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Tela was the first to arrive, though Livewire soon followed. She found the great man in Nura’s arms, and Nura knew to let Irma come closer and hold him. Irma was sobbing when Garth found them, and soon he too was sobbing uncontrollably. They held him together. Like their fellow founders Cosmic Boy and Trinity, they had come to think of him as a father figure. They loved him.

Soon word was spread to non-Legionnaires; the soldiers, the staff, even the media. United Nations Secretary-General Jeannie Chu cried when she heard the news.

It was soon on every news station in the world. RJ Brande was dead.

*******************************

Valor was carried off the infirmary but he remained silent. The boy Conal was there when he arrived and witnessed Ferro bursting into the room not soon after. Andy was crying and Conal held him as he did.

Val would be okay, they told him, he was just hurt. Conal could see the look in his eyes though. Sure, his body would be okay. But Val was feeling something else. The betrayal. And the guilt. The guilt for letting RJ die.

*********************************

The Legionnaires gathered at the United Nations building again, as the fighting had stopped. Mon-El and Ultra Boy stood on the rooftop together, looking out at the lights during the nighttime. The night had gone by quickly and dawn was coming again soon.

“The battle stopped but the Siege hasn’t been lifted,” said Mon-El. “They’re just outside of Paris still. They’ll attack again.”

Ultra Boy nodded. “Their ploy worked. Brande is dead. Likely they think the morale is broken and they can come in and finish us off. With no Legion of Super-Heroes, the world doesn’t have a chance.”

Mon-El shook his head. “So much we’ll never know about Brande,” he said. “They all revere him so much. I was starting to think of him in that way too, I admit. I wonder what he would have us do now?”

“Keep fighting,” Joe said matter-of-factly. He said it because he did know. RJ had told him everything in the end. “He’d have us finish this war once and for all.”

*********************************

Dreamer came into Maziah’s room but this time instead of comforting words, all she could do was cry as hard as Maziah had. Soon she was sobbing uncontrollably and Maziah sat up and wrapped her arms around her. In an ironic twist, now Maziah was the one comforting Nura.

“What is it, Nura?” she asked. “What’s happened?”

Dreamer could barely get words out of her mouth for several more minutes. At last she spoke. “RJ is dead, Maziah,” she said. “It’s over. All hope is lost.”

END PART 3

Earth War: Academy L
Beast War!, part 2

• Prologue: "Collared"
• Part 1

"Sorry 'bout the wait, all. Things are bad. Within the last ten minutes, Doreen Green has been found dead..."

Noriko Ashida itched in her seat as John Jones talked to the assembled student body. She hadn't known the girl, so the rote condolences didn't matter to her. The absence of Moonstar & Lonestar from the stage - only Jones & Tik were up there - was much more interesting. What were they doing? Something else else was obviously up beyond one dead kid if those two were skipping the "sorry".

Jones continued talking "...and, before I continue, I have to ask Jennifer Adra, Sandy Anderson, Dallas Gibson, Serena Grava, Ojiako Idowu, Jubilation Lee, Dietrich Magnus, Sofia Mantega, Akasha Martinez, Rocco McCloud, Ming Sul, Jebediah Riccard, Tanya Scott, Everett Thomas and Janet van Dyne to go to the power training room at once."

Nori's eyebrows hit the ceiling as she turned to Sul & Sofia. Were they susp-- no. For Sofia to be included in a group like that, they'd have to have real evidence pointing at her, and they wouldn't need fourteen others in that case. Either they were maybe-witnesses or... wait.. both of them were amongst the top students. What about the others?

Sul just shrugged back at her before leading Sofia out of the row, as a bunch of other students did the same thing. Including, Nori noted with a flash of anger, that stupid orange bitch and her green pal. If they were being picked for something important over her, she thought, they were choosing wrong - ignoring the fact that her collar was sparking under her robe even as she sat there.

Apparently, she wasn't the only one who thought as much as the murmurs grew, with another blue-haired kid a couple of rows back catching her ears, due to his particularly loud objections made at his friend, telling him that he'd "got a B" and so, he knew, had "Jed". Why'd "Jed" been chosen and not him?

"Maybe because he can keep a chair as he found it?" Nori snapped in his direction.

True enough, the kid looked down, and saw that his chair had turned to blue-white crystal. He blushed and fell silent.

A few moments later, there was a cough into the microphone, and the remaining students fell silent to hear their fate.

"No time for sugar-coating, so I'll be quick," John Jones announced. "We're evacuating. I want everyone in front of me to pack a bag with clothes and 'ssentials for at least two nights and be back here in no more than three quarters of an hour. Anyone who is NOT here with a packed bag at four-fifty will face consequences." He didn't specify what those were. The room sat still, as if waiting for more. "Now." was all he added, before turning and leaving the stage.

People took the message this time, and immediately either vanished or headed for the doors, some by air. Nori instead zipped up to the stage and stopped straight in front of Tikhik. "What. is. going. on?"

"As Jones said, the school's evacuating. We're meant to be in the 'Undisclosed Location' by sunset."

"Over one kid?"

Tikhik sighed, and said "Some sort of super-war's just broken out, and I'm meant to be teleporting Jones to the UN in five minutes to make sure no-one here gets drafted."

"Then why were Sofia & Sul pulled in?"

"In case the 'kid' being dead means someone's aim is pointed here. And Lonestar's paranoid that they'll be able to follow me. No."

The last word was because Tikhik had caught all the signs that Nori was about to go sprinting off, aiming to join them. "Why the **** not?"

"One, you're not cleared - only the A students and a few of the Bs were, and even that's a compromise." He spat the word out. "Two, your collar's already overdue to fail and could go at any time for all we know."

"Three, I'm one of the only ones here who's been in a fight?"

"Back when your collar was fresh and there was no-one else to pick up the slack. Nori, you'd be a danger to yourself. Go and pack, now."

Nori pouted and sprinted off with a "Fine" hanging in the air behind her. Tikhik hoped she would be back as ordered, before turning to arrange Jones' teleport.
_______________

"The first thing I want you to know is that this is strictly voluntary. There are no prizes for saying 'yes' and no consequences for saying 'no.' If you feel scared, don't feel up to it, or even just don't want to, you don't have to do anything. Understood?"

With an opening like that, she'd better justify it. Sul thought. The hairs on the back of her neck tingled in a way they hadn't since... well, since she saw Shifter being thrown in her direction at high speed.

Apparently satisfied that everyone had the idea, Dani moved as if to speak again... then hesitated for a moment, and for just a split-second made to bite at her lower lip. Then she tried a second time. "You heard about Doreen Green's death, yes?"

There was a murmur of agreement.

"Just before the body was discovered by Ms. Lonestar,..."

Where is Lonestar anyway? Sul looked around. Jones had announced that they would be met by both her and Moonstar rather than Moonstar alone. Still, Dani continued speaking...

"...a state of emergency had been declared. Right now, there are confirmed attacks against southern Europe, and reports of attacks of an invasion of the USA through Mexico. Doreen's death may or may not be related to any of this - it could easily be an unfortunate coincidence," Dani's face screamed loud and clear that she hoped this was the case, "given that there are no other reports of any attacks this far north. But even if it isn't, we're not receiving any help from outside. So it's been decided..." Just the faint edge on her voice at the word, but enough to make blatantly clear to anyone listening that it wasn't her decision, "that we need to ask you if you're willing to stay behind and defend the building in the event there is an attack. Again," and now her eyes focused undisguisedly on Sofia, "you don't need to do this. And IF something were to happen, it won't be a game - you may well be killed. Take five minutes to decide." She backed off and for a moment looked as if she was going to sit in the chair, before perching at the edge of the desk instead. Then she met Sul's eyes, an unusually worried expression on her face, and flicked her head in the direction of her adoptive daughter.

Sul took the hint, and turned to face Sofia. "You know Dani doesn't want you to do this?"

"Just as she knows I will. It would not be right to let her or others risk death for my sake without sharing the same risk." Sofia's face was just as resolute as Dani's was worried.
_______________

Travelling by road, the group was naturally impatient to get to the fight down south - having been caught-off-guard by the start of hostilities while in the midst of an operation against the tar sand extraction of Northern Canada - but planes weren't an option. Several of their number had been careless in the past and made their way onto "no fly" lists. Even sneaking across the Canadian border had been a challenge.

Still, almost 24 hours on the road in a series of small, inconspicuous, cars was an ordeal, and with the light fading, their leader decided to call a halt at their next "safehouse". The dark was not their domain...
_______________

Four minutes and forty-eight seconds after Dani had finished speaking, Shikari entered the training room

Sul noticed this, and disengaged from her futile attempts to convince Sofia to leave to watch her interactions with Dani. She noted carefully how the avoided eye contact, how Lonestar's body language was confident where her fellow teacher's was atypically pensive, and how the timing of her entry was blatant - too much so. She'd already noticed Dani's reluctance in the enterprise. The driving force had just become clear.

"Everyone." Just to rub it home, it was Shikari who took charge now. "Danielle has, I believe, made what has happened clear. We are in danger, and evacuating may not save us. Does anyone wish to abandon the school to evacuate with the young students?"

"You bet." Serena Grava, the self-styled 'Comet Queen', spoke out immediately, "Come on Tanya."

"I told you Serena, go. I'm staying here."

Some jaws dropped at that. No-one was terribly surprised that the loud and vain Serena was leaving. But that her quiet green friend, who usually seemed to hang on the loud orange girl's every word, wasn't going with her shocked several people there, including both Sul and Sofia.

It seemed to shock Serena too. Instead of arguing, however, she simply turned and walked out.

"Anyone else?" Dani asked.

A blond guy - Dallas, Sul half-remembered - left as well in short order, then one more voice spoke up. "If the bad guys do follow, maybe by getting round you, who's protecting the kids?" said a brunette girl who was suddenly a head above the crowd. "I take it Mr. Miraz is going, but we all know he's no fighter."

"Is that what you want to do, Janet?" Shikari asked.

"Someone needs to."

"Then make your way."

As the giant girl left, Dani stared at Sofia one last time. Sofia stared back at her, no ground given.

"Is everyone still here staying, then?" Dani's voice was clearly unhappy that a full dozen, including seven 'B' students (Janet van Dyne had been one of her six 'A' students), and ESPECIALLY including Sofia, had elected to stay. A series of nods and assenting murmurs answered. No-one else was going. She continued, "I need to supervise the evacuation. I should be back in no more than twenty minutes." There was no reaction as she headed for the door.

Almost soon as she was gone, a voice spoke up. "Ms. Lonestar? If we might be fighting, is it okay if we used codenames?"

Shikari thought for a moment, then smiled. She knew Dani would disagree, but it showed enough of the right attitude that she wasn't about to shoot him down. "If you like, Jebadiah. What did you intend?"

"Powerhouse." The purple face of Jebediah Riccard, able to increase his own strength and bodily density, broke into a huge grin.

"Does anyone else wish to use a codename?"

Several voices shouted over one another to the point even 'Kari couldn't pick them out. "Please. One at a time. I'll go round this way--" she indicated a right-to-left arc with her hand, then pointed at the first subject. "Jubilation?"

"Jubilee, duh." The portmanteau of her name was what everyone called the firework-generating Jubilation Lee anyway.

"Akasha?"

"Eagle." Jubilee's best friend, Akasha Martinez flew on golden "holographic" wings.

"Sul?"

Sul took a moment to think. Her powers were fairly general - her strength, senses, stamina and reflexes were all enhanced, but not to Andromeda/Hulk levels. Open to loads of codenames, or none. Then what she'd told Tom way back when, as it now seemed, on why she was dumping her whole life to travel with him & Tik on what was practically a whim leapt to mind "I'm stuck in this craphole of an apartment in the most tightly infested rathole on the planet in a dead-end job with No. Way. Out... I want to help, especially if it means a way out, and if it means I have to do a few things on reflex... it's worth the risk." That decision had defined her life, so if there was one word that defined both her life and her powers it was... "Reflex."

"Sofia?"

Sofia also visibly took a moment to think. "No. My name is Sofia Mantega, and that is the only name I need."

"If you wish. Ojiako?"

"Tomb." The coarse whisper of the heavily scarred Ojiako Idowu spoke of the difficulty the fire that had run through the shanty town of Scarrus, located on the edge of Lagos, Nigeria, had left him in speaking - his ability to manipulate the life processes of others, both for good and ill, didn't work on himself. Still, Sul wondered, if he's trying to say he's practically dead with that name, why'd he stay?

"Sandy?"

"Inferno." No-one reacted to Sandy Anderson's reuse of her old Workforce codename. If anyone thought had of doing so, her temper would have made them think twice.

"Rocco?"

"Flying Fox." Rocco McCloud's choice of codename was purely literal, rather than a direct reference to the bat, being that McCauley Industries' experiments had left him a small, perpetually-floating, fox-like creature.

"Jennifer?"

"Particon." Jennifer Adra could sense energy flows and generate a "power lance" of solid energy - though she hoped to make more versatile constructs with more training and practice.

"Dietrich?"

"Magno." A sunnily-tempered German magnokinetic, Dietrich Magnus smiled lazily as he answered.

"Everett?"

"Synch." Everett Thomas' power was to synchronise with and mimic the powers of others in close proximity.

"...and Tanya?"

"Lamprey." Some groans went up as people "got" the bad pun. Tanya Scott's powers were centred around light, and her chosen codename was a reference to a lamp's rays of light rather than the blood-sucking sea creature.

Shikari paused for a moment, then asked one last time "Sofia, are you sure?"

"Yes. What are we going to do now?"

"Now, we wait. Things will happen soon."
_________

Meanwhile, Dani had paused at her departmental office before going to meet Tikhik and the evacuees. Janet had had a point on their vulnerability - and with no formal help coming, it seemed like the time to call in a favour or two...

The first couple of calls she made went to answer phone and rang out respectively, but her third went through. "Hi, Rachel? It's Dani.... We're mostly fine so far, but we're having to evacuate a lot of the students, and I was wondering if you could help..."

