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

Fantastic battle scene Raz, with lots going on and loads of nice individual moments. Take a bow!

Fundamental is a recent great villain, from his strong and twisted morality- not approving of a game of poker but thinking its okay to try to kill legionnaires. He's uber scary!

Both of your teams are really well realised, from Lar not wanting plasma backlash to hurt any of the villains through to his dealing with Earth Man; Ethel and Tuskers fight with Nura and Thom showed all of their characters beautifully; Dragonmages attempt to evade Bows attack and Fire Lads assistance; Ayla helping Light Lad... Oh the list goes on! Such a great battle.Fundamental pinning the team, and Gravas attempt to help... Rokk and Lyddas return to action - splendid stuff! Mon El dragging out the fight so the most powerful Leaguer was kept out the fight until the Espionage Squad arrived with the solution... I loved it.

The Dominators being behind it all shouldn't have been a surprise really given their history but it was, well played.

As Omni said above, with the whole team return to Earth now?

Can't wait to find out, more, more, more!

Thanks peeps! I have been looking for an opportunity to have Light Lass go up against the original and better version since I created her so I'm glad you liked that scene Omni

...and you guys will get to see Blok strut his stuff again soon as well! There are some interesting choices the Legion get to make about their base and roster next instalment too!

MARS
Husband Hill, Legion of Superheroes Headquarters
The full assembly of the Legion of Superheroes sat in a respectful silence which some of them didn’t always even show for their own leader as one middle-aged Earth woman addressed them all. The holographic screen bearing her image took up one whole wall in the Legion’s massive meeting room, displaying the surprisingly few lines and wrinkles that Marte Allon had accrued during a career in politics at which she’d proven amazingly adept.

“So in conclusion, any ban on the Legion of Superheroes’ activities in Earth territories has been wholly lifted.” Marte shuffled some papers, looking away from the holocorder for a second. She allowed herself the tiniest hint of a smile as she heard several of the Legionnaires cheer, then her expression became stoic once more. “The Judgement League have proven a more difficult can of worms to deal with. Most of them are time-displaced individuals, and we’ve registered those with the Time Institute. The previous administration had pardoned all of the League who held prior criminal records, and any atrocities on record after their pardons were accepted by Earthgov if not actively sponsored in some cases. We’re holding Earth-Man, Bow and Black Dagger for the assault on Shvaughn Erin but all we can do outside of that is keep an eye on them and assist the appropriate authorities in having them brought to justice for off-world crimes.”

“We understand, Counsellor Allon.” Brainiac 5 stood stiffly and nodded. “Thank you for your time today, we greatly appreciate it.”

“Think nothing of it,” came Marte’s droll response. “Life’s been too dull since my son stopped spending time with you troublemakers. Wild lightning beasts couldn’t drag me into the President’s chair again but when Earthgov asked me to take on Wilso’s old role on the council, I figured that was the perfect way to alleviate the boredom of retirement without working myself into an early grave. So really, perhaps I should be thanking you!” Her attention was diverted momentarily, and Marte smiled at the Legion with a gleam in her eye. “Work beckons. I have no doubt I’ll be speaking with you again soon, Legionnaires.”

Her face was replaced by Earthgov’s official seal, and then that too was gone. Without missing a beat, Brainiac 5 took control of the meeting once more. “The next order of business is the Legion Academy,” he announced. “Now that we’re all sharing the same base of operations, it seems a perfect opportunity for us to become more active in preparing these students for the possibility of membership in the Legion. To that end, I have a couple of suggestions I’d like to put forward. The first is a voluntary rotational roster so that existing Legionnaires can work with the students in a manner best decided with input from their instructors. Secondly, I’d like to introduce an internship program where the most gifted student can spend a portion of their schedule with us as a junior member of the team. Thoughts?”

“I’m all for it,” Wildfire raised his hand. “It’s about time we threw those kids more than a crumb!”

“I’m not a babysitter!” an exasperated Timber Wolf hollered.

“Didn’t you go through the Legion Academy yourself, Timber Wolf?” Nightwind asked pointedly.

Brainiac sighed. “It’s a voluntary rotational roster I’m proposing, Timber Wolf. As for the internship program, if we really believe this program is capable of producing future Legionnaires…and as Nightwind and yourself among others prove, it certainly is capable of that…then it’s not only beneficial to us, but in giving our students an achievable goal it’s also likely to improve their morale and their drive for results.”

“Let’s vote,” Ultra Boy suggested. “I’m hungry!” Some of his teammates chuckled, and the team placed their preferences which were overwhelmingly positive for both proposals. Completely unsurprised by the results, Brainiac 5 relayed a pre-recorded message to the Academy’s administration hub to let them know the good news and he called the meeting to an end.

As they were filing out of the room, Night Girl excused herself from her husband’s side and rushed to grab Brainiac 5 before he disappeared into his lab. “Welcome back,” the blond Coluan looked up from his omnicom to the taller heroine. “How are you and Cosmic Boy settling back in again?”

“It’s great to be back,” Lydda smiled. “Marrying Rokk was the greatest night of my life, but neither of us are really cut out for just laying around on a beach for weeks on end.”

“No, it seems you’ve acquired a taste for careening extremely expensive vehicles into even more expensive buildings,” Brainiac replied with an edge of sarcasm, referring to the explosive way they'd joined their team’s recent battle with the Judgement League on Earth. “You do realise it’s going to take several weeks and an exorbitant amount of credits for us to be able to use that space again?”

“Oh Brainy, you know as well as I do that Cham’s good for it,” Lydda teased. Realising she’d perhaps overextended her familiarity, she cleared her throat and straightened her posture. “Anyway, that’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about…everyone seems to be happy here, and I can’t imagine anybody will be in a great hurry to move back into the same building Earth-Man and his creeps were living in…I’ve got an idea for something else we can do with our building in Weisinger Plaza if you’re interested…”

**********
EARTH
Metropolis, Weisinger Plaza
Laurel Kent held two ends of a broken lead pipe together, flames harmlessly engulfing her bare hands as Sun Boy used his power to fuse the pipe back together. “I know I shouldn’t be looking a gift camelephant in the mouth,” the indestructible girl complained, “But are you sure this whole Legion Internship thing isn’t just a scam for you guys to get cheap labour?”

“You’re right,” Dirk Morgna answered. “You shouldn’t be looking a gift camelephant in the mouth. Have you smelled one of those things?” He allowed his flames to die down and stepped back to look over his work. “There, that should do for now. Grife, I can’t believe how old some of this infrastructure is! Who uses lead pipes anymore?”

“Nobody, but you guys did do a pretty excellent job of destroying the plaza down through a couple of centuries’ worth of construction!” Laurel looked at the devastation surrounding them. “You can sure tell where Mon-El’s been, huh? Seriously though, I am super excited to be here…when Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad told me the Legion wanted to offer me an internship, I was over the moon! I didn’t expect my first job with the team to be clean-up after a mess I didn’t even get to make though!”

“That’s all a part of it too, Laurel.” Dirk incinerated a pile of debris which maintenance droids had left to one side for him.

“Yeah yeah, I know. Life in the Legion of Superheroes is not all glamour and beating up on Mordru, blah blah blah.” Laurel found a handful of exposed wiring and grabbed each one individually until she felt a tingle. “Hey, looks like Kid Computo missed one. This has got a current running through it!”

“Not anymore,” the absent Danielle Foccart’s voice sounded over both their flight rings. “Thanks for the heads up!”

Laurel poked the same wire into her palm a couple of times. Nothing. Not creepy at all, she thought to herself.

“Sun Boy, this is Invisible Kid.”

Dirk lifted his flight ring to his lips. “How are things going on your end, Jacques?”

“Better than expected, mon ami. We were right about extremist groups forming in Earth-Man’s wake…I am following one unseen as we speak, they plan an attack on the Superman Museum in fifteen minutes. If you and les femmes have tired of reconstruction work, I could use your assistance with these delinquents.”

“The best part about boring Legion work,” Sun Boy smiled at Laurel, “Is that it never stays boring for long. Thanks for the invitation Jacques, I’ll grab my dates and be there before you know it!”

“Sun Boy, please do not joke about dating mon soeur,” Invisible Kid joked dryly.

Dirk laughed and together with Laurel flew out of the exposed sub-levels of Weisinger Plaza to find Kid Computo coordinating with city officials on ground level. The three heroes darted across the city together, and when they arrived they found over a couple dozen protestors bearing placards and holo-signs advancing on the galaxy-famous Superman Museum. “I’ve already told the Science Police we’re here,” Danielle advised Sun Boy. “They’ve got some peacekeeping droids on the way in case we need to take anyone into custody."

“Thanks,” Dirk replied. “Unless we’re very lucky I can’t imagine any of these morons dispersing peacefully. Where’s your brother?”

“Perched on the roof in front of the Superman statue,” Kid Computo answered. She saw the confusion on Laurel’s face and added, “He’s invisible, but I can sense his flight ring.”

“Let me take point,” Dirk instructed. “Laurel, if this can’t be resolved without a fight breaking out I don’t want you getting involved unless it’s to defend someone who can’t defend themselves. Just sit back and observe if that’s an option.” He didn’t wait for her to put up an argument, but instead landed on the steps of the museum before the approaching crowd. He flared brighter as he came in for a landing to get the crowd’s attention, switching his powers off as he touched down. Kid Computo came down slightly behind Dirk, and Laurel landed beside her. “Nice day for an excursion,” Sun Boy announced to the crowd. “I think the museum might ask some of you to leave your signs outside though.”

“We’re still allowed the right to gather where we want!” one of the protestors called out. “You and your alien-loving buddies haven’t taken that from us yet!”

“Sure you’re allowed,” Dirk smiled amicably. “You won’t mind if we hang around and make sure gathering’s all you do, right?”

Kid Computo tactfully approached the long-time Legionnaire. “Some of them have bootleg lasers,” she whispered. “I’m suppressing their firing mechanisms now.”

“Okay.” Sun Boy raised his hands to the crowd, his palms surrounded by licks of fire. “Those of you with illegal weapons come forward please. No need for your friends to suffer just because you think guns are big and clever.”

“We don’t have to do anything he says!” a woman in a dirty hooded robe stepped forward and pointed her finger at Dirk. “He can’t stop all of us, and the black girl only controls computers! That other kid’s not even a Legionnaire!” The woman seemed familiar to Sun Boy but he couldn’t quite place her exactly. The crowd cheered her on, and Dirk realised he needed to shut this down before it got out of hand.

“I’m not going to ask again,” Sun Boy pronounced more firmly. “Anybody carrying illegal firearms, hand them over now. Kid Computo’s already rendered your weapons useless, don’t make me come down there and get them myself.”

“Don’t worry,” the feisty female protestor snarled. “You’ll never get the chance to come down here…come on, people! Do it for Earth! Do it for Earth-Man!” She pointed at Sun Boy and a crackling blast of electricity streamed forward from her gloved hands. Sun Boy and Kid Computo both scattered, leaving Laurel to let the brunt of the assault wash over her. The woman's attack gave the others in her group the catalyst they’d been waiting for, and they all rushed the heroes.

Kid Computo and Sun Boy both used their flight rings to take to the air. Projectiles thrown at the two of them were incinerated thanks to a wall of flame erected by Sun Boy, the same wall which kept the mob back from the museum’s main entrance. Danielle co-opted nearby cleaning and security droids to restrain some of the crowd, working seamlessly with the Science Police droids who’d also arrived. Her brother used his invisibility to his advantage to subdue other protestors, and Laurel fought her instinct to wade into the fight and forced herself to obey Sun Boy’s command to stay out of the action. She hated having to sit back and watch, especially as she knew without a doubt she could be an effective deterrent against an untrained mob thanks to her Academy training. She didn’t want to risk blowing her chance with the Legion on her first mission though.

“I know who you are now!” Dirk caught the electricity-wielding woman’s robe on fire. “You’re that second-rate Lightning Lass from the Judgement League!”

The blonde woman ripped off her robe to reveal a skintight blue costume underneath. “The name’s White Lightning!” she shouted. “And you might have given up on your race Legionnaire, but we haven’t! This building is a symptom of everything that’s wrong with Earth culture…turning to aliens to help us when we can help ourselves!” She fired again, missing Dirk by a wide margin. There was a thundering crack behind him, and he turned to see that she’d not been aiming at him at all. Cut off at the shins, the massive statue of Superman which greeted visitors to the museum toppled forward.

