Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business Postlo3w stories *LATEST UPDATE 13 AUGUST*

So, finally got an hour to myself - this work stuff is really intruding in my me-time

I'll start off by saying I never really took to Kid Psycho, so with that preconception out in the open, I'll crack on

Interesting team you chose - Drake and Jo are impulsive brawlers, Brainy and Jan are more thoughtful and Dawny tries to be thoughtful but tends to get dragged into whatever Drake is doing - this should be fun.

Funny that the newer members hadn't heard of Kid Psycho - he was that much of a secret weapon that he was even kept secret from the team! Brainy's quip about 12th level intelligence was fun. Dawnstars frustration at being overtaken - yup, can see that, she's used to being the quickest one around. And then Dawny rushing off, as Drake or Jo would - I take back the comment about her being thoughtful

Element Lad having to free the more hasty of the team doesn't surprise anyone "Exactly!" Wildfire shot back. "So let's say hi!" - he learns nothing from that encounter! Five Legionnaires against a Dark Circle clone army? Never going to be a problem there, is it? And Jo getting cocky, speeding off like that... he never learns either Omega? Ouch, that was unexpected! Ah, should have finished reading that line, Omega mk ii. Jan's little outburst at Brainy was a call back to his feistier self, he did used to snark quite a bit, I kinda miss that tbh. The Dark Circle amplifying poor KP's despair is really cruel and bleak of them. So, come on Jan, reach out and talk him down. Ah well, good try. Love Wildfire's response - "But that's a load of crap, Jan." haha, so Drake! And he gets through when the super spiritual Jan can't, love it! Nuce that in the end, Kid Psycho kinda rescued himself by smashing the controls of the Dark Circle machinery.

That as a sweet ending there Raz, and Jan admitting that he didn't always get along with Drake but would still miss him and knew that he was a hero showed his maturity.

And Dogstar! Yay! I was going to ask to see more of him

Blok missing Drake - yup, as infuriating as he could be, he was always a fun character with a heart as big as anyone elses on the team. Dawnstar snapping at Blok was a bit harsh, though again in caracter. She doesn't have the most gracious of filters. And she's going too. I hope she does find him!

This was a very poignant and nicely crafted little section Raz, take a bow. Am looking forward to whatever you have coming next.

More, more, more!

Thanks for the R&R, Harbi!

I am on a bit of a mission to give Strongarm some kind of personality! I don't think he ever even got a name in the comics from memory, he was just Generic Four-Armed Background Cyborg...and Rob Liefield already snatched up 'Forearm' for a codename back in the 90s so I couldn't even give him a cool name

The Sisterhood's definition of friendship is very loose....with Nimbus, it was more that she's attached to White Bat and Vista because they all came from the same future timeline - and as White Bat is mute, Nimbus is the only one she can actually communicate with via radiotelepathy as that technology isn't widespread in the Legion's time yet. I figure that has to give you some kinda bond after a while!

re Zoe and Xao - it's funny, I only made them friends in the first place so I had an excuse to introduce Zoe as a character but now that she's a member of the team I really like writing them together! They are so different from one another!

I wanted to show that scene of Wildfire getting through to Kid Psycho when Element Lad failed because while Jan arguably has a healthier mindset about everything he's been through, I don't think he's actually that good at social interaction. For all that Wildfire banged on about not being human anymore, I think he's maybe the most relatable human being on the team personality-wise (or was anyway, #RIP)

Dawnstar, Dream Girl and Star Boy will all be back at some point but they're gonna all be busy doing their own thing off-camera for a while...

You will be glad to hear that Dogstar will be seeing some action fairly soon though!

But before we get to that...there will be some romantic developments next instalment (and Diamond Damsel gets to punch someone!)

MARS
Husband Hill, Legion Academy's Arqiia Campus

ROLL CALL
Chemical Kid aka Hadru Jamik: control of chemical reactions
Variable Lad aka Oaa Tseldor: abilities change with each manifestation

Oblivious to the world around him, Oaa Tseldor sat quietly at one of several study areas in his school library. A clunky circuit-laden headband sat upon his large purple cranium, the Academy's autoteacher program feeding information directly into his brain.

A pair of fingers snapped before Oaa's face, and the young Jaquaan flinched in surprise. Pausing the autoteacher, Variable Lad removed his headband and looked up to see Chemical Kid standing by his side.

"I called out to you like three times," Chemical Kid explained in lieu of an apology. "You were really in the Phantom Zone there, buddy!"

"Hello, Hadru...I'm studying for the Xenomythology test," Variable Lad replied. Oaa was annoyed at the interruption, but far too polite to show it. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"I will probably get some notes off you later on," Chemical Kid admitted, "But that's not why I'm here. I'm actually here to help you!" Hadru pulled up a nearby chair and spun it around, leaning on the backrest as he straddled it from the front.

"Hadru, I am terribly sorry but I am rather preoccupied at the moment. Whatever this is regarding, perhaps you could ask Lullabye Lad..?"

"This'll only take a nano!" Hadru fished around in the pocket of his custom-made overcoat and pulled out his omnicom. Sliding it across the table toward Variable Lad, he continued talking. "Look, I kinda felt like a jerk mouthing off about Enigma Lass when we found out she was a Dominator*...I didn't know you liked her, and you're right; I shouldn't have assumed you'd be into the same looking people as I am. So I got you something, check it out."

Variable Lad looked down at the electronic tablet. On screen was a confirmation receipt for a double pass to the prestigious Science Festival Launch Party taking place on Cadmu in a few standard weeks. Confused, Oaa looked back at his classmate. "Hadru, are you...asking me on a date..?"

Hadru snorted with laughter. "It's for you and Enigma Lass, dope! You know my dad's a big shot scientist, he gets extra tix to these things all the time and I could care less about this snorefest. You and your little girlfriend are the biggest hypernerds in the class though, I figure this has gotta be like a honeymoon on Kathoon for you two!"

"You're very bad at saying sorry, Hadru," Variable Lad gave his fellow student a lopsided smile. "...But thank you, I appreciate the gesture and I am certain we will both have a wonderful time. For what it's worth I am sorry also, for saying that you have a tiny baby head."

"Hey, my tiny baby head's one of my best features!" Hadru winked and readjusted his holospecs as he retrieved his omnicom and stood up to leave. "I'll scan those tix across to your box later today and let you get back to doing my homework for me. Later, Oaa!"

"Goodbye, Hadru." Variable Lad shook his head with mild amusement as he donned the headband again, and spent the rest of his study session lost in thoughts of the Dominator girl who'd captured his affection.

**********

EARTH ORBIT
The Legion of Superheroes mobile base, Fitness Level

ROLL CALL
Gravity Kid aka Tel Vole: gravity manipulation
Matter-Eater Lad aka Tenzil Kem: can eat inorganic matter in all its forms
Phantom Girl aka Tinya Wazzo: intangibility

...Eleven...twelve!

Tel Vole would never be so gauche as to count his bench press reps out loud, but in his head he felt a sense of accomplishment as his trembling arms replaced the barbell at its resting position and he allowed himself 30 seconds to just lay on the padded gym bench and breathe in and out.

"It's kinda funny that you wear more clothes to work out than you do to fight bad guys." Matter-Eater Lad's familiar voice broke the silence, and Gravity Kid sat up to see that the Bismollian had come here alongside Phantom Girl.

"You only need to get told off once by Dream Girl about leaving sweat all over the benches," Gravity Kid shot back, pulling up the front of his baggy t-shirt to wipe sweat from his face. With equally baggy tracksuit pants covering the lower half of his body, Tel was in fact baring far less flesh than usual. "You two are in costume, do I need to suit up?"

"Not at all," Tinya shook her head. "We've actually got a training session scheduled in 10 minutes with Tellus and Polar Boy...but we saw you'd logged in to use one of the gym programs and thought we'd come in early to have a chat."

"About what..?" Gravity Kid's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Look, I'm sorry about what happened back on Kurszge III** but Dr Skorski said I was just pushing myself a little too hard. She's given me restricted workout and training programs, you can check if you want; I couldn't exceed the limits she's applied for me if I tried. And she said if everything goes well with my physical tomorrow she'll clear me for active duty again--"

Matter-Eater Lad held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Whoa, whoa, kiddo...we're not here to check up on you! I mean we are here to check up on you, but it's just out of concern for your wellbeing...you don't have to prove anything to us, Tel."

Gravity Kid remained silent, but a tension seemed to have built between them that wasn't going away on its own.

"Tel..." Phantom Girl took a seat on the shoulder press machine opposite. "Look, it's no secret that you're highly disciplined...that's hardly a fault, we've had two Karate Kids on this team partially because discipline was the closest thing they both had to a power. But you made it onto the Legion because of your actual real power, you're one of us now and you don't need to keep trying to prove yourself."

"That's not...I know that!" Gravity Kid uttered a poor defence.

"Then what is it?" Phantom Girl sat up straight and sighed in frustration. "What's going on with you, Tel?"

"Nothing...nothing that I need help with." Gravity Kid avoided making eye contact with his former team leader.

Matter-Eater Lad and Phantom Girl shared a quick glance, and Tenzil planted a hand on Tel's shoulder. "Look, Kid...I used to second-guess myself all the time when I first joined the Legion; eating pulse guns doesn't seem quite so impressive when half a dozen people on this team can throw planets around. And aside from that, I've been actually properly crazy. I didn't get through either of those things on my own. You don't have to go through whatever you're facing on your own either."

Phantom Girl stood again, and took her place by Matter-Eater Lad's side. "Tel...Wildfire would never admit that he needed help, and we all saw how that worked out for him. You don't need to speak to me or Tenzil, you don't even need to speak to Dr Skorski...but I'm sprocking tired of going to my teammates' funerals, so please speak to somebody." She turned and marched off without expecting a response.

Matter-Eater Lad gave Gravity Kid's shoulder a friendly squeeze and then went after Tinya.

Staying exactly where he was, Gravity Kid watched them both go and let the storm of his thoughts consume him.

**********

EARTH
Metropolis Spaceport

ROLL CALL
Chameleon Boy aka Reep Daggle: Durlan shapeshifter
Colossal Boy aka Gim Allon: growth powers
Diamond Damsel aka Iris Jacobs: living diamond
Evolvo Lad aka Sev Tcheru: hyperevolution/devolution
Life Lass aka Somi Gan: matter animation
Sheranee Shah: enhanced physical characteristics, night vision, solar-fuelled starbolts, tactile language absorption, animal empathy
Sizzle aka Teela Spuunvll: energy conversion
Sun Boy aka Dirk Morgna: heat and light generation
Timber Wolf aka Brin Londo: super-strength and super-agility

The sky above Metropolis Spaceport was normally dotted with vehicles large and small. Right now, it was empty of anything but clouds touched golden and pink from the setting sun.

The reason for this became abundantly clear as nine flight rings carried nine Legionnaires above the sprawling spaceport. Fire suppression droids were attending to numerous fires throughout the spaceport and there were obvious signs of malicious damage; holes blasted through terminal walls, passenger vessels shot down and crippled, and the remains of Science Police droids scattered about everywhere.

As the most senior Terran member of this squad, Colossal Boy was in a rare position of leadership. "Great galaxies," Gim Allon whistled. "This is...a lot. We're lucky that Naltorian tourist told the SP this was gonna happen, but I wish Shvaughn had given us enough notice to actually stop it instead of just arriving in the middle of it all. I don't even know where to start!"

"If I might make a suggestion," Chameleon Boy offered, "I think Sun Boy and Sizzle are best suited to investigating the many fires, Life Lass can assist with any structural damage, and Evolvo Lad and myself can find and help anyone trapped here. The rest of you should come down on whoever's responsible for this carnage."

"Sounds good, Cham!" Colossal Boy gave his best friend a grateful smile. "Okay everyone, you heard the man...DD, Timber Wolf, Sheranee; you three are with me. From the SP report we picked up on the way here, all of this was one guy's work; the four of us should be able to handle him!"

"I'm sure Officer Erin did the best she could, Colossal Boy," Sheranee said without malice just before the Legionnaires split off into smaller groups. "This is an awful lot of damage though, do you really think the four of us will be enough to stop whoever's behind all this destruction?"

"Don't get me wrong," Colossal Boy answered as he grew to double his size, "I'm not blaming Shvaughn for anything, just saying it's a shame we couldn't have arrived sooner...and you're still fairly new, but don't worry; you'll learn soon enough what a difference four Legionnaires can make!"

**********

Chameleon Boy had taken on the form of a Winathian Eagle for its superior eyesight, and he dived now toward a collapsed terminal a couple of hundred feet below and to the south.

On the ground directing SP emergency response services, Officer Shvaughn Erin might have been unsettled by the sight of a bird of prey with a 12 foot wingspan coming straight at her except for the fact that Life Lass and Evolvo Lad were flanking the beast. As the intimidating creature landed and shifted into the more familiar form of Chameleon Boy, Shvaughn excused herself from duty for a moment and approached the trio of Legionnaires. "I'm so glad the Legion are here, Chameleon Boy!" Shvaughn nodded amicably at both Evolvo Lad and Life Lass and shook Cham's hand. "The Cavalry are all off-planet, I was worried we were going to have a massacre here before we managed to stop him!"

"The three of us are on search and rescue," Chameleon Boy advised her. "But Shvaughn, do you have any idea who did all this? Anything we can tell Gim and the others could make all the difference!"

While Cham and Shvaughn conversed, Evolvo Lad had taken on his hyperevolved form and was quietly instructing Life Lass on rebuilding the damaged terminal; Sev's telepathy was not strong enough that he could make contact with any of the civilians trapped inside to reassure them, but he could at least identify where they were to make sure Life Lass didn't put them at further risk as her power restored the fallen building.

"He's got some tech that messes with surveillance equipment," Shvaughn explained to Cham. "I saw him myself on the way in, but not for long enough to recognise him; Life Lass, you're doing an amazing job by the way! It would have taken us hours to fix even half of that damage!"

Life Lass felt a deep red blush come over her. "Oh! Thank you Officer, but I'm just doing my job," Somi replied in what Shvaughn thought was a surprisingly mousy voice for someone who'd served on both the Heroes of Lallor and the Legion of Superheroes.

"Officer, I have a suggestion," Evolvo Lad addressed Shvaughn calmly. "Perhaps your subconscious mind retains more detail about our villain than your conscious awareness. I have some degree of telepathic talent in my current form. If you have no objections, I could draw his image from your mind and compare it to the Legion's extensive files. You have my word that I will probe no further into your memories than absolutely necessary."

"If it'll help, why not?" Shvaughn shrugged. At Evolvo Lad's instruction, she removed her helmet.

"Sheranee was right in her estimation of you, Officer Erin." Evolvo Lad placed elongated fingers at each of Shvaughn's temples. "Your assistance has been quite exemplary, thank you."

It didn't escape Life Lass's attention that Sheranee Shah was on Evolvo Lad's mind even when she wasn't present, and despite the gravity of the situation Somi Gan allowed herself an almost imperceptible smile...

**********

Sun Boy and Sizzle's respective powers made them the perfect duo to enter every downed shuttle or burning building they came across looking for people to save, or more morbidly, victims to retrieve. Fortunately, Metropolis Spaceport had excellent fire suppression systems in place and they'd not yet made any of the grim discoveries they were half-expecting. Even so, Sun Boy was mildly impressed that Sizzle didn't seem to be at all shaken by all the destruction around them even though she'd barely been a Legionnaire any time at all.

"I gotta say," Sun Boy spoke to his red-skinned teammate as they were on their way to the next flaming shuttle before them, "You're not really fazed by much, are you? Working on Takron-Galtos sure must toughen a fem up!"

"It's not Takron-Galtos that toughened me up," Sizzle laughed. "It's Abaddonus, Sun Boy."

"Your homeworld?" Sun Boy asked. "I don't get it, is it rough there?"

"It's not so much that," Sizzle said before taking a moment to consider her next words. "Tell me, what do you know about the dark lord Asmothe?"

"I know that's twice you've mentioned him now," Sun Boy replied. "...Hey, let's head over to that passenger liner! It doesn't look like any droids have been assigned over there yet and I don't like how that engine's burning."

As they flew over, Sizzle continued. "The short version is...my people believe that the dark lord Asmothe won this realm from our Fallen Creator after a fierce battle, and now we are eternally cut off from the Azmenith - the reincarnation ladder of the multiverse."

She said it so casually that Sun Boy was certain there must be more coming, and was surprised that there wasn't. "You can't just leave it there!" he exclaimed. "I'm going to need the long version, but first we better help these poor folks out."

The passenger liner before them was one of the larger vessels to be using a spaceport on a planet's surface, with three separate levels full of panicking passengers. Dirk instantly deduced that when their mystery terrorist had shot out the vessel's engine and caused it to crash, it must have caused enough electrical and structural damage to prevent the emergency exits from functioning. Now the burning engine was perilously close to exploding, and he could see smoke filling up the space inside the cruiser.

"See if you can convert the flames from that engine into something a little less destructive," Dirk instructed. "I'm going to go burn my way through the cargo hold and get these people out of there."

Sizzle was on the case immediately, turning the heat of the fire into an intense beam of light that she shot straight up into the darkening sky. "Done! And Sun Boy..? Take me out this weekend and I'll give you as long a version as you like."

Sun Boy flew around toward the rear of the craft, unusually flustered. It was a strange feeling to be this thrown by an attractive woman, he pondered while he melted the cargo bay doors, but not an unwelcome one...

**********

"Thanks, Cham!" Colossal Boy spoke into his flight ring before turning to face Diamond Damsel, Timber Wolf and Sheranee flying beside him. "You heard the man...if Evolvo Lad picked Shvaughn's brains properly, looks like we're after Garak of the Glow!"

"This Garak..." Sheranee asked, "Is he called that because he's a glowing Khund..?"

"Got it in one, Sheranee!" Colossal Boy smiled at the new recruit. "Good to see you've been reading our case files!"

"Thank you, Colossal Boy," Sheranee replied. "In this case though, it was more deductive observation...look out!!"

