Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business Legion Worlds Nine updated 19 August 24

how exciting to see more so soon, yay! I love it, thanks Harbi!

interesting to see two Legionnaires who CANNOT work together easily (Dkyun, Atomsmasher)! but with a team that size, makes sense too! makes me recall Lydda and basically anyone who creates light

Lovely visual re Starkling, and great tactics too! using gravity as a weapon...

these Tyrazzians don't quite learn, do they? they think they can be prepared, but...
love the divide and conquer approach, sub-teams each with a diff. objective!
great way to showcase such a large cast

nice little friendly competition between Mon and Power Lass!

heh Brin, so impatient. and nice tactic from Poltergeist

and nice thiinking from Bouncing Boy II!

so far so good, but indeed from experience we know it won't keep being this easy eh

and sorry, was this a small error? in Retro's team's segment you mention Mindbender dampening the motor control of the sleeping Tyrazzians, but he's with Jan's team right?

this has been fun so far, and am super eager to see what wrenches you will throow into the works... AND what will become of Legion World 5!

Agh, I wrote this a while back and changed the team's around a bit so missed that part with Mindbender- will edit it now, thank you!

any time these things happen, I should know, I've missed quite a few in my own writing

I got a chance to catch up on your last couple of posts tonight Harbi! Some thoughts:

I did not expect anything further to happen with that sick lady that Glory met, what a nice surprise!

Marmud's reaction to being fodder for Academy gossip was quite mature, and now that Lu has had a chance to get some perspective on the way she acted, hopefully this might lead to them mending their bridges!

I am enjoying seeing all the Talok VIII stuff plod along...it is a big change in the status quo and it's gonna be interesting seeing where it leads as we've already seen some stuff come out of it!

Starkling spreading themself out over such a wide area of space is so clever! Starkling is definitely the most unique homebrew character we have in any of the fics I think, and you always do a really good job of showing how useful they can be!

Sylva wistfully dreaming about smashing some bad guys gave me a laugh

Lightning Lass - Deputy Team Leader, Ayla Ranzz of Winath, electrical generation and manipulation
Dragonmage - Xao Jin of Earth, dragon magicks
Backlash - Mrruaw M’Nau of Simballi, enhanced strength, speed, senses, absorbs kinetic energy to boost own size and mass
Ferro - Douglas Nolan of Earth, can assume invulnerable iron isotope form
Gazelle - J’izl Dtutuu from the Khundian Battle Brigade, of Khundia Prime, enhanced strength, speed, agility and metabolic control
Solar Gorilla - D'Nadka Endarooga of Dmansca - generate and project extreme heat and light

Intern:
Haze - Science Police Cadet Tkemwa Autmi-Hu of Ungara - strength, durability, induce confusion and senselessness

Ayla wasn't feeling quite so lucky.

Her team had warped into the planetoids main hydroponic section where the fungus that the Tyrazzians lived off grew in massive honeycombed columns. At least that's what they expected... the hydroponics were there but so were a vast array of exotic animals in pens. As the Legionnaires fanned out from their warp an alarm sounded and from out of nowhere several Warmongers attacked.

As Backlash pounced on a couple of them a tentacle stretched out from one of the pens and wrapped itself around the tigerram's neck. Haze broke off his psionic attack of two Tyrazzians to rush to help the Tigerram.

As he flew across the space an energy blast struck him in the back, knocking him flying into a force screen, and unconsciousness. The screen Haze had struck shimmered before faltering and finally collapsing completely. The two Tyrazzians he had been dealing with saw this and turned to run.

From within the large, force field fortified cage, a stream of small flying crescent shaped creatures flew out- Horja Birds, flying metallic winged raptors, shaped like sickles, with a taste for flesh!

Ayla spotted them from her position twenty metres away.

<Everyone, get down!> as she sent the message to her team she released a wall of electricity, pushing it out in front of her to blast the Horja Birds. She struck almost half of them, sending them crashing to the floor, while the rest of the swarm swerved out of the way. The electric blast continued on, throwing the two Tyrazzians that had blasted Haze aside before it exploded against a wall, setting fire to the far side of the room. This set off the automatic fire suppressant system which activated fans to suck all of the air out of the huge room.

Ferro and Gazelle had been enjoying battering a few of the Tyrazzians on the other side of the vast room when Ayla's message reached them. Both instinctively ducked and turned around to see what the problem was. As they watched the Horja swarm that had avoided Ayla's blast tore towards them. Douglas Nolan flew up towards them and managed to swat half a dozen out of the air before the rest turned again and tore off at a right angle.

As the metal skinned mutant attempted to stop the Horja swarm, Gazelle saw that Backlash was struggling with several tentacles squeezing the breath out of him and she darted across the floor towards the trapped tigerram. She reached for the tentacle that was wrapped around Backlash's throat and with a mighty wrench she tore it off of him, only to have it flick around and try to grab her. With a cartwheel she avoided it, though still held on and twisted and wrenched it as she moved. The creature within the cage gave a high-pitched scream.

Dragonmage and Solar Gorilla were in the path of the Horja Birds. Without thinking, D'Nadka put her hands in front of her face and releases a bolt of plasma. It tore through the small swarm, sending most of them spinning, smoking, to the ground. There were only a few left though the Legionnaires could see that there were other problems - the fire suppressant system had taken all of the air out of the room and within the many cages the animals were becoming frantic as they struggled to breathe.

As Ferro chased after the last of the Horja birds, Ayla contacted Henry and asked the holo-man to open up mini-warps that would allow air to stream through into the cages where the animals struggled. The holo-man appeared before her and looked around the room, taking in where each of the animal pens were positioned before small warps, no bigger than the palm of a hand spun into existence above each. Air blew through and the desperate animals all scrambled towards it.

<there are several planetary zoos that may benefit from these additions, shall I send them there?> Henry sent to Ayla.

<do it, and thank you Henry> She replied. Within seconds all of the creatures that had been held in cages throughout this area had fallen into his spinning warps that had opened underneath them.

<right team, check those warmongers are in cuffs and let's not tell anyone about this, okay?> Ayla looked sheepishly at her team as she sent this message across the telepathic matrix.

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


Chameleon Boy – Espionage Squad leader, Reep Daggle of Durla, shape changer
Lexikon - Princess Daheenisha of Tamaran iv, enhanced speed, strength, durability, flight, omni-linguist
Thirteen – Dann Hortra of Naltor, line of sight probability manipulation
Babbage- I-45ENG/Nth Series, of the Robotica Confederated Worlds, strength and durability, internalised weapons, hyper awareness and analytical skills.
Friction - Janee Whittakka of Xanthu - manipulates the force of friction

Science Police meta-squad seconded to the Legion Worlds:
Captain Phantom - Senior Team liaison, Science Police Captain Gryal Vrizza of Bgztl Dimension, intangibility

Intern:
Impact - Dillon Blackstream of Myar, incredible strength, speed, durability, stamina, motion sense

Chameleon Boys' team stepped through a warp into the centre of the engineering deck.

There was a small group of the warmongers standing over s large hardlight console in front of the Legionnaires.

Between Friction causing the Tyrazzians to slip and fall over as they turned around and Impact slapping incapacity cuffs on their arms at hyper-velocity there wasn't much trouble taking control. Reep could see from the teams faces that they were all slightly disappointed at how smoothly their encounter with the warmongers had gone.

The alarm had started raging as soon as they arrived but a targeted blast of Babbage's finger laser at the speakers quietened it, much to the tam's relief.

"Right team, can we take their weapons and propulsion down? At least until Jan gives the all-clear." The Durlan Legionnaire said as he looked around the room.

There was an obvious Q-drive control that Thirteen had immediately crossed the room to examine, while Babbage had a large hand placed upon a console not far from the door. Reep had total faith that the two of them had the technical know-how to keep things under control. As much as he would never admit it out loud, Reep knew his own technical knowledge would probably seem rather dated these days. He could see a large sphere of what appeared to be smokey glass in a side room, that he approximated as eight or nine metres wide, attached to several thick tubes that ran into the Q-Drive mechanism.

"Thirteen, Babbage... once you're done shutting down the propulsion can you come over and help me with this?" Reep flew across to the sphere and scanned it with his flight ring. He quickly had several hard light screen pop up from his flight ring showing the findings of the scan.

"Oh-kaaay... this is strange.. Babbage, can I borrow you please, these readings don't make much sense to me." Reep called over his shoulder towards the Robotican. He could see the rest of the team were standing around, not looking particularly impressed by their lack of action. "Captain Vrizza, would you do me a favour and please take Lexikon, Friction and Impact out into the corridors as I'm sure they'll enjoy the chance to chase down any of the warmongers that are out there." He gave the Science Police Captain a broad smile, that was echoed straight back.

"Would be my pleasure. Right ladies, drinks are on me for the person who cuffs the most..." Before he had finished Friction had darted out of the door with a laugh.

There was a loud bang and she was blown back in, her costume and hair on fire and they could hear heavy footsteps approaching. Both Impact and Lexikon flew out the door at speed,

Thirteen dashed across from the Q-Drive control. He reached Friction and his eyes glowed as he altered probabilities to smother the flames that still burned on Janee's torso and legs. From outside they heard several loud crashes and several yelps of pain. Captain Phantom had dived through the nearest wall as soon as he saw that Thirteen was dealing with their fallen comrade.

"Stay here Babbage, we need to know what this is." Chameleon Boy said to his Robotican teammate, pointing to the large smokey glass sphere. The Durlan assumed the form of a hawk and flew out of the door.

"Henry, we need an urgent warp to the medical bay." Thirteen spoke into his flight ring to call the holo man. He glanced up towards the doorway as they heard more crashes and yells from outside, preparing himself to use his abilities if any of the warmongers attempted to enter.

A honey and violet warp spun into existence and Thirteen picked up his unconscious teammate and carried her through, "Will be right back..." the Naltoran said as he stepped over the threshold between the Tyrrazian battle world and First Base.

In the corridor, the Legionnaires faced Tyrrazian cyborgs coming from both directions. Impact sped one direction, crashing through the half dozen that had gotten close to the door. She was not gentle as she powered through them, throwing them against walls and the ceiling as she went. One managed to get a blast off that exploded into the ceiling above, sending burning debris falling down onto them.

Captain Phantom stepped through the wall and quickly assessed that the intern would need very little help as she threw the warmongers about. He flew behind her and snapped incapacity cuffs onto the organic arms of those that were on the floor. He kicked a piece of burning ceiling that had landed on the chest off one of them, though did wonder if they deserved it for blasting Friction.

