Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business Beginnings-- A Story by EDE

I.

The young man sat alone in the spaceport, running his fingers through his unwashed red hair. At fourteen he would be considered an adult on most worlds of the United Planets. By Winathian law he still had two more years to go. The origins of this distinction lay in the agrarian economy of Winath. Keeping the family unit intact as long as possible provided extra hands for the harvest. Unlike the Manna colonies, which provided cheap food products mass produced by automated industry, Winath's family farms prided themselves on the “human touch” involved in their agriculture.

The young man thought about his family as he sat in the spaceport. He already missed his parents. He'd left without saying good-bye. He hoped they'd understand the reasons he had left, and the reasons that he had not told them. They were way too protective of him. If he'd asked their permission, they would have tried to talk him out of it. And yet he knew what he had to do. It was time to grow up, time to find out what sort of man he was going to be.

“G. Ranzz!” called the attendant at the ticket counter.

“That's me,” the young man said as he arose and walked to the counter.

“Your tickets and flight plan are all prepared. Please sign here.”

“Thank you,” the young man responded.

He walked to the gate where he was to board the space-cruiser bound for Earth.

“Traveling alone?” the security officer asked him.

“Yes.”

“What is your purpose in traveling to Earth?”

“I... I'm looking for someone. My brother.”

After passing security he soon found himself on board the space-cruiser. He sat by himself and looked at all of the strange faces, many of very alien species, that surrounded him. He felt alone; he felt scared; he felt excited. He did not know what he would find when he arrived on Earth, but he had the sense that he was starting on a great adventure.

His brother had left several weeks earlier, and no one knew exactly why. The young man thought about all the trouble and all the misery his brother had caused. And he thought about the love and patience that their parents had shown in responding to it all. But the disappearance seemed completely inexplicable. There was, however, one clue that everyone else had missed. That single clue pointed to Earth as his brother's destination.

“And if Garridan was headed for Earth,” Graym Ranzz thought, “then that is where I must go as well.”

Ha Ha!! What a great twist. I hope we're going to get succeeding chapters?

Way to go Jinx, good "Beginning"!

I hope you are, too! But thanks!

Wow, that end caught me totaly off guard.

I really liked your explanation of the Winathian age limit, too.

II.

Ivy had always believed that all living things possessed a measure of awareness, a spirit, a soul. She had heard some claim that even the rocks were conscious, though their thoughts were much slower, to be measured in centuries rather than fractions of a second. She had no interest in the thoughts of rocks, however.

She buried the seeds a few inches deep. She could hear them whispering to her: “Make us grow! Make us grow!” She reached out with her mind, waved her hand, and the first shoots started to break the surface of the soil. Within a few seconds, fully formed flowers, Venturan blushers, had grown and seemed to sway back and forth to the rhythm a tune that she had been listening to just that morning.

“Stay,” she commanded, and the motion of the flowers ceased.

As she left the garden, she looked back, remembered the rain shower the weathcomps had scheduled for that afternoon, and thought, “Enjoy yourselves, my friends.”

Ivy's mother had died in an accident shortly after she was born. Her father had barely been part of her life since then. He was Ral Benem, Chlorophyll Kid of the Legion of Substitute-Heroes, a group of second-string heroes who'd applied in been rejected from the regular Legion of Super-Heroes. Not knowing what to do with an infant daughter, he'd sent her to live with her grandparents on Mardru. He'd since become a genuine hero, a leader in the resistance movement during the war to free Earth from Dominion control, and the latest she had heard was that he was heading up an elite United Planets Strike Force.

Her time on Mardru was generally happy, until the plague hit. Half of her city had perished, including her grandparents. She herself had become deathly ill, and it was during this time that the plants first began to speak to her, comforting her, lending her their life force, their strength, their energy. She was one of the few survivors of the outbreak, and had been sent to the medical world Quarantine for an endless series of tests to uncover the nature of the strange illness that had struck without warning and killed so many. This was actually a surprisingly happy time as well. She had made many friends on Quarantine, including the Legionnaire Kent Shakespeare and Garridan Ranzz, son of Legion founders Garth and Imra Ardeen Ranzz.

She thought about Garridan as she walked the streets of Paris, back to the apartment she'd called home for the past six months. She hadn't heard from him for over a month. He'd seemed somehow different last time she'd talked to him, like there was some deep internal conflict pulling him away from the conversation. She hoped he was okay.

When she arrived home, there was a message on her omnicom from her friend Ami inviting her to play moopsball that afternoon. She smiled and looked forward to seeing her friends.

