Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business I, MONSTRESS

Invisible Brainiac: You brought Monstress back to the Reboot Universe in your way. I am bringing Monstess back to the Earth-K Universe in my own. -- Klar Ken T5477

CHAPTER ONE: MEETINGS AND GREETINGS

And then I woke up.

I had enjoyed visiting the Island of Samoa. It was an island of large women, although none as large as me. It was an island of strong women, although none as strong as me. And certainly there was no one as green as me. Orange, now. Tangerine, really.

I saw that broad, friendly smile, and I thought I was back in Samoa.

“Time to wake up, Candi, dear,” said a sweet, low voice.

I realized I was not in Samoa.

That friendly smile, that voice, belonged to me. The face I was looking into was my own.

Looking over this new Monstress’ shoulder, I saw another myself standing quietly in back of her.

“I guess we’re going to call you Monstress-3,” said the nearer me. “She’s Monstress-2. I’m Monstress-1. Not that I’m claiming to be the original. I just woke up first.”

“How…?” I began.

“How did we get Triad’s powers?” asked Monstress-2. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“I remember…” I remembered. Every cell of my body burning, bursting, exploding in searing white-hot pain. Then… darkness. I looked up at my other selves. “Was it really Jan?” I asked.

“It looked like Jan,” said Monstress-1. “Sometimes, it even sounded like Jan. But we of all people know appearances can be deceiving.”

“Remember how quickly and easily we heal?” said Monstress-2. “It seems our powers go far beyond that.”

“We… regenerated?” I asked.

“Regenerated. Resurrected, if you prefer,” said Monstress-1. “Each of us from a tiny fragment.”

“Then… there ought to be more of us,” I said. “A lot more, if what it felt like happened actually happened.”

“Walk this way,” said Monstress-2.

A short distance away from where I was lying was a massive metallic window-- something like plasteel, or transparent aluminum, but no doubt something more alien. It had been used to repair a huge hole in the wall. On the other side was the… throne room?... of the Progenitor. The far wall showed an even more massive breach. The alien stars of a strange galaxy shown through the rupture.

“We suspect that most of our body-- what was not transmuted, or burned to ash-- was blasted into the vacuum of space when whatever happened here happened,” said Monstress-1. “Only a small number of fragments were carried into the relative safety of this outer chamber. We haven’t even figured out how long it took us to regenerate. We could be decades in the future: centuries, even. There is just no way of knowing, now.”

“So it’s just the three of us?” I asked.

“It’s complicated,” said Monstress-2. “But before we make any more introduction, we’d better find you some clothes.”

In all the overwhelming strangeness, I had not realized I was stark naked.

==============================================================

My other two selves led me to a blank section of wall, no different than any other area. Pressing a hidden panel, a clothing distribution module appeared. Monstress-1 was wearing a sleeveless jumpsuit, fuchsia with silver trim. Monstress-2 was wearing a similar jumpsuit, this one teal-and-silver. The controls were fairly easy to learn, but the selection was limited.

“I guess it’s indigo for me,” I said. My other two selves laughed.

The gear was created and delivered promptly, and fit as though it was made for me.

“Let’s go see the others,” Monstress-2 invited.

“Are they still unconscious?” I asked. “If I’m Monstress-3, surely there is no Monstress-2½.”

“As I said, it’s complicated,” said Monstress-2.

We turned a corner to see a fourth Monstress. But she did not share our tangerine complexion.

“This is Green Monstress,” said Monstress-2.

“A pleasure to meet myself again,” said Green Monstress.

“Have you found any others?” asked Monstress-1.
“I’ve been around the whole circle, and haven’t found anyone new,” she said. “I think we’re it.”

“So just the four of us?” I said.

“Not exactly,” said a new voice. It did not have the deep, resonant tones I was used to, but it sounded familiar. “There’s us.”

Walking around the bend beyond Green Monstress were two young girls-- they looked no more than fourteen. Porcelain skin, brown hair with violet highlights, dark eyes.

“{Fourteen-and-a-half}”, I thought. “{That’s how old I was when everything changed}”

“We call them Candi-One and Candi-Two,” said Monstress-2. “They’re just like we were before… before the accident.”

“Not quite,” said Candi-One. She walked over to a wrecked transport vehicle on the other side of the corridor. Lifting it over her head, she tossed it to me. “Catch!” she said.

I caught the metallic wreck, estimating it to weigh about two tons.

“She’s the normal one,” said Candi-One, jerking a thumb toward Candi-Two. “No super-strength, nothing.”

“But there’s one more,” said Candi-Two. “Brace yourself.”

Creeping around the corner, came a seventh ‘me’. Human. Also a young teen. Same porcelain skin. Same dark hair and eyes. But unquestionably male.

“I call myself, ‘Monsterboy’”, he said.

“Oh, now, wait a minute,” I answered. “I don’t think so. I’m sorry I slept through the sorting-out and naming, but I just can’t let that pass. I’m going to call you… Andi.”

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====================================================================

Monstress-1: Big and orange, default team leader.
Monstress-2: Still big, still orange.
Monstress-3: Big. Orange. Our narrator
Green Monstress: Big and green, but just as lovable as Monstresses 1 to 3.
Candi-One: Looks more or less human. Apparently fourteen, but with twenty years of memory. And super-strength. Remembers what it was like to be big and green, and orange.
Candi-Two: Candi-One’s twin, without the super-strength.
Andi Pypont-LeParc (formerly Monsterboy): She’s a boy.

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CHAPTER TWO: SEVEN FOR A QUEST

“Well, there are seven of us,” I noted. “The classic number for a Quest. What should we search for?”

“Frankly,” said Monstress-1, “We need to set out on a quest for food. It’s been a long time since the first of us woke up. Maybe as long as a couple of days. There is no day or night here, and no clocks. It’s hard to tell. But some of us are starving.”

“You were the first to wake up?” I asked.

“Me, Green Monstress and Candi-One all found one another at about the same time,” said Monstress-1. “We looked around the Circuit-- that’s what we call this passageway-- and found the other four of you… sleeping, comatose, whatever. We didn’t try to wake you. Nothing like this had never happened to us before; for all we knew you were all still regenerating. Candi-Two was next. We started another circuit, checking behind the wreckage for more of us. Also, looking for some sort of exit. Candi-Two found the clothes machine, and just in time. Monsterboy-- Andi-- woke up next, and he’s, well, really male. It was a little embarrassing. We had made another circuit of the Circuit before Monstress-2 awoke. You took longest of all. For a while we didn’t think you would wake up at all.”

“How big is the circuit?” I asked.

“Around seven thousand paces, on the inner track,” said Monstress-1. It meanders a bit, and there are some side passages, but they’re all dead ends. Green Monstress had just finished a private survey of the entire area when you met her.”

“No doors, no openings of any kind,” Green Monstress reported. “No side passages that aren’t dead-ends, although a couple are blocked with rubble. Those might be our best bets for an exit.”

“If the Circuit is like a doughnut,” I said, “Then the ‘hole’ is pretty large.” I did some quick calculations in my head. “A couple million square meters, at least. I think looking along the inner wall might be profitable, too. We know which way Space is,” I gestured towards the Progenitor’s throne room. “So that’s the outer hull. Probably the best place to look for a hidden door is on the side facing the hull, or on the side immediately opposite.”

“The clothing machine is hidden pretty well,” said Monstress-1. “You wouldn’t know it was there unless you knew it was there-- or stumbled across it by dumb luck, the way we did.”

“The question is,” said Monstress-2, “Should we split up, all go together? We don’t have communicators, but I’m sure anyone but Andi and Candi-2 can yell loud enough to be heard anywhere in the circuit, if she finds something.”

“I’m all for sticking together,” said Andi. “What if one of us goes through a door we can’t go back through? This world seems abandoned after whatever catastrophe hit, but what if we do meet some of the Progeny?”

“I’m starving,” said Candi-One. “If we don’t find food pretty soon, one of you is going to have to carry me. And I’ve been developing a dehydration headache as well.”

“I’ll second that,” said Andi. “We’re going to start getting cranky and snappish with one another without something to eat or drink soon.”

“I’ll tell you what I could use,” I said. “A good dose of nuclear radiation. My strength has been ebbing since we met Shikari.”

The others nodded solemnly.

It was a frustrating search. The five of us cleared the rubble from the hallways, but only revealed more dead ends. The ceiling had caved in, but it was only a false ceiling, there was more metallic roof above. About half-way around the circuit, I proposed we just smash a hole in the outer wall, and see where it led. We were on a small planet, after all, and it was unlikely that the other side would be empty Space. Monstress-2 pointed out that the Progenitor’s throneroom might be situated in one of the small protuberances we had noticed when we first came to this world, so that might be a bad idea. That’s when Candi-Two found the kitchen.

I picked her up and kissed her.

There was a hidden door on the interior wall. I led to a spacious room, full of small tables and chairs-- obviously built for beings much smaller than the seven of us. It was set up like a cafeteria, with a food preparation area behind serving stations. Several vending machines lined the walls, but the food in them looked badly spoiled. Green and black fungi grew on the food packages, and on the window-panels of the machines.

But there were four machines that held canned drinks. Candi-One ripped the front off one of them. They were almost sickeningly nectar-sweet, but thirst-quenching. Empty cans were soon littering the small tables.

Then Green Monstress found the freezer.

Packages of frozen food stood stacked up to a ceiling twice the height of any of us. It was cold. So cold that picking up the food packs with bare hands burned. It took patience to figure out how to defrost and cook them properly in the microwave ovens, but soon we were having regular, hot meals.

We stayed in the kitchen for what must have been days. We lived primarily on fruits and vegetables. The only meat we could find were various types of bad-smelling slug-like stuff, which no one was willing to try. Much of our nourishment came from the cans of sugary drink.