Garak was standing on the hull of a grounded starliner full of terrified passengers. He saw the four Legionnaires descending and took aim at them, firing a devastating beam of radiation straight at them. Sheranee and Timber Wolf dodged the attack easily enough and Diamond Damsel happened to be out of range anyway, but the sickly yellowish energy clipped Colossal Boy's shoulder and burned him badly.

"I'm so sorry, Colossal Boy!" Sheranee exclaimed. "I should have been more clear, I hope you're not badly hurt!" As Sheranee spoke, she easily dodged another blast from the villain who was still far enough away from them all that they couldn't really hear what he was madly ranting at them. Sheranee flew straight at Garak and frowned. "Excuse me, that's exceptionally rude!" She opened fire with a one-handed starbolt and effortlessly knocked Garak off the starliner to plummet into the ground several metres below.

"Nothing some regen-gel won't fix," Gim Allon spoke through gritted teeth, "But sprock me, it burns!" Before he could say more, he heard the telltale drawn out screech of rending metal and a huge shadow fell over him.

"Oh, for..." Colossal Boy turned to see one of the spaceport's ubiquitious mushroom-headed control towers toppling toward him; Garak's last attack had evidently sheared it in two when he'd missed Sheranee. Gim immediately forgot his own scarred shoulder and grew up to the height of a small office building. "Someone call Life Lass!" his voice boomed. "I can hold this till she gets here, but I can't stabilise it on my own! And would you guys stop that maniac before he kills someone?!"

"Don't let him hit you," Timber Wolf growled at Sheranee as the two of them closed in on Garak, "But think about your surroundings too, kid. You got good moves but the rest of the world doesn't have reflexes like you or me!"

Sheranee held back for a moment to watch Timber Wolf in action; as fast and agile as she herself was, Brin Londo's physicality was on another level entirely. He bounced and bounded around Garak, slowing down to present a tempting target only when there was nothing of value around Brin to take damage from the Khund's next attack. To the casual observer, it seemed like it was just pure luck that Garak didn't rip holes into the starliner or explode any fuel tanks as he took pot shots at the acrobatic Legionnaire, but Sheranee could tell that Brin was practically choreographing the fight step by step.

"Curse you, Legionnaires!" Garak raved. "All I wanted was a vehicle to take me to my beloved and some hostages to ensure my safe journey! You and your thrice-damned Science Police are responsible for any violence visited upon this world today!"

With her aerial advantage Sheranee could see that Timber Wolf was leading Garak somewhere, and she had a feeling she knew why. Taking a leaf from Brin's book, she positioned herself so that the risk of collateral damage was minimised as much as possible and then she blew the ground up underneath Garak's feet. "That's a very selective interpretation of events, Mr Glow!" she taunted him as he was thrown head over heels.

Garak's forcefield protected him from anything more than embarassment, and soon the purple-clad Khund was back on his feet. Small green powerpods floating around his body, he fired back at Sheranee who predictably dodged him easily. This time however, his radiation beam simply disappeared into the dusky sky above to eventually fizzle into the ether. "You're a new one, woman! The Glow will turn your bones to ash regardless--"

"Oh, shut the sprock up!" Timber Wolf came hurtling at the Khund feet first, and kicked Garak so hard that the villain rolled undignified across the spaceport until he slammed into something completely unyielding.

Garak stood to collect his wits, and looked upon a woman seemingly made of diamond in a form-fitting pink outfit. "Demon Mother take me, you Legionnaires reproduce like damned arena rats!" He bathed Diamond Damsel in a flare of radiation so intense it turned the upper layer of the spaceport around them into hot metallic slag. When the lethal lightshow was over, Diamond Damsel's costume was in smoldering tatters but she herself was unharmed.

"Sheranee's right, you know." The deceptively petite diamond woman drew back a fist. "You are exceptionally rude." She delivered an uppercut that sent Garak flying into the air, and when he landed at Timber Wolf's feet he was most definitely unconscious.

"Colossal Boy needs me to help evacuate that control tower that Garak trashed while we wait for Life Lass," Sheranee addressed Diamond Damsel and Timber Wolf. "Do you two mind if I leave you two alone?"

"With this loser?" Diamond Damsel had found a weather-resistant tarp to drape around her shredded costume, and joined Timber Wolf by Garak's prone form. "Not a problem at all, Sheranee."

"He didn't hurt you, did he?" Timber Wolf asked Diamond Damsel as Sheranee departed. "Pebblehead would have my gizzards if I let some radiation-spewing moron give you cancer or whatever."

"I don't think diamonds can get cancer, Brin," Diamond Damsel remarked with dry humour. "But thanks for asking." A moment passed, and when Diamond Damsel spoke again she sounded uncommonly pensive. "You know...Blok's really second-guessing whether we should have gone after Wildfire with more force--"

"He shouldn't be," Timber Wolf interrupted bluntly. "Wildfire made his choice. And you guys didn't see what that Trigon creep did to Mysa; I don't know if it woulda made a difference if the whole team had been there, DD."

"That's what I told him," Iris sighed. "But also...I don't know if you know this, but I tried to talk to Wildfire just before he left the team, and..."

"...And lemme guess, you're wonderin' if you did something that drove him away, huh?"

"Maybe not drove him away," Diamond Damsel shrugged, "But I wonder if I could have done a better job of helping him stay. I don't think Blok should blame himself for anything that happened, but I understand why he does because...part of me blames myself too, to be honest."

"Wildfire had somethin' burning in him before he ever joined the Legion," Timber Wolf growled. "I know 'cause I've had that same damn thing burning in me and it's made me an ass to everyone around me when I've let it...and I don't know a lot about you, DD, but I think you know that feelin' too. For a while I thought Ayla fixed that part of me, but that was just me makin' excuses for not wanting to deal with it myself. Nobody fixes that part of us, y'know? People can help us, but at the end of the day....we gotta decide to deal with it ourselves and sometimes we just don't do that. Wildfire didn't deal with whatever was burnin' him up and it was gonna finish burning him up whether Trigon ever reared his ugly head or not. That's not on you."

Silence passed between the two of them for a while before Iris chuckled darkly. "I don't think I've ever heard you say that many words at once, Timber Wolf."

"Yeah, well...don't tell anyone. I got a rep."

They remained in contented quiet together while they waited for their teammates to return.

**********

EDITOR'S NOTES:
* When the Academy kids found out Enigma Lass is a Dominator, Chemical Kid gave Variable Lad what he thought was some good advice about not unintentionally leading her on and was surprised to find out that Variable Lad is actually legitimately attracted to Enigma Lass.

** Gravity Kid pushed himself past the point of exhaustion and fainted in this story

Hadru had his own style!

Tel is so defensive, and lol at him dressing more conservatively in the gym cause Nura said so

Tenzil and Tinya, inspired pair to get him thinking.


Bless Cham for helping Gim out

Ah Evolvo Lad and his crush. And good of Shvaughn to make a good showing

Glad there aren’t many dead at least

Garak! Hah!

Good of Brin to coach Sheranee! And great job controlling Garak

And good of Brin to share his wisdom too!

Welcome back, IB!

Tel is continuing to handle his stuff very badly, but this is all gonna come to a head soon (and don't worry, nobody's dying this time!)

Events are transpiring that will hopefully give me some room to use Shvaughn more often soon! And there will be some exploration of Evolvo Lad's situation next instalment as well!

I dunno if anyone else liked Garak, but I have a soft spot for the weirdo...he will pop up again sooner or later as well

and re Brin: I like getting to write him to his strengths, he's a bit of a grump who's rough around the edges but I don't like how Levitz just turned him into someone who sometimes seemed to be legitimately intellectually impaired at times.

NEXT: Key Kid makes a shocking request! And something I have been looking forward to writing for a while; an adventure on Strut's homeworld!

Stoked for everything coming up, raz! Also curious what Key Kid will do, considering how he was handling his trauma!

I've been looking forward to having an hour or so to dive in to review you latest posts; here goes!

Your take on Variable Lad and Chemical Kid are both really strong. They are such a fun pairing together, Oaa is so endearing and ernest while Hadru is a total schemey. Nice was to highlight the lack of previous clear communication between them with Oaa totally misunderstanding what Hadru is saying - they obviously don't know how the other operates. "Are you... asking me on a date?" haha. That was a sweet gesture by Hadru, not that he lost out on anything by doing it but at least Oaa potentially gains something.

Why are we all making Tel the moody teammate I blame the costume tbh. I like how Nura scares Tel into wearing clothes That's the opposite effect to what we would expect from her... Tnya and Tenzil checking o on Tel was sweet, also pragmatic as they don't want a teammate to break on them. Am looking forward to seeing what you have planned for him.

The team you've picked for the spaceport action are a good mix of established and new folks, nice! Also, nice to see Gim listen to Reeps advice, he;s a good egg but Gim will never be the brains of the outfit. And is confidence in the team is always good to see. Nice team work between Evolvo and Life Lass, and also it's refreshing that you limit the telepath on the team - I have to hold back from turning all of mine into the ubermensch that fix everything. Though reading Shaughn's unconscious mind to get details of the attacker was a great idea. Life Lasses modesty was cute, nich little bit of characterisation.

I'm really digging your Sizzle, her casualness around britality is a rare thing among newer heroes, usually it's a sign that they will turn bad at some point, though I feel you've a better story than that in mind - hope so, anyway. I'd love to learn more about her planet's belief system and how that affects the population. And, best of all, she manages to fluster Dirk

Garak the Khund, well that was unexpected! Sheranee is still learning, and that's a great trick - dodging and only stopping when you're potentially a target with nothing round about that could cause more damage. Smart thinking, I'm gonna nick that "Mr Glow" - ha, made me smile. Brin's concern for DD was sweet too, disguised as worry about what Blok would do... yeah, we se you Brin, you're not the Lone Wolf you make out to be. Very good pep talk from Brin regarding Drake's choices, he hit that nail on the head there, and "I don't think I've ever heard you say that many words at once, Timber Wolf." - haha!

This was fun Raz, I'm looking forward to seeing where the Variable Lad/Enigma Lass date goes, as well as what you have planned for Tel, and the spaceport was a good done-in-one bit of excitement.

As ever, I'm keen for more, more, more!

Great stuff Raz! I'm enjoying so many of the rarely seen or explored characters like Dragonmage, Turtle, Sizzle, etc. and your Gim, Reep, Blok, Tinya, etc. all read true to form.

Still loving Diamond Damsel the most of your new Legionnaires!

I have totally forgotten who Sheranee is, tho? Some sort of heightened agility (near Timber Wolf levels) and some sort of blast or explosion generation?

Hi all, sorry it's taken me so long to respond to all y'all comments!

IB: you will not have to wait very long to find out Key Kid's next step at all, I am just about to start writing it in fact!

Harbi: I am glad you liked the Variable Lad/Chemical Kid bit - Chemical Kid and Dragonwing (and even Lullabye Lad to a lesser extent) are such scene hogs that the other Academy kids don't tend to get a lot of time to shine, I am trying to change this up a bit with the focus on some of the others lately

Tel is another one whose subplot is about to come to a head, and he is going to get some good advice from an unexpected source!

Sizzle will be getting a proper chance to explain her deal soon as well...I know she has come off a bit odd, but hopefully once she sheds some light on her background it will all make more sense!

Set: Diamond Damsel has come a long way, I am glad you still dig her!

And Sheranee is one of the latest recruits of my huge team - she is half-Tamaranean, with heightened physical characteristics and starbolts (as well as some animal empathy why not)...most importantly she has a very cute pokemon Shwarrian Fire Kitten named Nyabby!



She has a bio written up here with a wee bit of extra background info as well!

thanks for the visual Raz! I knew of Litten from bfore, good to know Nyabby is based on one!

and yay! more Key Kid! digging these subplots raz, happy to see some come to a head

MARS
Husband Hill, Legion Academy's Arqiia Campus

ROLL CALL
Evolvo Lad aka Sev Tcheru: hyperevolution/devolution
Gas Girl aka Tal Nahii: can transform into any gas
Life Lass aka Somi Gan: matter animation

In his hyperevolved form, Sev Tcheru was quite comfortable sitting cross-legged on the floor of the Legion Academy's sub-basement surrounded by wiring, data storage crystals, exotic tools and other advanced technologies. Gas Girl and Life Lass relaxed at a table they'd set up nearby, picking from the charcuterie board they'd brought to share while they gossiped away.

To a casual observer, it might seem a strange sight; Evolvo Lad was clearly busy working on some project, one would think it must be a distraction having the two girls here chatting as though they were all at brunch. These three however had lived, loved and lost together since childhood and their dynamic was something unmatched among the rest of their teammates in the Legion of Superheroes. At any rate, it was no effort at all for Evolvo Lad's 14th level intellect to give equal focus to conversation with the women he thought of as family while simultaneously conducting precise quantum equations and pico-welding different particles together to give them new function.

"There were two confirmed casualties," Life Lass reported on her recent outing to Metropolis Spaceport. "Which of course is much better than we were expecting, but it's still terribly sad!"

"I'm sure you being there made a lot of people safer, sweetie." Gas Girl reached over and squeezed Life Lass's shoulder affectionately. "But this Garak guy...Tenzil says he used to be weirdly devoted to the original Emerald Empress, but she's been dead for such a long time! Did you ever find out why he was attacking the spaceport?"

Without any conscious effort, Somi's power made a small knife bounce to life, carve off a sliver of creamy Winathian cheese and delicately place it upon on a dry cracker before presenting it to its mistress. "He just kept ranting about being with his beloved," Somi nodded at the knife in an odd gesture of thanks. "...Poor man, I really hope he gets the psychomedical help he needs."

"Moving on..." Gas Girl's cheeks dimpled with a mischievous smile, "...Sev Tcheru, are you ever gonna get around to asking that Sheranee girl out? Somi told me how you were positively obsessed with her on Earth!"

"Tal!" Life Lass blushed furiously. "Sev, I did not say that--!"

"There is no need for explanation, Somi. I can conjecture almost word for word what you likely said to Tal and how she would have interpreted your no doubt innocuous statement." Evolvo Lad wore the faintest smile, but the monotone of his voice remained consistent. While he telekinetically joined a crystalline tower together with thin copper wiring, he continued talking. "As I have stated previously, my base form does harbour an attraction to Sheranee Shah, but really...what can come of that? I have no such capacity for hormonal stimulation in my current form, and my third state barely has the mental capacity to be considered sapient at all."

"So what I'm hearing is...you've got a crush on her and you're making excuses not to have to act on it." Gas Girl leaned her chin on her fist in an exaggerated pose of intellectual analysis.

Evolvo Lad gently lowered his work to the ground, honed his concentration for an instant, and returned to his normal blond form. "Come on Tal, be realistic. A girl like that is not gonna want to be with someone who's a glorified monkey a third of the time and an emotionless machine another third."

"Please don't say that," Somi seemed almost hurt on Evolvo Lad's behalf. "Anybody would be lucky to be with you, Sev! You're so clever and we both love you--"

"Blah blah blah, not buying it," Gas Girl cut in. "This isn't Lallor, Sev. We're not celebrity freaks here; we're on a team with a dog guy, a fish guy, a bug guy and a slug guy...well, a slug Slug. Anyway, Sheranee's mom is some kinda UP Ambassador or something; there's no way you're the weirdest person she's ever met."

Nobody got to hear whatever Sev Tcheru's comeback was going to be, because a new voice made itself known at the underground room's open doorway. "Umm guys..? What are you doing down here..?"

Gas Girl was the first to respond to the sight of Key Kid standing before them; the young red-haired boy seemed unusually ragged, and Tal quickly grabbed a napkin and used it to house a handful of meats and cheeses for him. "Key Kid! Don't take this the wrong way but you look awful! Are you eating?"

"Miqui, how did you get in here?" Evolvo Lad puzzled. "We asked Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl to declare this area off-limits."

"I've only got one power but I'm good at it," Miqui Ver joked weakly. "What's a privacy barrier to the mighty Key Kid?" He took the food from Tal and picked at the least unfamiliar sliced meat first. "Thanks, Gas Girl. So what are you all doing down here anyway? We don't even use this level!"

"We'll tell you soon," Sev replied, "Assuming it works. But there's a reason I asked for the area to be blocked off, Key Kid. I don't know if this will actually work, and I don't want to build anyone's hopes up till I know for sure."

"Okay, well..." Key Kid took a deep breath and then decided to just commit. "You guys have all run training sessions with us like the rest of the Legion of Superheroes...and you must all know Enigma Lass is a Dominator by now...what do you all think about it?"

"What do we think about Enigma Lass being a Dominator..?" Gas Girl was the first to speak. "Honestly, I feel sorry for her...I can't imagine what she's been through!"

"Tal's right," Evolvo Lad agreed. "That poor girl...she's lived some nightmare that none of the rest of us can possibly understand."

"Then what's wrong with me??" came Key Kid's unexpected outburst, his hazel eyes filling with tears. "Why is everyone else so convinced she's good, and all I can think about is how those diskheads killed Rain Girl and Brittle and made Duplicate Boy into their slave?!"

"Oh, Miqui..." Life Lass summoned a spare seat to nudge Key Kid gently, and as soon as he sat down she hugged him vicariously through the chair's armrests. "I wish we knew about Enigma Lass before you kids found out so that we could have been there for you. This must be so hard for you and Ming, but Enigma Lass isn't a part of what happened to you and the others. She's a victim as much as you were."

"That's what Amp said!" Key Kid was crying by now, wiping tears from his eyes with his closed fists. "And now...and now I made Amp hate me, and..and...why can't I just deal with it like you all have? What's wrong with me??"

Evolvo Lad stood up and walked over to Key Kid, then squatted on his haunches so they could both be on the same level. "Hey, Key Kid...Miqui....there's nothing wrong with you, believe me. There are things you don't know that I think would probably make a big difference in the way you feel right now, but even bearing that in mind...you're not a bad person because you struggle to deal with trauma. That's just part of life."