While Sun Boy turned his power on the statue to reduce it to cinders before it before it could crush anybody, Kid Computo directed a street-cleaning droid to ensnare White Lightning in its thick rubber hose. “You creeps realise we’re all from Earth ourselves, right?” Danielle manoeuvred beside Sun Boy’s firewall to confront the bigots. “We’re friends with aliens, that doesn’t mean we think any less of ourselves! Multiculturalism is a good thing, you ignorant jerks!”

“Shut up, sellout!” A tattooed man hurled the portable holoprojector he’d been using to project his protest sign at Danielle and smacked her right in the head. She cried out and landed on the steps of the museum, too dizzy to focus on flying. A furious Invisible Kid had already knocked out her assailant and was moving on to the man’s friends, but a few of the crowd broke free to swarm the injured Legionnaire and free White Lightning. The xenophobic former Judgement Leaguer turned on Sun Boy once she saw her allies had already targeted Kid Computo.

Seeing that Sun Boy was busy with White Lightning, Laurel stood in a protective stance in front of Danielle. “See this?” she pointed to the famous S crest on her red poncho. “You know what that means? Look at the place you’re attacking if you need a clue.”

“We know what it means! Get off our planet, alien!” With Danielle distracted, the laser guns were coming back online and a teenage girl shot at Laurel. The beam hit her bare shoulder with no more impact than the sunshine itself.

“Are you kidding me?” Laurel guffawed. “I’m not an alien, I was born and raised in Metropolis, nasshead! My parents were born in North America and so were their parents before them! Superman’s my ancestor but every other person in my family is as human as you idiots!” She stepped forward, ignoring the girl’s repeated laser fire. “Grife, would you give me that before you hurt someone?” Laurel snatched the gun out of the terrified girl’s hand and pushed her so hard she fell on her backbone in the street. Eyeing off the other protestors who’d come forward with the girl, Laurel had a wicked idea and grinned thinking about it. “Now why don’t you all calm the sprock down and get away from my family museum before I use my heat vision to incinerate you all on the spot?!”

That seemed to do the trick, Laurel noticed. Having seen evidence of her invulnerability, the protestors weren’t to know that she didn’t share Superman’s other powers and they backed away fearfully. Kid Computo stood and placed a hand on Laurel’s shoulder. “Thanks for stepping in,” Danielle smiled. “I’ve got it from here.” Indeed, between herself and her brother the crowd were soon under control.

Once he was satisfied that they’d taken care of the crowd, Jacques became visible and rushed to his sister’s side. “Danielle, you are harmed!”

“It’s just a bang on the head, don’t worry yourself Jacques.” She brushed his hand aside. “Shouldn’t we help Sun Boy with her?” Laurel Kent and the Foccart siblings looked across to their strawberry blonde teammate in battle with White Lightning.

“Nope, I’ve got this!” Dirk yelled as he countered another blast of electricity with his own power. “You guys might want to look the other way though!"

“You’ve got nothing,” White Lightning sneered. “I’ve been noticing the way you fight, you’re too gutless to really go all out against me and sooner or later one of my lightning blasts is gonna get through your stupid flames, pretty boy. It’s just a matter of time.”

“Okay, a couple of things.” Sun Boy flared intensely bright, so much so that he blinded the villainess even in broad daylight. “First, not wanting to kill you isn’t cowardice. It just makes me a better person than you. Secondly, fire’s not my only power but I guess you know that now.” He landed by White Lightning as she slurred abuse and blindly threw lightning bolts in random directions. “Oh, and third…make sure you drink a lot of water when you wake up. Important to stay hydrated.”

“Wha..?” White Lightning staggered as though she were drunk. “Why’s it so hot..?”

“I wasn’t going all out against you because it takes a fair amount of concentration to subtly increase the ambient temperature and give you heat stroke without affecting my friends. But I guess you can’t hear me any more.”

Soaked in sweat, White Lightning finally collapsed.

*********
TITAN
Titanopolis
Luornu Durgo Taine pushed her way through an hysterical crowd until she reached an alley used by city maintenance droids. There was barely enough room for her to squeeze in between two of Titanopolis’ towering skyscrapers, but at least she was in no danger of being trampled here. Her heart pounded in her chest. The last time she’d been this frightened was when she’d felt one of her bodies disintegrated by Computo so many years ago. She knew she should be using her power to help manage the crowd who were running and screaming only inches away from where she was hiding, but it had taken every last ounce of courage she could muster not to collapse on the spot. Luornu remembered Chuck’s face, the pale horror that had washed over her husband before he collapsed catatonic before the villain currently causing chaos across the city. She prayed that Bouncing Boy would be okay and she hated herself for leaving him as she had, but the pragmatist in her knew that this was his best chance. “Legion!” she called breathlessly on her flight ring. “It’s Duplicate Damsel, oh sweet Trinity please you’ve got to send someone to help us!”

“There you are,” a sadistic voice interrupted her from above.

Luornu looked up, bracing herself against the wall of the tower. “Oh no,” her voice broke. “Please, why are you doing this?? I - I’ve called the Legion of Superheroes, you won’t get away with this!”

“I already have,” the flame-haired man said simply. “I’m not angry with you, Duplicate Damsel. I was going to have to seek revenge on the Legion sooner or later anyway, you’ve just brought that forward in my schedule."

“Please,” Luornu pleaded, tears running down her cheeks. She hid her face behind her hands, despising her own cowardice but unable to fight it.

“So much self-loathing,” the man observed as though she were nothing more than an experiment. “It’s impressive that you’re still able to tap reserves of resentment when every other emotion has been turned to fear. But I can change that.”

He raised a hand over Duplicate Damsel, and her wails of terror soon joined those of the city full of people around her.

TO BE CONTINUED..!


EDITOR'S NOTES:
* Readers with long memories might remember that Marte Allon is Colossal Boy's mother, and the former President of Earth
* White Lightning was one of the Judgement League, and one of the more xenophobic members
* I didn't want to reveal who's fighting Luornu just yet (or why she's on Titan for that matter) but it is someone who has appeared before in my series so some of you may be able to guess who he is....

Also! I thought it might be useful to give you guys an updated roster!

BLOK
BRAINIAC 5 (leader)
CHAMELEON BOY
CHLOROPHYLL KID
COLOR KID
COMET QUEEN
COSMIC BOY
DAWNSTAR
DIAMOND DAMSEL
DRAGONMAGE
DREAM GIRL
ELASTIC LAD
ELEMENT LAD
FIRE LAD
GAS GIRL
INFECTIOUS LASS
INVISIBLE KID II
KID COMPUTO
LAUREL KENT (intern)
LIGHT LAD
LIGHTNING LASS
MATTER-EATER LAD
MON-EL
NIGHT GIRL
NIGHTWIND
PHANTOM GIRL
POLAR BOY
QUISLET
SHADOW LASS
SHRINKING VIOLET
STAR BOY
STONE BOY
SUN BOY
SUPERGIRL
TELLUS
TIMBER WOLF
ULTRA BOY (deputy leader)
WILDFIRE

An internship is an interesting idea, and I think Laurel is the most deserving choice among the students left.

Nice scene with White Lightning. Intrigued to see Lydda's proposal. And this villain is interesting but not quite sure who, only that he seems to have some emotion powers.

As always looking forward to more.

Is it Fearstorm? I loved how Brainy beat him before.

Oh, also loved both Dirk and Laurels intelligence being highlighted.

Great job Raz!

So the Academy is getting the old headquarters or is that going to the Subs?

I was hoping you'd keep the team on Mars. As much as I like the Legion based on Earth I've always wanted to see how it would be for them to be else where and you've done a great job showing that.

Interns... i like it and Laurel and Dirk's scene was really good.

Lu's and i think Harbi is right Fearstorm is causing some trouble i can't wait to see where this goes.

EARTH
Metropolis, Weisinger Plaza

ROLL CALL
Legion of Substitute Heroes
Porcupine Pete aka Peter Dursin: projectile quills
Rainbow Girl aka Dori Aandraison: rainbow powers

Legion of Superheroes
Brainiac 5 aka Querl Dox: 12th level intelligence, team leader
Night Girl aka Lydda Jath Krinn: photosensitive super-strength

Brainiac 5, Night Girl, Porcupine Pete and Rainbow Girl looked down at the pit of rubble which had once been the Legion of Superheroes’ headquarters. The building had been so damaged during the Legion’s recent battle with the Judgement League that it had needed to be torn down completely.

“Let me get this straight,” Rainbow Girl asked, “The Legion of Superheroes want to sell this site to the Subs? I don’t know…I appreciate the offer, but well…to be completely blunt, I’m the only one in our team with the resources to buy this land and it must be a lot of creds…”

Night Girl and Brainiac 5 exchanged a glance of momentary confusion. “Oh Dori, no!” Night Girl blurted. “You’ve got it all wrong, we wouldn’t be selling you the site!”

“Earth’s property ownership rules are archaic and too easily turned against us,” Brainiac 5 answered in greater detail. “Despite the fact that we own this land, Earthgov can requisition it from us at the slightest provocation. Mars is a much more stable environment for the Legion of Superheroes to maintain a permanent base. We don’t want to give up our Metropolis holdings altogether though, and Night Girl’s solution is quite an elegant one.”

“So…you’re giving us the site?” Porcupine Pete tweaked one of the quills jutting out from above his lip. “That’s awfully generous, you guys.”

“Pete, it’s not charity.” Lydda smiled at the prickly hero. “Earth already has a Superman Museum and a Flash Museum, and of course there’s the Paradise Island resort, but all of its monuments to its heroes are mired in the past. There’s no museum to celebrate the achievements of the heroes of the United Planets today. We want to create one right here, and it’s going to need caretakers. That’s where the Subs come in.”

Rainbow Girl seemed a little put out. “You want us to…to be curators in a museum dedicated to how great you are?” She raised an eyebrow cynically.

“I know it seems narcissistic,” Brainiac conceded. “I assure you it is anything but that. The Legion of Superheroes will be represented in the Museum, but equally so will the Legion of Substitute Heroes, the Heroes of Lallor, the Wanderers, the Night Nemesii of Jaquaa, any and all sentients who strive to protect and serve the rights of innocents throughout the United Planets. Our fervent hope is that in showcasing the achievements of citizens across the breadth of the United Planets we will more effectively combat the xenophobia which has taken root on Earth in recent times. Also, if we capture the hearts of the citizens of Earth it’s far less likely that Earthgov will take the land from us again in future. And finally,” he finished with the mildest hint of smugness, “The Legion of Substitute Heroes are currently without a base of your own if I’m not mistaken. This solution benefits us all."

Porcupine Pete shrugged. “He’s got a point! We can’t keep secretly meeting in your husband’s hotels Dori.”

“No, we can’t.” Hands on her hips, Rainbow Girl considered the possibilities. “We’ll need to discuss this with the rest of our team of course, but Legionnaires…I think we’ve got a deal!”

**********
TITAN
Titanopolis, Time Institute

ROLL CALL
Blok: magically enhanced strength, invulnerability, speed, flight, stamina, wisdom and courage
Comet Queen aka Grava: flight, gas generation
Diamond Damsel aka Iris Jacobs: living diamond
Infectious Lass aka Drura Sehpt: disease transmission and immunity
Quislet: energy being, temporary matter animation

Bouncing Boy aka Charles Foster Taine: super-bouncing, reserve member

In the sickbay of the Time Institute, the elderly Titanian man Carum Argell sat by a small mattress upon which his fellow temporal physicist Jax Madri lay whimpering. Five members of the Legion of Superheroes were on the far side of the room with their former leader Bouncing Boy where they watched the balding telepath at work. There was an atmosphere of tension in the room and throughout all of Titanopolis, an atmosphere which had left even Quislet uncharacteristically sedate.

“I still can’t believe how easily Fearstorm took us down…all of us,” Bouncing Boy said, shell-shocked. “You know that when Lu and I left the Legion, we were invited to the Time Institute by Jax so he could study Lu’s expanded powers more fully…we were in a meeting with Jax when the first wave of fear washed over the Institute. It left everyone in a panic, Luornu and I with our Legion training were lucky to be able to withstand it at all. We didn’t know who was responsible then of course…we went outside and followed the hysterical crowd to the source of their panic. And then…and then Fearstorm turned his power on us individually. He…he…”

“You don’t have to continue, Bouncing Boy.” Diamond Damsel placed a sympathetic hand on Chuck’s shoulder.

“Oh Bouncy!” Comet Queen bit her clenched knuckle, genuinely distraught at her mentor’s state. “We’ll teach this nasty sun-eater a lesson!”

