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

I wonder if I should change that bit with her new powers....

Also, I may have to make that a bit clearer - Zoe makes a pyramid out of the debris, and turns dune into a wet pile of mud.

nah, I think it works fine. After all she's been through, I'd expect she'd be cautious... and it's wise to have some limitations re she would need some knowledge of physiology to make sure she doesn't cause more harm

I got a lot of catching up to do! I will try and do some reading and commenting later tonight!

Okay, I am all caught up! These encounters are really fun, GL!

Thoughts as I go:

- the public torture and execution of the Starhaven folk was a sobering display of how evil Meta and his cronies are...it will make it feel that much better when the Legion kick their asses!

- I don't actually remember Amber from the comics, I don't think I was reading at that stage....I really like her power set though, it is nasty and pretty unique!

- Tinya has been the annoying one up till now, so I liked seeing her being clever and heroic by figuring out that the energy was Wildfire, how to communicate with him, and forming a plan from there (also yay! I knew it was Wildfire!!)

- I am loving the way Chuck and Brainy bounce off each other in your fic, they are so fun together!

- the description of Dune hurting poor Cham was great! I love a good Sandman-type bad guy!

- also quite liked the callback to Zoe's familiarity with archeology and the very comic-booky way she beat Dune, as well as showing her limitations by not being able to heal Cham

Hey Gl, apologies for the delay, thought I'd have more time yesterday than I did...

Anyway, I'll post my thoughts as I go along:

Repulse and Amber, to a degree, may be thugs but Meta is the rea villain here - how savage is he? Killing the chief and the hostages like that. I can understand how someone so brutal (and powerful) can become the abslute ruler.

I had never heard of the Wysoccan ritual before, nice tit-bit of real life info there.

A large explosion and the power goes off? Has Tinya succeeded in freeing Drake (if it is Drake of course )

Ah, Tinya and drake - love his enthusiasm flashing away like that, bet he waseager to get loose and get payback. Using Drake to power a city reminds me of that story at the end of the reboot where he was trapped on Qward - are you planning on limiting his power after this as it was hinted they were back then?

Glad that the team will be getting back together now that their signals aren't being blocked.

I like Brainy questioning Jeka's illusions - are they magical in this 'boot like they were in the original? Chuck as the peace-maker is very in character.

"A little trust goes a long way..." haha, nice dif.

I'm surprised Brainy and Chuck were prepared to leave Sensor behind, I appreciate the pragmatism but it seems reckless given that they are already missing teammates. Brainy admitting he's missed out on becoming a pilot was interesting - a rare gap in his knowledge and rarer still admission to it! AndChuck knowing how to fly from his gaming experience was fun.

Monstress and Umbra to the rescue! In the original Legion Lost they really didn't get along so it's nice that you show them working together here without any barbs between them.

Dune's another character I don't know, so am assuming they're a walking sandpit - Kind of the equivilent to Marvel's Sandman? If so they'll prove pretty tricky to deal with so good luck Reep! And Zoe arrives! Making mudpies from Dune is a funny image, how undignified an ending is that, haha.

Okay, so am caught up now and it was a fun ride - you've progressed the story along and still left us with a couple of cliff hangers so looking forward to Meta arriving, finding out what's going on with Vi, and seeing if Chuck and Brainy can get away from the cruisers in time to actually do anything useful.

More, more, more!

Yes Meta is definitely the big bad, and I made the conscious decision to make him so from the go a year ago (has it been that long!?!?!) as it fits nicely into the "Bad Superman" trope. Of course, in the interim, I've watched (not read, mind you) The Boys on Amazon, so that has definitely informed how I write him, but I have the luxury of not having to get too deep into Meta's psyche, so its more about the keeping ultimate power angle.


Yeah, she was in for a hot second in the Widening Rifts story at the end of the LSH v4, but then we never see her again.


Yeah, like I said to Ibby, Tinya is snobby, but she's intelligent and resourceful and heroic.


Should it be now when I mention the idea of Dune creating a mini coriolis came well after I slapped a title on this thing?

Yes I am debating on how deep to go into this in a potential future story for however long the Legion stays in this neck of the woods before they make their way home.


Not at the moment - I thought about that, but I'm going to use the excuse that the Qward story took place in the antimatter universe and the energy drain works differently there.

Glad that the team will be getting back together now that their signals aren't being blocked.




This is probably the part that I'm least happy about - I'm considering altering this for the AO3 version somewhat to make it more a forced moment than intentional.

Brainy admitting he's missed out on becoming a pilot was interesting - a rare gap in his knowledge and rarer still admission to it! AndChuck knowing how to fly from his gaming experience was fun.


They're being professional for sure, as Umbra doesn't really get along with anyone. Yet.


Yep, we only see him in action for a couple pages, but that is basically what's conveyed. But I wanted to give him a bit more of an edge. And to take him down, I felt like having him turned into glass seemed kind of fatal, but washing him away allows him to dry out and come back if needed.


Soon! I should be rounding out the chapter this week!! Y'all have been adding your own new stuff and I need to catch up!

And a HUGE thanks to you, raz and Ibby for reading and commenting! It's very appreciated.

Andrew Nolan struggled in his bonds as Kid Quantum entered the room and promptly encased Violet's half-meter long body into a Q-sphere, immobilizing her completely. Vi hung in mid-air reaching out about to say something. "Kid, let her go!" he yelled, but no response came from Jazmin, as she just stared out, glassy-eyed.  An explosion rumbled through the facility shaking the room, making Andy sway as he hung from his bonds and Jazmin lost her balance.  The room went completely dark, with the lighting quickly switching over to the emergency lights.