"It's just..." Key Kid almost hiccuped, taking irregular breaths until he calmed himself down enough to talk again. "Nobody talks to me anymore, you know? They all think I'm some...some xenophobe, and I don't wanna be that, but I look at her and all I can think about is what those sprocking diskheads did to us! If you guys really think I shouldn't hate her, then I wanna try but I can't do it on my own!"

While Gas Girl and Life Lass shared a sympathetic look, Evolvo Lad felt a lump in his throat watching the youngest Lalloran hero suffer like this. "It's okay, Miqui," Sev's tone was intentionally soothing. "Nobody has to do anything on their own, we're all here for you."

"I'm glad you said that," Key Kid snuffled, collecting himself as he sat up straight. "Your future form has got telepathic powers...

...Evolvo Lad, can you...change my mind so I can just think about Enigma Lass the same way everyone else does?"

**********

MANTODEA
The Central Mound

ROLL CALL
Crystal Kid aka Bobb Cohan: crystal construct creation
Dogstar aka Rufus Remulus: Daxamite-level flight, strength, speed, durability, stamina, senses; solar vision
Gravity Kid aka Tel Vole: gravity manipulation
Infectious Lass aka Drura Sehpt: disease transmission and immunity
King Canary aka K'rk T'wiiu III: sonic generation
Lightning Lass aka Ayla Ranzz: electricity generation and manipulation
Night Girl aka Lydda Jath Krinn: photosensitive super-strength
Nightwind aka Berta Skye Haris: wind control
Shadow Lass aka Tasmia Mallor: darkness generation
Slug aka Kes Mtsto: inertron form and projectiles
Strut: electrochemical perceptions, insectoid physiology
Tellus aka Ganglios: telepathy and telekinesis

With Mantodea's enormous red sun painting everything in crimson highlights, the descending Legionnaires couldn't help but notice that Strut's homeworld was a lot less technologically advanced than many of the heroes were accustomed to. High rise mounds jutted forth from the cracked desert floor like skyscrapers grown from the dirt itself; there were few windows carved into these structures, and not much of a view for those balconies and windows that did exist. While hardy flowering vines grew up and around the various mounds and the occasional cactus grew from the scorched earth, there was precious little other vegetation otherwise. Aside from boulders of various sizes littering the landscape and the occasional butte or ravine, there was in fact very little to see here on Mantodea. If Strut hadn't already warned them all what to expect, they might very well assume that no intelligent life existed here at all.

Taking up the rear of the group, Shadow Lass and Night Girl took shelter from the blazing sun beneath an umbrella-like field of darkness. "This once in a lifetime threat that Strut's called us here for..." Night Girl wiped sweat from her brow, "I'm not sure he needed so many Legionnaires, Tasmia...how much of a threat could anything here possibly be? Other than this heat, anyway..!"

Shadow Lass's response was perhaps a little more considered than Night Girl might expect. "I don't know, Lydda...Talok VIII is a desert planet too, remember? I know what dangers can lurk in sun-baked places like this. And I know Strut plays at being the fop, but after sparring with him I think there's more going on beneath that shiny carapace than people give him credit for. If Strut thinks we need a force this large, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. I can increase my shadow field if that will help..?"

"It's okay, I'm just being a grumpy sulk because it's so hot and bright here," Night Girl admitted begrudgingly. "...I'll survive, but thank you."

"I couldn't help but overhear," Nightwind hung back to converse with Shadow Lass and Night Girl, with Tellus accompanying Berta as well. "Why don't you ladies upgrade to join me and Tellus here in the cool breeze lounge?" Nightwind's power washed over all of them with a gentle motion that, while not much colder than the still air around them, was definitely a little more pleasant.

"I was right to recruit you, Berta...you're a wonderful Legionnaire." Night Girl visibly relaxed as she gave Nightwind a contented smile.

"Legion of Superheroes!" A voice from below boomed, "Welcome to Mantodea! I will be your host today, my United Planets designation is Marta Martassen!" The Mantodean who'd spoken, while still insect-like in appearance, could not have looked more different from the flamboyantly colorful Strut. Marta Martassen stood easily nine feet high, and several feet broad. Her dull grey carapace was much more visibly armoured than Strut, making her resemble a kind of organic six-limbed tank.

Marta stood at the highest balcony of the highest mound, and she was flanked by two equally intimidating guards with weapons that looked somewhat like staff-mounted maces. All three of them had slight variations in their plated armour, but they were very clearly cut from the same mold. Taking the lead on behalf of the Legion, Lightning Lass touched down on the balcony before Marta and bowed curtly. Harmless but visibly noticeable sparks of electricity flashed from Ayla's eyes as she greeted their host. "Thank you for taking the time to meet with us, Marta. When Strut told the Legion that we were needed here, we were of course only too happy to offer our help."

The imposing Mantodean woman didn't acknowledge Strut's presence at all, and in fact seemed to address Ayla as the sole representative of the group. "Of course we are capable of dealing with internal matters alone," Marta's mandibles clacked together as she spoke, "But it would be ungracious of us not to acknowledge your presence. Please accompany us into the Central Mound and we will provide a full situation report."

"I don't get it," Crystal Kid half-whispered to Nightwind as the Legionnaires entered the enormous mound. "Isn't it customary for Legionnaires to lead any mission on their own homeworld? Why isn't Strut taking point on this one?"

"Trust me, darling," Strut leaned down to join the conversation with his much shorter teammates. "This way is going to be much less painfully awkward for all of us...Legionnaire or no, I don't really have the most sterling reputation back home and Lightning Lass literally crackles with the raw power that these dreadful bores respect. We'll have this business done so much faster if we just play along with their silly politics for now."

There was next to no light once they started moving inside the mound; the Mantodeans did not rely on sight as their primary sense, and their electrochemical perceptions could more than compensate. Night Girl and Shadow Lass were grateful for the darkness and the much more noticeable drop in temperature, and Slug and Tellus found themselves less disadvantaged than some of their teammates thanks to the conditions they'd evolved to adapt to on their own respective planets. While King Canary was confident that his echolocation ability could serve him well here, he was also aware that it might not create the best impression if he were to be flitting about chirping incessantly; the avian Legionnaire instead perched on Strut's armoured shell and let Strut guide the way. For the others, Dogstar subtly enhanced his own natural golden aura to cast enough light that at least the Legionnaires wouldn't be stumbling over themselves.

"I'm not certain what I expected your world to be like," Infectious Lass confided to Strut, "But I don't think it was anything like this. Everything seems so...sparse and utilitarian! No offence meant of course, it's just that you're not like that at all..!"

"What a lovely thing to say about me!" Strut responded. "Why, thank you darling! Between you and I, the region where I was hatched is actually much prettier than this dull expanse of dirt but you're regrettably correct in your assessment of my world as a whole. And of course, you're also correct that I'm far more glamorous!" He spoke this part just loudly enough to be picked up by Marta and her two guards; while they didn't respond in any way that the other Legionnaires would notice, Strut was quietly tickled to register the spike of annoyance that came from the three of them.

The hallways of the Central Mound were somehow claustrophobic while still being large enough to easily fit all of the Legionnaires. Infectious Lass's assessment had been accurate; the building was quite devoid of any ornamental touches, and the only noticeable features were the tunnels that veered off at regular intervals deeper into the mound. Skittering Mantodeans could be heard from within those tunnels, but the path that Marta led them down was curiously empty of any other living beings.

After a while, the Mantodean women led the Legionnaires into a chamber with several vastly different insectoid exoskeletons suspended in vertical tubes around the room and some kind of bio-technological computer equipment grown up in various spaces around the chamber. Marta introduced this place as the Central Mound's Science Hub, and provided the Legionnaires with specialised visors developed by the Science Police to help off-worlders interact with the Mantodeans' unique technology. Strut of course needed no such assistance, and the visors were impractical for the less humanoid Legionnaires such as Tellus, Slug and King Canary. Tellus established a surface-level mind link between those three and Strut, and they all paid attention as Marta described the threat they'd been brought here to face.

Of course, they'd all heard a slightly more sensationalised version of this debriefing from Strut on the way here; The Doomswarm (the name itself more a product of overly literal translation than anything else) were an army of the dead which periodically caused chaos on Mantodea. For centuries, the Doomswarm were seen as a supernatural threat in the same vein as zombies or vampires, but advances in technology brought greater comprehension of the threat, and the Mantodeans now realised that their ancient enemy was in fact nothing more than a kind of fungal hive-mind which inhabited and animated the hardy exoskeletons that Mantodeans left behind when they died. The Doomswarm might lie dormant for decades, but then some unknown stimulus always brought them to something resembling life, and the army of corpses marched tirelessly upon any and all Mantodeans they could find to add to their number.

The Mantodeans preferred to deal with internal threats internally, and so it was that even the Science Police stationed upon this world had been politely but firmly advised that the recent appearance of the Doomswarm around Mantodean desert settlements was nothing for them to concern themselves with. Strut had an acquaintance who lived in one of those settlements however, and the Mantodean matriarchy found it far more difficult to diplomatically refuse assistance brought to their world by one of their own, even if one of their own in this case was a social outcast here.

"...And there you have it," Marta completed her description of the monstrous invisible growth which led this world's own dead to rise against them. "The Doomswarm are a serious threat, but not one that we are incapable of handling. We have the finest warriors in Mantodean society ready to put their lives on the line to protect the men and larvae of our cities when next the Doomswarm rise."

"But...you don't need to do that at all!" Lightning Lass couldn't quite hide her exasperation. "This is exactly the kind of thing that the Legion of Superheroes exist to help with! We can handle this Doomswarm force without any need for your people to put themselves at risk, Marta!"

"Lightning Lass is right," Strut forgot himself for a moment. "Please, Marta, listen to her...we all know the bravery and skill of Mantodean women, you don't need to kill yourselves to prove that."

"We also don't need one of our men dictating military policy to us," Marta retorted with barely restrained disgust. "Perhaps you somehow have value to the Legion of Superheroes but do not forget your place here, John Johnsonson."

"Marta..." Shadow Lass stepped forward, choosing her words carefully, "Please...we understand that you don't need our aid, but now that we are here, we would like to help nonetheless. It would be an honour if you would allow us to accompany your best and brightest out into the field to face this threat, and it will allow you to devote the majority of your forces to protecting those of your people who need protection most. I myself am the planetary champion of my own world, and I understand pride and self-reliance only too well; but I also understand the importance of using your resources effectively...and how often will you have resources like the Legion of Superheroes at your disposal?"

Marta thought on it for a moment before turning to the two women who'd accompanied her so far. "Shadow Lass has a point...Aerande, I want you to come with me; together, we will lead our Legion allies to the Doomswarm. Felisz, you are to take John Johnsonson to the Hatchery with the other men and larvae. You will lead our remaining forces to keep our men and young ones safe at all costs."

"But Marta--!" the one named Felisz began to argue.

"You have your orders!" Marta cut her off.

"And not too soon it seems," Dogstar spoke up. "Forgive me for interrupting, but I hear a situation that warrants our attention if I'm not mistaken."

"Dogstar's right!" One of the Science Police gaped, reading a live newsfeed. "The Doomswarm have just been spotted on the outskirts of a town in a valley a dozen or so miles from here...you heard them?!"

"Who knew..?" King Canary couldn't resist a jab at the Mantodean women as he alighted from Strut to flit toward one of the vents above. "I guess men ain't all a waste of time, huh?"

Lightning Lass paused for a moment before joining the rest of her team in finding a more appropriate exit than the smaller opening King Canary had used. This was Strut's homeworld, and she trusted him to speak up if he needed help, but still...something didn't sit right with her, leaving Strut here alone with these women who dismissed his very existence. "Wait. Crystal Kid, Gravity Kid; I want you two to stay back with Strut...you might be needed here."

Echoing the Mantodean woman a moment earlier, Crystal Kid began to protest.

"You can rely on me, Lightning Lass," Gravity Kid spoke up pointedly. "I won't let you down."

Behind Gravity Kid, Crystal Kid rolled his eyes. He also ceased his protest though, not wanting Tel to look better at his expense.

As Strut, Gravity Kid and Crystal Kid followed the woman named Felisz off in another direction, Bobb Cohan sidled up alongside his insectoid teammate with an amused smirk. "Strut...your real name is John Johnsonson??"

"...Ugh, I just knew this trip home would be a chore..." Strut's mandibles clicked irritably.

**********

At first, neither of the Mantodean women were particularly comfortable being borne aloft by Tellus's telekinesis but they soon realised that it was the only pragmatic transport option. The Legion's flight rings could cover the distance between the Central Mound and the ravine settlement bizarrely named Verdant Valley much quicker than Marta or Aerande could manage on their own.

"This is Verdant Valley?" Nightwind asked as they descended from the cloudless azure skies. "Don't take this the wrong way but it's not very...verdant..?"

With great cliffs on either side, structures similar to the mounds they'd just seen emerged from the desert floor. These were built into and along the walls of the ravine however, and the only entrances were several stories high. From either side of the small village, vast numbers of Mantodeans fell upon the town in unsettling volumes.

"The valley was once far more lush than it seems now," Marta explained, "But the seasons have not been kind these past years...Tellus; we appreciate your assistance, Legionnaire, but please lower us to the ground now that Aerande and I might fulfil our duties to our people!"

Tellus obeyed, and the two Mantodean women fearlessly charged into the dust-streaked army closing in on either side of the town. As Marta drew her own twin weapons that the Legion now realised had been hidden beneath armoured plates this whole time, Lightning Lass pulled up alonside Tellus. "This Doomswarm...they really are dead, right Tellus? I don't want to go in blasters pulsing if there's any chance of us seriously hurting anyone."

"The Mantodeans are correct in their analysis," Tellus reported. "The fungi animating these exoskeletons does not possess even a rudimentary consciousness and the people that these shells once housed are long gone, Lightning Lass. However, if you will excuse me, there are some within that mass who yet live and will not do so for long without my assistance."

Without waiting for permission, Tellus veered off from Lightning Lass and descended low enough over the Doomswarm that some of their reaching limbs could almost brush against his thick hide. The Mantodeans' natural form of communication was not overtly verbal, and it hadn't occurred to the innocents huddling for their lives within this awful mess to cry out for help. Tellus had sensed their panic among the dead like a beacon in the dark though, and the Hykraian's telekinesis easily locked onto the bright yellow shell of the terrified Mantodean man who'd been bent double over four small worm-like larvae bravely shielding them from the Doomswarm that had overcome them all.

<You are safe now>, Tellus soothed the man and his children telepathically as they levitated above the maddening swarm of corpses. As Tellus whisked his precious cargo away to a safe distance, he projected his thoughts out to the rest of his team. <This Doomswarm is not alive in any meaningful sense, Legionnaires...do not feel it necessary to hold yourselves back!>

"These guys are getting a little too close for my comfort," Nightwind remarked as she tore two of the Doomswarm from the walls of the Mantodean residences with focused winds. She sent them tumbling back into the larger mass of invaders, knocking over several more of them.

"Are you having any difficulty refining your power in this enclosed ravine, Nightwind?" Tellus asked as he swept past Berta with his passengers in tow.

"Sweet of you to ask," Nightwind replied, "But no, believe it or not...this place is kind of a natural wind tunnel! If I weren't worried about carrying half of you along for the ride, I could probably tornado most of these creepy things out of here in a nano to be honest!"

"I'm glad you're having more luck than I am," Infectious Lass admitted, a look of intense concentration upon her face.

"I guess insect zombies don't fall prey to the flu easy, huh?" Nightwind asked while she sheared another few of the Doomswarm away from exposed building doorways.

"It's not that," Drura explained, "I mean no they don't, but I expected that...but I also thought that maybe the fungi animating the exoskeletons would have a vulnerability I could exploit and it seems they're almost as well adaped to dealing with small life as I am! They're teeming with mycoviruses, but none of the mycoviruses I've come across so far actually cause any damage to their host fungus!"

"Well, keep trying!" Nightwind encouraged her. "If you can stop all this without any more violence, that would be--oh!"

Nightwind and Infectious Lass both fell silent as the blazing sun above them vanished behind a wall of pure darkness. They both realised almost instantly that Shadow Lass was responsible, but as harmless as they knew Tasmia Mallor's power was they couldn't deny that it was certainly dramatic.

On the ground, tearing into the Doomswarm with multiple weapons, Marta's lieutenant Aerande cocked her head. "Did it...just get dark?" she asked, tearing a limb off of one of the creatures purely with her own strength.

"It is my doing," Tasmia Mallor declared somewhat coldly from above. She hovered in place, shrouded not only by her power but also by her voluminous cape and the wild mane of hair which framed her blue face. This was as close as Shadow Lass could stomach getting to these creatures; on Talok VIII they revered their ancestors, and while Shadow Lass understood that this Doomswarm was composed of only the soulless shells of the Mantodean dead, she still couldn't imagine herself being so blase about fighting her own world's deceased.

"The Doomswarm sense the world as do we living Mantodeans!" Aerande bellowed. "Your shadows do not faze those who sense the bioelectric emanations of all living things!"

"My shadows are not for their detriment," Shadow Lass decreed a little imperiously. "...They're for her benefit."

Safely beyond the outskirts of Verdant Valley and well within the boundaries of Shadow Lass's darkness, Night Girl dug her gloved hands into the unforgiving ravine walls. With only the mildest grunt Lydda Jath Krinn pulled countless thousands of tons of rock straight down upon the Doomswarm, burying almost half of them in a grave that this time they would not escape.

On the other side of Verdant Valley where sunlight still reigned, one of the Legion's newest recruits Slug heard Night Girl bring the cliff face down and Slug's eyestalks turned to see the impenetrable wall of darkness hiding whatever was going on over there. "Lightning Lass? Should the Legion be worried about all that?"

Lightning Lass took a quick glance and winked at Slug. "Nah, that's just Shady and Night Girl showing off...it's good for them not to let Mon and Cos hog all the fun for once." As she spoke, Ayla let loose with an intense bolt of electricity which incinerated a couple of the Doomswarm outright and electrocuted a dozen more of them. "Speaking of which...I gotta say, boys; it's good to just be able to let loose for once, right?"

