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

Yes! Luckily we have a bunch of onsie-twosie groups carved off, thankfully!

I had to create a crappy map in Visio of the city so that I could figure out who was where in which chapter. I think that may have been the key for me - I got stuck trying to remember all that, so I had to kind of put everyone on a game board and move them around, and that helped a lot in the storytelling.

Yeah that city layout is really critical to the story I couldn’t do anything like that!

LOL - it's NOT fancy, trust me - basically blocks with me squiggling notes on my tablet so I had a general sense of space and direction. It's the map equivalent a stick figure illustration

So just a note - I went through and replaced all instances of Greywind with Greybird and Om-Vir to Ol-Vir... Because I'm a dummy

Ibby, I did want to revisit this question - how did you think Zoe would have a problem wearing the transuit? Her floaty hair?

thanks for picking my brain, GL no not the floaty hair, I was just thinking, she usually manually wears her transuits instead of telekinetically "wearing" it. and I was thinking, maybe it's cause Zoe would not know how to morph the transuit over so it retains its functions. like, normal clothes she could because they
are just clothes, but something with circuitry like a transuit might be beyond her knowledge

Ah, interesting - whenever I get done with this monster of a story, I have a vignette that might help fix all that.

Ayla remembered firing the bolt on Repulse, then everything went white. Now, she was struggling to scrape herself up off the ground. The stinging on her knees and face told her that she had some kind of abrasions, but she pushed it out of her mind to focus herself up and make sure the bastard could be put out of his misery. She leaned on her knees trying to get some sense of her surroundings. Rokk was a few meters away barely moving and still waking up. But she spotted her target dragging himself away with a severe limp, as if half his body had given up.

The very sight of the bastard made all of Ayla’s pain go to the back of her mind and she straightened up and strode forward slowly, deliberately, without even trying to silence her footsteps until soon she was just a few yards away from him.

"Repulse!" Ayla yelled. The bastard stopped his limp-crawling and turned suddenly, losing his balance and sprawling out on his rear. His liquid-metal armor was showing signs of failure with the smell of ozone rising from the short circuits all over the suit. The visor covering his eyes was half blasted away, showing a blue eye that was wide with terror. The terror made Ayla happy.

"S-Spark!" Repulse stammered, "H-hey kid! W-We sure had some g-good times, didn’t we?" He started to crawl backwards crab-like very slowly and clumsily. "Ssome good f-fun?"

Ayla stepped forward two steps and quickly shot out a bolt of electricity with a ZAP right behind Repulse’s location, freezing him in his path. "Good times, is that what you call it?" She seethed, "I tried to help you, to SAVE you. And what did you do? Took us for slaves." She shot two more bolts to either side of his body. He began to visibly tremble, and his breathing became shaky.

"I-it was all the boss," Repulse said, his voice becoming a stumble of words, "H-he m-made us d-do a-all t-this, its not m-my fault, p-please d-don’t..."

Another bolt shot down and landed right in front of Repulse’s crotch causing him to jump with a startled, high pitched cry. Ayla curled her arm up, twirling her hand as she considered it thoughtfully. "I seem to remember that *you* were the so-called boss before we went on this wild ride, big boy," she said coolly, "But what happened? You get a demotion or something?" She knelt down, fist still raised up by her head and her voice got even softer. "I don’t like hanging out with losers, Repulse."

"I b-begged him not to do it..." Repulse began, but Ayla interrupted him.

"Well you sure were enthusiastic about it, stealing our powers," she said standing up and taking a few steps away, "and goddess knows what else." Her mind went back to the days, months ago, after being discovered by Meta and having some semblance of hope for all of them to get home, especially for her, Jan and Jazmin. Then the conspiratorial whispers between the former Workforce of Meta, Repulse, Dune and Amber, keeping the Legionnaires out of conversations, followed by the slow hypnosis and loss of control by Amber that then let Meta and his team make the Legionnaires do anything to their bidding. Using them to help consolidate Meta’s rule, rounding up prisoners and slaves, while being slaves themselves. Being bound in machinery that was used to leech their powers for Meta’s dreams.

While lost in her thoughts and the memory of what was done to her and her friends, Ayla realized that electricity had been arcing around her hand the entire time and made a decision. She squared herself in front of Repulse’s splayed form in front of her. "So you wanted our powers?" Ayla said flatly, but her voice started to crack with emotion as it grew louder, "Then SPROCKING TAKE THEM!"

