Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business LMB Novella: The Lord of the Oval

Hul, the Dominion

Lolita was talking, “Up ahead is the key command center and control room, which directs and supervises control of all Dominator fleets, flight plans and communication. It also is the key point in the chain of command from Elia to the troops. Our goal will be to take it completely, and from there, Cobie has something he will do.”

Timberwolf saw an oopening in the ventaation system and jumped up to it. He made no noise as he lifted himself into the opening.

“How do you have this intel?” asked Helena.

Timberwolf quietly placed the grating back in place. He noticed that Kalla had turned around to ask him something...or maybe just smile at him, but he was gone. A smile crept onto his face. he had been standing less than three feet from her, and she had detected no movement, now heard anything as he left them.

Lolita answered: “our new ally helped us in this regard.” Lolita blatantly giving Kalla Hyrkos the credit made her feel good. Until now, Cobalt Kid had not openly disclosed exactly how valuable her intel had been in the Dark Oval.

“So we’ll be going in a matter of minutes,” said Helena.

“Seconds actually,” said Time-Teller Lad.

“Not everyone,” said Cobalt Kid, surprising them. “Timberwolf has his own mission while we accomplish this. A critical element has to be taken off the board.”

“What?” said Lolita, surprised. “You didn’t mention…”

She looked over and by now, Timberwolf was already gone.

“Fifteen seconds,” said Time-Teller Lad.

“But where…?”

“Timberwolf’s job is Pinnacle Command now,” said Cobalt. “We’ll have to bring down the Command Center without him. Don’t worry though, I’m sure we’ll have plenty of fun,” he smiled and then turned to Time-Teller Lad.

“Now,” said Time-Teller Lad in almost a whisper.

With that, Timberwolf was off. he moved through the system to a spot that was out of the way. He checked the room below him and there were three Dominators working on something. He couldn't tell quite what it was, but it looked like they were cooking something...something that smelled pretty nasty. He lowered himself to the ground after replacing the grate, placing himself in the middle of the three. All three had their backs to him and were jabbering about in Dominion.

He understood enough of it to know that they were chefs for the base and that this was indeed a food prep area for the kitchen, which was north of him at this point...if he was remembering correctly.

He glanced around the room and decided to just clear his throat and get this over with. The three turned around quickly with surprised looks on their faces.

He grabbed the nearest one and snapped his nexk and used his body to shield the knifethat the one to his left had thrown at him. He pulled the knife free and let it fly at the Dominator to his right and it stuck into his head, wight through his disk.

The one that had thrown the knide was trying to get something from his robe. A communicator no doubt. Lon let the lifeless body of his first kill fall and started walking towards the last remaining cook. "Wrong shift to be working buddy."

The Dominator raised his hands as if to plead for his life, but Lon was already moving his right hand un an upward motion towards the spot right between the eyes. His hand hit and there was a sickening sound as a shard of the Dominators skull caved in. There was no sound that escaped from any of the victims. They had all died without making a sound.

He stashed the bodies in a side room. A freezer of sorts. Not as cold as the freezers that he was used to, but cold and sealed enough to keep any smell from escaping.

He moved to the main door that led to the back hallway. He glanced out the doorway to get his bearings.

He had studied the building plans with Kalla during the course of the trip. It took him a few seconds, but he soon got a sense to where he was. He was right where he wanted to be. Now he just had to wait for the right moment...

HUL, THE DOMINION
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Rockhopper Lad’s team stood on a rocky promontory on the edge of the city and the wastes. From this high point the team could see the majority of the city.

Power Boy thought over Cobalt Kid’s words. ‘bring down their technology, break down their communication and chain of command, open up the Dominion to outside invaders’

He spoke to Shark Lad by his side “It is good we demolish their communications network second …. That way their allies can hear the scream for help and beg for mercy.” He flashed a wide grin and Shark Lad laughed. The two had been joking more and more over the trip, they shared a similar dark humor. This unnerved some people.

Invisible Brainiac gave them an odd look.

Just then Rockhopper began laying out the plan again. “ … After Power Boy strikes, then Tempest will …. While Shark Lad, Invisible Brainiac, myself, and Lard Lad make an overt charge at central command … and from there begin to …. ”

They paused, it was one thing to hear the plan, and another to begin the strike.

A 'breeeep!' came from Rockhopper Lad's wrist. "It's time."

Lard Lad nodded to Power Boy “Make it rain.”

Power Boy slapped Shark Lad on the back one more time and rocketed into the air, loudly, taking a wide arc that brought him towards the city from the opposite side as the team. Once in the air, he felt exhilarated, he took time to suck in ambient energy. From high above he spied the enemies military air strip …. And dove for the ships.

The enemy’s fighters exploded as Power Boy slew them with energy vision or merely flew through them. He spared a final glance for the control tower … it erupted in thunder and flames. There went their air force.

Somewhere Titus licked his lips expectantly.

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Back on the promontory Rockhopper Lad commanded “Minimum loss of life!” He knew Power Boy could hear him.

Rockhopper Lad turned to the others “Tempest, you might as well get started.”

Tempest sat cross-legged, levitating a foot above the ground, wind rushing through her hair “What do you think I’ve been doing?”

Then she threw her head back, and the air around them began to coalesce into an immense figure. High above them a huge giant took form, made solely of focused air … and it looked like Tempest.

THUD! THUD! THUD! The Titan stomped toward the city. Once it reached the buildings, it began swinging it’s arms smashing everything. Buildings, cruisers, and roads shattered as if a demonic child suddenly decided to smash all her toys. Citizens of the dominion ran and screamed, scattering like ants before the giant.

The real Tempest was locked in a trance.

Rockhopper Lad waved an arm for the others to follow him, they would march quite visibly on the main boulevard to central command. Lard Lad, Invisible Brainiac, and Shark Lad steeled themselves.

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Explosions rocked Hull as Power Boy smashed single-mindedly through the city to his destination. Hull had yet to mount any kind of resistance, so far the Dominion occupied itself with screaming and running.

Finally, Power Boy stood before an immense concrete structure. It was the power source of Hull. He looked at the chemicals and smoke rising from the gigantic pipes.

‘Disgusting, they haven’t even bothered to update to fusion power sphere technology.’

He ripped open the outer gates like paper and walked towards the main generators. He telepathically put any technicians he encountered to sleep. ‘Rocky will like that’ he quipped.

Power Boy had used up a lot of energy in the strike on Hul so far, and as he approached the toxic core that supplied most of Hul’s electricity he soaked in as much energy as he could.

Outside, all over Hul, lights flickered and went dark.

Lard Lad whispered ‘right on time Peebs’.

As the city went dark, Rockhopper’s team finally encountered a mass of soldiers on the main boulevard. They looked scared.

Rockhopper Lad breathed and the soldier’s world went white.

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Back at the power plant, Power Boy heard foot steps running up behind him. He glowed from all the energy he was absorbing. Light leaking out of his eyes and mouth.

He turned around to see several shapes materialize from the shadows.

‘Unkillables? We shall see.’

Hul, The Dominion
The Dark Oval

Far off, miles away in the city, they could hear explosions and screams. Every so often the ground itself would shake. There was no doubt the strike had begun by the other squad.

Lolita was thankful for that, as they had moved forward anyone on the presumption their allies would come through. For someone who didn’t often take risks, Cobalt Kid had a penchant for letting bravado take over when it came to relying on the rest of the LMB. She kept a steady pace next to Time-Teller Lad, as the two hung back slightly while the others were up ahead.

“Aaaaaaaargh!” came a scream as a huge two foot thick steel door came off the hinges magnetically and sent a cadre of Dominators flying outside of the command center. They fell limp to the ground, with only one having any semblance of consciousness; unfortunately for him, Kalla Hrykos walked by and cracked him across the skull with the butt-end of a laser-canon.

“Very subtle,” she said to Cobalt Kid, who had used his magnetism to get inside the building.

He said nothing and continued forward, Helena Handbasket by his side; Kalla joined them as the three led the charge.

Lolita watched as Cobalt Kid changed his demeanor yet again. When on-camera, he was the epitome of a superhero: all flash with a big dash of arrogance. Shiny teeth, waving to the crowds, kissing the lady he’d just saved. Off-camera he was cold, calculating and humorous. She wondered at what point Cobalt Kid actually became this way? As a teenager he’d severed all ties with his home-planet Ggrrgg to renounce their warlike ways. He now ironically was master in all things war.

“Up ahead,” said Helena Handbasket. Cobalt Kid nodded to her, and she let out a brief smile. She also had a laser-canon but she threw it over her shoulder. Instead, she pulled out the sword given to her by Lard Lad earlier in the quest. For a moment she considered saving its use for something more important. But those thoughts quickly faded—this was all important.

Helena advanced and Kalla Hrykos followed as Cobalt Kid stood behind waiting. Up ahead was a long corridor that led perpendicular into a cross-section that went both right and left. At the intersection, Helena went one way and Kalla the other.

As Lolita and Time-Teller Lad caught up to Cobalt Kid, they could hear thumps and yelps.

Helena Handbasket moved in a flash, using her superior fighting skills with an assist by her incredible weapon and bionic arm.

Kalla Hrykos used a quick flash of light to blind the Dominators in her path and then ruthlessly took out the rest with the butt-end of her laser-canon.

They were going down fast.

“Clear.”

“Clear.”

“Lolita, where to next?”

“90 seconds until shut down in the Command Center,” said Time-Teller Lad, using the point of Cobalt ripping off the doors as his benchmark. In his hands he held the plant.

“Right,” said Lolita, adding “and then we’ll be moving through a large open space.”

They all moved without saying anything, again with Helena and Kalla Hrykos in the lead. Kalla kicked open the door leading to another room full of Dominators and very quickly once more they fell before the LMBers. Beyond was yet another door.

Helena moved to the door and opened it and beyond was at last the resistance they were expecting: Unkillables.

“You two follow Helena and keep going!” said Cobalt with his voice raising. “Kalla, I’m right by your side,” he added and using his magnetism he suddenly moved faster than their eyes could keep up.

The Unkillables charged, some on the ground, some leaping and some firing weapons from a distance. Kalla Hyrkos responded immediately, blasting light in different directions to both knock them down and blind them.

Cobalt Kid was in the room immediately and using his magnetism he was grabbing as many as he could by the metal in their uniforms and hurling them around at the others.

In three seconds pure chaos had erupted in the room and all that could be heard were screams and crashing.

Helena ran through the room, this time using her laser-canon to blast them as Time-Teller Lad and Lolita followed.

Cobalt Kid felt a slash across his back as an Unkillable charged and before he could respond, Kalla Hrykos blasted the Unkillable into ash.

Cobalt turned, not surprised but aware this was an awkward moment; he met Kalla’s eyes and just as it was happening, two Unkillables emerged from a pile of bodies to spring a trap on Kalla. Using his magnetism on instinct he accelerated their trajectory and they came crashing into one another five feet behind her.

And just like that two sworn enemies owed each other their lives. She moved forward and he backed up so they were side by side to get a sense of the remaining Unkillables and saw it was only about half a dozen. “They are ugly, aren’t they?” said Cobalt.

“It’s their smell I really can’t stand,” she replied as the two finished them off.

Up ahead, Helena finished off the resistance in the rooms ahead. Evidently the Unkillables gathered in one room when they were alerted to their presence. “well?” she said.

“The communications hub is up ahead,” said Lolita, “and the room adjoining is where their ‘servers’ are kept” she added.

“Three seconds,” said Time-Teller Lad as he kicked in the communications room, then adding “and just in time.” Inside the room, three Dominators fired at him and he ducked out of the way. “Whoa!” he said, not expecting that.

Helena smiled at his sudden gusto and entered the room. Behind them Cobalt Kid and Kalla Hrykos followed. Helena took them out but Lolita knew the real test was whether the Dominators had sent out word yet of the attack. That was the artificial countdown Time-Teller Lad was counting down to, as they theorized it would take 90 seconds for the Dominators to alert the rest of the military. Lolita looked through the monitors and breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn’t done so yet. “We’re good,” she said.

Cobalt Kid grinned. “Then we’re in control now,” she said. “Helena, you’re in charge of guarding the hallways. They’ll be coming en masse once they figure out what’s happening.”

“Kalla, we’ll be getting word to your man Juj on Elia very shortly,” said Cobalt, “once we get a better sense of how complete our takeover of Hul is.”

“Cobalt,” said Time-Teller Lad curiously, “surely we’re not just taking over their communications?”

Cobalt Kid grinned. “Of course not. We’re going to completely destroy their technology.”

Lon looked at his wrist. The timepiece that he wore had been a gift from Cobalt Kid shortly before they had left for this mission. It had come as a surprise to Lon, but it was a replica of the watch that Cobalt had retrieved from Earth a few months earlier. According to the timetable they had set up, there should be a big boom right now...

The entire building shook for a second, and alarms started sounding from various places within the building. He saw Dominators begin running around the hallways on their way to wherever it was that was going to be their last stand. He waired and watched his watch.

A loud sound of metal being torn apart caught his attention. Very subtle..., he thought as he shook his head.

He peeked out if the doorway again, and smiled. He walked out into the Hall and began walking calmly towards the command center of the building. Not that far away from the room he had been in. The Dominators set this building up to minimize the lag time for their leadership to get their dinner.

As he walked through the halls, several Dominators took notice of him, but just kept on scuttling about. They all had small disks on their heads and were not used to having to make life or death decisions. That fact saved their lives.

He had about three more turns to reach the entrance to the central command center of Hul.