Sagada

Scenic and culturally rich Sagada is famous for its caves, hanging coffins, magnificent rice terraces, pine forests and mossy forests. – Travel Philippines

The Hanging Coffins of Sagada. The ancients believed that the higher up a body is laid, the closer you were to heaven. As such, it’s not exactly surprising that not everyone gets the honor of a hanging burial…


Amihan closed her eyes and enjoyed the breeze ruffling through her hair. It felt pure, and carried the distinct flavor of the Cordillera mountains.

The rock wall behind her carried a lot of history – more than 2000 years’ worth, in fact. The hanging coffins there were part of a tradition that had been in practice for that long.

Today, she would fight to preserve that and much more. The freedom of the world rested on her and her teammates. She just prayed that they had chosen the right sites to protect.

She turned and stared at the wall again. How many people had been laid to rest here, hoping that the heights would lead them to heaven? It seemed foolish, really; if altitude was all that mattered, then even the most wicked could earn entrance. But who was she to tell these people what she thought of their practices?

She glided along the wind currents to get a better view of the mountain town. Civilians were being sent down the mountains to relative safety on the central plains. Landslides and floods could be deadly up here.

She hoped they had guessed right. All they knew was that Mordru was attacking Asia’s mystical places. As to why, nobody really knew. Amihan guesses it was a way to crush a people’s spirit by attacking their beliefs, though Quislet had flippantly said that Mordru might be trying to steal the sites’ magic.

Either way, Sagada was one of the best guesses for that in the Philippines. The caves have it an eerie feel, and the mountain air made it considerably cooler than most places in the tropical country.

As she flew over the throng of people filing into trucks, several waved at her. More than one child – and even more teens and young adults - yelled to ask for her picture or autograph. “Later,” she’d smile. “After we are all safe.” She did shake her head a little at that. Filipinos loved their celebrities, and she was one now. Sometimes they loved them too much.

Confident that the evacuation was going well, she alighted on the town hall roof and gave her parents a call.

“Inay! How are you?”

“My beautiful Berta! Are things going well over there?”

“As well as can be, Inay.”

“Well, I hope this whole thing is over soon, so you can visit for longer. We’ll invite all your titos and titas, your cousins, your ninongs and ninangs… Your lola will cook her special paella again. We’ve even asked your old yaya to come.”

Berta smiled at that. She hadn’t seen them all in ages! But now was the time to concentrate. “Thank you, Inay. I will let you know how it goes. I have to go right now, though; there is still plenty to be done.”

“I understand, daughter. But at least speak with your father first, okay?” Her mother’s tone conveyed what her words did not – just in case things went wrong, they should speak now.

Her father’s voice come on the phone. “Berta! I won’t keep you long, but I just want you to be careful. And I want to let you know how proud we are of you doing your duty so well.”

“You both have taught me well, Itay. I’m glad I’m making you proud. I love you both.”

“We will see you soon, my daughter.”

Berta hang up and crossed herself, saying a silent prayer that she would see them soon.

Suddenly, the town mayor came running up to her. “Amihan! A scout claims he saw a group of manananggal in the woods near the coffins.”

She stood in shock for a moment, then shook her head. “Take me to your scout, please.”

Angkor Archaeological Park

“Stretching over some 400 square kilometers, including forested area, Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of several capitals of the Khmer Empire of the 9th to the 15th centuries, including the largest pre-industrial city in the world. The most famous are the Temple of Angkor Wat and, at Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple with its countless sculptural decorations.

Angkor Archaeological Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992. At the same time, it was also placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger due to looting, a declining water table, and unsustainable tourism. UNESCO has now set up a wide-ranging programme to safeguard this symbolic site and its surroundings. - Wikitravel


Hygeia ran her fingers along the detailed carvings on the walls of Angkor Wat, just a hair away from actually touching them. The massive temple was adorned with figures of dancing nymphs, snake-headed monsters, and frightening demonic mouths.

She’d never been able to visit here before she had to leave. She wished she had she felt safe here. And maybe by praying here, she would have been able to maser her abilities sooner.

Thankfully, the government had done its job. The area had been cleared of all tourists. In fact, the entire Angkor Park was deserted, except for SHIELD agents and staff.

Hygeia wished she was as confident as she tried to show After all, she would be in the lead for this operation.

“Ma’am!” A soldier came running up and saluted. “There is a disturbance inside. Will you come with me, please?”

She trotted after him, thankful that they followed orders well. Now was the time for unity, not strife.

He led her to a section of the temple just below the highest spires where the statues of Buddha were kept. Another group of agents stood there, rifles trained at the wall.

She squinted. “May I ask what you are aiming at over there?”

“I saw one move! It was there a moment ago, and now it’s gone!” The agent was vehement, though not quite panicking. There was an unsettled murmur among the troops. Everyone had heard the stories of Mordru’s deeds, though few had seen them firsthand. That allowed them to pretend that it was not real.

Hygeia knelt down to inspect the rock face There was a line of female figures carved along the wall… and one hollow of about the same size.

She turned to face the soldiers. “Does anyone have a photograph of this wall from before the figure supposedly moved?” All shook their heads. She breathed deeply. “These figures are apsara, supernatural female beings who embody beauty. They are said to seduce men, and can fly and change shape.”

The group of soldiers quieted considerably.

“If one of them is loose, we shall have to search for it. Unfortunately, it could be any one of us.”

Busan

Rebound stared grimly at the map secured to a whiteboard on the plane. On that map were eight little icons representing the various Legionnaires assigned to protect Asia . Eight icons, all spread far too thin for such a large continent.

He read the communiqué again just to be sure, but the intelligence was clear – Mordru was after sites in Asia that had great mystical power. Unfortunately, without any magic users along, his team had to rely on their knowledge of world cultures and mythology to guess which those sites would be.

Geography had come into play, too. The Legionnaires had to be spread out. While the less mobile ones picked their stations, the ones capable of speedy flight had to keep themselves ready.

He looked at the circle he’d drawn on the map. It represented the radius he and Quislet had to cover. It was pretty wide – they were in Busan , South Korea now, so China , Japan and Korea were theirs.

“How long would it take us to get to Kyoto again, Quislet?” Rebound’s fingers were drumming on the table now, a bad habit he’d picked up in elementary school.

“Still worrying again are you?” Suddenly, the table morphed into a hand that clasped his own, keeping it from moving.

“What…Quislet, let me go!”

“Not until you realize that worrying will do no good! Just makes you old, and will make you fatter too!”

Rebound sighed. “Fine, I am worrying a little. But Quislet, you have to understand – I’m also doing something about it while we can. Please, just answer my question.”

Quislet popped out of the table. “Fine, if it will help make you more fun.” He jumped into the map, and the material itself began to move. The ink itself began to draw arrows with time durations beside them.

“Half an hour to Taipei , an hour and a half to Manila …”

“What not fast enough for you? You want maybe we should make a rocket instead? Whoosh!”

Ignoring Quislet as best he could, Rebound dialed Shifter on the communicator. As soon as he picked up, Rebound spoke. “Shifter, it’ll take us an hour and a half to get to Manila , and two and a half to get to Angkor . I don’t know if Hygeia can hold out that long if she needs us. How long would it take you to get to the end of your radius?”

“You’re not worrying again, are you? You sounded so confident when we were making plans.” Shifter’s tone was incredibly calm.

“I am not worrying, I’m planning!” Rebound snapped. He felt sorry immediately. Softening his tone, he added, “I just want to be sure we have as many variables covered as we can.”

“I know. I’m used to winging it, but I understand the need for careful preparation.” Shifter’s tone was still calm, surprisingly. Rebound wasn’t surprised that he was so skilled at espionage. “Based on Wildfire’s speed, we should be able to reach any area in our radius in just a little under an hour.”

“I could go in 15 minutes if I went alone. No offense, pal.” Wildfire’s voice indicated he was just stating a fact, and meant nothing personal. “It’s just that I’ll have to slow down to avoid killing you.”

“Well, if it comes to that, you should do that, Wildfire. Though I’m nowhere near as fast as you, and will be almost useless at being a responder if you leave me behind.”

“Yeah, yeah, you have a good point. I’ll play transporter as long as you need me to.”

“I guess we’re all set, then,” Rebound mused. “I’ll leave you two now – we have to keep the channels open. Good luck, both of you. Come home safe, okay?”

“Good luck, Chuck,” Shifter said. “It has been a pleasure working with you. You have definitely earned my respect.”

As Shifter signed out, Rebound knew Shifter had said that just in case they never saw each other again.

He plopped down on his chair and closed his eyes. Might as well catch a moment of rest while he could.

He was jolted awake immediately by a buzzing. “This is Element Lad! I require assistance. We were attacked by a giant bird who, if I am not mistaken, is a Garuda.”

“Hold on Jan! Shifter is nearer, he’ll…”

He was cut off by another window opening. Amihan. “We believe the attacks may be beginning. I’ve already caught one, and I think there’ll be more.” The screen showed a demonic creature with the body of a man and the head and hooves of a horse, and what looked like a cigar in its mouth.

The time for waiting was over. “Quislet.”

“Say no more. Quislet is on his way!”

Rebound shook his head. He would be helpless for the next hour and a half, as the plane flew to Manila. That was not a feeling that he wanted.

Or… maybe he could help boost their chances for survival. “Element Lad, Amihan, can you summarize for me everything that happened? The Legion allows us access to extensive databanks. Maybe we can figure out how to beat those things.” He then began making calls to the others. ”Amazon, Hygeia, check in, please. Shifter, I have an update.”

He’d do his damned best to make sure they would.

Earth War: Legionnaires
A Good Day to Die?, part 3 of 7

• Prologue: "Sunset"
• Part 1
• Part 2

"She's alive."

With a trembling hand, Polarity had reached past the shelves and bottles haphardazly shoved on top of the "fridge woman" to test for a pulse. He'd found one.

They carefully pulled her out and laid her on the dining table, then took their flashlights out to have a better look at her. She was in her early 30s, Polarity judged, a caucasian woman with long light red hair, dressed in the familiar navy blue and white uniform of a SHIELD agent, yellow & black insignia standing out prominently on the shoulder - presumably part of the group sent to investigate the city before them, whose loss had triggered their own mission.

"Spark, see if she still has her ID."

Sighing, Ella patted her down and found the hidden pocket with her picture ID card. Pulling it out, she raised an eyebrow at the name before handing it to Polarity.

"Julia Carpenter." Polarity read out the name for the benefit of the others.

"Could be a coincidence," Spark pointed out, as the others digested the similarity of the name to Jenn Carpenter, the Mordru-worshipping serial killer popularly known as the Silver Slasher. "And even if there is a relation, that doesn't have to mean anything - would a Mordru agent be hiding from his cronies in a fridge?!"

"Point," Polarity conceded, "but where's the rest of her team?"

"Paul, the WHOLE CITY disappeared. WE barely made it in here with the rock-things, and your brother's still knocked out after the siren thing. I don't think them not being here is ridiculously suspicious on her part. Maybe she was just quicker or luckier. Or maybe they're in other fridges!"
______________

They'd gone into a house. Why did they have to go into a house?, he lamented. Now, he had to find the house's owner and formally end their life before he could get in after them. The search had already taken fifteen minutes, and he didn't have them yet. Damn curses.
______________

There was a noise from the corner of the room, interrupting the Legionnaires' debate on the SHIELD agent, as Cos began to stir. Trinity instinctively merged to run over to him, but was stopped in her tracks - she had forgotten her merged body was still winded from the fall. So Polarity walked over first to check on his brother, while Trinity took a moment to get her breath back.

"Rex?" Paul gently shook the elder Kline's shoulders.

"Paul?" Cos groaned and rubbed the top of his head. "What happened?"

As Polarity filled his brother in on the situation and Trinity walked over to join them, Spark looked down at the unconscious woman on the table. Is this all this life *is*? Getting brainwashed, knocked out cold and stuffed in refrigerators?

Her depressing reverie was interrupted by Cos walking over. "I've met her before. Agent something Carpenter - she led the SHIELD group in the landslide we were sent to help clean up last autumn."

"Any murderous tendencies?" Spark worked at keeping her tone light.

"None in evidence. Why did you ask?"

"We're just a little bit nervous about any relation to the Slasher." Trinity explained. "Julia Carpenter, Jenn Carpenter..."

"I think she might have mentioned a sister - but even if they did turn out to be related, that's a *long* way from saying she's a murderer who worships Mordru as well. Just don't mention it, take this," he removed her gun from the holster and handed it to Polarity, "and keep an eye on her..." Cos pulled out his smelling salts from his right belt pouch, opened the bottle and waved it under her nose. The reaction was almost instantaneous, as she coughed twice and bolted upright, reaching for her absent gun in the process.

"Agent Carpenter? We're friends, Legionnaires. We were sent to relieve you." Cosmic Boy kept his tone formal, almost clipped as she took in her surroundings.

"Where am I? What happened?"

"We were hoping you could tell us. SHIELD apparently lost contact with your group as soon as you entered Coast City."

Before answering, she looked at the group, "Cosmic Boy?"

"That's right. We met--"

"The Praxis landslide. I remember." She paused for a moment, adjusting herself to sit cross-legged on the table. "There were eight of us. After realising that contact with the outside world was impossible, we reconnitred for fifteen minutes in pairs, and found no sign of anyone. Then, when we regrouped, we realised we were all suffering from the same odd weakness, which quickly got worse. Six of my team ultimately fainted in the street, and when we tried to pick them up, we found they were stuck - literally sinking into the road surface. I must have blacked out too, ultimately - I don't remember any more than that."

"So you don't remember how you ended up in a fridge?" Trinity interjected.

"In a wh--- no. I can only guess Kolkin must have caught me and hidden me there. Is he here?"

Spark shook her head. "No. We checked the whole house, and you were the only living thing we found."

There was silence for a minute. Then Trinity suddenly asked "Are you now, or have you ever been, a worshipper of the Dark Lord Mordru?" her eyes flashing purple as she spoke.

"What-- no. Why are you even a--"

Trinity ignored the angry looks from her teammates, including Cos, and continued, "Do you know a Jenn Carpenter?"

"Jenn was my baby sister's name. She disappeared weeks ago, and I didn't get leave to investigate." Julia's eyes suddenly went wide as she realised the link between the questions.