Her face was twisted in a grimace as she lashed out and a thick bolt of lightning reached out from Ayla’s arms and connected with Repulse. His body arched upwards, as if he were making a bridge of his body, his eyes wide with terror as he tried to scream but couldn’t.

"AYLA, STOP IT YOU’RE KILLING HIM!"

The electricity stopped and Ayla turned to see Rokk next to her pleading. The smell of ozone and singed hair hung in the air as Repulse struggled to get his breathing under control. Rokk reached out his hands to hold Ayla by the shoulders, but she stepped back.

"Do you have any idea how many people he’s hurt?" Ayla said, her voice gaining a definite edge, "How much pain he’s caused? Why shouldn’t I?" A tear formed at the side of her eye, began to drop, then sparked out. "Maybe he deserves it!"

Rokk stepped forward again, but Ayla again stepped back. "Yeah, maybe he does," Rokk replied in a softer tone, "He’s a complete piece of nass." This time he stepped forward again but Ayla didn’t move. He put his hands on her shoulders. "Whatever you’ve been through this last few months, you’re a Legionnaire. Always." Aylas eyes were welling up at this point. "And the Ayla Ranzz I know would never kill a fly." He smiled a bit to try and pick up her spirit. "Swat at them, a little, maybe," he said, "But she’d never hurt anyone intentionally." With that Ayla broke down sobbing and Rokk pulled her into an embrace.

"I didn’t mean to do any of it," she cried into Rokk’s chest and holding him tightly, her words coming through her hitching breathing, "I didn’t WANT to do any of it. I’m so sorry..."

Rokk held Ayla tightly as she sobbed. "I know," he kept repeating as he gently rocked her side to side. He could hear some rustling to the side, turned his head to see Repulse struggling to get away. Still cradling Ayla, he lifted a hand and manipulated Repulse’s own armor to bind his legs and arms to prevent him from going anywhere.

"It’s going to be OK, Ayla, I promise," He said as he gently stroked Ayla’s hair, "Besides, your brother would kill me if you got into any trouble before you got to see him again."

Looking up into Rokk’s face, Ayla wiped her face as best she could and sniffled. "Garth’s here?"

ooh cool! nice cliffhanger re Ayla blasting Repulse, glad to see it picked up

man, watching Ayla advance on Repulse was cathartic. reminds me a bit too, of Legion 5 where Imra goes hard on the Progeny, and Lyle has to talk to her

awesome Cos pep talk, as always!

say, wouldn't Ayla have known that Garth was around here somewhere by now (considering Imra and Cham and company rescued here earlier)? or is it more - Garth is like,physically here and back from his scouting mission?

Ask and you shall receive.

Garth kept an eye on the targeting screen as his hands were elbow deep in the power enhancer controls. As any new targets of opportunity appeared as they flew through the skies, he would unleash electricity out through the emitter on the top of the cruiser, trying to be as efficient as possible and hit as many targets at once as possible. It was fascinating to him that the Starhaven warriors would just hang there in the air, seemingly suspended by their wings if they were already stationary, or drifting in their direction of flight if they were already airborne. Dyrk had become confident in his piloting and Garth found an amount of pride in the kid, who was still dealing with the loss of his native Braalian magnetic powers, now finding skills he never thought he possessed.

"Livewire, we're approaching the palace spire," Dyrk called out. They had just passed Violet and Kinetix on their mission and noted a significant gathering of forces from both sides amassing around the palace both in the air and on the ground.

"Keep it steady, Dyrk," Garth called, "We need to stay on task and get to where Meta is. Let's take out a few targets here then lock on to M'Onel's ring signal."

"Got it!" Dyrk called back, and began a maneuver circling around the spire in a wide corkscrew as Garth took out as many enemy targets as possible. Then he straightened out and kept flying north but starting to descend as a huge energy flash erupted directly ahead of them.

"What was that?!" Garth yelled.

"No idea," Dyrk replied, "But just be ready for.... Oh NASS!" Dyrk did his best to take some kind of evasive action, and Garth shot out his energy, but the dark streak in the air that was Meta sheared through the starboard intake vent and engine of the cruiser. The metal and synthsteel of the hull wrenched off with a crashing sound and the cruiser began to immediately tumble towards the ground in the direction they were heading.

"Garth, we've lost power," Dyrk called, "bail out!" He tried to stabilize the cruiser. As it was the cruiser was tumbling so violently, Garth could barely grab the handholds to get to an escape hatch a few meters behind the cockpit. He popped the emergency release for the hatch, and the explosives pushed the portal out into the wind, but Garth paused.