Bouncing Boy looked at his ex-teammates with a look of intensity that unnerved them. “Be careful,” he warned them in a broken voice. “If Carum here hadn’t recovered on his own, the rest of us would still be an utter mess. You can’t underestimate Fearstorm’s power, Legionnaires.”

“I’m not a trained therapist,” the wrinkled old man joined their conversation. “I only avoided the brunt of the assault because I happened to be in a psi-shielded area of the Institute, and I’ve helped everyone here deal with Fearstorm’s power on a superficial level, but it’s weary work…they’re going to need legitimate psychiatric attention to really heal.”

“Lucky for us, Science Police droids are immune to telepathy.” Infectious Lass scanned an omnicom while she spoke. “It looks like injuries throughout the city are being kept to a minimum, but I don’t know how long our luck’s going to last. It’s strange that Firestorm hasn’t made any demands though, he seems to be happy just causing chaos for its own sake. Creepy!”

“They are testing his power,” Blok said thoughtfully. “Discovering its limits and revelling in its range.”

“They who?” Comet Queen queried. “Parse me to the C-span, there’s a badder bad guy behind him??”

“Fearstorm is a composite being,” Blok explained. “According to Brainiac 5’s report, two Titanian scientists modified an ancient Earth energy matrix for their own genetic makeup, allowing them to merge into a single body. When Fearstorm first encountered Brainiac 5’s group, his ability to instil fear was indeed strong but limited in its range of effect. It seems he simply induced unreasoning terror in all his power touched. He has shown an ability today to direct that terror, to turn crowds against the Science Police droids which should have been able to pacify him and to leave victims catatonic when it suited him not to risk a panicked defence. I believe the Fearstorm matrix's power has been increasing gradually since his host bodies were first taken into custody. Today it increased to the stage where his two composite psyches could once more catalyse the Fearstorm matrix despite being institutionalised separately.”

“Quislet not care how bad guy come back,” a shrill voice came from within the Teallian hero’s hovering microship. “Quislet just want to stop him and go home, Quislet not like it on Titan.”

“You are correct, of course.” Blok made his way for the door. “We can find out how Fearstorm returned at a later time. The task before us now is to contain him.”

Before Diamond Damsel could follow Blok, Bouncing Boy grabbed her gloved hand. “Lu’s still out there somewhere…we haven’t been able to reach her…”

“We’ll find her, Bouncing Boy.” Diamond Damsel held his hand in both of hers. “We’ll bring her back to you.” Even in the worst of times they’d spent together, Diamond Damsel had never seen Chuck Taine this broken. It filled her with grim foreboding.

**********
Like Bouncing Boy and Duplicate Damsel before them, It didn’t take the Legionnaires long to track Fearstorm. It did take some time however for them to deal with the inevitable terror-stricken Titanians who had evaded Science Police restraint in the villain’s passing. Between the enormous strength of Blok and Diamond Damsel, Infectious Lass and Comet Queen’s abilities to sedate victims through disease or gas and Quislet’s sheer versatility, the crowds weren’t at all difficult to deal with but they were time-consuming. Eventually Blok came to a conclusion. “Legionnaires.” He floated before his teammates, the gold laced throughout his rocky form gleaming as it caught light from the magical lightning bolt carved into his torso. “Each moment the five of us spend helping Fearstorm’s victims is another moment more victims are being created. I propose that Quislet and myself fly ahead to face Fearstorm directly, you three provide support when you have done all you can to help these poor souls.”

“Wait,” Diamond Damsel interjected. “You’re not leaving us behind because we’re women, are you?”

Blok seemed genuinely perplexed. “Why would your gender factor into my suggestion?” he puzzled.

“Quislet don’t even have gender!” the Teallian explorer shouted in exasperation. “Quislet only call himself him because silly Legionnaires obsessed with lads and lasses!" The promise of combat seemed to have perked his spirits. “Blok, we go fight now?”

“That’s a hypernova idea, starshine!” Comet Queen beamed. “We already know telepathy doesn’t work on Blok or the little shuttle! Shiny!”

“Go on ahead,” Infectious Lass waved the two on. “We’ll catch up when we can.”

Blok and Quislet flew off together, the colossal stone man and the noisy chrome microship making a rather odd couple. Blok had been surprised when Brainiac 5 asked him to lead a squad of Legionnaires to Titan. It was the first time any of the Legion’s various leaders had ever entrusted him with such responsibility. Blok had no doubt that a large part of the reason for Brainiac’s assignment was indeed the immunity to organic telepathy his Dryad heritage gave him, but it was something else as well. Since he’d been touched by the power of Shazam, Blok had changed for the better. There was the wisdom of Solomon, but there was more. He was more confident, more self-assured than he’d ever been before. He was still undeniably himself, but he was the best version of himself he could be.

“Fearstorm is there,” Blok pointed to a man in black and blue garb a few blocks ahead, blazing azure flame emerging from where his scalp should be. The scene below the levitating villain was pure chaos, the citizens here subjected to the rawest of Fearstorm’s power. This close even Blok could feel it, a tingling sensation that caused him to involuntarily tense. He didn’t like it one bit.

“Fearstorm has not seen us yet,” Blok plotted, “If I rush him now, I believe I can incapacitate him before he can actively turn his abilities upon us.”

“Stupid powers can’t hurt us anyway!” Quislet piped up. “Quislet beat stupid bad guy so we can leave stupid Titan behind!” Before Blok could stop him, the microship’s hull slid open and the energy spark which was Quislet’s true form leapt from his own vessel into an empty magtrain car which had earlier derailed thanks to Fearstorm’s reign of terror. Quislet was always the most eager Legionnaire to take action, but there was something in his demeanour that Blok had never observed before. The extra-dimensional Legionnaire’s unusual lack of exuberance since they’d arrived here combined with his sudden manic impulse for combat made Blok question…was Quislet afraid?

“Fearstorm!” the magtrain car called out in Quislet’s voice. The vehicle screeched as it transformed into winged humanoid form, Quislet’s unique sigil burning in what passed for the construct’s headless torso. “Quislet not like you at all!” The mighty wings flapped, and against any laws of physics sent Quislet charging forward at great speed.

Fearstorm turned and threw his skeletal visage back in a mocking laugh. “And who might you be?” he asked condescendingly. “Wait, don’t tell me. I don’t care.”

The winged golem stopped in mid-flight, back-pedalling furiously to get away from Fearstorm. “Get away from Quislet!” the shrill voice screamed. “Quislet behave! Quislet behave!”

Blok approached his teammate and placed a hand on his shoulder. Blok had felt a wave of anxiety wash over him when Fearstorm had addressed Quislet, he wondered how much worse the effect must be for Quislet. “My friend, you need to be calm.” Now that Quislet had landed, Blok was very conscious of the traumatised Titanians below who were endangered by the enormous golem’s mindless retreat. “There are innocents at risk—“

“Quislet behave!!” With surprising speed for something so large, Quislet’s mighty wings flapped and he shot away from Fearstorm and Blok. Not watching where he was going, Quislet clipped the elevated magtrain rail as he escaped and the damaged rail fell down toward the panicked crowd. Fearstorm watched in glee while Blok rushed to hold up both the collapsing rail and the train it bore.

“Starshine!” Comet Queen circled Blok, having caught up just in time to see Quislet fly away. “What happened? Where’s the little shuttle going?”

“...The little shuttle...” Blok repeated as a somber realisation dawned on him. He looked around to see Quislet’s microship obediently hovering in place while its master was already hundreds of feet up and gaining altitude. “Comet Queen!” Blok cried out. “If Quislet is too far from his vessel when that construct disintegrates—“

Comet Queen’s eyes widened melodramatically. “He’ll pop-poop-pop right back to Teall!” she gasped. “And without his ship, he won’t be able to get back to us!” She zipped on over to his microship, collecting it in both hands and wailing Quislet’s name as she took off in pursuit of him.

Fearstorm watched her leave with a satisfied smirk and descended to face Blok. Still holding up the damaged rail, Blok was powerless to move. “Now what can I do to you, stone man?” Fearstorm's hollow eyes bored into the stoic giant as he considered his options.

“You’ve had enough fun for one day,” a voice like rocks grating spoke up behind him. Preoccupied with Blok, Fearstorm had failed to notice Diamond Damsel’s approach. He turned to face her now, but before he could use his power she grabbed the front of his billowing shirt in one fist and hurled him aside like a rag doll.

Fearstorm flew through the window of an abandoned shopfront, shattering a counter to pieces with his landing. The impact would have hospitalised either of his constituent bodies, but in this form he was stronger and more resilient than any normal Titanian. Still, he ached all over and the Legionnaire would pay for that. Filled with thoughts of vengeance, he extricated himself from the wreckage and advanced toward the street. Diamond Damsel was busy helping Blok with makeshift repairs to the damaged rail, they’d both be too distracted to stop him for a few moments. Perfect, he grinned.

“Hi.” A new and much more feminine form stood in the doorway of the store. She was an attractive woman with chalk-white skin and lavender coloured hair. Garbed in a garish green outfit, pendulous blobs of material dangled from her arms. A golden ringed L symbol at her pelvis revealed her as another Legionnaire, but Fearstorm had no idea which one this was. “I’m called Infectious Lass,” Drura Sehpt introduced herself, sensing the villain’s unfamiliarity. “For obvious reasons.” Her casual smile soon faded though, replaced by a look of concern. “Why can’t I make you sick..?”

“Dense creature.” Fearstorm advanced on her and grabbed her by the chin. His power kept Drura cowering, and she found herself unable to fight back. “This form has many advantages,” Fearstorm continued. “Not the least of which is a post-human immunity to disease. Now…what are you most afraid of?” Drura stammered out a weak protest, her eyes welling with tears.

“Hey!” This was Diamond Damsel again. Having repaired the magrail well enough that it was no longer an immediate danger, she and Blok flanked the flame-haired villain on either side. “Let her go!”

Fearstorm prepared to use his power on Diamond Damsel herself, but he felt something from Infectious Lass that gave him a much better idea. “Oh…oh, this is delicious.” He concentrated on his hapless hostage for a moment before shoving her roughly back toward the diamond giantess. Disoriented with terror, Drura tripped and fell on the ground. As soon as Infectious Lass was a safe distance away, Blok moved in a blur to grab Fearstorm and shove him up against the wall. To Blok’s surprise, Fearstorm seemed not to care in the slightest but instead grinned sadistically at Infectious Lass trying to collect herself.

“Infectious Lass, it’s okay.” Diamond Damsel stooped down to offer the Somahturian girl a gloved hand. “You’re safe now, Blok will take care of that squaj.” Trembling, Infectious Lass looked up and fixed Diamond Damsel with a look of utter horror. Drura screamed incoherently and curled into a ball on the ground hiding her face behind her hands. Diamond Damsel stared at Fearstorm with a blend of rage and incomprehension.

Blok shook the villain ferociously. “What did you do to her?” he demanded.

“I didn’t do much,” Fearstorm laughed. “She was already scared to death of that diamond creature, I just brought that fear to the surface.”

Diamond Damsel felt as though she’d been slapped in the face. She took a step back from Drura, struggling to think of a way to make it better. Every scream spelled the truth as clear as day though; Infectious Lass really was afraid of her. “...Blok…” she looked at him helplessly. “I don’t…I didn’t know…”

“This rock monster will be no help to you,” Fearstorm sneered. “Not when I leave him in a worse state than your pretty friend. Then there’s you…and you, my dear, I intend on taking my time with. You hurt me, and I won’t have that at all.”

Fearstorm focused the full extent of his power on Blok, and in return Blok scowled at him with utter disdain. “Your power is mighty,” the Legionnaire rumbled, “But it is no match for the courage of Achilles.” He flicked the villain’s head back with one gold-streaked finger, and Fearstorm immediately fell into two separate unconscious men.

As Blok gently picked up and soothed a helpless Infectious Lass, Comet Queen descended from above holding Quislet’s ship in a protective embrace. “The poor little shuttle’s scared quiet,” Grava frowned. “Oh, did that horrible ultra-beast get Infectious Lass too?”

“He did, but he is a threat no longer.” Blok glanced at the two unconscious men at his feet. Infectious Lass was no longer in hysterics, but she took shallow breaths like a frightened kitten.

“At least it’s over!” Comet Queen smiled hopefully. “Right?”

“…Right.” Diamond Damsel’s voice was surprisingly fragile. She couldn’t take her eyes off of Drura trembling in Blok’s arms. Finally, she snapped her head to the side as though coming out of a spell and stood upright. “We still have to find Duplicate Damsel,” she said flatly. She couldn’t bring herself to look Blok or Comet Queen in the eye. “I’m going to go look for her.”

