Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business Legion Tryouts: Introducing Spellsword!

[Attending – Lightning Lass, Star Boy, Polar Boy, Dawnstar / Colossal Boy, Gigi Cusimano]

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Ayla muttered, as the next applicant stepped forward. “Prince Pharoxx, of Orando,” she announced, in a disbelieving tone. “Are you here to surrender to be taken into SP custody before we extradite you back to your homeworld, your highness?” Her tone caused Brek, always a stickler for propriety, to lean forward as if to speak, but Thom placed his hand on Brek’s, before he could talk and just shook his head in warning. The Tharran Legionnaire accepted that he didn’t have any of the history with this Prince Pharoxx that the older Legionnaires had, and sat back to let them speak first.

Prince Pharoxx, clad in chainmail and tunic, and bearing a heavy sword slung over his back, grimaced slightly at Ayla’s challenge and nodded to her, “I have been stripped of the title of prince and banished from Orando, so deportation is no longer an option, and for my betrayal of my people, my world, I would be sentenced to death, a sentence which was carried out by the Legion of Super-Villains, who betrayed me as surely as I betrayed my home.” He took a breath, clearly not as dead as his words suggested, “And yet, I have a second chance at life, thanks to my grandmother, who used every occult secret she had mastered in her long life to rekindle the spark of my own life, at the cost of her own. After seeing the fruit of my past deeds, I wish to take another path with this second life, rather than repeat the myriad failures of my previous life. My Queen served as a hero. I seek to follow her example, as my own path led only to ruin, if only you will grant me a chance.”

Ayla looked to Thom, Brek and Dawnstar, all of whom shrugged, none of them feeling terribly strongly about this former enemy, one way or the other, but all certain that things would be different if Sensor Girl sat judgment over this round of applicants…

“The Legion is not a redemption circuit for ex-villains, Pharoxx, but I’m at least interested in what you think you can offer, so show us what you’ve got in the way of non-lethal options,” she said, stressing ‘non-lethal’ just in case the former villain fell back on old instincts.

He inclined his head so slightly Ayla could almost have missed it, and replied, “In my misplaced ambition to be King, I mastered not merely statecraft and administration, but also the ways of blade and sorcery, in the manner of my people.” He drew his gleaming broadsword, it’s edges shining in the light, and, as if just remembering, said, “Ah, but you said non-lethal,” and muttered a short incantation while passing his free hand over the bared blade, which shimmered and transformed into a rod of bamboo. He turned to Gim and Gigi, who were to test his nonlethal combat capabilities, and raised his short bamboo staff as if it were still a sword. “At your convenience.”

Gim and Gigi moved forward simultaneously, long experience eliminating any need for them to verbally coordinate their tactics, Gim’s paired batons raised defensively as he stepped in, while Gigi moved to the side and swept for the swordsman’s legs. He stepped over her attack almost as gracefully as a child skipping rope, and at the same time, his own staff swung sword-like at Gim’s head, only to twist at the last moment and deliver it’s full force to the blocking baton, sending it flying from Gim’s hand. Pharoxx stepped quickly past Gim, continuing through and shifting the trajectory of his swing so that it struck Gim in the side with a resounding thunk. He then sidestepped nimbly towards Gigi, who got her staff in the way of his next attack and the two quickly moved through a lightning-fast series of strikes and parries, although he still gripped his bamboo stave as if he was wielding a sword. As Gim stepped around behind him, he reversed the grip on his staff and thrust backwards and down, jabbing the end of the staff into Gim’s foot as he moved forward, pinning it to the ground and causing the Legionnaire to overbalance and fall to the side. Pharoxx neatly fell back under a sudden swing by Gigi, landing heavily on Gim and rolling past him and back to his feet, all without losing grip on his staff. He settled back into a defensive stance, staff held high as Gigi paused to help Gim to his feet and Ayla said, “Okay, enough of this. You’re hell with a sword, but we already knew that.” Gigi looked annoyed that the fight was over so quickly, but Gim seemed like he’d had enough, and stepped back after retrieving the baton he’d lost earlier.

A whirring sound came from the pair of boxy combat droids to the side of the demonstration area, and they clunked and clanked into position. Prince Pharoxx brushed his hair out of his face and mopped a bit of sweat from his brow as he turned to face this new challenge. He muttered a word and his bamboo staff shimmered back into a steel blade, and a subtle glow formed in the air around him, like a heat shimmer, as he made gestures with his free hand. “Sorcery,” he said, “is all about preparation.”

He stood, leaning on his sword, as the combat-droids thick forearms rose on their flexible appendages, and a quartet of tasers fired simultaneously, sending arcs of paralyzing electricity to splash against the shimmering distortion that covered his frame. Instead of the incapacitating current arcing through his body, it writhed around his body, unable to reach him, and he reached up with his free hand and gathered it up like a child gathering up cobwebs in his hand. The crackling electricity clung there, and he flicked it towards the robot on the left with a dismissive gesture, causing the accumulated electricity of four taser-blasts to impact on it’s chestplate. The robot shut down with squeal and a gout of black smoke, it’s arms dangling limply at it’s sides as it slowly canted to the left and then toppled over with a clank. Pharoxx strode forward, two more blasts from the other droid again failing to do anything other than play harmlessly across whatever magical warding he had prepared, and his blade swung out twice, the first time severing the robot’s mechanical arms, and dropping the tasers to the ground, and the second cleanly removing the robots head. He turned theatrically and wiped his blade and sheathed it, as the second robot shut down and collapsed behind him. “A simple ward against lightning, prepared against this eventuality.” His voice trails off as he notices that the Legionnaires on the dias sit in frozen tableau, indicating that they have enabled the privacy screen (so similar to one of his Queen’s illusions!), to discuss his candidacy.