"Dyrk get over here!" Garth yelled over the rushing wind coming through the portal and damaged hull. "Grab on to me and we'll get out of here!"

Dyrk popped off his restraints and fought to move out of his chair, as the centrifugal force of the cruiser's uncontrolled motion worked against his own strength. Garth wrapped his artificial hand on the handle next to the escape portal and reached out for Dyrk with the other, just as Dyrk fought to get to Garth. While reaching for Dyrk, Garth could see the ground rapidly approaching and did his best to focus on his friend and not what was outside.

"Dyrk, I can't reach further, I need you to get to me, buddy!" Garth said. The urgency of his voice transferred over to Dyrk as he braced himself to jump to Garth, hoping to counter the g-forces hitting them.

Just as Dyrk pushed off, the falling ship stopped, and he flew right at Garth, who was able to grab him as he rushed by as the momentum rapidly halted and they both fell to the deck.

"What just happened?" Dyrk asked, "Are we dead?" They could see outside from the damage to the ship that they were gently floating to the ground. The hull made contact with the ground with a gently thud and shifted slightly, requiring both of them to steady themselves form the sudden movement. Dyrk and Garth made their way out of the opened hatch, standing on top of the ship, which had been set down right side up in the middle of a ruined landscape. To Dyrk it looked like a bomb went off.

Garth looked around and was relieved to see the familiar faces of Jo and Tinya flying to the top of the ship to meet them. Tinya looked a little battle worn, as her white uniform and cape were smudged in places, but the top of Jo's uniform was in worse shape than before, threadbare and barely hanging on to his torso, with a massive fading bruise on his midsection. He flew up to greet them and gave a quick hug to Tinya, and an intense handshake to Jo.

"I've never been so glad to see you Ultra Boy," Garth said in relief, "and I'm glad you're here, Apparition, we were really worried about you!"

Jo half smiled and said, "Hey, its good to be in the right place at the right time, for once," he joked.

"What hit us?" Garth asked.

"Meta," Tinya responded and Jo just scowled, "We have been trying to pin him down here, and it was working for a time, but he flattened most of us and shot off to the palace. I think you got in the way."

"Yeah, not like our Daxamite was much help," Jo muttered, prompting Tinya to lightly punch his arm with the back of her fist.

Garth looked a little confused but kept on the subject. "Yes, the Rebel forces are storming the palace now," he said, "We just came from there. The rest of our away team is with them."

"M'Onel and Ferro have gone after Meta," Tinya continued, "So that's good. But you'll want to go over there," Tinya pointed through the dust clouds with a broad grin, "There's someone who probably would like to see you."

"Uh, guys, a little help down here?" Dyrk called up to them.

Jo hovered down to Dyrk and lifted him up with one arm. "Sorry about that, man," Jo said as he lowered Dyrk to the ground.

Garth looked at his flight ring to see who was nearby, then shot off across the ruins to find Ayla and Rokk holding each other. "Ayla?" he asked tentatively. "Rokk?"

Rokk and Ayla broke their embrace. Ayla clearly had been crying.

"Garth?" she asked, "Is that really you?" She took a few tentative steps forward.

Garth smiled and found his voice was stuck in his throat. "Yeah, its really me, sis," he choked out.

Ayla threw herself at Garth. "Oh goddess, it really is you!" she cried, and started sobbing again. Garth found he had tears streaming down his cheeks as well as he hugged his lost twin tightly. Rokk walked up and placed his hand on Garth's shoulder. Without looking up from his sister, Garth grasped his best friend's arm in gratitude.

yay! next installment!!!

liking the reference to the emitters on the cruisers! It's been a while since I've seen those!

you really are interlocking everything! that map must really help

very well-written cruiser crumbling scene!

heh, nice joke from Jo

huh, Jo really has it out for M'Onel eh

aww, what a great scene with Ayla and Garth!

Hi GL!

Some thoughts as I went along -

- ooh, Jan turning Ferro into lead was so good! I always thought Ferro Lad and Element Lad could have had some cool teamups back in the day if OG Andy had stuck around!

- Ferro laying a smackdown on Meta is also much appreciated!

- aww, Monstress and Lori's reunion was cute. I am so glad you're using Monstress, she's great!

- Meta took out all but three of them! EXCITEMENT!!! I don't know why but for some reason I have a feeling Tinya is gonna do something pretty instrumental to beating this guy!

- Ayla's confrontation with Repulse was really well done, but man I feel for her!