We slept on the floor. Andi slept in Green Monstress’ arms; Candi-One slept with Monstress-1, Candi-Two slept with Monstress-2. The Bigs slept on the floor, without need for cushions or pillows. I slept next to the door, in case someone tried to get in.

Someone tried to get in.

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CHAPTER THREE: KITT

We slept in the light, of course. There was never a sunset in that place; the lights never dimmed. So I was surprised the the little fellow thought he could sneak in unnoticed while we were sleeping.

It was one of those horrible ant-like Progeny, no more than a meter tall. Smaller, really. I grabbed the little monster around the waist, lifting him up to eye level.

“What are you looking for?” I asked.

“Don’t hurt me!” the creature squealed. It was enough to wake… well, everybody. “I am just looking for… food. Food, yes. I am innocent!”

“Well, there’s your food,” said Monstress-2, indicating the mold-filled vending machines along the wall. “It’s been a long time since you’ve been here, I’d guess. What really brings you here?”

“I say kill it now,” said Candi-Two. “We know how dangerous these things can be.”

“Candi-Two has a point,” said Green Monstress. “It’s been a long time since we had any meat. Maybe we could boil it… mash it... stick it in a stew.” She grinned.

“Please don’t hurt me!” the creature squealed again. “I am only following orders from the Master! These machines were damaged. I am to look at them and see… and see what damaged them.”

“So, the Progenitor is still running this place?” asked Green Monstress. “Seeing the condition of his Throne Room… well, it was too much to hope for, I suppose.”

“The Master has been very quiet since the Ignominious Defeat at the Hand of the Other Legion. It has been long since he lost a battle. Not in the memory of the oldest living, nor of their sire’s sire’s,” said the insect.

“But he took a particular interest in new damage to the annex of the Throne Room? We were unlucky, I suppose. But now you are unlucky with us,” said Green Monstress. “Although perhaps you can help us. Can you report to your Master now? Can you take us to him?”

“No, I am a lowly Maintenance Tech. My usual job is to refill the food vendors. I was the nearest to these machines, but still very far away. It was my Supervisor who sent me here. I do not know where his orders came from, but he was very upset. He said they originated with the Master.”

“We need a ship to return to our home. Could you lead us to one?” asked Green Monstress.

“No, no, no. All transports have ceased to function since the Ignominious Defeat. The Engineering Crews have commandeered all working vehicles to repair the damage to the Worlds. There is not even a robot taxi to be had.”

“It seems useless,” said Candi-Two. “Let’s get rid of it.”

“Wait! Wait!,” the creature begged. “The food here is spoiled. Even what is in the freezers will not last forever. I know a place… I can take you to a place. There is plenty of food there. Even meat!”

Green Monstress walked up until she was eye-to-eye with the little beast. “We are Variants,” she said. “You know what that means. We are unwelcome anywhere in this Galaxy. Your Master seeks to annihilate us. He will punish you severely for helping us. But we are desperate. We need help from someone in these worlds to get home. You will help us. We know you will seek to betray us. Remember that we are desperate. That means we are dangerous. If anything unpleasant happens to us, it will happen to you first.”

“I understand,” it said.

“What is your name, horrible, treacherous little insect?” I asked.

“K-Kitt,” it answered.

“Well, K’Kitt…” I said.

“J-Just Kitt,” it said.

“Well, Kitt, look at me closely, I said. “I am going to be the nearest thing to a friend you have in this group. I will be your… Devil’s Advocate. Do you understand ‘Devil’s Advocate’?”

Kitt shook his head ‘No’.

“Well, being ruled by the Progenitor, I can understand you have no need of a Devil,” I said.

“You will share a meal with us, and then you will lead us to this land of peace and plenty you have promised,” Green Monstress explained.

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CHAPTER FOUR: REVEALING SECRETS

We set him making the meal for us. It was the easiest way to keep an eye on him.

“What do you think?” Green Monstress asked Monstress-1.

“I think it’s our only option,” Monstress-1 replied. “We need to find a way out of the Circuit, and I think returning back to United Planets Space is a worthy goal. If the Legion somehow defeated Jan, they may have escaped back to our Universe as well.”

“He called them the Other Legion,” said Monstress-2. “I agree he must have been talking about our Legion. But who is the first Legion that they are the Other of?”

“I don’t trust him,” said Candi-Two. “I was only half-joking when I said we should boil him in oil. But I agree, it’s our only recourse at this time.”

“I don’t trust him either,” said Candi-One. “But one of us can always pick him up and toss him a half-mile away, if we need to get rid of him quickly.”

“Maybe he and I can share some male bonding,” said Andi. This was met by a stony glare from six pair of eyes. “Joking, joking,” he said. “I remember what it was like to be female, just like the rest of us.”

“That’s something that’s been bothering me,” I said. “We don’t trust him, but can we trust one another? Are we really all copies of Candi Pyponte-Le Parc III?”

“But how could we tell?” asked Monstress-2. “An Antarean Protean, for example, would be able to replicate our forms and our memories.”

“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “Each of us tell something only we would know-- something we haven’t told anyone else, and something we haven’t thought of for a long time.”

“Well,” said Monstress-2, “Grandma Candace had sticky lips.” We all nodded. “But I miss her.”

Monstress-1 suggested “When we were little, we had a Fantasy Fashion Doll that we…”

“Never mind!” the rest of us shouted together.

“‘My Heart Belongs to Daddy’,” said Green Monstress.

“Oh,” I said. “The last time Momma sang that to us, we must have been three years old.”

“Every night for a lullabye,” said Monstress-1. “But I don’t remember the words. I guess none of us do.”

“I have one,” said Candi-One, eyes downcast. “I remember it all the time. After the… accident. The gene bomb. Father took us to a surgery hospital. They talked about fixing us… surgically. Cutting away muscle, shortening our bones, bleaching our skin. Putting us on anti-growth drugs afterwards… it was horrible.”

“We all think of that,” I said. “Every day.”

“But do you remember,” Candi-One asked, “One day, one morning, we were sitting in our room, and we thought we would agree to go through with it.?” Her eyes were welling tears.

“And yet here you are,” I said. “Just like Father imagined. Well, except for the super-strength.”

“But I still remember when I was like the rest of you,” said Candi-One. “I may look like fourteen, but I have twenty years of memories. Sometimes I feel like a traitor.”

“Oh, Candi,” I said. “How could we not love ourself?”

“But it’s clear our separate experiences are changing us,” said Monstress-1. “Our memories are diverging. We are each becoming more… unique.”

“But we’re still all us,” I said confidently.”

There was a somewhat awkward silence as we considered Candi-One’s memory, and all that had happened since then.

“I have one,” said Andi. His voice lowered to a near-whisper. “We had a little crush on Jan. I mean, before…”

“We all think of that, too,” I said.

“I try not to,” said Andi. “I guess it doesn’t count?”

I shook my head.

“How about this: we’re half-Somathuran, on our father’s side. No one in this Galaxy even knows what a Somathuran is.”

“Sorry, Andi,” I said. “No one in this Galaxy knows, but a mind-reading shape-shifter would…”

“What about you, M-3?” asked Andi. How do we know you’re not a mind-reading shape-shifter?”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” I said. “None of you could remember this, but when I woke up, for just a moment, I thought I was back in Samoa. You don’t remember that, but you’ll understand why.”

“No, sorry, but Monstress-2 and I were talking about the Samoa vacation a couple of sleep-cycles ago,” said Monstress-1. “It’s hard isn’t it?”

I thought for a little while. “Well, when we were kids… a kid, I guess… we bit our fingernails. Nasty habit.”

“Everyone bit their fingernails as a kid,” said Monstress-2.

“Yes, but we stopped… because of a boy,” I said.

While we were laughing, Kitt showed up. “Breakfast is ready for you, my New Masters,” he said.

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CHAPTER FIVE: THE JOURNEY - PART ONE

Kitt was a much better cook than any of us, being familiar with the food in the freezer. We feasted on a delicious kind of vegetarian Gỏi Cuốn.

“Where are we going, and how are we going to get there?” Monstress-1 asked after breakfast.

“There are places on the Worlds where food is grown,” said Kitt. “Places where many races live and work together. Variants might live there safely for a lifetimes.”

“Is that it?” asked Green Monstress. “Find a place to settle down, a roof over our heads and a steady food supply? Keep our heads down until we’re old and gray?”

“Should the seven of us take on the Progenitor?” asked Candi-Two. “His is a murderous, totalitarian regime, but what would replace it?”

“Personally, I’m not ready to rule a galaxy,” said Candi-One.

“I think we ought to try to get home, back to 31st-century Xanthu. Find a place where the Engineering Crews are working, steal a ship, go back through the portal,” Monstress-1 suggested.

“The Portal is again blocked by the Eater-Of-All,” Kitt countered. “Better to find some place safe to hide.”

“I agree with M-1,” said Andi. “Even if we can’t return the the U.P. and Xanthu, we could find a safer place to live out our lives, somewhere other than the Progenitor’s backyard. We could even” - he sighed - “scatter in seven different directions. It might increase our chances.”

“Kitt,” said Monstress-1, “Could you take us to a place where we might be able to find a ship? Somewhere the Engineering Crews are working, or somewhere else?”

“I know where Engineering is doing repairs-- but it is many far distances from here. Longer than a hundred sleep-times to walk there. And then there is only ships big enough for transport around the Six Worlds. You would have to go to Padrehogar for an interstellar vessel,” Kitt explained. “I could not take you there.”

“I think it’s decided,” I said. “Kitt will lead us from the Circuit to the Repair Site, and we will find our way to Padrehogar, and from there… who knows.”

We gathered up as much food as we could carry without looking suspicious. We were careful to take such fruits and vegetables that looked like they wouldn’t spoil too quickly after defrosting. Green Monstress had the idea of collecting the empty metal nectar cans and unrolling them into thin sheets. Our fingernails were hard enough to scratch them; we could use them to record our journey-- and, just incidentally, assure that Kitt was not just leading us around in circles.