Cos sighed. Any chance of observing Julia carefully for signs she was supporting Mordru was gone now, so with the damage done, the only thing that remained was to tell the truth and watch her reaction to it. "Jenn Carpenter was arrested yesterday in New York City shortly before war was declared, on suspicion of a series of murders. She was brought in by several of our teammates, one of whom she attempted to murder with a knife when she caught up to her. When questioned, she confessed and said it was all in the service of her Lord Mordru."

As Cos was speaking, Julia started with her mouth open in a silent "no", then the denial gradually fell away, until her head fell as Mordru's name was spoken. Cos was inclined to believe her - he could only imagine what his own reaction would be if told Paul had been arrested as a confessed murderer, corrupted so far beyond what even McCauley had done, beyond repair even, by such an evil power - but wished they had Tela along to verify. He nodded his head in Spark's direction, indicating she should stay with Julia, while taking Paul and Lorna into a corner for a moment to discuss.

Ella turned to face her subject. It took a moment to place why the look on Julia's face seemed so familiar - it was the look she'd seen on Andromeda's face that day it all came apart, when Laurel was so utterly broken it shattered even McCauley's brainwashing. She wondered where Laurel was now, and hoped she was doing okay.

"I'm sorry." The words seemed so... weak the moment she even said them, but Ella couldn't think what else to say.

Julia shook her head, pulling herself back together, her training reasserting. "Not your fault. Just another reason to fight all this." She looked at Ella for a moment, then asked, "Spark, isn't it? Do you mind if I ask a personal question?"

"If I did, I just wouldn't answer."

"You were one of the ones McCauley mindf**ked, weren't you? What was it like?"

The question threw Spark completely. Not so much because of the why - obviously, she was thinking about what had happened to her sister - but that it had never been asked, even by her therapist, and she didn't know why. After a minute, she tried to answer. "It was... have you ever tried carrying something heavy, and it the strain was so gradual it was only afterward you realised your arm'd got sore? It was like that - there were so many moments that seemed... normal... at the time, and now I can't see how I could possibly have thought they ever were."

"Do you think they can save Jenn? The way you were saved?"

"I don't know - you'd have to ask Tela, she's the expert, and she's also not here. All I do know is, well, McCauley never pushed any of us to the point we thought killing people was normal. And you see her?" Ella indicated Trinity, "She was captured, brainwashed and put back as some sort of mole. It never really worked - and I didn't know her before, but apparently she's never recovered from it, even after Tela undid the original damage."

"Is that why she blurted out the stuff about Jenn? I saw Cosmic Boy's face."

"I guess so. He doesn't look happy, anyway..."
____________

"I love you as a person, Lu. But as a Legionnaire? I need to be able to trust you to do what you're told. Can you do that any more?"

They had spent several minutes talking about Julia, and whether she could be trusted, to which they'd decided they could to a point unless she was a truly Oscar-calibre actress. The subject of Trinity blurting out something Cos had asked her to keep secret was now the object of discussion, and Lorna's eyes went fairly orange as she answered, "Of course, Cos."

Cos hesitated, "Why are your eyes changing? I've seen them go from both purple to both orange in the past few minutes without you splitting or merging once, which is something I've never seen before. If this is some sign that you can't do this, you *need* to tell me."

"I can hack it. Honest."

Polarity interjected "Rex, can we talk a moment?" He pulled his brother over to the side, out of Trinity's earshot, to say something. "She shouldn't be here, definitely - but she is here and we can't send her back. Is there any point in pushing her over this just now? It's all the same result, except one way she feels--"

"Untrusted? I know, but--"

"Rex, would you be acting like this with anyone else? You don't know whether to be her boyfriend or her leader and you're doing neither job very well right now. You'd have slapped down anyone else before they reached 'have you ever been', and now you're trying to close the stable door too late. Just go and be her boyfriend for a few minutes, before..."

Polarity was about to say "anything happens." Just as something did happen - a huge hole was knocked in the upper wall, revealing a pale figure floating there, fangs gleaming in the moonlight.

He didn't look friendly.

Agra

Agra is the city of the inimitable Taj Mahal. The story of Agra begins much earlier then the Taj, However it finds mention in the epic Mahabharata when it was called Agrabana are Paradise. It was Mughals who finally nurtured Agra with the finest monuments architects could design : The Taj Mahal of Shah Jhan, Agra Fort of Akbar, Itmad-Ud-Daulah and neighbouring Sikandra are but few of the many that spangle the city, each of which stands in mute testimony to the city's grandeur over the ages. – Agra’s Official Website

“I’ll have to get back to you, dear. I’m busy right now.” Amazon’s muscles heaved as she cleared rubble away for the cleanup crews. All the damage done was a shame, but luckily the Taj Mahal had been spared and no lives had been lost. Amazon admired the majesty of the gigantic tomb. Such a sweet love story.

Satisfied that it was safe, she motioned the crews through. As they passed by, some locals avoided looking at her. She made sure to look at them, defying them to judge her by her looks. At least the SHIELD agents didn’t seem to care.

Dabbing at her makeup, she sat down to rest. There would be time to freshen up later.

“You two are so sweet for waiting. What was it you wanted to say?”

Rebound’s voice came over the communicator. It was surprisingly clear, thanks to the combine efforts of Quislet and Element Lad. “Are you resting? You might want to check the file I sent.”

Amazon gasped as she saw the image of a blue-skinned man on a white horse. He wielded a sword and looked more god than man. “That looks just like the thing that attacked! How did you…”

“You gave a good description. A+ for observation.” Shifter’s voice was breathier; after all, he and Wildfire were flying pretty quickly. “Hope your survival skills don’t get a test, though.”

“We don’t want to scare you, but in sum, that guy is Kalki. He’s an avatar of the god Vishnu the Destroyer. I’m betting a lot of people there are scared right now…”

“Luckily, most of the people at the Taj Mahal were tourists. I don’t think they really realized the full implications. To them, he was just another nasty man.” Amazon didn’t want to say that her presence – a hulking orange figure – probably wasn’t helping much. Many of the tourists and locals had scurried away from her at first. At least her costume was tasteful, though. “In any case, we’ve cleared the area. There were a few locals who made a scene, but they’ve been evacuated too.”

“Alright, but make sure you keep things quiet. We don’t want to add mass panic to our list of problems. We’ll be there in… how long, Wildfire?”

“An hour, including our detour to the Himalayas. You sure you’ll be okay until then, Amazon?” Wildfire’s voice was gruff, but there was genuine concern in it. Amazon smiled at that. He was such a sweetie, though he didn’t want to admit it. Just like most men.

“I appreciate the concern, sweeties, but I’ll be fine for now. Best you concentrate on getting help to dear Element Lad.”

“We’ll get help to everyone,” Rebound said firmly. “I don’t know why, but the biggest trouble spots seem to be exactly where we already are. For some reason, Mordru is ignoring other nations.”

“Probably a trap, though.” Shifter’s tone said they had discussed this previously. Rebound’s tone said the same.

“It’s a good thing we have a good plan in action then, right?” Amazon tried to lighten the mood. “After all, Wildfire and Quislet are enough, to get us almost anywhere we need to go. The rest of us are spread out, but I think you’ve done an amazing job coordinating us. I feel very safe, actually – if a bit disheveled.”

“The little lady’s right. I can get anywhere I’m needed fast, and the rest of you are no slouches either.” Wildfire’s bravado was extremely believable; only he could pull it off. It was sweet of him to call her “little lady”; she’d have to thank him for that later.

“All right,” Shifter sounded pacified. “Just keep in touch – we don’t know exactly what Mordru is capable of doing.”

As they winked out, a SHIELD agent came trotting up to Amazon. “Ma’am. Your assistance is requested over in Fatehpur Sikri. A water main burst and the area is in danger of flooding.”

“Be right there, dear.” Kinetix and Spark had commented on how odd it was for her to call soldiers “dear”, but Amazon maintained that soldiers were people too. She ducked into a rest room to change her dirty costume.

As she was admiring the pink-and-yellow number she would try on for the first time, she paused. Fatehpur Sikri was a popular tourist spot that featured a collection of palaces and courts – and it was a ghost town. In other words, it was a good spot for an ambush. She didn’t dare trust the soldiers, since any one of them may be an agent of Mordru’s.

Calling out to the soldier, she put on her best helpless voice. “Dearie, I’m having a wardrobe malfunction! Give me a few minutes, please?”

Then, she sent a message to Shifter and Rebound, and sat down to read the files that had been sent over. Now was the time to prepare.

Earth War: Legionnaires
A Good Day to Die?, part 4 of 7

• Prologue: "Sunset"
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

Almost immediately, the vampire dived straight at Cosmic Boy.

Cos reacted instinctively, throwing up a column of magnetic force... and pushed himself back, while only stalling the vampire momentarily. Polarity and Spark ran to help, but even with their combined force their opponent continued to inch toward them. Cos thought about diving out of the way, as he and Garth had with the Hulk - but not only were their backs virtually to the wall, but that had the potential to bring rock reinforcements against them. And considering that the vamp had just punched through a wall, they couldn't even count on it stopping him.

So they gritted their teeth and pushed harder.

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

Julia could see the shock in the Legionnaires' faces as they redoubled their efforts to no avail. They simply weren't used to the idea that their powers couldn't get the job done. She checked what she had - her sidearm was gone, but she still had her stun baton. Gradually, she moved around behind the floating figure as he slowly closed in on the Legionnaires, their powers - especially Spark's - visually "splashing" out in front of him where he held his hand up, slowing but not stopping him. No-one bothered with her.

Just before he reached Polarity, the first of the group, she leapt onto his back and stabbed her silver-tipped baton into the back of his neck.

There was an immediate reaction as he fell to the ground, although his spells or shields or whatever didn't fall straight away - fortunately for Julia, or she would have been fried with him. Even as she pressed the button and started to electrocute him, however, he didn't stop moving entirely - where he should have been twitching helplessly, he started pushing himself to his feet.

"RUN," she felt herself shouting to the Legionnaires. Only Cos had the presence of mind to react immediately, pulling and pushing the other three toward the door, breaking Polarity's welds and knocking the door off the hinges. Still, she smiled as they finally got out, and she didn't know quite why - even as the vampire pushed himself to his feet, knocking her off, she was still smiling.

Then her head hit the ground, and all was black.

*********************

Outside, the Legionnaires had run from the figurative frying pan to the fire, and found themselves surrounded by the rock monsters. Too close for the magnetic brothers to lift the girls and guarantee they'd escape in time, they had to stand and fight. Only a miracle could save them now...

..and yet, as the monsters advanced, they were suddenly distracted by a bright white light. Impossible to see at first, so did it contrast with the moonlit surroundings, the Legionnaires had to turn and avert their gaze.

Then the engine roared loudly, and the pick-up truck careered into the huge, rocky figures, knocking them over like ninepins. And Igor Kuria, Gear, climbed from the wreckage of the truck and called to them.

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

The vampire looked down at Julia and registered with annoyance that she was still alive. If she'd died in a fight, he could have justified draining her alone - now, he'd have to offer her to ol'boneface first. After he'd gone to all that effort too, he thought as he took off. Screw 'grand experiments' and Legionnaires, he was hungry.

*********************

"How'd you uncrash?" Polarity asked as Gear jumped down, "We didn't know what to do to wake you up."

"You expected that to stick? I just needed some time to reboot. Anyhow, why's there only three of you? Where's the rest?"

"Three?" Paul spun around. Trinity was nowhere in sight.

He looked at Spark, who had been examining one of the rock monsters' crushed arms, and Ella looked straight back. She'd noticed too, and neither wanted to broach the subject. Ultimately as if by some unspoken agreement, they turned at the same moment to look at him.

There was a weary look Cos' face Paul hadn't seen since their gran died. He'd noticed all right.

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

The figure swept down to meet his fellow vampire, the unconscious SHIELD agent in his arms and his cape trailing behind him like the wings of some vast, predatory bird.

"Only one?" The other vampire was far older, and it easily showed - his skin was like parchment, his nose collapsed, and his voice had a slight wheeze to it. Still, it was all cosmetic - he was just as strong as his handsome junior.

"Few others, all Legionnaires - ol'siren up there definitely didn't get all them - but their pet here was the heroic sacrifice type."

"Hmm..." the other roughly grabbed Julia's jaw, and sniffed her breath. "Disgustingly 'normal', and yet..." he pulled a vial of something from his cloak and tipped it over her face. She coughed and began to stir, but he was more interested in the bright blue smoke that the vial's liquid had become as soon as it touched her skin.

"Have a heart," the first vampire said, "I haven't had a thing to eat all day. I was hoping, maybe..."

"Not this one. This one's worth a little experiment on in the cauldron."

*********************

Trinity ran down a dark alley, making sure to keep to the shadows. She could hack it, and she'd prove it. And, she thought as her eyes blazed purple, damn everyone who thought otherwise.

When she was a girl, they used to call her the White Witch.

Maziah bint Mordru bin Ahmad Al-Nayal took a bath in the luxurious suite of the Paris United Nations building and immersed herself in the scalding hot water without letting it cool. She hardly noticed the pain. When she emerged she brushed her hair diligently and forced out the tangles from her days of mourning. She made herself a modest breakfast of toast, melon and orange juice and retired back to her room before anyone saw she was awake at such an early morning. She was careful not to disturb Nura, who slept quietly in the bed Maziah had spent the last few days in. She laid out her clothes and looked at them carefully, at last deciding on what to wear. It was a long flowing gown of white with a white hoodless cloak over it. Her boots were white leather; comfortable and practical.

She looked in the mirror and noticed her appearance was changing as well. Her skin was growing pale, as if the pigment was fading away. Her auburn hair was lightening, growing increasingly blond. Even her blue eyes were becoming a lighter shade.
When she was a girl, they used to call her the White Witch. Now she looked the part.

Something else else had happened when Nura told her about the death of RJ Brande. Nura was sobbing and so full of grief that she collapsed. Seeing her sister like that was frightening. Maziah rushed to her sister to provide comfort and strength but deep inside she felt something else. Guilt. Shame. For days she had wallowed in self-pity following her defeat and the death of her mentor.