Lexikon had flown along the other direction and encountered four more of the warmongers. All of them had cyborg attatchments raised to fire at her. The Tamaranean princess dived into the floor causing it to buckle and tear underneath them. With blinding speed she then took to the air and flew straight towards them as they regained their balance. She snapped cuffs on the first, punched the second so hard they flew backwards and knocked the one behind them into a wall with a satisfying thud! The last one looked like he was turning to flee but before he took three steps Lexikon flew in and booted him solidly between the shoulder blades, knocking him face first onto the floor.

<well done team. Let's cuff them, and if you three could wait out here and guard us, I need Babbage and Thirteen to help close down the engineering deck.> Chameleon Boy resumed his own form, just outside the door as he sent this message. He smiled at his teammates before he hovered back into the engineering bay.

Babbage was still stood in front of the large smokey glass sphere.

"Any luck Babbage?" Reep asked.

"This unit believes that this sphere is somehow a containment vesel for a space time breach of some description."

"A breach? ...like a time travel thing?" Reep absent mindedly tugged on an ear as he asked.

"Negative, at least not necessarily. It is this unit's estimation that this is a multi-dimensional tear contained with a powerful quasi-magneto temporal field, that currently is defying my scanners' abilities to fully quantify."

yay! another entry!

ooh, what are the Tyrazzians doing with all those animals, I wonder? for food perhaps? Nice new dimension to add, Harbi!


sorry, a very teeny typo here that would not be caught with spellcheck:


nice application of Ayla's powers, a big wall of electricity. oops at the fire suppressant systems, but eh these things tend to happen in battle!

love how precise Henry's warps are. and a great line from Ayla re not telling anyone, I'd feel a tad sheepish too it was nothing too serious in the end, though a bit embarrassing - and very real/human

LOL at Cham's team being disappointed the Tyrazzians didn't put up more of a fight

also nice line/bit from Reep, that his own tech knowledge is outdated. we see that today, imagine how much faster the pace of tech advancement is in the Legion's time!

also nice bit with Reep and Captain Phantom finding something for the bored Legionnaires to do

oh my, poor Friction!

you also do such a great job writing Thirteen, I know I would struggle with such a power. but you make him versatile without being crazy powerful.

Impact and Lekixon kicking ass! Impressed by Lexikon's sheer strength and Impact's speed.

I like the "this unit" way of addressing itself from Babbage... and wait what, a mutlidimensional tear? wow you sure know how to up the ante, Harbi!

as always, looking forward to more more more!

Thanks IB, yup, that should have read as #flesh' not fresh, haha.

Ayla hasn't been leading missions for too long so I imagine she was a tad embarrassed, oh well. We'll get into this battleworld a bit more next time when we meet the Tyrrazian in charge. Oh, I notice that sometimes I write Tyrrazian - two r's and one z, and also Tyrazzians - one r and two z's - both have been saved into my spellcheck so in case it comes up, please accept that both are valid

Poor Friction, I think she was still on party mode Thirteen will have something interesting to do very soon as we earn more about this tribe of warmongers.

Thanks again IB, always grateful for feedback

C

haha don't worry, I have not even noticed the variation in spelling for Tyrazz and Tyrrazians

always happy to R&R Harbi, reading your stuff is always a great treat!

Troy led his team out of the docking bay and into the corridors that ran throughout the planetoid. He split the team into two: Timber Wolf would take Shield, Bouncing Boy and Starkling, while Monica, Atom Girl and Poltergeist would be with him. He sent a message across the telepathic matrix to confirm the other teams had completed their primary goals, and it was time to start their secondary stage - clearing the Tyrrazians out of the planetoid.

Thunder announced across the telepathic matrix that Strobe and Non would be joining them as her team outside the planetoid were almost finished with their tasks. She was en route to the main control deck to check on Element Lad's team, but expected to be free in a few minutes.

Tyroc wished everyone good luck and led his team into a gravity shaft to take them to the level below the docking bay. Atom Girl flew ahead of him, keen to prove herself.

Starkling flew in front of the small team led by Timber Wolf, the composite Legionnaires' telepathy making it easy for them to find the warmongers. After they had battered a third one unconscious Shield asked them to stop hogging all the fun as she would like the opportunity to deal with a few of the warmongers too. Timber Wolf laughted.

Ayla had split her team in two as well as they left the hydroponics unit and went searching for more Tyrrazian warmongers to capture. Ferro and Gazelle led Solar Gorilla one way, while Dragonmage, Backlash and Haze joined Lightning Lass going in the opposite direction.

Retro heard the telepathic chatter and decided to do the same, so he took Dragonwing and Kid Pulsar with him and sent Duplicate Girl with Karate Kid and Kinetix along a different corridor. They were frustrated that neither team encountered any more of the warmongers before Thunder announced that they had full control of the planetoid and all Tyrrazians had been subdued.

With Captain Phantom leading Lexikon and Impact out from the engineering deck as well, it meant there were seven small teams of Legionnaires, as well as Strobe and Non searching for Tyrrazians to subdue. As over half of the warmongers population was trapped in an enforced sleep cycle the Tyrrazians, even in their own planetoid, quickly found there was nowhere to hide from the advancing Legionnaires. Gear's nannites had infested the internal security systems and notified Legionnaires whenever they were twenty metres from a Tyrrazian. There was a last stand of twenty or so of the cyborg warmongers but Captain Phantom led his team in to face them while Strobe flew through them in an electric form. They didn't last long before they were all captured.

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


Element Lad - Senior Team member, Jan Arrah of Trom, elemental transmutation
XS - Jenni Ognats of an alternate dimension Aarok, phenomenal speed
Mindbender - Marmud Illic of Titan, alpha-level telepath

Science Police meta-squad seconded to the Legion Worlds:
Magno - Science Police Officer Dyrk Magz of Braal, manipulation of magnetic fields

Mindbender rubbed his hands together as he waited in the warp control room with Element Lad's team. They were tasked with taking over the control deck. According to Gear's nanntes it was a large domed room near the middle of this planetod. Marmud tried to focus on the job at hand though his thoughts kept swerving back to the conversation he had with Luornu Durgo an hour before the call for this mission came through. They had arranged to hold a joint training session on Home Base in the next couple of days, and if truth were told, he was nervous about it. He hadn't forgiven her for her treatment of him, but he didn't think she deserved what the students were saying about her. He needed to put all that to the back of his mind though, there was a mission to go on...

Henry's warp opened into the main control deck.

XS zoomed through and the team expected her to be back with them within a second, but instead there was a flash of light from the other side of the warp. Element Lad immediately dived through, closely followed by Magno and Mindbender. The room they flew into was easily twenty metres across and ten metres high in the middle, dominated by a raised plinth with hard light screens swirling around it. There were half a dozen Tyrrazians unconscious on the floor in between their work stations, incapacity cuffs on their arms though no mmediate sign of XS. A female Tyrrazian stood amongst the screens on top of the raised plinth. She was only the second female of this species that the Legion had encountered.

"Legionnaires, we are not enemies yet you defile my home." The voice came from all around them, yet was not loud.

<Jan, her mind is ...it's vast, like a Coluan's but ...weird!> Marmus sent to his colleagues.

<stay out of it for now, find Jenni> Jan replied. The Trommite took to the air and flew up to face the red skinned woman on the plinth.

"You are approaching Emerson Three, it is a United Planet's world. We are removing your threat."

"No... no, you came here to take my home from me Jan Arrah. I will not tolerate this behaviour." Her skin rippled with gold as an armour appeared to flow up from the plinth to coat her entire body. Element Lad could feel the composition of the air around her change as in seconds she became a golden being, her once flawless skin now covered in evil looking spikes and two large horns growing out from her head.

"Well, that armour's a bit rubbish really..." Magno said as he magnetically grabbed hold of her and spun her in circles above the Legionnaire's heads.

Element Lad started to laugh as he floated back down to the control deck floor but before he could thank the Braalian SPO for his assistance he was blinded by an intense burst of light and a golden spike tore through his left thigh, splattering blood and muscle across the floor as he fell unconscious to the floor. Dozens of the golden spikes had flown off the armour immediately after the blinding flare and smashed around the Legionnaires. Magno's reflexes were fast enough to create a shield that protected both himself and Mindbender but he gasped as he saw Element Lad fall. Marmud yelled for a warp to the medi bay as Dyrk extended his shield to keep Jan from being torn apart as more of the spikes rained down on them.

<I got this> Mindbender turned towards the golden covered woman that was still spinning above them. He had found Jenni, unconscious in a corner, apparently unhurt physically but she had resisted his telepath call to wake up. He was not entirely sure why she was unconscious but knew that the gemale in the golden armour must be responsible. He closed his eyes and pushed his thoughts out towards the Tyrrazian, intent on putting her to sleep. As his mind touched hers, he caught a fleeting sense that this team was not the first group of Legionnaires that this tribe had fought, and with that she was asleep and the golden spikes stopped raining down on them. The Titanian tried to find the memory of fighting Legionnaires but it had slipped away.

A warp spun into existence and Shardwurd Gandessun stepped through. The young healer was wearing a body armour, and immediately reached for Element Lad, his bio-kinetic abilities stemming the blood flow. After several seconds he then willed the unconscious Trommite's flight ring to activate its Slave mode, whereby he could control it and float the injured Legionnaire through the warp he had just come from back to the medi bay on First Base.

"What a mess..." Marmud muttered as he looked around the room. Their team leader had been seriously wounded and they were unaware what had happened to knock out XS... He walked over to her slumped form and gently picked her up to carry across to Henry's warp.

<Thunder, Tyroc, we have the control deck, but we need assistance, Jan and Jenni are both down> He sent his thoughts out to the team leaders, aware that whatever the outcome from this escapade, it would need senior team intervention.

Even as the telepathic message went out, Thunder flew through the door.. She glanced around the domed room and flew over to take Jenni from Marmud's arms, flying her through the warp at speed before returning a second later.

"We need to take full control." She said <Glorith, can you being Danielle through please>

Henry's warp closed and a second opened next to Thunder. Glorith stepped through, her facial markings glowed as she summoned her magical manna, readying herself to release a spell. Behind her, Danielle Foccart stepped cautiously through the warp, her head was up as she glanced around the room. Element Lad's blood was still splattered across the floor, though no-one mentioned it.

After about ten seconds the young technopath announced that only the life support functions were now active and all other AI activity had been shut down. With that she turned and walked back through the warp with Glorith beside her without saying another word.


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


Two hours later, the battle world was fully under the Legionnaires control.

In total, one thousand and eighty four Tyrrazians had been captured. The female that appeared to lead them was kept unconscious within a magnetic sphere that the Science Police had managed to put together with a little help from Gear.