- hmmm that's twice Jo's had attitude about Lar now, I wonder what that's about..?

- I liked Garth not willing to leave the ship without Dyrk as well as his reunion with Ayla

I'm a huge fan of those & I wish they used them more!

The map has been indispensable


Thanks raz!!

Yeah having Jan transmute Andy was something where I wondered why it hadn't been done before; I guess there was no real reason for it in any other stories...

I really enjoy Candi as a character. I'm wondering why she had so much backlash back in the day. But hey, this is why we do this, right?

re:Ayla, I think Ibby had the right word for that whole sequence - it was just as cathartic to write as I wasn't sure where that was going, but I knew Ayla had to be the one to ultimately put the beat-down on Repulse, even though Rokk was the original plan (two ex-Magnoball champs going at it).

I believe Jan transmuting Andy, has only been done in Legion of 3 Worlds. odd isn't it? in the Reboot, Jan transmuted his own body quite a bit, one would think it would be easier to do it to Andy whose entire body is already one element...

I wonder if the Candi backlash was largely due to: being very Hulk-like in powers and appearance; and being perceived as less unique/worthy/interesting of Legion membership, compared to other supporting characters abounding at the time (Candi joined after the Mordru storyline; other powered characters then included Mysa, Kid Quantum, Particon, Radion, Dragonmage and even Sister Andromeda...)

Not only was Ferro transformed in that story, he was transformed into Lead so as to fight a Daxamite!

I try to forget that story as best I can, but that little seed must have stayed in my noggin until now. But it's a logical maneuver, so maybe I did legit forget about it completely. It's certainly not an homage to Lo3W

Candi's similar appearance to the Hulk may have had something to do with it, or something about how they were writing her (she started as a Ben Grimm type, then turned sweet).

Lo3W... ugh. if I had not undone some of it in my own fic, I would also be forgetting it

good callout re Candi's personality change!

Zoe groggily revived to the wind whistling around her, trapped in Violet’s hand, but she quickly assessed the situation. "Violet! Vi!" she called, "Wake up! Please!" but her voice seemed to disappear into the rushing air. She looked down to see the clouds covering the city below, and the now stable elevator cable vanishing into the clouds. The clouds, and the city below, were still kilometers away, but time was running out. "Vi, at least get small!" she implored. Zoe was scared for their lives but knew that Violet hitting the ground at terminal velocity at her full size would be just as devastating to Starhaven City as a bomb. Vi began to groan but was still not awake.

With the wind whipping her hair as they tumbled, Zoe closed her eyes and concentrated as much as she could. She felt depleted and almost powerless, but knew it was just fatigue. As they began to pass through the upper clouds, Zoe cried out as if in pain to summon her power reserves. The green glow of her power started to cover the two of them as the city began to rise at them and Zoe began to barely slow the speed of their descent. They were headed directly to the support structures and facilities around the elevator’s base, which was moments away from impacting.

"What’s going on?" Violet finally came around to see the ground far below, but the space elevator cable nearby and flying past them as they descended. She almost panicked until she felt the warm feeling of Zoe’s power all around her, like the tiny pinpricks of a limb falling asleep. "Zoe!" Vi brought her hand holding Zoe to her face to see her concentrating, her energy field not fully working.

"Vi get smaller," Zoe said through gritted teeth. "I can’t seem to slow us down at all. If you get smaller you can slow us down with your flight ring."

With less than a thousand meters to go before impact, Violet opened her hand to release Zoe, who floated near by. She reduced her size by half, then grabbed Zoe around the waist and concentrated on her ring, willing it to stop them in the air. They significantly slowed the speed of their fall, yet not enough to stop them completely. Violet had shrunk down to twenty meters when she landed on her back atop the roof of a low building, completely crushing it. Zoe landed on top of Violet, face down across her stomach, briefly bouncing once before settling down with a sharp cry. Slowly, Zoe crawled up Violet’s torso and collapsed back down at her collarbone.

"Wow, your abs are really strong, Honey," Zoe quipped. "Are you ok?" She asked. Vi was moaning in pain, but very much alive.

"I’m not sure how many pieces I’m in, but I think I’m okay," she groaned.

Completely exhausted, Zoe turned to look up into Violet’s face. "It’s a good thing I got you," she said.

"No, I got you first," Vi said with a chuckle and gently covered Zoe’s body with her hand as they both passed out.