You have actually redeemed Ivy for me. Well done! Great origin.

Great stuff EDE! Keep 'em coming!

I don't think I've ever read anything with Ivy in it, but I find her instantly likable here.

I am enjoying this one EDE. I didnt like Ivy and the others when they made an appearance in the comic. But this version is deeper and much more likeable that the "real" one.

You know this would have been a great way to reboot the legion as a "Next Generation" version, I loved the homage to the origin story in part one.

Thanks, guys. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

This is actually growing out of one of my "What would you have done instead of the reboot?" scenarios, so that is kind of how I'm thinking about it.

I couldn't remember how much of Ivy's background was actually revealed in the comic, so I thought I could play pretty freely with it. I'm glad people are finding her likeable; I was trying to extrapolate from what I could remember of her to what she might be like a few years later. I see her as very friendly, very sociable, and yet... she talks to plants! That's got to make her seem a bit crazy...

How important a character was Ivy, anyway? I keep thinking she was part of the Quiet Darkness storyline, but I don't remeber a character who talked to plants.

Oh wow!

I'm really enjoying this!

Ivy was apparently intended to be the "Lori" of TMK, a pre-teen who was supposed to join the Legion. As a matter of fact, she never actually made it off Quarantine during the series. She mostly hung around Kent Shakespeare and bugged him. She had a starring role in v4 #54 (I believe), which featured her organizing a Li'l Legion, consisting of young patients on Quarantine who ended up helping to foil Grimbor's attempts to rescue his daughter.

I remember wondering what TMK had planned for her...

Not to seem impatient or anything but WHEN ARE WE GETTING THE NEXT INSTALLMENT?

I've started writing it. Expect it sometime this weekend!

Intended to be TMK's "Lori" character?? No wonder people are surprised by your version.

That description may be a bit unfair, but I certainly think a lot of the reasons people dislike Ivy are the same as the reasons people dislike Lori.

III.

As the mid-morning sunlight signaled another beautiful Metropolis day, Science Police Chief Dvron sat in his office reading reports on crime rates on Earth during the two months since he'd taken over.

“A thirty percent increase,” he thought. “Ugh... I wish the Legion were still around.”

As he buried his head in his hands, Lahne buzzed. Dear sweet Lahne. She probably had no idea what a bright light she'd been in his life these past few weeks.

“Chief?” came the voice over the intercom. Dvron flipped a switch and a face appeared to go with the voice.

“Yes, Lahne. What is it?”

“There's a mob growing in Weisinger Plaza. Shall I dispatch officers to deal with it?”

“Yeah, you better.”

Why had the citizens of Earth become so unruly lately? They were fortunate to have a planet to live on at all. The Earth they presently called home had actually been culled from an alternate dimension to replace the original, which had been destroyed during the war to free it from the Dominion. All the effort, all the sacrifice that had been made to bring the long-uninhabited twin Earth to our dimension, to stabilize it and resettle the surviving cities on it, and still the people were dissatisfied. Dvron knew there must be some proverb that was relevant here, but couldn't for the life of him think of it.

He couldn't blame things on President Vidar, though he'd like to. The president had pursued surprisingly sensible policies since winning the first free Earth election since the war. One had to marvel at the fortunes of this man, who had twice taken over Earth by use of mass hypnosis, before becoming the incredibly popular leader of one wing of the resistance movement and playing a pivotal role in winning Earth's freedom. Even the scandals that had surfaced since then had only slightly tarnished his reputation, and his campaign had proven incredibly popular among the masses. Dvron also knew that he had played a role in his getting assigned to his present post. Vidar had once saved the sci-cop's life when he was a mere rookie, and had shown a strange fascination with his career ever since.

Another buzz.

“Yes?”

“You wanted to be informed when that prisoner was available for interview.”

“The girl they claim is the daughter of a Legionnaire. Yes. Thanks, Lahne.”

More accurately, Dvron thought, it was President Vidar who wanted to know. He might as well have a talk with her, though. She was certainly troubled, but she hadn't killed anybody yet, though she'd come close yesterday. Maybe he could do something to help turn her life around.

Who is this mysterious girl? Can't wait to find out!

Maybe Rokk's? That would be appropriate, the offspring of the three Founders creating a new Legion!

Guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Great chapter EDE!

I actually have an interesting back-story planned for the girl, which I probably won't be able to work into this story.

Well, backstory or not, I really like what you are doing here...

There's an important bit that I didn't manage to work into the last scene, that I'm probably going to have to work in another scene to fit...

Well, I've got basically the next three parts planned out... just got to find time to write them...