Marta was astounded as she took a moment from destroying the lifeless creatures before her to gaze up at Dogstar, King Canary and Slug. While Dogstar's solar vision cut through the Doomswarm like a hot knife through butter and King Canary's sonic cry shattered many more of them, Slug was firing cannonball-sized inertron projectiles at a velocity that tore the Doomswarm to shreds. "You're all men..?" the Mantodean woman uttered in shock. "I just thought, as powerful as you all are..."

"Oh, Slug isn't a man!" the limbless Legionnaire replied joyfully, shooting forth another rain of deadly inertron spheres at the diminishing enemy.

"So you are a woman!" Marta concluded, happy that she still somewhat understood the world.

"Slug isn't a woman either!" Slug replied just as cheerily. "Slug is Slug!"

Marta returned her focus to the Doomswarm. These off-worlders were a constant source of surprise to her...at least here on Mantodea, everything remained comfortably predictable forever.

**********

Felisz had gathered more than a dozen other Mantodean women to her side and escorted Crystal Kid, Gravity Kid and Strut down to the very lowest subsurface level of the Central Mound where they entered a large cavernous space named, for obvious reasons, the Hatchery.

The Hatchery was a marvel to Gravity Kid and Crystal Kid; on four or five open levels throughout this massive space, brightly coloured Mantodean men hovered protectively over gelatinous piles of eggs or tended to the equivalent of Mantodean children - small armoured worm-like larvae which bore no resemblance to the adults they would one day become. Another difference was clear in this place compared to anywhere else they'd been; bioluminescent moss clung to the damp rock walls in this cool space, providing a kind of ethereal green tinge to everything its light fell upon.

"Don't ever let it be said that I have a soft spot for these urchins," Strut addressed Crystal Kid, "But I suppose we'd best do what we can to keep them safe. Could you be a dear and make sure all of the entrances and exits are blocked up, just in case?"

"Sure thing, John." Crystal kid gave Strut a cheeky wink and flew off to begin erecting crystal barriers wherever the Hatchery had a corridor branching off.

"I suppose you think you're making some kind of point," Felisz spoke down in obvious condescenscion at Strut. While Strut towered over most of his teammates in the Legion, here on his homeworld he was like a stick insect before any one of these warrior women. "Undermining my authority in front of your offworlder friends?"

"I'm sure I couldn't bring myself to care enough to try and undermine you," Strut retorted. "I'm just trying to protect our people like we all are, Felisz."

Felisz shared some unspoken Mantodean sentiment with Strut before she turned back toward the women under her command here. Gravity Kid floated up beside Strut, speaking low enough so as not to draw attention. "It's not right the way they treat you, Strut...you're a Legionnaire and they act like you're an embarassment to them all."

"Believe me, darling," Strut replied, "It's not worth making a song and dance over...I only need to tolerate this for as long as it takes our friends to deal with the Doomswarm and then universe willing, I'll never have to come back to this horrid little world again."

Strut and Gravity Kid heard a strained cry that they immediately recognised as coming from Crystal Kid. While Gravity Kid used his flight ring to ascend to a balcony far above their heads, Strut ran along the wall almost as quickly. Felisz and two of her soldiers skittered up the wall after them, and all of them found Bobb Cohan laying in a pool of his own blood, the faded exoskeleton of one of the Doomswarm standing over him with its pincer-like mandible buried in his abddomen. Huddled against the rock wall only feet away, a red and black Mantodean male chittered in terror while attempting to keep his pile of eggs hidden from the undead monster.

"Get -- get away from him!!" Tel Vole's voice broke with emotion as his control of gravity sent the Doomswarm creature flying back down the darkened corridor from which it had come.

"Darling," Strut laid a hand on Gravity Kid's shoulder. "I suspect you can't see them, but there are two more of those beastly creatures coming down the same passage..."

"Not for much longer," Gravity Kid scowled. He extended an arm, palm up, then closed his hand into a fist. The tunnel followed suit, bringing tons of rock together to close in on itself with the Doomswarm in the middle. Sickening cracks told Tel and Strut that Gravity Kid's move had the desired effect.

"He's losing a lot of blood!" Tel shouted, kneeling down by Crystal Kid's pale form. "Too much! You, Felisz! Crystal Kid needs medical attention now!"

Felisz had caught up to the Legionnaires, and she gazed dispassionately upon Bobb's bleeding form. "We have no medical facilities capable of treating your people," she replied. "Not for injuries this serious at any rate...your teammate's sacrifice will not be forgotten, Legionnaire."

"There's not going to be a sacrifice!" Tel gritted his teeth. "I should have been here, I should have backed him up...but I can help him now!" The telltate blue nimbus of Gravity Kid's power surrounded Crystal Kid's wound, and Bobb's blood simply stopped gushing out.

"Gravity Kid, darling..?" Strut asked, unsure of what his senses told him was happening here. "What are you..?"

"I've been practicing," Tel explained, already breaking out into a sweat. "I've got way better fine control of my power now than I did when I first joined the Legion...I can use gravitational attraction to make sure Bobb's blood keeps flowing the way it's meant to...but I can't keep this up indefinitely, Strut. I don't think I can even keep it up very long. You have to call Dogstar, get him to come back here as soon as he can and take Bobb back to our ship."

"Of course, darling. I--" Strut saw Felisz share some kind of communication with the women who'd accompanied her here, and then the women all began crawling back down the wall toward the ground. "And where are you ladies going, if I may ask?" Strut called after them. "None of you are exactly built for stealth, you know!"

"We're breaking down one of these crystal walls and we're going to go out there and fight the enemy!" Marta hollered back. "If a few of the Doomswarm made it this far, who knows how many have infested the Central Mound?"

Strut began crawling down after her, but remained close enough to keep an eye on Gravity Kid and Crystal Kid. "I know as well as you that you have communications technology here you can use to monitor the rest of the Mound...and Marta gave you a direct order to guard these people, Felisz. What is this really about?"

"You know what this is about!" Felisz roared back. "Our place is out there fighting, destroying these creatures...not hiding in here with men and children!"

"These men and children need you, Felisz. This world breeds our men to tremble before danger, you know how much they rely on your protection!"

"We're leaving here, John Johnsonson, and you won't stop us."

Strut considered his options, and then realised he only really had one option that this woman would accept. "Oh, Felisz...I will try not to embarass you too greatly in front of your cronies."

"Strut, what are you--" Gravity Kid craned his neck to watch Strut scurry away. "I can't help you, Strut! If I leave Crystal Kid alone--"

"I don't need your help, darling." Strut made his way down to the ground level where he stood on two limbs to face Felisz. "I'd hoped to talk sense into her, but one doesn't talk sense into someone so senseless...perhaps it's time I show this oaf the skills that got me off this backward planet and into the Legion of Superheroes to begin with, hmm?"

Felisz threw her weapons aside and charged Strut. Strut noticed that the other women were all hanging back, expecting some brief entertainment and nothing more. As he scurried between Felisz's legs and came up behind her, he was glad that the Mantodean women underestimated him and he was glad that their sense of honour wouldn't allow them to rush him as a group. He was confident that he could handle two or three of the women armed or unarmed without too much effort, but as talented a fighter as he knew he'd become he didn't like his chances taking on a dozen of these fighting machines all at once.

Felisz spun with surprising speed, but Strut was faster. He had already climbed up her broad armoured back, leaving her momentarily disoriented as to where he could have gone. She felt even his minor additional weight though, and she tried to slam him in between herself and the hard rocky wall. Strut of course had anticipated this, and he leaped clear over Felisz's head before she could throw her full weight into the wall.

As he came down in front of her, two of Strut's appendages lashed out and slapped hard against Felisz's multi-faceted eyes. The Mantodeans might not rely on sight as their primary sense, but their eyes were still enormous vulnerable targets perched right in the middle of their heads. Felisz emanated a biochemical signature of utter shock, and Strut pushed his advantage by striking two precise blows right at the base of her antennae.

"You--you--" Felisz staggered off-balance now....her antennae were temporarily overwhelmed by pain and she still had stars dancing in her line of sight. At this point, taking her down was almost embarassingly easy. One limb at a time, Strut dislocated the joints of the two appendages which were holding her upright. Felisz fell to the ground lashing out wildly, and Strut expertly chopped at a tendon hidden beneath two of the armoured plates covering her mighty chest. Kicking her easily over to her back, Strut watched with more than a little vindicated glee as the half-paralysed woman struggled fruitlessly to roll back over on to her front and help herself up. "I'll kill you, Strut! I'll kill you!!"

"Well, at least I got you using my preferred name after all of that," Strut said breezily. "But you won't kill me, Felisz...and you will be up and about in a matter of minutes as though nothing ever happened. I didn't want to cause you any long-term injuries because I meant what I said earlier...you and your soldiers are needed here to help these people under your care. I trust I've made my point however? Or do one of you other ladies want to find out just how much time I have to expel built up resentments today?"

"...We follow Marta's orders," Felisz eventually announced to her soldiers. "Patrol the Hatchery...make sure no more of the Doomswarm get in here."

Strut hung around just long enough to be sure that the women were going to do as they'd been told, and then he retreated back to his fellow Legionnaires.

He found that Gravity Kid had drawn himself and Crystal Kid closer to the balcony's edge so Tel could watch the fight while he kept Bobb from bleeding out. "Strut, that was amazing!" Tel enthused. "...and here I am, screwing up everything I touch. Maybe I should have stayed in the Academy, I...I don't think I'm Legion material."

"Darling, what on Mantodea are you talking about?" Strut paused, having just been about to call Dogstar. "You're a fine Legionnaire! Why, you're keeping Crystal Kid alive right now, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but...I should have anticipated something like this would happen. I should have stopped it. If I was...if I was a real hero--"

"Tel Vole, I absolutely will not hear this nonsense from you!" Strut crawled down on all six limbs opposite Gravity Kid so he could face the kneeling youngster. "Now what do you mean if you were a real hero? What makes you think you're anything but a real hero? You're not Dream Girl, darling...you couldn't possibly be expected to have foreseen that one of those awful creatures would make it this far and hurt Crystal Kid the way they did! But you're ensuring that Crystal Kid stays with us...I certainly couldn't do that!"

"If Ultra Boy were here..." Tel countered weakly, "Or Mon-El...even Wildfire was more of a hero...more of a man than I'll ever be, and he was made of energy!"

"Ah, there it is." Strut picked up on the truth that Gravity Kid had inadvertantly let slip. "This isn't about being a hero at all, is it? Do you really think you're less of a man because you can't benchpress a planet or burn your way through a starfighter, Tel darling?"

Gravity Kid looked away darkly. "...You wouldn't understand."

"Darling." Strut's voice, even artificially modulated as it was, dripped sarcasm. "If you really think that I don't understand what it's like to confront antiquated gender roles, you haven't been paying attention to a single thing that's happened here today."

Long moments of silence passed between them, and Tel finally looked across at Strut with pleading eyes. "How do you do it, Strut..? How do you make it look so easy..? You just...you don't care what anyone thinks of you, and me...I can't move under the weight of all that expectation, I can't breathe. I have to try to be the best man I can be, every sprocking second of every single day, because the one time I slip...the one time I slip, I know they're all judging me, they're all saying I'm not a real man, that I never was a real--" Emotion overcame Tel Vole, and he awkwardly cleared his throat to hide it.

"Oh Tel...you poor silly darling boy." Strut's tone was as mocking as ever, but it somehow now seemed to carry something protective in it at the same time. "Do you think it isn't difficult for me to come back here? To walk among women who think I'm play acting at something I can never be, and men who might as well be from a different dimensional plane for all that we have in common? I hate it, darling. I hate every moment of it. But I do it because it's the right thing to do, and the thing that gets me through this tedious experience is that ultimately...it doesn't matter what anybody here thinks of me. It doesn't matter what anybody in the Legion thinks of me. I don't need anybody else's approval to be who I am. I only need to know that I know who I am. And I do. I am a man of my own making...perhaps not so literally as you, my darling, but still and all. I woke up one day and I said I am not going to let the judgement of other people stop me from being who I know I really am. Every day I remember that, and every day I fight for that.

You're not a man because anybody else thinks you are, Tel Vole. You're a man because you know you're a man...and the more you understand that, the more I think you'll see that your own judgement is holding you back far far more than anybody else's is. Nobody expects you to be half as stoic or flawless as you expect of yourself."

Tel's eyes welled with tears, and he wiped at them with the back of his hand. "Wait," he suddenly grew serious. "Did Bobb tell you I'm...?"

"Darling, Crystal Kid told me nothing that is yours to tell," Strut reassured him. "But if you think I don't know the chemical signature of promasc in a man's perspiration, you have vastly underestimated how amazing my electrochemical perception is."

Gravity Kid was taken aback for a brief moment, before he broke the tension with a boyish giggle.

"Now let me call Dogstar to come fetch our attention-seeking friend here," Strut said briskly. "We have to keep Crystal Kid alive forever if we can, I absolutely do not want one of those ghastly statues in our Hall of Heroes to be erected in honour of a man who insists on calling me John."

**********

MARS ORBIT
The Legion of Superheroes mobile base

Sev Tcheru sat patiently in a comfortable chair waiting for Miqui Ver aka Key Kid to make his appearance. While Evolvo Lad had initially been shocked into speechlessness when Key Kid asked him to literally change his mind into accepting the Legion Academy's Dominator student, he realised that the young confused boy was just trying his best to deal with revelations he didn't have the life experience to deal with in a healthy way.

The work that Evolvo Lad had been doing at the Legion Academy's Arqiia Campus could prove to be important for both the Legion and the Academy, but more important was Sev's need to look out for the youngest of his former teammates in the Heroes of Lallor. Sev also presumed that there was some guilt that accompanied his need to help Miqui Ver come to terms with studying alongside Enigma Lass; after all, Sev alone among the former Heroes of Lallor had been present when the Legion learned that the Lalloran heroes Brittle and Duplicate Boy II were still alive, although Duplicate Boy had become the mysterious entity known as Revenant. As far as Key Kid was concerned the Dominators had killed most of his adopted family, and he did not possess the security clearance as a student to be told any different. Evolvo Lad supposed it only made sense that he would want to do everything else he could to help Key Kid when he couldn't just come out and tell him that two of his former allies were still alive.

All of that having been said though...no part of Sev Tcheru could countenance the idea of using his hyperevolved form's telepathic ability to simply wipe inconvenient personality traits from Key Kid's mind. If he thought on it further, it might bother Sev that he didn't know what his hyperevolved form might have to say on the matter, but he'd long since come to terms with not being able to predict how different his devolved or hyperevolved forms could be from who he thought of as his real self.

A door to the left opened, and Key Kid stepped out with the Legion's counsellor Jrey Lefen behind him.

"Thank you again for being so honest with me, Key Kid." Jrey offered a hand, and Miqui shook it a little awkwardly. "Why don't you make yourself a drink and wait out here for a moment, I just want to touch base with Evolvo Lad as we discussed."

"Sure," Miqui shrugged and plopped himself down in a chair.

Jrey led Evolvo Lad into his office and offered him a seat while the door closed behind them.

"Thank you so much for seeing Miqui on such short notice," Sev began. "I know you must be awfully busy--"

"It's fine, Evolvo Lad, that's what I'm here for." Jrey reclined in his seat, trying to project an air of comfort. Sev eventually took the hint and sat opposite the Durlan counsellor.

"So how long do you think it'll take?" Evolvo Lad asked. "How many sessions till he's back to normal?"

"It's not that simple I'm afraid," Jrey allowed himself a slight smile. "Miqui has been through quite a lot for a boy his age....therapy isn't something you can just schedule 4 or 5 sessions for and everything's magically back on track."

"I know that," Sev returned a little defensively. "I'm not a stranger to therapy, Counsellor Lefen...the Heroes of Lallor - the original Heroes of Lallor - we all had sessions growing up to come to terms with our powers and the role we fulfilled for our people. I wouldn't have suggested Key Kid speak to you if I didn't think it could help!"

"I appreciate that," Jrey spoke softly, "And I apologise if I sounded twee. But Evolvo Lad, I'll be honest...I'm not sure that I can help Key Kid right now."

"What do you mean by that??" Sev asked.

"Just that...a lot of Miqui's trauma is related to lies he was forced to believe about who he really was, and who his adopted family were. I understand why Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad allowed Enigma Lass to hide her true identity and it's not my place to judge that, but it quite understandably feeds into Key Kid's existing fears."

"Okay..." Sev Tcheru frowned, unable to see where this was going. "So why do you think he's beyond help? He's a good kid, Counsellor Lefen!"

"He undoubtedly is a good kid," Jrey agreed. "But he's also a kid who has a lot of issues around deceit and hidden truths. I know that Miqui Ver is not beyond help...I just don't think that a Durlan counsellor is someone he's going to trust enough just yet to help him."

"Oh." Sev blushed. His hyperevolved form would have known this immediately, he hated feeling second best to his own transformed self. "That makes sense, I guess. So what do you suggest..?"

"Well..." Jrey rested his chin on criss-crossed fingers. "I'm glad you asked..."

**********

yay, more!

nice to see the 3 Lallor Legionnaires hanging out!

ahhh charcuterie boards, nice to know they are timeless

I always loved this "multi-tasking" ability that Brainy had due to his high intelligence, so nice to know Evolvo Lad has it too. also interesting that you have him here smarter than Brainy in raw terms. The Reboot versions firmly placed it the other way around, with Evolvo's evolved form at 10th and Brainy at 12th level

bless Life Lass, she of all Legionnaires would be checking in on the casualties!