Thunder, Tyroc, Mon El, Lightning Lass, Retro, Duplicate Girl, Dawnstar and Captain Phantom were all sat at a circular table in First Base taking stock of what had happened on their mission.Element Lad and XS were both doing well in the medi bay - and in fact Jenni was fully awake and already insisting she was well enough to get back to active duty. It was expected that Jan's leg would take another forty eight hours to fully heal, though there were no complications forecast if he rested. The large craft that Green Lantern had caught had contained a vast store of embryonic forms - the Warmongers next generation had been jettisoned to preserve their species. Mon El commented on the fast growing technology that they seemed to use should be investigated. Thunder smiled as she said that she was fairly sure that the SP's were already doing that.

Thirteen, Babbage, XS and Mindbender were called in to tell the Senior Team about what they had experienced on the mission and to share anything they had discovered.

XS explained that she had ran through the warp and had cuffed all of the Tyrazzians she had seen but was blinded by a flash of light... that was the last thing she remembered before wakening up in the medi-bay. The Senior Team were hoping that she might have more information, but thanked her anyway. Thirteen was next, explaining that the Q-Drive had modifications that he found difficult to understand. The team could easily operate it as a normal power source but he worried what the additional functions had been created for. Babbage concurred, and added that the trans-dimensional tear that the warmongers had within their engineering had obviously been fitted to give them some additional functions that the Robotican was unable to explain definitively. When it came to Mindbender's turn to speak he smiled.

"I believe I know what it's for... within the female Tyrrazian's mind I saw a Legion... not ours, but almost the same. They had fought them months ago and the warmongers only just managed to escape. I believe the Legion they fought were from another plane of reality and the tear you found, well, the warmongers have created a way to travel between various realities."

"Can you show me what you saw?" Jenni asked. Marmud smiled as he mentally projected the memory he had seen in the female Tyrrazian's mind to her and the Senior Team.

"That's... that'smyteam, UmbraandM'OnelandShikariandSensor. Ohmystars! TheyweretheLegionIfirstjoined." The look on her face showed both her amazement and happiness. Jenni looked at all the Senior Team and took a breath, remembering to slow her breathing down before she spoke afain. "Remember, they said they were looking for acway back to our home. Do you think they found it? Can we... can we try to search for them?"

yay! more stuff Harbi!

I think it's a bit cute and fun, that Brin takes his paramour Laurel, and Troy takes his paramour Monica, hee hee

Atom Girl sure is determined, and it seems to be a running theme with her - determined to prove herself. knowing you, you're likely setting this up to be a plot point for later, am I right?

also laughing a bit at Legionnaires being frustrated that they don't get enough fighting action haha

nice development re Marmud and Lu, and like how you slipped it in - very realistic for Marmud to still be kinda bothered

nice bit showing female Tyrazzians. at least in the Reboot, I don't remember seeing any females!

yikes! quite an escalation, with flying spikes. nice work, having the team think it was easy and suddenly having this happen. and where is Jenni?

a memory of fighting Legionnaires, does this have something to do with that anomaly/tear Babbage detected? and was Jenni affected cause she's from another reality?

like the Slave mode of the flight rings, allowing Legionnaires to assist injured ones...

1084 Tyrazzians!! that is a lot!! well of course it's a whole planet... glad Jenni is fine . and nice bit with Green Lantern thinking of taking the jettisoned vessel

OH MY GOSH! yes a different Legion... the Reboot Legion! oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh! I am stoked! I love this development, Harbi

looking forward to more more more!

Those Horja Birds sound cool! Love a good 31st century freaky animal!

The Legion looking after the caged animals is one of the things I love about the Legion, nicely done!

Babbage's find is intriguing! And likely going to lead to bad things I suspect!

Ooh I like that Tyrrazian lady with the golden armour, she is fierce! Marmud finding other Legionnaires in her memory makes me think this has something to do with what Cham and Babbage found....

OH WOW, what an ending!! Are we gonna get the 247 Legion????? EEEEK!!!!!

First Base

Brainiac 5 stepped through the honey and violet warp into the meeting room.

Thunder, Tyroc, Duplicate Girl, Mon El, Chameleon Boy and Lightning Lass were waiting for him. In a move that would surprise many of the more junior team members, Luornu got off her seat to walk over to hug him.

"We've missed you Querl." She said as she wrapped her arms around him. The Coluan patted her on the shoulder in return before slightly tilting away from her, indicating this moment was over and she should let him go.

"You called, requesting my assistance." He said, looking directly at Tyroc with no emotion in either tone of voice or expression to hint at his feelings on the matter.

"Yes, thank you, Querl for agreeing to see us so quickly. We have a mystery to solve... I... we believe you are our best bet at finding an answer." Troy replied.

Within ten minutes, Professor Querl Dox had walked through one of Henry's warps, accompanied by Thunder, Chameleon Boy, Babbage and Danielle Foccart. There were several teams of Legionnaires and Science Police officials on the planetoid already, ensuring it was safe for their future use. Still, Thunder wanted to join Brainiac 5's reconnaissance mission just in case they had overlooked something dangerous and he needed a bit of support.

They could all see his expression had definitely changed to one of contented puzzlement as he examined the strange glass globe attached to this battle planets Q-Drive. It was four hours later that he returned to First Basr to explain to the Senior Team that the damage they had inflicted on the battle world had destroyed several components of the trans-dimensional warping technology. With a small smile he added he expected to have it repaired and ready for use within the next ten days.

No-one mentioned that he was officially on a sabbatical from the team, they were all just too happy to have him back with them even if it was just for the short term.

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


Home Base, the Legion Academy: currently situated 2.5 light seconds galactic north of Saturn, Sol System.

The planetoid had been found in the late 25th century in the outer reaches of the Sol Oort cloud and initially it had been mined for the precious metals it held. Within fifty years it had been sold to a buyer that was employed by the wealthy backers of a small religious movement that had predicted a huge collapse would come and sweep away humanity. They were looking for a place to remove themselves to until this prophesied 26th century Armageddon had passed.

It was to be their refuge as their leader had predicted that the end of the human race was due... the followers adapted the planetoid to their needs and over two decades they made it their home, becoming self-sufficient and breaking contact with the many populated worlds around them. Over the next few centuries their numbers dwindled though there were still at least seven hundred of them by the start of the 31st century.

This was when the organisation called the Dark Circle had found the planetoid and decided they wanted it for themselves. Within two days of the order being given, the Dark Circle had slain every one the inhabitants and taken this hidden planetoid as their own covert base at the edge of the Sol System.

They updated its AI control system and outfitted it with up-to-date and space worthy technology before using the strange technology they found that was already on board the planetoid to open warps to distant universes where they were not seen as a fringe cult. From these far-off universes the Dark Circle boosted their own ranks, including the equivalent of Legionnaires that supported their cause. The Inner Circle started upon a plan that would give them control over the Sol system and the Legion once and for all.

The Dark Circle had only possessed this wondrous base for a little under a year before it again was taken over by a diametrically opposed organisation - the Legion of Super Heroes. The Legion had added a lot more up-to-date technology, freed the spatial warp-controlling AI called Henry, who claimed to be a former member of the team from the future, and updated propulsion and security systems. Once this was completed, they moved the planetoid from its orbit out in reaches of the Oort Cloud to a stationary point above Saturn's North Pole.

At around the same point in time, the Legion's Academy at Montauk Point on Earth had lost Chuck Taine, its former headmaster, and several students during an unprovoked attack by Black Adam's cursed daughters. Much of the building itself was also destroyed. This terrible act led the school to move out to the Legion's planetoid. As the Legion gained more planetoids to run their operations from, they renamed this planetoid as their Home Base and handed it over to the Academy.

The current Headmistress and Headmaster of the Academy, Luornu Durgo-Taine and Rokk Krinn, had each had the most adventurous lives, having survived and thrived through experiences beyond those of the vast majority of the population from their respective home worlds in this era of incredible opportunities and technological wonders. While they had been blessed with good fortune, they knew full well that not everyone would share their luck so were driven to assist their students by sharing every advantage they could think of that could help them.

The planetoid had been created to easily accommodate a couple of thousand people though currently there were only about four hundred or so living underneath its pitted primal skin.

The half dozen former legionnaires who had chosen to become tutors at this latest Academy and their Science Police colleagues and support staff believed that their new base was essential for the progress and continued safety of their home galaxy. It had purpose, and it was good, as well as a necessary place in the order of things - they were training the next generation of heroes and building inroads to diverse planetary security serviced and armed forces. They offered a solid link in the chain of continuity to further help the side of order and justice to the United Planets within their galactic neighbourhood.

And as the small planetoid rolled through the endless expanse in its orbit 2.5 light seconds galactic north of Saturn the majority of its occupants couldn't know what was coming their way so they trained and studied and practiced and learned and then trained some more - they would be as ready as possible when the universe threw whatever it could at them.

That was the plan anyway...

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


The Terror Twins - Kalis and Drin Yip of Exor - personal magical transformation
Invisible Kid iii - Mors Gwokyalya of Earth - invisibility
Gravity Lass - Chayaanu Kir of Thanagar - flight, speed, strength, durability, healing, creation of gravity waves
Aqua Lass - Hetha Howahe of Europa - underwater survival, strength, hydrokinesis
Rebounder- Lozaro Koosta-Nevarra of Rimbor - dense molecular structure giving increased strength, speed, durability and reflection of attack


Kalis and Drin Yip wanted to go to Earth.

Duplicate Girl, their legal guardian, had banned them from leaving Home Base but that wasn't going to stop them.

Of course, Mors and Lozarro were interested. The pair had become close friends as they bonded over their love of pushing boundaries... a couple of adrenaline junkies, as Lydda had once called them. The two young men, along with Kid Flux, were fast becoming the go-to students on Home Base for pranks and dares, and anything slightly outside of the rules. So, Drin approached them, asking how they...hypothetically, of course, could get the twins off Home Base. The two risk takers brainstormed a few ideas until they eventually came upon the plan to sneak onboard a supply craft and thereby avoid the ban on using Henry's warps and not raise too much suspicion by having an unexpected craft arrive at the planetoid. Mors then went onto insist that if Drin and Kalis were planning on leaving for an adventure, they wanted in on it as well. Lozarro was hesitant but Mors badgered him until the blue skinned youth from Rimbor agreed to join them.

Kalis had also been speaking to the students, though in her case she chose slightly more sensible options. Chayaanu and Hetha were becoming quite close friends as both had suspicions about humankind due to their cultural upbringings. At the same time, both were grateful for the Legion for getting them out of the predicaments they had been in on their respective home worlds. They could relate to each others mixed emotions about their situation.