Now she felt something else. Something else else fierce. Anger. Focus.

It was time to set aside childish things. And crying in her bed because of her daddy was childish. RJ Brande had died. Blok had died. Many, many people had died in the battle against Mordru. If it meant she too had to die, than so be it.

Maziah walked up the stairs to the roof of the building and embraced the morning chill air. She watched the sun rise quietly and felt its warmth on her face. Instinctively, she began to levitate.

…they used to call her the White Witch. Was it awe? Was it a jape? Did it even matter? She was the White Witch, then and now. They feared her—all of them. All those who understood magic. And her father Mordru, most of all. He made her think otherwise but Nura’s grief provided a moment of clarity. She let herself be tricked by Mordru because that was what he did.

No longer.

“Maziah,” said a voice, soft and kind but full of concern. Maziah turned back to see Sensor standing there. Princess Jacqueline of Proiectra was perhaps her best friend besides Nura. “Where are you going?” she asked. Her voice was stern and direct. Jacque’s power allowed her to see; she knew exactly where Maziah was going.

“He believes he has broken in me. I allowed him to think that. In magic terms, that can be akin to death. If I’m to stop him, I must announce myself once more. I’m going to do so again.”

“You’re going to fight him again. Alone?” asked another voice and Maziah could see Jacquie was not alone. Flare, her friend Dirk Morgna, was also there. But there were no others, just those two. Sometimes when she felt things were at their bleakest, Dirk’s smile pulled her back up. He was not smiling now but his presence did provide some comfort.

“Perhaps,” she said. “But I’m going to Khundia regardless of whether he’s there. They believe the White Witch has fallen. I intend for them to know she’s risen once more.”

Flare looked at Sensor with an eyebrow raised. He was looking for a cue on how to proceed.

“Then we’re going with you,” said Sensor firmly.

Dirk rolled his eyes. But then he smiled. “Fine,” he said. “Why not?”

They felt broken and beaten, and all they could think about was Mr. Brande. Many of them had known death before in their lives yet this one hurt more than most. It hit them like a terrible blunt object and the pain continued to sting.

Tela and Livewire held each other from time to time, unable to even speak the words they wanted to say. Instead, Irma opened up her mind to Garth and they quietly shared each other’s pain.

Catalyst cried his eyes out, wishing Invisible Kid were there to hold him. But he was not, and Condo could only sob.

Valor, consumed by guilt and shame, lied in his hospital bed recovering. Ferro would visit him to try to lift his spirits. Jacquie was always by his side, holding his hand.

Leviathan, who always thought Brande resented him like the other Legionnaires did, still felt like he’d been brought very low. They felt beaten and he did not know how to handle it.

Mon-El and Umbra did not know RJ Brande and could only watch on in despair as their newfound allies succumbed to anguish.

Dawnstar, disgusted, flew around Paris wondering if perhaps ever becoming immersed in this struggle was a mistake.

Ultra Boy, who fully understood the war between Mordru and RJ Brande, replayed all he learned over and over again. He was trying to figure out what could be done. He could find no answers.

Even Conal Kent and Atmos, who had just met them, shared the communal sense of defeat.

******************************

The Khundian soldiers remained encamped outside the city of Paris; in the passing days they had taken to lighting piles of car tires on fire that would send thick plumps of black smoke into the air, so that an acrid smell and ashy fog covered the city. Through the usage of Oracle, the girl known as Danielle Focquart, any technology that came close to the army was immediately shut down, so air support and long range missiles were not an option. The army could lay siege to a city as was done in a more ruthless, bloodthirsty bygone era.

Confrontations and engagements abounded but they were limited and small. Most of the Legionnaires, following the death of RJ Brande had found it harder to muster up the resolve to re-engage the enemy again. All save one: Mon-El.

Across the divide between the army and the city, Mon-El’s arch nemesis Dev Em watched and waited for his old friend to come forth. He could feel it now; the Legionnaires were on the cusp of defeat and all it would take was one final blow to crush them permanently. Beyond the Legion of Super-Heroes, humanity scarcely had a chance.

Mon-El took to flying around Paris, overseeing the defenses and the soldiers who had becoming increasingly less. Ultra Boy and Dawnstar would join him but even they had trouble keeping up. “I can see it happening,” he told Joe unable to hide his growing despair, “but I can’t do anything about it. We’re losing.” Joe didn’t know what to say to that.

When he returned to his friends, both new and old, Umbra tried to provide him comfort but it was no use. “I know he’s watching us…” he said to her finally, and she knew he meant Dev Em.

Eventually, he burst into the kitchen to find Leviathan making himself a cup of coffee. Tela and Livewire, both still devastated by the loss of RJ Brande were also there and when they saw the fury in Mon-El’s face they knew better than to say anything. “Do you honestly consider yourself to be a leader?” he said abruptly and even unkindly.

“Excuse me?” said Leviathan taken aback.

“You heard me,” said Mon-El. “You are the Legion leader, are you not? Look around you! Everyone is moping about as if they have already been beaten! You need to be doing something!”

Outrage flooded every part of Leviathan but more than that, so did shame. Part of him knew Mon-El was right. “Th-they just lost someone really important to them…!” he started to say.

“They’ll lose EVERYONE important to them soon!” he yelled. “The window to stand up and do something is closing very fast. It’s past time you…we…did something about it.”

Mon-El suddenly flew out the kitchen at super-speed. He passed Umbra on the way out and she yelled for him but he didn’t stop. He flew directly of the United Nations building and into the sky. Did I miss two thousand years just to be woken up for this? I won’t allow it!

As he flew around Paris, he was unaware that the entire city was looking at him; both invaders and defenders. Their eyes turned to another blur, this one purple, as it approached him.

“Monius!” said the voice as Mon-El stopped. He knew it was Dev Em, once more. “How do you fare, old friend?”

Mon-El turned to him and Dev Em’s eyes went wide. There was something in Mon-El’s face that told Dev Em he was in serious danger. Both of them were warriors from two thousand years past. They knew savagery in a way that very few in this modern era did. Mon-El said nothing but looked at his old friend coldly.

“Mon,” said Dev Em, “they’ve let you down, I know it. How could they not? They are weak and surely you must see that now. I’ve come to try to put aside our grudge. As I’ve waited out there beyond the city, I’ve come to realize that I do not want this. I do not want you and I to kill one another in battle! We should be side by side! We will live as grand lords once Mordru assumes full power over the Earth! You must know it in your heart! You and I, and Mordru and the other agent beings…we don’t belong among them! You are better than this, Mon! Let’s set aside the rivalry once and for all!”

Mon-El could see on Dev Em’s face that he meant the words. He was being genuine. Before, Mon-El thought perhaps it was a trick and Dev would betray him again; then he thought perhaps it was fear—the fear that Dev would not be unique anymore. But now he could see Dev Em truly meant what he said; he wanted Mon-El to join Mordru.

Mon-El considered the words for a moment, feeling the slightest temptation to accept. After all, was he not different? Were his values so out of date that he had no place in the world? [i]I’d have even less of a place with Mordru,[i] he thought clearly.

“You’re right, Dev,” said Mon-El solemnly. “I don’t belong among them. I don’t belong among any of them…or any of you, either.” His words were full of loneliness and finality. “I have what I believe in. And that will always set us at odds.”

Dev Em let his face reveal the pain he felt. He said nothing further.

“See you on the battlefield, old friend,” said Mon-El. “This evening at sundown. You and I, just the two of us, like the ancient days. Let no one else interfere; let only one emerge as a victor.”

Dev Em’s face now went as cold as Mon-El’s. “I accept.”

“I know.”

Earth War: Legionnaires
A Good Day to Die?, part 5 of 7

• Prologue: "Sunset"
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

"Gear, can you track Trinity? Where'd she go?" Polarity was the one to ask the obvious question, with Cos apparently still stunned.

"Can't get a GPS reading in this damn city. And the homing signal says she should still be right..." Gear spotted something, and walked over to pick up a small metal object that had caught the moonlight, "...here." He held up Trinity's homing beacon. Obviously, she'd dumped it to avoid being tracked.

"We have to go." Cos was pulling himself back together. "I can see more rock monsters heading toward us."

"Wait a minute - look at this." Spark had been examining the shattered arm of one of the rock monsters Gear had "killed" with his truck stunt. With an electrical arc between finger and thumb of her left hand for light, she pulled something out from the gravel - a tube of navy blue, cloth with white beading and a yellow and black emblem stitched into the top - the sleeve of a SHIELD uniform. "I think I've just found out what happened to Carpenter's team that 'sank into the ground'."

"That means that all of these rock-things are, what, fuelled by people?" Polarity winced at the thought.

"No wonder there's so many, huh?" Spark observed. "And they don't survive the rocks being broken open. There was the semblence of an arm inside that when I first touched it there. Now, nothing. I don't think anyone's alive in them - they're literally being used up for fuel."

"That fulfills part of our mission, but we still need to get out of here now to get any survivors and report it." Cos pointed out.

"What about Trinity?" Paul asked.

"We can't..." Cos coughed and started again. "If she's running away, hopefully she'll find somewhere safe. My bet is that she's running straight for City Hall at top speed, though. Hopefully, we'll see her if we're going in the same direction, but we need to get off the ground now." At that, he grabbed Gear and flew up to the nearest roof.

Spark and Polarity looked at each other for a moment. Then Ella stood up, to let Paul carry her up after them.
_____________

"I know you're awake," Julia heard the wheezing voice say. She thought hard about whether to react, since she was still held firmly in the grasp of the first hostile, but decided playing unconscious wouldn't help. On opening her eyes, she found her vision filled with the nosferatu-like figure. She held herself steady in return, determined not to show any reaction to his deformed face.

She almost expected a villanous monologue. Instead, he just laughed at her determination, then gestured and she suddenly found herself tipped into the large cauldron next to her.

It took a few seconds for the pain to kick in. When it did, she forgot all about holding her breath as she tried to scream, and the cauldron's liquid rushed down her throat. Filling her lungs, filling her stomach, filling her with pain.

In pain and madness, she thrashed about, unreasoning eyes filled with visions of monsterous spiders.. and something else. Something else else which, with saner eyes, she would have recognised as herself, dressed in black, adorned with a white spider.

Of course, she didn't recognise this. She just saw that it was different, something other than the spiders, and reached out to it just as she passed out...
___________

Trinity was more than halfway to City Hall, making her way Neutral-first across any roads wide enough for rock monsters, so that she had the option of disappearing either backward to where the other two stood, or forward if she made it across. "Slow and careful"? Fast and careful was better.

Meanwhile, the other four Legionnaires were indeed going slowly and carefully, but using a more direct route they still stood on a roof within sight of City Hall now. And, moreover, they could see their teammates, housed in a large, wooden "bird-cage" like structure, tied to the cage with vines. None of them were moving, but the fact that they were visible and whole was itself encouraging for them. Then they noticed the movement on the ground nearby.
___________

"Bah." Orlok barked as they pulled the unconscious Julia from the cauldron - the cauldron's liquid disappearing almost instantly from her body - disappointed she still appeared human, with her injuries healed.

"Right, you didn't get a new pet out of it. Can I drain her now? I'm starving here."

"No..." his superior stroked his parchment-like chin. "Nothing gets out of there unchanged. Throw her in with the Legionnaires for now."

"But..."

"I said DO IT."

"Fine..." the vampire picked up the unconscious SHIELD agent and flew slowly, sulkily toward the cage, which opened to his touch.

"Cage, another set of restraints," he commanded, and a set of enchanted rope, capable of non-lethally neutralising anything held by them for later study, appeared out of nowhere on the cage wall. The vampire prepared to place Julia in them for a moment, then looked again at her inviting neck.

Just a snack... even a pint or so would be nice... he can't complain about THAT... he held her for a moment, thinking, then bared his fangs...
________

Spark lowered her field glasses. "Cos, he's started feeding."

"Who?"

"Female, I can't see who in this light, but he's definitely going for the neck."

"Damn, I wanted to be closer. Paul, hold that thing steady."

'That thing' was a simple piece of sharpened wood, with two rings of iron nails driven into it to let the magnetic brothers hold it.

They didn't know how much from vampire legends was true, but it wasn't as if they had many other options, and Gear's plan was simple enough - Polarity laid a magnetic 'track', Cos fired it at the highest speed he could. Hey presto, anti-vampire railgun. In theory.
_______

So, as the vampire lowered his fangs to Julia's neck, he got an unpleasant surprise.

A stake...

...through the shoulder.

Unpleasant.

Not fatal.

Dropping his captive to the floor in a rage, he flew at top speed towards the bastards who did it.
_________________________

Julia picked herself up slowly from the foot of the cage. She felt shaky, as if she was getting over a bad case of the flu, and grabbed the side to hold herself steady.

Then she found her hand was stuck to the cage.

She tugged at it, then relaxed and looked around for anything within reach that she might be able to free herself with. Seeing the bloody stake, she reached for it - only to find there was nothing holding her back. Her hand was free. Rubbing it showed no sign of adhesive... but suddenly a glowing pink mesh was joining it to the ceiling. It hadn't been thrown or shot from the one to the other, it was simply there like a jump-cut.

She utttered a curse word quietly. Finding that insufficient, she said it again, louder this time.

Then something caught her eye on the rooftop below...
________

Trinity made her ways, unusually slowly and carefully, onto the roof. It didn't do much good - almost as soon as they were standing there, the siren turned to face her. Immediately, its mouth opened and it began to sing once again. Elsewhere, Spark and Polarity grabbed Cos. Julia held onto the cage. Neither would have done much good, but suddenly, the pitch changed and they were free... the siren could see that the song wasn't affecting Trinity. So it changed its tune.

Suddenly, Lorna felt the beginnings of a deep pull within her. She merged, and tried to block it out. It didn't do much good - the siren's song was still changing. In moments, it would have her and she knew it. It seemed to be changing form - now she could see Cos in front of her. Her feet were moving, almost running toward what she knew logically was really the siren. Then it went an octave too far. Cos' form shimmered and suddenly it was Enrapture there in front of her.

With a roar of hatred, her eyes both flashing purple, she sped up and body-tackled the siren straight over the edge of the roof.