“Well,” Ayla began, “His competency isn’t in question, even if his character is…”

Brek leaned back, “So your previous encounters with him were before my time. What did he do to warrant this animosity?”

Star Boy replied, “Tried to challenge Projectra’s right to rule, and to kill her consort-at-the-time, Val Amorr, the first Karate Kid.”

“And it was his betrayal of Orando to the Legion of Super-Villains that eventually *did* lead to Val’s death, even if he was killed by his allies before that happened.” Ayla finished, flushing with anger just remembering that fight.

“A crime for which he seems to have faced a punishment more severe than any we would have levied upon him,” Dawnstar countered, seemingly in one of her contrary moods, ”And with the White Witch’s departure, we are lacking in magical support, and if my history is correct, Mysa herself was an adversary, before she became a Legionnaire, as was Blok...”

Brek’s hand slapped down, pre-empting whatever Ayla was about to say, and all three of the more experienced Legionnaires turned to him. “Even if we do have room for another arcanist, I feel like inviting this particular arcanist would just be inviting Projectra to repeat her un-Legion-like conduct with the late Nemesis Kid."

“Richly deserved ‘conduct,’ in my opinion…” muttered Ayla.

“I have no standing to judge what the ruler of a world deems to be justice for the killer of her husband, and fellow Legionnaire. I just feel like it would be an invitation for strife and conflict, much more than we are seeing right here, right now, and that it would be a bad idea, for team morale.” Brek evenly replied.

“And also rude and insensitive to Projectra herself, a fellow Legionnaire whose feelings we should consider more important than Prince Pharoxx’s possible tactical usefulness.” Star Boy adds, remembering Projectra when she joined the Legion, and how her relationship with Val had benefitted them both.

Seemingly having changed her position with the sort of agility she usually demonstrated on the battlefield, Dawnstar gave a predatory look. ”So who gets to tell the little Prince to go dance in a nebula?”

Star Boy said, “He may not be a Prince any longer, but I think I’d like to avoid any sort of undiplomatic comment that might reflect poorly on us in front of the other applicants…”

Ayla grins, “So Thom volunteers. All in favor?” Three hands shot up as Thom groaned. “I guess I walked into that one…”

“Bear in mind that Sensor’s identity as Projectra is not common knowledge.” Brek added as Thom reached for the control to drop the privacy field and Ayla winced. “Oh yeah, gonna need another excuse…”

The field shimmered and the frozen image of the Legionnaires moved abruptly, as several had slightly changed position, alerting Pharoxx, who had informed the computer that his applicant ID would be ‘Spellsword,’ that the judges had come to a decision.

Star Boy stood, “Prince, uh, sorry, just Pharoxx, we’ve discussed matters and I’m afraid too many members of the current team were good friends with Val Amorr, and remain friends with Queen Projectra, for Legion membership to be a pleasant experience for you, or for us, and while we commend your choice to find a new path, a better path, it will not be as a Legionnaire. I wish I could make this road easier for you, but I fear there is too much bad blood between us.”

Pharoxx concealed any disappointment he might feel with a courtier’s skill. “Perhaps the road I must walk was not meant to be an easy road, and forgiveness may not be so easily won. Still, I have made a choice, and I am a stubborn man, this lone setback will not send me spiraling into the arms of the Legion of Super-Villains.” Pharoxx then grinned, relaxing somewhat, “If for no other reason than they already killed me once…” He saluted the Legionnaires with his sheathed sword and then turned and left, ignoring the glances and whispers of the other applicants, every inch the proud noble who would not show weakness or shame, even if his stride lacked the same fire as when he entered.

interesting concept, having Pharoxx resurrected and atoning!

is Dawnstar channeling Wildfire there, with her "walk into a nebula" comment?

Thom is being very sensible and mature here!

and also super cool that Gigi is part of the tryouts!

Set, hi, I've just seen this and read it through. Apologies but I don't have time this morning to properly review it for you but must say I love your use of language and the idea that Pharroxx might want to reform is inspired! Great stuff!

This is a fun vignette. Thanks, Set.

Glad you like it! I had it like 80% done for, a year? Just had to finish the end, which makes it feel a bit disjointed to me!


Yeah, Drake is a bad influence on Dawny!

I am lazy and always use Gim and Gigi for my live-sparring part of the tryouts, although I do mix up the four presiding judges, depending mostly on whom I think will interact well, and who might have some interesting commentary or thoughts on the applicant, or who is just screaming for attention in my brain... (I try not to repeat myself and have every group of judges use characters I love to write, because they have such fun 'voices,' like Dreamy!)

In this case, I HAD to have Ayla. She was the Legionnaire (other than Projectra, obviously) most impacted by Pharoxx's betrayal of Orando to the LSV (since she was tortured by her brother and ended up regaining her electrical powers in Orandan dungeons!), and having Projectra there seemed too 'drama' and 'convenient,' while having no one there who was there to be affected at all (a bunch like Polar Boy), would have also felt like a missed opportunity. Similarly, I try to break up factions, so Violet wouldn't be right there as well, since her and Ayla would sort of turn into a voting bloc of their own.

Everybody agreeing all the time would also be boring!


Thanks for reading and the kind words!