Neither thought sneaking off base was a good idea and instead suggested if simply asking Luornu for a weekend pass to visit friends would be okay. Kalis agreed though was doubtful if they would get permission. She was also worried that if they didn't then they would be put under greater scrutiny afterwards as Lu would know that Drin would likely look for alternative ways to leave. The three young woman all agreed that there was a balancing act needed... perhaps ask if the twins could take a selection of students of human heritage that had never spent time on the Mother World for a field trip might be a way around it. Kalis thought this was the best solution they had come up with and set about accessing Duplicate Girl's calendar to find a convenient time to arrange a meeting to ask. The three students worked on what to say - the bounty that Sa Lok had issued against the Legion had been called off, the students had not been allowed off base unless on missions for almost two months and Kalis really, really missed her friends... Lu would have to say yes, wouldn't she?

Twelve hours and a very disappointing meeting later, Lu had said they could wait another month then she'd reconsider... so Kalis agreed to sneak aboard a supply shuttle with Drin. Of course, Mors and Lozaro said they had to join them, and Hetha and Chayaaru insisted they came along, "to be the voices of reason" they said... The six youngsters checked when the next shipment of supplies was due and made their plans. Drin and Kalis would meet up with a couple of old friends while introducing the rest of the group to Nu-Beijing's system-famous Moonshine Mall.

After a quick search of the docking bay's itinery Drin discovered that there was a shuttle leaving Lunar London later on the same day that they could hitch a ride on back to Home Base... in total they'd be away for 21 hours and if they were lucky Duplicate Girl would never know they were gone. None of them asked how they would get to Lunar London to catch the shuttle but all agreed it was the best plan they had. They all thought they would figure out a solution when the time came.

Unfortunately, these things never go as intended...

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


Home Base, the Legion Academy: 2.5 light seconds galactic north of Saturn, Sol System.

Dr Boom - senior physician and United Planets Government envoy - Danii Schwartz-Geltt of Myar


Doctor Danii Schwarz-Geltt was surprisingly happy.

Since being posted to the Home Base Academy she had dealt with quite a few patients that had surprised her but the latest was definitely one for her private journal.

Wildfire had taken a group of students out into space. Half of the group were perfectly adapted to it, or at least had the physiology to survive there. The other half were there for their mandatory flight ring training session. The training should have been simple - each space-safe student was matched up with one that wasn't and had to be guided around an obstacle course blindfolded. After completing that they reversed roles and the students that were wearing flight rings in space for the first time were blindfolded and told to follow instructions.

The course itself was relatively simple and all hologrammatic so there should have been no problems if a student collided with one of the hoops that made up the course. There really shouldn't have been any problems... at least that was the theory.

Until the student they called Mass collided with the hologram and in panic activated their ability to convert energy into personal mass which sucked the energy from not only the holo itself but the entire holo-grid system on the planetoid. The student had almost immediately tripled in size and had been belching blasts of migraine-inducing colourful lights ever since that erupted like fireworks.

A glance at the student's medical file confirmed they were originally from standard human-stock and that the usual accepted medicine offered her no remedies. Dr Schwarz-Geltt took to her Omnicom and worked out if there was alchemedic mixture she could try. It took ten solid minutes of focused concentration before she felt happy that she had an acceptable solution.

The clinician that the students had taken to call Dr Boom took half a dozen sealed jars from her shelves and carefully measured small amounts of their contents into a clear crystal mortar. She passed a lick of flames over the mixture before crushing them with a silver pestle. Once she was happy with the resulting powder it was stirred into a vial full of purest H2O, then shaken exactly as any alchemist would do it - three left, three right, three left, until full absorption... and once done the remedy was ready. The mixture should calm any unnatural energies and slow down the metabolising process to allow the student to absorb the excessive energies in a more gentle and hopefully less explosive fashion.

Mass was never going to win any awards for their looks, being large and cumbersome at the best of times, though currently they were simply enormous and also very clearly scared. Dr Schwarz-Geltt tried to calm the student as she offered what she hoped would be the solution to their problem.

The student gulped down the contents of the vial in one hearty glug and looked up at the doctor with a grateful smile... and then slowly started to emit a gentle glow, much like a child's night light, as their physical form gradually began to shirk down to its normal proportions. The process took about four hours to complete but afterwards the student was welcomed back to their training group as a heroic figure for shutting down the entire hologram system of the planetoid. Meanwhile, the tutors scrambled to figure out why the student's abilities had reacted so aggressively to holo-energy in the exercise. It seemed there was more to Mass than met the eye...

Another day at the Academy, another medical emergency dealt with.

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


The Terror Twins - Kalis and Drin Yip of Exor - personal magical transformation
Invisible Kid iii - Mors Gwokyalya of Earth - invisibility
Gravity Lass - Chayaanu Kir of Thanagar - flight, speed, strength, durability, healing, creation of gravity waves
Aqua Lass - Hetha Howahe of Europa - underwater survival, strength, hydrokinesis
Rebounder- Lozaro Koosta-Nevarra of Rimbor - dense molecular structure giving strength, durability and reflection of attack


With the holo-system failing on the planetoid a fail-safe AI redistributed the energy grid which coincided with the six students sneaking onto the Northern docking bay. As a result, the security system did not register their breaching the usually tightly enforced boundary field which stopped students from leaving the academy zones outside of accepted course work.

Kalis and Drin held hands and whispered the forms they wanted to take and, in a flash, where the young man had been a stream of thick fog which poured into the docking bay, while his sister vanished and was replaced with a small drone much like those that regularly flew around the academy. The two transformed students were first into the docking bay, checking that they were alone. After Kalis, in drone form, had motioned the rest of the group to follow her they charged to the small delivery craft and bundled into the back of it.

An alert pinged, detecting unexpected weight, but before it set off a klaxon on the docking bay Lozaro quickly placed a small pad onto the small control panel which loaded a pre-programmed command: no alarms and they would fly straight to Nu-Beijing. It was dirty tech that the gangs of Rimbor used to hi-jack crafts, crude but effective. The shuttle would ignore all outside signals until they had landed. The students hoped it would stop them being flown straight back here if they were clocked as missing.

With a crunching noise, the back of the shuttle closed and they were on their way.

The six students were sat in a confined storage pod. Thankfully Rebounder's pad had commanded the shuttle's controls to keep the storage area full of a fresh and breathable atmosphere. Initially they were excited, happily chatting about what they wanted to do, where they could go and what to see when they arrived on Earth. The Rimboran had also, somehow, got hold of four credit cards and handed three of them out. "We'll need money y'know." He said with a grin, though wouldn't answer where the cards had come from, only saying that there was about a hundred or so credits on each so not to go too crazy with them. The group were excited and laughed as they discussed what they'd like to do when they got to the Terran home world.

What they hadn't taken into account was the time it would take to travel to Earth. It took just over two hours, by which time the conversations had long dried up and their excitement had definitely fizzled out.

Their entry into earth's atmosphere was turbulent and where it not for Chayaanu managing to stabilise a negative gravity bubble around them they would most likely have been seriously hurt as they were thrown around. After a rather scary few rollercoaster-like minutes the shuttle finally stopped and slowly lowered itself to the ground with an all-mighty thump!

As the door opened to reveal the sky above the cityscape of Nu-Beijing, the group gave a collective cheer - they had finally arrived!

hey IB and Raz, thanks again for your kind reviews above.

IB, Atom Girl's insecurities are an ongoing part of her character so while there's broad stroke plans I've nothing really specific in mind right now. That is likely to change when I get round to giving her more time in the spotlight though

Marmud and Lu? they've definitely still got ways to go before there's peace between them, there will be more very soon on that.

Raz, yeah, who doesn't love 31st century animals? I had originally planned on using more but then the story started to be taken over by the team chasing down animals rather than Tyrrazians, still I have the plans there so may recycle it later on for a bit of fun.

So before we get to the U247 team (if it is really them, of course) we've a couple more (mis)advenutres to go. The Academy will be in the spotlight for the next few posts then I might finally get round to posting my Tyroc versus the angry tree tale I've been promising for a while. Until then, hope you're still enjoying this.

thanks Harbi for clarifying re Atom Girl and Marmud and Lu too!

yay, more!

nice appearance from Brainy, and I like how you write him: hugging Lu briefly but not dragging out the moment. also a nice development for Lu, openly showing some emotion - and in front of some junior team members too. I know that if I were a Legionnaire, I would be very relieved and happy to have Brainy on board!



thanks for the recap re history of Home Base! and also a recap of the vision. ominous, how you ended that segment...


I like how the six-some was formed, each with their own motives. Tsk, wonder if Lu will regret being so strict about letting these kids visit Earth, esp. after the 3 girls tried coming with a compromise!

Dr Boom is probably my fave codename/nickname! and great scene here, plus a nice callback to Myar being a world of alchemists

eagerly looking forward to the next installment! i felt the students' excitement when they finally made it to Earth nicely done!

Home Base, the Legion Academy: 2.5 light seconds galactic north of Saturn, Sol System.

Home Base staff:
Cosmic Boy – Academy headmaster - Rokk Krinn of Braal - manipulation of magnetic fields

Science Police training staff:
Dream Boy - Pre-Commando Sergeant Rol Purtha of Naltor - precognition


The shuttle going off course had alerted the supplier who, after checking and double-checking their information queried this strange behaviour with Home Base.

Rokk Krinn was stumped but told the supplier, who regularly gave the academy a considerable discount on the stock they supplied, that he would personally look into it. The supplier, a little star-struck and obviously very grateful to speak to one of the founders of the Legion, had said that that was good enough for her and she looked forward to hearing what was discovered in due course.

"Hey Rokk, you not getting ready to go to Nu-Beijing yet? Am I too early...?" Rol Purtha walked into Rokk's office wearing casual clothes.

"Not sure what you're talking about?"

"Oh?" The Naltoran shrugged and gave a small smile, "Yeah.... I had a vision this morning that you were getting Yera and Ella and me together to look-out for students in Nu-Beijing but to be aware they knew their way around... you'll do it in ...ah, let's see, oh... I'm early, sorry, you'll say it in a minute or so."

Rokk punched a quick command into the console before him and a hard light screen appeared showing a list of current students from Nu-Beijing. Only two appeared on the list, and from what he could see by their icon status while their flight rings were showing as being in their rooms, their bio-signatures were definitely not, implying that neither were on Home Base.

"Oh god... Lu will freak!" He muttered.

Rokk asked for the security AI to show him the last images it had for Drin and Kalis Yap. A holo popped up before him showing the twins and four of their fellow students skulking just outside the docking bay.

"Okay, can you get Yera and Ella for me please Rol, we're away to Nu-Beijing to give a group of our students a hard lesson in rule breaking and consequences, though as they know their way around it probably wont be too easy."

"Yeah, I know..." Rol muttered as he activated the holo.

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


Nu-Beijing, Earth

The Terror Twins - Kalis and Drin Yip of Exor - personal magical transformation
Invisible Kid iii - Mors Gwokyalya of Earth - invisibility
Gravity Lass - Chayaanu Kir of Thanagar - flight, speed, strength, durability, healing, creation of gravity waves
Aqua Lass - Hetha Howahe of Europa - underwater survival, strength, hydrokinesis
Rebounder- Lozaro Koosta-Nevarra of Rimbor - dense molecular structure giving strength, durability and reflection of attack


The students stolen shuttle craft had landed in a large field in between two sporting stadia in the Tianjin District of Nu-Beijing.