Khundia

As the sun rose high into the sky, the Khundian soldiers and citizenry looked at it in awe. It shined brighter than perhaps it ever had before. Instead of a dull yellow there was something different about its color; it was a glimmering shade of white. It was pulsating, almost alive.

The White Witch arrived in the center of the Khundian capital as she had done days earlier though this time was different. She was not nervous and she was not scared. She was not loud and did not shout out to passer-bys. Instead she quietly began to whisper to herself, casting a spell.

Brightness shined out from her into the streets. As it radiated onto the Khundians they began to feel light-headed and dizzy. Something else else was happening to them; at first it felt like uneasiness, but no, that was not right. In fact it was the opposite; it was the absence of uneasiness. They began—for the first time in their lifetimes—to stop feeling afraid. Their fear was fleeting, even if only for a moment. And without the fear, they began to see clearly as if for the first time.

Maziah floated in the air above them, higher and higher into the sky. And at first with just a hum, followed by a melody, she began to sing.

Blok had loved her singing voice, she remembered. He thought it was lovely and poignant. But what he liked most about it is when she sang, she was fearless.

She began to sing and the sun shined brighter than ever before.

Soon the people below began to cheer for her. And while some soldiers were alarmed, some others whose fear had fallen aside could not help but lay down their weapons and sing themselves.

******************************

“What is the commotion?” said Firefist, jumping to his feet. They could hear cheering out on the streets. Firefist knew the cheering would not be for Mordru—most Khundians secretly regretted that Zaryan ever invited that devil to Khundia in the first place. Firefist ran out into the streets and Blood Claw, always chasing after him, followed.

Veilmist and Flederweb remained in the barracks, choosing not to go. Neither said anything to one another; another long, bleak day faced them and a moment’s respite from it was welcome.

“What sets us apart from the animals,” said Dirk Morgna slowly, “is our ability to adapt.” He entered their quarters slowly, as both Veilmist and Flederweb jumped to their feet and prepared for battle. “We can choose. We can change. We can flee. We can fight. We do what we can to survive but even when we’re far down that road…we can still change our path.”

Dirk walked further into the room as Flederweb climbed up the side of the wall. Though Flederweb distrusted and feared Flare, he knew there was some odd connection to Veilmist. He never spoke of it to the others as he hated them as much as she did.

“Amilah,” said Dirk clearly to Veilmist using her real name. “You’ve chosen this awful path for yourself. But you still have time to change.” Dirk’s posture showed him to be exhausted. Finding the words to say was even a struggle for him. He clearly did not want to fight.

“I’ve told you before, Dirk Morgna,” she replied, “I cannot. This…this is my life. I…must stay. Please don’t make me say it again. Please leave.”

“No,” said Dirk firmly. “I’ve done that enough already. We both know this is wrong.” He turned to Flederweb now, whom he’d never spoken to in his life. “And you too,” he said. “You can change your path too. I know the other two are set in their ways. They believe in something neither of you do. You don’t believe in Mordru. Or even Zaryan the Conqueror. Don’t go any farther with this. You feel trapped. You feel scared. You don’t have to.”

Flare held his hand out and Flederweb was sure an attack was coming; he got into attack position but saw that Flare was actually only extending his hand as if to embrace Flederweb. Why? thought the Bedouin. I’ve attacked this one before. We would we extend his hand in friendship.

“What is that noise?” asked Veilmist.

“It’s a song,” said Flare with a smile. Outside, Maziah’s voice had grown louder and louder. They could now hear it as if she was right in the room with them though she was quite a distance away. And more, there were other voices. Everyday Khundians, both regular citizens and soldiers were also singing. The song was gaining momentum, becoming more bombastic and celebratory.

Flederweb heard it and listened. And it made him think of his youth, and his brothers. And he started to weep. At first, just tears running down his face. And then sobbing. He thought about his life and how it had gotten to this point. He questioned whether he’d ever be forgiven for the atrocities he committed. The song told him he would be. He thought of Dirk’s words. “We can flee,” he said, to Dirk. “I-I…I want to flee. I want to go home. Away from here.” He was looking at Dirk as if to ask if that was okay.

Dirk smiled a friendly, comforting smile. “Then you should go,” he said, once again extending his hand.

Flederweb took it and shook it. And he felt relief. And suddenly, he turned to the window and crawled through it, and he was gone. Gone from the Earth War and soon gone from Khundia.

Flare turned to Veilmist and could see the shock on her face following Flederweb’s departure. The song had grown even louder outside and they could hear cheers being shouted as well. Veilmist did not sob but instead had two, then three, then four tears streak down her face.

Dirk walked over to her. “It’s not too late, Amilah,” he said softly. He put her hand in his own.

“I’m scared,” she said at last.

“I know,” he said quietly.

And then she smiled, and her decision was made.

In that moment he wanted to kiss her and hug her and so much more but he knew she had to see this through. He just held her hand.

And she teleported them away.

*******************************

Sara Romanescu, the Emerald Empress, heard the song and knew at once Maziah had returned. She did not go out there to greet her or battle her. The Emerald Eye resisted the song, shooting a sharp anger into Sara to keep her agitated.

But Sara found herself resisting the Eye. The song was magic, she knew that, but it did make her feel something. Regret? Guilt? No.Longing…longing for her lost friend. For Jacquie, whom she had betrayed.

“Sara,” she heard as if on cue, and Princess Jacqueline Proiectra was there before her. The Emerald Empress at first did not react, wondering if indeed this was some sort of trick, or part of Maziah’s spell. But no, the Eye soon told her—the newly christened Legionnaire known as Sensor was there.

“Jacquie,” she said softly. Too softly, she thought. I hate her and can’t let her see me be weak!

“What do you hear when you hear the song, Sara?” she asked. The Emerald Empress knew she was using her powers of illusion to see if she would be lying.

“I think of how I was nothing but your servant…and that you betrayed me,” Sara lied. She didn’t care if Jacquie knew she was lying or not. She would not give her the satisfaction of knowing some part of her still missed her friend.

“You betrayed yourself,” said Sensor firmly. “When you killed all those people on the airline.” Sensor longed for Sara to redeem herself. But the truth was she could not bring herself to forgive Sara for murdering over one hundred people. She probably never would. She could even see through the lies she told herself.

“I’ve had enough of your scolding, Jacquie!” yelled Sara in anger. But by raising her voice, Sara only found her words drowned out by Maziah’s song.

“Sara,” said Jacquie with genuine sadness in her voice. “You know Mordru is evil. You know he does not love you. And you know you do not love him. Do not be a part of this. You were born for something better than this.”

The Emerald Empress only became angrier. She hated when Jacquie assumed the moral high ground. “I hate you,” she said sharply.

“I know,” said Jacquie. “But I still love you…even if I don’t know why…”

With those words, the Emerald Empress flew away, not wanting to let Jacquie see her crying. Maziah’s damn song… she thought, blaming her emotions on it.

Sensor did not follow her. Not this time.

********************************

Maziah continued to sing, as her voice had become a booming, beauteous thing that was almost violent in its melody. Below the Khundians had stopped singing along but now simply cheered in the streets. They were shouting many things, including her name.

“Maziah bint Mordru bin Ahmad Al-Nayal!” many shouted.

“Maziah!” some said, choosing to shorten it.

But what she heard the most was something all too familiar. “White Witch! White Witch!”

The common citizenry had taken to the streets in a celebration; in an uprising.

“White Witch!”

The soldiers did not know what to do, panicking. Some ran out of fear. Some laid down their arms and joined in. Some ran back to Zaryan to await further instructions.

“White Witch!”

White Witch! they screamed, yelling with love in their hearts.

She smiled. This was enough. She had declared herself against Mordru one more time. She would fight him again, because she had to. And this time only one would survive.

Earth War: Legionnaires
A Good Day to Die?, part 6 of 7

• Prologue: "Sunset"
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

"LORNA!" Cosmic Boy screamed as he saw his girlfriend leap off a building, seemingly about to die in front of him. Again.

He never had the chance to do anything more, however, as the building he and his team stood upon suddenly collapsed underneath them.
_________

To Trinity, the fall seemed to take place in slow motion. She twisted them toward the cauldron, but then let go and relaxed, with no serious expectation of her life being saved by it, ready to die.

She fell.

And fell.

And suddenly, the siren was pulling away from her, and splashing into the cauldron alone. Moreover, she forgot to be surprised by this, as she hung there and stared into the broken, rippled surface, which showed a thousand reflections... but not of her. Not exactly.

Some looked a lot like her, with different hair, different costumes - some in threes, some in pairs, some even in fours or more.

Some barely resembled her, with pointed ears, tiaras, and odd triangular birthmarks on the back of the hand.

And a very few didn't look human at all.

Mesmerised, she didn't even notice when she started to rise up.
_______

Suddenly, Julia wasn't so annoyed by the mesh stuff after all, as, firmly planted and seemingly without strain, she used it to pull Trinity up and into the cage. She quickly checked her over - she was clearly stunned, with her orange eyes dilated, but was breathing fine and her heart was pounding - and put her over to the side to recover.

Then she realised just how little effort hosting a full-grown woman had taken. She forced aside thoughts about what else they'd done to her to look at the circumference of the cage, covered with Legionnaires tied and unconscious, and wondered if she could put this strength to use. She selected the nearest, a red-headed female, and simply ripped the rope binding her apart with no more exertion than unwrapping a present. Almost as soon as she was unbound, Kinetix began to stir, and Julia moved on to the next one in turn...
_______

Gear awoke painfully under the rubble, his arms involuntarily exploded, exposing bright green circuitry. He managed to retract them, and pulled himself from the rubble. Looking around Cos, Spark and Polarity were all visible, but unconscious, and an obvious bad guy was hovering above, with more of the rock monsters beginning to close in on them to boot.

The floating vampire smirked, apparently pleased one of them had woken up. "Any last words?"

Suddenly, Gear noticed something, and had reason to smile. "Yeah. How about 'Funny thing about being in a Legion... there's always someone to watch your back.'"

The vampire's head whipped round, and his vision was filled with Kinetix, Blizzard and Kid Quantum racing toward him in their own inimitable styles.

Mount Kailash

"There are no mountains like the Himalaya, for in them are Kailas and Mansarovar. As the dew is dried up by the morning Sun, so are the sins of mankind dried up by the sight of the Himalaya."

-Skanda Puran

Despite the cold, sweat beaded on Element Lad’s forehead as he ran for his life through the cold snows of the Himalayas. His heart pounded as he tried to outpace the shrill cries chasing him.

Ducking behind a rocky wall, he created a titanium shield around his position. He’d previously transmuted the air around the Garuda’s legs into lead and iron weights to slow it down, but it was still far too fast for his liking.

“Shifter! Where are you?”

“Almost there, E-Lad – Wildfire estimates another twenty. Can you hold out that long?”

“Probably, but I’m not sure whether all the pilgrims on the mountain have escaped. I’m still trying to draw its attention.”

“Are you in a good defensible position?”

“As good as can be. Look for the titanium bubble with the Legion symbol. I…” Element Lad was cut off as a series of explosions went off.

“What was that?” Shifter and Wildfire’s voices both came out in unison over the communicator.

“I transmuted some explosive compounds as I was running. I think the Garuda just found them.”

“Think they’ll stop him?”

“I think they’ll slow him down… but they’ll also make him more angry. But I do have a suggestion for taking him out.”

As Element Lad outlined the plan, he said a silent prayer that he would be forgiven for turning this holiest of places into a battleground.
**************************************************
Somewhere over China

“You stopped grumbling about how much I’m slowing you down, Wildfire. Finally got tired of complaining?”

“No, I’m just trying to focus. You just do your job and make strategy!”

Shifter was taken aback. Wildfire had always been gruff, but never outright rude or bossy.

“I’m worried about them too, you know.”

After a pause, Wildfire sighed. “I know, I’m sorry. I just joined the team, and I don’t want to lose any of you guys yet. I barely even know you.”

Shifter let a few moments pass as the clouds zipped by. What should he say right now? He didn’t know much about Wildfire’s past, but suspected he saw the Legion as family. Maybe a little reassurance would…

“Gotta admit though, I have to give them all props. Element Lad sounds like he’s done a lot of damage to that thing after him. Amazon expects a trap and is prepared for it. Hygeia’s got the SHIELD agents with her following her lead, and Amihan sounds like a hundred of those things could rush her and she wouldn’t even flinch. And you and Rebound are doing great at keeping us all in touch.”

“You forgot Quislet.”

“You had to remind me, didn’t you?”

Shifter smiled. Wildfire probably didn’t need much reassurance after all.

Sagada

Amihan's hair flailed about her like a halo of power. She only hoped it would scare the creatures around her.

Monstrous tikbalang, demonic creatures with the bodies of men and the heads and hooves of horses, charged at her. She blasted them away with her winds, taking care not to unleash them outside the immediate area. She couldn't know whether people were still evacuating in the town.

She was exhausted; there had only been a few tikbalang that she could see, but they had been darting in and out of the trees and caves in the area. Had this been an open field, she would have won much earlier.

She didn't notice behind her the creature with the torso of a woman, the wings of a bat and a waist that tapered off into nothing. It was watching and waiting for her to tire...

*************************************************

Angkor Wat

Hygeia ducked behind the pile of rubble that marked a corner of the great temple. How it had ever been lost in the jungle for so many years, she did not know. She hoped that whatever had kept it hidden would also keep her hidden, until she figured out what to do.

The SHIELD agents that had accompanied her were now shuffling around, dazed. Most were standing in a circle, guarding the apsara that had magically come to life. The stone figures were now singing a siren song that had enchanted all the men and women in the temple save Hygeia.

It was almost enough to make her despair as she never had before. What good was her own power against rock? She could take care of the humans under their thrall, but the apsara themselves were beyond her.

She just hoped that aid would arrive soon, before they realized that the sickness felling their slaves came from her.

Fatehpur Sikri

The name Fatehpur Sikri evokes a nostalgia of history amongst Indian minds. The richest period of history can be attributed to the Mughal period, Akbar being one of the emperors who shone the brightest for his deeds. And Fatehpur Sikri stands for all the architectural wonder that this emperor’ time could conjure up.