With the power out, Andy found that whatever was nullifying his powers had stopped. "All right!" he said to himself and transformed into pure Iron.  He ripped his legs and arms out of the shackles easily while powered up just as Jazmin came to her feet and began to cast Q-spheres in his direction.  He dodged as best he could while trying to close in but was unable to get close enough due to Jazmin's ability to project her powers, so they were in an effective stalemate, striking, casting and dodging until someone got sloppy.  Andrew knew it was just going to be a matter of time until one of Jasmin's spheres clipped him.

Andy lunged at Jasmin, swinging his arm in a punch as she dodged to the side.  As he recovered his balance, he saw a white figure float through the wall behind Jazmin.  "Apparition!" he said, but in that moment, Jazmin sent him into stasis as well.

"Grife, what's going on here?" Tinya said as she took in the scene. Jasmin turned to face Tinya and began to fling stasis spheres towards her, but they just passed through harmlessly.  Tinya closed the distance between them, then passed through Jasmin's body.  Before Jazmin was able to turn around, Tinya turned her leg solid and tripped Jazmin across the ankle, forcing her off balance. Tinya turned and quickly aimed a punch across Jazmin's face as she timed her phase perfectly.  Jazmin crumpled to the floor.  Both Violet and Andy's Q-spheres released with Jazmin unconscious.

"Sorry, Jaz," Tinya said while shaking out her hand and turning fully tangible, "Hope that doesn't leave too much of a mark."

Violet, now free from stasis, flinched in surprise to the suddenly missing Ferro. She spun around to find him picking himself up from the floor and Tinya standing over Kid Quantum's body.  "Apparition!" she said with surprise, "Ferro! What happened?  What's with the lights?" Andy was also reorienting himself to Jasmin suddenly being laid out on the floor.

"Short version, you were frozen in stasis by Kid Quantum, and I had Drake overload the power grid," Apparition said, "Then I came in and rescued you."

Violet looked absolutely confused. "What?" was all she could manage to say.

Tinya started to get impatient. "I'll explain later," she said, "Just jab KQ with the antidote before she wakes up!"

Violet drifted to the ground, then grew to her standard size. "Hey, thanks for the save, Apparition," Vi said begrudgingly.  She looked up at Tinya briefly as she knelt beside Jazmin and pulled the hypospray out of her belt pouch.

"Don't mention it," Tinya said with similar reluctance, "Like, please don't mention it.  I have a reputation to maintain." Vi looked up at what Tinya had said, but found Tinya had a half-smile on her face.  Violet smiled slightly herself and focused on Jazmin, injecting the contents of the hypo into the side of her neck.

Jazmin inhaled shakily.  "Ow, what happened?" she said as she tried to sit up and rub her jaw.  Vi looked up at Tinya who shrugged apologetically.  Andy turned back to normal and knelt to help Jasmin to her feet. 

"How much do you remember?" Tinya asked.

"Oh my gods," Jasmin said with sudden realization, "Tinya, Vi!  Ferro!" A sudden rush of memories flooded in and her body sagged with a combination of grief and rage as she leaned on Andy. Jazmin gripped Andy's shoulder tightly.  "I'm so sorry, Andy," she said as tears of frustration started to build in her eyes. "I tried to stop them, but I couldn't," she said, "None of us could resist that compound that Amber created.  This whole time has been a nightmare that I couldn't stop!"  She fumed as the tears started to drip down the sides of her face.

"Hey, its ok," Tinya said, "We're here now and we were able to rescue Ayla and Jan." She put her arm around Jazmin, who folded into Tinya's shoulder for a moment to get herself under control. 

Violet put her own hands on Andy and Jazmin's shoulders in reassurance. "We're going to bring them down, Jazmin," Violet said, "You want in?"

Jazmin's gold eyes looked up at Violet with determination. "Let me at them," she said and wiped here cheeks dry.

A rumbling started shaking the room from above and a hole began to form with construction materials whirling out of the way.  The four Legionnaires in the cell felt like they were looking up from the eye of a tornado made from building materials.  In the center of the eye floated Zoe in her poncho, with Reep right beside her, a magenta rash on the sides of his arms and back. "Is there room enough for more in this group hug?" Zoe asked as they floated down to their teammates.

"Zoe!" Vi exclaimed and almost bowled Zoe over when she landed with an embrace as she rushed into her arms.

"Cham, are you ok?" Tinya asked as she saw Reep's appearance, "You look like you've been dragged kilometers by a horse!"

"I'll be fine," Reep said, "Kinetix applied some first aid, and I'll be ok.  Won't be able to change for a bit though."

"What's with the poncho?" Vi asked Zoe asked stepping back to look at the grey and gold fabric draping over her shoulders.  She took a swath of it into her hands and appreciated the feel of the cloth.

"What? It's my disguise!" Zoe responded, "I'm going incognito to rescue the espionage squad!"

"Incognito doesn't rip apart buildings, dear," Vi said with a slight smile as she playfully Zoe's hood over her head and down over her nose, "but I love it."

Zoe flipped the hood back, put her hands on her hips and looked crossly at Violet. "Well, at least I wasn't the one who blew up the power plant!"

"Umm, yeah," Tinya said looking almost embarrassed, that might have been me, "I kind of found Drake Burroughs being held captive.  Meta captured him and was using him to power Starhaven, so I set him loose."  She paused and smiled. "So technically speaking, Drake did that."

Reep rubbed his temples and shook his head. "This mission definitely took an unexpected turn," he sighed, "Well, we're going to need to get Drake to Brainiac 5 at some point, but Brainy will be busy. Where's Drake?"