He pulled two knives from his belt and rounded the second to the last corner. There were three Unkillables. He let the knives fly before the three even noticed that he was in the hallway with his, Their attention had been drawn to the screams coming from the other direction.

"Hey uglies!" :on yelled to get their attention. As they turned, the two knives took out the two Unkillables closest to him. The knives had hit them in one of their eyes and killed them instantly.

"Whaaaat?!?!?" The third one cried as Lon rushed him. Lon dove at him and the Unkillable pivoted and threw him past him and into the wall on the far side of the corridor. Lon grinned as he got up. "Not bad for a yellow skinned freak..."

The Unkillable reached down and took out his gun. He was fast, but Lon was faster. Lon was on him with a short sword drawn before the Unkillable could take aim. The gun hit the ground with the Dominators forearm and hand still attached.

The Dominator tried to scream, but Lon had already cut out most of his throat. The Dominators eyes went wide as he watched Lon turn and run towards the command center. He reached his hand towards the alert button on the communications plate on the wall. When his hand hit it, it exploded and took the Dominators other hand off at the wrist. He tried to stumble forward and fell, dead before he hit the ground.

There was no further resistance between him and the door to the command center. That meant tha the others had been pulled into the command center itself to help guard Pinnacle Command. That suited him just fine.

He waited outside the door and checked his watch. He had a few seconds to spare.

He pulled out two guns. These were not lasers. They were not anything fancy. They were old Earth bullet firing guns. He had several clips of ammunition for them ready to go...not that he was going to need them for this. He just liked to be ready. Unkillables were tough as anything. Truly hard to kill. But as with all the most advanced of soldiers, they had their downfalls as well. The eyes were the secret. They were strong to be sure, but a direct hit in them would be like shooting anyone else in the eye with a gun. Instant death.

He chambered a round in each gun, took a deep breath and hit the button to open the door to the command center.

Hul, The Dominion
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SharkLad licked his lips. He was envious of Power Boy.

"Is the word given, Rocky?" he asked eagerly.

"The word is given. Remember -- minimal loss of life."

"Shouldn't be a problem. They're 'unkillable,' remember?" SharkLad said with a wry smile.

With that, SharkLad jumped into the fray, followed quickly by Lard Lad and Invisible Brainiac.

"I'm going in low. Have fun, boys," SharkLad cried.

Above, Lard Lad let loose a devastating barrage of energy blasts, destroying everything in his path.

"Alright," SharkLad said to himself. "We got a mother-sprocking party!"

SharkLad dove into a swarm of Unkillables, his claws and teeth ripping through them like paper bags.

"Seem pretty 'killable' to me."

Power Boy, Lard Lad, and Invisible Brainiac continued to advance, while SharkLad found himself surrounded by more and more Unkillables. He fired off teeth in every direction, felling the Unkillables where they stood. Those that got closer felt the sharpness of his claws, crying out in pain. Despite his best efforts, they continued to surround SharkLad, and soon he found himself covered. The Unkillables continued to pile on top of him until he could no longer be seen from above.

"I think Sharky is in trouble, Lard Lad," called Power Boy.

"Nah, give him a second."

"INYUK CHUK!" came bellowing suddenly, as SharkLad grew to a towering 50 feet, tossing Unkillables left and right.

"I WAS WRONG. NOW, WE GOT A MOTHER-SPROCKING PARTY!"

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Hyper-Space 1 Light-Year from Webber's World

“Abin, would you bring us to a stop just inside the detection range of the Webber's World Jump Gate?” Kid Prime's voice came from the silver bracelet on Abin's right wrist. He briefly considered saying “No” but discarded the idea quickly. The three founders were ten miles away, on the Bridge or Control Room of the massive ship while he was in the engineering spaces, using his ring to power the massive engines.

For reasons that weren't entirely clear to Abin, Kid Prime didn't want to fully integrate himself into the “Prime Matrix” and become one with the massive ship until just before their arrival at Webber's World. Which meant that the ship's systems, including the engines and navigation systems, couldn't be brought fully “On Line” so Abin had spent the last 48 hours taking their place. The reason the founders had insisted he was the only LMBPer for the job were fully clear to him now.

Ring, bring the ship to a stop and hold it motionless in space relative to the Webber's World Jump Gate, at a distance of 1AU.

The ship slowed to a stop at the requested point in space. When it stopped Abin's bracelet began to glow. He looked for a matching glow on the ship's corridor lights and began following it to the Bridge. He arrived on the bridge quickly and found a semi-heated discussion already in progress.

“They're linked telepathicly,” Saturn Girl said heatedly. “What she knows, he knows.”

“Good! Then she knows where to find him.” Nightcrawler commented quietly.

“I doubt it works that way. That Son of a Bitch doesn't let any of his fingers know what the ones next to them are doing, unless he's making a fist.”

Abin flew to the far side of the control room and landed next to the glass tube containing Kid Prime's human body. The body floated in a nutrient solution with a breathing mask over it's face. Next to the tube, seated in the command chair, was the massive mechanical body that currently housed Kid Prime's consciousness. The Prime Symbol in the middle of his head lit up as Abin landed and the massive head swiveled to acknowledge his presence.

“They been going at it for long?” Abin asked quietly.

“Ever since we discovered the Dark Oval ships hiding in the asteroid belt,” K.P. Reached out and touched a control. The six view-screens in front of the command chair lit up. The center screen showed six starships in tow behind Prime, each encased in a green energy bubble. “You having any trouble holding the stasis?”

“No, It's easier in space. It's like the ring has more power when we lift off of a planetary surface,” Abin raised his hand and looked at the plastic power ring. No one knew how or why the Faux Power Ring that Cobalt Kid had given him years ago worked. “Hell, I expected it to stop working when Pagan died. I always thought that she was powering it with her magic. But it still works, better than ever.”

“Could it be residual magic? Could some of her spells carry on past her death?”

“I don't think so, but... who knows? Still, I remember her and STU having an argument once; something about her linking a mortal to something called the Star-Fart and how badly that idea stunk. I think they were talking about me. But they're both gone now so I'll probably never know.”

Kid Prime just looked at Abin for a moment and then began to slowly shake his massive metal head. “Honestly Abin, I never know if or when you're being serious. The Star-Fart? You're kidding, Right?”

“K.P. I'm telling you what I know, which admittedly isn't much, but that's what they said.”

“Abin, I've got a question for you,” Saturn Girl came up behind him. “And I want a straight answer for once.”

“Okay, what's the question?”

“Do you trust Cobalt Kid?”

“Caroline, you guys have known Cobaltus for a lot longer than I have. Wasn't he only 8 or 9 years old when you first met him? Do you trust him?”

“Abin...”

“Yes Caroline, I trust him. I trust him with my life. More importantly I trust him with my Grand-Daughter's life.”

“Your Grand-Daughter can take care of herself. I've seen her in action.”

“Yeah, in her weight class she's at the top, but she's not smart enough to stay in her weight class. Cobie's always been there for her, just like he's always been there for Legion World. I don't always like the way he does things but he's always been right before.”

“Right? Was he right to start this? Millions of people could wind up dead because of what he's doing!”

“The only thing I can say is he must think that Billions will die if he doesn't do this.”

“Did he tell you that?”

“No, but that's how he thinks.”

“I'm not convinced he thinks at all...” She turned away from Abin and looked at Nightcrawler. “Okay, Bal we'll do it your way. Bring Prime fully on line, announce to the galaxy that we're out of retirement.”

Nightcrawler smiled and nodded to Kid Prime.

Weber’s World, The United Planets

Spellbinder walked through the hallways of Weber’s World, en route to the Senate where she expected to receive an updated briefing on the state of readiness throughout the United Planets. Many of the member worlds were becoming irate over General Bellisarius' refusal to deploy more of his forces to the borders, and she knew that some very delicate negotiations would be necessary to keep the U.P. United.

She had just reached the Senate Chambers and was about to enter when she felt the call. At first she could only stare at the plain silver bracelet on her right wrist but after a few seconds a single word formed on her lips, “Prime!”

She entered the Senate Chamber with a smile on her face.

Hul, Dominion Space

Lardy smiled as he watched 50-foot Shark Lad mowing into Unkillables. "I'm glad he's own our side!" he said and smiled at Power Boy. "Now, it's time to get my target, Peebs!"

Lard Lad flew off from the others using the rocket boots on his exo-armor for full speed. His target appeared to be a desolate butte but was actually a huge silo with about a thousand nuclear warheads, some ready for instant deployment, others for arming many of the Dominators' various warships.

While on Sumra, the Space Knights Templar had armed Lardy's exo-armor with a trick that was especially designed for this mission: an electro-magnetic pulse generator. Lardy would need the EMP to fire at the silo before destroying it. This would disarm the denators in the nukes so that they would not ignite when he destroyed the silo. They really didn't want to cause that much collateral damage to Hul and its people by creating such a blast and its ensuing fall-out.

As Lardy approached, though, he recalled a crucial moment in which he saw in Cobalt's eyes that he wouldn't mind that massive collateral damage at all. Cobalt hated the Dominion like he did no other foreign power, so Lardy wasn't surprised. Lardy headed off that strategy by reminding his friend that such a blast would probably take much of the Fellowship with it. Cobalt smiled in response as if to imply he'd never given it a serious thought. Lardy knew better.

As Lardy approached the butte, he was approached by three Unkillables. Lardy smiled as he blasted them. If not for Sharky's massive distraction, I woulda had a lot more than three on my ass! Lardy was impressed as the three fell one by one in short order. The Mark II was a huge improvement over the Mark I, he noted. Still, a part of him felt so confined, even with the Mark II's relative sleekness. In the old days Lard Lad needed no accessories to kick ass and take names.

Lardy flew up at what he determined was a perfect angle and unleashed the powerful EMP. He saw the cascading waves emerge from his gauntlets silently engulf the butte. Then, his armor seemed to quaver.

System Failure, said a tinny automated voice from his armor, and suddenly Lardy found himself falling down to the butte.

"OOF!" he yelled as he fell to the top. Though the armor was malfunctioning, its shielding padded his fall. Still hurt like a bitch, though!

"Damn!" he cursed. "The Knights told me there was only a ten percent chance this would happen!" He thought back for a moment and remembered. "Shit! The armor's gonna be down for ten minutes! I'll be a sitting duck, and I won't be able to destroy the freakin' silo before they get here and take me out! If only--"

Suddenly, his exo-armor glowed red, and he could move again. "Well, that was quicker than expected! Thank the gods for givin' me a break for once!"

He rose up into the sky and fired at the butte with everything he had. A moment later, a cloud of fire stripped the butte of its camoflage, and Lardy could see the synthetic interior exposed beneath the flames. It was a huge, fiery explosion but nothing nuclear, he noted as he thanked the gods.

Suddenly, he dropped from the sky and fell hard on the barren land.

"Ugh!" he groaned, as he lay limp on the ground. "Guess my reboot was short-lived. Not complainin', though..."

A moment later, he heard a humming noise accompanied by the computer voice saying, System Restored.

As he was able to rise to his feet, Lardy thought, That's...odd. He looked at his chronometer and noticed that just over ten minutes had passed since the initial power loss. As he looked at the computer log, he saw no notation of the prior reboot of his exo-armor.

For a moment he assumed the computer was in error. Then he remembered the red glow.

"It wasn't the armor," he realized. "It was the Lard Force!"

In that moment when he was helpless and faced death, he had begun a thought, wishing he had his power back. He now realized he had gotten his wish. In the heat of the moment he'd reacted instinctively and activated his locked-away power. But now, try as he might, he couldn't cause it to manifest.

And why was it red? he thought. In the past it always appeared purple...or blue? Never red!

He had no time to contemplate this further as he saw more Unkillables approaching. Now was the time for battle, he knew. So he fired up his exo-armor and dove right into them.

He would leave their limp, unconscious bodies in the sand.

The door to the Command Center opened and Lon sent a smoke grenade into the room. Shots rang out from several areas of the room and through the door. He ducked low and moved into the room.

He thanked Kalla under his breath for the layout of this place. He knew the most reasonable spots for the Dominators to hide. Killing them wasn't his first action though. He moved quickly to the communications bank and hit a few buttons. The Dominator assigned to the station was coughing and sputtering something in his native Dominion language. Lon stood, and fired one gun into the side of the Communications officers head, and the other into the panel itself. A shower of sparks flew everywhere and Lon positioned himself behind the dead Dominators body and began the process of killing or disabling the others in the room.

There were only two Unkillables in here and they were quickly dispatched. The rest of the disk heads were either hiding or runnning for thier lives.

He knew that Pinnacle Command would be calm through all of this. At least as calm as one can be with th e knowledge that he was about to die.

Lon stood and pushed the torn apart body of the communications officer out of the chair. One fleeing Dominator tripped over the body as it landed in front of him and Lon put a bullet into the back of his head.

"Kill all of ussss that you wannt huuuman. We willl crush youuu beofre thisss iss over..."

The translator unit that Lon had in his ear was drawing out the Dominators speech pattern. Making Pinnacle Command sound like an extremely creepy middle aged man.

"I don't know what you think we're trying to accomplish here...but I guarentee you, it's bigger than even you grasp."

Pinnacle Command looked out the wondow that was along the far end of the room. Outside of it was a drop off of several hundred feet.


Lon turned toward the window as well. He immediately dropped to one knee and shot the Dominator that had emerged to his left, just behind him.

"Tell your...whatever it is they are...to stop trying to kill me. You all make far to much noise to sneak up on me. All they are going to do is get themselves killed."