Jenni streaked through the streets of Starhaven city, zooming through each district in a split second, pausing once for Gates to get enough of an idea of the surroundings. In some cases, a few of the districts seemed abandoned, but in others, mainly the districts such as Apache, Cheyenne and Shoshone, immediately adjacent to the city center containing the Imperial Government facilities, starport, and beanstalk, open battle had broken out between the rebels and the loyalists forces. In many cases, this was traditional fighting between forces, but in the Hopi district, the Imperials were laying siege to a building filled with non-combatants.

"Gates, we need to help these people!" Jenni said.

"And this is where you tell me how many people I need to save," Gates groused, "And I become a one-insect valet."

"We don’t have time for your cynicism!" Jenni responded, "First, go get Chameleon, and take him to one of the quieter districts, then we go in there." She pointed to the building which was under constant blaster fire.

Gates released himself from Jenni’s back, jumping down to the ground. A green glowing disc appeared and he went through it, closing the portal behind him. Jenni quickly ran into the building to see dozens of people cowering in the inner fortifications of the structure, something that wasn’t going to last for much longer. They cowered further back in surprise as Jenni appeared with lightning fading around her.

"Hi, I’m here to help you," she spoke quickly, "We’re going to evacuate you to a safe area of the city."

An older woman spoke up. "How?" she asked, "The people out there want to kill us!"

As if in answer, a green portal opened up next to her and Gates stepped through, confusing the citizens even more. "All right, XS," Gates said, "We’re ready."

Jenni addressed the civilians. "We’ve set up this portal to take you out to the Sioux district in the north," she said, "There’s no fighting there at the edge of the city, so you’ll be safe there."

"Please hurry," Gates added, "I can’t keep these portals open forever."

Jenni grabbed the closest civilian and dashed through Gates’ portal with her, then zipped back in the blink of an eye and grabbed the next person, continuing the cycle until all the civilians were safely in the Sioux area. Reep’s voice came in over the comm link as Jenni returned one last time.

"Everyone’s accounted for, Gates," Reep said, "I’ll make sure they’ll be safe inside somewhere here, but you can go ahead and close your portal."

"Let us know if you see any of these fascist imperial dogs running around here," Gates replied and closed the portal. "That took a lot," he said to Jenni.

"Well, I think this should go a little easier if we need to do this again," Jenni said, "But let’s look for anyone else in trouble."

Gates clambered back up onto Jenni’s back and she sped out of the building in an electric blur just as it began to give way.

yay! more good stuff, and it is Vinetix!

whooo that is some nice telekinetic lifting!

nice description of how Zoe's TK field feels like

also nice flight ring willpower by Vi

and I like how they fell on the ground

loving the Starhaven district names!

ah, what is Gates without complaining

what an awesome bit of rescuing nice teamwork!

Exactly - Gates will never not complain about something if he has to work.

At General Moonwalker's command, the entire Rebel force flew into the swarm of waiting Imperial loyalists with bursts of energy coming from each side, blue bolts shooting up from the Rebels and red from the loyalists defending the capital. Moonwalker spoke into the comm channel. "We move forward!" she called, "Don't let anything stop you!" and began flying up towards the aerial portals that ringed the throne room, folding in her wings into a more streamlined form and swinging her energy mace to deflect any blaster bolts shot towards her. Her escorts, along with the Legionnaires, rushed to keep up with their leader. "The Emperor's throne room is many floors above, but should still be intact. We make our stand there," she called over the channel.

As Imra was protected by the cocoon of the general's phalanx, she was able to get a good view of the battle scene. There were hundreds winged fighters all around the tower, most squads of soldiers trading shots, so it was easy to discern the Imperials from the Rebels. Some fighting was hand to hand in the air, either grappling or melee weapon combat; some energy based, others with traditional swords and blunt handheld weapons. During the race to the upper levels, Imra was able to concentrate and send the thought command of <Surrender> to many of the Imperial squads, who promptly let go of their weapons, tethered to their belts so they wouldn't fall to the ground, and put their hands in the air, to be captured by rebel forces.

To help gain the advantage of surprise, Tasmia sped up and flew to the lead, casting a wide shadow that surrounded the tower, save openings in the shadow to allow the rebels to find their way into the palace. This confused the enemy that crested in front of Moonwalker as she flew point, while Jeka conjured the illusions of numerous winged snakes that caused some panic among the Imperials, enabling Moonwalker's rebel force to swoop in through the oval portals ringing the walls of the throne room level with little difficulty. As they entered, Imra couldn't help but notice that the damage done to the room by Kinetix days earlier, was still not fully repaired.