Gas Girl is very canny and observant, I like that she's on the Espionage Squad for more than just her power! curious of where you might take this Garak/Empress thing

aw, poor Key Kid. also now curious what Sev is working on...

wow, poor Key Kid! glad he found these three, the poor guy sure needs some help!



loving the visuals of Mantodea, raz!

heh, loving the little dig at Tasmia often being one of those to speak first and perhaps think later poor Lydda, I can relate, I hate the heat too. I can imagine it's plenty tough for her, coming from a world of darkness. and yay, go Berta! though Lydda's reaction does seem to show that some of the team may still think of Berta as the Academy student and recent grad?

well, Ayla is definitely the senior Legionnaire here.glad to see her growing into it

ahh, this is giving me flashbacks to Linsnar/Gear in the Reboot/my fic

and of course, electrochemical perceptions... making Ayla perfect for this!

nice thinking from Dogstar and King Canary, too!

LOL at Strut poking at his worldmates

the Doomswarm! what a cool enemy!

nice touch, having the women be the warriors. and quite proud, too!

John Johnsonson. I love the naming conventions you've thought up!

go Tasmia! well done, Tasmia. she would understand how Marta thinks!

heh, loving King Canary's jab

ah, Crystal Kid and Gravity Kid needing to stay behind love it, been waiting for them to get a scene together. will Bobb give Tel a good talking to?

and wise of Ayla to trust her instincts.

good going, Tellus!

yeah! Tasmia and Lydda, go! fast and effective!

heh at Ayla making a joke about Tasmia's and Lydda's significant others

ah, good of Marta to at least be open-minded enough to realize that some of these powerful Legionnaires are men

nice of Tel to give Strut some support. Felisz might be a problem...

ah, love it, love Strut showing his stuff! if Felisz won't listen...

your story is making me love Strut even more. I can relate, as someone who also fled his homeland for similar reasons to Strut. horrid little world...

wow! it's all coming together, raz, expertly plotted and written! of course! of course Tel feels some insecurity for not being a "real" man, wow! and of course Strut, coming from such a world, would be the perfect one to talk sense into Tel!

and nice touch here, with Bobb not blabbing Tel's secret, and of course Strut picked it up

and the perfect ending quote from Strut, too!

nice one, Raz, really nice one, subverted my expectations quite nicely!

more expert characterization here, raz. with Jrey subtly pointing out that he, as a Durlan shapeshifter, may not be the best to help Key Kid with his deceit - and also pointing out Miqui's REAL issues in a few short sentences! wow!

more awesome stuff, raz, expertly crafted and written! love it!

Welcome back IB!

Charcuterie boards will never be out of fashion, they are the sign of a truly advanced culture

Ooh I think you will like the next few instalments then....

I meant to go into a bit more explanation on the naming conventions for Strut's homeworld in-story, but essentially: because the Mantodeans all communicate primarily through their antennae, their "names" are more like scent traces that can't be replicated verbally. The UP gave them all "real names" when Mantodea joined the United Planets so they could interact with offworlders easier, and poor ol' John Johnsonson got stuck with one of the less imaginative name combos...

As you can see by now Tel did get a good talking to, though it wasn't Bobb that did it - but I am not yet finished with Crystal Kid and Gravity Kid's big messy friendship/relationship/whatever it ends up being!

I am glad Strut talking to Tel worked...I have been looking forward to writing that scene for ages (as well as giving Strut a bit of a chance to show off his actual combat skills as well)! It is lots of fun writing Strut's snappy repartee, but I wanted to also show that underneath all that he is actually a good fighter and he cares about people too .

I can definitely see the parallels with Gear on Linsnar; it is very cathartic sometimes being able to use these characters to address real world stuff from a different perspective

The ending with Jrey and Key Kid kinda wrote itself to be honest - originally I was gonna have Key Kid's subplot just wrapped up with "okay he's going to therapy now" but it made more sense to me that he would probably have trust issues with a shapeshifting therapist, and I think I have a more satisfying direction for this to lead into now...

NEXT: A hot date with Sun Boy and Sizzle!

I love the explanation for the Mantodean names! and also explains why they're so "Western" of that makes sense

*rubs hands eagerly* I figure Tel saving Bobb's life will give plenty of fuel for more Tel/Bobb drama!

this scene really made both Tel and Strut shine. (forget to comment, but Tel's refinement of his powers is mega impressive!)

yes! Dirk and Sizzle! I love that you're taking this and running with it!

totally hooked, looking forward to more more more!

Hey Raz, thanks for the message as I totally missed this when you posted it. I only have one hour this afternoon so will crack on with this review.

Great to see the former Lakkorian team together. And, of course they are going to gossip - nice bit of logic that Evolvo's hyper evolved form is a master multitasker. Interesting that you mention Garak going on abouut the Empress - are you leading to something there? We all do love the Empress, se's such a crazy ego tripping psychopath Gas Girl pushing evolvo to ask Sheranee out was funny, we've all got friends like that, and have all probably been that friend at times too. "we're on a team with a dog guy, a fish guy, a bug guy and a slug guy...well, a slug Slug" so true! Key Kid finally turns up - this'll be interesting. And, nice slipping in that comment about blocking tha level off - wonder what they are up to? The girl's empathy towards enigma Las was touching and will be good for Miqui to hear. His request though was very unexpected - wonder how they will deal with that because we know how successful lng term telepathic tampering can be

And we're off to Strut's homeworld, yay, am looking forward to this! Tasmia and Lydda hiding from the bright sunshine makes sense - hopefully the action won't take place outside of a hive or they'll be unhappy. Wow, an organic six-limbed tank - what would give that a reason to call the Legion? Strut is persona non gracia? These Mantodeans are nuts! " they'd all heard a slightly more sensationalised version of this debriefing from Strut" haha I actually laughed out loud at that. Doomswarm - great name, just great! Though I am picturing a mob of Doombots tearing the place apart now John Johnsonson - oh poor Strut having that as his alter ego nice call by Shady, well put, they won't refuse help now. King Canary, perhaps my fave of your OCs, give a zinging one liner "I guess men ain't all a waste of time, huh?"
- nice! I'm loving the ongoing low-key clash between Bobb and Tel btw.

Also, loving your Tellus, Raz, you give him a sweet character and make him really effective. Hopefully Drura will find something she can use, she's hella versatile so my fingers are crossed. Nice little comment about Tasmia revering ancestors so not wanting to actually fight the swarm. Love Ayla being all blase about Lydda ripping down a cliff wall "Nah, that's just Shady and Night Girl showing off" indeed! Marta's shock at men doing things was great - it's not like they were doing housework or anything too surprising though

I'm out of time. This is a long post Raz, with lots of yummy details and descriptions so I didn't want to rush it. I've got a long day at work tomorrow so it'll probably be Friday before I get this finished.

I'm looking forward to more, more, more

Finally got time to review the rest of your post Raz, yay!

The image of the Hatchery with e men protecting the larvae in the green bio-luminescence is really striking! I pictured it in my mind and thought "whoah! That would look great on a screen!" Strut's ongoing battle of wills with the females Matodeans is well presented, their society says he's an outsider so Legionnaire or not that's how he'll be treated. Still, you write him like a champ! CK calling him John! Ha, still laughing at the UP name Strut was given. Oh wow, Bobb might be a jerk but I don't think he deserved to be disemboweled! Tel crushing the tunnel was nice, though not as cool as moving Bobbs blood through his system - that is a great application of his powers. Strus fighting Felisz was well done, his confidence in the face of the far more massive - and culturally superior warrior woman played well. Nice to that she saw sense in what Strut was asking. "Well, at least I got you using my preferred name after all of that." Haha love Strut's attitude. Tel making it all about him, yup, that's Tel we all know and ummm tolerate And Strut putting him right was well done.

And I assume the Doomswarm are taken care of, as we're back with the Lallorian contingent. Evolvo's thoughts on Key Kids situation and acknowledging that Miqui won't know that a couple of his former teammates are still alive. Interesting that Sev's 'normal' form doesn't know what his other aspects will o in any given situation - this is a great though frightening prospect! Jrey pointing out the source of Miqui's issues being his distrust and trauma stem from being lied to for so long was interesting, and that having a Durlan therapist to talk to might npt help the situation leads us to... a cliffhanger! A wonderful cliffhanger! Does this mean we'll go looking for the Lallorian's true families? It'll probably mean the Dominion will pop up again (I do love those creepy Disc-heads!)? Whatever you have planned, I'm along for the ride as I do love the character work you do, it's always well thought out and interesting.

And that's the end! I'm disappointed as I was really enjoying it there. Ah well, guess that means we need more, more, more

Thanks for the R&R Harbi, sorry I haven't had a chance to reply sooner!

Garak's mystery will unfurl a bit over the next few story chapters!

I can see how the Doomswarm sounds like an army of Doombots...let's hope Latverian copyright laws don't extend into the future of other multiverses (although, knowing Dr Doom I wouldn't be surprised...)

Key Kid's story will get wrapped up sooner rather than later, and in a way which I think will be unexpected!

While I don't have anything concrete planned to explore Evolvo Lad's power at the moment, I do have some weird ideas for that guy! But yeah, one of the peculiarities of his power as I see it is that his two other forms are so far away from his base form in terms of psychological development that while they all share essentially the same motivations and ideals, they might express that in different and not necessarily predictable ways.

Tel's going to become a bit more tolerable moving forward now, I have been looking forward to writing that convo between him and Strut so we can go somewhere with Gravity Kid that isn't just him throwing tantrums and sniping at people all the time.

Next up though: one of our other Legionnaires will be having a bit of a breakthrough with their own psycho-drama! Plus Sun Boy and Sizzle's date night! (and there's a surprise Levitz bad guy in there somewhere too)

re Evolvo Lad, your take on him is brilliant AND canonical - at least, in the Reboot, we had several instances of evolved Evolvo warning the Legion that his un-evolved form could be unpredictable; and of "present day" Evolvo crying in angst over the uncontrollable actions of his evolved form!

ooh, more psycho-drama. which one, Laurel?

EARTH
Montauk Point, Old Legion Academy

ROLL CALL
Evolvo Lad aka Sev Tcheru: Legion of Superheroes member; hyperevolution/devolution

Key Kid aka Miqui Ver: Legion Academy student; ability to bypass any man-made lock or barrier

Bouncing Boy aka Charles Foster Taine: Cavalry member; super-bouncing
Rainbow Girl aka Dori Aandraison: Cavalry member; rainbow powers

Inside an oddly shaped towering structure that had seen more activity in the past two weeks than it had for a long time, Bouncing Boy and Rainbow Girl chatted idly while they waited for their visitors to arrive.

"Do you miss it, Chuck?" Dori Aandraison asked as she sipped at a dark green juice. "Teaching at the Academy, I mean?"

"Honestly, sometimes I do!" Bouncing Boy took a bite of his plurberry muffin and wiped crumbs from his uniform. "There's never a dull day with those kids, and it's very rewarding helping them be the best they can be...but I'm enjoying working with the Cavalry too; it's kind of like having the best of both worlds, I get to have superhero adventures without all the high stakes the Legion get caught up in so often these days!"

Behind a plexiglass panel that stretched from floor to ceiling, giant flat tiles on the floor and ceiling suddenly hummed with power and the air between them shimmered until two figures began to form.

"This will be our guests then!" Bouncing Boy deposited the rest of his muffin into the paper bag it had come in and scrunched the opening down to close off the bag. Rainbow Girl took one last slurp of her juice, and casually dumped the cup in a nearby recycling unit. Before the two of them, Evolvo Lad and Key Kid solidified into view over the space of a couple of seconds.

"Wow!" Key Kid enthused once they'd fully solidified. "I can't believe we just teleported here from Mars! That must be like....a bazillion miles!"

"Roughly 44 million right now if I'm not mistaken!" Evolvo Lad replied, standing there in his default form. "I bet hyperevolved me could tell you right down to the nanometre, but an educated guess is good enough for me!"

The plexiglass panel slid away into a wall recess, and Sev offered his hand to both Chuck and Dori. "Bouncing Boy, Rainbow Girl...I'm sure you've all met Miqui here before, but to make it official; Key Kid, meet Bouncing Boy and Rainbow Girl from the Cavalry!"

"I can't believe you've invented a functional teleporter, Evolvo Lad!" Bouncing Boy beamed. "This is gonna be a real game changer for the Academy!"

"The Academy's just the start," Sev replied. "The first step is connecting the Arqiia Campus on Mars with Montauk Point here as well as the Legion's base...but now I've achieved that much, I foresee that the Legion will be getting a lot of use out of these transmat pads! I'm not here to bore you with all the details though...thanks for coming to meet us, and for agreeing to let Key Kid work with the Cavalry over the next week!"

"Why did you connect a teleporter up between Mars and here, Evolvo Lad?" Key Kid screwed his nose up curiously. "Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad told us all how the Academy used to be based here, but they haven't used this campus since way before I joined the Academy!"

"That's something I suggest you speak to your teachers about," Evolvo Lad evaded the question slyly. "Right now though, isn't there something you want to say to Bouncing Boy and Rainbow Girl?"

"Oh! Right!" Miqui blushed almost as red as his hair. "Thanks for giving me this opportunity, Bouncing Boy...and Rainbow Girl! I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Cavalry operate, and meeting the rest of your team properly!"

Rainbow Girl's heart warmed towards the polite Lalloran teenager instantly. Evolvo Lad had explained to her team how Key Kid was having some trouble working alongside a new Dominator student in the Academy, and how the Legion's counsellor had recommended that it might be beneficial for Key Kid to work alongside the Cavalry on some of their more humanitarian work with alien refugees on Earth. Dori couldn't imagine that this cheerful young man could have a problematic bone in his body though, and she suspected this week would be a breeze. "Miqui, are you hungry?" Dori took him by the shoulder. "There's not much in the way of lunch options around here I'm afraid, but you can have your choice of cuisines once we get back to Metropolis! Our treat!"

"Oh wow, thanks Rainbow Girl!"

"Care to join us, Evolvo Lad?" Bouncing Boy asked.

"Thanks, but I think my more uhh...cerebral self...should really run some diagnostics on the transmat pad. A bootleg Brainiac 5's work is never done."

"Fair enough," Chuck nodded. "We'll get Key Kid here fed and settled in then."

Bouncing Boy, Rainbow Girl and Key Kid left, and Evolvo Lad spent the rest of the day contentedly taking apart the transmat pad and putting it back together again.

**********

EARTH
Iceland, Earthbar

ROLL CALL
Sizzle aka Teela Spuunvll: energy conversion
Sun Boy aka Dirk Morgna: heat and light generation

The exclusive glass-domed restaurant and cocktail venue named Earthbar was situated on Diamond Beach, a stretch of black sand which got its name from the many washed up chunks of ice that glittered in the moonlight. Between climate mismanagement and global wars, Iceland had been a bleak and almost lifeless wasteland for the longest time...concerted efforts over the past three centuries to reverse this sad tale had reaped positive effects though, and while Iceland's unique culture was unfortunately more or less a thing of the past the country itself was a blend of starkly beautiful volcanic features and clear blue fjords. Technology had even restored some semblance of the glaciers that Iceland had once been famous for, though nobody alive today knew how poorly they compared to their epic predecessors.

Patrons generally came to Earthbar because it was widely recognised as one of the best places to view the aurora borealis; the bar and restaurant areas were dimly lit to create an intimate setting, but in addition to that the glass dome which enclosed the venue was polarised in such a way that it filtered out all light pollution from the venue and other nearby resorts, restaurants and nightclubs. The effect when looking straight up was like being out in the open air, and with a subtle somnilectronica sountrack streamed through the venue to enhance the experience the aurora was truly breathtaking.

Dirk Morgna and Teela Spuunvll were not here for lights in the sky however...their interests this evening were far more earthbound.

"I gotta say," the red-skinned heroine also known as Sizzle sipped at her sparkling wine, "I wasn't expecting somewhere like here when I told you to take me on a date! The Dirk Morgna I've heard about spends more time getting involved in hyperceleb scandals in Metropolis nightclubs than...well, this." While she didn't seem self-conscious about it at all, her skimpy velvet tube top and miniskirt combined with flashy flamedrop jewellery from her homeworld made her very much an outsider among this conservative gathering of much richer sentients.

Sun Boy himself was wearing a garnet colored suit with a shawl lapel embroidered in gold patterning, and matching tie and accessories. "Oh, I'm a multi-layered man," he retorted with a mischievous glint in his eye. "Of course, if you want to leave this place and get straight down to some of the underlayers..."

Sizzle threw her head back with an oddly endearing snort of laughter. "Calm down, Romeo," she teased Dirk. "Plenty of time for all of that, a girl from Abaddonus doesn't get a chance to live the high life very often! What did you say this was again, anyway?" She stabbed at a petite chunk of something fatty and covered in seeds which had been artfully placed on green leaves swimming in a kind of thin broth.

"Foie gras," Sun Boy answered, taking a sip from his own drink. "Labmeat of course," he quickly amended. "Tastes absolutely sublime, but you don't wanna know how they used to make this stuff." He shuddered at the thought of it and then changed the subject to something more pleasant. "So, speaking of Abaddonus....and your background generally..."

"...You wanna know why I talk like a crazy person half the time," Sizzle guessed sardonically. She placed the tiniest sliver of the creamy first course on her tongue and moaned embarassingly loudly as the silky texture and rich buttery flavour contrasted with the peppery crunch of the mustard seeds for a sensory explosion in her mouth. Both she and Dirk giggled behind their hands at the attention Teela had inadvertantly called to herself, and she savoured the food for another second before swallowing and clearing her throat. "Sublime isn't the word," she continued, "That was sprockin' amazing!"

She gave herself another moment to collect her thoughts. "Okay, so...where do we start? You know how different cultures have different philosophical or religious explanations for what happens to our consciousness post-death?" Sun Boy gave a murmur of confirmation while he ate his own food, and Sizzle continued. "On my world...we believe that every plane of reality is normally linked in like a...metaphysical sense I guess? I'm not a monk or anything, I dunno how to explain it properly. Anyway, there's this thing called the Azmenith; the reincarnation ladder of the multiverse. When your life ends on one dimensional plane, you get reincarnated in a different one to ideally evolve as a person, ascend closer to the Source."