"Follow me," Tinya said and flew into the air.  The rest of the Legionnaires followed, with Zoe casting a field around Andy, and pulling him along after her as she flew up and outside.  Tinya led them half a kilometer or so in the air to the wreckage of the power plant and found the energy field of Drake Burroughs undulating in the center, occasionally discharging energy into the ground.  The Legionnaires landed around Drake at a safe distance.

"So what do we do?" Andy asked Reep.

"We can't just leave him here," Jazmin added as she looked on him with relief, "Drake, gods, I thought we'd lost you!" Drake pulsed rapidly.

"Drake, can you help us even without the ability to move in a suit?" Tinya asked. Drake's energy pulsed again.  "That's a yes, he said yes!" Tinya said to the team.  Drake's energy moved toward Jazmin and Andy, who moved aside – but only at a slow drift.   

Vi looked over at Reep. "Cham, things are going to go to nass in a flash, with all of this," Vi said, indicating the wreckage around them.

"I agree," he said, "Drake, we can't get you to the station in time to get you a new suit..."

"Can't we?" Zoe chimed in. She looked around, reached out and started to pull various components out of the debris; some metal, several swaths of insulation and mesh, a power plant worker's suit, pockets of rubber, some glass.  The components drifted together as Zoe closed her eyes and focused her will on a very specific output, with the fabrics binding together into a humanoid form, reinforced and grounded gloves and boots, and a metallic dome for the head with an inline faceplate.  All of this surrounded a ten-centimeter transparent aluminum window in the middle of the suit which flew open.  The grey suit hung lifelessly empty in the air as Zoe concentrated.  "Now would be a great time to make your way in there, Drake," she said with some effort.

Drake's energy funneled into the suit opening and gradually filled out so that the empty suit floating in the air looked as if a body was contained within.  Gradually, Zoe eased the suit to the ground as more of Drake came to be in the container.  Here and there, a seam would expose where the merging of components didn't quite fit well, but Zoe would focus and pull other material to reinforce the seam.  Finally, all the energy had entered the suit and Drake's new arm reached out and closed the window on his torso.  He slowly looked up at Zoe and gave a thumbs up.

"Sorry I couldn't find a voice box here in this mess," Zoe added, "but we can give you the top-level trim later."  Drake shrugged in his new suit.  The Legionnaires looked in amazement at Zoe; Vi beamed at her with pride.

A loud pop echoed and the Legionnaires looked up. Meta hung over them looking down at them from under his cowl; his dark cloak drifted out behind him to the side.  "Well isn't this the reunion," he said as his eyes gleamed cold behind his mask, "You have stolen two things from me, and I will have them back. Whether you do this willingly or not is entirely your decision."

"You don't own me, freak!" Jazmin spat and prepared to fight as several Sentinels and Pathfinders flew to flank their emperor.  She cast a Q-Sphere at one of the artificial Sentinels and it decayed rapidly, falling apart in mid-air.

Violet grew to fifty feet.  "Go to hells you nasshead!" she yelled and swatted her arm, taking Meta and most of his guard by surprise and knocking them back; Sentinels were short circuited and fell to the ground while the Pathfinders simply fell to the ground unconscious.  Meta, however, recovered immediately and hovered back into the air.   He flew right at Violet's midsection and knocked her back, sprawling over the wreckage of the power plant and gasping for air after Meta knocked the wind out of her.

"Oh gods, Vi!" Zoe cried, and flew to try and help Violet, even though she was so small by comparison.

"I see you've made your choice then," said Meta.

END CHAPTER 3

yay! more good stuff!

Ferro put up a good fight! and makes sense that intangible Tinya is immune to Kid Q's powers.

ah, nice dialogue between Vi and Tinya. maybe this is the beginning of... well, not friendship, but at least mutual respect lol

it's so good to have Jaz back!

so it was Amber who did the hypnosis thingie!

yeah, that's the strong-willed Jaz, you go girl!

heh, that group hug line is so Zoe!

loving that humor re incognito blowing up buildings, and Tinya admitting she let Drake loose

ohh yeah, you have an amazing handle on Zoe's powers - if anyone could have built Drake a suit, it would have been her! (well, also Brainy and maybe the speedsters and Jan...) and also a good idea to not have the suit come out perfect, with Zoe constantly making adjustments to reinforce! (after all, she's not a top scientist...)

nice Q-sphere decay courtesy of Kid Q - absent the DNA Robotica issue, this would be the first time she's had something age to dust instead of hanging in stasis!

least giant Vi did a lot of damage before being felled by Meta... ooh, can the combined powers of this little team stop him? Well, with Kid Q and Drake and Zoe all here, plus Tinya's intangibility, I think they have a decent chance!

looking forward to the next bit!!

I know this low-key animosity has been getting some comments, but this bit was actually in the first draft.


Yep, I'll probably be getting into that a little more if not this story, the next.


This is one of those things that came out very late - I had originally had the team go to Drake but he was just gonna kind of hang out since I literally had Cham say the line "we have no way of making you a containment suit." But of course we do! Its also a nice way to seed an idea I have for the next issue. (If I ever get done with this one! It's already longer than any of the others and I think I'm only halfway through!)


Her who's who entry does say she's not yet tapped her full powers! But yes, the time acceleration was part of the Sentinel production process.

the Sentinel production process as a catalyst for Kid Q learning how to speed time up... is a nice bit. it just came out of nowhere in DNA/Robotica, so having a reason for it here makes more nice sense

The shuttle engine was still shutting down when Chuck and Brainiac 5 ran to the control center of the Legion Outpost.  They raced to the main control panel and sat side by side monitoring the telemetry of the approaching ships; at least ten cruisers were centering on the outpost and the orbital space station to which it was tethered.