Rebel Pathfinders and the Legionnaires flew in through the portals and immediately engaged with loyalist forces massed in the throne room. Most of those soldiers had gathered to the Legion's left where the lobby area of the lift opened, but many were still in the wide oval path among the support pillars between the lobby and the actual throne dais, which was almost its own room into itself. Lyle immediately went invisible and started causing confusion in the enemy ranks in the lobby area, while Val ran in to engage three Imperial soldiers at the same time with only his fists, closing the distance so fast they were unable to use their weapons. Tasmia also dove directly into combat; with her shadow holding around the tower entrance, she was free to attack the enemy forces with her Talokkian martial arts. Imra, Jeka and Candi stayed guarding Lori, hovering near one of the portals in the center, being effectively invisible due to Jeka's illusions while Jeka herself whipped at enemies with her tail, taking out several at a time. Moonwalker landed in the middle of the room and strode over to the throne dais, her mace in hand with Dawnstar at her side. "Darya," she called out to one of her escorts while swinging her mace to subdue enemies and deflect blaster bolts in her path, "Set up the cameras to record the event. Greybird, set up the perimeter so that we can set up our defenses."

"Yes, General," her son said immediately. A winged young lady with plaited dark hair trailing the general slung her rifle and pulled out a handheld device from a satchel. The device split into four floating wedges, each with a small aperture at the point that fanned out to point directly at the throne. Greybird then started barking out orders, "All Pathfinders! Weapons out!" All the winged Rebels armed their rifles and ringed the outside of the dais area with their weapons pointed outside to the inky blackness cast by Tasmia. "Be prepared for any incursion from..."

Greybird's words were cut off, preceded by a pop of air displacement and snapping that made most of the Legionnaires and Rebels turn towards him, where they found Meta's cloaked figure, his dark-bearded face exposed, standing with his bloody arm pushed through Greybird's chest. Greybird's limbs hung lump and his eyes stared lifelessly at the ceiling while Meta scanned across his throne room.

"GREY!" Dawnstar screamed and launched herself at Meta. Her mace activated into a bright gold as she swung it in a mindless fury. Emotionless, Ol-Vir swung the arm that still had Greybird's impaled body and it sloughed off to collide with Dawn's trajectory. Dawn crumpled to the floor under the weight of her brother's body, it's wings now turned to an ashen color and texture. The rest of the witnesses were stunned, not quite believing the horror they just witnessed until they were snapped out of the shock by Moonwalker smashing the Imperial throne with her energy mace, her own anguish betrayed by the tears that flew out of her eyes in the swing.

The throne burst into pieces, making Meta turn towards her just as M'Onel and Ferro, still in leaden form, flew through the portals and land, taking in the situation. They immediately turned towards Meta and started to rain blows on him, immediately forcing him on to the defensive; even though he was not as vulnerable to lead, Ferro's blows were affecting Meta, followed by Lar's, but it only seemed to slow down the Daxamite slightly. The rest of the room burst resumed fighting after the shock of Greybird's murder was overtaken by the need to fight.

As Ferro and M'Onel battled Meta, Dawnstar pushed her brother's body off her and re-ignited her energy mace and with a wild yell, leapt at the Emperor and swung the mace from over her head down on to the crown of his head. Meta's invulnerability shorted out the mace and destroyed it, but he was stunned and folded down on one knee. Dawn had fallen behind Meta after her strike on his head and struggled to stand back up. M'Onel and Ferro both threw punches down at the same time onto Meta, but he caught both their wrists and slammed them into each other, briefly stunning them and leaving them sprawled on the floor as Meta stood. He turned as Dawn finally got to her feet.

"Dawn!" Moonwalker called to her daughter, "Here!" She threw her energy mace to Dawnstar who caught it just in time to absorb a heat blast from Meta's eyes. When the eye blast finished, she swung the mace up to crack him in the jaw, forcing his head upward. Meta angrily looked back down at Dawn and his eyes began to glow. Dawn looked away, expecting a fatal blast of energy.

"No!" Val yelled and flung himself across the throne room with his flight ring and shoved Dawn away from the blast just as Meta's beams hit the floor after Val cleared the area. Val spun up on his good leg and swung up in the air to kick Meta in the jaw just as he let loose another blast of heat vision, cutting through half of the supports on the level. Val crumpled to the floor, re-injuring his leg with the kick to Meta's face. Dawn lunged forward to drag Val backwards behind the dais and away from the central fight.