"That sounds similar to Buddhism," Dirk reasoned. "One of the old Earth religions. So, you're like...multiversal buddhists?"

"Not anymore." Teela diverged from her story for a moment to eat another mouthful of the foie gras. "A long long time ago....back when Abaddonus was still a world full of individual nationstates...a demon named Asmothe rose from the underworld to challenge the creator of our universe for control. Asmothe won that battle, but the cost of that cosmic struggle was that our plane of reality has been permanently shut off from the Azmenith."

"You said the same thing when the Legion were called in to fight Garak of the Glow," Sun Boy pondered, "But honestly, all this pseudo-mystic stuff loses me pretty quickly. What does that actually mean back on Abaddonus, to be cut off from this reincarnation ladder thing?"

"Not just Abaddonus, Sun Boy. All life in our dimensional plane. Once upon a time, we knew that death was not the end, that we'd get to live another life in another place that might be similar or different to this place, but it was always another chance to grow. And now...now there's nothing. We just die."

A moment of awkward silence passed between the two of them before Dirk spoke up again. "I guess...and don't take this the wrong way, but...so what? I mean barely anybody in the UP believes in these old myths anymore, I certainly don't. You don't...you don't really believe all this cosmic battle stuff, do you?"

Sizzle laughed out loud again. "Sun Boy, almost the second I got my Legion flight ring fitted we teamed up with heroes from Earth's ancient past to stop a time witch from using a magic tree to rule over a thousand years of history. How is my thing any weirder than that?"

He had to admit that Teela had a point, and Dirk Morgna chuckled. "Okay, okay...I guess what I meant was...your people have held these beliefs for thousands of years, right? At this point, does it really impact the way you live your life?"

"I know it's difficult for a lot of other UP worlds to understand," Teela pre-empted, "But really it's more of a cultural thing than anything else nowadays. When my people learned that there was nothing waiting for us when we die, no judgement for the kind of lives we'd lived...well, a society tends to lose its moral code when there are no consequences for breaking it. Abaddonus suffered a dark age that lasted centuries; it was pretty much survival of the fittest, people let their worst instincts guide their behaviour. But the thing with that is...it's not really sustainable. Eventually, my stupid ancestors finally drummed it into their heads that even if there's no second chance waiting for us after we die, we still need to live this life. It's hard to do that if you don't try to reach some kind of mutual ceasefire with the people you have to interact with daily. Our progress has probably been a lot slower than the nice shiny worlds you're used to, but at least we function well enough now to have earned a place in the United Planets.

It leaves a mark though, you know? When I first left Abaddonus, I joined the Legion of Substitute Villains for the fun of it; it didn't even occur to me that being a "villain" was really a bad thing that other people might take seriously. Then I got sent to Takron-Galtos, and when I saw what real villains are like and realised how I could have really hurt people...I knew I didn't want to be that person. If this is the only existence that any of us are ever gonna have, then I don't want to make it worse for anyone else than it needs to be. So I cut my sentence short by joining the Workforce, and then with that experience behind me, I tried out for the Legion of Superheroes...and here we are!"

Sun Boy regarded Sizzle's story for a moment while he finished off his foie gras. He barely knew this girl, but she was completely comfortable and completely unapologetic in describing to Dirk Morgna the parts of herself that he would have elected to keep hidden if things had been reversed. On top of that, she wasn't remotely intimidated or starstruck by him. She was not like most potential partners that Dirk had ever encountered, and he was very interested in seeing where that might lead.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Dirk Morgna's omnicom vibrated within his coat pocket to indicate that someone was trying to call him. He was too shocked to respond for a moment; it was standard practice for Dirk to place his omnicom on sleep mode whenever he was on a date, and very few people had an exception to that status. He knew that it couldn't be any Legionnaire as they would surely have used his flight ring to reach out. Dirk Morgna pulled the omnicom out of its pocket and mouthed Sorry, one nano! at his date. Then he accepted the call and mouthed one word in greeting.

"...Dad..?"

**********

EARTH
Metropolis, Dirk Industries' Flagship Office

ROLL CALL
Shrinking Violet aka Salu Digby: shrinking
Supergirl II aka Laurel Kent: invulnerability
Transposition Lad aka Kappa Snarrk: teleportational transposition

With the Cavalry occupied at the Refugee Orientation Camp in Oceania, the Science Police had to call in the Legion of Superheroes for assistance when a powerful new supervillain named Sun Killer took over the towering Morgna Industries megascraper in the centre of Metropolis. The rest of the building was in the process of being evacuated, but Sun Killer held one of Earth's most influential businessmen hostage in his penthouse office high above the city. Sun Killer's hostage was none other than Derek Morgna; a man of some power throughout the Sol system, if not so much beyond that. Derek Morgna was far more famous throughout the UP however for having sired the popular Legionnaire Sun Boy.

Behind a privacy barrier, the trio of gathered Legionnaires heard from the SP droid in charge that the evacuation should be complete in another ten standard minutes.

"It's lucky that the three of us happened to be planetside," Shrinking Violet spoke to her teammates. "Obviously we can't take any action until there's no danger of innocents being hurt, but let's hope we can handle this idiot before Sun Boy finds out."

"Do you...do you think Dirk might come here as well, Violet?" Supergirl asked with uncommon timidity.

"A maniac could burn his father alive at any minute," Vi responded flatly. "Trust me, Sun Boy will hear about it, and he'll be here as soon as he hears...and there'll be a lot less property damage if we can save Mr Morgna before an angry Sun Boy gets here."

"Shrinking Violet and I were assisting the Antarctica Nature Reserve with some sabotaged barriers when we got the call," Transposition Lad explained. "What brings you to Earth, Supergirl?"

"I was visiting my dad and his family," Laurel Kent replied a little curtly. She was trying her best to hide the quiver in her voice, and Violet was almost completely sure that Transposition Lad hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary about Laurel at all. Shrinking Violet had been acquainted with Laurel Kent for a lot longer though, and more importantly Vi had been right there when Laurel had undergone the most violent trauma in her young life. Mordru the Merciless had turned Sun Boy's power against Laurel and hurt her both physically and psychologically; Laurel had only recently returned to active duty as a Legionnaire, and Vi wasn't at all certain that the young woman was ready to work alongside Sun Boy again just yet.

Unfortunately, she might not have a choice.

"Okay, let's try and get the lay of the land," Vi took charge. "T-Lad, Supergirl, meet me on the roof. I'm going to do a recon of the penthouse and we can plan from there."

"You're going to head in there on your own??" Transposition Lad was agape. "Against a guy called Sun Killer??"

"I'm not going to fight him, T-Lad." Violet used her power as she spoke, hovering between the tall green hero's eyes at barely an inch tall. "I'm going in as an Espionage Squad member. He won't even know I'm there, and he's not going to cause enough collateral damage to put me in any danger while he needs to keep Sun Boy's father alive as a hostage. You two just try to stay out of the spotlight if you can...he probably knows there are Legionnaires here by now, but he doesn't need to know which Legionnaires are here."

"Easy for her to say," Supergirl grumbled as she watched the tiny Imskian fly away, "I'm wearing a bright red poncho and you're an eight foot tall green guy, neither of us are particularly stealthy."

"Oh, I'm not even seven feet tall actually--" Kappa Snarrk began to correct the girl of steel.

"Follow me," Laurel cut him off without thinking. "Let's see if I managed to retain anything Duo Damsel tried to teach me back when I was a pain in the nass Academy kid." She darted into the air as as naturally as if flight were her natural power, and took Transposition Lad on a dizzying journey beneath pedestrian walkways and between flying cars. Not only had Laurel grown up in Metropolis and knew the city like the back of her hand, a lifetime of being invulnerable meant that aside from her current psychological issues involving Sun Boy, she just didn't have a self-preservation instinct like nearly anybody else alive.

Transposition Lad certainly didn't know Metropolis like the back of his hand and while he did love adventure, his self-preservation instinct was very much intact...by the time the unlikely duo had evaded enough accidents and pulled enough tight turns to end up above Derek Morgna's business headquarters, Kappa Snarrk breathed a nervous puff of air and was thankful to still be in one piece. "Couldn't we...couldn't we have just flown straight up here..?" he asked as he removed his gold helmet and wiped sweat from his forehead.

"We could have, but they would have seen it," Laurel pointed at the many holocam units floating below them, "And then we'd be on every channel in the UP. If I was holding a Legionnaire's dad hostage, I'd probably want to keep one eye on the media."

"Okay, so what do we do now..?" Transposition Lad shrugged.

"Now, we wait." Laurel sat cross-legged in the shade cast by one of the giant ventilation ducts up here on the roof. Transposition Lad didn't sit, but instead paced back and forth nervously. "I'm guessing you're worried about Violet," Laurel spoke up, "But don't be. She may not have the most devastating power in the Legion, but she knows what she's doing, T-Lad."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence!" Shrinking Violet grew to full size before the other two, startling them briefly. "And Transposition Lad, thanks for the concern but save that for our hostages."

"Hostages?" Supergirl picked up on Vi's use of the plural. "It's not just Dirk's dad in there?"

"His secretary didn't make it out in time, the poor woman's hiding terrified under a desk." Vi explained. "Luckily she and Mr Morgna are the only two in the entire top half of the building if their security program's correct, and Sun Killer doesn't realise she's still there at all. Her name is Donnea and the second she stands up Sun Killer will see her immediately. T-Lad, we're gonna need to time this perfectly -- oh, sprock."

Transposition Lad started to question Vi, but before he could get the first word out he and Laurel both saw what had attracted the shorter heroine's attention. A fire trail was blazing across the city toward them; they all instantly realised this must be Sun Boy, and as he came closer they could see Sizzle close behind. Without another word, Shrinking Violet darted off to intercept Dirk and Teela.

"Should we--?" Transposition Lad deferred to Supergirl.

"Let's...let's just wait here," Laurel replied shakily, fixated on the flaming sheath around Sun Boy. "Violet will let us know if she needs us."

Shrinking Violet flew at full size toward her approaching teammates. "Dirk--"

"Where is he, Violet? Where's the bastard holding my dad?!" Sun Boy stopped before her, his fists tensed angrily.

"He's in the penthouse, but Dirk -- Dirk --damn it!" Ignoring her, Sun Boy roared straight past.

Sun Boy suddenly felt a tight grip around his calf and looked back to see Sizzle's right arm latched on to him while her left arm expelled the flame she was absorbing as an intense light burst up and over the city. "Sun Boy -- Dirk -- I get that you're mad, but we need a plan. I remember hearing about this Sun Killer guy on Takron-Galtos, the name isn't an exaggeration. He's already committed genocide, he's not gonna hesitate to kill your father or anyone else if it'll get him what he wants."

"Thanks, Sizzle." Violet overtook Sun Boy once again so she could look him in the eye. "Dirk, listen...we'll get your dad out of there, but there's an innocent woman in there with them as well. We need to make sure they both get out of that building in one piece."

For a moment, Sun Boy bore a furious frown and the two women were worried that he would shake Sizzle free and just keep charging in...then, Dirk Morgna took a deep breath and exhaled as he allowed the flames to flicker into non-existence around him. "Okay...okay, you're right. You're both right. So what does this guy want anyway? Credits? The galaxy is full of rich sentients that aren't related to Legionnaires, why wouldn't he go after one of them? Is he trying to start a fight with us?"

"He doesn't want creds, Dirk." Violet placed a hand on his shoulder, long years of working alongside Sun Boy having taught her that he would already be at a safe temperature again. "I heard him ranting at your father while I was in there...he wants you."

"Me?? I've never even heard of the guy!" Sun Boy was taken aback, and then for the first time he noticed who else was here with Violet. "Hey, is that Laurel..and Transposition Lad?"

"Yes, the three of us were the closest Legionnaires on hand," Violet explained.

"Well then..." Sun Boy's attractive features tightened as he hatched a plan. "...Let's give this Sun Killer squaj what he wants."

**********

Inside what remained of Derek Morgna's penthouse office, the massively built villain named Sun Killer diverted his attention from Sun Boy's father for a moment so that he could watch the gathering of Legionnaires on a flickering holo-emitter that media holocams had now picked up on just outside the building. "Your torment will be over soon, Morgna," Sun Killer's deep voice intoned. "My true prey has arrived and I need not waste my time with you for too much longer."

"My son's no fool," Derek Morgna growled, feeling unusually impotent as he gripped the armrests of his hoverchair hard enough to turn his knuckles white. "You'll regret this, Sun Killer."

Derek Morgna hoped that, for once, Dirk would exceed his expectations. Dirk should have led an easy enough life following his father's footsteps to eventually take control of the family business while Derek Morgna retired to a small pleasure planet this side of the asteroid belt. Dirk had let that moron Regulus outsmart him though, and even when against all odds that resulted in him gaining powers that anyone on the planet would envy, Dirk had continued to do the bare minimum to take advantage of his good fortune.

As Sun Boy, Dirk Morgna should have been one of the core members of the Legion of Superheroes, someone who immediately leaped to mind when the average sentient thought of the greatest hero in the galaxy; instead, his greatest claim to fame as a Legionnaire was going space crazy one time when given even the taste of leadership, and keeping who knew how many gossip rags in business with an embarassingly long string of affairs with starlets and superhero wannabes.

"I doubt I will regret a thing," Sun Killer turned back toward his hostage. "Not once -- eh?"

A small plink chimed in the air between them and suddenly the elder Morgna had vanished entirely, his son sitting in the chair in his place.

"Surprise!" Sun Boy taunted, leaping to his feet. "You wanted me, you got me, fatso!" Sun Boy extended a palm and flared a stream of open flame into Sun Killer's face.

Sun Killer wasn't even fazed. "This is exactly the outcome I wanted," he addressed Dirk calmly. "I do not know why you thought this might be clever, Sun Boy." One massive arm swung outwards, and slapped Sun Boy into the nearest wall.

A little dazed, Sun Boy rose clumsily to his feet. Stealing a quick glance outside, Dirk could see that Transposition Lad was already handing his father over to the Science Police droid they'd called to help. Sun Killer had appeared morbidly obese from outside the building, but now that they were face to face Sun Boy could see that he was built like one of the legendary sumo wrestlers of ancient Japan...wearing only a metallic harness, gauntlets and boots it was clear that Sun Killer's massive frame concealed powerful muscle. More concerning, his glowing golden bodysuit wasn't a bodysuit; his very flesh was incandescent with solar energies. if Sun Boy was going to defeat this villain, he doubted it would be by virtue of his power.

"Lucky the Legion teaches us how to fight hand to hand as much as with our powers," Sun Boy grimaced, slamming a fist straight into Sun Killer's nose. The villain staggered back a step, but it was much less of a reaction than Dirk had hoped for. Sun Boy cupped his hand to his mouth and shouted out to the rest of the floor. "Donnea! Stand up and we'll get you out of here!!"

Sun Boy only barely heard the distinctive plink of Transposition Lad's power sound once more, but behind Sun Killer and outside the floor to ceiling windows he saw his father's secretary replace Shrinking Violet in mid-air, where Transposition Lad quickly grabbed the flailing woman. Unseen by Sun Boy in the space where a frightened Donnea had stood a second ago, a full sized Shrinking Violet reduced herself down to a couple of centimetres tall and fled the scene before Sun Killer could target her. Vi realised as she was flying off that she might as well not have bothered shrinking; Sun Killer seemed completely preoccupied with Sun Boy, and Vi hoped that Dirk hadn't bitten off more than he could chew by electing to face the villain one on one like this.

"You show evidence of some training in hand to hand fighting," Sun Killer sneered as he blocked Sun Boy's next strike with a beefy forearm, "But do not flatter yourself to think you are particularly skilled at it, Dirk Morgna." He shoulder-barged Sun Boy into the same wall and heard a satisfying crack as Dirk collapsed again to the ground.

Dirk flushed with anger. Sun Killer was right, Sun Boy had always given the bare minimum of his attention to the Legion's various combat programs as he'd always relied on his powers to keep him safe. Here now, fighting alone against a maniac with the same powers as him, physical prowess was all he had...it rankled him greatly that this fat creep was obviously far superior to Dirk in that regard. As soon as the room stopped spinning--

"Hey! Nasshead!" Sun Boy recognised the voice instantly, though from the expression on Sun Killer's face it seemed Dirk was the only one who did. The supervillain turned to see Sizzle standing defiantly before one of the shattered floor to ceiling windows, her fists clenched at her side. "You're a big shot against someone with the same powers as you, why don't you try a different Legionnaire?"

"I don't know who you are," Sun Killer retorted. "And I do not particularly care. If you are so desperate to die for this man, who am I to deny your wish?" He extended one arm toward Sizzle and blasted a stream of flame straight at her. He'd played right into Sizzle's hands, and she gave a wicked smile as she absorbed the attack and sent it back at Sun Killer as a beam of sickly green radiation. Sun Killer roared in pain as he fell to one knee, then with a look of pure rage he stretched both arms out toward Sizzle and blasted a wall of fire that encompassed not only Sizzle, but the floor and ceiling around her. She could convert any heat or fire that hit her directly, but there was nothing she could do to stop the floor beneath her feet from being vaporised instantly or the already damaged ceiling from collapsing on top of her. Her surprised yelp was cut short by flaming debris sending her hurtling down through the levels below.

Adrenalin fuelled by his rage gave Sun Boy the energy he needed to leap back into action and he threw himself at Sun Killer's back, wrapping one arm around the enormous warrior's well padded throat. He held the armlock in place with his free arm and snarled into Sun Killer's ear. "You better hope that girl's okay or else I'll--"

"You will do what exactly?" Sun Killer choked out the words as he stood, carrying Dirk's weight along with his own. "That slip of a girl is the only one who's caused me any trouble at all today, Sun Boy...and I killed her as easily as I will kill you." He lunged backwards with unexpected dexterity, and this time the wall behind them gave way as he shoved Sun Boy through it before deliberately falling backwards to crush Dirk to the floor.