She walked away before the others could respond, and Blok pondered if this really was over…

**********
H’LVEN
N’thwood Peak Province, Arb’r City

ROLL CALL
Dragonmage aka Xao Jin: dragon magic
Fire Lad aka Staq Mavlen: fire-breathing
Light Lad aka Darvan Locke: anti-gravity control
Matter-Eater Lad aka Tenzil Kem: can eat inorganic matter in all its forms
Polar Boy aka Brek Bannin: cold and ice generation

“This might be the weirdest Legion mission I have ever been on,” Polar Boy leaned down to whisper at his teammates sitting below him.

“Definitely the cutest,” Light Lad grinned.

Matter-Eater Lad cleared his throat. “Ixnay on the ommentarycay, guys. I guarantee you everyone here has way better hearing than any of us.”

“Right. Sorry.” Light Lad sat up straighter in his seat while Polar Boy looked around self-consciously. A lot of the planet’s natives were looking at the Legionnaires, but that might just be because the five Legionnaires were the only humanoids on this entire planet. H’lven was populated by a wide range of intelligent species, and every single one of them resembled woodland creatures Brek had seen in Earth zoological parks. The H’lvenite government had been considering becoming a fully fledged member of the United Planets, and the United Planets was most definitely interested in gaining access to the rich array of natural resources H’lven had to offer. The Legion of Superheroes had been invited to send a delegation to H’lven’s most popular bi-annual sporting event, the N’thwood Games. Here, different species spent weeks competing in all manner of different events for the honour of being crowned the best in their field. Right now, the Legionnaires were sitting in a grandstand which had been specially constructed for them amongst a chittering cheering crowd of thousands of squirrels, chipmunks, bears, birds and big cats. The effect was quite surreal.

“Thank you for choosing us to attend with you, Matter-Eater Lad.” Dragonmage sipped at a beverage made of local berries. “It’s fascinating how many parallels these people have with Earth as well as how different they are in some respects.”

“Think nothin’ of it kid!” Tenzil pulled a length of wire out of a bag he was holding and bit the end off of it. “The H’lvenites wanted to see a variety of Legionnaires and normally I’d ask Cham or Tellus to make an appearance for diversity’s sake but well…look around us. I think the five of us are the most diverse lifeforms most of these guys have ever come across!” He stopped chewing and looked up into the cloudless sky, squinting behind his sunglasses. “Hey, you guys see that?”

“What?” Fire Lad followed Tenzil’s gaze. “Oh…what iss that..?”

The others looked now and saw a green light flashing above them, bright enough that its glow could be seen even in the afternoon sunlight. “Whatever it is,” Light Lad stood up, “It’s coming this way!” The H’lvenites had seen the emerald light now too, and a wave of anxiety rippled through the crowd.

Matter-Eater Lad turned to Minister D’reen, a young female squirrel who had been their guide here since they arrived. “Don’t worry,” he gave her his most casual smile. “We’ll take care of this and be right back, you all keep enjoying yourselves. Let’s go, Legionnaires!” Tenzil led the way, and all five heroes took to flight while D’reen rushed to inform the event organisers everything was under control.

The green light was descending at incredible speeds, and as they came closer they could see that whatever it was, it was easily large enough to contain one or two people inside. “I don’t want to be that guy,” Matter-Eater Lad said dryly, “But I’ve been in the Legion of Superheroes long enough to know emerald’s not usually a fun color for our side.”

“You don’t think it’s…” Polar Boy didn’t finish, almost as though he were afraid saying her name would summon her into existence.

“I don’t know,” Tenzil replied, “But ignore what I said to D’reen, we’d better be ready to call for backup on this one. If she’s here, her Fatal Five friends aren’t gonna be far behind.”

“Is it just me?” Dragonmage asked timidly, “Or is it turning toward us?”

“It’s not you!” Polar Boy shouted. “Light Lad, give me a hand!” Darvan didn’t follow at first, but when Polar Boy erected a thick ice wall between them and the green light he realised what he was meant to do. Light Lad used his own power to keep the ice wall suspended in mid-air, and when the green light shattered the wall to pieces Darvan sent the chunks of ice flying harmlessly into space so they wouldn’t rain down on anybody below.

“Back off!” Fire Lad took point, exhaling a plume of flame that engulfed the green light. The fire did nothing, and he was forced to dive out of the way of the charging nimbus of energy.

Dragonmage gulped and gestured, the wisps of a green dragon swirling around his outstretched arms. If this really was the Emerald Empress, there was no way his magic was strong enough to counter that. Still, maybe he could stall her long enough for the others to come up with something. A translucent dragon shot forth from the young sorcerer, its jaws opening wide enough to swallow the light even as the light threatened to consume the Legionnaires. When the dragon and the light came into contact, there was a soundless explosion of emerald light which blinded them all for a couple of seconds. Surprisingly, the light had completely vanished when the Legionnaires could once again see but the dragon was still floating serenely in mid-air. Inside its transparent shell was the woman it had swallowed. It wasn’t the Emerald Empress, but Dragonmage recognised the red-haired teenager straight away. Even if the Legion of Superheroes hadn’t encountered her a couple of times as a Green Lantern, Xao Jin could never forget his childhood friend.

Inside the dragon’s belly, Zoe Saugin slept blissfully unaware of anything going on around her.

TO BE CONTINUED..!

I missed Fearstorm's first appearance, but you certainly highlighted how scary he is. Brrr. Uh oh, Drura's scared of Iris... Interested to see where that goes.

Nice nod to Klar's story with the Subs' segment

And Zoe! Now I really want to see what's next. She's still a Green Lantern, then? Or perhaps... something more in store!

I like this idea of making the old headquarters a museum and the Sub's headquarters. Its a great idea.

Zoe's rocketing in....hmmm i can't wait to see whats become of her and who or what sent her.

Fearstorm and Blok's battle was well done and i liked how you described him using the Shazam powers.

Dura's afraid of Diamond Damsel? I wonder if it has anything to do with her time in the 20th Century where Diamond Damsel was a villain?

Can't wait for more.

Thanks peeps! I actually meant to leave some notes to refer to Fearstorm's other appearance but I forgot....oops! If you'd like to see how the Legion beat him last time, check out here!

Klar has done such an awesome job fleshing out Rainbow Girl, hopefully he won't mind me incorporating bits into my fic

Glad y'all are happy to see Zoe too!

Interestying opportunity for the Subs, I wonder where you'll take it from here?

Fearstorm is so cool! I'd love to see him in the proper comic. Comet Queen going after Quislet was sweet - it's really cool how you have certain characters like them that obviously have a friendship that you let bubble below the surface without there being any big scenes. You write a terrific Grava Raz.

Blok defeating Fearstorm was inevitable, but stating that it's the cxourage of Achilles that kept him safe was a great nod to his new state.

Drura and Iris have some talking to do, don't they?

Is H'Lven an original idea as it is ridiculously briliant! And Zoe showing up like that was a total leftfield turn - splendid! I'm looking to see where you take that.

You know what's coming... can't wait for more, more, more!

Thanks for noticing Grava & Quislet! It strikes me they'd get along like a house on fire so I'm glad it comes across

H'lven is another footnote I forgot to leave, d'oh! It is the homeworld of the chipmunk Green Lantern Ch'p.....the squirrel Matter-Eater Lad spoke to was my sneaky nod to Marvel's Squirrel Girl Doreen Green who stars in maybe my favourite comic at the moment!

H'lven made me smile as well. I'm familiar with Ch'p and B'dg

I agree re your long-running Comet Queen and Quislet friendship. Your Blok and Diamond Damsel friendship is likewise very natural. I missed the Doreen Green nod but now that you mention it, nice touch!

MARS
Husband Hill, Legion of Superheroes Headquarters

ROLL CALL
Diamond Damsel aka Iris Jacobs: living diamond
Infectious Lass aka Drura Sehpt: disease transmission and immunity

Drura Sehpt glumly pushed her food around with her spoon. Century eggs in blue-vein sauce had been one of her favourite dishes since she discovered them on one of her first missions with the Legion of Substitute Heroes, but she’d barely touched the pungent mess in her bowl today. After the encounter with Fearstorm on Titan, Drura and all his other victims had been taken straight to the most well-regarded psycho-health institute on Titan for emergency treatment. Drura had been released with a clean bill of health as long as she agreed to a follow-up appointment with a local specialist in a week, but nothing erased the deep embarrassment she’d been suffering ever since. She hadn’t even been able to look Diamond Damsel in the eye on the way home, and had whimpered a half-baked excuse to get away from her as soon as the Legionnaires had reached Mars.

Drura really wanted to talk to someone about what had happened on Titan but Jacques was guest-mentoring the Academy students, Danielle was helping Brainiac 5 with something in his multi-lab, and Drura didn’t know if her relationship with Porcupine Pete had mended yet to the point where she could call him for a shoulder to cry on. Even her old friend Kent Shakespeare was busy more often than not these days helping Earthgov with the Somahturian refugee whom Invisible Kid and Kid Computo had rescued from the Judgement League. So here she was, sitting in one of the Legion’s cafeteria spaces staring into her food like a Misery Plague victim while anybody else in the room made sure to sit far enough away that they couldn’t smell the distinct odour of her lunch. She had considered approaching Quislet; he had fallen victim to Fearstorm just as she had after all. He’d been keeping to himself since they returned from Titan though and Drura wasn’t entirely sure the odd little Teallian would offer much support anyway.

“Do you mind if I have a seat?”

Shaken out of her introspection, Drura looked up at the unfamiliar voice. A redheaded young woman stood meekly at the table, her hands behind her back and her hair tied back into a loose ponytail. Archaic oversized spectacles made her eyes seem weirdly too large for her face. Puzzled, Drura stared mutely for a second before she realised who the mousy Earth woman was. “Oh!” She was visibly startled. “Diamond Damsel! Of course…I’m sorry, I’m not used to seeing you like…umm…”

“Infectious Lass, it’s okay.” The woman who was born Iris Jacobs gave a valiant effort to hide her reaction to Drura’s meal and sat down opposite her. “Nobody’s used to seeing me like this. Kind of a departure from a giant diamond monster, huh?”

Drura’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh no, grife, I didn’t mean that! I’m sorry, I…I should really be going.” She grabbed her bowl and prepared to leave the table.

“Wait,” the human woman bade her. “Please? I think we should talk about what happened back on Titan. I thought I might be…less threatening this way.” Her face flushed with color and she looked down self-consciously at her hands clasped on the tabletop. “So…what Fearstorm said…was that the truth?”

“I’m sorry.” Now it was Drura’s turn to look down at her hands. “I really am. I know you’ve been with the Legion for such a long time now, and I shouldn’t feel wary around you and I hate myself that I do….I wish you’d never found out!”

“...I guess this is my karma.” Iris spoke with a sad tinge to her voice. “I wish I’d known that you’ve been terrified of me this whole time though. I would never have joined the Legion.”

“That’s why I didn’t tell you.” Drura accepted there was no escape and relaxed back into her seat. “I know you’re a good person, Diamond - Iris. You’ve been an invaluable part of the team since you joined. But at the same time…it’s jarring. I don’t really remember a lot of what happened when I was trapped in the 21st century, what with Esper Lass frying my mind along with the normal rigours of time travel...but I remember that you were working for the Lord of Time, and I remember how much you hated everything the Legion represented. I remember you weren’t on my side. And then suddenly in the blink of an eye, you were on my side…and that’s all anyone else here has known of you. They’ve only ever seen you as a hero and that’s how you deserve to be seen. My brain knows that you’re a good person. My heart still remembers when you weren’t. I’m not terrified of you, that was Fearstorm enhancing what was there. But I can’t help feeling...uneasy. I keep it to myself, but I can’t help how I feel.”

“I understand.” Iris suddenly felt very old and foolish. “I became complacent….I forgot that Diamond Damsel was once Diamondeth, and Diamondeth did some truly terrible things. I’m not that person anymore, but I was her once…and sometimes I have to pay for that.” The two women sat in a mutually awkward silence for a moment. “I hope one day you won’t feel that way about me anymore,” Iris said almost timidly as she stood up. “But I understand why you do. Thanks for the talk, Infectious Lass.”

Iris left the room quickly, and Drura didn’t feel even a little bit better.