Kitt marched us out of the cafeteria, and straight across the hall, where a large door opened in the featureless wall.

“How did you know this was here?” I asked.

“It is clearly scent-marked,” said Kitt. “Are you so blind you cannot smell it? Is that why you have been stuck here for so long?”

“Our senses have been somewhat heightened since the gene-bomb,” said Monstress-1, “But clearly not enough to…”

I sniffed the air. “Wait!” I said. “Do you smell that-- a kind of sweet, electric odor?” I moved down the corridor, then back to the cafeteria door, then back to our new exit. “Yes, it’s very localized,” I said. “Try it, I’m sure you’ll find it obvious, once you are on the lookout for it.”

Kitt seemed perturbed. All four Bigs were able to detect it, but Andi and the two Candis were scent-blind.

“Now that helps a lot,” said Monstress-1, congratulating me.

Beyond the door, the hard metal floor gave way to carpet. It was torn and burned, a victim of the calamity like everything else in this underground world. Incongruously, small filing cabinets were placed at regular intervals, their drawers shattered and empty. Long-dead decorative potted plants stood on top of them.

As long as we moved, we had a good sense of time. With no day or night, it had been hard to judge, although we had gone through eight or ten sleep cycles each. Now, we estimated that three hundred paces was a kilometer, five kilometers was an hour. We planned to walk for eight hours, take a break for lunch, and walk eight hours until dinner. Then sleep, and when we awoke, it would be a new ‘day’.

Green Monstress was our timekeeper, navigator, and journalist. We began on a steep downward slope, a broad spiral leading into the interior of the planet. About four hours out, we hit a slight snag.

Kitt collapsed mid-step.

“What happened?” asked a chorus of voices.

“Is he dead?” asked Andi.

I checked the bug-boy out. He was sound asleep.

“He must be exhausted,” I said.

“Or, he’s on a different sleep schedule that the rest of us,” Candi-One suggested. “It may take awhile for us to get in sync.”

“What do we do?” I asked Monstress-1. “Keep going in the same direction? Turn back?”

“Let’s go ahead until we find one of those small annexes,” she said. “We can wait there until our tour guide wakes up.”

The waiting was interminable. When we couldn’t sit any longer, we would venture out exploring, two by two, not very far. There was little to see. This area of the Throneworld was abandoned.

As I was pacing the small annex that we had made our temporary home-- we had had our lunch rations-- I smelled a familiar sweet, metallic smell. The door in the blank wall at the end of the small corridor opened with a touch.

“It’s a restroom,” I said, looking in. Six voices gave a sigh of relief.

The facilities were undersized, but acceptable. At least, they worked.

“Do you think every one of these little annexes we pass has a restroom at the end?” Monstress-1 suggested.

“Well, it’s easy enough to check,” I said. “Maybe I should appoint myself Official Group Door-Finder. Kitt does not seem very forthcoming about our surroundings. He acts like there’s a place he wants to get to.”

“Noted,” said Monstress-1. “We’re beginning to specialize. I’m afraid the longer we remain separated, the more we are becoming like sisters, not just seven copies of the same person.”

After a couple of days, we learned the routine. Kitt slept eight hours at a stretch, then was awake for only four hours before he needed sleep again. He only needed to eat once during his waking times, so he shared breakfast and dinner with us, and slept through lunch. While he was asleep, he had to be carried; I was nominated as official Kitt-carrier. Monstress-2 put together a kind of sling for me to wear. It was like having a third arm to carry the little bug with.

It was scarcely better when Kitt was awake. He had to run to keep up with us, and tired quickly. I soon became his permanent beast of burden.

About four days out one ‘morning’, Monstress-2 stopped dead, and back-tracked.

“I think I felt something,” she said. She stopped in front of an archway, painted bright red. It led down to what looked like a dark basement. “Can you feel it?” she asked.

I could, and I could see Monstress-1 and Green Monstress felt it as well. An odd, unidentifiable tingling sensation.

“No, no!” said Kitt from his little pack. “That is very dangerous! Do not take us in there!”

But Monstress-2 had already rushed down the broken stairs. She came up looking refreshed and satisfied.

“There is a crevasse broken in the wall down there,” she reported. “And out of it is shining hard blue light and nuclear radiation. It’s like a tall, cold, drink to one dying of thirst!”

It was certainly good for her, Monstress-1, Green Monstress and me. But Candi-Two and Andi didn’t dare try, and Candi-One, despite her strength and resilience found it not at all invigorating. Kitt looked like he wanted to faint every time one of us went down, and was terribly afraid that I would take him in there with me. After our nuclear energy ‘drinks’, we continued on our way uneventfully. Despite his anxiety, Kitt was asleep again in a couple of hours.

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CHAPTER SIX: THE JOURNEY - PART TWO

Monstress-1 woke up feeling out of sorts.

“I haven’t been able to sleep for two nights,” she complained. “I have been itching like mad all night. I finally get to sleep, and the itching wakes me up again.”

“Anything I can do to help?” I asked.

“There’s this one spot, right in the middle of my back, where I can’t reach,” she said.

Scratching her back was like rubbing a kitten’s belly; she was full of relief and gratitude.

It was our plan that we would each miss one night of sleep a week, in order to have one person on alert while the rest slept. The coming night was Monstress-1’s turn; I volunteered to take her place.

“Everyone else needs to keep the same schedule,” I said. “Who knows if another of us is going to have a hard time on this trip? Let’s keep this schedule as regular as possible.”

I kept an eye on Monstress-1. She really was being tortured by some sort of itch.

“Maybe we can find a sonic shower. Or a clean pool of water,” I suggested. “Maybe you’re having an allergic reaction to something you ate.”

“But why not all of us?” Asked Monstress-1. “We all eat the same food.”

“It’s like you said-- we’re diverging, becoming more like sisters than duplicates. Maybe this is a sensitivity you’ve just recently developed.”

Monstress-1 was scratching her forearm. “How long have you had that rash?” I asked.

There were rough patches of skin on both arms. Not hives, but hard,scaly, pimply patches.

“I don’t know,” said Monstress-1. “It must be what’s causing the itching. It’s driving me crazy.”

None of the others had similar patches. “Perhaps you are fighting an alien virus,” Monstress-2 suggested. “Maybe we need to find a doctor.”

“No doctors!” Kitt piped up. “All doctors need to report Variants. I would be in big trouble, being found with Variants. You would be in very much worse trouble!”

“I hope it’s not a bad reaction to the radiation,” said Candi-One.

“No, the itching started the day before we found the radiation breech,” said Monstress-1

“I think that nuclear radiation bath did us a world of good,” Green Monstress opined.”I was feeling a little congestion coming on, but after the radiation, it completely cleared up.”

“It sounds like we might be susceptible to some diseases on this world,” said Monstress-2. “What I wouldn’t give for a Legion medi-scanner.”

“While you’re wishing, why don’t you wish for a fully-stocked Legion Cruiser?” said Andi. “That would solve a whole host of problems.”

“Speaking of which, our food stores are running low,” said Monstress-2. “We need to slow down, start checking for doors, see if we can find another abandoned cafeteria, and replenish our supplies.”

Eight days out, we began to notice the corridors seemed better cared for. Live potted plants began to appear-- which meant there was occasional traffic in the halls. We began to move carefully at archways-- we could hear, and occasionally see, evidence of others in the distance. As we moved through the fortunately still-empty corridors, my eyes fell on the air vents at the top and bottom of the walls. Sometimes I imagined eyes behind them, peering out at us as we passed, but never actually saw anything.

At the end of the ninth day, we were going to bed down in a side corridor, but Kitt urged us on. In a short while, we came to an open door. Kitt snuck ahead, then came back to report.

“It is a cafeteria,” he said. “A functioning one. And good news: they serve Variants! Sometimes we keep a few Variants as workers, if they are strong and obedient. Look!”

We peered around a corner. There was a large mammalian creature, like a bear with too many eyes, sitting at one of the tables.

“You see?” said Kitt. “Variant.”

We decided to risk it.

“Quite a crew you got there,” said the wasp-like server to Kitt.

“They are good strong workers,” Kitt told him. “I am taking them to the Engineering Repair Team. We should feed them piles of meat. We want to keep them strong.”

The server complied. We gorged ourselves on protein, trying not to think what sort of animal it had come from.

Kitt took us down a side-corridor, obviously little used. We found another small annex to bed down for the night.

====================================================================

CHAPTER SEVEN: A FAMILIAR STRANGER

“Someone is following us,” whispered Kitt. “I can smell him.”

“One of the Progeny?” I asked.

“No, a Variant. Never encountered this kind before. But he is right over our head.”

I didn’t look up. Monstress-2 had slowed down to scratch Monstress-1’s back. I slid in behind them, and slowed down as well. “He still there?” I asked Kitt.

“Yes…” I took a 4-meter leap up to the ceiling, sunk my fingers into the metal, and ripped away a panel, exposing the Variant’s hideaway.

He was human.

His sky-blue eyes looked haunted. His ginger-red hair hung in Rastafarian dreadlocks to his waist. He had a scruffy beard; it looked like he had shaved, not well, a couple of days ago. He was shirtless, but had two homemade bandoleros criss-crossed across his chest. He was armed with a couple of large kitchen knives, and a cleaver, although he had not drawn them.

“Who are you, and why do four of you look like Monstress?” he asked.

He had everyone’s attention now.

“Garth?” I asked.

“No, not Garth,” he said. “Jan. Jan Arrah.”

====================================================================

CHAPTER EIGHT: JAN ARRAH’S STORY

We recoiled in shock.

“Let me find a place to explain,” he said. “It’s a long story.”

