragon sure helped and took him far far away. or is he. it be interesting if the Shadowmancer was in plain sight.
Damn it of course someone had to sense him... i hope he makes it through this. i hope the baby dragon's got some tricks.
How far back does the Shadowmancer story go that their a myth within the Mystical community?

Second base: Kent and Jan:
loved their playful banter.
i agree Kent shouldn't be treating Jan and it is a conflict. But he seems calm about it. So we will see if its something that comes back around.
i hope tyroc gets that report and apologizes to Poltergeist. But also that Jan tells him he started the convo.
Magus...ooo i do enjoy exploring the worlds and cultures of the Legionnaires. Especially Jan's since we really only know what he knows. So much was lost to him.


unknown location:
oh boy. yeah i'm super worried about Xao.
Loved the explanation for War-Wolf and that he creates the werewolves. i just thought he controlled them.
Dang it little dragon. too bad him and Xao couldn't combine their power in time to get them out of there.
i also wish he didn't have his eyes closed!!
Go little dragon go! loved how the baby took care of the assassins. using its own elemental powers to disrupt the assassin's body was a cool move.
this was a nice small battle that leaves me wanting more.

Sadly i'm out of time to read and comment. But i'm really enjoying what you have coming. The character moments are really great. you put so much character into these tiny moments. Hopefully i'll be back again soon to finish reading!

Hey Harbinger,
I'm back for another round of reviews. Remember this is as i read!

The idea of twins being a sign of bad luck was interesting. its a stark contrast to Winath for sure.
i also like how even the Khudian culture has "human-like" gods who are vengeful and jealous.
i have to wonder why the Khudian Empire is so weary of magic. like what happened in their distant past that made them all so uncomfortable.
I'm glad the twins are seeing the Shadowmancer for what he is and that the "help" he could provide comes with a huge cost.
I wish the twins would have decided to help Dragonmage escape.

I'm glad Saturn Girl was returned unharmed. not that i thought she wouldn't be. But idk the Gil'dann are a tricky species it seems. I do worry about what help they are gonna ask the Legion for...

Rokk calling Garth was nice. But i wish the doors just opened and there Garth was. because of course Imra telepathically called him the nano second she was back.

I really do enjoy how you write the leaders and how they plan ahead. making sure no unique beings are present is a great way to help take down the Shadowmancer.
Lu staying behind is wise. but something tells me they may need her...
Love Rokk and Garth's relationship and how supportive they are. Especially Rokk telling Garth he doesn't need to be responsible for Mekt.

its interesting to see how the team has changed and grown even in their technology. i like how you use the founders to show case it. the echo with Imra's telepathy or Reep stepping up to showcase what newer teammates bring to the table was well done.

Dang it Imra! you should always have mental shields up always!
This battle escalated quickly.
I like how Reep dealt with it and used he knowledge of working with Projectra. But he should know that he has to adjust his tactics.
War-Wolf is pretty scary with his wolf illusions.
So Mr. Chimes is an illusion caster...interesting. His reach seems super far though. is the Shadowmancer helping to upgrade him at all?
Poor Strobe, i wonder if he has a form of claustraphobea. Maybe more like corporial-phoba?

Great job with Tinya! i loved her taking out Esper Lass. But then Dr. Plague! damn you really do write some great villains.
ooo i might be getting my wish! the Twins might have to take on Shadowmancer to escape his mystical barrier!

Damn it! i knew Henry still had so many tricks up his sleeves! and it makes me feel a little bit better about the deal Saturn Girl struck with him. But I'm glad i'm not the only one who gets weirded out by Henry's all knowing smiles. but that they are also intrigued by him and that his very presence creates rumors...although is the Temporal war thing a rumor? i can't remember.

Loved Thunder coming in and taking care of the wolves. does her Wisdom allow her to see through magic/illusion?
Spoiler II stepping up to the wolves was brave and i love that he thought to use M'Windaji to help get them to their teammates.
/i think the team needs more practice with illusion casters though

YAY! goo Strobe go!
Even though the twins left i definitely feel like this isn't the last time we will ever see them.
Thunder did a great job as always but i think she needed more help on that last one. She shouldn't have used the Shazam power to try to bring down the Shadowmancers barrier.

Rokk and the dragon was super cute. i really enjoyed that moment. Especially when he started petting him and the dragon purred.
Triple nova was saved good by Kid Q. love Jasmin in any reality lol.

Ayla was not having Metk's nonsense. i liked the action and no nonsense of it all.