**********
H’LVEN
N’thwood Peak Province, Arb’r City

ROLL CALL
Dragonmage aka Xao Jin: dragon magic
Fire Lad aka Staq Mavlen: fire-breathing
Light Lad aka Darvan Locke: anti-gravity control
Matter-Eater Lad aka Tenzil Kem: can eat inorganic matter in all its forms
Polar Boy aka Brek Bannin: cold and ice generation

Zoe Saugin’s eyelids fluttered and she groaned as she sat up on the cool green knoll upon which she’d been laying. She realised her surroundings were unfamiliar almost instantly and moved into a crouching position, her ring flashing emerald on her white gloved hand.

“Zoe, it’s okay!” Dragonmage rushed to comfort the young Green Lantern. “You’re among friends.”

“What happened, kid?” Matter-Eater Lad asked. “You look like you’ve been on the wrong end of a tussle with Black Mace.”

Zoe looked herself over. Her uniform was torn in places and she could feel bruises underneath. Annoyed at her appearance, she focused her will and with a green flare her costume was repaired. “I told the ring to find a friend,” she explained. “I guess it found the Legion of Superheroes. Where are we?”

“This planet’s named H’lven,” Light Lad answered softly, subtly checking her pupils for any visible sign of concussion. “They’re interested in joining the United Planets so we’ve come on a diplomatic mission.”

“Why did you need to find a friend?” Polar Boy asked bluntly.

The abruptness of the query seemed to penetrate Zoe’s waking haze and she gasped in shock as she leaped to her feet. “Oh grife! We have to go help Sodam Yat and the other Lanterns on Oa!” She bathed herself in a protective green aura and hovered above the others.

“Zoe, what’s going on?” Dragonmage asked. “You’re injured, we can’t just go rushing off. Why don’t you calm down and—“

“It might be too late already!” she cut Xao off. “They could be dead by now! If you won’t come with me I’ll go back on my own!”

“Wait wait wait a nano,” Matter-Eater Lad held up both hands. “If the Green Lanterns need help, the Legion are there for you. But Sodam Yat is a Daxamite…if a Daxamite with a Green Lantern ring and a whole bunch of other Green Lanterns have come up with something they can’t deal with, we’re gonna need some backup. You guys go ahead with Teen Lantern here. I’ll make excuses to our hosts, follow in the cruiser and get Brainy to send the cavalry. Sound like a plan?”

“Ssoundss like a plan to me,” Fire Lad hissed.

“Come on then, there’s no time to waste!” Zoe gathered the others in a translucent green bubble, leaving Tenzil behind. “I’ll explain on the way!”

**********
OA
The Emerald Citadel

The energy being named Neon darted around the war zone which Oa had become, and she wondered how everything had turned so bad for the Green Lantern Corps so quickly. The Corps had started small, with Sodam Yat’s newly active rings recruiting Zoe Saugin, Jordana Gardner and Celeste Rockfish to Yat’s cause. Celeste had been a prison guard on Takron-Galtos when her ring had found her. She’d been quelling one of the prison riots that broke out infrequently in various hotspots across the planet, and the genocidal psychopath Kivun Roxxas had beaten her to within an inch of her life. Her body had in fact been so severely damaged that her only hope for survival had been to become one with the very weapon which had come to find her. The Green Lantern ring formed for her a body of emerald light, and Celeste Rockfish was reborn as Neon. Since then, the Green Lantern Corps had grown to number more than two dozen, and until today that number was steadily increasing.

Then the Thunderers of Qward arrived.

They came out of nowhere, a platoon of golden armoured men in flying chariots. They hurled thunderbolts powerful enough to faze even the mighty Sodam Yat, their gleaming shields were equal to any forcefield the Green Lanterns could envision, and just like Kivun Roxxas that terrible day they were far far more experienced in brutality and bloodshed than any of the Green Lanterns. Neon had watched them lay waste to her comrades until the only Lanterns remaining were Sodam Yat himself and his first three recruits. Finally, Yat had swallowed his pride and sent the barely conscious Zoe on a mission of desperation to seek help from the nearest quarter. That had been nearly half an hour ago and Neon didn’t think that Zoe was coming back.

“Look out!” A giant green boxing glove zipped past Neon, pummelling two Thunderers hard enough to smash their skyborne chariots into splinters. The men fell more than a hundred feet screaming into dark oceans below, ignored by their own troopmates. Jordana Gardner zipped up alongside Neon, her lower lip split open and bleeding. “You have to pay attention!” Jordana barked. “We’re the only ones left!”

“This is crazy!” Neon dodged a flashing thunderbolt and blasted its master from his chariot. “What do these jerks even want, what have we ever done to them? Why are they doing this?!”

“They’re from the Anti-Matter Universe!” Jordana replied as she and Neon both hastily erected shields to protect themselves from a barrage of lightning bolts. “I asked my ring about them, they’re ancient enemies of the Green Lantern Corps! Why they’re after us now though, I have no idea!”

Neon expanded her shield to act as a battering ram and took out another of the army of Thunderers. “Jordana, I - I think they must have gotten Zoe. I can’t believe she’d abandon us, but she’s been gone an awfully long time.”

“That girl’s tough,” Jordana countered. “Her ring’s still active out there somewhere so we’ve gotta believe she’ll be okay. We can’t worry about her now though, we’ve got to save ourselves.” An emerald green blindfold appeared over Jordana’s face. “I’m gonna drop my shield, can you blind these squajes so we can regroup with Sodam?”

“Sure.” The two women shut off their active defences and the sky filled with a burst of almost white green-tinged light. The Thunderers roared all around them, Jordana dissipated her blindfold and they made their retreat while the men threw thunderbolts wildly. They tracked Sodam Yat with their rings to an island on the planet’s opposite hemisphere where he’d led more Thunderers in an effort to spare his Corps. Neither of the women could help but notice that outside of the area immediately surrounding the Emerald Citadel which Yat had created to be the new home for the Green Lanterns, Oa was a barren wasteland which had not seen life of any description for centuries. Neither of them wanted to die here.

They were a couple of miles away when they no longer needed their rings to find their mentor. The green and gold fireworks, the din of thunderbolts and pounding Daxamite fists made it obvious a furious battle was taking place here. Without a moment of hesitation, Jordana and Neon rushed on forward.

Sodam Yat had endured well. A pile of Thunderers lay around him, ten more coordinating their attacks to keep him too preoccupied to use his ring for more than basic shields. The constant barrage of thunderbolts had brought even the long-lived Daxamite to one knee, but he refused to surrender. “I’ve got an idea,” Jordana’s mind raced. “We’ve been fighting stupid. These are the most powerful weapons in the universe, damn it. Can you change your frequency to match those thunderbolts?”

“I think I can,” Neon answered uncertainly. “Why?”

“We—“ Jordana never completed her statement, as a bellowing Thunderer leaped from his chariot above her to plant two handfuls of thunderbolts in her back. Her ring protected her from being outright slaughtered, but the impact and the resulting explosion sent her spiralling down to the rocky shoreside below. The Thunderer had fallen nearby, his own shield and armour taking much of the damage for him. They were both dazed, but Jordana more so. She could only watch half-conscious as the Thunderer scrambled to his feet and raised his shield to decapitate her where she lay. Before he could lower the shield a gigantic transparent green gemstone appeared around him, freezing him like a fly in amber. As soon as he ran out of oxygen, Neon released him from his prison and he collapsed. “Thanks,” Jordana grimaced, forcing herself to stand and join her luminescent comrade. “Got enough for the rest of them?” The two women looked up to see themselves surrounded by at least twenty Thunderers on the ground and above them. Mentally and physically exhausted, they nonetheless bravely stood their ground.

Inexplicably, the airborne Thunderers suddenly rose from their chariots and shot high into the air as if gravity itself had simply switched off. An ice wall rose to separate Neon and Jordana from the Thunderers on the left, and an enormous shimmering dragon scattered those on the right. The two beleaguered Lanterns were exhilarated to see their absent colleague Zoe descend from above, flanked by Light Lad, Polar Boy, Dragonmage and Fire Lad. “I homed in on any rings that were still active,” Zoe explained. “Grife, you guys and Sodam are the only survivors of this massacre? Why is this even happening??”

“We don’t know,” Jordana replied. “But now you’ve brought reinforcements there’s hope. Where are the rest of the Legion of Superheroes?”

“On the way,” Fire Lad replied. “I don’t think thesse nassess are going to let uss wait for them though.” He exhaled a plume of flame to deter a couple of Thunderers from sneaking around Polar Boy’s ice wall. The heat melted the edge of the wall, but it also made the men back away.

“We don’t need to wait,” Polar Boy added. “Dragonmage’s friend Zoe told us about these Thunderers while we were en route. They’re tough but they came prepared for the Green Lanterns, not the Legion of Superheroes. Let’s use that to our advantage. You Lanterns cover us and provide support but let us take point.”

“We don’t take orders from the Legion of Superheroes,” Jordana instinctively bristled at being commanded by a stranger.

“Jordana, look around us!” Neon shouted, tired and exasperated. “We don’t have the luxury of complaining, we’re dead on our feet and everyone else is just plain dead!”

“The Legion have our best interests at heart,” Zoe rejoined more calmly. “And they have a lot more experience than us. I’m doing what Polar Boy says.” To prove her point, she covered his ice wall in a green shield to keep it standing as a bunch of thunderbolts struck it.

Dragonmage winced as his own dragonform fell before the Thunderers’ weapons. “Those lightning bolts,” Xao noted, “They’re too powerful for me to contain.”

“Maybe we don’t need to contain them,” Light Lad mused. “In fact, maybe we should do just the opposite.” He gestured at a group of the warriors and the golden shafts in their quivers flew straight up, smashing against the chariots that were still suspended above them all in the air. Jordana’s ring hastily shielded Dragonmage and Light Lad from the falling debris, and Neon slammed into the weaponless men like a bright green missile. Once the Thunderers were knocked off their feet, Dragonmage summoned a group of smaller dragonforms, winding and serpentine. The illusory creatures bound the men in place.

Polar Boy and Fire Lad took on a second group of the interdimensional warriors. “Jusst like old timess, huh?” Fire Lad herded the men closer together with his fire breath.

“Outnumbered and outgunned?” Polar Boy joked. “Too bad these creeps don’t know that’s when Subs are at their best!” He froze most of the group in a massive block of ice, leaving only their heads exposed so they could breathe. Polar Boy kept up a jovial front, but if these men were capable of killing Green Lanterns the Legion were going to have to be at their best. He cast a surreptitious glance over his flame-crested friend. Brek couldn’t help but notice the sibilant hiss which had crept into Fire Lad’s speech lately; he’d undergone some fairly dramatic biological changes in the years since he got his powers, hopefully this one wasn’t going to be a cause for concern--

“You missed three of them!” Zoe shouted, quickly putting up an emerald wall in front of Fire Lad and Polar Boy. Two of the Thunderers shattered the wall with their bolts and the third one ignored the Legionnaires altogether to target Zoe. Her concentration fractured, Zoe's own protective aura barely held and she cried out in pain as the explosive golden shaft sent her flying into the ground.

Jordana ran to her side and switched her own forcefield off to examine Zoe while Polar Boy and Fire Boy took care of the stragglers. “Don’t move,” Jordana warned her. “Let me scan you for injuries first.” She held her ringed hand out, then gasped and arched her back. Her knees gave out and Jordana Gardner’s lifeless body fell before Zoe, a jagged golden dagger jutting out of her back.

“No!” Zoe wailed. “Jordana! Jordana!” She rushed to her friend, in her grief entirely forgetting about the man who’d killed her. Distracted with their own foes, the Legionnaires had never even seen Jordana fall.

Neon saw. She glared at Jordana’s murderer, the same Thunderer whom she’d earlier suffocated. Exposed to the air, he’d recovered consciousness and now drew a thunderbolt to finish off Zoe while she was too distraught to defend herself. Coldly, Neon waited for the shaft to leave his hand before she surrounded the weapon and his throwing arm in a green bubble. It exploded the bubble from inside out, and took half the Thunderer’s arm with it. His screams were like nothing any of them had ever heard, and everybody present abandoned what they were doing to see what had caused the horrific racket.

“I’ll freeze his arm!” Polar Boy volunteered.

“No, don’t!” Light Lad flew down to stand between Polar Boy and the wounded Thunderer. “We don’t know anything about his physiology! The shock to his system might be just as lethal as not doing anything at all!”

“Are you people insane?!” Neon threw her arms wide. “You’re debating the best way to save him? He killed Jordana! They’ve decimated the Green Lantern Corps!”

“We’re Legionnaires,” Light Lad faced the much more powerful woman down. “We don’t pick and choose who we help, Neon. Dragonmage, can your magic do anything?”