"Take us out of here, Charles," Brainy said, "Just follow the course I've programmed into the nav-computer."

"You got it, Brainy," Chuck replied, and he punched in the course on the console. He pushed a final button, and the outpost shook as it pushed away from the space station, ripping away from the docking gantry and all the moorings. 

"As fast as you can, please," Brainy urged.

"I got this," Chuck said, somewhat annoyed, "But those cruisers are a lot faster than we are."

"Just get us as far away from the high port as you can," Brainy replied evenly, "I'll make sure we're prepared for when hey catch up to us." He returned to his computer and focused on the FTL drive.

"So what's Plan B?" Chuck asked, "I'm not sure what you're planning, but there's definitely more of them than of us."

"In the worst case, we scuttle the outpost."

Chuck looked over at Brainy wide-eyed. "Excuse me?"

"We'll be fine," Brainiac said nonchalantly.

Chuck gulped and kept moving the Outpost as fast as he could, even as multiple cruisers moved from every direction.  "Brainy, they're cutting us off!" Chuck exclaimed, "We're being surrounded!" The holographic tactical display showed a dozen cruisers, some trailing, others flanking the Outpost and closing in from ahead.

"Bring us to a stop," Brainy ordered.

Chuck pressed the controls and the Outpost slowed. "I sure hope you know what you're doing." Brainy regarded him with an upraised eyebrow.

A stern voice came across the comm channel speakers. "Attention alien vessel," it said, "You are ordered to halt and prepare for towing back to Starhaven High Port. Any attempt to resist will result in your destruction."

Brainiac opened the channel while examining the holographic display and entering a rapid number of commands on the navigation console.  "Oh, I don't think so," Brainy said conversationally into the comm.

"You will comply…Wait, what did you say?" said the voice.

"You won't destroy us," Brainy said smugly, "Your master, wants us and everything on this station in one piece. And we are not about to let ourselves be towed back. So, you can let us go or face the consequences, either from us or your master."

The voice on the comm channel sounded annoyed. "Now just wait a minute," it said, "We have plenty of ways to make your unarmed station helpless, so STAND DOWN."

"No," replied Brainy.

"Prepare to be fired upon," the Starhaven voice said.

"Brainy their charging their weapons!" Chuck said.

Brainy turned to Chuck. "Charles, please execute FTL maneuver Brainiac 5.5," he said.

Chuck looked at the console and saw the program listed at the top of the navigation screen and executed the jump, or more accurately, series of jumps. Chuck felt the stutterwarp drive kick in. "Charles, I'd recommend that you not look out any viewports during this," Brainy said.

In the void of space, the lone Outpost, surrounded by a dozen Starhaven cruisers from almost every angle, winked out of existence from one spot, then immediately reappeared in another, immediately in front of one of the cruisers.  It kept doing this until it had appeared afore of every cruiser, but somehow it kept warping from one spot to another faster, until within a matter of a few minutes, there were at least a dozen copies of the Outpost amidst the Starhaven fleet.

"Brainy," Chuck said urgently, "it looks like the fleet's is almost charged up!"

"Perfect," Brainy said.  He cooly looked over at Chuck. "On my mark, execute Brainiac 5.6." Brainy kept an eye on the sensor readings as the Outpost kept micro-jumping from spot to spot, then commanded, "Now!"

 Chuck executed the new command and the Outpost warped outside the circle of Starhaven cruisers, just as they all opened fire and hit each other.  The entire fleet of a dozen ships drifted motionless in space.

"Uh, Brainy?" he asked, "What just happened?"

Brainiac 5's fingers flew over his holographic keyboards. "The Starhaven cruisers have a capability to disable and overload other craft," he said in a lecturing tone, "We kept jumping fast enough so the light from the Outpost would fool the cruiser sensors into thinking we were in front of every ship. When they went to fire, the shot went through the ghost image and hit the ship behind it." He looked over at Chuck smugly. "We used their own weapons against them."

Chuck wasn't impressed. "That's great and all but the Pathfinders are leaving the ships to come after us," he said even as he fired up the thrusters to start moving. He steered towards the most open area of space he could find away from the disabled fleet. Brainy looked at Chuck with almost disappointment as he plugged his force field belt into the console.  The outpost was now surrounded by Brainiac 5's force shield.

"But what about that!?" Chuck exclaimed as three Starhaven cruisers, led by squads of winged Pathfinders, emerged out of hyperspace on a direct course to intercept the outpost. Brainiac 5 furiously turned back to his sensors and started working out some new plans.

"Attention Legion Outpost," a female voice called, "This is Legion Resistance One inbound to Starhaven, may we offer assistance?"

Chuck gasped. "Lu, is that you?" he asked with a hopeful grin.

The holo screen blinked and a window appeared with Triad-purple on the screen grinning. "Hey there, Chuck," she said, "Am I glad to see you! Let's get out of this in one piece so I can give you a proper welcome, if you know what I mean." She gave a suggestive wink.

A second window appeared with Triad-orange. "Sister, keep your mind on the mission please!" she said, then into the camera shyly, "Oh, hi Chuck."

A third window appeared with Triad-Neutral, wearing Chuck's Legion baseball cap. "Girls, stay on task, please," she said, "Hey Chuck."

Invisible Kid popped into the window for the third window. "Brainy, is that you?" Lyle said grinning, "Thank grife! We need to get down to the surface ASAP!"