The Jan-Arrah-who-looked-like-Garth-Ranzz led us down the hallway until I smelled that sweet, metallic odor. He tapped on the wall, which opened into a conference room. The chairs were too small, even for Andi and the Candis, but we managed to get comfortable, the Bigs sitting on the floor.

“Garth’s ‘LiveWire’ powers seem to work differently for me,” Jan / Garth explained. “Or maybe I didn’t ever really understand how they worked. I can sense the electric currents that operate the doors. I know hiding places even the Progeny haven’t found. And a good thing, too.”

He looked around at us all.

“I guess I should start at the beginning.”

“I remember nearly exhausting my transmutation powers protecting the Outpost. I passed out. The next thing I knew, I woke up in a rapidly failing transuit on the surface of this world. In Garth Ranzz’ body. He’s not in here with me… I don’t think so… I haven’t been able to sense him at all.”

“I know why you’re afraid of me.” He pulled out a metal pad, with some sort of memory crystal attached. It was hologram projector.

A picture of the Progenitor’s throne room appeared. The familiar words echoed in the confernce room. “You can’t help what you are… Blink… Years pass like heartbeats… I can’t remember everything… You’re a strange one… I don’t remember making you… Variant!”

“Well, we survived,” said Monstress-1. “Evidently, our rapid healing power includes regeneration. Multiple regenerations, in fact.”

“The Progenitor lived too much in the past and the future,” said Jan. “In all his planning and plotting, he forgot the present. I have been forced to live quite immediately in the present for the some time now….”

“The holo-record continues. You will be glad to know the rest of the Legion are safe. Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5.1, Chameleon, Ultra Boy, Umbra, Kid Quantum 2... even that Kwai girl and that strange Feral Star being made it safely through the Rift. Garth and the Progenitor fought the Omniphagos together… Garth sacrificed his life to save the rest of the Legion. As far as I can determine, the Omniphagos lies again sleeping at the center of the Rift. I think I must have been the Progenitor-- I recognize him-- me-- although much changed. I… he… hurt you. I am glad you somehow survived. But the Progenitor, survived, too, and his Progeny have been hunting me now for over three years…”

“Well, that answers the question of how long it takes us to regenerate from protoplasmic goo. We all awoke less than twenty days ago,” said Monstress-2.

“I think I must be… not the Progenitor, but some tiny fragment of his… its… memory. Long-lost. He told you it had been millions of years… we must be far in the future.”

“According to Brainiac 5.1,” said Monstress, “This is not our Universe at all. Some parallel dimension, or alternate universe, some different piece of space-time. And this Universe is older than ours-- Brainy estimated it to be some seventy times the age of our home Universe. So we are neither in the future nor the past… just… elsewhere. And the Rift connects the two Universes.”

“There was quite a fuss a couple of years ago. The many of the Kwai nomads disappeared through the Rift… there was a great war… but none of the Progeny could follow. I am not sure we could use it to get home.”

“We are resolved to try,” Monstress-1 explained.

“I would like to go with you,” said Jan / Garth. “If you think you could trust me. I’m not entirely sure I trust myself… but I have learned a lot about this world in the past thousand days or so.”

“Well, we don’t trust this,” I said, indicating Kitt, who was now, again, sound asleep. “But he is useful. If I vote that we bring Jan along.”

The vote in favor was unanimous.

“The odd thing is,” said Jan, “I did make you. I mean, at least, I made you orange. I see at least one of you got your coloring back, though.

====================================================================

CHAPTER NINE: DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

We had our daily conference in the morning with Kitt over a meager breakfast.

“We need to find an elevator, then go down a thousand levels. There should be a second elevator nearby, then we go down almost a thousand more,” he said.”Then it is only a six sleep-cycles until we reach where the Engineering crews are making repairs.”

We started out. I found myself lagging back beside Jan and Andi.

“I understand the knives and cleaver,” I told Jan. “But what do you carry in your bandoleros? It doesn’t look like you have any weapons that require ammunition.”

“Food, of course,” he laughed. “Haven’t you ever read ‘Donovan Xocolotl on Mars’?”

I had to admit I hadn’t.

“Here,” offered Jan. “Try one of these.” He handed me what looked like a shriveled black pickle.

“Oh, that’s nasty bitter,” I said. I started to spit the thing out.

“No, eat it. It gets better, really,” he said.

“I may regret voting to trust you,” I said. “If you are trying to poison me… well, you know I can get very upset.”

I chewed the thing up and swallowed it. The bitter taste was gone, and it did leave a somewhat pleasant aftertaste in my mouth.

“It’s called ‘Moid,” said Jan. “How do you feel?”

“Fine,” I answered. “Why…?” Then it hit me. I felt like I had just had a double hyper-caff with a shot of adrenalin on the side. “Wow!”

“Pretty good, right?” said Jan. “I use Moid when I have to stay up all night. You’ll be wide awake and buzzed, and won’t feel like eating for the rest of the day, but you’ll sleep like a Zwenite tonight. I’ve got a few other odd foodsticks in here. Mostly Progeny ‘candy’.”

“This is what they consider candy?” I asked. Candi-One and Candi-Two turned their heads to look back at us. So did the three other Monstresses.

“Not you guys,” I said. “I guess I’m talking pretty loud?” I tried to whisper.

“Side effect,” Jan explained.

The elevator was slow going. It took us nearly twenty minutes to get down the the level Kitt was taking us to. When the elevator doors opened, four Progeny were waiting for us.

Monstress-1, Monstress-2, Green Monstress, Candi-One and I almost instinctively stepped in front of Candi-Two, Andi, and Jan. I swung Kitt around onto my back, and he scrambled back into the open elevator.

One of the Progeny raised his arms, high over his head. Girders and pipes rose from the floor, enveloping Monstress-2. “It has some sort of mag-lev abilities,” she commented.

Then the same thing happened to me. But it seemed the creature could only focus on one of us at a time-- Monstress-2 was already breaking out of her metallic restraints.

It was a good thing the five of us were forming a shield, because the second Progeny let loose with a blast of blue-white energy. Violet spots danced before my eyes.

I heard Jan and Andi’s running commentary.

“Cosmic Cockroach. Lightning Bug,” noted Andi.

“After all this time, they must be Archtypes in this Universe,” said Jan.

“This must be the Other Legion Kitt was talking about,” said Andi.

“Really? Kitt mentioned them?” said Jan.

“Actually, he called our Legion the ‘Other Legion’,” Andi clarified.

“If the Progenitor had my memories-- was me-- he would have created a number of these Legions over the millennia.”

There was a little Progeny sitting cross-legged in some sort of force-bubble. It was observing a kind of hand-held recording or sensor device,

“No, you fool. They are strengthened by nuclear energies,” he said. “Your energy-bolts are nothing but negative-beta radiation. You are only making them stronger.”

“And that would be…” said Andi. “Brainy-Ant 5.”

Green Monstress had grabbed the force-bubble that surrounded ‘Brainy-Ant 5’.

“Our Brainiac had a force-shield that was nearly impenetrable,” she said. “I’ll bet yours is inferior.” She squeezed the little bubble. Red energy flickered around it edges. There was a POP and...

===============================================================

CHAPTER TEN: AND THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS

And then I woke up.

My bed was as soft as my pillow. The mattress hugged my body. Three thick downy comforters kept me warm. The Xanthuan rains stormed outside my window, but here I was safe and protected.

“Candi!’ called my Grandma Candace from the hall outside my door.”It may be the weekend, you may have no school, but I will not let you sleep your life away today. Now come down to breakfast, before it’s time for lunch!”

Reluctantly, I crawled out of bed. I looked at myself in the full-length mirror hung on my wall.

I was fourteen.

Not yet fourteen-and-a-half. The Gene Bomb Accident hadn’t happened yet. Or ever.

It had never happened.

None of it.

It had all been a dream.

I laughed. Candi Pypont-LeParc, a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. And there had been a Legion on Xanthu, as well. What was it? The ‘Uncanny Amazers’. I laughed again. And there had been a boy. A nice boy… but the dream was fading fast. A ten-year dream, ten years of memories, all made-up, silly, unreal. A dream millions of years long, really. A nightmare, towards the end. I had died…

I began to get dressed. Obviously, I had picked out my outfit the night before-- planning is everything in fashion. That reminded me. I opened the special drawer in my armoire. There, underneath the underwear and socks, I found her. My Fantasy Fashion Doll, still wearing the absurd fur and animal-prints I had dressed her in.

Everything was wrong.

I fell to my knees, smashing my fists against the floor. Nothing happened, of course. Only a dull thud. I had no super-strength here.

“I’ll bet something did happen,” I shouted. “I was trained by the real Imra Ardeen, Saturn Beetle, or whatever your name is called!” I slammed my fists against the floor again. “She taught me a dozen ways to tell dreams and illusions from reality!” I slammed the floor again, even harder this time. “Create a false memory. Then look for it in your dream! I burned that Fantasy Fashion Faux Pas years ago!” I slammed the floor again. “As if I would keep it!”

Reality melted around me. I woke up again, this time for real. The hallway outside the elevator was a shambles. The floor was dented, cracked, and broken. Steam flooded around our knees. Kitt, Andi, and Candi-Two still cowered in the smoking elevator.

“Glad you’re back,” said Jan. “Form a shield in front of the elevator,” he instructed. “I’m not very good at this.”

Monstress-1, Green Monstress, Monstress-2 and I formed a barricade in front of the elevator. Candi-One was still glassy-eyed and immobile. Lightning crackled like the Xanthuan storm I had left behind. A great ball of light and electricity surrounded Jan, slamming into the Arthropod Legion, and us as well. Dazzling, it bounced off the walls, the ceiling, the floor. It tingled, tickled, made me light-headed.