I'm glad M'Windaji was able to get to Tinya with the ruby of life. but i loved how even sick Tinya punched Titania.

Shadowmancer is 30 ft tall? that surely changes things.
damn he smashed Mon-el? that staff must be pretty powerful. i do wish he hadn't left Glorith completely unprotected.
So...Lexicon's plan ended with a crunch...are both of the assassins she threw at him dead now?

The return of the Jade Dragon! so happy that Dragonmage has moved to helping in the battle. loved the little dragon helping out.
Saturn Girl's assessment of Cham was really great to hear and makes him even more endearing.
Even though Garth has issues with Mekt i'm glad he still saved him and its weird how things change as you age. its hard to imagine the Live Wire that i write to every want to be the Garth you have him as. its a nice change to his hotheadedness but in a logical way.

wait Glorith's spell isn't working and neither are the physical attacks...
I'm glad thunder is ok and that she's back in the battle. but this isn't looking good.

I'm glad Saturn Girl is worried about the toll this is taking on Southern lights. Because i know i am. just the thought that he ties his hair around people fingers makes me think he's going to be bald soon. i hope he can survive this...

i'm glad the prisoners' were willing to help out and that there were more healers. i was worried that Southern lights was going to not be able to help out much longer.

LOVING the battle and how they are all trying to attack the Shadowmancer's hand to take the Spear of light from him.
M'Windaji's plan was great! i love using the ruby to help him reach the Spear of Light and getting it to follow him instead of the Shadowmancer. i was worried that he wasn't going ot make it through the experience. until i read how he talked about it later.

i'm with everyone else! WTH? the Jade Dragon ate the Shadowmancer???? Also until this point i did not realize the Shadowmancer was undead... man its been a while since i've read about him. but great and epic battle! oh ok. didn't "eat him" but trapped him.

Even though she's the Black Witch here, hearing her be super sweet was really nice. i hate having her be so detached. Love the practical gift for the ruby. no there's no losing it in battle. parts of me wish it would somehow bond to him permanently somehow. This whole scene was really well done.

Szenlong wanting to stay with the Legion was a really cute moment.

Evolvo suggesting a party and using Kent to help make his point was super cute. i loved this little moment.
Now we need a legion world for celebrations!

loved everything about the party. from Tinya's moments trying to give her thanks to Backlash trying to play with the Garth and Imra''s sons, only to have it backfire. it was a cute moment. Thunder transforming into her non-magical form was fun. of course Gazelle is taking bets.
Poor Dragonmage. i hope he gets used to the attention. i think more is coming his way.

loved Garth and Imra's exchange and its true. a lot of times you don't miss the action but the people.
Dawnstar and Souther Lights was a really cute moment.
Power Boy's dancing and the others Laughing. great party.

i liked how Lu helped to get the interns to turn around a bit. its hard when your the new kids on the block. i hope they do see the opportunity they have.

i don't know how i'd feel about a precog telling me i'm going to enjoy a night with them without ever having really interacted before....but it was a funny moment for sure.
its so easy to forget how many couples exist within your team. But it was great seeing all of them. The different stages from young love all the way to the battle hardened romances.

i hope mindbender and poltergist will be happier with new mentors.

the whole moment with Jazmin was super cute and funny.

just so many great character moments from this party that i can't wait to see the fallout from.

That's all the time i have for tonight. But i really really enjoyed the party. Can't wait to read more!

Hey Harbinger,

more thoughts as i read.

This is probably the most personable i think we've ever seen her. i know she was with Wildfire for along time but i guess i always figured she had a more intimate life before joining the Legion. But its nice to see a different point of view on that.

Experiences isn't everything. its about chemistry and her and Southern Lights defiantly have it. But i have to wonder if its another aspect of her to keep people at arms length by choosing someone whose more physical attraction than intimate one....

Poor Mon-el. the blight sure did a number on him and the team. I hope he gets the help he needs.
I think its in IB's story, that in order for him to be intimate he has to be under a red sun lamp to make sure he doesn't hurt someone. Maybe that could be an idea to help him while he recovers from the Blight ordeal.

So all Naltorians have some kind of pheromonal "power"? interesting. never would have thought of it that way. only really knowing Nura and more specifically Nura from the reboot era, she never came across as overtly sexual to me. So its interesting to always see how you write her and include that overt sexuality/sensuality.
it would make sense that a society of precogs would be more fluid in their relationships due to seeing that things/people change.