On their right was the newly completed curved dome of the Nu Beijing Flying Tigers, the current World Championship Laser Korfball team. Though not a huge sport within the wider UP, within Sol it was one of the most popular and it was particularly popular in the Asia-bloc countries. The athletes on the team were all well-known celebrities. There were quite a few stalls and vendors selling merchandise, both authorised and otherwise, and fresh food and drink around the park as it was a place for people to gather away from the high tower blocks of the city. As a result, there was a large crowd gathering around the shuttle.

"Shysa, how do we get out of here unseen? Well... apart from you Mors, obviously." Aqua Lass said.

"Easy-peasie." Kalis and Drin smiled at each other as they touched hands, activating their natural metamorphic abilities.

"Thick fog." Said Drin. Fog seemed to pour out of the space where he stood. Gravity Lass punched the red button that opened the rear doors and the fog streamed out.

"Sound and light system." Kalis said, not quite sure if she had visualised exactly what she wanted. With a thump, her altered form fell to the floor. Once again Chayaanu took charge and picked the box up and carried it out into Drin's foggy form. Within seconds Kalis' alter-form started to spin and beams of stroboscopic light pierced the fog as dance music blared. The effect was as if a mid-sized night club had landed in the park.

As the crowds approached, believing this must be a stunt to advertise a club somewhere, the students quickly exited the shuttle. The crowds started to lose their fear of the strange shuttle and a few started to dance along to the music that blared out. After several minutes the sound and light system suddenly cut off and Kalis resumed her humanoid form, quickly scurrying away to mingle in the crowds, as Drin's fog form dissipated and he returned to his usual shape. There were a mixture of cheers and disappointment from the crowd that had gathered. The twins put their heads down and pushed their way through to get away before anyone captured their image.

The rest of their group were stood by the side of a tree, waving to them. The six students laughed and patted the twins on their backs for getting them out of the shuttle without being seen.

"Okay, so what now?" Rebounder asked?

"I want to visit the ocean." Aqua Lass said.

"I'll join you, that sounds cool, I've never seen a real sea before." Rebounder said with a smile. He caught the flicker of annoyance in Aqua Lasses eyes, and he realised that she had a huge crush on their Invisible Kid and had even gotten into a fight with Granite Girl in one of their training sessions over it. Rebounder was prepared to back out so that Hetha and Mors could have time alone if they wanted, but before he could say anything Gravity Lass said she would like to see the sea as well.

"And as we all left our flight rings on Home Base so they couldn't track us here, it'll take ages to get there by foot and I can fly us right there." She added with a big grin.

"Well, we want to go visit our old neighbourhood, hopefully meet some old friends," Karis said, not convincingly, "so, shall we meet up here in five hours?"

"Well, you three have fun," Mors said, "I want to go check out the FearDome, it's the best place on Earth for action sports!" Hetha turned away, clearly disappointed as he said this.

The group all agreed that they should meet back in five hours, and with that went their separate ways. While Chayaanu had levitated both Hetha and Lozaro off towards the south east, Mors vanished from sight as the twins headed through the park towards their old home district.

Mors had been watching the twins as they had spoken amongst themselves and was certain that they were not here to visit old friends: there was definitely something else going on. While the two youths from Exor were confident, ultimately were a few years younger than the rest of the group and were Duplicate Girl's wards so he knew that they really needed to be looked out for. As much as they would hate the idea and he wanted to join Hetha to the beach he realised that he had the best chance of doing that with a little bit of stealth. he didn't want to cramp their style - this was their old home-city after all - but still, someone had to look after the kids...

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


Home Base

Backlash - Mrruaw MNau of Simballi - enhanced strength, speed, senses, absorbs kinetic energy to boost own size and mass

Science Police training staff:

Jumping Jack - Science Police Senior Training Officer Jaxi Delgrado-Hynd of Morshesh 5 - hyper-awareness, reflexes and agility


Backlash rather enjoyed the day a month where he was obliged to help out at Home Base. He took particular pleasure reminding students that he had gained membership of the Legion without needing to go through the Academy.

Or, nearer to the truth, Mrruaw enjoyed being on Home Base as long as he wasn't on the rota to assist with the classes that took place in space. The tigerram from the forest world of Simballi had never enjoyed floating in the vacuum outside of planetary atmospheres even with the flight ring's eco-protect function keeping him safe and warm. Nature and some rather fancy gene-editing of his ancestors had given him magnificent paws for gripping the ground and a natural sense of balance that would allow him to walk blindfold cross a washing line, and floating without gravity or clear orientation was definitely not something he was built for, or enjoyed.

Thankfully, he had only been assigned to a space-class once, and after that the tutors had all agreed to keep him within the planetoids airlocks in future.

On this day he had been assigned to help Jumping Jack with a class running various stealth search and rescue scenarios within the academy's new holo-deck. This was the first time the Legionnaire and the tutor had formally met and while they had vastly different styles of training students, overall, it had been an enjoyable day.

The young girl they called Granite Girl had shown a rare skill at tripping herself up, much to Mrruaw's amusement, while the Gil'Dishpan, pH Zero had failed the task entirely. Neither were ever likely to be assigned Espionage Squad tasks in their career unless they worked hard at their basic stealth skills. Neither were particularly surprised when the tutor had announced this. Backlash glared at him though when he said this and told the students that they must play to their strengths as not everyone could be good at everything. It was obvious, the horned tiger added, that they had all tried hard and ultimately that was what the Legion were looking for in potential members.

As the students left the training zone, Officer Delgrado-Hynd approached the Legionnaire. Without thinking the tutor reached out a hand and vigorously stroked Mrruaw affectionately on the top of his head. The tigerram turned his head away and let out a sharp hiss.

"Within my people's culture, touching is frowned upon between those that do not know each other well... you have rules on consent amongst humans as well, yes?" The tigerram's voice was steady but it was clear he was not impressed.

"Oh stars! I'm so sorry Mrruaw, I've seen Ayla and few of the others... oh, you're right, please accept my apologies." The Science Police trainer blushed as he stepped away.

"They are my friends, and I am not a pet!" And with that Backlash turned and left the training zone, his paws silent as he padded away from the embarrassed trainer.

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


Cosmic Boy – Rokk Krinn of Braal - manipulation of magnetic fields
Chameleon Girl - Yera Allon of Durla - shape changer

Science Police training staff:

Brain Girl - Science Police Officer Ella Drottmi of Titan - telepathy and telekinesis
Dream Boy - Pre-Commando Sergeant Rol Purtha of Naltor - precognition


Pre-Commando Rol Purtha of Naltor told the team what he had foreseen:

He would warp to a beach just southeast of Nu-Beijing, close to where the team had dealt with a typhoon recently, where he would find three of the students while the rest of the tutors would assist the others. He wasn't sure what they were going to encounter, as his vision hadn't seen that. Ella smiled mischievously and said dryly, "well that's okay then."

"Yeah, give yourself the easy task." Yera Allon added with a cheeky smile.

"Yeah, not quite, I'll have a couple of issues to deal with too, don't worry there Yera. We're all gonna earn our pay today."

"Hey! You get paid to be here?" Yera laughed as she said this and stepped through the warp that had just opened to Nu-Beijing in front of them.

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


Nu-Beijing, Earth

The Terror Twins - Kalis and Drin Yip of Exor - personal magical transformation
Invisible Kid iii - Mors Gwokyalya of Earth - invisibility
Gravity Lass - Chayaanu Kir of Thanagar - flight, speed, strength, durability, healing, creation of gravity waves
Aqua Lass - Hetha Howahe of Europa - underwater survival, strength, hydrokinesis
Rebounder- Lozaro Koosta-Nevarra of Rimbor - dense molecular structure giving strength, durability and reflection of attack

It had taken Gravity Lass twenty five minutes to reach the beach.

As the students got closer to the water the city-scape had become taller as more residents wanted even a glimpse of the distant blue seas. As a result, they cheered as the glimpsed the ocean in between the towering mega-blocks, antennae, jutting private air-car pads and traffic. And finally, as they crossed a particularly large building the ocean opened up beneath them.

The building was a municipal building of some description that hung onto the edge of a cliff with a small rocky beach below it.

As Chayaanu lowered the group down towards the beach, Lozaro and Hetha were cheering and screaming their happiness. If they had looked over their shoulders, they would have seen dozens of faces pressed up against windows as the workers within the building they had just flown over gawped at the flying figures. As the Legion had recently visited quite close by to help evacuate during a sudden typhoon, there was still a tension amongst residents and the sight of flying youths racing to the sea ignited it.

In their eagerness to get to the sea, the students never noticed.


In the city, the twins had quickly accessed the turbo-metro and were speeding towards their old home district.

Mors had followed them as best he could but had almost lost them in the crowds a few times and was struggling on the cramped tube carriage not to bump into other travellers. While being invisible was fine in open space, it could become a problem in confined spaces. Mors waited until the tube went through a dark tunnel and he risked becoming visible. The carriage had begun to fill up so he didn't want anyone to bump into him and figured if he pulled his hood up over his head, he could remain hidden from Drin and Kalis if he was careful.

It was ten minutes later that they finally got up to leave. The carriage wasn't as busy at this point and Mors realised if he moved to the doors at the same time they would spot him, so he prepared himself to turn invisible and dash out after them as soon as the doors opened.

The district they had travelled to was a lot more built-up that the area they had come from. Mors was originally from Earth and had been to Nu-Beijing several times before in his role as a social network influencer, but this district was totally new to him. It was clearly a more working-class area, with local shopfronts running along the ground level of the street in both directions with their wares on display outside on small tables while high rise housing towered overhead.

Several minutes later, the twins were happily strolling along the busy street when the attack happened. From out of the sky two black air cars descended towards them. Neither Kalis or Drin saw it as they happily chatted. Mors saw the air cars come down and he ran to get closer to the younger students, this definitely did not look right! He had heard through the break room gossip on Home Base that they were royalty from some distant magic world that were being hunted after a palace coup had killed the rest of their family, but he hadn't given it much thought until now...

A net fired out from underneath one of the cars and caught the twins while delivering a visible electric charge that immediately stunned them into unconsciousness.

Mors ran up to them while the few people out on the street all backed away. As he was invisible, he knew the attackers wouldn't know he was there so he reached into a pouch on his belt, hoping he had brought some tool to help chop the wires that bound Drin and Kalis. He swore under his breath as he realised he had only brought a basic medi-kit and his air-board, currently in miniaturised size in the other pouch on his other hip. He tried pulling on the wires around the twins with his fingers but received a nasty sharp shock from them.