This is officially a city and a district but in reality, this historical façade is a mere ghost town of the past though it has a present day population of 28804 as per census data. The façade of Fatehpur Sikri remains a historical monument – deserted – though it was built to support a sprawling ancient city. - www.fatehpursikri.org

The red sandstone monuments of the abandoned Fatehpur Sikri stood out against the stark sky. Its name, the "City of Victory", certainly made it an apt choice for a battlefield. Amazon hoped that the victory would be hers.

The Legionnaires' hunch had been right. When Amazon had stepped into this magnificent complex of mosques and temples, she had been met by Kalki.

Nearly all the SHIELD agents with her were down, though hopefully alive. She and the remaining two cowered behind a temple that looked like it could belong in either Iran or India. She wished she had time to admire the architecture, but... she concentrated on reviewing what she knew of Hindu myth. Her family's large library did have some use after all. If she was right, then she needed Wildfire's powers. If she was wrong...

She didn't have time to finish that thought. A tremor shook the earth and the wall of the temple came crashing down. Reacting quickly, she shielded them with her body.

"How could one small temple produce so much rubble?" Was her last thought before she sank into darkness.

Sagada

“This isn’t working!” Amihan thought desperately. She had been trying to blast the tikbalang back, but the mountainous terrain and the sparse trees made it difficult to get a clear hit. She could use her full powers, but she risked uprooting trees and having them fall down the slopes. She couldn’t injuring the fleeing civilians.

She decided to change tactics. She focused on the two nearest her, and commanded the winds to carry all air away from their heads. At the same time, she kept blasting their feet and legs to buy time. It worked; they fell to their knees, choking. In a few more seconds both were unconscious.

She looked around. The others had stopped in their tracks, apparently thinking that she had unleashed some powerful magic on them. She steadied herself to avoid falling to her knees – showing weakness might make them rush her again.
A moment or two of rest and…

A whooshing of the wind alerted her.

Instinctively, she ducked just as a claw swiped at where her head was. She looked up in horror to see a mananaggal slashing at her through the air. A grotesque mockery of a woman with bat wings, it flew swiftly. She summoned more wind to blast it back, but was too tired. It hung in the air, strong wings slowly bringing it closer.

“Blessed Mother, have mercy,” she cried. “I won’t lose today!”

“No, you won’t!” yelled a familiar voice, just as a rotund form sproinged out of nowhere and crashed into the manananggal, sending it flying towards the mountain wall.

“You okay?” Rebound asked.

“Rebound, the hanging coffins…!”

“Oh, right.” Rebound bounced into the monster again, altering its trajectory so it instead slammed into a tree. “At least we kept the dead from being disturbed further.”

“Thanks, you got here just in time,” Amihan said as Rebound helped her up. “We’re not out of danger yet, though.”

“Not to worry, the reason I’m late is because I collected this.” Rebound held out a pungent plastic bag full of garlic.

Amihan smiled. With a wave of her hand, she caused the odor to waft all around them. In no time at all, the creatures all around either fainted or ran away.

Suddenly, she paused. “Wait, what about the townspeople?”

Rebound merely smiled and pointed. Amihan turned her head to follow, and was amazed. Row upon row of people, locals and tourists alike, were standing in a ring with garlic around their necks. They had made a ring around the peak; all the creatures inside the circle were trapped.

It was Rebound’s turn to be surprised when Amihan hugged him. “You are absolutely amazing!” He couldn’t help but blush. “Call me amazing when we do figure out what to do with them…”

Amihan paused. “Legend says that these creatures are quite intelligent in themselves. Maybe we can find out what their purpose here was…”

Mount Kailash

In the form of an Arctic hare, Shifter scurried across the snowy landscape dotted with small shrines, stones and prayer wheels. His destination was the fiery halo in the distance.

It looked like Element Lad had taken care not to damage any of the spiritual objects on the mountain. Not unexpected.

What was a bit more unexpected was the sight that met him. Element Lad was crouched behind a titanium wall, while above a fearsome raptor was with its wings on fire pecking at it. Each slam seemed to bend the shield, while Element Lad's glowing hands showed he was doing his best to reinforce it.

At the same time, the air around the Garuda's wings shimmered and literally exploded.

"I regret causing such harm to you, but you can't be allowed to win!" Element Lad's calm and forceful tones were carried by the mountain wind. He sounded weak.

While his current form was good for stealth, now he needed speed. Shifter turned into a wolf and sped towards them. Element Lad was putting up a good fight, but he was weakening and the Garuda simply looked angry.

It slammed into the wall again and again, each blow sending tremors across the ground. Suddenly, it buckled...

And a speeding Shifter leaped, transforming back to human as he hung in midair. He dove right at Element Lad, pushing him out of the way just as a talon crashed through the wall.

The two teammates tumbled down the snow as angry cries pierced the heavens.

*************************************************

Angkor

"Quislet calling Hygeia! Where's the party, huh?" Quislet was in the airplane's cockpit as it sped towards the Siem Reap airport. "I'm almost there!"

"Quislet, not so loud... I'm hiding outside the main temple while I'm waiting for the SHIELD agents to fall. But I can't take on the aspara myself. I still can't tell if they're still stone or if they're now flesh and blood."

"What does it matter? Stone or flesh, we can slam them!"

"Maybe you can, but I haven't yet found a microbe that can erode stone yet. How long will it take you to get here?"

"How long, Mr. Pilot? I mean, Quislet's not speeding things up but we can still go prety fast!"

The pilot just stared straight ahead.

"Hey, Mr. Piloooooooot!" Quislet waved his hand in front of the pilot's face. Uh-oh. He couldn't have annoyed the pilot that much...

He closed his eyes and tried to divine for traces of magic.

"Quislet? What's happening?" Hygeia's hushed tones came over the comlink.

"I have bad news, Hygeia. Pilot's entranced, probably by the same apara playing tricks down there Guess they got more powerful."

"Oh... oh no. Then that means..."

"That means I have to land the plane! What fun!"

"But what if the airport personnel are entranced too? How can you get out?"

"Who says I'm landing in the airport? I'll land right outside the temple!"

"What... No, Quislet! The Angkor Park is 400 square kilometers, but how will you make it without toppling the buildings?"

"Just watch, my lady! Quislet show you it's done!" With a twinkle in his eye, Quislet got behind the controls. This would be the most fun he'd had in forever!

Khundia

It was their intention to arrive unseen in the night, but the journey to Khundia was harder and longer than planned. Still, the Legion of Super-Heroes Espionage Squad made it…and this time luck was on their side. “Is that singing? And cheering?” asked Shrinking Violet incredulously.

“Yes,” said King Faraday, “and whatever it means, it’s given us the perfect distraction to slip in unnoticed. Some of us can’t turn invisible, after all.”

Fantomas, the spy Jacques Focquart, smiled as he bent light around him to turn invisible and turned to the Legionnaire Invisible Kid who was doing the same. “It is a convenient ability my friend, is it not?”

Lyle smiled. The two of them had been interacting only briefly over the last few days (or was it weeks now?), but Lyle was starting to grow attached to him. Jacques was a few years older than them, in his early twenties—he was much closer to their age than King Faraday’s. Lyle was beginning to think of him as an older brother figure.

Invisible Kid, Spirit, Shrinking Violet and their friend Matter-Eater Lad felt the same trepidation they felt the last time they were in Khundia. This difference this time was they had a precise mission. That focus brought a certain level of comfort to them, as so did their new companions.

King Faraday, the super-spy, was all business as usual. His companion Fantomas took the cue and did the same with the Legionnaires following suit. Shrinking Violet shrank down and jumped on Faraday’s shoulder and Spirit went into her ethereal form so she could phase somewhere else if needed. Only Matter-Eater Lad, the Sentinel Ten Zil Kem, was unable to get totally out of eyesight.

I have my own uses, thought Tenz, trying to reassure himself. Otherwise someone like King Faraday would not have brought me. Matter-Eater Lad had a pretty good idea why he was there though. If they could not penetrate the holding cell of Danielle Focquart, it was a safe bet that Faraday would ask Tenz to allow himself to be caught…and then break Danielle out from the inside. It was a trick he’d used a few times already and seemed to be an ongoing theme in his budding super-hero career. Not the flashiest power. Now I just have to be sure I’m not killed on sight.

Jacque’s sister Danielle had been a prisoner of the Khunds since the catastrophic Suicide Squad mission that left Doug Nolan dead. Her codename had been ‘Oracle’ because of her natural abilities—she could control technology, specifically computers, by communicating directly with and then overriding them. The Khunds had somehow turned her powers into their most important weapon, the ability to shut down enemy technology. It made air strikes and remote missile strikes impossible. The Legionnaires suspected it also stopped the major countries from dropping a nuclear bomb on Khundia.

“I should never have let Danielle come here,” Jacques said softly. When he was with King Faraday, he never spoke out of turn since Faraday was not the kind of man for idle chit-chat. But being around these Legionnaires, he felt a need to connect that he had pushed aside for some time.

“She’ll be okay,” said Spirit reassuringly. She also liked Jacques a lot—they all did. “We’ll get her out of here and then she’ll be back to you and her life in no time.”

“Maybe even a better life,” said Lyle. He thought of the Legion Academy suddenly as an option for Danielle. He knew they did a great job with kids that had been traumatized by their powers; he wondered if the trauma Danielle would have after this could be helped there.

“What now?” asked Shrinking Violet on King Faraday’s shoulder.

“We get into position,” he said. “And we wait.”

The others soon fell silent, as King Faraday had a way of making people do that. Instead they waited and they listened and soon their eyes went wide as they picked up on what the Khunds were chanting. White Witch.

*****************************

Maziah sang her song in Khundia and the Khundish citizens heard it through their ears and heard it in their hearts.

And all around the world, others heard it in a different way.

In Xerox, the Secret City of Yemen, Mordru heard it and grew angry once more. He let his daughter live on the belief she would eventually come crawling back to him and submit to his will. This time he would finish her and be done with it.

Across the Earth, others heard her song. These were the ones who walked on the unseen roads and highways where knowledge had been refined and the structure of things had been loosened. These were the magic users.

The teenager known as Dragonmage felt a pounding in his head all morning. Drinking tea did not help and in fact only made it worse. After weeks of wandering aimlessly from place to place, he did not at first recognize a Calling when he heard it.

Using his skills of divination he could see for the first time in a long time, there was a place he should go. There was a gathering.

He began his journey, along the dusty streets of Abu Dhabi and once he found the right direction, the headache began to fade. He felt better and the journey gave him a sense of purpose again. He became so distracted by the newfound feeling that at first he did not notice a companion by his side.

The man walked in step with Dragonmage but said nothing. He had an old-fashioned trench coat and fedora hat on his head. Clearly he looked like a relic from some lost era halfway around the world. Instantly, Dragonmage knew he was magic-user. An old one and a powerful one.

“I am called Dragonmage,” he said to his newfound companion.

“And I am Dr. Occult. I also hear the calling and would join you on the way.”

“Where are we going, then?” asked Dragonmage, feeling this new entity was friendly.

“We are going to a reckoning,” said Dr. Occult with some satisfaction. “The White Witch has thrown down the gauntlet and the final confrontation begins.”

“We go to see a battle, then?” asked Dragonmage. He wasn’t sure if he was disappointed or excited. He’d never seen a wizard’s duel before but he thought he was being called to something larger.

“We go to see a turning point,” said Dr. Occult. “What comes next changes the nature of magic hereafter. Though you and many others like you do not know it, your future hinges on what is to come.”

The Siege of Paris

The shadows grew longer and the sky began to darken as the sun receded into the west. The evening arrived as the air grew chilly, and day slowly moved towards night.

The Legionnaires began gathering on the roof of the Paris United Nations building after word spread little by little throughout the day. Arguments had broken out between them at various intervals but very few of them would confront Mon-El directly.

Tela tried, telling him it was a savage, horrible idea, but he brushed her off abruptly.

Livewire screamed at Leviathan, telling him it was his job to do something, but Leviathan did nothing. Instead, he seemed accepting and almost oddly encouraging about what was to occur.

Below the NATO soldiers, most of whom were French, could feel something in the air. Beyond the city limits, the Khundian army also waited impatiently.

Mon-El emerged onto the roof wearing his blue and red costume, with long blue flowing cape. Around his belt was a sword—the Roman gladius. The assembled Legionnaires and allies fell into silence at the sight of him. A sense of awe overtook them.

The hero known as Atmos stepped forward and put his hand on Mon-El’s shoulder. “Good luck,” he said. Many followed, including those closest to him like Flare, the still injured but walking around Valor and Dawnstar.

Ultra Boy stepped in beside him. He had volunteered to be Mon-El’s ‘second’. He would be there by his side if anything went awry.

Umbra was waiting for him at the end. She was visibly upset, with Tela and Dreamer by her side. Dried tears were on her cheeks but she stood proud like a warrior-born, not showing any fresh tears. She would not admit how scared she was. “You don’t have to do this,” she said to him. It was clear she feared he was not going to come back.

“I do, Tatiana,” he said softly. “We’re beaten. You know it. I know it. Something else else has to happen to bring us out of this spiral. And this is all I know.”

He expected her to hug him but she was too upset, and her posture showed that to be strong, she would go the way of the warrior, not the damsel. He simply leaned forward and embraced her, pulling her into his chest. He leaned down and kissed her, and she kissed him back briefly. “I love you,” he whispered.

And then he flew off. “I love you too,” she whispered to herself, knowing he heard it with his super-hearing.

********************

Mon-El flew out to meet Dev Em, who was already waiting for him. Ultra Boy stayed by his side but was back several feet. Dev Em had no second.

Dev Em was in his usual purple attire, but this time on his head he wore an old-fashioned Roman centurion’s helmet. A gladius was hung on his belt and in his hands were a spear and shield. All pleasantries were gone from Dev Em’s face; he was deadly serious and angry. He wants this to be over now, thought Mon-El. He wants me to be dead and is ready to move on.

High above the skies, with everyone who could see them looking on, the two stood several feet apart. “You’ve made your decision, Mon,” said Dev.