Jan walked over to the still, smoking forms of the Progeny. “Still alive,” he announced. “These Progeny are tough.”

He walked back. “Negative beta radiation,” said Andi. “Impressive.”

“I’m not very good at aiming, though,” said Jan.

Kitt barely had time to explain where we would find the next elevator before he passed out, whether from stress or because it was his regular naptime. We found it easily enough.

“Where to?” I asked.

“Let’s go all the way to the bottom again,” said Jan. “We’ll wait for our guide to wake up, have lunch, and go up a few floors if we need to. Then, it’s a three-day walk to Engineering Repairs, and a spaceship.”

As the doors closed, I heard a distant noise.

“Wonder what that is,” said Monstress-1.

“Repair droids,” said Jan solemnly. “These corridors are not as empty and unused as we are used to. Probably we will meet more Progeny the further into the planet we go.”

“The Bug Legion were waiting for us,” Candi-One observed. “It was an ambush. Someone is tracking us. They knew we would be at that floor.”

“Every time we use a food or clothing dispenser, restroom, shower, or cafeteria, we run the risk of being spotted by one of the Progeny or some computer program,” Jan said. “I’m sure elevators and other transport are especially being watched.”

Candi-One pushed open the inner doors of the elevator. We saw the outer doors of the various levels gliding by.

“We need to let this elevator go all the way to the bottom, but we also need to get out of here without stopping it.” We all nodded.

Monstress-1 picked up Jan. Monstress-2 picked up Andi. Green Monstress picked up Candi-Two. Candi-One popped the next set of doors we came to. The five of us, carrying the four of them, leapt out into the corridor.

A small crowd of Progeny scattered as we came crashing down.

Jan ran ahead, and found a door in the wall. The sweet, metallic smell I usually noted in the presence of doors was not there.

“Hidden room,” said Jan. “You find them sometimes.”

It was a large, well-appointed bathroom.

“Well, I guess we hide out in the Girl’s Room until our friend Kitt wakes up,” said Andi.

====================================================================

Sweet! Happy to see you back Klar (it's been a while), and happy to see a story featuring Monstress.

I'll read through this soon.

Welcome back.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: VARIANTS

A bathroom is not a bad place to hide, all things considered. We decided to spend the ‘night’, and get a fresh start in the morning. Kitt seemed to have some sort of GPS; he always knew just where we were.

“We need to skip the elevators,” Monstress-1 explained.

“It was the Legion!,” said Kitt. “You escaped the Legion!”

“We defeated the Legion,” said Monstress-2. “We don’t want to meet up with them again.”

“They will find you again,” said Kitt. “They will never stop coming. That is why they are called Legion.”

“Just get us to a ship-- any ship-- and you can leave us,” I said. “Run back to the Progenitor. Have him send another Legion after us.”

“We will need to cut through one of the Agricultural Valleys,” said Kitt. “They are very accepting of… Variants there. Most of them. There should be an entrance to onr only a few sleep-cycles away.”

Kitt and Jan went out to reconnoiter; to see what the ebb and flow of traffic looked like in this area.

“I was home on Xanthu,” I told the others. “I was fourteen again. I wanted to believe this had all been a dream.”

“Me, too,” said Monstress-2. “I was playing robo-polo. I thought I had been thrown, had the breath knocked out of me, just having a weird hallucination.”

“I was on a world where everyone looked like us,” said Candi-One. “Big, orange and green. We were sisters. I didn’t even remember the real world. I even had a big, green boyfriend.”

“We’re diverging,” said Monstress-1. “Two and Three dreamed they were human again. Candi dreamed she was monstrous. I dreamed… arrgh.” Monstress-1 doubled over in pain.

“Are you OK?” we asked together. “What is it?”

“My back,” said Monstress-1. “The itching… it feels like it’s on fire!”

She lay on the floor, curled in a fetal position. Suddenly, shockingly, an orange shark-fin erupted from the middle of her back, tearing through her jumpsuit. Then another, and another. In all, a half-dozen curved fins ran down the middle of her back. The hard scales on her arms had spread to up her chest, to her neck and face. Her face itself seemed broader, flatter, almost reptilian. There were a couple of little ram’s-horns sprouting from her head.

“Oh, that’s a relief,” she said. “I must look sight, though. Take me to a mirror.” We showed her her reflection. “I suppose this is a side-effect of the regeneration process,” she said. “Continuing mutation.”

“It may be happening to all of us,” said Monstress-2. She held out her hands. Her fourth and fifth fingers were fused, growing together. She turned her hands over. “And look at my nails,” she said. They were turning into claws.

I ran a quick check on myself. No noticeable changes. Yet.

Jan and Kitt returned, bearing fresh food.

“It isn’t really stealing,” said Jan. “Everything here is free for the taking.”

“For the Progeny,” said Kitt. “We work for our keep.”

“And often, worked to death,” said Jan.

He examined Monstress-1. By now she was nearly unrecognizable, a miniature tangerine Godzilla.

“No mental changes?” asked Jan. Monstress-1 shook her head. “You know, as a Tromman, I am something of an expert on change. I would say that when the Progenitor exploded, there was some damage to your DNA. Some of it transmuted, even. No doubt you each regenerated from a very small sample-- probably cells from the central nervous system, since you all share seem to share identical memories and personalities. A larger sample of DNA would have been more self-correcting. Monstress-1’s body is doing the best it can with the DNA it has available. Your molecular structure has been unstable ever since the Gene Bomb, of course.”

“And what will I become?” Monstress-2 wondered, staring at her hands.

“Only time will tell,” said Jan. Monstress-1’s hair had all fallen out by now, and lay in piles on the bathroom floor. “Not to appear unfeeling,” said Jan, “But we need to collect and save this. Your hair is stronger than steel wire. Stronger than spiderweb. It could come in useful.” He began to wrap the hair into small packages, and store it in the pockets of his bandoleros.

Candi-One kept watch that night.

“{She feels lonely},” I thought to myself. “{[i]Her appearance isolates her from the five of us, but her strength isolates her from the other two. Well, she should know that we all know what loneliness feels like. And we don’t judge by appearances. Still, we ought to think of something nice to do for her. If there is anything nice in the Progenitor’s world.”

====================================================================

CHAPTER TWELVE: THE PROMISED LAND

It only took us two days to walk to the archway Kitt had described. He was, of course, asleep when we got there, but it was unmissable, boldly outlined in bright turquoise. We opened the portal.

It was a big room.

A really big room.

We stood about a quarter of the way up, above a lush valley dotted with emerald, turquoise and indigo. The ceiling lay so far above us that clouds formed. In plan, it was a quarter-sphere, one side of which was the outer hull. A great diagonal gash, at least a mile long, had been sealed with the same transparent metal we had seen in the Progenitor’s throne room. Red light from the tiny sun of this system flooded in over some of the fields. More lights in the ceiling illuminated the rest. The hexagonal fields were divided by regular pathways throughout.

“I would estimate eight or ten thousand acres,” said Monstress-2.

Reaching the floor, we immediately identified two major species: the ‘grasshoppers’, tall green creatures, and the ‘ants’, small, dark, dark maroon creatures. They seemed to work together in perfect harmony. We eventually discovered others-- there was even a mammalian, subterranean species that looked after the roots of the crop.

“You may glean along the edges and the corners of the fields,” one officious grasshopper informed us. “But the interior is for shipment and export only. There are empty cottages you may claim, but you will be expected to work. Take a few days to settle in. If you are satisfied, stay. If you seek different work, move on.”

We stayed.

The Ants and the Grasshoppers were happy to have us. We were virtually untiring, and capable of lifting heavy loads. The harvesting, packing, and shipping was speeded up immensely. Unlike some of the larger Progeny, we were also capable of remembering and carrying out complex instructions. Our needs were simple, although we ate a lot. After weeks of hide-and-seek in the corridors, this was the Garden of Paradise.

Monstress-1 had stabilized. Andi tried naming her Zard-Li, but it did not go over well. Monstress-2 was more slowly developing into what was clearly a leonine form. Andi called her Candi-Cat, which led to a (very) brief altercation. Well-fed and well-rested, all of us were happier and more relaxed. Back among his own kind, even Kitt seemed content.

As they say, ‘Ripe fruit soon spoils’.

The head Grasshopper called the nine of us together.

“We need to finish harvesting and shipping as much of the crop as we can,” she explained. “We will be working around the clock for the next two days. Sleep is allowed, but optional.”

Jan volunteered to donate his stash of a couple of dozen ‘Moid.

“May you find Eternal Favor with the Progenitor,” said the head Grasshopper.

“If only,” said Green Monstress.

“Why the rush to harvest now?” I asked, out in the fields.

A little Ant answered me.”It is the Time of the Bandits. A year ago, they took nearly half our crop. A half a year ago, because it was not the time of Great Harvest, they raided our stores. They are not able to farm for themselves, but they would destroy us if we resisted.”

My blood boiled. “We’ll see about that,” I said.

We were loading the Transports when the Bandits showed up.

“I think that is ours,” the Bandit Leader said.

They were built along the lines of Rhinoceros Beetles, but they were immense, standing a head taller than any of us. The Head Grasshopper stepped aside.

Monstress-1 stepped right into her place.

“Do not antagonize them,” said the Head Grasshopper. “They are unbeatable.”

“I don’t know, they don’t look so tough,” said Monstress-1. She reached up and grabbed Bandit Leader’s horn, and it broke off. He fell to the ground in pain. Monstress-1 picked him up and tossed him several hundred feet.

“I don’t think I could take more than a thousand of them without some effort,” she remarked.

“You will regret that,” snarled the Bandit Second-in-Command. He lifted a rifle, and blasted Monstress-1 with an energy beam. Even from where I stood, I could tell it was raw nuclear radiation.

“You know, you will soon come to realize that that was a very, very bad idea,” said Monstress-1.