The garden sense was nice and sweet. Seeing Harmionia relax a bit is always nice.
I liked how Garqu is "different" from other Coluians. it be interesting to see how him and Brainy would get along, i'm sure he could teach Querl a few things about social graces. But i can see a bit of a control freak rising in him. is that something all Coluians posses to a degree?


Retro and Magnus' friendship is really cute. i liked how excited Magnus was about being on the team and his new potential for love. it was cute.
man, i guess i need more of a reread. i totally forgot that Retro was over a century old.
I like how Retro is being proactive and wanting to talk to Lu about getting those guidelines updated. i have to agree its an odd oversight, knowing that their students are mostly teenagers. But at the same point i can see it, that it wasn't thought of in the senior teams day, so they wouldn't think about it now.

i'm not fully understanding Why Tinya is getting angry during this meeting. But I actually agree with Mon-el, i'd send something that's super subtle before sending any team members in.

DAAAMMMMM! i'm not Nura's biggest fan at the moment or what she did with hope world but she's making some great points. But i don't know if its a power trip per say, like i said i don't understand tinya's anger...unless it has to come from her grief over Jo and seeing Captain Heavyweight as like a seraget(sp?) for that pain...not sure if i'm explaining that well...

Ok, i'm glad that Tinya saw this could be a trap. that information was just too convenient.

I'm kind of saddened by the plot with Thirteen/Power Boy and Gravity lad. idk why...own personal baggage i guess but i would have liked to see them just have a good friendship instead of this weird whatever is going on. But hopefully Tel can figure it out. maybe just needs to learn the difference between a close friend and something more...

Jan kind of annoys me now. lol like why wouldn't you take a psychic. But also it wasn't that long ago that your teammates were getting attacked and everyone was stuck on the Legion Worlds. So maybe having precautions is a good thing and not an intrusion.

I have a feeling Ghanji's issues with magic are coming to the forefront and its not going to be pretty. But i do like how Zoe and him talk about these things now.

i hate upper level beings sometimes. always makes me think of how beings like Dr. Fate won't interfere if it doesn't affect "the bigger picture". But damn that Sa Lok is crafty.

Love the descriptions for some of the species you introduce us to and i agree this one is a asset for sure. But i fear Mon-el is being to over protective on this one and might cause more of a problem.

poor Cap. Tuk Shir that sounds awful but also i'm glad he's still holding out hope.

The Dominion ship is super original. but the powering up thing was not what i expected. i figured they were stealing energy for their own gen--matrixs.
Chamelon seems to have a lot of issues with Tinya's rulings....on no its all about to hit the fan isn't it?

i'm curious as to what caused the alarm too...i'm hoping it was from strobe and not something else.
Ok i said Mon-el might be over doing it...but now i'm not so sure.
I'm liking tinya's thinking about how to disguise herself. But still worried...

wait he powered himself with a neutralizer? what? Sa lok thinks of everything!
Great Job Tinya, you kept them distracted. But i'm not enjoying her taking this much risk. its too much risk. but still great tactics in a lot of ways.
Damn it Henry open the warp!

The whole planet has vanished? what the hell did that power amplifier do!?

Sex/relationship class with Dr. Faulkner was really well done and how i would imagine a class like that going. a good funny moment. i needed that after what i just read but so anxious to see what happened to Tinya!

i feel for Mindbender and Lu is a total hard-nass. But i have to agree i think he went a little too far. But maybe Lu has too and needs to be talked to as well. sometimes we let those with "more experience" off the hook for things when they need to be called out just as much as the new person.

damn, so both Ghanji and Strobe might be without their powers permanently? what?!!! wait what about Cham then?

loved seeing Kent and Gl's reactions to the Asteroid and thank you for including the encyclopedia galactica info again.

I loved Atom Girl's little aside to Backlash and how he scoffed it.

wait no trace what so ever? really? not even Dawnstar could track it? i hope they didn't dematerialize or maybe they ended up in Tinya's home dimension....

Yay! they didn't lose their abilities! so happy we aren't losing them from the team!

Universal Justice? hmm a new team that's about to make their way back i take it. it would make sense that there are other teams that might have come before the Legion. But you've peeked my curiosity and i want to know where they are since disbanding. Love that they weren't bought by the powers that be at the time and supported the people.
Corporations are ruining everything!
Daramulum seems really nice and i enjoyed his presence. You wrote him in a very calming way.

The rimbor mission is going nicely so far... and with that i call it anight until next time i can't wait for more!