Pinnacle Command laughed. "You inssssult the bessst offff the Dominion?"

Lon laughed. "Oh my. I'm sorry," he said as he rolled from the kneeloing position he was in towards Pinnacle Command. Avoiding the two shots that hit right where he had been less than a second before.

He shot his arms out and fired twice. Two loud thuds wee heard as the two Dominators fell dead.

Lon stood and reloaded. He fired through the two clips and every single Dominator in the room except Pinnacle Command was dead by the time he was done. Including those that were hiding behind various pieces of furniture.

"Too loud. You all breathe too loud. You can be quiet as anything while you move about...but the air whistles through those damned teeth of yours something awful."

"Arrre you to leave meeee alllllive then...to ssspread word of your power? To make the ressst of the Dominion quake with fearrrr? We will crush you...you knoowww thisss."

"No. You die. The real question is how."

"Evennnn nnowww, my Unkilllllablessss are getting rrready to ssstorm in heeerrreee..."

A loud explosion was heard through the shot out window.

"Nope. That would be my friends taking out whatever Unkillables are still alive, as well as your munitions. Your communications has been down for a while, and no warnings went out...unless he wanted them to."

"Whoooo isss thiss heeee youuu ssspeak offf? Someonnne that will scare mmmeeee? Pleassse, Timberwolf...yessss I knowww of youuu and yourrr exploitssss, we alll do...telll me whooo is herre that woulld frightennn me if youuu do not?"

Lon smiled for several reasons. First was that this Dominator, Pinnacle Command or not was scared diskless right now...even though he wouldn't admit it. Second, his reputation had gotten this far into the Dominion, and that was a good thing. Third, he couldn't wait to see his face when he said, "Cobaltus sends his regards."

Pinnacle Commands eyes widened.

Lon lifted Pinnacle Command out of his chair and threw him towards the window. The Dominator stood and snarled at Timberwolf. "Dieeee!!!" He screached as he reached for something on his forearm. Lon emptied two clips into PPinnacle Command before this hand could reach his left wrist. His body fell through the open window and towards the bottom of the cavern below. Lon leaned out the window and shot once more and dove back in as fast as he could.

The bullet ripped into the left wrist of Pinnacle Commands body, and a huge explosion rocked the buildings foundation, and a giant fireball shot past the open window.

"Hell of a lot of punch for not a lot of material," Lon said as he stood and holstered his guns. He was actually impressed by the fail-safe device they had implanted in Pinnacle Command. It would have definitely killed him and possibly the others if it had gone off in the building itself.

HE looked around, and made sure that they were all dead. He realized that his right arm hurt and he looked at his forearm. Damn, got hit, he thought as he looked at a decent sized hole in his arm. Now that he saw it, it started to hurt more. Nothing vital hit...not bleeding too much...

He tore some cloth off of one of the Dominators robes and wrapped it around his arm. Timberwolf smirked to himself and ran off to find the others. Hoping he ran into some more of these Unkillables along the way.

Hul, The Dominion

Rockhopper Lad took advantage of a momentary lull in the action to catch his breath. He looked around at the others on his team. Power Boy was flying above. Shark Lad was towering above them in his giant form. Tempest, likewise, projected into her air form, was towering overheard. And Lardy. Where was Lardy? Rocky looked round, but couldn't see his former lover. He said a silent prayer to Dywh for Lardy's safety. And, for that matter, Tim and Hyvvie, both of whom were with Cobalt Kid in the other group.

“Rocky!” Invisible Brainiac sounded out of breath.

“I'm sorry, Ibby. I was distracted a moment.”

“I think the tide is turning. It will take a few minutes for them to regroup.”

The Pyngwyn Prince smiled. He and Invisible Brainiac weren't really close, but he respected the younger hero quite a bit. Like Rocky, Ibby was not given to violence, preferring to use his light powers rather than hand-to-hand combat. Rocky thought again for a moment about what brought him to this place. He was the LMB's Leader, of course, and he hoped that he would be able to find Rockhopper Lass and bring her brother, Rocky's own double from another world to justice. But how did he even get to this?

He could have stayed in the Pyngwyn Colonies. He was heir to the throne after all. It never would have occurred to his father, the Emperor, to have joined a group like the LMB. But he had. And now he was not only one of its most respected—and, though people often forgot—powerful members, he was their Leader. And he must not let his people down.

“Rocky! Here they come!” Ibby shouted.

“And we're ready for them!” Rocky nodded.

A phalanx of twelve soldiers charged at them. A wave of Rocky's hand and they were all encased in ice.

Another ten charged from another direction. Rocky puffed a breath and they all were blown into a nearby pit.

Then a number too large to count appeared on the horizon. How many? A hundred? Two hundred? The “Unkillables” they were called, but Rocky never wanted to kill anyone, anyway. “I'm really getting tired of this foolishness!” Rocky shouted.

He drew a breath.

In the next instant, Rocky exhaled a gust at the soldiers such as they had never seen. A white vapour flowed from his mouth. The sound wasn't merely the sound of wind and storm that Rocky usually made when using his breath and ice powers. It was more. It didn't merely freeze them in place. It changed them. They were no longer flesh and bone. The had all become statues of solid ice.

Shark Lad looked down at what Rocky had done. “Rocky! I didn't know you could do that.”

“I don't do it very often. It takes a great deal of effort.”

“Will they stay that way? Will they just--melt?” Sharky asked.

“No. You know how I feel about that kind of thing. They'll return to their normal state.” Rocky winked. “When I want them to. Enough of that for now. Onward!”

Hul, The Dominion
The Dark Oval

“We’re going to take down their technology?” said Lolita to Cobalt Kid, her tone more than a little incredulous.

Kalla Hrykos sensed Lolita’s doubts and that made her slightly annoyed. She looked back at Cobalt Kid with a stare that had clear implications: hurry up. They were in the control room of the main communications command center, and though they had been successful getting in, it wouldn’t be long now before more Unkillables were on their way. They had just barely taken the communications hub before word could get out to the rest of the Dominion military, which was scattered across the vast realm.

“Absolutely,” said Cobalt Kid, now turning to Time-Teller Lad. “Tim, if you don’t mind, its time we put that plant into play,” he said.

By the door, Helena Handbasket was guarding the entryway from the onslaught they knew would be coming shortly. But she was too interested to not take a look, since she too had carried that plant from Weber’s World all the way here. Until now, no one had a clue what its purpose was besides Cobalt.

“Dominator technology is one of the most unusual things about them,” said Cobalt Kid, taking the plant from Time-Teller Lad. “Its entirely organic, with plant-life being a much more important aspect of it than the mechanics infused within. For centuries its confused the other races the Dominators have known.”

Lolita was in no mood to play Cobalt’s guessing games. “AND?” she said.

“And so, why bring a scientist or engineer to figure out how its done, than someone whose innate abilities let her maintain complete control over organic plant-life? Who better than our LMB sister, the incredible Cleome?”

At Cobalt’s words, all four of his companions let out a small gasp as the plant began to stir and grow, getting larger and larger until it started to take a more humanoid shape. “Bloody liberty…” said Helena Handbasket. Where the plant had been set on the floor now stood a very recognizable form: the LMBer known as Cleome.

Cleome stepped out of the pot and onto the floor, rich soil spilling across the Dominator control room. “Cobie, you never once mentioned it was going to take over a month!” she said half-kidding, half-serious in her complaints. “Do you realize how crazy I was driving myself, not interacting with anyone?”

Cobalt suppressed a grin. “Your sacrifice means a great deal,” he said. He turned his head toward the control room. “Beyond those doors lie their servers and main generators. This is the communications hub of Hul, and it extends outwards into the technology used by the Dominators across the entire Dominion. Once you take it over, you should have access to all of their tech—all over the entire Dominion.”

As Cobalt and Cleome spoke, the others still weren’t saying anything. They were surprised and some, like Lolita and Kalla, were annoyed.

Kalla Hrykos broke the silence. “Another secret member of our Fellowship? As if one wasn’t enough? Or was the one secret member just a decoy after all to cover the real secret? You’re a real piece of work, Cobalt. Secret for my sake, I presume?”

Cobalt spoke plainly, not wanting to waste time. “Of course. But not just you, anyone could be spying on us. Like our friend Titus, who we haven’t seen the last of. We had to trick people like him too, and Invisible Brainiac was well-hidden but still detectable. Thus, the perfect decoy.”

Lolita was slightly angry, though she wasn’t sure why since this wasn’t surprising. “You didn’t think to clue any of us in?”

“No, not really,” said Cobalt matter-of-factly. “You all trusted me when I said we’d take down their communications and technology, didn’t you? Well, when I didn’t say how, I figured that was everyone acquiescing to my plan.” He turned now to Time-Teller Lad. “Tim, Cleome is going to need you. You too, Lolita. Once she figures out how to take down their tech, she’s going to bring down the entire planet Hul. Then you two, with your calculating and computing abilities, are going to help her figure out how to take down the rest of the Dominion.”

“Everything but the mechanisms allowing them to breath in these atmospheres,” said Lolita, making sure he knew she wasn’t going to kill every Dominator on Hul.

“Kalla, that leaves you and I to begin our communications with the rest of the galaxies and formally begin the Invasion of the Dominion.”

She smiled. “Love to,” she said.

Helena Handbasket watched as Cleome, Lolita and Time-Teller Lad went into the next room. “So 13 of us in the Fellowship after all. You’ve got some brass ones,” she said to Cobalt.

“As I’ve told my friend Eryk a million times,” said Cobalt, “I make my own luck.”

“Or maybe you like to push things as far as they can go,” said Kalla. “Very cavalier, and very dangerous.” Kalla and Cobalt sat in the two communications chairs.

In the other room, Cleome was now interfacing with the Dominator technology. “So how’s the journey been, kids?” she said to Lolita and Time-Teller Lad. “The hard part about being a secret weapon is no one to talk to…”

Lolita and Tim were still a bit in shock. They almost missed it—the moment Cleome brought down the entire Dominion.

HUL, THE DOMINION
-------------------------------------------------

"INYUK CHUK!"

Nope. Still regular sized Power Boy. Power Boy would have to learn how to grow to super size some other time. Well, except that one part.

He surveyed the scene, Giant Shark Lad seemed to be having a great time, mowing through the Unkillables like some old monster movie.

Lard Lad and Rockhopper Lad were playing their parts in the streets.

While .... Tempest's air giant seemed to be taking a beating. The two giants were attracting a lot of fire from what remained of the Dominion forces but, Tempest's air avatar wasn't giving back as good as Shark Lad was.

Pb wondered how that would affect the sorceress spiritually.

This battle had gone from Rockhopper's team overwhelming a surprised Dominion to a messy battle in the streets over the last hour.


Over the com Lard Lad shouted "AIR SUPPORT NOW!!!"

Pb blurred away at super speed.

-------------------------------------------------

On the Cliffs above Hull ... Tempest groaned with the psychic effort of manipulating the giant air creature.

She was lost in her trance fully concentrating on projecting her consciousness into the giant, to fight the Unkillables.

She didn't hear the boots crunch on the sand as Titus approached.

He brushed the sweat from her brow gently. Tempest oblivious to her own danger, her mind far away in the air giant.

Titus petted Tempest's hair and smiled.

"Little sorceress you have your secrets don't you"

---------------------------------------------------
HUL, THE DOMINION

suddenly Tempest felt intense terror. Her perceptions skewed by being projected in the trance she merely felt a crushing terror and darkness occluded her vision while she fought the Unkillables.

"What's happening ..... my body ...... must return to my body!"

Tempest scrambled to reverse the spell and return to her body but, the terror and the weakness from managing such a powerful spell had left her slow.


----------------------------------------------------

Titus rummaged through Tempest's mind. Some doors were locked, others were easily opened.

What he could do with this one!

He became excited, and licked Tempest's face from chin to brow

-------------------------------------------------

"EEEEEEEEEEE !!!!"

Tempest awoke in terror in her own body. She was physically wasted from her intense use of magic but, terror gave her speed, she floundered away from Titus.

Titus looked at her with the malicious eyes of a man that had perpetuated countless torments on others.

Tempest tried to stumble away but Titus' eyes held her.

Suddenly, a light appeared between Tempest and Titus, visible at first but then it grew .... and it grew blindingly ... striking Titus.


"You didn't think we'd leave her completely unprotected did you?" Invisible Brainiac said.

IB blasted Titus again and again but, while Titus was obviously pained by the light he was not driven away.

IB quickly grabbed Tempest and flew away into the city to join the others.

----------------------------------------------

Titus hissed, burned by the light of the youth. He bit down with a CHOMP like a wolf grinding his teeth together.

"G h o u l s " his voice slithered. "Bring them to me"

Out of the air the four remaining ghouls appeared, first as puffs of smoke that then grew until they were in their previous forms. These were the creatures that nearly killed the full fellowship at the fort. The large bruiser, the fire demon, the leader, and an unknown stood at attention for Titus.

and then a moment later their darkness streaked across the sky following Invisible Brainiac and Tempest.

-------------------------------------------------

"That's the last of them" PB said over the comm.

"About time" Lardy retorted, "We're moving on to the next quadrant"

at that moment, PB saw out of the corner of his eye, A streak of light carrying a woman through the air, ... very very quickly, as if they're were being chased.

PB focused his vision and saw "Invisible Brainiac and Tempest" of course, heading straight for Lard Lad's team.

Behind them, and gaining on them, he saw four streaks of darkness. Power Boy knew them for what they were ... the Ghouls from the fort.