"Fine, but we need some help up here as well," Brainy opened a new channel and sent Lyle information to his flight ring. "That data burst should give you all the information you need for the main city below," he said, "But we still need at least one of your cruisers up here.  There are just too many Imperial forces at play up here."

"Understood," Lyle said, "Our ship has need to get to the surface. Legion Resistance Three, you have the high guard. No unnecessary risks."

Triad Orange almost looked disappointed. "Understood, Invisible Kid," she said, and all the comm channels shut off. Two of the cruisers broke off and changed course to the main planet, while the third kept its course to the Outpost.  Dozens of Pathfinders poured from all the ships; some to engage the forces approaching the Outpost, some to the orbital high port tethered to the space elevator, but the majority heading to the surface of Starhaven.  Now without pursuers, Chuck changed trajectory back towards Starhaven and called up the holoscreen to display the re-entry of the rebel warships.

Each ship was surrounded by dozens of Pathfinders in their tan and black resistance uniforms.  To enter the atmosphere, each soldier folded her wings in front her body, effectively making a cocoon against the atmospheric friction of reentry. As both ships streaked down towards the planet, the were escorted by a multitude of streamers through the sky, which all unfurled into pairs of wings once the fiery plasma faded away.  Once fully in the atmosphere, the resistance ships began a broadcast as they descended towards the capital spaceport, already under siege by resistance forces.  The image of an older pathfinder appeared on the screen, her graying hair combed down and arrayed across her shoulders.

"Citizens of Starhaven, this is General Owena Walker. We have allied with the Legion of Super-Heroes to remove the Emperor and his regime. Those who can fight may join us, or see to the safety of those who cannot. To those of you of Starhaven and the worlds of the former Republic who have been unjustly detained by the Emperor and his forces: we are coming, and we ask you to stand with us.  To the Emperor and his allies: We are coming for you. If you value the lives of Starhaven you will surrender immediately.  If you do not, make no mistake, you will pay the consequences of your actions. Long live the fighters."

The transmission cut off as the first cruiser landed.  A large ramp on the ventral side of the ship angled down and scores of resistance soldiers rushed out, a loud cheer coming from the force as they rushed towards the palace. Bursts of energy and loud thunderclaps carried from the north, and the cloudy haze of dust and dirt that hung in the air from the power plant's destruction began to drift south so that it hovered like a blanket over the city, obscuring the top of the palace spire and the space elevator's cable reaching into the sky. But the clouds would glow white and red as the battle raged within, and fires began to feed it smoke as skirmishes broke out across the city.

yay! more stuff! what a treat


lol, you write classic Brainy SO well. giving an answer, but that's it. "We'll be fine," and no doubt the rest of this thought goes "it will take me longer to explain it to you, than to actually prepare the plan, so..."

and also Brainy's shade and upraised eyebrow at Chuck muttering "I hope you know what you're doing", priceless!

a maneuver named after him, hah!

I also like his bluff-calling!

WOW that was a brilliant plan! Who knew the Outpost could warp so fast! I love it! And also "I wouldn't look out a viewport", hahaha!

Legion Resistance One! I love it! I was wondering when Lu's away team would return... perfect timing! the gang is almost all here then!!

And great scene showing each Triad reacting to Chuck differently, but all very much wanting him, hee hee. and the baseball cap!

ooh, now why does Lyle need to get to the surface so fast? Some plan obviously, color me curious. and Orange's reaction also makes me even more curious!

I love how t he Pathfinder wings are super strong and tough! nice bit!

oh yeah, go General Walker!!!! that was a great bit!

also a very poetic last sentence.

gosh I am so eager to see what happens next! rarely have we seen the Legion in such a situation as a war!

Poor Andy being stuck there only able to watch as his friend gets caught. Though goood that he takes advantage of the power outtage to bust free. Though he doesn't really stand much of a chance against a long range power like Kid Q's.

Tinya to the rescue! ood application of her abilities too, partially phasing while giving Jaz the smack-down. Nce exchange between Vi and Tinya, maybe things are thawing a bit between them...

And now Zoe's joining the party, it's going to be fun watching them deal with Meta's guards and crew. Zoe creating a suit for Drake to inhabit was well done, hopefully it'll be able to hold his energy in a cohesive form until Brainy can get him into a proper containment suit. Ah, Meta has arrived - that's going to be tough! Looking forward to seeng how they deal with him!

Brainy and Chuck are such good characters to work together - they're opposite ends of the emotional intelligence spectrum. Brainy's coolnes across the comms was fab, he's so assured. And the plan to get the cruisers to shoot each other was hilarious, bet you enjoyed writing that.

And Lu and Chuck ae - kind of - reunited, good to see. Is one of Lu on each of the cruisers?

Looks like the big battle is away to start - this is going to be fierce! Will everyone in the team survive?

Looking forward to whatever you have planned for next GL, more, more, more!

Hi GL, I just caught up on the past couple of posts...some thoughts!

- Tinya to the rescue! I love when the Legionnaires without big flashy building-levelling powers get to show off a bit

- Tinya and Vi's kinda friendly sniping at one another was cute, as was Vi's reaction to Zoe's poncho

- Zoe giving Drake a pseudo-containment suit was clever! I like that it's not perfect, it makes sense she wouldn't have that much technical know-how

- good cliffhanger with Meta! I see Vi is keeping the noble tradition alive of characters who can change size becoming giant targets

- Chuck and Brainy continue to be good value...trust Brainy to one-up the Picard Maneuver!

- Triad talking to herself is always a treat as well

- I really love the visual of the Pathfinders cocooning themselves in their wings to enter the atmosphere! I imagine they'd look something like shooting stars from the ground!