Hi Harbinger,

I'm back for another review and maybe this time i'll finally get to finish vol. 8

I had forgotten that this reality's Psyche was here with the Magus. I feel for Kent and having to constantly remined himself that she isn't the same. I like how you addressed it.
I'm torn on the Magus being his uncle especially if i recall correctly he wasn't too fond of Jan or what he's done within the universe in Trom's name...please correct me if i'm wrong. I'm getting the sense that Jan is going to fall victim to traditions that ultimately won't be good things for him but will throw himself into them feel a connection to his people, since he was so young when they all died, he doesn't know or i think really understand the implications of it all.


Kent's moment with Laurel's dad was super sweet and thank you for the refresher of how that can be. its an easy thing to overlook.
I'm with Kent i wouldn't be too happy with having an open relationship of sorts. i hope that's not something that's coming.
I've enjoyed how you're tackling different cultural norms in regards to relationships and i know this is something that is very much on the minds of many people these days and how to facilitate a better understanding.

Rimbor mission:
Atom Girl as recon went well. but i wish the rings scanner's could be adjusted so that it would scan the area like normal without her having to grow in size and reveal herself.
I always enjoy Huntress smashing things and when they think she's down for the count and proves them otherwise.
Your battle scenes are always a pretty good time.
Bouncing Boy II's field is pretty tough. i like how he's having fun taking out the weapons. idk i just like when the Legionnaires enjoy what they're doing. it always makes me happy. idk why. lol.
The size changing tactic! a tried and true classic... damn i was not expecting the Khudian to slam Atom Girl like that! i hope she's ok.
Go Laipas!
A Khudian being afraid, even just slightly of a dog is kind of funny.


The expectation that Jazmin is to love astronomy is very interesting cultural tidbit.
Aww poor Daramulum, he sacrificed his way home to help these people? That is the kindest thing i think i've ever read a deity doing.
But now i wonder why his people never sent another ship from the Dreamtime? Did something happen to them.

Rimbor mission:
The discription of Solar Gorilla's powers and the shadows dancing was cool and i just love the imagery it paints.
Ok, i'm so with Backlash on this. the cuffs need to be redesigned for those without standard humanoid hands.
i do really enjoy Backlash and Ayla's friendhship. But i hate how he sometimes feels more like a pet then a member of the team. Maybe we need more Backlash, but without her...or just more Backlash! lol.
Damn that's a lot of weapons. i'm really glad they didn't just slag everything.
Henry's pauses always make me second guess him and whether he's course correcting something. i think we need a story from his perspective.

I'm sorry what? Jo has an unknown love child? wait like seriously? mind blown!

Kent is in my head i swear. i've felt that way since the moment the Magus and the asteroid were introduced.
it sounds like Kent is definitely experiencing some PTSD that i don't think he realized he had...
Glad that Kent is working through this and that its about his connection with Jan that he's worried about. But i wonder why this hasn't come up with anyone in the Legion. surely there are those within the Legion who could present the same type of challenge.
Idk what it is about a place that says don't worry about something, that makes me worry about it more.

Rimbor:
Damn Jo's kid is fast...But it seems he can use more than one power at a time if he's able to speed away and pick up two Khudian's...
loved Haze holding Laipas to stop her from going after them. it was a cute moment.
Poor Atom Girl, but i'm glad Lu is there to remind her of what they did accomplish. its often hard to see what has been done when it didn't go exactly as planned.

Kent has become very wary of this place it seems now with not really wanting to meet Daraulum.
loved the description of the nebula near Adren's table at the restaurant.
The Worldmith? is there a "s" missing and its supposed to be "Worldsmith?"
*Note: ahhh ok it is Worldsmith...have we seen him before/is this an OC or something from within DC's history/ or part of Aboriginal folklore?

I enjoyed Southern Lights and Dragonmage's moment. its easy to forget that not all magic works the same or even the same magic doesn't work the same for the barer of said magic.
seeing Szenlong fly around and commune wit Dragonmage was super cute. i like alot of these cute moments that are sprinkled throughout this story for the various characters. it give a sense of hope that is much needed i think.
Ooo a trip to Earth...but who else will be going with them?
Hahah. Dragonmage calling Southern Lights bubbly was funny.
Sounds like Southern Lights and Dawnstar have more in common that they thought on the experience level. They need to talk to each other and open up.
wait what? you end with a Typhoon on Earth? what happened!