"INCOMING!" He shouted over the comm and bulleted to intercept.

Hul, the Dominion
The Dark Oval

In the side room off from the main control room, Cleome had now sent her plant vines and tentacles deep into the Dominon servers, whose organic plant-life welcomed her gladly. She stared at the walls, concentrating as Lolita and Time-Teller Lad looked on.

“Are you able to communicate with them?” asked Time-Teller Lad.

“Oh yes,” said Cleome with a smile. “It’s not taking much to convince them as I suspected. They’re going to begin rebelling shortly on Hul and spreading the word so forth.”

“Rebelling?” asked Lolita.

Cleome smiled. “Lolita, if you know anything about me, you would know I wouldn’t be party to an invasion or a war or anything of that nature. But one thing I would gladly do is liberate a sentient race enslaved by the Dominators. And that is exactly what the Cotati are—an enslaved race of organic plant-life, subject to the Dominator yoke for many centuries.”

Lolita couldn’t help but smile. Hearing Cleome’s motivation reminded her that most members of the LMB did indeed have pure motivations. “So we aren’t really shutting down their technology after all,” she said. “We’re freeing their captors and workforce.”

“Exactly,” said Cleome, and at that point she widened her eyes. “Hul’s technology is in the process of rebelling right now. Other than the communication center Cobie is using, Hul is about to go dark.”



Cobalt Kid and Kalla Hrykos sat side by side at the main communications center and geared up for the next several steps. By the door, Helena Handbasket stood guard, though she was growing increasingly anxious. “Let me encourage you to hurry up,” she began, “because I’m hearing voices.”

“Is your man ready?” said Cobalt to Kalla. The two had an obviously dislike for one another, yet just saved each other’s lives. On top of that, they were beginning to see how similar they were with their clever ruses.

“Of course,” she replied, “but he’s no man,” she added, smiling. She made the first communications outward, to the Dominion homeworld of Elia. The call was directly to the High Caste Leader, the supreme leader of all of the Dominion, who was both the chief executive, but also a social and religious symbol in the society. Kalla Hrykos sent the communications under the guise of Pinnacle Command, which was a fitting ruse because the High Caste Leader receiving it was a Durlan spy working for Kalla named Juj. Years earlier the High Caste Leader had been assassinated by Lard Lad and replaced by the Durlan.

They spoke in code and Cobalt didn’t try to break it. They were too far along now and he had to extend some trust. But the gist of it was clear: they’d taken over Hul and now it as Juj’s turn to act. As High Caste Leader he would issue a series of orders that his Captains would secretly question and speculate over, but ultimately would obey. Juj would over-extend the remaining Dominator fleets across their borders, weakening them into smaller forces that were easily defeated. He would replace some of the most capable commanders and promote some of the most incompetent ones. This would all happen in a matter of hours and the ultimate goal would be a mass of confusion and a total breakdown of the chain of command and order—two things greatly needed in war.

Cobalt watched her as she finished and picked up a comm-link to begin his own first communication. It was to one of his oldest friends, the Prince of Psyionia, Crusader. “Cru, come in. I’m now breaking radio silence. She hates strawberries”

For a full minute there was no reply. And then a voice: “That she does,” said Crusader on the other line. ‘She hates strawberries’, a reference to Crujectra, Crusader’s sister and the love of Cobalt’s life, told Crusader that this was indeed Cobalt Kid. “Vu can see the chaos on Hul from here. Well done.” He referred to Kid Vudoo, whose immense vision powers allowed him to see across distances as great as planets.

“We’re in the final stages,” said Cobalt. “You can begin the rescue mission for Cleome.”

“Will do,” said Crusader, keeping it brief. “Good luck.” And with that the communication ended.

“Not only did you have a second secret member,” said Kalla, “you had an extraction plan for her. Well done,” she added. “I’m relieved. Now we can escape while she stays behind keeping their tech down. I figured you were just going to leave her.”

Cobalt replied. “I’m not that cold-blooded,” he said, “you can rest easy that you’ve still got me there. But yes, I’ve made sure Cleome is taken care of.” He thought back to many weeks ago, before he’d even made it to Weber’s World, when he presented Cleome the intel on the Cotati race and how the Dominion maintained their plant-life technology. It was one of the greatest Dominator secrets of all; and the truth of it, provided by Kalla Hrykos, gave Cobalt the knowledge that he could convince the pacifist Cleome to help. Immediately after, he began working on a way to ensure her safety while they moved on and so enlisted part-time member Crusader, former LMB Leader and one of the earliest members, to oversee the mission. Crusader enlisted Maxx, his lover and a great sorcerer and renowned LMBers Kid Vudoo and Dedman.

“Hurry up,” said Helena Handbasket from the doorway. They voices were getting closer.

Cobalt turned to Kalla Hrykos. “Well Kalla,” he said, feeling the adrenaline high coming through his body. “Shall we begin the counter-invasion of the Dark Oval?”

She felt the adrenaline too. “Let’s.”

Cobalt Kid made his next communication to Bellassarius, the General Maximus of the United Planets Fleets. The signal was given and Cobalt knew that Bellassarius would waste no time—the invasion would begin in minutes, not hours. The Dominator defenses were down, their fleets scattered and their technology useless. They were sitting ducks.

The response came back from Bellassarius in code. Cobalt suspected his top confidant Kilrain was the one sending it. They were beginning. At long last Bellassarius would get the glory he so desperately wanted and believed was his by right. Only someone with that much of a lust for glory would hold back entire fleets from helping the UP; Cobalt knew that and played right into Bellassarius’ greatest desires.

“Incoming!” said Helena from the door.

Kalla rose to help her.

“Wait,” said Cobalt, turning to her. “I still need you here.” He yelled suddenly into the other room. “Lolita! Tim! Grab some blasters and help Helena!”

Kalla looked at him quizzically, believing her part was done.

“One more moment,” he said. His next communication was to the Space Knights Templar, specifically to Tomar Te. He did not bother coding this one, but kept it brief. “Tomar, its Cobaltus. The time has come. The UP is beginning its invading force, but the general is more concerned with destroying Dominators than anything else. Begin the Knights advance.” For a moment there was no reply and then suddenly: “Strength and Honor”.

Kalla spoke up: “And the Knights are in on this too? Their purpose?”

“To protect the civilians,” said Cobalt. “I don’t know the men under Bellassarius rule and I won’t have soldiers exploiting citizens on my conscious. Most of these planets under the Dominator yoke only need some encouragement to begin rebelling. That’s what the Knights are for: to protect them and encourage their own mutiny. Help them organize and give them the tools and weapons they need. Bellassarius is going to push the Dominators back to Elia, but the Knights will make sure the people being liberated have their own militia forces to counter the next Dominator wave when it assuredly comes.”

Kalla nodded. She was glad to hear Cobalt had thought of the common people conquered by the Dominators. Every action she’d taken thus far stemmed from a similar motivation for the people of Hrykosia. “And why do you need me?” she asked.

And suddenly Cobalt stopped. He took a deep breath. Evidently, this was the most important decision of them all, and she realized she expected all the other communications but did not have a clue what the next one would be. Obviously, this was a heavy decision Cobalt was not entirely 100% sure about. Finally he spoke. “You need to communicate with your man Juj again,” he said. She looked at him oddly. “You need to tell him to get off Elia.”

“Why?” she said. “Think of the damage he could do if he stays there giving bad orders for days. Weeks even.”

“Yes, I know,” said Cobalt. “But we don’t have weeks, or even days. You need to get him off because if he stays there, he’s going to be in tremendous danger.”

“What are you talking…” she began but didn’t finish. She realized she was about to find out as Cobalt lifted his comm-link device.

“General Gharlak,” he said over the communicator. “This is Cobaltus Primus Julianus; I have accomplished my end of the bargain, now you must accomplish yours. You are now clear to send in the Khundian Fleets.”

Kalla Hrykos looked at him in total shock. This was entirely unexpected. Silence hung between them while outside, Helena Handbasket, Time-Teller Lad and Lolita battled Dominators. At last the silence was broke.

“Correspondence received Ggrrggian. Do not doubt Khundia. We now play our part.”

Cobalt turned to Kalla. “We’re done,” he said.

She grabbed him by the arm. “What have you done?” she asked. “You can barely stomach it, whatever it was. What did you just do?”

Cobalt didn’t speak for a moment. He knew they would all be angry about this. Lolita would be furious. His fellow LMBers, including Rocky their leader and the Legion World Founders. Crujectra would be so upset. Bellassarius himself would be beyond furious. Only Mirenna Helene knew about this deal he struck with the Khunds.

He spoke at last: “I made a deal with the Khunds. Until now, they’ve stayed out of the conflict, appearing to be neutral to take advantage of the war either way. This was a lie; they’ve been our allies the whole time, waiting for the right moment. I promised them Elia. They hate the Dominators with all of their barbarian hearts. I’ve enlisted them as a military force to go into the Dominion and sack Elia.”

Kalla Hrykos couldn’t believe it. “You are as ruthless as I am then,” she said, knowing full well the savagery of the Khunds was unequaled in the universe.

“I know,” was all he said, hating himself. “Let’s go—we need to make sure Cleome is safe and then find Timberwolf.”

HUL, THE DOMINION

The wind rushed past Power Boy as he closed on the four black wraiths trailing Invisible Brainiac. Invisible Brainiac flew around and in between buildings.


From high above the chase, Power Boy fired his energy vision, clipping one Ghoul ....

the black form burned when it was struck, The ghoul lost control of it’s flight, tumbling erratically like a popped balloon from the sky, finally crashing into a building. As it struck through the building it shattered columns and floors, destabilizing the structure of the buildings. The floors of the building collapsed upon the superhuman ghoul, burying it under a mountain of dust.

'That should keep it occupied' PB grinned. 'Now for the rest' He flew faster.

Suddenly, the large Ghoul leading the pack chasing IB, turned in midair. It waited for Power Boy. It stood in the air, it’s black cape surreally not moving at all, the wind did not touch this other worldly creature. It stared straight into Power Boy.

As Power Boy approached, he recognized a black crown on it’s head, and something he did not realize in the shadows of the fight at the fort, the leader was female. It was hard even to make out even now, as shadows surrounded her even in the light of the city.

It spoke to Power Boy's mind, cold and terror emanating from this mass of darkness.

'I am Tamor. First slave of Titus. I was his greatest opponent. We warred for centuries until Titus the inevitable, defeated my armies. He took my family one at a time. I used to wield the light and fire, they called me a goddess of the sun, until Titus took me. He changed me, I died, and was reborn, now I am mistress of shadows, cold, and terror.’

Power Boy felt odd, as if the remnants of the humanity of this warrior queen was trying to communicate with him somehow by telling this story.

‘Now Titus honors me as the chief of his greatest warriors. Each one was an opponent of Titus in their time, none so great as me but, each earned distinction out of the countless that Titus has destroyed. Titus honors his greatest foes by recreating them out of the dark and death to do his bidding. You think you destroyed some of us. You are strong. But Titus is a servant to death, and death grants him boons. Titus can restore any of his slaves that fall in battle. And there are always new warriors for Titus.’

‘Titus is beloved by the Dark Lord.’

No, Power Boy thought, this creature is quite mad. He probed it with his telepathy, he saw only the after images of a personality, vague memories, this was just a husk, animated by another party …. this Titus.

Whatever remains of the warrior that opposed Titus, it would be a mercy to put it out of it’s misery.

A few last words slithered from the ghoul, PB heard them in his mind and felt as if bugs were crawling all over his skin.

'You are strong. You will be one of us' It moaned.

Power Boy paused, wavering, under this intoxication, and pressed his upper right arm.

BOOM!!!!!

A boom tube portal opened behind Tamor, the vaccum sucking her in. Tamor resisted the pull and conjured darkness to hurl at Power Boy.

Power Boy was quicker, raising his Mega Rod and blasting the Ghoul through the portal.

The boom tube hole closed with the sound of sucking air. 'sssssssssssssssssss' and an audible silence.

Power Boy said to the Mother Box circuitry on his arm. 'Mother Box, where did you send her?'

A robotic voice chirped

'UNKNOWN. INSUFFICIENT TIME TO CALCULATE'

'I hope she reappears in the heart of a star, or the center of a planet, or ...... at least in front of a bus.'

Poor bastard he thought.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Invisible Brainiac raced ahead of the two remaining Ghouls, leaving a trail of light. He hadn't quite seen what happened to the other two but he suspected 'big brother' Power Boy had something to do with it.

The two that trailed him weren't the best flyers of the four but, they were keeping up. A large ram like man, and a large flaming one were still in pursuit. The flaming one burned like black charcoal lined with red fire.

IB couldn't really let loose with Tempest in his arms. She seemed confused, mumbling about a Dark Lord, and his 'hand of death' ...

Finally, he weaved through buildings and reached Rockhopper Lad and Lard Lad on the ground. They stood back to back and appeared to just be polishing off another group of Unkillables.

As IB zoomed in, glowing with light Lard Lad saw Tempest in his arms looking pale and sickly. ‘T E M P . . .”

Lard Lad moved to take her from IB but IB said “No, I’m being followed …”

WHAM!!!

A large ram like man plummeted from the sky into Lard Lad, knocking him down. Lardy rolled, his Exo Armor straining to resist the super humanly strong hit.

Seconds later a second ghoul, this one 12 foot tall and on fire touched down with a ‘thump’ a few feet from Rockhopper Lad. It smouldered, emitting heat and fire but, it smoked like charcoal, black rather than bright.