“Save the long-winded diatribe, Dev. You betrayed me two thousand years ago in the most cowardly of ways. Now you seek to subjugate the world. We will both do what we must,” he added, staring at him coldly.

Dev Em moved so quickly that Mon-El was not expecting it. Dev’s reply to Mon-El’s words was an aggressive attack up front, smashing his Roman shield into Mon-El’s face with full super-strength, knocking him to the ground.

Mon fell backwards immediately, falling down to the Earth and Dev Em was back on him in seconds, smashing the shield against Mon-El and trying to poke the spear through his throat. Mon-El’s skin was invulnerable and impervious to the weapon, yet with Dev Em’s super-strength behind it, it might succeed.

As they descended, Mon-El knew he had one chance; otherwise this skirmish would end quickly. Timing it perfectly, he shifted his weight and flipped Dev Em around, so he was descending first with Mon on top of him. They landed in a calamitous explosion of debris, as Dev’s back smashed into the Earth, and the momentum carried Mon-El flying over the top of him.

As the dust began to clear, Mon-El realized he was holding Dev Em’s spear. He snapped it over his knee and sent it flying, just in time to see Dev Em rising from the ground in a fury. The Roman helmet was smashed and gone but he still held the shield.

Hoping for another moment to catch his breath, Mon-El fired his heat vision at the shield melting it to slag, and Dev Em hurled it aside. He flew at Mon again at immense speed but this time Mon-El flew right back at him.

The two landed at one another again with a sonic boom, as the shockwaves sent everything backwards from them. Both of them landed blows upon the other, causing each other to stagger back.

They were back on each other in an instant, both throwing fist after fist into each other’s face.

As it now seemed the battle was taking place on land, thousands rushed forward to see better. High in the sky, Ultra Boy watched and was soon joined by Dawnstar, Atmos and Conal Kent with Ferro in his arms. Towering even above them in giant form was Leviathan, who had grown to super large height in order to see the battle first hand.

Mon-El and Dev Em traded blows and their immense strength was enough to overcome their mutual invulnerability. They were wearing each other down. Mon-El knew this could not continue otherwise he would tire out and so he ducked a blow using super-speed and flipped Dev Em over his back, sending him into a pile or rubble. He was then on him in an instant, grabbing him from behind and choking him. As he did so, he used his heat vision to melt the debris and rubble around him, hoping to forge a pile of molten iron. If he could weaken Dev Em enough, perhaps he could capture him.

Dev seemed to know exactly what he was doing and in a fury, shifted his weight forward and sent Mon-El into the molten iron burning him. His invulnerable skin was not harmed but he actually felt pain—the harder and longer they fought, the more he’d be worn down and his powers would be temporarily depleted. The burning ripped apart his costume and his cape and he threw it aside.

Dev Em flew at him at super-speed and again they hammered one another with punch after punch.

“They’re going to kill one another!” shouted Dawnstar to Ultra Boy. She had grown to be very fond of both Mon-El and Ultra Boy, perhaps because they could fly together. She had very few, if any, friends among them, but Mon-El and Joe had always been kind to her. Ultra Boy could hear the worry in her voice.

“It’s what he wants, Dawny,” he said grudgingly. He was considering entering the fray against Mon’s wishes.

Below, the two continued to hammer one another, although both now were more judicious about it. They flew around low to the ground, playing cat and mouse with each other alternating in the roles. Both were getting tired and they were now feeling the blows. Both of them had costumes in tatters.

“I’ve got two thousand years experience, Mon!” cried out Dev Em. “And you’re still a bit rusty! You don’t have a chance!”

Mon-El stuck up behind him and landed a blow. “You could never beat me, Dev,” he said. “Two thousand years hasn’t changed that.”

Not far off, Umbra ran through the streets to see the action. Tela tried to keep up with her and Livewire tried to keep up with Tela. He needs me to be strong, she thought. A warrior. I’m terrified and I don’t agree with this, but that’s what I’ll be for him…

Mon-El flew along the rubble and Dev Em followed in pursuit. From above, Leviathan noticed both were slowing down enough for the human eye to keep track of them. Each time they hit one another, it caused the on-lookers to jump from the noise.

Mon-El turned to meet Dev and the two collided again, rolling forward and punching one another. As they got up, both were covered in bruises and cuts as the punches were now taking their toll. Both were breathing heavy and Dev Em suddenly smiled. His mouth was bloody and he was missing a tooth. “You’re right,” he said at last. “I would have never let you rule as a Lord under Mordru. It was a deception. I was going to kill you.”

Mon-El knew this was truth even though Dev’s words were clearly intended to infuriate and distract him. Yet it worked. The words stung; even after all this, the betrayal still hurt.

He flew at him at top speed, but Dev Em was waiting for him. As he did suddenly a huge projectile was fired into their midst, over Dev Em’s shoulder, nailing Mon-El strait on.

It was a small missile and it exploded outwards with a huge boom, sending Mon-El backwards and reeling. Confusion set in for a moment but it soon became clear what happened. Dev Em reneged on the arrangement; he had set a trap to bring down Mon-El’s invulnerability and now one of the Khunds had fired a missile at him. The realization set in that the Khunds had begun storming the city.

“RRGGH!” erupted Leviathan at the top of his lungs, infuriated by the trickery. He came smashing down with a giant fist into the Khunds. All at once, the Legionnaires and the French soldiers erupted—in less than ten seconds, the entire war began anew.

Fighting raged all around them, and the dust where Mon-El lay began to clear. Dev Em walked forward covered in bruises and blood with a smile on his face.

But then his eyes went wide.

Mon-El stood there, among the dust clouds, as magnificent as ever.

His costume was in tatters and he was covered in bruises and blood. But he stood proud and he stood tall. The missile hurt him but it did not finish him. In his hand was his gladius, pulled from his sword belt.

“Raise your sword,” he said firmly.

Dev Em was in shock, for a moment disbelieving that Mon-El was alive.

“Raise your sword, coward,” repeated Mon-El. At last the realization set in. Dev Em pulled his sword from his sword belt.

Neither of them had the strength to fly and would not be replenished until sunrise. They did not know it, but they had been fighting for four hours. Their vision powers were functioning but no longer reliable. They would settle this the old way.

This time it was Mon-El who lunged forward. Dev Em brought his sword up just in time and the swords clanged against one another. All around them fighting was occurring but neither paid any attention to it. They only saw each other.

The fighting went on: thrust, parry, thrust, dodge. The Roman gladius was not designed for fancy swordplay, however; it was designed for killing.

Mon-El could feel a shift in the battle. Dev Em was backing up. He was on the defensive. Something else else had happened; his trick had failed and his confidence was lost. Without his deceptions and advantages he was no warrior; he was a coward. He began to back up as Mon-El redoubled his effort and swung his sword violently at Dev Em.

And suddenly, Dev Em tripped backwards on a rock, and began to fall. Mon-El swung his sword again and knocked Dev Em’s gladius out of his hand, sending it flying. Dev Em landed on his back and knew he was beaten.

“Monius…I…you…” he began to say as he tried to pull himself up.

But it was too late.

Mon-El swung his sword down at full speed and caught Dev Em directly on the neck. It sliced through his skin, and then flesh, and then bone, and came out the other side in one fell swoop. Moments later, Dev Em’s head fell backwards and his torso fell to the ground.

All around them, the fighting began to slow as the realization of what just occurred set in. The Khunds were astonished and suddenly unsure what to do. The Legionnaires were in shock. But the NATO soldiers saw the advantage—and pressed onwards.

The chaos soon turned into a rout, and the Khunds began to flee. The siege was broken—the Khunds would try running all the way back to Khundia but would never make it.

Running through the crowd, Umbra emerged from the chaos to see him. He turned to her, letting the gladius drop to the ground. He walked away from the body of Dev Em, the immortal who lived long and hard but died harder.

Seeing the scene in front of her, Tatiana was shocked and horrified by what she saw. Such savagery; such violence. It was almost too much.

No. I am a warrior. The latest in a line of ancient warriors. And I must stand by my man. She walked forward and opened her arms as Mon fell into them. He was exhausted and could no longer hold himself up. She held him up tightly and thanked God he was okay.

***************************

All around them the Khunds were panicking and fleeing as the tide had turned. The NATO soldiers under the UN were pushing them back out of Paris, and the Legionnaires had joined in on the assault.

The Legionnaires found themselves cheering. They were winning this battle! We can do this, thought Leviathan with a smile as he moved through the crowds. We can really win this thing!

Paris

With their adrenaline high, the Legionnaires could not sleep that night, though Mon-El was able to get some rest with Umbra by his side.

“That…that was unbelievable,” said Catalyst in shock.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Joe, nodding.

“I hope I never see anything like it again,” said Tela. There was disgust in her voice. “The Legion can’t be about that.”

“We’re at war, Irma,” said Leviathan. He seemed totally revitalized by the turning of the tide. All of their morale seemed higher.

Tela scowled in response.

“Yes, we are at war,” said a clear recognizable voice of Dirk Morgna, as Flare walked in the door. “And it’s time we won it,” he said. By his side was a girl they all recognized as Veilmist, one of the Khundian Legionnaires. They all rose to start yelling but Dirk held up his hands. “She’s with me,” he said.

Before they could yell further, Sensor and the White Witch entered. They were all taken aback by Maziah’s appearance—she was now completely pale and her hair was no longer auburn at all but a platinum white. They could see more than her appearance had changed. She looked strong, and noble. She looked majestic.

“Where have you been?” said Nura both out of anger and worry. “You just left, Maziah!” she said.

“We have been busy,” said Sensor in reply but she was addressing them all. “And I think it’s time to call everyone in here. I’ve given it much thought and I think…I think we have a plan.”

“A plan?” said Leviathan. “Against Khundia? Or Mordru?”

“Both,” she replied. “A plan to win this war.”

END PART 4

Agra: Taj Mahal

"Where is she?" Wildfire wouldn't admit it if anyone asked, but he was worried. Amazon had been silent for too long.

He alit on the magnificent dome of the Taj Mahal and looked around to get his bearings. There were a number of people milling around the tomb grounds, but no sign of his teammate. How hard could it be to find a large, green...

Something else else slammed into him from behind. "Oof!" he yelled, in surprise rather than in pain. He quickly righted himself in midair and flew back, blasting at whatever it was.

He recognized it. It was Kalki, and it was trying to stab him. He fired again, but it blocked his blast and slashed at his suit.

Cursing, Wildfire let loose a strong blast of energy and darted off. He couldn't risk damaging his suit.

He aimed again, letting loose a powerful pinpoint blast at the sword. It melted.

And as it did, Kalki screamed. A horrible, tearing sound of pain and rage.

"What... did I hurt it?" Wildfire panicked for a moment. But then he refocused. He blasted once more, pushing Kalki back and into a pile of rubble. Confident that it would buy him a few minutes, he darted off to find Amazon.

Earth War: Legionnaires
A Good Day to Die?, conclusion

• Prologue: "Sunset"
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6

The vampire roared and prepared to attack the new interlopers... when he was suddenly stopped dead, trapped in one of Kid Quantum's stasis spheres as Jazmin took charge of the situation. "I've got him. Brock, make sure none of those other things get near us. Zoë, dig out our guys and make sure they're okay."

As Blizzard's ice walls went up to surround them, a relieved Gear allowed himself to fall back onto the building's rubble even as Kinetix began to carefully dissolve the materials pinning the still-unconscious Spark, Polarity and Cos. The strength of the Legion was in the depth of powers it collectively held, a depth which the uncaptured members hadn't had, with only two sets of offensive powers between the five. Now, with the rest of their team freed, things suddenly felt a whole lot less critical.
_______

In the cage, Julia ripped the restraints from Dox, the last of the trapped Legionnaires, and slumped to the ground beside Trinity. With the first three revived having gone to save their teammates, and Flash & Starboy also up and heading after the noseless freak who had her dumped in the cauldron, Kid Quantum had indicated that she should stay and watch the vulnerable Trinity, who was just sitting and staring forward, and Dox.

What this did, however, was give her time without anything to focus on, and she'd started shaking again.
_______

"You can't hold me! I am Count Orlok, trusted hand of Mordru! No... young... freak of black science will... keep me... trapped."

Starboy mimed yawning as he added a few more tons to Orlok's weight. Already, the nosferatu - a truly ancient vampire - had been struggling. Now, he fell to his knees.

"Gee, he doesn't look happy." Jenni Ognats - the fastest girl alive, the Flash - leaned against him lightly, a wooden stake in her hand in case it became necessary to use it.

"No kidding," Tom replied. Holding Orlok down was beginning to be a strain, but the tall Australian was working hard to impress the girl. "What're we going to do with him? I vote we keep him and call him 'George'."

"Wouldn't that involve Gene hugging him?"

They both burst out laughing at the thought.
_______

Cos was the last of the three Legionnaires to stir. Immediately, a sharp pain in his left arm brought him wide awake but made him think twice about moving.

"Careful Rex." He turned his head gently to one side to see Polarity standing there. "Kinetix flew off to get Dox. She said something seemed wrong with your arm and that she didn't want you to move until he checked it over."

Settling back on the smoothed-out rubble, Cos looked around and saw Kid Quantum staring at the vampire, frozen in her bubble of stopped time, and the white walls surrounding them, with no apparent damage yet from the rock monsters' assault outside. Reassured there was no imminent danger, he looked up at his brother. "How are you?"

"Great for someone who was on a collapsing building. Nothing more than a few bruises and scrapes, I think."

"And Spark & Gear?"

"Ella's left ankle's swollen, but she's mostly alright. Gear's same as me - sore, but no major damage."

"That's something." He rested his head back for a minute, until he caught a glow from the corner of his eye. Looking in its direction, he saw Kinetix carrying Dox, Agent Carpenter and - oh thank god - Lorna in her telekinetic field. On being set down, Dox immediately went over to check on Spark's ankle, but Trinity didn't seem to move when set down. She didn't even seem to notice anything.

He tried to scramble up, to go over and see her, but Kinetix immediately pinned him back down. "Not until you get checked over."

"For crying out--- hold my arm together if you have to, I'm going over to see her."