This has all built up quite nicely, looking forward to seeing how it all explodes from this point!

Thank you! Yes, my idea of Brainy interacting with others is to do as little of it as possible.


Yep, all except for the folks back home - I forgot to add a few lines of Dyrk flying the other cruiser!


Well, she *does* need to return it to him


Thank you! I'm wondering if you all find that this helps with your communication abilities. I'm finding its not easy to describe what you see in your head in such a way as to provide others with that framework, so I'm always impressed with the way you all do this so much

Yeah, I think they'll find their way to a professional respect. My main source of inspiration for this was the fact that even in the classic Legion there's not much friendship between the two - meaning they don't do all that many social activities together (mainly because Tinya's usually attached to Jo), but there is also a line late in v3 where they are on a mission and Vi says something to the effect of, "I know we've never seen eye to eye" with Tinya.


They are SUCH fun to write together! And I'd been waiting to write most of what's int hat last chapter for literally months! Like probably since last calendar year that's been sitting in my head.


Yep, three ships with a Triad running each.


Thank you for the nice words, Harbi! I'll be on vacation in a couple weeks, so hopefully I can get started on that then!

Thanks raz! Me too, its always fun to write as they can do subtle things, but have important outcomes.


Thank you! Like I was saying to Ibby it was quite literally a last minute idea, so we'll see how this goes.


100% And more to come! LOL


Thank you for noticing that. Years ago, when I was playing the RPG where that star drive concept came from, someone wrote an article about how a ship traveling as such would be perceived to an observer, and it was basically the Picard Maneuver, and I thought it was too neat an idea not to do.


Exactly - I was thinking about when you see a spaceship in reentry or a meteor in the day - its basically a jet plume, then multiply that by a couple hundred!


Thanks! I think I may have lost my outline somehow! But I'm definitely over the main hump so I remember most of what's next!

tbh I'm a much better writer than I am at verbal communication, and even my conversational writing is rubbish

I'm 46 and I've had guys I work with who are like 5-7 years older than me talk down to me like I'm a teenager because my normal day to day language is tumblr vomit really....people are always surprised when they see me actually put effort into writing something and they find out that I have a functioning brain in my head hahaha

haha hey at least there is a place where you communicate well, lots of people cannot speak OR write well

now that we're talking ages, I'm 34 myself. I often find ages mildly surprising when they are revealed

Chapter 5

Jazmin, Andy and Drake scattered as Meta shot beams from his eyes, shooting up more dust and steam into the air. Drake kept Meta moving in the air as more of his reinforcements began to arrive, and the other Pathfinders Violet had knocked out of the air were beginning to regain consciousness. Drake was still trying to figure out the best way to shoot beams out of the makeshift containment suit that Zoe had fashioned, which gave Meta and his fighters a movement advantage.

Meanwhile, Zoe was tending to Violet, who was still several stories tall and sprawled out across the wreckage of the power plant after Meta had rammed into her midsection at speed. Her attempts to get her breath back made loud gasping noises that added to the din of the fight's chaos. Zoe flew to Vi's face and held her cheek. "Honey, I need you to shrink back down," Zoe said.

With some effort, Vi shrunk back down to standard size to the center of her mass, so Zoe rushed to her new location, knelt down and put one hand on Vi's shoulder and one on her side. In a moment, Zoe's hands glowed green and Violet was breathing normally.

"Thanks, Zoe," Vi said as she regained her breath, "I think Meta might have ruptured something with that hit."

Zoe gave Vi's hand a quick squeeze. "Try not to be such a big target next time, ok?"

Andrew's voice urgently called across the battlefield. "Does anyone have a ring I can use?" he said.

"Ferro!" Zoe called towards him, "Heads up!" She flung her right arm out and Zoe's flight ring flew off her finger guided by telekinesis towards Andrew Nolan who had his own left arm extended. The ring slipped easily onto his pinky finger. "Don't get the wrong idea," she said, "We're not going steady or anything."

"Uh, um, OK, Kinetix," Andy said slightly embarrassed, "Thank you." He then turned completely metallic, rose into the air, and flew towards Meta, who was countering ERG-1's energy bursts. Andy increased his speed in the air and rammed into Meta as fast as he could, sending the Emperor spinning wildly into the rubble. Andy landed next to Meta and began to pummel him with super-strength blows, which Meta was unprepared to counter.

"Let me handle this, boss," a casual voice sneered. Repulse and Amber dropped out of an air speeder that was passing by. With a simple gesture as Repulse landed, Andy was pulled back away from Meta and caught in filament tendrils that Repulse had generated.

Glowering in anger, Meta stood up and drifted over to Andy, his dark-clad Daxamite body hulking over Ferro's gleaming metallic form. "You were never were of any real use to me," Meta said as his eyes began to warm up for another energy burst.

Violet looked over and saw what was happening. "Ferro no!"

Just as Meta fired his heat vision a rush of wind whipped through all the Legionnaires and Imperials, and his heat beams glanced harmlessly off of M'Onel's chest. "Why don't you try something other than punching down for a change?" Lar said, glaring at Meta. He shifted his body as he punched Meta with a right jab that sent the older Daxamite through one of the ruined buildings a half a kilometer away.

"We have you outnumbered, Legionnaire," Amber said haughtily as M'Onel turned to face her and Repulse. More Starhaven Pathfinders, foot soldiers and Sentinels were swarming in behind them, all with their weapons trained on the Legionnaires, who were beginning to circle in towards Lar's location.



STARHAVEN STARPORT

"Sensor, dear, are you all right?" Candi asked as she patted the pre-frontal area of Jeka's head. "We've taken care of the troops who knocked you out, but it would be terrific if I didn't have to carry you."