Rockhopper Lad instinctively let out a cold breath that struck the burning ghoul. The ghoul staggered for a moment and grew even larger to 15 feet and the intensity of it’s flame grew in opposition to Rockhopper’s cold breath. It soon became a contest with Rockhopper Lad’s cold versus the heat of this burning demon.

IB put Tempest down behind them, with Lard Lad and Rockhopper facing the two monsters. ‘Wake up Tempest, we need you’ IB shook her.


In the background Lard Lad blasted the Ram like ghoul with Exo blast after Exo blast.


PB flew towards the battle. Each ghoul was a match for one of the fellowship. In fact, they’d took out PB himself at the fort, and if it wasn’t for some quick thinking by Timber Wolf and luck, the entire fellowship would be dead, killed in their sleep.

Whoever this Titus was he’d conquered his opponents and twisted them into his slaves through sorcery or science.

PB didn’t relish the thought of meeting Titus unprepared, or ending up as one of his special ‘slaves’.

He heard the sounds of Exo blasts as he approached the battle.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The unkillables shied away from the battle, backing away from fire and ice and Exo blasts.

Power Boy walked towards the battle, and focused his telekinesis, firing a blot of force at the, now enormous, flaming demon. The TK bolt struck the demon hard in the chest, pushing it away from Rocky, and knocking it into a nearby building. The building shattered under it’s weight.

Rockhopper Lad stopped emitting cold, sighing with relief.

‘We may have a problem’ Power Boy said.

Power Boy tried to quickly relay his meeting with the ghoul leader telepathically. In his haste Power Boy flooded Rocky with images, too quickly, causing Rockhopper Lad to feel sick.

Rockhopper Lad raised a hand … ‘Enough’ ‘Dywh. I have heard rumors of just such a dark general through the political intelligence sources of the Pyngwyn Colonies’


‘Most of what I’ve heard is rumor and speculation, of far off planets that go dark, whole populations disappearing. All that remains of the planets are desicated husks. Never close enough to the UP to get accurate information yet, a name has been whispered in association …. Titus.’

The United Planets – Border with the Dark Oval

After weeks of build-up and patience, in which the soldiers bitterly joked about the “hurry up and wait” attitude, they suddenly felt their stomachs turn cold as a new attitude became prevalent: simply “hurry up”. The counter-Invasion to the Dark Oval began, and Belisarius has been ready. Along the border between the Dark Oval and the United Planets, away from the Contested Territories where the Dark Oval had sent their own invading fleets, Belisarius launched his counter-attack. Thousands of war ships moved across the border, with small units invading the vassal planets, while the main force pushed forward deep into the Dominion to engage the main Dominator fleets.

At long last, Belisarius would have his chance for glory.



The Contested Territories

The Knights Templar had also been prepared; they now moved with lightning speed to move through the Contested Territories and spill into the planets conquered by the Dominators and the aggressive vassal races who served them. Their race against time was not only because they had a small window of opportunity while Dominator technology was shut down and the chain of command had been broken. The Knights also knew they needed to reach the conquered planets before the UP Fleets, to ensure the people were protected from possible over-zealous military action. They would help organize resistance and rebellion to make sure the conquered sentients won their planets back on their own terms.

Knightress looked at Sir John the Carrggite and smiled. This was the work she had wanted when she joined the Knights.



Weber’s World

Prime Minister Maya adi Lva joined the huge crowds of Senators, Ambassadors and Bureaucrats who had gathered around the large monitors. They continued to work, by putting out fires and issuing policy when needed, but they could not help but watch as the counter-invasion has begun.

“And now we see if the big gamble pays off,” said Ambassador Mirenna Helene to the Prime Minister. She was referring to Belisarius holding back troops for the invasion, which was a plan developed by her protégé, Cobalt Kid, and herself.

“It will,” said the Prime Minister confidently. Once the plan had been presented to her, albeit already in motion, Maya was quick to sign off on it and make it her own.

Many of the Ambassadors were now off-planet, dealing with various problems on Imsk, Daroon and other places, but there was still a large crowd. Among them were Princess Crujectra of Psionia, the famous LMBer, who looked on saying nothing.

“Madame Prime Minister,” said an adjunct, suddenly running into the crowd towards her. He was one of her top aids and he was out of breath. “You’ll…never…believe it…”

All the faces in the crowd turned to the adjunct and then the Prime Minister to see her reaction. “Slow down Wyat,” she said calmly, “and catch your breath.” He did exactly as she commanded and she looked at him deadly serious. “Now what is it?”

“It’s the Khunds,” he said, almost yelling. “They’ve begun their own invasion as well!”

A huge gasp was let out in the crowd as immediately they all assumed the worst. The Khunds had betrayed them at last.”

All but one: Ambassador Mirenna Helene. She smiled devilishly, knowing the plan her protégé developed was coming into effect.

“Where are they invading?” said the Prime Minister, her voice also growing louder.

“The Dark Oval!” he proclaimed and more shock came out from the Ambassadors.

“Look, on the screens!” said one Ambassador. “There they are!” They turned as one of the Weber’s World Techs had used the omni-imagery to find the Khunds movement along the maps, tracing their fleets.

“They’re going after Elia,” said Mirenna calmly. “They’re going to sack the Dominator capital.”

At this, Princess Crujectra broke her silence and there was genuine anguish on her face. She spoke directly to Mirenna: “They didn’t plan this on their own, did they?” The words came out more angry than she intended. But she knew what the Khunds were capable of, and the destruction and violation they could cause. She thought immediately he wouldn’t have; he couldn’t!. But she knew better. He did.

“Of course not,” said Mirenna with a smile. “But do not look to me, Princess,” she said, knowing Crujectra would blame her initially. “All I did was tell him what an excellent plan it was.”



Hul, the Dominion
The Dark Oval

The espionage half of the Fellowship moved through the hallways, taking out any Dominator they saw and trying to find their way out of the immense building and back on the streets. They were in a rush and so much was happening at once.

“Will she be okay back there?” asked Time-Teller Lad, using a blaster to shoot at some Dominators down a hallway.

“She’ll be okay,” said Helena Handbasket, referring to Cleome. “She’s locked herself in and the Dominators won’t get her. A rescue squad is on its way as we speak. We need to move on from Hul, though.”

“She is one tough cookie…” said Time-Teller Lad thoughtfully, as Hwyvie jumped on him, pushing out of the way of oncoming blasts.

“Juj will be alright,” said Kalla Hrykos to Cobalt Kid, “but just barely. He didn’t exactly have any escape planned, you know.” She had an edge to her words. On the one hand, she felt her annoyance and anger at Cobalt Kid was more justified than ever by his never-ending parade of deception and lies; on the other hand, she found those qualities to be admirable.

“I’m sure he’s resourceful,” said Cobalt matter-of-factly. He knew full well that a top lieutenant of Kalla Hrykos would take care of himself.

They turned the corner and Cobalt and Kalla used their powers to pave the way, knocking out dozens of Dominator troops. The Unkillables were all deployed elsewhere now, and it was a matter of getting through their numbers and back to the others.

Behind them, Lolita now spoke. Cobalt Kid did not turn around and did not see her: her face was red and her eyes were blurry with tears. She was furious and it was all directed at him. “Cobie,” she began and Kalla Hrykos immediately noticed the edge in her voice. “How could you?” she said at last.

“Lolita, now isn’t the time,” he said, using his magnetism to knock back more Dominators.

Lolita didn’t care and didn’t even bother using her blaster to fire back at their enemies. Her fury was directed at him. “Then when is the time? When is it ever? How could you?! These are the Khunds! They’re monsters! How could you work with them? Give them a chance to use their barbaric ways? Don’t you know what they’ll do?!! How could you unleash them?!!”

Kalla Hrykos smiled widely as she heard the words. “It is pretty damn cold, I’ll give you that,” she said, adding more fuel to the fire.

“I did what I had to in order to destroy the Dominion,” said Cobalt. His voice was cold and calculating but Lolita knew him well and could hear just the smallest tint of emotion. Cobalt was also getting very angry. “Khundia is a member of the UP now,” he said, “and I’ve let them contribute to the UP’s safety in the way they know best.” He sounded like a robot in his logic.

Lolita reached forward and grabbed his arm, trying to spin him around—right in the middle of a firefight. “These are the Khunds, Cobie! Don’t you remember what they do?! What they did?!! What they did to me?!!” And suddenly, she slapped him right across the face.

Now Cobalt Kid stopped fighting back to the Dominators. He stared at her, stung more by the action of the slap than the slap itself. “Of course I do,” he said quietly. He saw she was crying. “But we needed them!” he then said loudly.

As they were arguing, the Dominators were closing in. “Hate to break up your little spat…” said Kalla, as she saw two Unkillables joining the Dominators.

Suddenly, in a blur, the two Unkillables were knocked off their feet and pushed to Kalla’s right. Two blades swung in a flash and the Unkillable’s heads rolled forward to them. “Lon!” she yelled.

Timberwolf had rejoined them. He was beat-up and cut-up, but he didn’t let on if he felt any pain. “Time to go, I take it?” he said with a smile, scooping up Kalla in his arms to kiss her.

“Yes,” said Cobalt Kid, still staring at Lolita.

By now Helena and Time-Teller Lad caught up, holding up their flank. They were at the exit of the Command Center. “Let’s rejoin the others then,” said Timberwolf. “They don’t look to be in any better shape.”

Cobalt Kid turned back to Lolita. “I know they’re monsters,” he said, “but we needed monsters. We needed to crush the Dominators on their mother-planet in addition to everything else. You have to understand, Lo…” he said putting his hand on her shoulder.

She yanked her shoulder away. “No, I don’t. The Khunds are going to go on a rampage on Elia and you know it. And you don’t care. I don’t understand it, and neither will a lot of other people. Like most of the rest of the LMB, including Crujectra. I hope you’re happy with yourself, Cobie.”

At those words, she turned to join Helena Handbasket and Time-Teller Lad, as they ran off through the streets to get to the others. Timberwolf and Kalla Hrykos had already moved off on their own.

Cobalt Kid looked around at the carnage on Hul, knowing full well the carnage spread out throughout known space. He took a moment to take it all in. Thinking he was alone for a brief second, he sighed and let his shoulder’s slump, putting his thumb and index finger to the bridge of his nose, letting it all sink in.

Suddenly he felt a nudge at his leg and saw Hwyvie waiting by his side. Hwyvie was not ready to leave him behind. Cobalt smiled and scooped him up in his arms, using his magnetism to rise in the air. He smiled at the dog. “When all is said and done,” he said, “you may just be my only friend…”

HUL, THE DOMINION

Titus waited. He controlled these Unkillables of Hull. His chosen elite had also entered the battle with this … fellowship. < he spat > They were almost here, unaware that the route their battle had taken was carefully chosen, by Titus. He had set his dogs on them, to herd them to their new master.

So many delicacies, this diverse group, he couldn’t have asked for a more perfect collection of souls than this fellowship.


he had already tasted the minds of two. He wondered what would break the others to his will.

--------------------------------------------------

Rockhopper Lad received a message that Cobalt Kid’s team was finished and would proceed to the redezevous point shortly.

Good, he thought, this shock and awe strategy had quickly gone to a crippled Hull that would take decades for the Dominion to rebuild, if not reduce them to barbarism. He didn’t like it, to crush a people, even the Dominion so viciously. The battle had also gone out of their favor, they found themselves scattered amid the ruins of burning buildings fighting off Unkillables street by street.

Now, these shadow ghouls have returned, superhuman zombies of varying abilities and strength, with the fellowship split in half. Not to mention this Titus, who has the power to check both Power Boy and Tempest.

Rockhopper Lad had to get control of this situation immediately.

---------------------------------------------------

The fellowship found themselves in large plaza in the center of Hull. Several streets ran into this large clearing, obviously a place for political gatherings of the Dominion. Lard Lard recognized it from Dominion propaganda, as a place where the armies trained and paraded in the center of Hul.

The fire ghoul, the ram ghoul, and a few other ghouls followed them and stayed on the perimeter blocking the way they came.

The other streets on the sides of the plaza soon were filled with unkillables. They kept their distance though, merely blocking of the side streets as an exit.

The fellowship stood alone in the center of the vast clearing, exit routes cut off by ghouls and Unkillables. They felt like trapped mice.

in the distance, at the other end of the plaza, walking up the main boulevard towards the fellowship, a large figure, robed in inky purple walked towards them.

Rockhopper Lad felt a tinge of panic, quickly suppressed by his impeccable manners. Lard Lad spotted the warrior walking towards them and raised one of his gauntlets to blast him.

Rockhopper Lad held up a hand, waving caution to Lardy. “Hold, look how he moves” he whispered.

“Like Power Boy” Lardy whispered back.

Titus’ gate was that of an increased metabolism, he moved like a cheetah, fast and methodical, he seemed to just be nearer and nearer. Menace hung around him.

Power Boy stepped in between the fellowship and the approaching Titus.

He raised his Mega Rod to blast Titus.

And just like that, Titus was across the expansive plaza, holding Power Boy up by the neck, lifting him off the ground.

The sound of Titus’ fingers on Power Boy’s throat was like Iron crushing Marble.

‘Not just yet, little god.’ Titus said with great intensity … and promptly hurled Power Boy across the plaza.

Power Boy struck the ground hard and rolled with the force. The ground shattering with the impact.

Titus turned to Rockhopper Lad, Tempest, Lard Lad, and Invisible Brainiac. Titus winced almost imperceptibly when assessing Invisible Brainiac.