“You cannot defeat us all,” shouted Bandit Second-in-Command. “Our armies are innumerable.”

“Then you should find a way to feed them,” said Monstress-1. She poked one finger through his armored carapace, as easily as if it were made of butter. “Are your forces so innumerable that you can stand to lose five thousand of them in the first round?” she asked.

Jan raised his arms high above his head. White-violet lightning cascaded between his fingers.

“Six thousand?” asked Monstress-1. She turned. “Tell me where his heart is, and I will rip it out.”

Several of the Ants enthusiastically indicated an area just above the groin.

“Please,” said Bandit Second-in-Command. “We lied. There are only about fifty of us.”

“Only fifty, and you took half last year’s harvest?” I exclaimed.

“We had to make it appear our forces were greater than… than could be resisted.”

“What a band of idiots,” Monstress-1 replied. “All are welcome here. Glean along the edges and the corners of the fields; There are empty cottages you may claim, but you will be expected to work. There are some nasty jobs that need doing, but you all look big enough to do them. If you want different work, move on. But don’t come back.” She turned to the Head Grasshopper. “Am I right?”

“They have done us a great wrong,” said the Head Grasshopper. “But we believe in working off debts. Hard debt, hard work. You don’t like the work, no one is making you stay.”

After about a week, a new routine was established. Those rhino-horns were just made for plowing the fields, and it was seed time. To see the little Ants ordering the giant Rhino-Beetles around was a sight. But they were learning a new philosophy.

====================================================================

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: ON THE ROAD AGAIN

I found Jan gazing out the Gash, into the vastness of Space.

“They call it the Rosette, or the Orrery. Sometimes just the Worlds,” he said. “Secured together by a Dyson Ring-- you see? You can see the Starbow there, and there.” He pointed left and right. “This world is called Vaterheim. And there--” he pointed to a dot of light to the right-- “ is Chezpéré. That smaller dot, in closer to the little red sun, is Padrehogar. Janakalaya is hidden behind the sun, but you can barely make out the little lines of the Ring that connect them. Then Bahaynitatay to the left, and then further left, that little speck of light is called Bethabba.”

I stood there looking at the little system, the Second Galaxy lying beyond.

“Monstress-1 says Kitt is gone,” said Jan.

“I know,” I said. “I’m the one who told her. My fault. He seemed so happy and content, I wasn’t vigilant enough.”

“It’s for the best,” said Jan. “He was in danger as our companion. He really could have been hurt in that battle with the Progenitor’s Legion.”

I had thought of that, but put it out of my mind in the expediency of our situation.

“We need to leave this place,” said Jan. “We need to leave, and leave a clear trail behind. If the Progeny believes we are here, they could simply kill everyone indiscriminately, burn the fields, leave this place empty and desolate. You never know what the Progenitor will take it into his mind to do.”

“We could take one of the Produce Transports,” I said. “One of the smaller ones. I don’t want to inconvenience these people too much. They have been so kind. Are so kind.”

“The start of a good plan,” said Jan. “But where shall we go?”

“Kitt said there were starships on Padrehogar,” I said. “Maybe there?”

“I have heard it is a manufacturing world,” said Jan. “Perhaps starships is what they manufacture.”

We appropriated spacesuits for Jan, Andi and the Candis. There were none large enough to fit the Monstresses. The four suits were ill-fitting, but had the advantage of making them look like Progeny. Sort of.

Jan, Andi, and Candi-Two also took on the task of learning to fly the Produce Transport.They took turns moving it, slightly changing its position, ‘for better loading’.

At last we were ready. We gathered in the docking bay in the middle of one of the sleep-cycles. Monstress-1, Monstress-2, Green Monstress and I squeezed into the back of the cab. Andi and Jan were at the controls. Candi-One and Candi-Two were at the hatch.

“One more thing,” said Candi-Two. “I took this from the Head Grasshopper. It’s a communication device.”

Candi-One nodded.

“Attention! I would like to report the theft of a Produce Transport!” she spoke into the device. Eight Variants have taken four of our workers hostage!”

“Who is this?” a voice crackled back. Candi-Two threw the communicator out of the ship, then slammed the hatch.

“Padrehogar, and step on it,” she said. “That should leave them a trail to follow.”

==================================================================

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: FLIGHT

“Well, I have some bad news,” said Andi. “Jan and I have been working on deciphering these controls, and it seems that this vessel is only able to do Mach Eight, tops. That means we can get to Padrehogar in… about nine months.

“Before which, we’ll all starve to death,” said Monstress-1.

“Before which,” said Jan, “We will have long run out of fuel. However, I believe I can get around the planet to the Starbow. There is supposed to be some sort of hyper-speed magnetic railroad or subway that runs between the worlds. That will take us to Chezpéré; we will have to cross that world somehow to get to the Starbow between there and Padrehogar.”

“Maybe we can just convince the Progenitor to deport us to some little world where we can live out our days in peace,” Green Monstress sighed.

“Unlikely, since he has already murdered us once,” said Monstress-1. “Right now, it’s the best plan we have, until someone comes up with a new one.”

“Er-- more bad news,” said Andi. “I seem to be unable to keep us on course.”

“Move over,” said Candi-Two. “Let me look at it.” Candi-Two was our best pilot; she had been able to sneak quite a bit of time aboard the transports.

“This makes no sense,” she said. “We are definitely off-course…”

“What’s that blinking panel?” asked Andi.

“Don’t touch it!” said Jan and Candi-Two together, but too late.

“Unidentified Agricultural Transport!” A voice boomed from hidden speakers.

“Oh, look,” said Andi. “Communications”

“Cut your engines to prevent damage to your ship. You are being held in a tractor beam. Do not resist.”

“Actually, pretty good advice,” said Candi-Two, powering down the engines. “We won’t resist, for now. Let’s get into our spacesuits; maybe we four can successfully impersonate Progeny. At least for a little while.”

“Remember, these Variants are keeping us hostage,” Candi-One reminded everyone. “And there are four Variants more hiding on the ship somewhere.”
“Now would be a good time for a new plan,” said Andi.

Jan looked at the viewscreen. “Look where we’re headed,” he said.

It was clear we were being drawn to an area of Vaterheim that was under construction. Progeny swamed the outer hull, and there were ships of all sizes and descriptions.

Once on solid ground, we exited the ship. Progeny guards surrounded us on all sides, too many to count. But the four Progeny in charge, waiting for us, were instantly recognizable. A pale, thin, moth-like creature. An insect that seemed to be on fire. A rhinoceros beetle, like the ones we met in the Agricultural Valley. And one that repeatedly split into two, then cycled back to one.

“Phantom Moth,” said Andi. “And Inferno bug. Leviathan Beetle. Duo-Dung-Beetle. Guess they sent the second-stringers.”

The Apparition-analog also seemed to possess super-speed. In an instant, her hand was inside my chest. The Leviathan-analog was going for Green Monstress. The Inferno-analog’s powers were not nuclear in nature; Monstress-2’s new-grown fur was getting singed. Monstress-1 was being double-teamed.

As we had hoped, they left the spacesuited members of our party alone.

“That look familiar?” asked Monstress-1. She was successfully ignoring the one or two creatures attacking her.

It looked like a Model-One Legion cruiser. Just a plain cylindrical rocket, but I imagined it had some pretty remarkable capabilities.

“New plan?” asked Green Monstress. She tossed the giant beetle over our own stolen transport.”The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Go pick on someone your own size. Good things come in small packages. Etc., etc.” She picked up one of our suited comrades, and headed for the cruiser.

Monstress-1 and Monstress-2 had dispatched of their opponents as well. The Inferno-analog looked like a burnt-out matchstick.

“I know what you’re trying to do,” I told the moth-girl. “Reach inside my chest, stop my heart for a moment, and I pass out. But I have a pretty strong heart, and it’s pretty hot in there, radioactively speaking. In a moment, you’re going to burn your hand.”

The moment she pulled her hand out, I leapt into the air, coming down quite near the cruiser. “Are we all here?” I asked. “That Phantom-Creature had me worried for a moment.”

“I brought Andi,” said Green Monstress.

“I got both Candis,” said Monstress-1.

“And I got Jan,” said Monstress-2.

“Let’s go,” I said.

The cruiser controls were unfamiliar, but Jan, Andi, and Candi-Two got them figured out before the Progeny Guards figured to close the blast doors.

“Um.. guys?” Said Candi-Two. “I’m not so sure I know how to land this thing.”

“We’re traveling at point-five-c,” said Andi. “We’ve got about two hundred seconds to figure it out.”

We overshot Padrehogar by quite a bit, before our three pilots got the ship under control.

“I have located and disabled the Tracer Beacon on this vessel,” Jan reported. “They know we left the Rosette, they will not know if we change course or double back.”

“Should we just keep going?” asked Monstress-2. “Find some isolated world?” She was by now in full lion-lady form, with an impressive mane.

“I still want to try getting back to United Planets Space, and that means navigating the Rift,” said Monstress-1. “As long as we have the cruiser, why not try now?” We were getting used to her “orange-Godzilla” form. So far, however, no one other than Monstress-1 and Monstress-2 were undergoing any metamorphoses.

“Not our choices,” Candi-Two declared. “This may look like an old Legion cruiser, but it does not have FTL capability. We would need that to get to another world, or even to navigate the Rift.”

“I think our best bet is still Padrehogar,” said Jan. “And I would really prefer not to be riding in something so conspicuous. We know there is a faux-Legion here. What if they have a Superboy-analog?”

“Already met him,” I said. “His name is Singularity, and he works for the other side. A little bit crazy, though.”

Candi-Two had managed to turn the ship around.

“I’ve found what looks like a promising landing site on Padrehogar,” she said. “Populated, but not too populated. Industry nearby. I can land, then set the cruiser to blast off empty, into a random orbit around the Rosette. Hopefully that will keep the Progeny-Legion off our tail. If the Padrehogaran Progeny don’t kill us first.”