As he struggled with the netting several large figures dropped out from the air cars and approached the trapped twins.

"We have them now; the traitor Bo was correct when she told us they would return. Prepare for extraction so they can face the justice they deserve on Exor. These royal scum have seen their last day on Earth."

I've had this ready to go since I posted the section above but thought it would be too much in one go so here it is now.

IB, thanks again for your review above - yeah, Brainy was due to return, and the new planetoid and it's strange technology was the perfect excuse. I think he's one of my favourite Legionnaires, though is tricky to write so I need to use him sparingly. I thought Dr Boom as a name for an alchemist clinician was almost toooo good to be true so am glad you like it as well.

Thanks again, more next week when we see some consequences for actions, and not just the students!

yay, more!

Dream Boy had very little time in canon, so it's good you're giving him new life in your stories. hah, I love this, his little vision and being a minute early. (also funny how star-struck the supplier was re Rokk!)

I like how there is still an Asia-bloc of countries in 31st century Earth. great that it's not just one monolithic world.


Kalis turned into a sound and light system? wow, cool! and I also like how there's a chance she won't quite turn into what she had envisioned, if she's not careful enough with what she says... clever way to exit the craft without being seen!

the new Invisible Kid is a smart one, wonder what will happen. and wonder what the Twins are up to...

makes sense that Backlash, whose form is built to be terrestrial, isn't quite comfy floating in space! I also like what Backlash says, about playing to strengths. indeed, not everyone can be capable at everything... does not mean they cannot be good Legionnaires. ooph Jumping Jack sure stepped in it... good point about consent!

at the beach: whew boy, the students are gonna learn a hard lesson I think,, now that their flying has attracted attention...

and good callout, that being invisible in an enclosed space brings challenges! Mors was a social network influencer, eh? not nice to know that exists in a thousand years still... (not my cup of tea, not a criticism of your writing though as it IS realistic!)

well that escalated!! hope Rokk, Yera and Ella will be in time...!

looking forward to more more more!!!

First Base

Mindbender - Marmud Illic of Titan - alpha-level telepath

Duplicate Girl - Luornu Durgo of Carggg - able to split into identical duplicates of herself


Marmud and Lu both felt uncomfortable.

After the telepth had called his former mentor and explained what he had heard, she had suggested that if he was willing, they could run joint training sessions for the day. Hopefully it would let students see that while they disagreed about certain things they could at least work together like professionals.

Marmud, without thinking, replied "Disagree? Like, that bullying is an acceptable way to mentor a junior teamate? 'Cause, yeah, I strongly disagree with that Lu."

Luornu nodded slowly before she spoke. "Yes, I deserved that. I am sorry Marmud, really... we may not see eye to eye on some things but you do not deserve to feel you are unappreciated. You are an asset to the team and my approach, while not intentionally meant to belittle you, was wrong. I am genuinely sorry for any discomfort or... or pain I caused. I know I can be tough, but I do see how I went over the line. I am sorry."

Marmud could see that her apology was genuinely felt and meant. He was momentarily surprised and for a split second he almost apologised to Lu for creating a scene.

"Thank you, ummm, that was unexpected and... and I appreciate you saying that..." Marmud's mood swung and the anger he had pushed down suddenly came to the fore as he continued, "If I'm being honest in return though, I almost quit because of how ... how diminished I felt by your behaviour, and if I hear that you ever treat another junior member like that again I will do everything in my power to stop you, even if that means making it public knowledge via outside media."

"Yes, I expect nothing less. I... uh, I was going to ask that you act as my 'rudder' to help steer me past this situation. I have been with the Legion for over half of my life... certainly, almost my entire adult life. And, I realise we've a very odd and insular culture and with the recent push on membership drives and at the Academy... well, it's forced us, the old guard, to re-examine ourselves, our expectations and behaviours. I've come up short Marmud, believe me, I do know that. I hope that if you ever see me acting in a manner that you feel is inappropriate again, that you come to me and tell me directly... I will listen."

" Okay... I will. I imagine that isn't easy to say so, thank you. For now though, I don't want to embarrass or undermine you Lu, everyone knows how much you have achieved through your career, so let's treat this as merely a blip," He gave a small smile before carrying on, "Thank you for your... your candour, hopefully we can put this to rest now... so..." He took a breath before continuing, "let's take this forward. The students at the academy need reminding that you are a perfectly fine tutor and they should not be fighting other's battles when they don't know what those fights are."

Lu smiled, surprised at how much she admired Marmud at that point - he had addressed an issue, given his resolution and was moving on without belabouring the point. She knew that Titanians, due to the strict upbringing needed to help them develop their telepathy responsibly, tended to be pragmatic and level headed... but even so Marmud had just shown a level of maturity that genuinely surprised her. Certainly more than she probably deserved...

"Would you like to join me over on Home Base? Hopefully we can ease any tensions within the student body." She smiled as she spoke, feeling her own tensions lessen. Marmud smiled back as he replied.

"Sure, why not? Let's do it."

Marmud knew that there would always be a gulf between then as he would never entirely forget how he felt with her as a mentor, but by damn he had worked hard to become a Legionnaire so if that meant he had to resist the urge to slap people who hurt him then he would do just that.

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


Science Police training staff::
Dream Boy - Pre-Commando Sergeant Rol Purtha of Naltor - precognition

Students:
Gravity Lass - Chayaanu Kir of Thanagar - flight, speed, strength, durability, healing, creation of gravity waves
Aqua Lass - Hetha Howahe of Europa - underwater survival, strength, hydrokinesis
Rebounder- Lozaro Koosta-Nevarra of Rimbor - dense molecular structure giving strength, durability and reflection of attack


Pre-Commando Sergeant Rol Purtha stepped through the spinning warp onto a small beach.

In the distance he could see a water spout, easy a hundred metres high. Gravity Lass was flying around it, pulling the funnel out of shape before releasing her gravity wake to send it splashing. He imagined that Aqua Lass must be inside it, using her hydrokinesis to keep its shape together.

Actually, he thought to himself, it looked like a fun exercise for the two of them.

Rol looked around; there was no sign of Rebounder! As he scanned the sea before him, he was aware that there appeared to be a small disturbance... shit! The Pre-Commando was certain that was the student from Rimbor struggling in the waves! He flew as fast as his flight ring could take him towards the splashing. As he approached it stopped though by then he could see the figure underneath the surface. Clearly the young man from Rimbor was unused to swimming in the sea with it's currents and waves... Dream Boy dived into the sea and urged his flight ring to push him towards the struggling student. He could see that Lozaro had been spun around by a strong current and was desperately scrambling to reach the surface again. Rol grabbed the student's belt and flew upwards. As they crashed through the water into the air he could hear Rebounder coughing and spluttering.

Dream Boy hovered across the water and when he got to within twenty feet of the beach he roughly tossed the student down onto the sand. Rol was aware that Lozaro was more than tough enough to take the fall without any harm. The tutor wasn't in the mood to be gentle though.

"Stay right there!" He commanded the Rimboran student as they struggled to their feet, still spitting out sea water that he had swallowed. Without a backward glance, the tutor tore through the air towards the other two students who were still apparently playing with a water spout.

"Gravity Lass and Aqua Lass, you will desist and return to the beach right now!" His voice, amplified by his flight rings' loud hailer function, echoed across the sky.

Without waiting to see if they were doing as requested, he turned and flew back to the beach where he could see several Science Police vehicles were hovering above Rebounder. The student could see the tutor's face as he approached the beach and his heart sank - Dream Boy had a reputation of being firm, and while reasonably popular no-one wanted to cross the Pre-Commando as he had an air of coiled energy sometimes that could be intimidating - and right now the Naltoran's expression would best be described as "livid!".

Two SPO's used their grav-lift to lower themselves onto the beach just as Rol touched down next to the student.

"Officers, can we help you?" Dream Boy smiled as he approached them, showing his flight ring so they were aware they were dealing with the Legion.

"Is everything okay? We're sending reinforcements in case we needed to evacuate..."

"What? No... I'm so sorry officers but there's nothing to be concerned about. Ah... we're holding a training session for some of the students and these three were too keen to get started so came here early. They've never seen an ocean before so they skipped a class to get here before the rest of the group could arrive." He gave his widest smile as he stopped speaking, a slight blush rising in his cheeks. It was clear to everyone present that the Pre-Commando tutor was unused to barefaced lying.

As the two Science Police Officers glared at him Aqua Lass and Gravity Lass landed behind them. Rebounder motioned them to not say anything. The two girls both looked shame faced as they quietly joined their fellow student behind their tutor.

"Please express our deepest apologies to any residents that mis-understood our being here this morning. We'll pop up to reassure them..."

"Don't bother, we'll get word out to stop the evacuation. I'm sure you're awfully busy..." Said the more senior officer rather sarcastically as he signalled for the grav-lift to take him and his colleague back up to the hovering Science Police crafts above.

"Don't say a word." the tutor hissed at the students. The four of them stood silently until the science Police had left.

"Right!" Rol Purtha turned towards the three rather sheepish students, "you three are going back to the Academy. You shouldn't expect any privileges for a while. Bloody idiots, the lot of you!." His expression made it abundantly clear he would not accept any back-chat. The students all nodded and lowered their faces, careful not to make eye contact with each other.

After a quick message across the telepathic matrix from the tutor, Henry's warp spun into existence before them and the three students and their tutor walked through, back to the academy on the Home Base planetoid.

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


Nu-Beijing

Student:
Invisible Kid iii - Mors Gwokyalya of Earth - invisibility


Mors watched the men approach his fellow students and knew he would need to act.

The invisible student may have left his flight ring back on Home Base but he still had options...

Before joining the Legion's Academy, Mors had been part of a small group that EartGov had sponsored to provide a live-stream across the AllNet to encourage young people to be more physically active. Mors' speciality was the so-called extreme sports, and he had excelled!

It took only a second for the air-board to expand to its full length. Three feet long and a foot at its widest, with slightly curved ends; these had been all the rage for a hot season a few years before, until the catalogue of accidents that inexperienced users had were made public. Still, Mors loved the feeling of racing through the air on the anti-gravity wave created by the board, like when he'd tried that ancient sport of snow-boarding for his stream-feed, only without the snow spray or safety of a soft landing... Mors loved his air-board.

As the board reached its full size, one of the heavyset men that had come from the air-cars reached out for the twins. Mors swung with all his might and smacked the man in the face with the flat of his board. With a loud crack, the man went flying backwards and landed roughly on the street and tumbled to a stop against a wall. He slowly sat up, rubbing his clearly broken nose as blood ran down onto his clothes.