Stars danced before Sun Boy's eyes, and he remained conscious only through sheer stubborn-mindedness. He was certain he'd seen Sun Killer's luminescence fade a little after he'd attacked Sizzle though, and the villain was definitely taking his time to climb off of Sun Boy and turn around to face him. "...Why...why are you after me anyway..?" Dirk asked Sun Killer in a pained mumble, more in an attempt to distract himself from his probably broken ribs than anything else. "...Never even heard of you before today..."

"If you have never heard of me then you no doubt are unaware of my origins," Sun Killer answered. "I extinguished the light of the world Orivan, Sun Boy; that is how I earned my powers. But to destroy a celestial body like that...such a task took many hours. It occurred to me that I could replenish my energies so much faster if I took the same power from a much smaller target. I will recharge my might from you, Dirk Morgna. Perhaps you will die in the process, perhaps you will just become a normal human once more. It matters not to me, though you may seek some solace knowing that your power goes to one who deserves it so much more than you."

Sun Killer kneeled on Sun Boy's stomach, winding him again before he was fully recovered from the villain's last attack. He wrapped two meaty paws around Sun Boy's neck, and as he began to squeeze, Sun Boy noticed for the first time that Sun Killer had something resembling a small sun inset into his forehead. As shadows danced around Dirk Morgna's peripheral vision, it seemed to the hero that Sun Killer's star was somehow growing brighter...

**********

Outside the office building, a tiny Shrinking Violet had used Supergirl's invulnerable body as a barrier against the intensely hot flame that Sun Killer blasted out toward them both. Transposition Lad fortunately had left the women behind to take Derek Morgna's secretary to a safe distance, but it meant that Vi and Laurel were Sun Boy's only hope now.

Vi hovered by Supergirl's ear, small enough that Laurel Kent's holographic earring was almost as big as the Imskian heroine herself. "Laurel, the whole penthouse level has gone up in flames...you need to get in there and help Sun Boy!"

The flames reflected brightly in Laurel Kent's widened eyes. "Do you think...do you think Sizzle's okay..?" Laurel asked timidly, unable to tear her eyes away from the blazing fire.

"I can check on her," Vi answered, "But Laurel, you're the only one who can help Dirk now! Get in there!"

"But...but the fire...he's stealing Sun Boy's power..." Laurel intoned weakly. "Violet, he could..he could hurt me just like Dirk hurt me..." The teen girl's eyes were beginning to well with tears as she stared in open fear.

Violet grew to a height of about eight inches tall and zipped around to face Supergirl. "Laurel, not to be uncaring but...I don't care. That fat bastich is in there killing Sun Boy as far as we know, and you're the only person who can stop him. Now get in there and stop him!"

"I--I can't--" Laurel trembled helplessly.

"Oh, for..." Vi rolled her eyes. "So you're scared...so you were hurt...Laurel, when Sun Boy's power burned you, you experienced something that every other Legionnaire has experienced; a taste of your mortality. It's awful and it's frightening and we all deal with that fear every sprocking day of our lives. But we get on with the job because we're Legionnaires. Your power opened the door to the Legion of Superheroes, but it's not your power that made you a Legionnaire. Your bravery and your resourcefulness did that. It doesn't matter what Mordru did to you, he can't take that away. Now will you please get in there before that psychopath murders our friend?!"

Laurel Kent remained frozen in place for another moment, almost hypnotised by the flames...then she turned away from the scene with a choked sob.

In doing so however, the wind flicked her poncho up before her and she caught the corner of it in one hand. Laurel looked down at the legendary golden crest emblazoned upon her poncho and she remembered what she'd told Dirk Morgna all those months ago when she had first taken on the mantle of Supergirl...she'd told him that Kara Zor-El deserved more of a legacy than to be remembered for being brainwashed by Universo into becoming Satan Girl. What kind of legacy would the name of Supergirl have if Laurel ran now and left her friend to die?

Turning back around once more, Laurel took a deep breath and bit her lower lip. Before she could change her mind again, she held her outstretched fists before her and zoomed directly into the wall of red-orange flame where she homed in on Sun Killer's immense glowing body and hit him hard enough to knock him through three internal walls before he came to a slumping halt on the other side of the building.

Almost unconscious himself, Sun Boy lay pained on the floor and had a coughing fit before he realised he could still activate his transuit in time to prevent a very stupid demise thanks to smoke inhalation. Once his lungs were full of fresh air and he felt strong enough to move, he stood up with a pained cry and then began to fall right back down again.

Before he could actually collapse, he felt a girl's slender frame under his arm; Sun Boy turned to see Supergirl standing by his side, and offered her a weak smile. "Wow...if I'd known I just needed to get myself nearly killed to make us friends again...we coulda saved Jrey a lot of time in therapy," he muttered.

Laurel gave an appreciative laugh. "Come on Morgna...let's get you out of here and make sure your new girlfriend's in one piece before this whole building buries us all alive."

**********

MARS
Marsopolis, Science Police Impound Tesseract Sublevel 3

In a seemingly infinite series of corridors beneath the Martian Science Police's Global Headquarters, two Science Police officers stood at the open entrance of a particular tesseract.

"So tell me..." the Korugarian senior officer surveyed the empty tesseract container with arms folded across his barrel chest. "How exactly did some miscreant circumvent our many and varied security precautions to get in here, Wils? Benn Pares himself couldn't break in here and get out in one piece."

"Th-that's just it, Sir!" the clearly nervous young lieutenant stammered. "N-nobody broke in! The item just disappeared in a flash of light! It set off the alarm when it vanished, but there's no sign that anybody was actually present at the time it was teleported away!"

"...And what was stored in this tesseract exactly?" the elder Science Police officer consulted his omnicom. "Some of the galaxy's most dangerous tech is stored in this facility but according to this, there was just some kind of statue here..?"

"Not just any statue, Sir!" Lieutenant Wils gulped. "The petrified clone of Nyeun Chun Ti....he called himself the Emerald Emperor before he got turned to stone, and Sir? It was a g-green flash of light that teleported him out of here!"

"Well..." the Korugarian officer grunted simply.

"...Damn."


**********

The Emerald Emperor is someone who only appeared a few times in my series, and that was a verrrrry long time ago, but conveniently enough I have a write-up of him here if you'd like to familiarise yourselves with him a bit!

yay, more!

nice seeing (some of) the Cavalry again. pluberries, a nice touch!

a new invention from Evolvo Lad, amazing! this is gonna "level up" your team for sure! does it only work point-to-point? that is, they can only teleport to another porting unit? seems so, but still very useful!

Loving the solution - really love the idea of superheroes doing more humanitarian work!

ooh, sad fate for Iceland, but oh well. I can see the human race letting poor Iceland get to such a state

I love how Sizzle is both self-aware, and not really caring at how "raw" she is! Love it, love it!

also love how you've woven in Sizzle's world's beliefs, and her own journey, and her own self-awareness of that journey!

and indeed, how different she is from most of Dirk's dates... hah!

oh and Derek Morgna, interested to see where you take this!

ah and here we go right away! Sun Killer! did he appear in the comics?

ooh yeah, thanks for realistically portraying trauma. Poor Laurel... but good of her to be professional and focused enough to use her noodle in this situation!

good old Sizzle for talking sense into Dirk! (props to Vi for trying too)

oooph at Derek's thoughts about Dirk. bit of overbearing dad there, though also, not entirely unfair considering Dirk's playboy image


loving T-Lad's powers!! really useful for hostage situations!

nice save by Sizzle! although yikes...

nice pep talk by Vi - mix of tough love and encouragement! and good on Laurel for working through it!



the Emerald Emperor! wow!

nice installment, raz, some awesome developments too!

Thanks for the R&R, IB!

The whole Cavalry will be having a little adventure over the next few chapters so you will be seeing more of them!

Also, interesting that you picked up on the humanitarian angle as there is gonna be some big news on that front in the next chapter! And on a side note, Evolvo Lad's transmat technology will also be defined more

I am glad you liked Sizzle's little bit of character background...I honestly didn't really put much thought into her long-term use when I introduced her as a member of Bile's dopey Substitute Villains and just figured I would rehabilitate her at some stage, this seemed like a novel way to do it and add some world-building stuff as well.

Sun Killer did appear in the comics! He was in Saturn Queen's Legion of Supervillains during that whole weird thing with the cosmic blue baby (that I think was meant to be Krona? I don't really remember, that whole storyline was not great)...I always liked the idea that he got his name and powers by literally destroying a sun, but for some reason I seem to remember him being matched up against Timber Wolf in the comics which was an odd choice for a fire guy...this is him anyway:



I took my cues for Sun Boy's dad from that 5YL issue where the older version of Dirk was having flashbacks about his life; he didn't seem like father of the year...

re: the Emerald Emperor - he doesn't have a lot of appearances and I am gonna recap anything that needs to be known in-story anyway, but if you are interested then everything he's done so far can be seen in the War of the Fatal Fives storyline that I did on my livejournal before I started collecting all my fics together on this board!

https://postlo3w.livejournal.com/7170.html

thanks for the screenshots, links and background info raz! am totally checking them out

Hey Raz, finally got the time to write a review for you

Really like Chuck's thoughts on being part of the Cavalry - all the excitement without the high stakes, indeed. It's about time the Legion got themselves some teleportation technology so nice to see your Evolvo has been working on that. It's been said before but I need to say that your different forms for Evolvo having differing temperaments is such a good idea - it makes sense that as we evolve and become more cerebral we'll become less reactive, perhaps? Sending Key Kid on humanitarian missions is a really smart way for him to address his biases - nice idea! A bootleg Brainiac, haha.

Eartbar sounds cool, nice of Dirk to bring Teela somewhere so tasteful for their date - he's smooth, isn't he ".their interests this evening were far more earthbound." yeah, well, Dirk is involved... ahem... Foie gras, yes, let's not talk about how it's traditionally made please. Sizzle's peoples belief system is pretty cool - though like Dirk, I was wondering how that made them any different really from atheistic views - live, die, game over. How her planet's history fitted in with her own development ad character evolution was well done.

Vi, Laurel and Transposition Lad - well, two of them have a history of sorts with Dirk, so this is gonna get interesting... Sun Killer, he's pretty hardcore so it'll be cool to see how you use him! Nice to see Vi using her experience and sneaking in to scope out the situation, and of course Laurel's impatience wanting to get in there Laurel knowing her way around Metropolis is a nice little nod to her history - you also mentioned her visiting her father and his family (not hers or theirs, his)- are you lining up clues for a peek into her backstory? So, Sun Killer is after Dirk? He wants to change his name to Sun Boy Killer, haha. Though, nice that Sizzle stops Dirk before he just bursts in there. I really liked Derek Morgna's thoughts on his sons achievements, haha, nothing like an overbearing overachiever father! Replacing Morgna senior with junior, and the secretary with Vi were good moves. Dirk's over confidence has always been his fatal flaw and t's great that you're showing it come back to bite him. Go Sizzle! Yay... aw, may be not - hopefully she won't be too hurt in all that rubble. Things don't look great for Sun Boy!

Funny that for all of her front, Laurel is scared to go attempt to rescue Dirk - that's a little bit of unexpecte depth fot her. It must be a shocker if you're physically invulnerable suddenly getting hurt, so it makes sense that she is dealing with her fears afterwards. Vi is the perfect person to give her that well needed motivational boot up the backside too. Sweet that she remembers why she took the name Super Girl too, time to earn it eh? And when it comes to taking out sun killing villains, there's nothing quite like a flying invulnerable missile to knock him through a few walls - nicely written! This was a good first step on the way to getting Laurel back into a healthy mindset.

And the cliffhanger - the return of the Emerald Emperor? Wasn't he a clone from your War of the Fatal Fives storyline many years ago? Looking forward to seeing where you take this Raz!

Thanks for the R&R, Harbi!

I initially thought we were gonna get into Key Kid's time with the Cavalry in more detail next instalment but now that I am actually writing it, it might not pan out that way - either way those guys will be getting some focus shortly though!

Good pickup on how Laurel referred to her dad's family! It is part of my ongoing mission to try and have all different types of families represented among the Legion, I thought it might lead to some good backstory to have her folks separated and have their own separate familiies now

Also good memory with the Emerald Emperor! He was the Persuader's clone who somehow came across a second Emerald Eye a loooong time ago in my fic....he got turned to stone at the end of all that, and we'll find out what's happening with him before too much longer!

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES MOBILE BASE
Medlab

ROLL CALL
Crystal Kid aka Bobb Cohan: crystal construct creation
Gravity Kid aka Tel Vole: gravity manipulation

While Bobb Cohan slept peacefully, his biometric bed subtly monitored his vital signs. Thanks to quick action on the Legion's part, Bobb had survived the assault he'd suffered on Mantodea, but still and all he'd come very close to being eviscerated. Even 31st Century technology couldn't work miracles, it was going to take at least another two to three days before Crystal Kid would be ready for Legion duty again (unless Mwindaji returned earlier than expected from his current mission out in the depths of the Oort cloud).

Tel Vole sat on a seat nearby, feeling oddly foolish and nervous at the same time. Tel knew this was a cowardly way of dealing with the way he'd treated Bobb, but it was as close as he could come to a direct conversation with him right now. Jrey Lefen had suggested that it was a good idea for Tel to try and clear the air with Bobb when he was ready, and maybe this wasn't exactly what the Durlan counsellor had meant, but Tel supposed sardonically that any progress was better than no progress.

"Sooo...I just wanted to tell you that I've started regular therapy sessions with Jrey," Tel spoke quietly to his captive audience. "After what happened on Strut's homeworld...I don't know, I think Strut really made me look at some things I've been feeling...and some things I've been blaming you and other people for, when the whole time I felt like those things were really my fault, and..." He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "...This is why I couldn't do this when you're conscious. I screwed up, Bobb. I screwed up with Waiane, I screwed up with you, and....sprock, I can probably add Star Boy and Light Lad to that list the way I blew them off when they wouldn't rearrange their lives to suit my training schedule...the point is, I've been a real nasshead to a lot of people in my life, and...I'm trying to not be that. One day...soon hopefully...I hope I can have this conversation with you when you're awake, and I hope we can at least not feel like we have to stick daggers into one another whenever we have to be within ten feet of each other. Maybe someday we can even be friends..."

Tel trailed off, and lowered his head with the weight of bearing his soul like this even to someone who couldn't hear him. When Bobb stirred with a low moan, Tel's eyes widened in apprehension and he stood to leave.

"Gravity Kid?" the ever-present Dr Skorski called from the other side of the room where she'd been monitoring the medlab's other patients Sizzle and Sun Boy, "You don't need to leave if you'd prefer to stay with Crystal Kid...I'm certain it's doing him well to have a friend nearby even if he can't actually respond to you at the moment."

"Oh...thanks Doctor," Gravity Kid cast the Teallian medic his best smile, "But I've actually got a general team meeting in ten standard minutes, I'd hate to be late. I might be back later on though."

"Of course, Gravity Kid!" Dr Skorski's microship nodded in something approximating a polite gesture. "It's very nice of you to consider your friend's recovery like this!"

Gravity Kid walked out of the Medlab without a response, his thoughts his own...

**********

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES MOBILE BASE
Main meeting room

ROLL CALL
Blok: team leader; magically enhanced strength, invulnerability, speed, flight, stamina, wisdom and courage
Chameleon Boy aka Reep Daggle: Durlan shapeshifter
Chlorophyll Kid aka Ral Benem: chlorokinesis
Colossal Boy aka Gim Allon: growth powers
Diamond Damsel aka Iris Jacobs: living diamond
Element Lad aka Jan Arrah: elemental transmutation
Evolvo Lad aka Sev Tcheru: hyperevolution/devolution
Gas Girl aka Tal Nahii: can transform into any gas
Gravity Kid aka Tel Vole: gravity manipulation
Infectious Lass aka Drura Sehpt: disease transmission and immunity
Invisible Kid II aka Jacques Foccart: invisibility
Life Lass aka Somi Gan: matter animation
Light Lad aka Darvan Locke: gravity negation
Lightning Lass aka Ayla Ranzz: electricity generation and manipulation
Matter-Eater Lad aka Tenzil Kem: can eat inorganic matter in all its forms
Mon-El aka Lar Gand: Daxamite physiology
Night Girl aka Lydda Jath Krinn: photosensitive super-strength
Nightwind aka Berta Skye Haris: deputy leader, wind control
Phantom Girl aka Tinya Wazzo: leader; intangibility
Slug aka Kes Mtsto: inertron form and projectiles
Strut: electrochemical perceptions, insectoid physiology
Tellus aka Ganglios: telepathy and telekinesis
Timber Wolf aka Brin Londo: super-strength and super-agility
Truth Girl aka Oliv Hollowai: truth sense, wields the Golden Perfect
Ultra Boy aka Jo Nah: deputy leader; ultra-energy which can be directed into any one of strength, speed, flight, invulnerability, flash vision, penetra-vision at a time

Gravity Kid hadn't lied to Dr Skorski about the team meeting...as usual, he was one of the first to file into the Legion's enormous meeting room; very much not as usual, he sat himself in a far corner of the room as he was feeling particularly introspective after the time he'd spent with Crystal Kid.

When Strut came along to sit right beside him, Tel was initially disgruntled; he didn't particularly feel like being sociable right now, but it didn't take Gravity Kid long to realise Strut was actively distracting anyone else from interacting with Tel directly. Tel made a mental note to thank the insectoid Legionnaire later on...he supposed their shared time on Mantodea might have created a bond for Strut as well in the sense that it showed Strut that someone on the Legion could benefit from his fairly unique life experience.

By the time Blok called the meeting into order, it was apparent that nearly half the team were away on missions or leave; they had more than enough people present to form a quorum however and some of the absent Legionnaires had also called in to the meeting remotely, their holographic images floating down on the floor by the Legion's team leader.