Immediately, the wall started to buckle, and the remaining upper section of the spire began to fall in on itself. Seeing the immediate danger, Candi raced to the section of the level that was caving in and caught one of the falling support pillars before it crushed everyone. Saturn Girl, she thought, Watch over Lori!

I will! Imra thought in response, shielding Lori, who was watching everything unfold in front of her in a mixture of horror and anger, wanting to jump into the fray but knowing she would be taken out immediately without a weapon. Lori was becoming increasingly angry as the fight began and almost ran out to attack once Greybird was murdered but was held back by Imra. Imra could feel the anger coming off of Lori in waves without even having to touch her mind, but did her best to ease Lori psionically.

Candi braced the pillar as it tipped down, her muscles bulging at supporting the entire structure. "I can't hold this for much longer!" Candi said through gritted teeth, straining to prevent the structure from falling.

"Can I lend a hand?" Ultra Boy said casually as he, Tinya, Jan and Jazmin flew into the fray. Jo quickly moved to another nearby pillar and held up that area, easing the load that Candi was supporting. Jan landed next to Candi and started to transform oxygen molecules into intertron, reconnecting the room's pillars to bear the weight of the floors above.

The general dove from the dais to grab her mace on the floor and re-activated it, just in time to block and absorb another blast of heat from Meta. She swung the mace around and jabbed at Meta's midsection, releasing the absorbed energy of the mace into him and forcing him back. She jumped back, lifting herself into the air and floating backwards onto the dais, blocking more laser bolts in the air, just as M'Onel and Ferro came at Meta again, tag teaming him with multiple punches, even as Moonwalker deflected laser blasts onto him. Meta shifted to super speed and ran behind Ferro to punch him in the back, forcing Ferro to his knees, then shifted around to try to rush at the general, only to be blocked by M'Onel, who punched Meta in the gut and forcing him back farther.

"I'll slow him down!" Jazmin yelled and began firing Q-spheres at Meta, who swung around and slammed M'Onel backwards into those spheres, freezing him in a slower time bubble. Meta turned to glare at Moonwalker, who was still standing on the dais where his throne once sat. His eyes began to glow in preparation to incinerate the General, but Andy saw Meta's intent.

Andy jumped up flying, as fast as he could towards Moonwalker at full speed, just as Jazmin began firing more spheres that intersected with the heat rays Meta had just loosed. The q-spheres slowed them down for a moment, giving Andy an extra couple of seconds to get in front of General Walker on the dais. The beams hit Andy and he vanished.

"FERRO!" Imra cried in horror as all that seemed to be left of Andrew Nolan was a small pool of lead on the dais.

Lori took Imra's distraction as an opportunity. She stepped out from behind Imra, held out her arms with both hands faced out to the side, closed her eyes and yelled "STOP!" When she had opened them up, everything and everyone around her was frozen still.

Whoa what a lot of action! Nice power use by everyone

Greybird’s death was appropriately shocking! Daxamites sure can be scary

And Ferro..! What happened?

And Lori stopping time, so curious what will happen next

Wait, something happened to Ferro?

Andrew Nolan blinked. The last thing he remembered, he was flying towards Moonwalker, then a red flash. But now here he was standing a few meters away from her, with someone holding his hand. Everything and everyone around him was frozen in a snapshot. Blaster bolts hung in mid-air, warriors held weapons in mid swing in impossible to hold positions. He looked down and blinked again. "Lori?"

"Hey Ferro," Lori said. Her face held the saddest expression.

"So first off, how are you here?" He asked, completely bewildered, "And why is everything so still?"

"That's a long story," she said, "But I basically went back in time and gained some powers to control time, but I can't do much." She turned away. "All it seems I can do is turn time back and forth for me and maybe one other person. Or I can freeze a person in a moment while things move around them. But I can't change anything. I can't make anything DIFFERENT." She started to tear up.

"What?" Andy asked, "What do you mean? Why do things need to be different?"

Still not looking at Andy, Lori focused, and the scene rewound slowly. The beams drifted backwards back through Jazmin's q-spheres and into Meta's eyes. "Now look at what happens if I have you here with me," Lori said, and the scene inched forward, this time stopping right before impacting General Moonwalker directly. Lori turned to Andy with watering eyes. "The only reason I'm here is to hold Meta into a moment. Make him frozen in time so we can all figure out what to do with him," she said as she looked at the rage-twisted face of Ol-Vir, "But I can't do it without him seeing me and getting me fried." She turned back to face Andy. "Ferro, a lot of people die here today," she said, "I can't do anything to save Dawn's brother. But their mother is the leader of all this. And if I let you run, right now, you live. I let my friend live."