Jazmin geeking out over Ruby Huru was both cute and annoying. But i totally understand it. She's with living legends.
Daraulum and Ruby's exchange was kind of intense...
"Has anyone tried talking to him..." lol Kent. :slaps forhead:
Arden being like Laurel and wanting to punch first made me chuckle.
Starkling to the rescue!
I'm glad they are still going to try and talk to the Worldsmith, which sounds more and more like a machine with a program than a living being...
Something feels off about Arden being so prone to violence instead of diplomacy. but i'm glad Kent stopped him.
and diplomacy wins out! i'm glad that the Worldsmith was able to be convinced to help make the U-Vabbishte Toktrec Settlements even better than what they are now.
and the plot thickens... i'm glad Daraulum is being honest with Jazmin about the encounter and how his people were forced to destroy the Worldsmiths's clients. I really enjoyed the ending to this "battle". it adds so much history to this already incredible place. And i'm glad Daraulum was able to fix the mistake of his people.

Earth:
aww Xao and Szenlong exchanging that momentary joy was well done. But why couldn't they just have a good time. No you have to have a giant red dragon show up...Thank you for the warning Jade Dragon!
I get so nervous every time Souther Lights does these big spells and how much they take from him....and i was right to worry a dragon just swallowed him! WTH!
haha! omg! i love Spollier II. that moment of him being excited about a King of Dragons just put a smile across my face.
i had totally forgotten about the Pocket dimension entity attached to Southern Lights...just tell the nice Dragon lord who you're talking too! :on edge here lol :X:
Agree with Raz, super glad that Szenlong didn't cause the Typhoon.
i really like the when you spell it out for us about how the powers of the different groups work and to know that XS needs to be close for Officer Jursool to use her speed makes sense.
loved the moment of "romance" it made me laugh especially the end where he realized he hadn't gotten her digits.
wait so when Spoiler II flew away he went where? or did i miss something cause now he's leading Imp Master to help others but Imp master wasn't with him when he flew away. where did he go??
I wonder if its just Psychics who would have trouble with Shadowsurfer's dimensional travel or if all life would have an issue...a place we may need to explore down the line. hint hint. lol
I'm glad he stayed with Bina though to protect her just in case.
Shadowsurfer makes a great point! the eco-protect should keep them from getting wet. time for an upgrade!

Damn the Dragon King took out Thunder? ok, not cool.
Man so thankful for Henry's warps no matter how much i distrust him.
Ok, really Jade Dragon? you can't get involved? WTH!
loved all the side missions. Poor Tellus and Imp Master, but its hard to be made at people stuck in that situation. Is there an actual empath on the team that could have helped in that situation?
I'm not sure that was a good idea Southern Lights...but i understand, its last ditch efforts....him interesting turn of events. i did not see that coming from the entity within Souther lights. using the Dragon King's own tactics to subdue him was well done.
A spirt-dragon of Space! that makes sense and love how you explain it and why the Dragon King attacked. i guess even enteral beings can be jealous.

Ok, big meeting time!
Tinya's not dead but still gone for a while...ok i can deal with that. sort of. But something tells me its going to be a long long time before we see her again...
Thunder makes a great point about history.
And here we go...Nura pissing me off again. lol

i may be in the minority on this but this feels a lot more like the Legion splitting apart and that its going to have huge ramifications that aren't going to be great for the team no matter how much/or what Nura or Henry say. i get the point and that its too big but i also thought that was what the senior team was for...
also not thrilled with the leader choices. I'm glad Mon-el took himself out of the running. but idk what it is but Tyroc pisses me off and just how he was in that meeting idk why.
Him and Nura are kind of in the same boat for me i guess.
Agreed the at least 1 year rule is nice...although i'd say it might be better if it was 2 years of active duty. a lot can happen in the first year that might not showcase who a true leader could be.
i think the only one i genuinely like is Lightning Lass.
Ok, i know Lu can be a hard headed person but i'm getting a little annoyed with the dumping on her when a lot of these people kind of owe their strengths to her. Also seeing Lu's thinking about Mindbender kind of makes sense. cockyness can get you killed.

a spot like on Lexicon...ok i'm down. she was an early fav of mine of your OCs. it is rather interesting just how little we truly know about Lexicon and her people at this point.
Retro trying to gain information was cute. But he should have known it wouldn't work. lol.
her fiancé?? did not see that coming. But i'm with the team and don't trust the pomp and circumstance of that wait.
Awww that was a nice moment and i'm with Retro, i want to know more about their culture and what the different timings/foods might mean.

Hope world:
i hate zombies. nuff said. lol.
Giant infinity squids? you are not making this easy for the team are you.
But i'm glad that this team is taking precautions to not be infected.
Hope world is full of really competent and smart characters. So i'm sure they will do a great job.