=================================================================

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: MODERN TIMES

“We are good, strong workers,” Monstress-1 told the Factory Manager. “We hope to find employment here. Perhaps accommodations?”

We hoped it would work. Our experience on Vaterheim was that Variants were technically persona non grata, unless there was work to be done. Then, it was no questions asked.

“You had better be good workers,” said the Manager. “You will each take up two spaces on the factory line.”

The Factory Manager was one of those great, round pill-bug things. As usual with Progeny, his face and tone were inscrutable.

“We can do it,” Monstress-1 replied, confidently.

“There is a whistle when your shift begins. There is a whistle when your shift ends. There is a whistle in between for lunch. You will learn on the job. If I am displeased with what you have learned, you will be let go. Accommodations are that way,” he gestured. “See that you are on the line tomorrow before the whistle blows.”

That was it. We were hired.

The work was mechanical and repetitive. Our co-workers were uninterested in how well we did our jobs, only in how much of their work they could unload on us. The work required not strength, but stamina. It was all mechanical assembly.

“This job would be better done by robots,” I told Jan at the end of one day.

“The Progeny are the Progenitor’s robots,” said Jan. “Completely replaceable, and interchangeable.”

“And expendable,” I added.

“Not entirely expendable,” said Jan. “Have you noticed that everywhere we go, everyone is short-handed? The farm, this factory. Engineering has commandeered a lot of resources repairing things. The incident with the Omniphagos clearly damaged the Rosette badly, but I don’t think the Progenitor kept a lot of extra help around anyway. From the attitude of the Progeny, he was all too ready to destroy his ‘children” if they stepped out of line-- or if he needed to exorcise a fit of rage.”

Candi-One had been promoted off the factory floor, into a lower management position. She had some news for us in our Accommodations.

“This factory produces everything necessary to build an FTL vessel,” Candi-One reported. “But it is all just catalogued and shelved. They could be building local transport for the Worlds as well, but they aren’t-- it’s just manufacturing parts, with no final assembly. On the other hand, I think that we could build an appropriate vessel ourselves-- these pieces are all modular, snap-together assembly. Like Legobots.”

“Awesome,” said Andi.

“I’ve even found an abandoned Assembly Bay we could work in,” Candi-One continued. “I imagine we could put something together in three or four weeks, without it even being noticed.”

It was actually easier to procure the larger pieces-- walls, chairs, console-- than the smaller ones-- engine parts, for example. In a short time we had what looked like a small interplanetary runabout, but without a working engine. Fully fueled, though.

It was easy to settle into a routine as the weeks passed. Get up, go to work, go to lunch, come home, go to bed. Occasionally sneak out in the middle of the night to steal some parts, or go to work on the ship. We never all went out on our surreptitious activities at once. After some discussion, we didn’t sent out Andi or Canti-Two, our powerless confederates, at all.

It was a good seven weeks before the ship was really finished. Of course, no flight testing was involved, but we had high confidence. We set the date: certain species were on different sleep cycles, but there were a few hours every few days when the factory was completely quiet. We set our escape date for then.

====================================================================

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: APPREHENDED

I gradually swam to consciousness, not knowing where I was.

As my vision cleared, I saw Monstress-2 chained to a wall next to me. Green Monstress chained beside her. Candi-One chained beside her. I tried to pull on my own chains, but my body would not respond. Even speaking was physically impossible. I felt drained, lethargic, ennervated.

It was clear the others were feeling the same.

With great difficulty, I raised my head, looking outside our prison. The walls were made of the same clear metal that was so common here. I saw the Floor Manager, some sort of weapon holstered around his spherical body. There was a tall, brown, grasshopper-like creature as well. Between them was a clear-metal cylinder containing the reptilian form of Monstress-1. It was slowly filling with a luminous, viscous, golden liquid. I recognized it. It was the Progenitor’s recycling goo. I wanted to cry out, break through the wall, crack open Monstress-1’s prison. But I couldn’t move.

“They are awake,” said the Floor Manager.

“Ah, Variants,” said Brown Grasshopper. “At last, you meet your end. Do not struggle in your minds. Your bodies are fully sedated by the chamber and restraints in which we have placed you. Your fate will ultimately be the same as your sister’s. Too long you have been a drain on the resources of the Worlds. You are not the Master’s creations. You have no right to exist. And now, you will be deleted, recycled, to take your proper place in the ecosystem of the Rosette. Perhaps a fitting end will be to return your chemical elements to the Agricultural Valley which you made your home for so long.”

Brown Grasshopper clearly knew a great deal about us and our movements. Had we been under surveillance so carefully, and so long?

“Your friend Jan Arrah will be returned to the Progenitor. He has an especial interest in him.” Brown Grasshopper gestured over its shoulder. I saw something it did not.

Jan and Andi were in an entirely different sort of cell. It was apparently dampening Jan’s electrical abilities, but he still had freedom of movement. He had been relieved of his knives and cleaver, but still had his bandoleros. He had wound some of Monstress-1’s hairs around a sort of two-pronged fork, and was cutting through what looked like a lock on his side of his prison wall. Andi was standing in between Jan and Brown Grasshopper and Floor Manager’s line of sight. Their backs were to the third enclosure, anyway.

Brown Grasshopper chittered, which I took as a cold, humourless laugh. “You do not recognize me?” it said. “I have succeeded where my Legion companions have failed. I will be greatly rewarded for my patience.”

Brown Grasshopper’s form shifted, melted, and reformed. It was Candi-Two.

Not Candi-Two. A mind-reading shape-shifter. Chameleon… Thing. I did my best to block my thoughts.

“What are you not thinking, Variant?” asked the Chameleon-analog. “Let me see…” I could feel pressure on my mind; she had never applied her mental powers to that extent to any of us before. I resisted, but…

“Jan Arrah?” said the evil creature. “What…?”

But at that moment, Jan had opened his cell. As Andi sheltered behind the wall, Jan stepped out, and the room was blasted with electrical energies. Ball lightning ricocheted off the walls, rolled around the entire enclosure. When the light show subsided, Andi stepped out of their cell, and picked the weapon out of Floor Manager’s holster. Without hesitation, he blasted the chamber that held Monstress-1. It cracked like glass.

“Another of these nuclear-energy blasters,” he commented. “You would think that little traitor would have warned them.” He aimed at our enclosure. The walls cracked as well. Targeting me, he melted my restraints, simultaneously infusing me with energizing nuclear radiation. I snapped Candi-One’s restraints-- the only Candi now-- as she was less appreciative of radioactivity. Meanwhile Andi freed Monstress-2 and Green Monstress in the same unsubtle manner he had freed me.

“We need to go,” said Jan. “I don’t believe they have had time to disassemble or even disable our ship.”

I was carrying the recovering Candi. Green Monstress bent down over Monstress-1. She was a mess.

Her rough, pebbly skin was now covered with boils. Her eyes were swollen shut. Her legs below the knee were melting, her feet undifferentiated protoplasm.

“Leave me,” she croaked. “I’m dying. I can feel it. Maybe I’ll regenerate, come and find you…”

“We can’t leave her,” said Green Monstress, tears in her eyes.

“There’s nothing you can do,” Monstress-1 whispered.

“I want to try something,” said Jan. “I have just one left.” He took out a ‘Moid, and gave it to… Candi. She bit, made a face, and swallowed. “Make a circle around her, each of you touching, and each of you touching her.” He looked over at Andi. “Maybe not you, because of your condition”

Jan placed his hand on my shoulder, another hand on Green Monstress. We felt a tingle of electric current. Then it grew stronger, hotter. Candi winced.

“Remember what I said about your DNA being damaged, not regenerating properly?” said Jan. “If there had been a larger sample size, there might have been better auto-correcting. Well, you’re a larger sample size now, and my electric powers might just stimulate some healing. I can’t guarantee anything, but it’s worth a try.”

Immediately, I saw that it was working. Monstress-1’s face was healing. Then her calves and feet regenerated, shifting form as fast as the Chameleon traitor.

“Let’s go!” she cried, leaping up, and knocking us sprawling. She was still in her Tangerine-Godzilla form, but now perfectly healthy.

It took us awhile to get our bearings, but we quickly found the Construction Bay where we had stowed the ship. There was a pathway up through a conduit in the ceiling that led to the outside. Jan, Andi, and Candi took the controls. Monstress-1, Monstress-2, Green Monstress and I strapped into the back seats. One small seat stood empty between us.

“Everything looks GO,” said Jan.

“Variants!” came a voice from far away. “Kill them! Kiill Themm!” Brown Grasshopper / faux Candi / Chameleon Creep had woken up.

But it was too late.

We set course away from Padrehogar, and around the sun, towards the rift.

===================================================================

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE PROGENITOR

“I believe the word is ‘bogies’,” said Candi.”Four of them. Small, but approaching fast. And we’re moving at point-five-c.”

“Let’s try going light-plus,” said Jan. “We’ll warp out of the system, then when we’ve lost them, circle back in for another pass at the Rift.”

“And… they’re here,” said Andi.The Progeny on the screen wore familiar red-and-blue uniforms. “More Legion,” he said. “Daxa-Mites.”

The four creatures grabbed the ship, and without apparent effort re-routed us back to Vaterheim. We approached the dome of the Progenitor’s Throneroom, back to our original starting point. Back to the beginning. Then down through a shaft beside the dome, and down, and down.

Jan shut down the futile resistance of the engines.

One of the ‘Daxa-Mite’ Progeny pulled open the entryway. We were greeted by a creature none of us had ever seen before.

It looked like a disembodied brain, resting on a platform supported by eight metal legs.

“Welcome, Jan Arrah,” the creature said. “And welcome, honored guests.”