Andy slowly looked around at the scene, resting at Moonwalker's expression of shock and paused. "Am I supposed to die here?" he finally asked.

Lori started to cry. "I think so," she said, "I'm sorry."

Andy turned and hugged her tightly. "Hey," he said in the gentlest of tones as she sobbed against his leaden form, "Hey, Lori. Don't you worry, OK? This is what Legionnaires do." With one hand he gestured at the frozen Moonwalker. "So, she's pretty important?"

She looked over at General Walker, frozen in time. "Yeah," she sniffed, "She's the best. She's why we're all doing this. Her husband, Mistrider, stood up to Meta when he was first taking power, and was killed in front of everyone. She rallied all the other systems who were still free to fight against that asshole." Lori broke away from Andy and gestured at Meta's frozen form.

"Damn, I don't even know why I did this," Lori cried, "It's not like I can move time very far back. I can't even save Greybird." She wiped the tears off her cheek with her sleeve. "You'd probably be better if you didn't know any of this."

He held Lori by her shoulders as he looked into her blue eyes. Andy took a deep breath. "It's OK, Lori," he said, finally, "I've somehow known that I have a purpose in my life. If this is it, to give it for freedom, I'm okay with that. It's what a Legionnaire does. But can you do something for me?"

Lori sobbed and nodded her head.

"Tell Vi," he said at last, "Tell Violet, thanks for being my friend. And tell Triad, its ok. I'm still her friend, and she's still mine."

Lori nodded again, her lips quivering. Andy let go of her and stepped in between Moonwalker and the oncoming laser blast from Meta. "I'm ready," he said to Lori.



Imra blinked. A moment ago she just saw Ferro disappear in a blast of heat vision, but now in the blink of an eye, Lori Morning, with tears streaking down her cheeks appeared in front of her, but the scene around her was frozen still. "Lori?" she asked, "What exactly is happening now?"

"I'm ready," Lori said, determination in her voice despite the tears, "Let's take care of Meta."



Ferro had vaporized and Moonwalker pushed back off the dais, just as Imra screamed. In an eyeblink, Imra and Lori reappeared behind Meta. Lori tapped on Meta's arm. He turned his head, saw who it was and his eyes widened in surprise and shock.

"Hi sprocker!" Lori said and grabbed his bicep with both hands as her face snarled, "Time for night-night!"

The fighting paused as Meta cried out in an ear shattering scream that immediately distorted. Instead of Meta becoming immobile in time, he began rapidly advancing in age; his hair grew and turned white as his skin wrinkled and sunk.

"Lori, no!" Imra shouted, "Just hold him in a moment!"

"I'm trying!" Lori yelled back, "It's not working right!" She focused again and Meta began to rapidly reverse in age. The old man reverted to a toddler with Meta's dark clothing hanging around his neck, as Lori fought to control her powers and he began to age and grow yet again. Meta kept bouncing between an old man and a preschooler multiple times in minutes.

"Focus, Lori!" Imra shouted and grabbed her shoulder. Imra channeled her thoughts on Lori to help focus her powers better. Meta continued to fluctuate in age for another several minutes, but at a slower rate, until his body finally settled into a boy of about ten years old, Meta's dark suit and cloak hanging off the child's small frame. Lori fainted in exhaustion. The boy began to cry.

Imra eased Lori to the floor as the fighting in the throne room slowed to a halt with Meta's transformation. She knelt then held the boy by the shoulders, speaking to him as she also reached into his mind. "Hey, it's OK," Imra said, "Do you know where you are?"

"No," The boy said, "Where's my mom?"

"What's your name?" Imra asked. She searched the boy's mind looking for any hint of Meta.

"Ol-Vir," he said as he cried softly, "Ol-Vir Tauren. My mom is Trenna. I remember being at the encampment, and now I don't know where I am. Who are you?"

Imra scanned the boy's mind and found no memories of the man who was Meta, but she detected the hints of memories that could reappear, almost as if future neural pathways may or may not reform. "My name's Imra," she said, "We'll take you to a safe place."

aw man! what a scene... that was a great farewell for Ferro, and you write Lori really likable. nice nods to Vi and Triad too

wow, Lori can also age and deage? I wonder what Kid Q thinks of Lori's power-ups too?



Candi and Imra thinking to each other earlier was also a nice touch by the way . As was Imra's casual telepathy (making soldiers surrender lol)

whoa, a de-aged Meta. what are they gonna do to him?

Whew, what a climactic scene!