“I’m sorry,” Dragonmage answered soberly, “Maybe if I had more time to conjure an appropriate dragonform…these Thunderers are awfully strong though, it’s taking a lot of my focus just to keep his allies subdued. Zoe, maybe your ring..?”

Shaken from her grief, Zoe looked up at Xao with tear-stained cheeks. “Wh-what? Xao, Neon’s right…he’s a murderer!”

Dragonmage crouched down by his friend’s side. “And we’re not murderers,” he spoke quietly. “Please, Zoe.”

She looked at the man writhing in agony before her and wiped her eyes. Honing her concentration, she envisioned a stasis tube around the dying warrior, and his suffering was instantly ceased. “We’ll need to get him to a proper doctor,” Zoe sniffed. “But that should hold him till then.”

“You too?” Neon spat in disgust. “Suit yourselves, I’m going to help Sodam. Someone’s got to think about the victims here.” She turned and zoomed away.

“Don’t think badly of her,” Zoe addressed the Legionnaires. “We’ve lost a lot today, she just doesn’t want us to lose anymore.”

“We know,” Light Lad sympathised. “None of us hold it against her...now that we’ve got these men under control we’d better go help her and Sodam.”

“I can freeze Dragonmage’s captives,” Polar Boy spoke up. “Zoe, are you going to be able to fight and keep that Thunderer in stasis as well?”

“I wouldn’t be much of a Green Lantern if an unconscious man strained my willpower,” she replied. “Besides, there’s no way I’m letting Sodam and Neon fight for their lives without me.”

“Then let’s go.” Brek made certain all the defeated Thunderers present were encased in ice, and the Legionnaires joined Zoe in flight. A moment later they were all in battle alongside Sodam Yat and Neon against the remaining Thunderers. The heroes were still outnumbered, but there was a different edge to the fight this time. With the Legionnaires on their side, the Green Lanterns knew that they were going to win.

For the first time, Zoe was optimistic about their chances. As she entangled two Thunderers in thick green chains, she approached Neon. “I’m sorry,” she apologised. “I feel terrible about Jordana too but the Legion are right…we can’t murder in cold blood. We have to be better than that.”

“I know,” Neon admitted shamefully. “I’m not mad at any of you…I’m mad that I lost control. I just saw her and…it’s so senseless, Zoe. This whole massacre makes no sense at all.”

“They are monsters!” Sodam Yat roared. “That is the sense of it! I have seen too many monsters mutilate my friends and allies and I will see no more!” Pained and enraged beyond any rational thought, the Daxamite Green Lantern's eyes blazed red and he fired twin beams of heat vision intermingled with green energy. More powerful than any other force on the battlefield, the Thunderers’ shields did nothing. He sliced the men in half, one after the other, and the Thunderers dropped before some of them even realised they’d been hit. Realising they’d pushed him too far, the few remaining Thunderers tried to retreat but Sodam simply began incinerating them in their chariots.

“We have to stop him!” Light Lad shouted.

“Dragonmage!” Polar Boy commanded the young sorcerer. “Daxamites are vulnerable to magic!”

Xao Jin doubted that his power was equal to the task, but he tried nonetheless. He wove a dragonform around Sodam Yat’s head, and the young sorcerer recoiled in discomfort as Sodam’s enhanced heat vision tore the magical construct to shreds. “Xao!” Zoe rushed to her friend’s aid. “Sodam, the Thunderers are running away! We’re not executioners!” She crafted an emerald wall before Sodam Yat, and he destroyed that as easily as he had Dragonmage’s power.

In his unthinking fury, Sodam Yat turned toward Zoe herself. “Sodam, stop!” Neon saw that Zoe was in no state to defend herself and flew in front of her. Polar Boy knew that Sodam was too far gone to stop. He threw up an ice wall, but it was as ineffective as anything else had been so far. The energy woman screamed in pain as Sodam Yat’s eyebeams penetrated her and disintegrated the ring which held her together.

Sodam finally realised what he had done and ceased his assault, but it was too late for Neon. Holding herself together by the sheer willpower that had earned her a place in the Green Lantern Corps, she collapsed to the killing field that Oa had become. Zoe raced to her side, sobbing. Neon was losing cohesion, bleeding green energy into the air around them. Zoe fixed Sodam with an accusing glare. “You did this! You were supposed to teach us and you killed her!”

Sodam Yat stammered weakly. He looked around at the Legionnaires, at the dead Thunderers. Those few enemies remaining had opened portals to their own world and returned there now. And Neon lay before him dying, Zoe Saugin despising him for it. His dream had died. Removing his ring, Sodam Yat crushed it into dust. “...I am sorry,” he choked as tears came to him. “...I am sorry for all of it.” He flew into space so swiftly that he was gone before the others could even register the movement.

“Zoe…” Neon murmured. “…Don’t…hate him…y’right…we have to be better than that….and in the end you’re the only one who was…” She reached for Zoe’s hand, her own fingers already having lost any definition. Crying openly, Zoe tried to clasp Neon’s hand but she was like a ghost. As her own flesh and blood passed through the haemorrhaging emerald light which had once been a woman, Zoe felt a tingle. It passed through her whole body as Neon faded into nothingness. She stood up once Neon had vanished, and faced the Legionnaires who were gaping in astonishment.

“Zoe…” Dragonmage stood slack-jawed. “You’re glowing..!”

“It was Neon’s last gift to me,” she held her hands out and saw that green light now emanated from within her instead of her ring. “She was holding the microscopic fragments of her ring together with sheer strength of will…and at the end, she bonded the ring to me. Gods help me…

…I’m the last Green Lantern."



EDITOR'S NOTES:
* Infectious Lass and Diamond Damsel are talking about the very first story which started off this series! Long story which can be found here, but they weren't on the same side when they first met!
* As part of that same adventure, Esper Lass rendered Infectious Lass catatonic with some over-exuberant mental probing

Whew! I'm glad to see that Drura's fear of Iris was because she was Diamondeth, and not because of her physical form. I'm confident they can patch things up.

Wow, what a powerful scene on Oa... as a major Zoe fan I think you did very well by her. So she's like Jade now, a GL without a ring? Sodam Yat really fell from grace... and Neon and Jordana both had awesome moments before they died. Wow. So... is a flight ring in Zoe's future...?

I hope Dura and DD can work things out. Good moment for the two and it really shows how far DD has come.

The Corps in dire straights again.

i wonder if Zoe will restart or if she's now ready to join the Legion.

I would have loved to see more of Jordana and Neon. But they were brave and strong.

But i wonder why the Thunerers from Quwad came now and with Zoe being the last will they still come?

Can't wait for more!

Thanks guys, your comments are as always appreciated! I'm glad you liked my Zoe, IB...I am more of an original recipe Legion fan so it's good to hear I am doing well by her

We definitely have more to come from both Zoe and the Thunderers!

I think you've done a great Zoe, raz, and also made it so believable that it could just as easily been Jordana or Celeste who survived instead of her. I liked how you made Zoe struggle but ultimately stay true to her heroic ideals.

Looking forward to the next bit! Like with Omni, I'm curious about the Thunderers' motives.

SHANGHALLA

ROLL CALL
Chameleon Boy aka Reep Daggle: Durlan shapeshifter
Dragonmage aka Xao Jin: dragon magic
Fire Lad aka Staq Mavlen: fire-breathing
Light Lad aka Darvan Locke: anti-gravity control
Matter-Eater Lad aka Tenzil Kem: can eat inorganic matter in all its forms
Mon-El aka Lar Gand: Daxamite physiology
Polar Boy aka Brek Bannin: cold and ice generation
Stone Boy aka Dag Wentim: ability to transmute to living stone
Supergirl aka Kara Zor-El: Kryptonian physiology
Ultra Boy aka Jo Nah: deputy leader, ultra-energy which can be directed into any one of strength, speed, flight, invulnerability, flash vision, penetra-vision at a time

While the rest of the Legionnaires solemnly filed on to a cruiser, Matter-Eater Lad clamped a hand down on Dragonmage’s shoulder. “I’m sorry we couldn’t get to Oa quicker, buddy.”

The shorter sorcerer looked up at his uncommonly serious teammate. “Thank you, Matter-Eater Lad. Please don’t feel responsible though, I know that you all tried your best…and Zoe knows that too. Thank you also for helping us organise this impromptu memorial service, I know it means a lot to Zoe that the Green Lanterns are recognised as heroes. They may not have been in existence for very long, but they did help a lot of people in that time. Zoe’s told me some stories that have made me think they’d all have made great Legionnaires if things were different.”

“I bet.” Tenzil gave an encouraging smile. He looked across the silent cemetery where Zoe Saugin stood alone before a giant green light sculpture she’d created to honour her fallen allies. Zoe herself was surrounded by a verdant aura, the legacy of her fellow Corps comrade Neon. “Do you think your pal’s gonna be okay?”

“I hope so,” Dragonmage answered honestly. “I can’t imagine what must be going through her mind right now, at least she still has her mother and her brother to help her through this.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, kid.” Tenzil ruffled Dragonmage’s silky black hair. “You’re vertically challenged enough already. Trust me, I’ve been to this rock too many times…she’s gonna need a good friend as much as she needs her family.”

Supergirl approached the two heroes. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Kara spoke gently. “Ultra Boy says we’re ready to go. Once we get back to Mars he’s gonna ask Brainy to see if the Science Police will let us help interrogate the Thunderers we handed over to them, and Dawnstar should be able to find that Sodam Yat guy.”

“I’m going to stay here with Zoe,” Dragonmage announced. “You were right, Matter-Eater Lad. She needs a friend right now, and I don’t feel right leaving her alone in case those Thunderers decide to come back and finish what they started.”

“Ultra Boy thought you might say that too,” Supergirl smiled. “He asked me to keep you company if you decided to stay.”

“Thank you,” Dragonmage answered genuinely. “I’m sure Zoe will appreciate the gesture. Do you mind giving me a few minutes alone with her?”

“Knock yourself out,” Kara assented. “I’m only a second away at super-speed if you need me.”

“I’ll see you guys back at base,” Matter-Eater Lad bade his teammates goodbye and climbed aboard the cruiser. Dragonmage and Supergirl watched the vessel lift off, and then Xao Jin walked away from the maid of might to comfort his friend. Supergirl wandered off to look through the various memorials which populated Shanghalla.

Zoe had turned when she heard the Legion’s ship taking off, and she watched now as Dragonmage approached. “I still can’t believe it,” Zoe heaved a sigh of despair. “Neon, Jordana, Kai, Dha-Ta…all of them, just…gone. And we don’t even know why.”

“Madame Chu taught me that death is not the end, but I know that can be a difficult knowledge in which to take solace.” Dragonmage looked up at the larger than life emerald heroes standing bravely above. "You did a great job on the hardlight sculpture, I’m sure they’re proud of your efforts wherever their final resting places are.”

“Thanks. I have all this power now, I needed to do something with it.” She looked upon her handiwork. Sodam Yat had recruited his Green Lanterns from many different worlds, it was going to take some time for Zoe to travel to all of those worlds to contact their next of kin and make the necessary funeral arrangements. It was a task she couldn’t take time to consider at all until she’d found out why the Thunderers had come to slaughter them all and until she’d found Sodam Yat. This sculpture was only a temporary measure to honour her friends, but it was in Zoe’s mind a necessary one. “Xao, you don’t think they travelled from a whole other dimension just to kill us, do you? The Thunderers of Qward were enemies of the Green Lantern Corps once, but they haven’t been seen in our dimension in nearly a thousand years! How would they even know the Corps was rebuilding again?”

“I don’t know,” Dragonmage admitted. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out though, you know the Legion are here for you with this.”

“Thanks again. For everything.” She hugged Dragonmage then pulled back abruptly.

“Zoe?” Her aura suddenly flared brighter. “What’s happening?” Dragonmage asked in concern.

“The Thunderers of Qward.” She stood back and hardened the Green Lantern energy emanating from her to form a protective sheath around her body. “I’ve been scanning for the frequency of their thunderbolts so I’d have some advance warning if they came back for me.”

“They’re here??” He lifted his flight ring to his lips. “We need to call Supergirl! We need to call the Legion back!”

“No, Xao.” She blocked his flight ring transmission without really even being consciously aware she was doing it. “It’s okay, they’re not on Shanghalla. They’re not even in this sector. I’m surprised I picked up their signal at all to be honest, but absorbing the power of Neon’s ring…it makes me feel like I’m capable of anything.” She rose a few inches off of the ground as she was speaking.