Jan was white as a sheet, pale as a ghost, clearly terrified.

“I know what that is,” he said. “Here, near the Cavern,I can hear the voices again. This is the Progenitor.”

“You flatter me,” said the brain-thing. “I am no more the Progenitor than you are, Jan Arrah.”

The four ‘Daxa-Mite’ Progeny, hovering above our ship, now chose this moment to violently disintegrate in a blinding flash of light.

“It is such a shame,” said the brain-thing. “So useful, but so unstable. Maintaining such a level of power for long is problematic.” We were led down a short corridor to a massive cavern, even larger than the Agricultural Valley. Web-like structures, occasionally flashing sparks of light, stretched through the air from one wall to another. Uncountably many brain-things skittered along these webs, stretching as far as the eye could see.

“This,” said the brain-thing, “Is the Progenitor.”

“The Progenitor is a composite being,” explained Jan. “The fusion of the memories and abilities of millions of powerful entities throughout the millennia, or billennia.”

“Were you the first?” Green Monstress asked.

“Who can say?” said the brain-thing. “Once there were many small groups, or factions, who challenged one another for leadership. Then it was decided that cooperation and consolidation were more valuable than competition. Those who would not be assimilated were annihilated.” The brain-creature climbed atop a small rocky throne. It changed. There were a Jan Arrah to complement our Garth-Jan, although one somehow older, with clear, crystalline, faceted insect-eyes.

“Does this form make you more comfortable?” The Progenitor-Jan asked. “Jan Arrah, while only a part of the Progenitor-Matrix, was an essential part. While we have found other Elemental-Manipulators, his was the central nexus through which their power was manifested. It was that power which allowed us to create and delete life, the only true power of a god.”

“You want me to come back,” said Jan.

“You have left a hundred billion years of memories behind,” said the Progenitor-Jan. “But they are useless without your core memories. It was perhaps a mistake to attempt to merge with the Omniphagos in the midst of a crisis, but its body would have been able to contain all of our memories and selves imprisoned in this cavern. We would no longer need to rely on temporary Avatars to convey our wishes to the Progeny. We would be free.”

“Free to annihilate this Universe, and then seek other prey,” Jan Arrah said.

“All things die, except the gods,” said the Progenitor-Jan. “What other purpose for temporal matter than the food the gods?”

“You have taken poor care of the Rosette in my absence,” said Jan Arrah.

“We have been-- distracted,” replied the Progenitor-Jan. “There is much rebuilding to be done. Since the Ignominious Defeat, many of the Progeny have lost Faith…”

“You mean, Fear,” said Jan Arrah.

“Let us make a bargain,” said the Progenitor-Jan. “Return to us, or your friends shall be destroyed.”

“You would destroy them in any case,” said Jan Arrah.”Rather, let them go free forever, and I will join you.”

“No!” I shouted. “You can’t go back! It’s horrible! They can’t be trusted!”

“I will be part of them,” said Jan Arrah. “I will see they fulfill their promises.”

Green Monstress cried out into the emptiness of the cavern. “Jan Arrah is the bravest and most noble soul I ever knew. Reverent for life and diversity. Surely some of you were the same? Do none of you know Mercy? What is a god without Mercy?”

The Progenitor-Jan laughed. “The Progenitor cannot hear you. I am its Avatar. You may speak to me. I have been given sufficient memory to bargain with you. I accept your proposal, Jan Arrah, join us, and though their Universe may be destroyed, yet these six will remain to live out all their natural lives, however long that may be.”

“Please, you must understand,” said Jan Arrah, “This is how it must be. I would rather live out my natural life as well, as Jan Arrah, rather than live forever as the Progenitor, but I love you, and I must keep you safe.”

Jan Arrah’s form shifted, the body of Garth Ranzz melting away, his brain sliding, falling onto a small metal platform. Eight metallic spider-legs grew beneath it. The thing that had been Jan Arrah scurried away.

When the new, little brain-thing had gone, we turned toward our ship.

Twenty Progeny of various races in colorful costumes stood between us and freedom. An Alien Legion. A Progeny Legion.

“Kill them all,” said the Progenitor-Jan to his Legion. “Kill them all, or die yourselves.”

A spider-brain dropped down from a web above us. In a moment, it had transformed into Jan Arrah-- not his Garth Ranzz form, but the form we remembered from so long ago.

He raised a hand, and lightning-like discharged crackled across the Progeny-Legion. Each one collapsed in unconsciousness.

“The Progenitor did not hear you,” said Jan Arrah, “But I heard you. There are now two factions in the Progenitor. I expect more to form shortly. You must go. I cannot follow you.”

Both Jan Arrahs vanished. Above us, in the Progenitor’s web, the brain-things were separating, moving to two sides of the cavern.

“I think we had better go,” said Green Monstress, tears streaming from her eyes.

We ran for the ship. Candi and Andi took the controls; the Monstresses buckled in. Emanations of psychic war below washed over us. Up and out, we once again set a course for the rift.
=================================================================

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: ESCAPE

“We need to take a look inside the Rift,” said Candi. “Just to take our bearings. Then a loop around the sun, building warp speed, and then through the Rift for real.”

Inside the Rift was a dark abyss, seemingly extending forever. Sensors showed a massive spacio-temporal anomaly at the center, which showed red on our viewscreen. Other, temporary wormholes flickered in and out of existence. Looming before the central anomaly lay the dormant Omniphagos, half-converted to crystal.

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn," said Andi.

“I believe if can plot a course between these two tentacles,” said Candi, “We will fly straight into the Anomaly. That should lead us home.”

Candi and Andi turned the ship around. We exited the Rift, in a circular course around the sun, then plunged back into the abyss.

“Hold on,” said Candi, “It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

The final leg of the trip took only a matter of seconds. We hit something. Was it the Omniphagos awakening? Or merely miscellaneous debris? The ship started spinning, the viewscreen turned red…

And we were in the middle of empty space, stars shining in the distance, the sky slowly rotating around us. Where, for now, we did not know.

“How is everyone?” I asked.

“I want to thank you all for what you did back on Padrehogar,” said Monstress-1. “I was sure I was dead again.”

“Thank Jan,” I said. “When we see him again.”

“I felt a part of you all again,” said Candi. “Even if we look different from one another, we’re still sisters.”

“This may be a bad time,” said Andi. “But there’s something I need to tell you.”

“You’re not another mind-reading shape-shifter, are you?” asked Monstress-2.

“No,” said Andi. “It’s… I’m pregnant.”

“What? How?” said Monstress-2. “I mean, you’re not even female!”

“And I’m not exactly male, either,” Andi declared. “Jan and I discovered some… interesting… things…”

“But when?” said Monstress-2 “We’ve hardly been out of one another’s sight for months. We never even saw you kissing!”

“OK, well, I did,” said Candi. “But I figured that was their business.”

“So if this isn’t the United Planets-- and the stars look wrong, too old, at first glance-- we need to find a planet with excellent medical facilities,” said Jan.

=================================================================

CHAPTER NINETEEN: SIX MONTHS LATER

The planet is called Kashyyyk, a world of kilometer-tall trees. The inhabitants have built great cities winding through the very tops of the immense forests. They resemble the inhabitants of Planet Sasquatch, although somewhat more slender. Despite the pastoral-- or arboreal-- appearance of their cities, they are highly advanced, technologically, with space-ports and robots and excellent medical facilities.

When we first arrived, we thought we might starve to death, for their lifestyle is very spartan. However, every couple of weeks or so they have a Festival or Celebration, each with a different name, and we are grateful for a period of time to recover from the feasting.

Andi had his baby; we named him Jangarth Pypont-LeParc, but the natives here call him, in their own language, Green Moon Star.

He is as green as Green Monstress, with green eyes and a mop of ginger hair, and he shoots tiny electric sparks from his fat little fingers.

His five Aunties dote on him. We have taken new names, both in Interlac and in the local language of this world. I have taken the name Tangerine, Green Monstress is Esmeralda, Monstress-1 calls herself Kaiju, and Monstress-2 is Leontyne. Candi and Andi are still Candi and Andi.

We have determined, with the help of the Kashyyyk astronomers, that we are still in the Progenitor’s Universe-- although in a distant galaxy, more than ten million parsecs away. The Progenitor’s Galaxy is not visible to the unaided eye, but we know it is located in a constellation they call the Falcon. None here have ever so much as heard of the Progenitor, although they have their own legends of other ancient evils.

For now, this is home, for we do not know of any path back to our own space and time. Whatever wormhole or anomaly brought us here, it closed up immediately after our arrival. Still, we have family and friends, good food and shelter, and the cutest little baby in the Universe.

Who knows what the future will bring?

====================================================================

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Legion Fandom was ultimately responsible for the death of Monstress. I cannot think how many times I saw on some message board comments such as “Why don’t they just kill her already?” To my shame, I was one who expressed a similar opinion.

But Abnett and Lanning made us care about Monstress before they killed her, and there were those, like every Legion character, who found her their favorite all along. I remember one such individual (who, I do not know, or cannot remember) seriously suggesting that to spite the Monstress-Haters like us, DC should release a Legion of Monstresses series: all Monstress, all the time.

So this idea has been percolating for some fifteen years.

I could not quite come up with a Legion, but a half-dozen seems adequate.

Jangarth Pypont-LeParc, with all the powers of Monstress and LiveWire combined, will eventually take on the super-hero epithet of Frankenstein. He is the creation of Sarcasm Kid.

Cool read Klar. Thanks for doing this nice continuation to the stories of Candi and Jan. Jan's sacrifice and the true nature of the Progenitor were good twists... Candi-Two being the fake as well. And Andi being... androgynous.

I also liked the differences in the Candis and the explanation for her regeneration.

It's a pretty nice ending for her.

I always liked Monstress, this is a much happier ending for her