Jeka twitched and her tongue flicked out a few times to sense the air around them. She opened her eyes. "Oh! Monstress," Jeka said, "Brainy and Chuck we were heading to the ship and there was an explosion..."

"They got away just fine," Tasmia said as she brandished her fists, "then we came to check on you and punished the fools who dared touch you." The battle lust was still upon her and she was very aggressive in tone.

Jeka's snake form coiled and collected herself as she sat upright. "I do thank you, ladies," she said, "what's next?" She could see a new set of troops starting to charge at them. "I guess we should take care of them?" Jeka's waldo arm pointed out to the approaching soldiers.

Making a showy presentation, Candi bowed. "We cordially invite you to join us in freeing the prisoners..."

"Yeah, I think she gets the picture, Monstress," Tasmia said, "Just follow me!" She took off into the air towards the manufacturing area which was beginning to smolder.

"Does Umbra seem a bit... exited to you?" Jeka asked to Candi.

Candi chuckled. "Are you kidding? Laying into your attackers is the happiest I've seen her in weeks!"

"Indeed," Jeka said, "One last thing we should take care of before we go." She rose into the air and to the approaching troops, a seven-headed hydra now stood where the Legionnaires had just been. It screamed in fury and began to stomp towards those troops, who abruptly turned and ran as fast as they could in the other direction. "Lead on, Monstress," Jeka said as she turned towards Candi.

On that cue, Candi jumped into the air with her powerful legs and then let her flight ring take over, easily catching up to Tasmia's lead. "Race you, Umbra," Candi called cheerfully as they started to arc down to the prison barracks. They could see from above that a few of the buildings had already started to burn and that the Imperial guards were responsible for at some of the damage.

Tasmia's face hardened in anger. "The lack of honor these fools have with their captured," she muttered almost to herself. "Monstress, I'll handle the guards, you free the prisoners. Sensor, see to the safety of the prisoners and get them to the starport." She found groups of guards working to keep prison barracks doors shut, so she cast darkfields around each of them, throwing the guards into a panic and easily allowing her to land and dispatch the guards easily.

Meanwhile, Candi landed by a barracks entrance, coming down so hard that the door sheared off from the impact. "Rise up, prisoners!" Candi shouted, "You are free to fight in the rebellion! Down with the empire!" She then leaped up into the air and came down again on another barracks, repeating the same process.

This created quite a stir in the prison and withing less than thirty minutes, the halls had been emptied and hundreds of ex-prisoners were moving with haste across the palace grounds, led by Sensor, changing her look to appear as a pale, white haired Starhaven pathfinder wearing a red tunic. Tasmia and Candi guarded the migration, traveling under cloak of Tasmia's darkness as thunder and explosions kept ringing out just a few kilometers to their north. Candi kept looking back over her shoulder to see if she could get a glimpse of the action and hope her friends were all right.



IN THE RUINS...

Lar rose back into the air, in anticipation of Meta's return to the fight as Repulse, Amber and the gathering Imperial forces started to close in when a new voice entered the discussion. Ferro was held immobile within Repulse's filament tendrils from Repulse's natural magnetic powers.

"I have to hand it to you, Kort," Rokk said to Repulse as he, Imra, Ayla and Jan descended, "You picked yourself a pretty big army." The four of them landed with their teammates. Rokk reached out towards Repulse. "Good thing we have a Legion," he said and with a twist of his hand, the filaments holding Ferro twisted free as Repulse struggled for control of his own suit.

Ferro took the opportunity to punch Repulse in the midsection, stunning him. "Thanks, Cosmic Boy," Andy said.

"Anytime, Ferro." With Rokk's and Andy's attack on Repulse, the gathered forces exploded into action, and while Meta rushed in to directly attack M'Onel, Repulse took the opportunity of confusion to get himself away from Rokk. The rest of the Legionnaires began to focus on their attackers using their own unique gifts.

Rokk, Jan and Jazmin were primarily focused on stopping the Sentinels, either through magnetism or state manipulation. Reep disguised himself to create confusion among the organic enemy ranks, and Tinya was doing the same in her own way, floating through the enemy forces only to strategically phase in a fist to strike at the right moment or steal a blaster rifle. Violet was able to grow larger to take out multiple enemies at once, despite being stung with a few laser blasts; her combat agility even at an increased size was enough to prevent getting herself hit too often. Andy was taking out any target he could with brute force and Ayla was covering everyone from overhead, flying through the battle shooting lightning at any target of opportunity. Zoe was covering Amber to ensure that any of her sap spheres were shot towards an Imperial versus a Legionnaire.

Imra meanwhile, was using the confusion created by Zoe's interference with Amber's powers to close in to striking range. "I've got this, Kinetix," Imra thought to Zoe.

"Understood," Zoe acknowledged and she backed off her powers from affecting Amber.

Within seconds, Imra had dodged into striking range of Amber and quickly delivered a roundhouse kick to her jaw. Amber collapsed immediately.

"Nice kick, Saturn Girl," Violet said appreciatively, "But couldn't you just have turned her off?"

"Well, I could have, Vi" she said, "but this just felt better."

After several back-and-forth volleys, M'Onel was tossed to the ground by Meta, his cape showing some wear from the battle, while Meta, still enshrouded in his dark cloak and cowl, showed little signs of damage. "You can stop this, child," Meta said to M'Onel, "And save the lives of everyone around you. It would be good to have a brother Daxamite to rule with me."

"Try again," Lar leapt up and grappled with Meta just as the communications devices of the Legionnaires and the Imperial forces all came to life at once and the fighting momentarily stilled.