“Zoe, I hope you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking…”

“I need answers, Xao.”

“Then we’ll get answers,” Supergirl announced as she came onto the scene, her super-hearing having been pricked by Xao’s earlier mention of her name. “But we’ll get them together. I’ve already called Ultra Boy, they’re on their way back.”

“They’ll have to catch up to us en route,” Zoe replied. “I’m not giving those creeps a chance to destroy anybody else.” She zipped straight out of the asteroid’s artificially sustained atmosphere and was soon nothing more than a green streak shooting into space.

“I’m really worried about her,” Dragonmage looked imploringly at Supergirl.

“I wish you weren’t right to be,” Kara Zor-El pouted. “Come on, we’d better get after her.” She wrapped an arm around Xao and sped after the young Green Lantern.

**********
MARS
Husband Hill, Legion of Superheroes Headquarters

ROLL CALL
Comet Queen aka Grava: flight, gas generation
Laurel Kent: intern, invulnerability
Nightwind aka Berta Skye Haris: wind control

“You’re really not going to give yourself a codename?” Nightwind asked Laurel Kent as the two walked away from Nightwind’s quarters. “I mean it’s not like Supergirl’s your only option….you could be Legacy Lass, Indestructible Girl, Mighty Maid…”

“You’re really fixated on this!” Laurel made a face at her friend. “I just haven’t found a codename that really clicks...but you know, I have been thinking about changing my costume!”

“About time you got rid of that blanket and put on some real clothes,” Nightwind summoned a breeze to lift up the edges of Laurel’s garment.

“It’s a poncho, not a blanket!” the indestructible teenager protested with a giggle as she held it down with both hands. “And it got me one step closer to being a real Legionnaire, but now that I’m here it might be time for an upgrade! Hey, is that Grava?”

The two girls stopped in their tracks and Berta listened. They could indeed hear their friend Comet Queen making a ruckus somewhere. They raced ahead and found her pounding on Quislet’s door and calling his name. “Grava, you nut!” Laurel stood by her friend’s side. “You’re gonna drum a hole in that door if you keep going!”

“I think it’s safe to say he’s not home sweetie,” Nightwind agreed. “Nobody could sleep through that racket, trust me. Come to think of it, does Quislet even sleep?”

“He’s in there, I know he is!” Comet Queen protested. “The shiny little shuttle locked himself in there when we got back from Titan and he hasn’t come out since!”

“Quislet’s not like us,” Nightwind placed a comforting hand on Comet Queen’s golden-sleeved arm. “Maybe he just needs a little extra time to deal with what happened, it sounds like you guys had a really rough time with Fearstorm. Grava honey, I know you feel things really deeply, but sometimes people just need some space.”

“Yeah, he’ll be fine CQ.” Laurel patted her other arm. “Come on Berta, Saturn Girl will kick both our butts if we’re late!”

The two girls ran off down the corridor, and Comet Queen went back to banging on Quislet’s door. Grava knew that everybody else thought she was a little loopy, even her closest friends…and maybe she was, but she also knew that Quislet needed her.

She cried out his name again.

**********
EARTH
Ivory Coast, Neoabidjan

ROLL CALL
Legion Academy:
Chemical Kid aka Hadru Jamik: control of chemical reactions
Dragonwing aka Marya Pai: acid venom, fire breath
Glorith: sorceress
Gravity Kid aka Tel Vole: gravity manipulation
Kid Quantum aka Jazmin Cullen: quantum field manipulation
Lightning Lad aka Garth Ranzz: teacher, electricity generation and manipulation
Lullabye Lad aka Waiane Wentim: Zwennite physiology, narcoleptic induction
Saturn Girl aka Imra Ardeen Ranzz: teacher, telepathy
Variable Lad aka Oaa Tseldor: abilities change with each manifestation

Legion of Superheroes
Laurel Kent: intern, invulnerability
Nightwind aka Berta Skye Haris: wind control

Standing in the imposing shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral, Tel Vole took a moment to admire the way the sunlight gleamed off of the pristine blue waters of the Bay of Cocody before he turned back to his fellow students at the highly exclusive Legion Academy. “Looks like this place was nice once before those Judgement League jerkwits got to it,” Gravity Kid remarked. Spots of damage marked the otherwise proud city, the last remaining signs of the League’s battle with a psychologically unbalanced geokinetic. Truthfully, much of the damage here had been caused by the League itself.

“It wasn’t always that way,” Saturn Girl replied, standing before the students with her husband and Nightwind on her left. “Local wars nearly destroyed the city altogether 400 years ago, but the people of Neoabidjan rebuilt the city bigger and better than before. Now it’s the second largest metropolis on this continent. Considering the work Terrans put into restoring Neoabidjan, it would be a shame to allow the Judgement League’s excesses to spoil that.”

“Oh sprock,” Dragonwing folded her arms across her chest. “I just realised what this is…we’re on clean-up duty? Come on!”

“The locals have made good headway already,” Lightning Lad took over from his wife. “They don’t need our help, Brainy offered our help as a goodwill gesture to Earth. And it’s a good opportunity for you kids. But I know it’s not as exciting as combat drills, so we’re going to make a little contest out of it. Nightwind here has been kind enough to help us referee.”

‘My pleasure,” Nightwind gave a small smile. “Uh…is Glorith okay?”

The hooded sorceress was visibly disturbed, but she shied away from the attention. “I apologise,” she mumbled. “It is nothing to be concerned about, I have merely divined an unusual amount of mystical energy in the area. I had to take a moment to re-attune my senses.”

“In that case,” Lightning Lad continued, “Let’s get on with it. Glorith, Kid Quantum, Lullabye Lad, Variable Lad; you four are with Saturn Girl and Nightwind. Laurel, Gravity Kid, Chemical Kid, Dragonwing; come with me. Your instructors will monitor your efforts over the next 90 minutes and whichever team has done the best job of repairing the damage that’s been done to Neoabidjan, congratulations! You’re going to Atlantis for the weekend!”

“Atlantis!”
“No way!”
“Teacher, how exciting!”

“Right then!” Garth released a blast of lightning into the sky to draw attention from his hyper-enthused class. “Let the contest begin!”

**********
Fifteen minutes later and after no small amount of clashing egos, Lightning Lad watched his squad at work. Gravity Kid was the eldest student at the Academy, and along with Laurel Kent, he was the one most dedicated to membership in the Legion of Superheroes. His ambition was admirable, as was his control of his powers. Right now he was airlifting piles of rubble to a central location where Dragonwing used her own powers to destroy anything which couldn’t be recycled.

Of all the students, Marya most reminded Garth of himself. She was hotheaded and had a chip on her shoulder, but she was essentially a good person. She would need to soften her edges and learn to play well with others, just as Garth himself had needed to learn that lesson once upon a time.

Laurel Kent’s power was purely defensive and duplicated by half a dozen Legionnaires. Until Garth actually took over teaching duties at the Academy, he would never have seriously considered Superman’s descendant Legion material. He’d always secretly assumed it was misplaced affection for Kal-El which had let her join the Academy in the first place, a belief he knew several of the Legionnaires shared. She’d really impressed all of her instructors though, even moreso since she’d come out of her Manhunter-induced stasis. While she didn’t share Gravity Kid’s humourless drive for perfection, Laurel had heart. She’d taken the younger kids under wing more than her peers did, and she never failed to stand up when she perceived injustice from any quarter. She’d also found some clever uses for her invulnerability, such as crawling through the remains of the Southern Neoabidjan Powersphere Exchange with sensitive scanning equipment looking for harmful radioactive materials to be neutralised by Chemical Kid.

Chemical Kid got under Garth’s skin the most. His power had perhaps more potential than anybody else here, but he didn’t have anywhere near the maturity to appreciate it. He saw Legion membership as his ticket to fame, and was a demonstrated bad influence on the others. Maybe there was more than one student after all who reminded Lightning Lad of himself in his younger days...

A mild earth tremor ran underfoot, catching Lightning Lad’s attention. He asked the four students under his care to call in, and mentally marked each one off once they’d confirmed they were safe. Gravity Kid was the last one to respond, and he sounded a little distracted. “Lightning Lad, you’d better come see this,” the level-headed boy’s voice sounded over Garth’s flight ring. “I’m a few kliks away and there’s still quite a lot of damage in the area, I’m not sure of the address. I’ve activated the homing beacon in my ring though so you can find me.”

Lightning Lad called the others even as he took to the air. “Laurel, Chemical Kid, Dragonwing, stop what you’re doing if it can be left without endangering the public and converge on my signal. Gravity Kid may need some assistance.” The three caught up to their teacher in no time, and soon the brightly coloured quartet soared over Neoabidjan’s grid of streets. Three entire city blocks looked like a war zone, only the occasional building left half-standing. Gravity Kid’s flight ring was transmitting from within one of these buildings. “Be alert,” Lightning Lad warned the others. “Watch one another’s backs.”

The building no longer existed above the third level, and the four of them easily descended through the lack of a rooftop and entered a doorway looking for Gravity Kid. Garth noticed straight away that it looked like someone was still living here. Take-away food containers and drink bottles littered the room. When they found Gravity Kid, he wasn’t the only person they found. Floating before them suspended in a bubble of anti-gravity was the former Judgement Leaguer known as Golden Boy.

“Let me go!” the golden-skinned miscreant ranted. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Are you kidding me?” Gravity Kid retorted. “You were hiding here waiting for us! How did you know we were going to be here?”

“I didn’t know anything!” Golden Boy snapped. “We came here after the fight in Metropolis, we needed somewhere to hide out till we could get off-planet and half of Neoabidjan’s in ruins! It’s the last place anyone would look for us, how did you find us??"

The ground trembled again, slightly stronger than before. Garth wondered if they were readjusting seismic stabilisers in the area before something entirely different shook him. “You said we,” he addressed Golden Boy. “We who?”

Chemical Kid had been keeping an eye on the stairwell, and he tried to bark a warning about the golden blur he now saw running up the stairs but he didn’t get more than the first syllable out before a super-speed fist connected with his jaw and knocked the Phlonian teenager out. The others turned, but they may as well have been moving in slow motion. The assailant hit Dragonwing and Gravity Kid next, Tel’s anti-gravity bubble falling as he did. Before Golden Boy had even touched the floor, the blur was on Laurel. The speedster's onslaught came to a rude end when she slammed her fist into Laurel’s jaw with a bone-crushing crack. “My hand!” Sprint screamed, holding her forearm as she finally stopped running. “You broke my hand!”

“No, you broke your hand when you decided to hit an indestructible girl,” Laurel returned, completely unharmed by the assault. “I broke your face.” She slammed her own fist into Sprint’s face and knocked her out in one hit.

“You little—“ Golden Boy poised to rush Laurel until a well-placed lightning bolt hit the ground an inch from his foot.

“Uh uh uh,” Garth wagged his finger. “You stay right there until this is all sorted out or the next one gets you right in your shiny butt.” The ground shook again, and this time the building itself trembled.

“Laurel, call Imra and ask her to scan the city for any more of these losers. We don’t need any more surprises.”

**********
Saturn Girl listened to Laurel’s explanation, then used her incredibly powerful telepathy to scan the city for any sign of Golden Boy and Sprint’s former teammates. “They may be using tech or their own powers to hide from psi-scans,” Imra noted, “But from what you’ve described, I’m inclined to believe Golden Boy’s story and that Gravity Kid just lucked upon their hideout. Still, I’ll collect the others and join you all. Better to be on the safe side when it comes to the Judgement League.”

Imra was already keeping an eye on Glorith and Kid Quantum and she telepathically updated Nightwind on the situation so she could gather Variable Lad and Lullabye Lad. Garth and Imra had broken up the class the way they had quite on purpose. The students Imra and Nightwind had taken were all accustomed to being led by their louder and more confident classmates. Imra and Garth had wanted to see how they worked together when they were forced to make their own decisions. It didn’t surprise Saturn Girl that Kid Quantum easily took to the task. Despite being the newest and youngest student there, her prior experience in Xanthu’s military education system and as one of the Uncanny Amazers had prepared her well.

Glorith on the other hand was a mystery. When Mysa Nal had enrolled her in the Academy, it had been under the proviso that her past remain unexplored. Glorith had been desperately homesick at times, and everybody knew she’d love nothing more than to go back to the Sorcerers' World and leave the Academy and the rest of the United Planets behind. Mysa had insisted on Glorith’s presence here though, and to her credit the unworldly young girl gave her best at all times. Imra noticed that Glorith and Kid Quantum had begun to form a friendship despite their vast differences, and it was something that Imra wanted to foster. It might give Glorith a reason to want to be here aside from just keeping her beloved mentor happy. Another tremor rumbled through the city, this one building slowly in intensity until Imra was worried that it might actually become a full-fledged quake. “Don’t panic,” she addressed the girls under her care. “But I think we should use our flight rings to stay off the ground until this subsides.”