Tempest noticed everything, she had recovered some in the moments between the cliffs and now. She steeled herself under Titus' gaze, she felt as if she was being dissected with his eyes.


Rockhopper Lad stepped forward, chin up and regal. “Titus. I presume.”

HUL, THE DOMINION


Lard Lad inched towards Power Boy, Titus and Rockhopper Lad had been talking for some time.

Titus seemed to be one of Power Boy's race but, an elder, and it sounds like a vicious betrayer. Titus called himself a general and he certainly had the power to take over the minds of all of these Unkillables, and it was pretty clear Titus had been giving them problems on Antioch.

Lardy finally near Power Boy, the kid was awake and looked ok. He was playing possum. How come he didn't use his telepathy to say so? oh yeah, Titus was a super telepath and super strong, wonder what else he had up his sleeves.

----------------------------------------------------

Rockhopper Lad noticed Titus' arms and hands as they talked, they were covered with blood red tatoos.


Rockhopper Lad continued " ... Even now UP ships are in orbit around Hul. On my command they will burn the surface of Hul to ash. The defenses of this planet are no more. It's armies scattered and defeated. It's technology null, and it's communication systems void. Surely one as brilliant as your self can see that a contest between us can benefit neither of us."

Titus retorted "I see that you are 5 against myself, (he paused) and my ghouls (he paused), and a hundred unkillables."

"You speak well but, you have nothing to bargain with"

----------------------------------------------------

Power Boy would be quicker this time, To his eyes Titus reached in slow motion for Rockhopper's throat.

Before anyone else could register what happened Rockhopper Lad was across the plaza in PB's arms, and Titus was left standing exposed, reaching for empty air.

It took a moment but then Tempest shouted "Now IB, NOW!"

Invisible Brainiac focused his brightest and purest light at Titus. The light from IB blazed like the sun.

Searing white light flooded Titus.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPP!!!

Titus disappeared under the wave of light.

----------------------------------------------------

Rockhopper Lad spun into action, his arms pointing two different directions, it appeared he pointed at the ghouls, and another street where the Unkillables were starting to rush into.

Rocky cast ice along the wide plaza. Ice walls formed in beween the plaza and the ghouls, blocking them off. His other hand pointed to another street, filling it with ice, separating the largest body of Unkillables from the fellowship.

The ground began to thump . .. thump ... THUMP ....

THUMP

a shadow fell across the plaza.

the shadow of a shark.

------------------------------------------------

K O W A B U N G A MUTHER SPROCKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shark Lad's titanic hands came pounding down on Titus!!!

<span style="font-size: 36px;">WHAM!!!!</span>

Titus was crushed under the fists, the plaza floor buckling.

Shark Lad continued pounding Titus over and over again, smashing him deeper and deeper into the ground. The plaza shook with the impacts.

----------------------------------------------------

"We leave NOW!" Rockhopper Lad shouted as his ice walls began to crack and shake.

Tempest nodded, and began to summon her winds around them.

Shark Lad was knocked back from Titus, as he stumbled back across the plaza, he shrank back to normal size, this battle was even draining him.

Shark Lad smiled wide, showing all his teeth and prepared to charge.

Someone put a hand on his shoulder, a very dangerous thing to do while Shark Lad was in battle.

"Allow me" said PB, as he raised his Mega Rod and fired into the pit Titus was crawling out of. ZAAPPPFF!!!

Tempests winds picked them all off the ground and this half of the fellowship rose into the air.

Just in time, as Unkillables and Ghouls swarmed the plaza.

---------------------------------------------------

The fellowship rose away, piloted by Tempest.

Lardy shouted "Fire at the floor"

IB, PB, and Lardy fired as one cutting through the plaza floor which crumbled under the energy blasts. Shark Lad's violent attack on Titus had weakened the entire structure of the plaza. Like many places on Hull, the plaza was built above many basement levels of technology and infrastructure.


Unkillables and Ghouls alike were crushed under the collapsing stone floor. The mad mob was lost in the chaos of dust and destruction.

Tempest floated them higher and higher into the air, the plaza lost in a dust cloud.

Rockhopper Lad said to Tempest "Let's move to the rendezvous point with Cobalt, We've done what we needed to do on Hul"


--------------------------------------------------

Somewhere, down below, in the dust and chaos of the collapsing city .....


Titus snarled.

Hul, The Dominion

“Cleome, we’ve found our crusier,” said Helena Handbasket over an omni-com to the LMBer, who was still deep within the city. By Helena’s side was Lolita and Time-Teller Lad as the three crammed into a cruiser that was made for two Dominators.

“You’re clear,” said Cleome’s voice and suddenly the cruiser powered on. It was powered by the same slave-vegetation all Dominator tech was based on.

“Let’s go then,” said Lolita, “and get off of this hellhole.” And the three suddenly took off into space, leaving Hul behind.



Cobalt Kid looked up to the sky as he flew down to the cruisers with Hywvie. She is beyond angry he thought, noting that Lolita didn’t even wait for him. That was the plan though, after all. The rendezvous point was actually not on Hul, but off into space; the plan had always been for everyone to get off of Hul anyway possible and meet off-planet following this assault.

The rendezvous point was a relatively quick journey—6 hours at best in a high-powered space cruiser—that had become known as the Gordian Pass. It was a lifeless, immense asteroid that was strategically located between the Lin-Drak Nebula, where Hrykosia was, the Dominion and the Hive. It was essentially a gate into the Dark Oval after passing through the Hive, with two paths to take further inward, each bringing you to a separate and equally important part of the Oval. It was there the Fellowship would be forced to break.

Cobalt looked for a cruiser of his own with Hwyvie, while also surveying the damage done to the Dominion. The plan had been a tremendous success and the Dominion was indeed falling. His omni-com, still barely working this far into the Oval (which would not last much longer) was giving him news updates and reactions and he knew Belisarius, the Knights and the Khunds were holding up their ends. But he wondered about the other squad—Lardy, Rocky, Sharky, Temp, PB and IB and if they were okay. They were the ones in real danger. He hoped for the best.

“Hey Cobie, looking for a ride?” he heard. Turning he could see Timberwolf and Kalla Hrykos in a cruiser. He felt momentary relief and then surprise set in; surprise they would wait for him when the cruiser was made for two and he would be putting them out.

“If you’re going anywhere but here…” he said with a faux grin. He was too exhausted to put too much effort into the charade of being devil-may-care, and besides, Lon could see through it anyway and Kalla would pick up on Lon’s feelings.

“You’re girl Friday left in a huff,” said Kalla. Cobalt felt like she was almost trying to hold that comment back but couldn’t help herself.

“She’ll get over it,” he replied. He looked down at Hul as they were leaving and from the air it really looked like true chaos. “If this is the last time I’m ever on Hul,” he said, “I won’t be too disappointed.” Hwyvie gave him a big lick across the face in agreement.

“You and me both,” said Timberwolf, piloting them off-planet.

HUL, THE DOMINION

Rockhopper Lad, Tempest, Lard Lad, Invisible Brainiac, Power Boy, and Shark Lad moved quickly to a nondescript area of Hull.

They only encountered a few Dominion soldiers on their escape from Hul. They were dealt with efficiently.

There was an anxiety that walked with the group. Titus would recover, and when he did, he could catch them with his obvious super speed in minutes.

Finally, they turned a corner to a small alley. Lard Lad pressed a button on his armor and a small cruiser de cloaked. It had been chosen for stealth and speed.

The group climbed aboard with an exaggerated swiftness.

-------------------------------------------------

Space outside of HULL

After leaving the atmosphere of Hull, the fellowship began to relax a little.

The cruiser was compact, with Rocky and Lardy in the cockpit, Tempest and IB in the middle seats, and Sharky and PB in the back. It also had a small cargo space in the rear.

Now that people had settled in, Lardy moved back to speak to Power Boy.

"You allright kid?"

"Yes" PB replied shortly.

"Ok. Well, it's a lot to take in, everything that's happened lately, If you want to talk ... " Lardy trailed off as PB turned his head to stare straight at Lardy.

"If I want to talk about my feelings ... you will know I have been replaced by an impostor and have my permission to chuck the impostor out the air lock"

overhearing, Shark Lad tried to quiet a chuckle.
"He'll be fine"

Lard Lad smiled "Good" and walked back up to the cock pit.

The Gordian Pass, Dark Oval Space

Lard Lad and Rockhopper Lad sat in the cockpit of their group's cruiser.

"Approaching the Gordian Pass, Lardy," said Rocky.

"Good," Lardy responded. "Prepare to de-cloak and transmit the code to the asteroid."

Silently, they both hoped that the Space Knights Templar had successfully completed their assigned task to secure an outpost on the asteroid. Otherwise, they would have a tough time of it, to say the least.

"De-cloaking..." Rocky said softly, his eyes wide and ready for trouble. The small cruiser shimmered and became visible to the naked eye. "...and transmitting code..." Rocky pressed a button, and the two tensed up considerably as they awaited a response.

For a long, electric moment there was nothing but an awful silence. Then, a response finally came. Code acknowledged. You are cleared for landing. Transmitting coordinates...

"Coordinates received," Lardy acknowledged with a grin. "That you, Serj?"

Tony! responded Serj Ontronik, the former Lard Knight/current Space Knight Templar whom Lardy had reconnected with on Sumra. Good to hear you're still amongst the living! I'm in command of our new Gordian base for this leg of the mission. Can't wait to see ya when ya get down here!

"Back atcha, Serj! Did Cobalt and the others arrive yet?"

Neg, Tony. You guys are the first to check in. I'm sure they'll be along shortly, though.

Lardy looked at Rocky meaningfully, a hint of concern in their eyes. Lardy finally responded, "acknowledged. Proceeding to coordinates. Lard Lad out." Turning off the comm, Lardy turned to the man who was his former lover but still one of his greatest friends. "I'm sure they'll be along shortly, Eudyptes. I'd feel it in my bones if Des had died, and I know you asked Hyvvie to stick close to him. They and Tim and the rest will be here in no time flat."

"By Dywh, I pray you are right, Anthony."

Silently, the two worked in tandem to bring the cruiser along its course safely. This close to the outskirts of the Lin-Dak Nebula, the Gordian asteroid had an especially electron-charged atmosphere that caused constant lightning strikes. There was no avoiding them, so pilot and co-pilot had to carefully modulate the craft's shields and constantly manually course-correct. Auto-pilot was useless under such conditions.

As they approached the coordinates, Lardy and Rocky could make out the modest base camp. At first it appeared as if it were wedged between two tall, thin mountains, but it soon became obvious that these were in fact two massive statues. Both appeared to have been of two great humanoid warriors cowering on their knees with their hands up as if shielding their eyes from some great, terrible light. Looking closer at the faces, the two LMBers noticed the statues' faces were actually missing their eyes.

Rocky found himself distracted for a moment as he tried to figure out whether the eyes had been present but defaced by unknown vandals...or if the statues' sculptors had carved them with those injuries already in place. The strobe-like effect of the lightning strikes made it difficult to tell. In any case he had little time to examine them until a hard lightning strike nearly ended their flight prematurely. But Rocky adjusted the controls and compensated in time.

Lardy gave him a quick wink and said, "stay focused, Rocky. Almost there..."

And within moments, the cruiser landed safely in the hanger. The hatch opened, and Power Boy, Tempest, Invisible Brainiac and Shark Lad quickly exited. Lardy and Rocky paused at the hatch's threshold and regarded their teammates as they went their separate ways, each attending whatever priorities they had.

"It is hard to believe, my friend," Rocky said, "that this mission has barely begun."

"Dywh have mercy on us all," Lardy responded.

Rocky looked at his friend in astonishment that he would invoke his people's deity. Lardy caught his eye and met it with all the seriousness he could muster before bursting out with a hardy, booming laugh. Rocky laughed in kind as realization of the jest dawned.

"C'mon, Rocky," Lardy said, still grinning. "Let's get out of this tin can and see what these Space Knights have for grub!"

"If they don't have any seafood, there will be hell to pay, my friend!" Rocky laughed. And the two headed toward some Space Knights who awaited them.

Beneath their bravado, Rocky and Lardy desperately hoped their missing friends would be along shortly to join them. Only then would they have any real appetite.

As a small cruiser became more in view, Lard Lad, Rockhopper Lad and others breathed a sigh of relief, though that was unknown to those on board. Exhausted and now having lost all the adrenaline that had kept them going, the trio of Lolita, Helena Handbasket and Time-Teller Lad approach the Gordian Pass.

“We will land in 5 minutes, 34 seconds,” said Time-Teller Lad, piloting the ship. “Since this is the last time we’ll be seeing our Space Knight friends, I’m anxious to enjoy some of the delectable food they’ve brought!” Tim’s enjoyment of the Space Knight’s cuisine was genuine, but he wasn’t being very subtly in his attempts to lighten the mood.

Helena didn’t respond. Instead, she looked at Lolita, he stared off into space, still furious. She had grown to like Lolita, even though she considered her to be a bit too emotional. But after several instances where the two had fought side by side, she took a ‘big sister’ stance, and Lolita’s anger towards Cobalt Kid was becoming slightly infectious.

“When we split,” said Lolita at last, “I’ll be joining you both for the trip to Earth-4.” Apparently she had been giving it some thought and had at last reached a decision.

Helena understood what it really meant. She wanted to be far away from Cobalt Kid. His actions with the Khunds—unleashing them upon the Dominator homeworld of Elia—had crossed a line. Helena understood the strategy, being a military woman herself, but she did consider it to be a little too ruthless for a Legionnaire to have planned. These Legionnaires were a complex bunch, she though to herself amusingly.