After going through the regular agenda items and getting updates from those Legionnaires who were away on their own missions at the moment, Blok called Evolvo Lad down to the floor to face the team. As his teammates whispered and shared curious glances with one another, Blok addressed the room. "Legionnaires, I have some news for the team which is very welcome, and which I suspect will make some of you extremely happy. However, as this has been Evolvo Lad's brainchild, I think I will leave it to him to explain. Evolvo Lad?"

"Thank you, Blok." The version of Evolvo Lad which faced everyone now was his hyperevolved form, and his tone was calmly subdued as ever. "I recently approached Blok with an idea that I felt could enrich the Legion of Superheroes' activities, and with our leader's blessing I have devised transmat pad technology which will allow us instant teleportational access to the Legion Academy's Mars and Earth campuses. This will no doubt improve our ability to assist with the training of Academy students without placing those students at greater risk of danger by having them permanently within close proximity to the Legion."

"...Earth campus..." Nightwind thought out loud. "...Evolvo Lad, do you mean the old Montauk Point school? That hasn't been in use for ages now!"

"It will be in use again soon," Evolvo Lad replied. "It seems that my idea inspired Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl to consider its secondary applications. I am led to believe that the Legion Academy will soon be making use of both its Martian and Terran campuses, and I have now successfully proven that the transmat technology works perfectly between all three sites; this base, the Legion Academy's Arqiia campus, and the Academy's Montauk Point campus."

"Excuse Slug for asking," the Legion's gastropod member enquired, "But Slug remembers that there are...seven...Legion Academy students enrolled? Does the Legion Academy really need two campuses?"

"Actually, there are eight students enrolled in the Legion Academy currently," Evolvo Lad corrected Slug gently. "I am led to believe that head count may be increasing quite dramatically shortly, though perhaps I shall leave that particular piece of news for Blok to share as details become available. I suspect the reason that Blok asked me to take point on this particular item is because once we ascertained that my transmat technology has successfully linked us to both of the Legion Academy campuses, we realised there was no reason to stop there. With the valued assistance of our Business Manager M'Rissey, the Legion of Superheroes have brokered an agreement to have transmat pads installed in the global headquarters of the Science Police on every United Planets member world. We will still need to make use of this mobile base for more large scale operations, but with the ability to teleport smaller teams to a world as necessary, this should improve our efficiency as a peacekeeping force immensely!"

"Every world?" Chameleon Boy narrowed his gaze as he pondered the enormity of the task that Evolvo Lad had set himself. "But that will take..."

"--at least seven standard months of dedicated work," Evolvo Lad completed the calculation for him. "I think we will all agree that it is a task worth undertaking however. While my advanced intellect is necessary to install the telemat network, the idea is that any Legionnaire or any member of our support crew will be able to use and generally maintain the network. I hope to have the Sol system fully covered within the next three standard weeks."

"Hey, wait!" Colossal Boy's eyebrows rose with excitement. "Does this mean Yera and I will be able to just teleport to Earth..?"

"That is precisely what this will mean," Evolvo Lad gave Gim an almost imperceptible smile. "At some point in fact you will be able to teleport to either of your homeworlds, Colossal Boy. There are many members of this team who have personal or business ties outside of the Legion of Superheroes. While this technology only allows teleportation between two telecasting and telereceiving transmats, it is my hope that it will lessen the burden for those Legionnaires who have sacrificed their external ties to contine serving with the Legion of Superheroes aboard a vessel that is constantly in deep space."

Truth Girl stood up among the gathered heroes, consciously dampening down the excitement that was rising within her just in case she was to be disappointed. "Evolvo Lad..? I've got a girlfriend, Bobbi...anyway, she lives on Earth. Does this mean I can...I'll be able to visit her whenever I want?"

"Truth Girl, I am terribly sorry," Evolvo Lad began, and Truth Girl's heart sank. Her heart soared again with Evolvo Lad's next words. "I should have been more clear. With this technology, you may live on Earth if you wish. As long as you are available on board this craft when your Legion duties require, there is no reason for you to neglect your personal life outside of that."

Truth Girl covered her mouth with both hands so the rest of the Legion wouldn't hear a very undignified but gleeful squeal from the young woman who wielded the legendary lariat of Wonder Woman, and then Evolvo Lad spent a few more minutes fielding questions about the nature of the transmat technology and whether the Legion could consider an exception to build a transmat on Matter-Eater Lad's favourite palladium-rich asteroid (the answer being a polite but firm no).

Once all the technical questions were out of the way, Evolvo Lad deferred once more to Blok. The stone giant took the floor, watching with pleasure while some Legionnaires thanked Evolvo Lad and others patted him on the back or shook his hand on the way to his seat.

Waiting ever patiently until the room was once more paying attention to him, Blok continued. "Legion, there are two more major changes that this transmat technology has afforded us. Over the next few weeks, Ultra Boy and I will be working on a new shift roster; while all Legionnaires will obviously still be expected to make ourselves available for emergency situations, there will no longer be a need for all of us to be available on this base at all times. We aim to give every member of the team a reasonable amount of time away from the base to live and develop their lives outside the team as they desire." Some of the married Legionnaires gave obvious thought to this, and among everyone in general there were some elevated murmurs of interest.

"The second change that I wish to announce is the formation of what, for want of a better term, I am calling a Wellbeing Squad." This definitely caught everyone's attention, and all of the Legion stopped to listen expectantly. "As we are all well aware," Blok spoke, "We currently have an Espionage Squad which is permanently led by Chameleon Boy. While the Espionage Squad are expected to serve the team just as any other member is, they also have a certain remit and benefits particular to their specialised role in the Legion. The Wellbeing Squad will operate under a similar principle; its members will have a focus on humanitarian missions, search and rescue work, disaster avoidance and relief, essentially work that functions to better the wellbeing of the citizens and worlds of the United Planets, and which in many ways matters just as much if not more than fighting supervillains. Our recent expedition to Kurszge III is a perfect example of the type of missions that the Wellbeing Squad would seek out and manage."

"So who's gonna be on this squad, pebblehead?" Timber Wolf asked brusquely, though not without affection. "Some of us are actually more cut out for fighting supervillains than world peace."

"Relax, Brin," Phantom Girl teased lightly from where she sat next to Ultra Boy and Mon-El. "I don't think anybody's putting you in charge of out-thinking a volcano any time soon." A few giggles passed around the room.

"Actually, Timber Wolf poses a relevant question," Blok tactfully defended his friend. "This type of specialised work definitely requires Legionnaires with a certain mindset and likely appropriate abilities. I had considered a squad of four to six members, though as with the Espionage Squad any one of us may be called in for temporary assistance to the Wellbeing Squad as necessary. So...what do you think, Legionnaires? If anyone would be interested in such an undertaking, please volunteer now or privately after the meeting."

"Blok?" Element Lad stood from his seat. "I think this is a wonderful initiative and I'd love to be involved."

Emboldened, Light Lad also took to his feet. "Me too! I was a hospital orderly before I joined the Legion, I feel much more comfortable helping people than punching them. I mean...that's if it's okay with everyone..?"

"Don't be a dope, Darvan! Of course it's okay with everyone, we all know you're the perfect choice for something like this!" Lightning Lass poked Light Lad playfully in the ribs, and he slapped her hand away while trying to keep a straight face.

There was some furious whispering taking place between Gas Girl and Life Lass, before Ultra Boy sitting in front of them turned to face them with an amused smirk. "Something you girls wanna share with the rest of the class?"

"Life Lass is in!" Gas Girl shouted to the room.

"Tal!!" Life Lass hid her face behind her hands in horror. "What are you doing??"

"Somi Gan, don't you dare sit there and pretend like this isn't the most exciting thing you've heard since you joined the Legion!" Gas Girl chastised her. "You and I both know this is exactly the kind of work that fulfills you, and you're good at it! Sev, tell her!"

"Life Lass, I do believe that you would find much personal satisfaction in this role," Evolvo Lad responded gently. "And your power to animate matter certainly extends itself to the type of missions that Blok has described..."

"What about you, Sev?" Life Lass tried to turn everyone's attention back on Evolvo Lad. "You're so smart, you'd be great!"

"I possess an advanced intellect in this form, it is true," Evolvo Lad countered, "But I also have two other forms, and at least one of them is probably best kept away from high-stress environments where a sensitive touch is required."

"Life Lass?" This was Blok again. "For what it's worth, I also agree that you would be an excellent choice for the Wellbeing Squad...you present an approach that is rare among the more bombastic members of this team, but it is every bit as valid. However, if you're not interested or not comfortable committing to the role, we won't force you..."

Life Lass knew better than to turn to Evolvo Lad for emotional support when he was in this form...instead she looked back at Gas Girl, who clutched Life Lass's hand and gave her an encouraging smile. "Somi, honey," Gas Girl reassured her lifelong friend at a more intimate volume, "You can do this. Trust me."

Before she could give herself an excuse to back out, Life Lass swung around to face Blok. "Okay!" she almost squealed in delight. "I'm in!"

Gas Girl launched herself at Life Lass with a hug that nearly sent the two of them sprawling to the floor. "Ooh I'm so proud of you, Somi!"

"If I may make a suggestion, Blok?" Invisible Kid raised his hand politely. "I would like to nominate Mwindaji...with his tracking and healing abilities--"

"Oh! Thank you!" Appearing by hologram from a Legion cruiser billions of miles away, Mwindaji was still visibly taken aback. "I thank you for the consideration, Invisible Kid...and I hope not to appear ungracious, but...while I will happily pledge my abilities to the Legion of Superheroes in whatever capacity is required, I left my homeworld to pursue a life of adventure and exploration. I do not feel that this Wellbeing Squad would be a good fit for me. But again, thank you for thinking of me."

"Of course," Blok replied to the tracker from Kirinyaga. "As I advised Life Lass, nobody will be forced to participate in anything they are not comfortable with. Perhaps we will leave it there if there are no other volunteers. Element Lad, Light Lad, Life Lass; I thank you warmly for your support and I am certain I speak for all of us when I say I'm sure you will achieve great things. Perhaps--"

"Actually, Blok--?" This was Tellus's voice modulator, and it took the room by suprise. As much space as Tellus took up physically, the Hykraian hero was more often than not content to simply observe proceedings without comment in these meetings and it was easy to forget that he was even there a lot of the time. "Like Mwindaji, I too left my homeworld to explore the wider United Planets...however, as I consider this Wellbeing Squad more closely, I feel that it may actually be a good fit for me. I would like to become the squad's fourth member if there are no objections?"

"You will find no objections here, my friend." Blok turned once again to the room as a whole. "Would anybody else like to take this time to put themselves forward?" It became obvious soon enough that nobody else was going to speak up, and Blok adjourned the meeting with a promise to schedule a meeting with the Wellbeing Squad within the next couple of days to discuss logistical matters.

Before everyone could file out of the room, Light Lad rushed to gather Element Lad, Life Lass and Tellus together. "I just wanted to say...I am super excited about working on this with all of you!"

"That's sweet of you to say, thank you Light Lad." Life Lass gave Darvan a demure smile before turning her gaze toward the floor.

"Great Mother Ocean willing, the four of us will be able to help many sentients," Tellus added.

"Absolutely," Element Lad added. "I've got a really good feeling about this!" He held out his hand palm down, and Light Lad picked up on Jan's intention immediately and placed his own hand on top. Shyly, Life Lass followed suit and Tellus finally raised his own giant paw to touch Element Lad's palm at the bottom of the pile.

"Here's to the Wellbeing Squad!"

**********

CADMU
Alpha Precinct

ROLL CALL
Elastic Lad aka Jams-Ols 5: super-elongation

Enigma Lass aka Monn Petti: Legion Academy student; auto-resurrection
Variable Lad aka Oaa Tseldor: Legion Academy student; abilities change with each manifestation

Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad had happily allowed Variable Lad and Enigma Lass to take a couple days off school to attend Cadmu's Science Festival Launch Party. In fact, Lightning Lad had even more happily regaled the two students with a story about some mischief he and Sun Boy had gotten into with a synthetic group of villains called the Death Metal Men many many years ago when Saturn Girl had "dragged them along to some hypernerd thing" on the same planet. Saturn Girl had then icily reminded her husband that "the hypernerd thing" was the very same Science Festival that Variable Lad and Enigma Lass were attending, and then she wished Oaa and the newly named Monn a pleasant time before diplomatically ushering them out of the room to have some more choice words with her beloved life partner.

The Launch Party had exceeded Oaa and Monn's every expectation; there was plenty of spectacle and interactive entertainmment, and while Variable Lad didn't share Enigma Lass's high intellect, they both had a keen interest in the scientific achievements on show here both as part of the Science Festival and just generally as part of the world that was colloqially called the Science Planet. There were food and drinks that neither of the students had ever heard of, and all in all the two of them were having a wonderful time.

They'd just spent a few minutes trying out something called a Staycation Booth, a small enclosed pod which projected an omnisensory environment of its user's choice; its inventor explained that sentients could use the Staycation Booth to simulate a vacation to any world they wanted without ever leaving the comfort of their own home. Enigma Lass and Variable Lad had chosen the water world Vavalla, and after they both exited the Booth they eagerly shared details about the smell of salt water and the raucous cry of sea birds on the breeze.

As they were deciding their next move, they both felt a tap on their shoulders and their names were shouted in surprised exuberance. Cadmu was Elastic Lad's homeworld, and the rubbery Legionnaire had come back home to take part in the biggest celebration his world had to offer; he'd spotted Variable Lad and Enigma Lass in the crowd, and decided to say hello.

That was 47 standard minutes ago, but Elastic Lad's extended greeting had baffled the students into a state of utter confusion about 40 of those minutes ago. Oaa and Monn were both far too courteous to interrupt Jams-Ols 5's stream of consciousness monologue, and Enigma Lass was glad at least that her costume covered her face completely. Poor Variable Lad was stuck right now trying to appear thoroughly invested in Elastic Lad's theory about the rapid evolution of the Deinonychus species on the planet designated W-23, a subject nobody was really clear how they'd arrived at.

A subtle vibration alerted Enigma Lass that she had a message on her omnicom, and while part of her felt guilty, she excused herself to review it. When she came back to the others, Variable Lad saw his chance to cut in for the first time. "Elastic Lad, I am very sorry but I feel I must ask; is everything well, Enigma Lass?"

"Oh yes, I am happy that you asked, Oaa." Monn sounded slightly distracted, but not actually upset. "It was just an update sent by Lightning Lad."

"That's odd," Variable Lad pulled out his own omnicom to confirm he hadn't missed anything. "I haven't received any message..?"

"Well, no." Enigma Lass didn't seem to feel this was as peculiar as her fellow student did, though she was beginning to wonder if maybe she should reevaluate that. "The update was sent only to me, S'jn and Key Kid to ask us to choose a time we will be available to have a one on one meeting with Lightning Lad and Sat--his wife. Is that...unusual..?"

"I an certain it's nothing to be concerned about," Oaa offered a hopeful smile.

"Variable Lad's right," Elastic Lad stretched his arms around both their shoulders. "I bet everything's just peachy keen! Gee, I see Wish Girl over there! How would you two like to meet one of the Neocaste? I mean you already know one of the Neocaste of course, that's me - but another of the Neocaste? She's a swell gal, but really I think you two kids are much better superheroes than Wish Girl is if I'm being completely hand on heart honest. Say, isn't it weird we say hand on heart? My hand's not really on my heart of course but I can tell you all about the etymology of that phrase if you're interested..."

Still nattering the whole way, Jams-Ols 5 dragged the two students off before they could utter an opinion.

Meanwhile, Enigma Lass couldn't help but wonder what it was that her teachers needed to share with only select students...

**********

TAKRON-GALTOS
Garak of the Glow's cell

The Workforce
Bioluminescent Lass aka Jaene Birrun: enhanced bioluminescence
Ion aka Mara Waid: shrinking

A translucent forcefield separated the Khund terrorist Garak of the Glow from the Workforce member Bioluminescent Lass, who sat on a chair before him with one leg crossed elegantly over the other and with perfect posture. The Imskian Workforce member Ion was also sequestered away in a seam in the wall without Garak's knowledge.

When he'd arrived on Takron-Galtos, another Workforce member named Gear had given Garak a very thorough examination that revealed every one of Garak's technological advancements and ensured that those enhancements were either removed or neutralised. Still, the members of the Workforce weren't chosen because they underestimated their enemies, and so even though he seemed utterly powerless right now they felt justified in taking these extra actions to protect themselves from Garak of the Glow.

"Garak, I hope you will share something with me," Bioluminescent Lass spoke with real warmth. "When you first encountered the Legion of Superheroes some time ago you were devoted to the Emerald Empress, Sarya of Venegar. The Emerald Empress has been dead for some time though, and I think everyone assumed that's why we hadn't heard from you in such a long time. What was it that motivated you to attack Metropolis Spaceport recently?"

Garak met Bioluminescent Lass's unthreatening gaze with one of pure menace. "You think my beloved has forgotten me? You are sorely mistaken, woman."

"Garak, I don't want to upset you, but...your beloved is long passed." The pale-skinned Bioluminescent Lass gave Garak of the Glow her most empathetic expression. "I know we have offered you psychomedical help before and you've refrained; with the agreements that the United Planets have with the Khund Empire, we can't force the issue, but...I genuinely believe we could help you, you just have to let us."

The muscular pink-skinned Khund was soaked in sweat, a consequence of his immune system adjusting to his new physicality now that pounds of metal and plastic had been excised from his flesh. He wiped slick black hair from his eyes and met Jaene Birrun's eyes with a stare of unhinged confidence. "I have to let you do nothing, woman. In fact...I need to be here no longer at all. My beloved has observed my plight."

Garak's black eyes looked up at nothing in particular, and Ion made her way across to perch on Bioluminescent Lass's shoulder. "I don't like this," the Imskian woman warned. "Maybe we'd better--"

Before either of the two women could do anything at all, a distinctly emerald light filled the cell on both sides of the forcefield. Thanks to her power, Bioluminescent Lass was the first one to regain her sight and what she saw bothered her greatly.

"Ion...if you were about to say we'd better contact Magno, you were right.

Garak of the Glow is gone."

**********