So...Lexicon's people visit isn't all it seems??
loved Bina checking in on her new beau.

Hope world:
why not send Orin with at least a little back up. this sounds like a disaster just waiting to happen...
Glad Thom had reservations. But wish he had said something.
Gld Harmonia got that out of the way with Tesseract. But now i'm starting to wonder if Tesseract should have been placed on hope world...
great explaination of how Drura's powers work. I never would have thought of it like that. but now i'm nervous with an "extinct" virus coming into her system...

Yeah and again there's Tyroc making me not like him. just because someone has impressive powers doesn't mean they don't need help in working in all aspects of their work with the legion and the mentor program does that. But they should get better at vetting who gets placed with whom as the Jan and Poltergists issue could have been avoided since they all knew about the crush.
Yeah Lu might still be experincing some grief over Chuck but idk..its more and more like its new school vs old school but the kids not really listening when someone older has something to say.
Also is it me or anyone who is considered a "power house" compared to her in regards to power sets are the ones who seem to have issues with her?

loved seeing Lexicon put the Auditor in his place and remind him she is royalty. But knowing how strict the Vegan's customs are, i do find it odd that Annach'ha wouldn't double check to make sure he was cleared to leave or than any tech of the empire wasn't with him.

Tesseract better stop disrespecting Sister Eclipse like now!
I'm glad this wasn't a battle to get these people help though and that someone was there to vouch for her. its times like this that i think the team uniforms that really designate them as Legion are needed. it seems like sometimes the belts are just not enough for some people. Glad Sister Eclipse can see the good in Tesseract, cause i just want to smack her around.
Dragon-Lass' echo location is pretty cool power and useful.

really hate zombies...but Groovy and Thom seem to have this handled. Agreed zombies with gun not a pleasant thought.

i can't help but laugh and smile at the Lexicon parts..."Please love don't destroy things." But i'm glad they've found a place for Annach'ha within the Legion so that he and Lexicon can stay together and she doesn't have to leave the team.
Tactile-telepathy...thats an interesting one we don't see a lot of...Sun Boy? idk how i feel about it. But i guess it will do. lol.

You are really giving my nerves a work out here Harbi! I hope Orion makes it through to the vents!
Thank goodness for those spotlights. They are the only thing keeping me from being a wreck with this zombie storyline...
I'm glad that Lola is realizing she needs to smile to get this done with those hiding.

Wait when did Jazmin come back from the asteroid belt? i thought Jan and the rest were still out there...ahh ok. sorry should finish reading the post lol. i was just shocked to see her back with Laurel and Zoe.
I love that Laurel is protective of Kent, i want more scenes with them!
As much as i hate Nura she is doing well with this mission and getting these people to behave.
Ok, how? How did this happen? the drones should have been preprogrammed! damn it i hate zombies!

Yeah, and i still don't agree and kind of think Tyroc was a bit harsh.

I feel like flight should have been the standard for this mission until uninfected settlers were found. too many close calls for my liking.
Of course we've got those that want to stay. But i'm with Nura, they should at least go through and leave until after the cure is administered.
I'm glad Orion was able to save the settler and was able to get the pods in. i was worried that moment was going to take a turn for the worst.

i'm glad this went well and the Hope World really is doing a great job. everyone handled it pretty well. (even Tesseract, eventually. lol)

The infinity squids moment was cute. there kids egging each other on was funny and glad that what Titan was feeling was that and not a left over from the virus. this was a great way to end this mission and agreed after the horror that was the satellite, it was really refreshing. small wonders can make it all feel a bit better sometimes.

Thank you for the reminder that this XS is the same from U247 and i'm totally with her. i don't like the uncertainty. But with that said i think it helps Jenni even if she doesn't realize it. the most frustrating part of any relationship when someone's trying to plan a surprise. But that's super cute what Po is trying to do.

Strobe's moment of finally being on the teachers side of things was cute. i liked his nervousness about it and how he handled the cadets.

Poor Lu.. i honestly don't know if she's gonna stay...i can feel the want to just quit coming from her...maybe i'm reading into it...

yeah and more and more i hate Nura and Henry and all this secrecy. especially when its the secrecy that tends to kill things more than anything.

And i'm done i have finally finished vol 8.
What a ride this has been and i'm so glad to come back to it and catch up after all this time.
Thank you so much for a great story of ups and downs, of characters i love and characters i love to hate. can't wait to get started on vol. 9!