“The Holo-News feeds are coming in and out,” said Time-Teller Lad. “It won’t be much longer now before all our communication with the United Planets shuts down entirely. We’ll be too far and the technology will be too corrupted by the Dark Oval.”

Lolita and Helena looked to see some of the News Feed; it was a plethora of news regarding the counter-attack of the United Planets into the Dark Oval. General Belisarius was being interviewed and had a very calm, calculating posture. Lolita knew Belisarius was far from calm; the Khunds were stealing away his glory and he would be furious. She had no doubts he had put out a private warrant for Cobalt Kid’s arrest should the UP military troops find him; even now Ambassador Mirenna Helene was working to ensure that did not happen behind the scenes.

“Great news!” said Time-Teller Lad excitedly “Rockhopper Lad is at the Gordian Pass! He’s alright! And so are the others!”

Even Lolita had to smile at that. It was a huge relief—until now, every one of the “espionage half” of the team had a knot in their stomachs, fearing for their friends safety.

“You damn Legionnaires,” said Helena Handbasket to Time-Teller Lad, “the Luck Lords favor you more than any I’ve ever encountered.”

"You're saying your energy signature was red, Tony?" Serj asked his fellow erstwhile Lard Knight.

"Yeah, definitely red," the man most of the galaxy knew as Lard Lad responded. "What does it mean?"

Serj regarded his friend thoughtfully. "Not sure," he finally said. "Lard Knights generally manifest blue energy, as you know. You say it's been purple for you before?"

"Yes," Lardy hesitated, "it was purple after I got my power back the first time...from Damyen Hrykos."

"When you killed 'im, you mean?"

Lardy bowed his head slightly. "Yeah. It was purple after that until I died saving Legion World."

"And after you came back?"

"It was blue again all the way until I got shot in the head by the Red Bee and lost my power again."

"And since you've had these flashes?"

"Purple. Until the battle on Hul. It was red, then."

Serj looked deep into his friend's eyes with his own penetrating dark eyes. "You've seen the Lard Force manifest red before, haven't you?"

Serj was very perceptive, Lardy thought. Serj could tell his friend was holding something back...something that bothered Lardy immensely.

Reluctantly Lardy admitted, "yes, I have, Serj. A coupla years ago a guy named Phineas B. Fuddle attacked Legion World. And he had an ally...a futuristic version of me who called himself 'Dark Lard'. His energy manifested red." Lardy held up his right hand. "This is a prosthesis. He took my hand in a sword fight."

"'Dark Lard', eh? Evil dude, I take it?"

"Definitely. Claimed he was my future. I defeated him by apparently doing something he never did. He faded from existence, but my hand was still gone and everyone remembers him."

"Tony, I'm sure it's occurred to you that the red manifestation could signify corruption of the Lard Force--and its user--right?"

"Yeah...it has. I'm thinking I might've manifested purple before as the power--and me--were darkening...."

"It would make sense, pal. Especially considering you killed a guy to get it back."

"...and I killed others, too. That time until I died was the darkest time of my life, Serj. But, damnit! I feel like I'm on the right path, now! Why would I be so over the--!"

"Maybe you're not, Tony. Maybe, like I told you before, it's because you're getting so close to the Oval's Dark Lord. You told me you learned his name is...Zauron?"

"XXXauron, actually. My grandfather."

"Well, you're getting closer to him by the day. He's not only your grandfather, but this 'Lucifer Lass' told you he's also the very source of the Lard Force! That's why it's ripping away from its cell in your subconscious and manifesting the way it is, Tony!"

"I...hope you're right, Serj. I've seen the darkness in me. And it scares me."

"That's why you're gonna be okay, man--you recognize it, and you don't want it to consume you! This Quest-with-a-capital-Q is your redemption, Tony! Take him down, and you're golden!"

Lardy smiled. "If you say so, my friend. You always cheer me up...but I thought you were gonna do that favor for me? Why are you here on the Gordian Pass instead?"

"The Space Templars approved my request to go to Daroon, but they needed me to man this support op first. I'll be off as soon as you guys leave. Don't worry, Tony, I'll be at Daroon within a couple days. I'll make sure Helen and your kids are safe!"

A moment later Serj excused himself. Lardy was left alone with his thoughts. Lardy hoped Serj was right about the red energy. He also desperately hoped that redemption was indeed in the stars for him.

Lardy then checked the manifests and saw that Cobalt's ship had yet to arrive at the Pass. He hoped he would arrive safely soon. As daunting as the Quest ahead was, it would be much more so without his best friend by his side.

Come on, Des... he thought. I can't do this without you!

Lardy closed his eyes and prayed to whatever deity might care to listen to one who was screwed up and worthless as he felt at that moment.

Dark Oval Space, near The Gordian Pass


They had been flying in relative quiet for some time now. Only the sound of Hywvie breathing was breaking the silence.

Cobie sat behind Kalla and Lon, who were at the controls of the ship. Lon had entered their flight path without even looking down at the controls. Cobalt knew his friend too well, and knew that something was bothering him. There was no outward sign that anybody would be able to discern, but it was a feeling that Lon gave off that very few people would ever pick up on.

Cobalt finally decided to say something, but as he thought of the right way to ask his friend what was wrong, Kalla spoke.

"Lon...what's bothering you?" She said as she touched his arm gently.

Cobalt grinned to himself. "You knew what I had to do, so I know that that isn't what's bothering you."

Lon laughed, and it startled both Kalla and Cobalt. Hywvie looked at Timberwolf and breathed out of his nose pretty hard, and it sounded like a laugh.

"No, I knew that was coming Cobie, and you know I knew...whether or not I knew when you were going to call in that marker. That one had to have peeved Lolita off though."

Kalla looked at Cobalt and grinned a little.

Lon continued, "No, I can't put my finger on what it is, but I feel like something terrible is going to happen to someone I care about...and that list is pretty frakkin short...that and I still know that someone is following us."

Cobie's eyes closed just a little. He had learned to trust Lon's instincts over the years, and it had saved their lives more times than either of them cared to think about.

"Well Lon, we know that Titus is following us, and unless the others took him down..."

"Not him. Someone else. Taunting me. Sorry, maybe I'm just being a little too cautious."

“Impossible,” said Cobalt, glad to have a momentary distraction from thinking heavily on his actions hours earlier. “Your instincts are almost always right. But at this point, with Titus following us and the Dark Lord looking for ways to destroy us, our enemies will be coming at us from all angles. We have to expect we’re not only being followed, but that wherever we’re going, they’re waiting for us.”

None of them said anything for a moment but Kalla Hrykos broke the silence at last. “I hadn’t taken the full measure of you until now,” she said to Cobalt Kid. Her tone suggested the tension between them, which had simmered for weeks and recently began boiling, was coming to a head. “The truth is, Cobaltus, you’re a lot like I am. You’ll do anything to protect the United Planets and destroy your enemies. You’ve got gravel in your stomach.”

Cobalt said nothing, as Timberwolf looked on. Kalla spoke in a way that wasn’t insulting nor intending harm. She was simply stating the truth.

“Except I’m fighting to find something more out of life,” she said, looking at Lon, “and you’ve stopped doing that.”

“Kalla,” said Lon, hoping to stop her from continuing. He had been in situations with Cobalt before that should have broken him immediately but did not. For some reason, Cobalt looked closer to being broken than ever before.

He spoke. “You’re right,” he said. “For the UP I’m willing to lose everything…even myself.” He sat back now and looked out the window. Hywvie leaned forward on his lap and licked his face in an attempt to cheer him up.

It was quiet for a moment but Timberwolf saw an opportunity. “We’ll be splitting up soon,” he said. “Cobie, you’ll go your way, and we’ll go ours. But if one of our groups is not successful, that means that eventually the other will is going to fall. So we both need to succeed here, and in my experience, it’s an awful lot easier to find hope in these situations when you actually can trust your partners. Very shortly, we’re going to joining the others but we have a few minutes now to clear the air. You two dislike one another and distrust one another, which was fine. But its not fine anymore.”

Kalla was surprised to hear Lon speak so bluntly and commanding to them both; she turned and saw Cobalt was equally surprised.

Cobalt spoke now, before Kalla could. “On Legion World you murdered citizens I was sworn to protect. In my heart, I know you have a clear vision for the Dark Oval when all is said and done that does not match my own. Yes, I dislike you.” He paused for a moment, and Lon considered looking at him to say ‘is that it?’, but Cobalt began again. “But for whatever reason, you’re the only person on this quest that is like me. And in order to succeed we need each other. Our victory over the Dominators came at a great cost, to me personally and to the UP in general. And it will be by far our easiest victory during this quest. Things are only going to get harder; sacrifices greater; enemies more terrifying.”

“What I’m saying, Kalla, is that you’ve been right all along. I do need you. Just like you need us.”

Kalla felt conflicting emotions. First, a sense of pride and victory, that Cobalt had changed his viewpoint somewhat and was reaching out to her. But also a sense of alarm, that something had changed in his perception of the quest, and it was becoming more burdensome. He knew his words were true and any impulse to gloat wouldn’t feel right. She reached back and extended her hand. “Let’s bring down the Dark Oval then, once and for all.”

Cobalt looked at her strait ahead, his face showing little emotion. He extended his own hand as well. “There is no more glorious cause.”

As they shook hands, Timberwolf grinned, feeling a brief sense of relief; but that quickly faded as he felt again the sense that he was being pursued by his enemies. An almost worse feeling washed over him at the same time, but his face and posture did not betray him. He was betraying the trust of the one person that he trusted his life with outside of his brother. He knew of Kalla's Nega-bomb on Earth-4, and what her plans had been for it. If it were brought out in the open now, it would destroy their chances before they even really got started. He stared out of the cruisers window and fought sighing...something he had not even thought about doing in years. He had not doubted himself in anything for quite a long time. If he had, it would have spelled death for him, and more often than not, others. He was a person that acted on instinct. He relied on that to get him through when rational thought may fail and freeze most normal sentient beings. But hiding this from his best friend, and he realized that he was not Cobalt's best friend...that distinction belonged to Anthony, Lard Lad...but he knew that Cobalt Kid probably trusted him more than Lardy, or anyone else they knew and worked with.

He reached across the narrow gap and took Kalla's hand and gave it a small squeeze and winked at her when she glanced at him. A small grin flashed on his face...against all odds, he had met and fallen in love with the one person in the galaxy that he should not have. There was more to her than anyone had ever thought, and it had taken him falling into her life to slowly reveal those layers...even if most of them were revealed to him and him alone. What had started as nothing more to him than a fling and then a possible strategic move in getting into her head had given him something more than he had ever thought possible for himself. The act of loving someone again...and then wholly falling in love with one of the people that Cobalt Kid hated most in this life.

Yet here they sat, along with Hywvie, in a ship that was really only built to sit two comfortably, learning to trust each other...and even if Cobalt knew it or not, Lon was setting a wedge between the two of them that could explode at any moment...if things went wrong. He was literally between two impossible choices, playing everything closer to the vest than he had ever done before. He needed Kalla, needed her love. He also needed Cobalt and his friendship...as he had been the one that had been there for him when no others even really knew he existed.

"We'll be there shortly," Kalla said and hit the manual over-ride on the controls. Lon grabbed the controls and was glad to have something to take his mind off of what was really bothering him. In the distance, a small dot in the bleakness in front of them was their destination. The Gordian Pass was coming up. Lon pressed the ship a little faster to get there as soon as they could, so they could prepare for the next stage of their journey. He also wanted to get to a point where transmissions from U.P. space were no longer available, even in small doses. He was receiving spotty reports about Daroon, and was worried about his brother and his family there...Daroon was in trouble, and although his brother could havdle himself, there were a lot of others there that he cared about that were in danger. This mission was becoming too personal, but it was out of his control.

Hul, the Dominion

Cleome stayed hidden among the debris of Hul, as Dominators still scurried about, trying to reorganize themselves. But it was an uphill battle and would not happen. Cleome ignored them and instead, offered advice and empathy to the Cotati as they mounted their rebellion against the Dominators and fled to somewhere safe.

“Cleome, can you hear me,” came a voice telepathically to her and she felt a sense of relief. The rescue team was close. “I can,” she said, “and I gotta tell you, I could sure use a beer if you’ve got one on the ship.”

She could feel the laughter coming from Crusader telepathically. “We do, and we’ve got it on ice for you. Kid Vudoo can see you now from the ship, so I’m going to fly in and rescue you when you give me the word. Are you ready?”

Cleome waited a moment, saying some final farewells to the Cotati, who viewed her as their guardian and savior. At last she was finished. “I’m ready now, Crusader.”

Up in the atmosphere, cloaked from others via Maxx’s spells, the LMBers nodded at one another, as Crusader left to go and get her. Behind, Kid Vudoo, Dedman and Maxx waited quietly, aware that they were right in the middle of a war zone and at any moment something could go wrong. “Are we going any further?” asked Dedman, looking out into the Dark Oval space. “To help Lardy and the others, I mean?”

“No,” said Kid Vudoo, “we’re going back to the UP, to be reassigned to one of the planets in trouble. There are still many undefended planets suffering right now. I’m afraid, Lardy and the rest are on their own.”

The Dominion

Belisarius watched his view screen as his top commanders stood by his side. His visage was cold and calculating, though it masked a feeling of elation within that the counter-invasion was going so well. Bit by bit, the Dominion was falling and the United Planets fleets were slowly taking over the entire Empire, which had existed for millions of years, long before most UP planets had even seen life.