Citizens of Starhaven, this is General Owena Walker. We have allied with the Legion of Super-Heroes to remove the Emperor and his regime. Those who can fight may join us or see to the safety of those who cannot. To those of you of Starhaven and the worlds of the former Republic who have been unjustly detained by the Emperor and his forces: we are coming, and we ask you to stand with us. To the Emperor and his allies: We are coming for you. If you value the lives of Starhaven you will surrender immediately. If you do not, make no mistake, you will pay the consequences of your actions.

There was a brief pause and the Legionnaires all cried out and pushed the attack. Meta attempted to rocket off to intercept the arriving cruisers at the spaceport, but M'Onel intercepted him, flying to his midsection and grabbing it, making their course careen off meters to the west. Andy flew over to help subdue the rogue Daxamite.

"Imra, is there any way you can shut down Meta?" Rokk asked.

Imra looked back at Rokk while dodging some attacks. "If I could have more than a few moments to concentrate, maybe," she replied, "but right now I'm trying not to get shot. Still I do sense that he is extremely overconfident. We must be careful.

"Spark, we need to get over to the spaceport," she said to Ayla, "The local resistance team will be meeting the troops that are landing. I'll need to help coordinate with our new arrivals."

"You got it, Saturn Girl," Ayla said as she flew up into the haze. She paused a moment and looked at her ring's tracking function as Imra joined her. Multiple Legionnaire signals appeared ahead of them "You're right she said excitedly as a grin took over her face, They're here!" Ayla shot off towards the spaceport. Imra followed feeling a glimmer of hope for the first time in what felt like weeks.

Rokk turned his attention back to the battlefield and flew above the battlefield searching for one specific person. "Grez!" he shouted, "Show yourself! Fight me like a Braalian!" He scanned through the haze as he hovered over the dirty ruins of the power plant, but Repulse had vanished in the troops below when General Walker had made her announcement.

After Lar had drove Meta into the ground, he began to rapidly rain punches onto the Emperor at super speed. The blows kept slamming into Meta but there didn't seem to be any affect, especially after Meta grabbed one of Lar's wrists, halting the punches. Meta pulled down, forcing Lar's face into the rubble as Meta in turn stood and fired his heat vision it point blank on to the younger Daxamite's body.

Finally catching up to the Daxamites, Andy touched down near Meta just as he was starting to fry Lar. In an instant, Andy jumped forward again and flew a punch across Meta's face, shattering his mask and forcing his face up and to the right, so his heat shifted away before he regained focus. Meta stared at the sky for a moment.

"You again," the emperor growled once he had turned to face Andy. Meta's mask was gone, but was just replaced by his faceless transsuit, but the outline of Meta's face was clearly frozen in an angry scowl. "Why don't you Legionnaires be proper little do-gooders and save innocents from the slaughter?" he asked in a silky sinister tone. He turned his head to where he had been looking a moment before and fired an intense blast of heat vision up to the sky. Then looked slightly higher and to the right and fired again, even more powerfully.

"Ferro, stand back!" Jan called as he flew in closer. A thick shell of intertron formed around Meta, sealing him away.

Lar stood, his uniform more tattered than before and looked up in horror. "Gods, he's cut off the top of the Imperial spire!" he said, "And he's severed the space elevator!"

A stern look crossed Rokk's face. "Saturn Girl and any Legionnaires at the spaceport grounds," he called into the comm channel, "Meta's bringing down part of the palace on top of you! Be alert!"

"Cosmic Boy, this is really bad," Reep chimed in over the comms, "The space station keeps that elevator cable tethered; without it being connected, that will fall to the planet and rip through the city, or go into the ocean and cause a massive tsunami! We have to repair it!"

"Understood, Cham," Rokk responded as he threw one of his combat discs through the air to knock out three enemy soldiers, "Violet, Kinetix, you'll handle that. Get into transsuits on the way, you may be going out of the atmosphere!"

"You got it Cos!" Zoe's voice came in, "Team Vinetix is on it!" And with that, Violet shrank down and the two girls flew off towards the upper atmosphere.

Rokk pulled magnetically on the disc he had just thrown and prepared a second with his free hand. He directed them into the air again at two new targets when he heard a rushing sound getting louder from behind.

"Cosmic Boy, Look out!" Tinya cried as she glanced down and saw Repulse charging at Rokk from behind. Rokk turned just as Repulse reached out and his fist stretched out from his wrist and slammed into Rokk on his left temple. Rokk collapsed, unconscious, just as Meta's intertron sheath began to crack open and he burst out of Jan's short-lived prison.

--------

Just as a quick credit where credit is due - I cannot claim credit for the term "Team Vinetix". That honor belongs to Grant from the Truth, Justice and Hope podcast who came up with that on Twitter. It's an awesome label and I wish I had thought of it but I couldn't not use it.

yay! more good stuff!

aw, healing in action!

those flight rings sure are tactically helpful eh! if I lost mine, I would want one back pretty quick!

yes! M'On is here!!

loving how protective Tasmia is! (in her own way)

heh, I like Imra getting some catharsis from punching Amber

Team Vinetix! I love it - I have to read that podcast

loving the fight, everyone got something to do - also love Ferro stammering a bit at Zoe's quip.

and the cavalry is coming...

whew, really looking forward to the next bit!

So Grant didn't say that on his podcast. He has been reading through the reboot on the Twitter and we had a discussion about the Vi/Zoe relationship & we had the same opinion of how that should be portrayed and that's where he came up with the portmanteau.

ah that clears it up,. thanks