Zoë relented, and he winced as he indeed felt her TK clamp around his bad arm. Rather than saying anything else, he pushed himself up with his right arm and hobbled over to Trinity.

"Lu? Lu, are you okay?"

"Hi Rex." Her blank, orange stare barely faltered, her voice was oddly sing-song, and even her use of his first name was strange - like most of his friends, she almost invariably called him "Cos". A wave of anger shot through him - not at her, but at the idiots who'd said she should be back on the active list for this.

"Lu, what happened?"

"I stopped the siren - told you I could hack it. And then there was this cauldron, and I looked into it, and it felt like something I don't even know. Like I should know. But I don't know. You know?"

Meanwhile, as Cos tried to disentangle what his girlfriend had just said, Dox finished binding Spark's ankle. "Kaput?"

"Yeah, Trinity had a flight ring too, and they both just cut out suddenly. Obviously, the bad guys had something to do with it, but I never saw what."

"Interesting. I wonder if it's a localised effect or if they've been permanently denatured. No warning at all?"

"No, just flying along and fzzzt."

"Something else else to consider if they ever get used again. Can you stand?"

"I'll try if you help me up."

As Dox helped Spark into a standing position, Julia was standing nearby, controlling herself but feeling useless in the middle of the activity. As such, she was surprised to hear Dox call her over. "Yes?"

"Spark's ankle is too injured to put weight on right now, even bandaged, and I need to examine Cosmic Boy before we move. Could you hold her while I do so, until I can get Kinetix to fashion a more substantial support?"

"Sure." Without thinking, Julia simply picked Spark up in both arms like a young child, as she'd hoisted her daughter once upon a time. Then, belatedly, she noticed Spark's look of surprise, together with Dox's inquisitive face at her pose & lack of strain, and blushed. "The vampires did something to me, and it's boosted my strength, but I'm not sure what else it's done. When you get a chance..."

"It'll have to wait until we're back in New York and I have equipment, but yes."

As Dox headed off to check on Cosmic Boy, Spark looked awkwardly away from the woman holding her, and then back again. Notwithstanding the slightly... uncomfortable... position, she had something to tell the SHIELD agent that wouldn't be an enjoyable duty under any circumstances. She reached into her left belt pouch - fortunately, the side away from Julia's body - and pulled out a small metal badge, formed into the number 5853, that she'd taken from the SHIELD uniform inside the shattered rock monster earlier. She waited until Julia had registered what she was showing her before adding, "I'm sorry."

Julia felt her heart sink. With Spark saying the badgeholder was dead, it meant all her team were almost certainly gone. The badge number identified her second, the man who had put her in the fridge to save her, K-- what was his name? She'd only seen him virtually every working day for the past year, why couldn't she remember?! Ko... Kolkin, that was it. The only one who'd outlasted her in the first place. "That's Kolkin's badge. Where did you find it?"

"Inside one of the rock monsters. I looked a few minutes after it was broken, and there was a sleeve sticking out, and not much left inside it. We think that the guys the ground swallowed were basically... well... used up to give the monsters 'life'."

Julia turned away from Spark's face and just stared into the distance for a few moments. Not only had the blasted 'war' corrupted her sister and done who-knew-what to her, it had taken the lives of seven good SHIELD agents who she'd been in charge of, responsible for. What next? My daughter? she wondered, and with that thought her limbs stopped threatening to shake. She had to get through this to make sure her six-year old daughter, Rachael, was okay. And that thought gave her clarity, gave her focus.

What was also becoming clear was that Blizzard's ice walls were beginning to crack from the rock monsters' assault faster than he could repair them. With his gauntlet newly refashioned by Kinetix into a cast for his injured forearm, Cosmic Boy was being looked to for a decision on what to do. Instead, he called Kid Quantum over for a private word and got straight to the point. "Jazmin, I need you to take over here. I can't focus on Lorna *and* on leading us, and she needs me more just now."

"Are you sure? I don't know if..."

"If I didn't know you could do it, I wouldn't ask."

"...I've still got a black mark on my file from the North Pole escapade, you know."

"And if we'd been less fortunate, I'd have one from ignoring a direct order over the Workforce thing." Cos smiled. "Stop looking for excuses. They're your team now, Kid Quantum, and I'll be behind you all the way."

Jazmin Cullen swallowed hard, and checked that she still had the vampire locked up - more for the purposes of stalling than for any fear she'd dropped the stasis field. Then she shook her head and, as soon as her chin-length dreadlocks stopped moving, set her face and called out. "Everyone, listen up. We're going to have to move, so I want everyone who can't fly to make their way over to Kinetix, and--"

Cos smiled more broadly as Kid Quantum started to corral everyone ready to move, before he turned away to take his girlfriend - still in shock from her near-death experience - back into his arms, as a thought that had been forming in his mind for some minutes leapt out. They don't need me.

For some, this would have been a tremendous blow to their ego, but after months of managing crises, and buffering relations between Leviathan's big clunking fist and the rest of the team, Rex Kline was relived to be able to step back. With people like Tela, Invisible Kid, Kid Quantum and even Rebound around, the Legion wasn't short of leadership material. Trinity however, well, he thought as he held Lorna close. He'd been right, but it wasn't the sort of "right" anyone could take pleasure from. He hadn't been "infantilising" her, as Metternich had claimed, she simply hadn't been ready.
_________

Toward the centre of operations, Spark was on her feet - albeit with a supporting cast on her ankle - but still needed to lean against Dox for support as Kid Quantum finalised preparations to head to City Hall. This was interrupted as a cry of "Tomneedshelp!" rang out, and all heads turned as Flash skidded over the tops of the marauding monsters and jumped to skid to a halt in front of them. "There's a bunch of the rock monsters closing in on Starboy and the big bad!"

Kid Quantum didn't even pause before ordering them into the air. Immediately, Ella felt herself rising upward, this time not with a flight ring, but under Kinetix's power - along with around half the group. Kid Quantum herself flew in front, with the vampire in his stasis field trailing along behind her and Kinetix and Polarity to either side of her. Cosmic Boy, meanwhile, kept to the back, Trinity in his arms.

Ninety seconds later, they touched down at City Hall, protectively surrounding Starboy and his captive as the hordes closed in. Outside this, Blizzard immediately threw up an icewall, a semi-circle backed against the Hall, a certain cauldron left on the other side (If Julia had any thoughts on this, she kept them to herself).

"You... don't expect... mere ice to stop... my golems?" Orlok wheezed, taunting them in spite of Starboy's gravitational pressure.

"Lighten the load a touch, Tom. I need him able to speak," Jazmin ordered. Starboy raised his eyebrow at the purple-suited woman being the one to give the orders, but complied. "Either you tell us how to stop them, or you join your friend in the bubble."

Orlok strained to look up, and laughed "As long as I live, they will never stop." He sneered. Look at you. 'Legionnaires,' sworn never to kill in case the world sees you for the threat you are. More of my golems are being born every minute. Soon, even you will be overwhelmed, and there is nothing you can do."

Kid Quantum stopped, uncertain of what to do - she and Flash had once set out to kill someone, but that had nearly been a terrible mistake. And he was right that the Legion's charter forbade killing - if it would even help.

As the Legionnaires looked at each other, Jazmin's uncertainty reflected in them, Julia swallowed hard and took a decision. She had to step in. She inhaled deeply, took the stake from Flash's hand, and spoke, "Not everyone here is a Legionnaire. As a duly appointed Agent of SHIELD, under Fury Directive 47... 47..." she shook her head and continued, "47/5(b), you will offer submission and disarm all threats to the civilian population of this country immediately. If you do not comply, I am authorised to use lethal force to prevent you deploying any further threat. This was your last and only warning."

The nosferatu almost laughed as he recognised his earlier victim. "Memory problems, agent? Don't you want to know what the cauldron does?"

Julia paused, but only for a moment. She wanted to know, deeply, but the professional side of her screamed that from what he said, every moment he lived, more rock monsters were borne from the ground. An army to march in Mordru's name.

As her sister had.

So she simply said, "I'll find out some other way," and followed through on Fury Directive 47/5(b), plunging the stake through his withered heart. She almost expected him to turn to dust. He didn't. He merely collapsed finally to the ground, blood seeping gently around the stake.

For a minute, the city fell into silence, as the pounding on Blizzard's wall ceased. Then the ground began to crack loudly in all directions.

A voice yelled "What's going on?", but no-one was quite sure who in all the noise.

Dox spoke up - already in the sky, a flight ring suddenly on his hand. "The golems were produced from the city's bedrock. Presumably, whatever "spell" was animating them was also compensating for the city being undermined."

"So now it's been broken... gotcha." Kid Quantum shouted. "Zoë?"

Everyone able had already left the ground - including Spark, whose flight ring had started working again with the nosferatu's spells breaking on his death - and Kinetix scooped up the remainder. As they flew higher to relative safety, Coast City crumbled rapidly, the sea which gave it its name rushing to fill the crater. Within ten minutes, a city which had housed a million people was simply gone from the map, its' inhabitants dead. Lost to a world war borne from a father, half a world away, who couldn't handle his daughter's rejection.

As such, it was a sober group who touched down on the crater's edge. While they had technically stopped a threat which could have done the same to other cities, none of them felt particularly successful. While, with the radio-damping field gone, Gear called for retrieval, everyone else stood in silence, with Cosmic Boy holding Trinity close.

The helicopters arrived as dawn began to break, and Spark thought back to the sunset she'd seen as they'd arrived the previous night. Perhaps it wasn't the last one she'd ever see. But she thought back to a line in a book she'd read, from a character who'd fought in World War II. "My progress towards maturity got interrupted by the World War and my experience with it. War doesn't mature men; it merely pickles them in the brine of disgust and dread."

As she got onto the helicopter, she took one last look back at the grave of a million people. Suddenly, she felt she knew exactly what the quote meant.
_________________

Epilogue: A Good Day To Live?

As the helicopters faded into the distance, one last living being still remained within what had been Coast City.

She lay near the wreckage of the City Hall, a beautiful woman breathing the water shallowly. Her eyes were wide open, but she saw nothing. She shivered, but not from the cold despite her nudity. What troubled her was something new.

Mere hours beforehand, she had been a siren, serving her Lord Mordru as she had for centuries. And, as was the way of sirens, she was a hollow being without a sense of self - she sang people to their destruction not from malice or glee, but simply because it was her nature.

Then Trinity had propelled her into the cauldron, where a redheaded vision of herself in satin had seemed to brush against her - and suddenly, sentience, a soul, rushed to fill the hollow void of her mind. And with that, the full knowledge of what she did, what she had always done, crashed through her. In horror and self-hatred, she had passed out.

Now, tipped from the cauldron in the city's fall, she was half-buried in rubble, her pale skin and silver hair contrasting sharply against the dark slate and stone. Still immortal, she knew there was no escape in death, but lay still - where she was, she could harm no-one.

She kept up this unmoving penance for days. Then a yellow disc appeared in the waters above her, and two women - one dark-haired, one blonde - in scuba equipment swam through it, and a voice echoed through her head, cajoling, offering, tempting. Soon, she was utterly enraptured, the warnings of her newfound soul silenced by the dark-haired woman.

Meta Ure grinned beneath her mask. Her mission was a success, her debt reduced, but it wasn't Levar's "request" that made this such a pleasure. He would have his goddess, true, but playing with such a new, yet horror-struck, soul was its own reward. She directed Sidestep to bring the portal down upon them, and finally Coast City was truly dead.

Mount Kailash

Element Lad stirred, eyes opening slowly. He felt his body, and was surprised that it hurt far less than he expected.

"Take it easy, Jan. As far as I can tell you're alright, but take your time getting your bearings."

Element Lad nodded, thanked Shifter politely - he had registered his teammate's identity just as he'd ben tackled - and sat up slowly. Then he stared, rubbed his eyes, and stared again.

Shifter's face was recognizable as his teammate Reed, but that was it. Below his neck were multiple arms - arms which were now morphed into a makeshift cot. He'd also shifted various limbs - one held a lamp, another was tucking a jacket around his teammate, and another acted as an "eye" to keep watch. The top of his head had been shifted into a white tent, and he'd let himself be cvered by a light layer of snow to keep hidden.

"You have certainly improved your shapeshifting skills," Element Lad said, calmly accepting his teammate's unusual powers.

"As have your own transmutation skills. I believe the fiery wings of the Garuda were your doing?"

"Phosphorus and other compounds. I normally use them constructively, but I felt I had no choice. I did not want to cause it grievous harm, but the pilgrims..."

"I understand. But Jan, are you willing to kill it if we have no other choice?"

The silence grew loud as Element Lad thought for a moment. "Can we not ensure that we do not have to take such a choice?"

"Little is ever sure in this world, but let us try out best. Can you tell me exactly what you did to defend yourself? I think I may have a plan."

Element Lad nodded and began narrating. His entire being still hurt, but their planning was crucial.

Angkor

Hygeia crouched in her hiding place, heart beating fast. What would crazy little Quislet do now?

She had little time to wonder, as their jet suddenly streaked out of the sky. It flew over the temples, passing dangerously close (by Hygeia's standards) and turning to land into an open field nearby.

Hygeia watched in terror as the plane bounced once, then again, before touching onto the ground. Luckily, the makeshift runway had no temples or other ancient structures. The trees and plants in its path were not so lucky, with a few being uprooted. She tried tracing its potential path and...

"Quislet!" she hissed into the comlink. "You have to stop now, there are temple gates in your path!"

"Why worry about smelly old temples, Hygeia? I'm having lots of fun right now!"

"You...!" Calming herself, Hygeia realized that Quislet was probably playing with her. "If you damage the jet too much, we won't be able to leave. And I bet Rebound won't let you control any jet again."

"Good point, smart lady! But not to worry, Quislet has perfect control. Watch!"

Hygeia almost couldn't bear to keep her eyes open, but she needn't have worried. Indeed, the jet skidded to a halt a few meters away from the temple gates.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she shrank back into her alcove. "Quislet, meet me here fast. Your landing is sure to attract attention. We need to make use of this diversion."

Sure enough, enthralled SHIELD agents started running past her towards the plane. She waited as they streamed past - they had to act now.