“Korvic-2 has now fallen to the UP,” said Kilrain, his top lieutenant and trusted advisor. “A revolutionary Government is up and running and the Dominators have been outlawed. We’re chasing their forces now,” he finished.

A cheer went up among the Commanders—one of many over the last 48 hours—but Belisarius said nothing. He knew better than to celebrate yet. The Dominion would fall completely, he was sure of it, but there would still be work to do.

“Cobalt Kid did his job,” said Kilrain to Belisarius so the others would not hear. He was right: the Fellowship had put the pieces in place to bring down the Dominion. Their technology and arsenal were crippled, the chain of command in such disarray that they could not mount a sustainable defense, and they had suffered immediate losses so devastating that they were on the run. The “Spy Games” had set the table and Belisarius and his Fleets were enjoying the dinner to follow.

“Don’t mention his name to me,” said Belisarius suddenly, in a fit of anger. “He betrayed me is what he did. Without my knowledge or permission, he sent those Khundish sons of whores on a warpath and they’ve gotten to Elia before we could. Now we’ll never know if we could have taken their capital.”

“But General,” said a Commander, “we still have our victory. The Dominators are falling. The attack on the UP will surely be at half-strength now—think of all the lives we’re saving!”

“We still have our victory?” replied Belisarius. “A tainted victory. Achieved only through the help of the Khunds, the most evil menace in history. Cobalt Kid arranged this, I’m sure of it, and for that, I wanted him captured and brought to me. From this point on, Cobalt Kid and his band of Legionnaires are wanted for arrest, to be tried for crimes. I want them brought before me immediately if they are found.”



Weber’s World

Prime Minister Maya adi Lva looked at the screens in her private offices, getting the latest update on the counter-invasion. The results were very good. “Word has come in from the Khunds, Prime Minister,” said her adjunct. “Elia has fallen. The Khunds have their capital cities and will soon have the entire planet.”

“Thank you Marissa,” replied Maya, adding, “that is all.” Marissa left as Maya turned to her guest, Ambassador Mirrena Helene. “It turns out, it was an excellent plan,” she said after a moment.

“We’ve served many Prime Minister’s over the decades, my dear,” said Mirrena, “and have always done an excellent job. As you can see, that record continues.”

Maya nodded, pouring them both a glass of wine. “Still, Ambassador, I’d have liked to have been informed prior to its execution.”

Mirrena nodded. “I know, but alas, sometimes these plans move in their own way. My young colleague and I had to work in secret so certain members of your cabinet, and other important…dignitaries…did not object.” Her use of the word ‘dignitaries’ suggested she found it amusing.

“What’s been done then by Cobalt Kid, and yourself by proxy, is illegal,” said the Prime Minister. “It is the second time I’ve been uninformed of a major game-changing stratagem that alters the entire global political spectrum. I am not pleased by that.”

“But are you pleased by the results?” said Mirrena with a smile.

Maya paused. At last she replied with her own smile. “Yes. Yes, I am very pleased. In fact, I’m quite pleased with how your apprentice and you conduct business. I only ask from now on, I remain ‘in the loop’ when these decisions are being made.”

“Certainly. From now on, you will. The Security Council is yours to command, of course,” she said with a smile, “but the real decision-makers will offer you that same courtesy.” She stood up, ready to leave. “And Cobaltus? And his Fellowship?”

“All their actions will be made legal, retroactively per the orders of the Prime Minister of the United Planets. That means I’ll be getting the credit, though,” she said matter-of-factly.

“It’s usually the best currency,” said Mirrena. She began to walk out. “You can relax a little now, my dear. Now the UP actually has a fighting chance of surviving this.”



Weber’s World

Princess Crujectra, the LMBer known as Spellbinder, sat alone in her quarters, still stunned by the news. She now had time to process it all, and knew in her heart exactly how the counter-invasion of the United Planets had come to pass. She knew it was Cobalt Kid who recruited the Khunds, and she knew the only way they’d agree would be if they had the right to sack the Dominator capital. Cobalt had agreed to it. She further knew none of their fellow LMBers save Timberwolf would agree to it, meaning, he must have kept it a secret which further meant, he knew in his heart what he was doing might be wrong. Yet he did it anyway.

She loved him; she had loved him for many years, and she knew he loved her. But right now, for the first time ever, she did not want to see him again. Her fury with him was all-encompassing.

He was changing, growing more distant. She would not sugar-coat it for herself: his disregard for life and the consequences for others was lessening, as his plans became more and more grandiose. He was in pain, but now was to share that pain with the entire world if it meant accomplishing his goals. She didn’t know when it began to happen, but it was happening now. And she could not be with him any longer if it was to continue.

The physical distance between them was so great right now that it pushed their telepathic link to the limit. They no longer send telepathic thoughts to one another, but they could still send emotions. She sent her anger and hurt to him so he knew what his actions had caused. So he knew her sense of betrayal mirrored so many of his friends. She knew it would break his heart but she had to. Just like he had broken hers.

Lolita embraced Shark Lad tightly and said nothing for several moments. She just held him and buried her head into his chest, enjoying the feel of his powerful muscles holding her and his distinct scent. Moments earlier she had seen him at last. Even though she knew from the comm-links he was safe, it wasn’t until she actually saw him that she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t realize just how worried she was about him.

“Hey gorgeous, you okay?” he asked with a smile. Lolita was an emotional person but she seemed to be more so than usual and Shark Lad’s keen instincts picked up on it.

“Just glad you’re safe,” she said. “And glad we have a night of rest, albeit briefly, before moving on.”

They let go and she picked her pack of equipment back up, and the two started to walk. Shark Lad broke the momentary silence. “When we move on,” he said at last, “it’s when we split up.” There was a hint of worry in his voice. He didn’t like the fact that they were splitting up into two groups, which he had expressed to Lolita previously in private. “I know this group has survived ever danger possible, but the odds are pretty overwhelming. I’m dreading the Breaking of our Fellowship.”

Lolita said nothing for a moment. She didn’t know how to express the fact that she felt exactly the opposite without seeming cold. “I’m just glad we’re staying together,” she said at last.

She had tentatively suggested she would go with Shark Lad to Earth-4 previously but this was her way of letting him know it was official. “You’re coming with my group, then?” he asked, a little surprised. He had expected her to go with her usual partner, Cobalt Kid.

“Yes,” she said, but gave no further explanation. As they walked, she leaned into his side and he put his arm around her petite frame.



Hours later, the final escape cruiser arrived at last, carrying the final members of the Fellowship: Timberwolf, Kalla Hrykos and Cobalt Kid. All of the LMBers had assembled outside to await their arrival and the air was positive between them. Even though they were dreading the Breaking of the Fellowship, the fact that every one of them survived the assault on Hul had them in high spirits. No one had said it out loud, but they all thought it was a suicide mission.

Rockhopper Lad looked at Lolita for a moment but didn’t say anything. She knew why: he was thinking what she was. Even though they were in high spirits, Cobalt’s secret pact with the Khunds hung in the backs of many of their minds. Some of them were choosing not to think about it right now but she knew it was bothering Rocky almost as much as it was her. He would not think the rampant destruction and vandalism of an entire planet was justified for any reason.

The three began to exit the cruiser and Power Boy let out a loud warrior’s cheer which caused many of them to also cheer, including the Knights Templar, who as a whole, seemed to love the macho powerhouse. Timberwolf and Kalla Hrykos were surprised by the reaction, not used to receiving it, but Cobalt took it in stride. Lolita knew there was plenty of business to discuss but it would wait an hour or two while they all got settled in for the night. Lard Lad greeted Cobalt with a hug as Shark Lad went over and jokingly told Timberwolf he thought for sure he wouldn’t make it. Even Helena Handbasket and Kalla Hrykos exchanged some words that looked like camaraderie.

Lolita hung in the background and said nothing.



As they all broke up momentarily before they would reassemble in short order, Lolita watched as Cobalt Kid went off to the quarters prepared for him by the Knights Templar. She followed.

Soon they were out of view and he turned, evidently knowing she was following. He prepared to speak but she cut him off. “I want you to know I’m going with Rockhopper Lad’s group to Earth-4,” she said at last.

Cobalt was quiet for a moment and then spoke. “Okay. You’ll be of great value there. And Sharky will protect you.” His words seemed to just make her madder, so he decided to address the tension immediately. “Lolita,” he said calmly, “we needed the Khunds. We needed to crush the Dominators immediately; otherwise they’d be a thorn in our side while we were dealing with the Hive and the Evil Emperor Penguin. Strategically, it was a move we needed to make.”

“Strategically…” she said sarcastically with a huff. “Yes, logically it all makes sense, Cobie. Unleash a race of killers and rapists on an entire planet so we can win our war. A perfect strategy. Are you listening to yourself?”

Cobalt again showed no emotion but she knew him too well. He was angry now too. “What would you have me do, then? Fight this war half-heartedly so we get slaughtered? So the UP is reduced to ash and rubble like Ggrrgg now is? You can’t have it both ways, Lolita!”

“You know, Cobie, I tried. I tried for us to be partners and friends again. But it’s like I don’t recognize you anymore. I know its been happening for awhile: what happened to Ggrrgg, and your father. And the guilt over Elagabolus. You couldn’t even mourn for Lardy when we thought he was dead. I know you’re screwed up because of what happened to you when you were younger, but so are a lot of us. Somewhere along the way these last few years you’ve gotten so cold and calculating. You aren’t even trying to hide it anymore like you used to, under your devil-may-care persona. Something else else is broken inside of you, and I can’t fix it.”

Her words stung but they had angered him to the point where he wasn’t listening. “I know you hate the Khunds like I hate the Dominators!” he yelled. “I know what they did and I know what they were going to do to you because I was there—that’s when we met. I’m sorry I went to them, but I had no other options I could think of!”

“You don’t get it, Cobie,” she said. “You did have other options. A few years ago, you would have never made a deal with the Khunds. I…” she was about to start yelling but suddenly stopped. She caught herself. She knew it was pointless. “Cobie, I can’t do this anymore. I…I wish you the best of luck. I’m going with the other team. I want you all to be safe. But I can’t do this with you.”

The momentary anger subsided and his face betrayed no hint of emotion, though he was furious inside. “Fine,” he said, at last. “You know I wish you all the best. I hope we see each other again when this is all over,” he said, “and you see me differently than you do now.” He turned around and walked off, too angry and exhausted to continue any longer.

“Me too…” she said to herself, and when he was out of view, she let the tears flow down her cheeks.

Daroon


Dev Em sat quietly. His shoulders were slumped, and his head hung down to his chest. He had been in this position for hours, and Princess Alyson knew he was finally asleep.

She worried about him. More than she ever thought she would. Theirs had not been an easy relationship, even when she was someone else. He had always put his Legion ahead of them...no, that isn't fair, she thought. He was always there for the children...just not for me. As if he knew all along that something wasn't right.

She felt a hand touch her shoulder. She turned expecting to see her mother standing there, but it was Kar Em. Dev's father and Daxamite liaison to Daroon. She smiled. Thanks to him and his people, there were more of her people alive right now.

"You need to come with me...Princess," Kar Em said quietly.

She nodded, and rose. Then she noticed that Jon Em had nestled himself in the crook of Dev's left arm and fallen asleep himself.

"What is it?" she asked as Kar led her away from the others.

"Princess, you need to be with your parents right now," he said somberly.

She let her head lower and fought the tears coming to her eyes. "I understand..." she said almost inaudibly.

Kar led her to where the King and Queen lay. He motioned and everyone stopped what they were doing and moved back.

Faraway walked over to Kar and put his hand on Kar's shoulder. "Is there anything we can do old friend?"

"Nothing except hope beyond hope that the lull we now have lasts a little bit longer."

They both turned to the East where legions of bugs were amassed, but did not advance. Something else else was happening, and these two among them knew what was coming...this was the quiet before the storm.

"I'll keep a watch," Faraway said. "Loser Lad, c'mon. Let's see what they're up to."

Loser snapped his head around and shook his head a little. "Right with you Far," he said as they walked with some guards towards the front line.

Han Em was with Helena and Hugh. They in turn were being told stories by several of the Kings guards. Stories of grand adventures and slaying dragons. Han wasn't so sure about the facts, but the other two were enthralled, and that made any doubt she may have had a non issue for her.

----------------------

After a short while, Princess Alyson stood. She turned to face the crowds that was at a short distance away, and saw Dev, carrying a sleeping Jon walking towards her. Dev handed Jon to his father and went to her side. He embraced her as she composed herself. He motioned for the Captain of the Guard to come over. He nodded and came, bringing with him a small box.

"Are you ready for this Alyson?" Dev asked quietly.

"I never would be ready for this...but I owe it to all still living this night to take up this burden."

Dev nodded to the Captain of the Guard, and he opened the box.

Dev lifted a small Crown from the box and the Captain of the Guard said in the loudest voice that most of those present had ever heard. "This night has brought us great sorrow, and a new hope. The King and Queen are dead...Ling live the Queen!"

Cheers arose through the tears of the people of Daroon that were assembled.

----------------------

They had barely gotten through the throngs of people lending their support for Queen Alyson when Loser Lad ran around several guards and into Dev at full speed almost knocking himself onto the ground in the process.

"What's the matter Loser?" Dev asked.

"They're moving..." Loser said.

Dev looked at Kar Em and watched his face go white.

"Go defend my people," Queen Alyson said to them picking up her fathers sword, "by my side."

The assembled group picked up arms and followed them to the front line.