There were still three large men approaching though they all now stopped and considered their options. The student could hear them as they whispered into comm-mikes on their collars, requesting information - were the traitorous twins, they asked, carrying any Legion technology? Clearly whoever was in the aircars were scanning the situation. As they spoke to the person in charge the two air-cars lowered onto the street behind the men.

Mors knew he had the advantage and needed to act fast. He had two options; try to get the twins away - though he doubted he would be able to do that as his invisibility only extended to himself and anything he was in direct contact with, and while they were in that electric net he doubted he would be able to either keep hold of them or maintain the concentration needed to keep them out of sight.

Mors realised the other option was his only real option - he needed to go on the attack! Before he did, he had one last look at the unconscious twins and noticed a small circular object, no bigger than a metro-token - on the edge of the netting. It must be the source of the electricity, he thought. Without giving it any further consideration, he smacked at it with the edge his air-board, desperate to give Kalis and Drin a chance to get free.

There was a bang! and Mors was flung on his back, unconscious.

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


Home Base Academy tutors:
Cosmic Boy – Rokk Krinn of Braal - manipulation of magnetic fields
Chameleon Girl - Yera Allon of Durla - shape changer

Science Police training staff:
Brain Girl - Science Police Officer Ella Drottmi of Titan - telepathy and telekinesis

Students:
The Terror Twins - Kalis and Drin Yip of Exor - personal magical transformation
Invisible Kid iii - Mors Gwokyalya of Earth - invisibility


As he fell backwards, Mors Gwokyalya became visible.

One of the burly men raced towards him, quickly hauling him to his feet and man-handling the student towards their now parked air-cars. The other two picked up the unconscious twins and slung them over their shoulders before making their way back to their colleagues.

"Gentlemen, I want you to stop of your own volition before we are forced to stop you." The woman's voice came from above them - Chameleon Girl floated twenty five feet above them with Cosmic Boy at her side.

All three of the burly men reached into their overcoats, clearly going for weapons.

The one that had carried Mors to the air-car gave a yelp and reached up to his face, clutching at his mouth and nose, suddenly unable to breathe. In the second that his colleagues glanced in his direction, Yera Allon had assumed the form of a Braalian ferropotamus and crashed into the hood of the air-car nearest to them. They all flinched to avoid the shrapnel that exploded off from damage she had caused. Rokk Krinn reached out with his magnokenetic ability and spun these shards into a ball that then swerved in mid-air to smack the three men on the head, knocking them all sideways onto the floor.

A woman walked towards them, a hand was raised against her temple, as three incapacity cuffs levitated across towards them and snapped onto their wrists, knocking them unconscious.

"Well, they're particularly unpleasant, aren't they?" Ella Drottmi said as she approached the students, eager to check that they were okay.

"That was a nice trick stopping his breathing like that." Rokk said to her as he floated to the ground.

"Yeah, my TK isn't all that strong so I need to be more sneaky and strategic with it than, say Poltergeist." The Titanian Science Police Office smiled at the Braalian. She had checked both Drin and Kalis and was thankful that neither appeared too hurt.

Rokk had magnetically disabled the second air-car and while Yera had dragged the unconscious driver out from the car she had smashed, the Braalian had approached the other car and announced to the driver that they had three seconds to get out or he would get angry. As he said this the metal frame of the air-car gave an ominous creak and crumpled inwards slightly... two seconds later a door had opened and another burly man stepped out, his arms raised in surrender.

The attacker that Mors had thrown onto a wall was trying to sneak away but Ella spotted him and with a thought sent a set of incapacity cuffs to fasten around his ankle. She gave a smile as he fell face first onto the ferro-concrete pavement.

As she reached Mors. Ella realised that something wasn't right - the young man was flickering between visible and invisible, often just his skin or parts of his body becoming unseen. It was a disturbing sight.

"Rokk, I need help here." Ella said, "I need a warp to the medi-bay now."

Cosmic Boy flew straight across to the student and knelt down beside him.

"No, I don't think we need the medi-bay, we need to get him to Mars...."

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


Private estate, Mons Olympus, Mars

Home Base Academy tutors:
Cosmic Boy – Rokk Krinn of Braal - manipulation of magnetic fields

Science Police training staff:
Brain Girl - Science Police Officer Ella Drottmi of Titan - telepathy and telekinesis

Student:
Invisible Kid iii - Mors Gwokyalya of Earth - invisibility


Before warping to this estate, Rokk had made sure that Home Base had sent a message to the ancient recluse that had gifted the power of invisibility to the student. They had received a terse message in response: "If you must."

Mors Gwokyalya was laid on a floating stretcher, created from a metal panel from the air-car that Yera had smashed, held aloft by Cosmic Boys abilities. He floated between the two tutors as they stepped through the warp. After the bright morning sunshine of Nu-Beijing, the dingy room they had walked into felt small, claustrophobic. Without thinking Ella automatically telepathically scanned their surroundings.

<you are not welcome to scan my home, Ella Drottmi> The psychic voice that spoke directly into her mind was soft, though the sense of immense power behind it gave her pause.

"We need your assistance." Rokk said simply. He stood at the students' side, not moving until the owner of this residence made themselves visible. And, appearing before them a large, clearly non-human green skinned being appeared as if out of thin air.

<this youth was damaged after crashing into my home's defences... I thought he would recover>

"He took a blast of ...well, we think it was electricity, but it was Exor technology so maybe it was magical..." Rokk realised his mouth was dry as he spoke and he licked his lips. The being before them was a galactic legend! They had met very briefly at Lu and Chuck's wedding, though even then Rokk had not fully believed it and in the excitement that followed, he didn't get the chance to really speak with them.

<bring him> The green skinned being turned and led them to a circular lift that appeared to be composed of small crystals shot through with lines of a pale light. There was no conversation as it quickly dropped several levels before opening up into a sterile looking room with a large platform in the centre. Without being asked, Rokk moved the student onto the platform. The room began to glow softly as strange technology appeared to separate itself from the curved walls and float into place around the unconscious student.

<this may take a couple of hours. I would prefer if you were to leave and return when it is completed>

<of course> Ella responded immediately.

"No, I'm sorry J'Onn, but I'm not leaving him here alone. He's one of ours and I want to stay to make sure he's okay." Rokk spoke up. He straightened his shoulders as he spoke, subconsciously trying to reassure himself as he defied one of the most powerful beings ever born in the Sol system.

There was a sense of amusement as the ancient Martian turned towards the Braalian and nodded.

<as you wish> and with that he vanished into the air, leaving the two tutors standing alone in this most strange place.

Almost three hours later, J'Onn J'Onzz materialised before the two tutors. They had not seen or heard from him in that time. Instead, the tutors had accessed the databases on their flight rings and created, checked and updated various reports and training notes from the Academy. Ella was sat against a wall while Rokk paced the floor when the Martian reappeared.

<the child has needed extensive modifications... he will not be the same so I need you to monitor and support him as he grows to appreciate his new status>

"What do you mean?" Rokk asked as Ella made her way to the unconscious student.

<Martian and Human DNA are not compatible. The slight modifications made when he was first here were not enough to sustain him so additional changes were necessary. I have extrapolated that he may exhibit additional Martian abilities in the coming days, though as yet am unsure what these may be>

"We'll keep an eye on him, now he's physically okay. Thank you J'Onn, we're very grateful for your help."

<look after him please, I would prefer if my rest was not disturbed again soon> And with that the Martian vanished again.

"Henry," Rokk called into his flight ring, "Can you send a warp to pick us up now please."

Neither tutor looked back as they walked through the warp with the student back to the Academy on Home Base.

yay for more!!

I like that while it was Marmud who called Lu, it was Lu who suggested the joint session. at least both are working together.

I respect Lu all the more for her heartfelt apology!

wow! what an excellent conversation that Lu and Marmud had. take a bow Harbi! very well done! also a win for Marmud, beginning to earn Lu's respect.

oh Dream Boy, trying to lie... I wonder if it will backfire, as the SPs clearly did not believe him. certainly sounds like it needs to be smoothed over.

Rebounder sure was reckless, for sure he as a student has something that would allow him to breathe underwater? and of course, Aqua Lass and Gravity Lass were reckless too. whew...

well, go Invisible Kid III! Handy that he can make objects he touches invisible too. ooph, that explosion did not bode well... also shows his inexperience, as that explosion could have hurt the twins too

wow, impressive that Ella could use telekinesis to stop breathing! also, nice work giving different telekinetics/ Titanians different specialties and limitations/power levels



ooh, J'Onn!! nice callback to his appearance at the Lu/Chuck wedding. how did he grant IK3 his invisibility? ooh, spliced with Martian DNA... huh! interesting! lots of potential here... both good and bad! though I guess more good, J'Onn would not leave him in a dangerous position.

well, there will certainly be consequences from this outing, I bet looking forward to seeing what those are!

Hey IB, thanks for uour quick review, greatly appreciated.

Invisible Kid iii first appeared in the Tales from the Academy Two, here: https://www.legionworld.net/forums/...Legion+World+&Search=true#Post994974

Marmud and Lu, yeah, there's still a bit to go.

Next up, finally, Tyroc and a team face an angry tree. No, really!

Hi Harbi, thanks for refreshing my memory re IK3 - I remember reading his vignette now! And I recognise many of the others, like Thunderbolt and Army of One. Well done for sprinkling them into the main series!

Troy Stewart smiled warmly.

The monitor board had sent through the message a few minutes before and Tyroc glanced at the screen, not really taking in what it said as he knew already that he wanted to lead a mission. Monica would laugh knowingly; he was quite certain, but there was no denying that he was far happier adventuring than sitting in an office filing the endless reports the team seemed to generate.

He announced that there was a mission leaving soon across the Second Base team network and now, minutes later here he was stood in Henry's warp control room with the teammates that had volunteered. In that time he had taken a second and more thorough look at the report and knew that it was unlikely to be a major mission, in fact he wondered why the team had ever been told about it in the first place... but... he also knew that a feel-good mission should never be squandered; the team saw enough violence and trouble without wishing for any more.

"Okay everyone, we've been called in to help a local police force tackle some strange goings-on on Frathamana Two. Reports say spontaneous light in the sky and somet'ing weird goin' on in an otherwise pristine ecosystem. They reckon there's meta's involved. No proof one way or t'other but it'll be fun t' find out, eh? Set your eco-protect to scrub the air though as by reputation it's a fairly ghastly smelly place. Y'all ready?"

Everyone said yes, eager to get started.

"Hey Troy, can we join you?" Timber Wolf bounded into the warp control room, Laurel Kent flying closely behind.

"Nope, y'r too slow there Brin. Sorry bud but we're a'ready extranumerary with seven of us goin' so you two c'n wait f'r the next mission call... ah'm sure you won't have too long." Troy smiled at his teammates as they groaned and turned away to leave.