“This is not natural,” Glorith frowned.

“Doesn’t the Sorceror’s World have tectonic movement?” Kid Quantum asked her new friend.

“It does not,” Glorith replied, “But that is not what I meant.” She cast Saturn Girl a serious look. “These are not the natural movements of the Earth. There is magical force behind these tremors, a very unsettled magical force.”

“Come on,” Saturn Girl took to the sky as she telepathically contacted Garth and Nightwind.

“We’d better join up with the others.”

**********
Nightwind had been watching Variable Lad and Lullabye Lad work together to clear a damaged food storage facility when the tremors started. Berta had felt uneasy since arriving in the city, though she’d brushed it aside to concentrate on the task assigned to her. She felt sorry for Lullabye Lad; while the multi-tendrilled form which Variable Lad had taken on was perfect for carrying debris from one point to another, Waiane Wentim’s unique power to induce sleep was just as useless here as was his native Zwennite ability to transform himself into an immobile stone form. Nightwind remembered only too well being sent on missions with her fellow Academy students where her own powers were less than helpful, and she’d burned with shame and feelings of self-consciousness to begin with. Eventually she’d come to terms with the realisation that some situations were simply beyond her power and she’d learned other ways to contribute, but Lullabye Lad wasn’t quite there yet.

“Nightwind?” Lullabye Lad asked with an uncertain inflection to his voice. “Is that part of the contest?”

He pointed to a spot in the middle of the abandoned building’s cracked floor where dirt and stone bubbled upwards like an earthen fountain. “Stay away from there,” Nightwind instructed the boys. Saturn Girl, she thought across Imra’s mind link, I think Glorith is right. Whatever’s happening here is more than just malfunctioning seismic stabilisers.

The boys yelped in shock and Nightwind prepared to chastise them for disobeying her until she saw that two more of the disturbances had popped up right near them both. The rising earth matter formed into sturdy faceless humanoids and lurched toward the heroes. “My power has no effect on it!” Lullabye Lad panicked as the silent creature advanced closer to him.

“Use your flight ring!” Nightwind commanded. “Get out of that thing’s reach!” Waiane followed her order without delay, and once she was certain that he was at a safe distance Nightwind summoned a powerful gust of wind to smash her own attacker into his. The two golems shattered into pieces that had already begun reassembling, and the sense of unease Nightwind had been feeling escalated into dread. “Variable Lad!” she called out. “Do you need help?”

“No thank you, Ms Nightwind.” The boy was currently twelve feet tall and almost the same width, with thick muscular tentacles growing all over his powerful form. That kind of etiquette from such a monstrous looking creature was certainly surreal. “The worker form I’ve taken on should be more than sufficient to deal with this threat,” he explained as two of his rough-hide tentacles gripped and tore the golem limb from limb.

“Don’t let your exuberance get ahead of you, Variable Lad.” Saturn Girl appeared from above, Glorith and Kid Quantum descending beside her. “These creatures aren’t alive, but you should have confirmed that before taking such destructive action.”

“My apologies, teacher.” His voice was crestfallen.

“No harm done, just something to keep in mind.” Imra stayed airborne, outside of the golems’ reach. “Nightwind, these creatures are popping up all over the city, we saw them on our way here. Can you please take Lullabye Lad and help defend the city? Glorith thinks there may be a consciousness behind this. Variable Lad, Kid Quantum, you two cover Glorith and myself. I’m going to help her try to make contact with whomever is behind these attacks.”

“No,” Glorith surprisingly defied her instructor. “She is needed here.” She pointed at Nightwind.

“Me?” Nightwind looked from Glorith to Saturn Girl and back again. “I’ll do whatever I can to help, but I’m only an air elemental. Rock monsters are a little outside my wheelhouse.”

“The magic animating these constructs is ancient,” Glorith stated simply. “And you are touched by that same magic. There is an angry spirit behind all of this, one who feels a kinship with you, Legionnaire.”

“A kinship?” Berta’s blood ran cold. Could this be one of the women who shared her bloodline’s enchantment over the elements? She’d read about the Judgement League’s encounter here months ago, they’d killed the woman responsible. Was her spirit now somehow trapped in the Earth itself? Did Nightwind’s very presence here wake a ghost? Berta hadn’t had much luck in her previous encounters with her so-called sisters, she wasn’t optimistic that today would turn out any better. Still, she wasn’t the student here. Time to step up. “My powers are mystically inherited,” Nightwind explained. “There are other complimentary elementals as well, could this…angry spirit…be one of those women?”

“It is possible,” Glorith acceded. “Saturn Girl, I believe we will have a more positive outcome if Nightwind assists.”

“It can’t hurt,” Imra agreed. “Admittedly, I’m not at all an expert when it comes to magic so I’m going to let you pilot, Glorith. The rest of you, make sure we’re undisturbed.”

“Sure,” Lullabye Lad said glumly as he watched Variable Lad and Kid Quantum take out more of the unliving creatures. “Whatever y’say, teach.”

Glorith placed her hand over Nightwind’s heart and began chanting. Her words were barely more than a whisper, but Berta seemed to feel the pulse of each syllable. The yellow-skinned Legionnaire felt a lurching sensation as though she were falling out of her own body, and she gasped as her very perceptions changed. An intense blue-white glow emanated from Glorith, a paler pink light shining forth from Saturn Girl to subsume in Glorith’s power. Nightwind saw the lines of mystical energy feeding through each of the golems and connecting into a web of light beneath the surface of the ground. I’ve linked our minds as well as our senses, Saturn Girl explained telepathically. I thought it might be easier for Glorith to lead us through what we need to do if we can see what she sees.

Glorith closed her eyes and continued chanting, the markings on her face growing brighter as her sorcerous aura reached out towards the earth below them. The rainbow of Glorith's power connected with the tendrils of white energy feeding through the golems. Like dye dropped into water, it diluted through the geomantic web. The young sorceress finally stopped chanting, a look of intense concentration on her face. Saturn Girl, I have made contact.

Saturn Girl’s power reached out through the medium of Glorith’s sorcery and Imra, Glorith and Berta were barraged with a kaleidoscope of imagery and fragmented memory. They saw the life of a young woman who had been in and out of Earth’s psychomedical system for most of her tortured life. Marka Tarov's power over the earth had emerged as soon as she reached puberty, the same time she was diagnosed with acute schizophrenia. Medication and psychiatric treatment had kept both her power and her inner demons under control for some time but when a xenophobic Earthgov made it impossible for more than half of the alien medical staff responsible for her care to remain on Earth, Marka had fallen through the cracks. Her power had flared out of control, and the Judgement League had brutally murdered her. Her story would have ended there, but her eternal rest had been disturbed by the presence of Golden Boy and Sprint in her city along with her elemental sister. Now she would lash out until the ex-Judgement Leaguers were dead or this city was levelled. The earth shook once more, rumbling louder and louder, and this time it wasn’t subsiding. Forcing even this kind of vague one way communication with Marka seemed to be only enraging her further, so Glorith shut off their connection and Saturn Girl allowed the mind-link to follow suit. “What’s our next step?” Imra asked Glorith. “I sympathise with her greatly, but we’re not going to let her kill two people, and the longer this carries on the more all of Neoabidjan is at risk.”

“I do not know,” Glorith admitted sadly. “I am not powerful enough to exorcise Marka Tarov from the Earth itself, and now that her thirst for vengeance has woken her I suspect she will not rest until that need is complete.” The young sorceress saw Nightwind beam a wide smile and looked upon her questioningly. “I do not understand what mirth there is to find in this dilemma?”

“Not mirth,” Nightwind answered. “Just a crazy idea. You said the need for vengeance woke her, right? And we need to put her to rest?” Glorith still didn’t comprehend, but both Saturn Girl and Nightwind fixed their gaze on the one hero present whom they knew could end this.

Lullabye Lad fiddled with his cape and bit his lip. “Uhh, sooo…why are you all looking at me like that?”

**********
METROPOLIS
Science Police Headquarters
Nightwind and Officer Dvron stood side by side as they watched droids lead a newly cuffed Golden Boy and Sprint toward the cells buried beneath the Science Police’s global headquarters. Dvron scratched his mop of fiery red hair. “Busy day for you, Legionnaire! Snagged these two and stopped an honest to sprock ghost!”

“I did very little to be honest,” Nightwind deflected his praise. “I wasn’t even there when Gravity Kid found Sprint and Golden Boy, and you can thank Lullabye Lad and Glorith for saving Neoabidjan! If anything, me being there might have been what triggered that poor girl to attack the city in the first place. Hopefully she’ll be at peace now after Glorith helped Lullabye Lad channel his power to put her to rest again.”

“I guess the Legion Academy must be doing a good job with those kids if this is what they’re capable of already,” Dvron smiled.

“Yeah,” Nightwind returned his smile. She felt a warm rush of pride. “The Academy does do a good job.”

Dvron’s omnicom beeped at him, and he excused himself and read an incoming report. His smile faded instantly. “Something else else I can help with, Officer?” Nightwind asked.

“Some of your pals in the Legion faced an incursion from Qward on the planet Oa, they gave us the Qwardians they captured and SP psi-ops just finished their interrogation.”

“And they told you?” Nightwind frowned. “No offence, but isn’t Oa a little outside your jurisdiction? That’s the Green Lantern planet, isn’t it?”

“Not any more,” Dvron answered soberly. “According to this, the Green Lantern Corps have been killed…I’ve been called in on this because I’m the SP liaison with your team, and word from above is that we’re going to need the Legion’s help on this. According to our interrogation, the Qwardians didn’t just want the Green Lanterns dead…

…they’ve declared war on every other corps in the spectrum.”

TO BE CONTINUED!!!

Every other corps! This is going to be major!

Loved Zoe's determination. So her. Loved Garth's and Imra's assessments of the students and Nightwind's big sister role.

Looking forward to seeing the ensuing fireworks!

This is going to be an interesting war and i can't wait to see what the other Corps are like in the 31st century.

I liked Zoe and Dragonmage's moment it was quiet and nice to see their friendship.

The Academy mission was really good to see. i like this group of cadets and Garth as a teacher is really good. its great to see how far he's come that he can see himself in the cadets and ways to try and help them.

Glorith shines with her magic and "Golem" makes her presence known. That's another sister of Nightwinds...so that's fire and earth. That leaves water right? Also is there a possibility for another earth sister to be out there?

I feel for Lullaby Lad's plight. its hard not being the most powerful. But he helped save the day in the end. But i wonder if she'll wake again?

Poor Comet Queen. she's really upset about Quislet. hopefully she can get through to him soon.

Looking forward to more!

Thanks guys! I went back and forth for ages on whether I should include the Academy story because I was worried about derailing the Lanterns plot so I'm really glad it was well received!

Golem is an awesome name, I kinda wish I left her in a state to use it now hahaha

And Comet Queen's inability to take no for an answer is gonna lead us somewhere interesting soon (and also somewhere unexpected I hope!)

Next up we are gonna find out what at least ONE of the other colors has been up to in the 31st century....

Raz, this is simply ace!

Your Oan adventure was so powerful - the sacrifices, the Qwardian mystery and Soddams' insanity! Wow! I'm totally hooked with it, especially as you killed off Jordana Gardener - really can't stand either Hal or Guy so in my little twisted fantasy world even their decendants deserve horrid deaths, so I'm really glad to see you accomodated me

Of all the team you took to Oa onlt Dragonmage has, in my opinion, any potential to be a heavy hitter so it was great to see them in action and working as a team to repulse the Qwardians.

Now that Zoe is uber-powerful I really wonder what you have planned for her... baited breath here!

The Academy kids outing was fun as well. It was great to have that cut away adventure, especially as it tied into the JLE story loose ends as well. Nice take on Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad - I find them difficult to write so am always grateful that others do, especially when it's well done. The competition was a great way to get the kids working, nicely thought up, it really worked.

Pity we are unlikely to see Golem brought back now though it was great that you tied her into Nightwinds ongoing story as well. You do write long story lines well, keeping our interest up with little snippets inbetween the major arcs.

The Weaponeers are after the entire Spectrum? That's going to be epic and I can't wait for more, more, more!