As the warp opened Tyroc signaled Poltergeist, the new Legionnaire that Element Lad had been mentoring, to stay close to him. Troy had enjoyed mentoring Bouncing Boy ii and before that Monica Sade had been his mentee - not that he thought of that relationship now as anything other than one of equals. From what Tyroc had seen already, Poltergeist had tremendous potential to be a great Legionnaire and while Troy had stopped the mentor scheme for the latest tranche of new Legionnaires he wanted to keep an eye on the young telekinetic.

With Tyroc in the lead, the Legionnaires flew through the warp.

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


Tyroc – Second Base Team Leader - Troy Stewart of Marzal city pocket dimension - sonic control
Monica Sade of Rimbor - strength, reflexes , line of sight teleportation
Dragonwing - Marya Pai of Earth - breathes dragon fire and acid
Karate Kid iii – Mithindrivithis Ngandraffa of Lythyl - strength, reflexes, mimetic motor learning giving incredible combat skills
Babbage- I-45ENG/Nth Series, of the Robotica Confederated Worlds - strength, durability, internalised weapons, hyper awareness and analytical skills.
Poltergeist -Jaun Vineo of Titan - alpha-level telekinesis

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

Captain Phantom - Senior Team liaison, Science Police Captain Gryal Vrizza of Bgztl Dimension - intangibility


Encyclopaedia Galactica - the Great Swamp on Frathamana Two is renowned to be one of the foulest smelling places within an atmosphere similar to that of Earth's ever settled by humans. It is said that the only reason anyone would ever visit is due to the indigenous Great Clams which produce some of the most beautiful and rarest pearls in the known galaxy, with perhaps only three or four being discovered each year. These discoveries generate enough income to keep the planetary government fully funded. The population on Frathamana Two is a stable three hundred thousand or so colonists who generally live in a fairly stable moderately lo-tech society. The Great Clams are fiercely protected by the local eco-police who monitor the ancient and peaceful creatures as they grow within the deepest parts of the swamp. The local police are also responsible for strictly controlling every prospector that applies for a visa to visit, and ensuring that the local eco-laws are adhered to.


The local police were clearly sceptical about needing the Legionnaires help but weren't obstructive as they pulled up a holo of the swamp and the site where the lights had been seen.

According to their scans there should be no people anywhere nearby, though they admitted that their satellites were old so there may be some issues with that data. Tyroc synched his flight ring to the police AI database and took data giving a brief overview of the area they would be investigating including co-ordinates of the strange sightings.

"I'll get the sky-sled and take you there now." The older ofthe two officers said, a bit huffily.

"No need my good man," Tyroc gave a big grin, "we've got these..." he held up his right hand indicting his flight ring. The Legionnaires took to the air and followed the flight plan generated by their rings towards the area where the strange lights had been witnessed.

Even through the eco-protect function of their flight rings scrubbing the air, they could all smell the swamp, and it was not nice. It was somewhere between rotten eggs and burning toffee, though somehow encapsulating the worst of both smells. Behind them they could hear the 'putt putt putt' of the eco-police's sky-sled, an older model of a Vikken atmospheric trawler built to carry wares across continents. It was never built for looks or stealth.

<Tyroc, do we know what we are looking for?> Poltergeist sent.

<Nah, so keep yer eye's peeled, 'kay?>

Beneath them the Great Swamp reached out towards the horizon, a magnificent and seemingly chaotic mixture of water and exotic plant life that ran along the coast of the continent for over three thousand clicks east to west, and several hundred clicks to the north. It was difficult to see exactly where the land ended and sea began. There were flocks of bird-like creatures and swarms of much smaller insects above the trees. The team all flew higher as they tried to avoid these swarms as they understood that at the speed they were flying a face full of bugs would be an awful inconvenience.

"There!" Babbage's voice said over their comms. The Robotican Legionnaire was pointing towards a particularly dense patch of trees. As they flew closer it was apparent that there was a faint glow around this particular group of trees that seemed to be slowly dropping sparkling blobs onto the surrounding growth.

"Well spotted Babs." Dragonwing said. She knew her eyesight was keen but the Robotican was obviously the next level up as they had spotted it from several clicks away.

Tyroc used his flight ring to contact the police officer in the Vikken air-trawler that flew behind them. The police officer inside replied that it wasn't a natural phenomenon as far as they were aware, though this area was right in the middle of the largest Protected Status Zone so there was little chance that it had been recorded too often if it was.

"Well, let's start our search there then." Tyroc announced as he started to dive down towards the glowing trees.

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


"Halophytes do not usually achieve such growth."

Babbage stated factually this as they approached the area that was glowing faintly.

"It's a mangrove tree, isn't it?" Captain Phantom asked, "...my family live on the coast and we have these on the edges of our land."

"Mangroves are a species in of themselves, this does not appear to entirely fit into that genus though it is clearly tolerant of salt water, hence it is a Halophyte." Babbage replied.

"Oh, well now I know, I guess..." The Bgztlr responded, looking around and clearly not really paying attention. From the air it had looked like it was a tightly packed copse though as they got close it was only one tree that glowed -it was huge, at least six or seven times bigger than those around it.

Tyroc signalled the team to land beside him on a large boulder that sat next to the tree. All apart from Babbage did; the Robotican continued to float around the massive tree taking scans. It had announced there were raised levels of noxious fumes around the branches though not enough to endanger life.

"So," Monica Sade said, "please tell, Troy, we were brought to this delightful place because of what exactly?"

"Okay, okay folks. I get it, this looks like a bust of a mission, but let's just make doubly sure there's nothin' wrong goin' on here then we'll get Henry t' warp us home."

Tyroc looked embarrassed but rather than say anything else he floated into the air and turned around to see if there was anything nearby that might justify there being a team of Legionnaires being in this swamp.

Below him, Dragonwing had flown down to the water's edge and casually leant on a protruding root. Her fiery breath puffed out in small green curls. She was almost unaware of what was happening until too late, but a slight tingling in her fingertips made her look down. There were miniscule nodules erupting from the root all around her fingers, sticking to her glove. Marya pulled her hand away though he glove remained stuck.

"Uh, guys..." she said as she floated away from the offending root. As Dragonwing watched her glove was absorbed into the plant, vanishing in seconds. Karate Kid, Captain Phantom, Babbage and Monica Sade, all approached her to see what had caused her to call out.

"This is not a standard feeding technique for this species." Babbage stated.

"No shit, Sherlock." Marya muttered as she took a breath and released a very thin stream of dragon-fire towards the root where her glove had vanished. As her fiery breath came close to the root it swerved out of the way. Marya let another, large stream of dragon fire out and this time it scorched the root. There was an ominous rumbling and the water around the team started to bubble and undulate.

"Get in the air team!" Tyroc barked as he floated above them.

Where seconds before their environment had been calm, with only the gentle lapping of the tide and bird song disturbing the peace, now roots and branches from the massive tree sprung towards the Legionnaires trying to grab hold of them. The Legionnaires all beat a hasty retreat apart from Science Police Captain Gryal Vrizza, who remained intangible and planned on drawing the attention of the attacking plant.

The flailing roots and branches initially targeted him though quickly turned up towards the team floating above as it became clear that they would not be able to hold him.

"What the hell did I just do? And since when are mangroves man-eaters?" Marya said to no-one in particular.

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


"So... ideas?" Monica Sade had both blasters out, ready to fire if any of the branches reached the Legionnaires.

"T' be honest, ah'm not sure if we should do anyt'ing." Tyroc replied, "so far all it's done is defend itsel' against Marya's flames."

"Tyroc," Babbage said, "my scans indicates there is a small alien metal object producing energy that my database is unable to identify directly underneath the main mass of this plant. Should the team not investigate this incongruity?"

"Gryal, c'n you 'nvestigate?" Tyroc asked the SP Officer from Bgztl.

Captain Phantom gave the team leader a thumbs up and a smile as he phased through the ground by the side of the tree.

"Does anyone else find that kind of creepy? The way he just flows through solids gives me ... yech, it's... umm..." Monica Sade could see her teammates were looking at her as if she was mad. "Sorry, it's just I think going intangible is weird, okay? Gryal's fine and all, but his power..."

Poltergeist, the newest member of the team, had hung back as he watching the more senior team members assess and deal with the situation, called out and pointed below them.

Below the hovering Legionnaires, the unnaturally massive tree had started to writhe, its branches stretching out and swinging wildly in all directions. The ground around it undulated and great clots of muddy earth and swamp water were thrown aside as roots started to pull themselves out from the swamp. And, in a matter of half a minute, the tree that had swung its branches towards the Legionnaires moments before had uprooted itself and stood upon surprisingly thick roots above the swamp in front of them.

More soon when we'll find out what's behind the angry tree, and a shopping trip leads to drunken conversations with a former Legionnaire and further hassles for the team.

yay! angry tree! the whole concept is just wonderfully amazing, so I'm eager to see how Troy deals with that.

very relatable, that Troy prefers to be on a mission than to deal with admin I know a lot of people who don't want to take on a people management role because of that too

that eco-protect is so gosh-darned useful!

I like Troy being all mentor-y, if that makes sense. I remember Poltergeist and Jan were affected by some telepathic emotional manipulation before, and Troy told Poltergeist off before he learned about the manipulation (Poltergeist had a crush on Jan right? I hope I'm not mixing him up with someone else). so it's good to see that come full-circle with Troy recognizing Poltergeist's potential.


and sorry Brin and Laurel, group's big enough...

wow, those clams and pearls are super valuable!

eww that smell sounds horrid, ugh!

Ah, does Marya have superhuman eyesight too?

hah, "no shit Sherlock!" I love your Babbage's dialogue, and how "captain obvious" it can be

a small metal alien object, color me curious! is something mutating or animating this tree? are the Dominators up to no good (considering their plant tech)?

also, bless Tyroc for having a level head indeed - the tree might indeed just be acting in self-defense

Sade's bit about intangibility is interesting. hasn't she served alongside Tinya for a bit, and doesn't Tinya phase the same way as Gryal?

the tree uprooted itself! well! way to up the ante... this angry tree is turning out to be quite the mission!

looking forward, as ever, to more more more!!!

Thanks IB, appreciate your feedback.

Yup, Poltergeist has an unrequited crush on Jan, and Troy is being a kind of back-up mentor for him now, well remembered!

I've mentioned before that Marya has good eyesight, not super duper sight, but pretty sharp. Just a random thing I threw in to round her out a little bit.

I think Sade just hates intangibility, whether it's Tinya or Captain Phantom doing it, and this time her thoughts slipped out. It would be pretty weird to see happen so I think I'd feel the same tbh, so that's where it came from

More soon, probably Monday as I'm on a bit of a writer-roll right now and have the next ten or so posts ready to go.

Thanks again,

C