Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business Legions of 7 Worlds (2nd story-arc of Retroboot Legion of Earth-7.5 is under way. UPDATE: Chapter 12 posted on Mar. 2, 2017.)

Lady Memory's hatred of the Mallors really comes through here. It's quite taken control of her, I expect.

Grev may be Planetary Champion, but Tasmia is running the show. He always was something of a bumbler. Will Tasmia focus on Lady Memory, or get distracted with Harmonia's "interference", even if it did save her and Grev's life?

Harmonia and Brainy with a mother box! Wow! I don't think Kirby ever indicated that there were consequences/side-effects for non-Gods using the mother box, and I don't know where Harmonia fits into the spectrum of beings, but I figure there may be some complications from using this device. Especially if Brainy tries to take it apart...

Mon-El went down swinging, a send off worthy of a great hero.

Like FC, I wonder if Tasmia will allow her anger at Harmonia to consume her. I understand her rage - losing Mon was quite a blow, and the circumstances were awful. I am a tad surprised at how vicious her reaction to Harmonia was though. Rage at Lady Memory I can understand, but Tasmia's rant about exposing Harmonia frightened me a little. I'm not sure how I feel about her bent on revenge, and not the more noble concept of justice. I was surprised, definitely. I do look forward to see where you take this though. As a big Tasmia fan I am sure you have things planned out for her already.

Dragonwing complaining that Harmonia and Brainy didn't even ask them was a nice touch. It's the principle of the thing!

Also liked that Lady Memory punished those who attached the innocent news crew. Even if not quite done out of altruism, it is a pragmatic move - attacking innocents reduced her side's legitimacy. The fear and doubt of the scout who returned news of Tasmia was well done too.

Thanks for chiming in, FC.



Agreed, but one thing I've found in exploring the untapped potential of Lady Memory and of the Yakka-Mahor's overall culture, is that it's put me back in touch with my South American roots in the best possible way. The Sapa Incas were cultural icons, whom we were extensively educated on in grade school, as were 19th and 20th Century revolutionaries such as Eloy Alfaro. In addition, my father, being the very best sort of Boomer Liberal, progressive yet sensible, owned copies of several vinyl albums by the Chilean folk-protest band Inti-Illimani, which were quite the heady listening experience for me at an age where my years had not quite reached double-digits. No wonder I feel I can relate so much to Marjane Satrapi!!

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that, in getting inside the head of Lady Memory and figuring out what makes her tick, I inadvertently uncovered a very strong personal connection, to the point where, even though she is, to put it mildly, misguided in the way she channels her otherwise-justifiable anger, and undeniably monstrous at times in her actions, by the time I'd finished the story I found myself unable to refer to her as a villainess anymore. This makes her, without a doubt in my mind, the very best Legion adversary ever created by Paul Levitz.

BTW, the Yakka-Mahor scout's running prowess was directly inspired by a grade-school memory of being taught about the Incas' running prowess.



I generally try not to quote the Christian Bible, but I think the familiar quotation, "Pride goeth before a fall," (which I actually learned not from the Bible itself, but from its use in Walt Kelly's "Pogo"), would seem to apply to Tasmia at this moment. And being as how characters take on a life of their own and take themselves in direction that surprise even their chroniclers such as myself, I cannot say ATM whether Tasmia's wiser side will prevail over her vengeful side in the long run. Naturally, though, I hope it does because I love her so.



LOL

I think that if Fourth/Fifth World science can impress even a 12-Level Coluan intellect such as Brainy's, then there's no real danger of him trying something that foolish.

As for Harmonia, all about her will be revealed sooner rather than later (because, IMO at least, Levitz kept her enigmatic for far too long), and I'll provide a second hint, but put it in a spoiler box for anyone who wants to be 100% surprised:

Thank you for sharing more of your always-thoughtful feedback, Ibby. There is some overlap between my thoughts on both your post and FC's, which I think goes to show that great minds really do think alike.



Thanks. As with Rokk in the first Every-Boot fic, I tried to be as fair as I could to a character I generally dislike intensely. I know Mon-El has some very passionate fans, mostly male (albeit ranging widely across the entire sexual-preference spectrum), but TMK's refusal to let him rest in peace has, over the past few years of rumination, become one of the things that bothers me the most about their run. For one thing, they robbed Tasmia of the chance to become her own woman and to no longer define herself by her male partner. And for another, their method of bringing back Mon-El, by referencing an obscure throwaway character related to him, from a mediocre Action Comics Backup Era Legion story...I find that unforgivable.



That, I'm happy to say, is exactly the reaction I was hoping for from readers.

Like I was saying to FC, I don't know whether or not Tasmia will ultimately make the choice that will serve the greater good in the long-term, or the one which will satisfy her petty vendetta in the short run, regardless of its repercussions. However, as a fan of hers, rather than as a sympathetic-but-pragmatic chronicler of her story, I share your concern and hope she makes the wiser choice.

And to elaborate on Tasmia's negative view of Harmonia, it simply seemed logical to me that several of the Legionnaires would see her, to varying degrees, as an interloper to be wary of, and that Tasmia, with her prickly nature, would be one of the most hostile towards Harmonia. Even Brainy, earlier in the story arc we are discussing, referred to her in his private thoughts as a "busybody", and threw in his lot with her more out of self-interest than genuine affection for her (which is not say that may not do a 180-degree change, or that the hints haven't already been dropped towards the end of this arc.)



To paraphrase (and, if only for the sake of making my point, misquote) Bette Davis in "All About Eve":

Fasten your seat belt, Ibby, it's going to be a bumpy ride.



THANK YOU ever so, Ibby!! I had been worried about that line, concerned that it might make Marya come across as petulant and whiny, but you've just confirmed to me that the intention behind her reaction, and her expression of it being more layered that it might seem, did come off as I'd hoped.



Again, Ibby, thank you from the bottom of my heart for confirming that the point I was trying to make came through crystal clear. As in every revolution, it's always the tourists with relatively pampered upbringings who cluelessly cross the line, with violent rhetoric that is counter-productive to the cause they claim to espouse.

Hi, sorry I'm late to the party but I missed this when you first posted it. I'm writing as I'm reading so my views may change as it goes on.

Your descriptive skills are incredible Raquel, Winath sounds amazing, and Imra's views on parenthood actually made me laugh out loud, literally! Her views on Saturn Queen were interesting and gave a good insight into her attitude towards her abilities, more interesting though were her thoughts on Lydda and Rokk are definitely worrying, I'm looking forward to what the payoff is you have planned. Is this Rokk going to be the Trapper with Lydda as his Glorith?

I do love your Machiavellian Harmonia and Querl, their plots and schemes are really entertaining and I think they are my favourites so far. Querls dismissal of the founders as surplus to requirements was brilliant.

The relationship between Tasmia and Grev is well established, and I always thought slightly dysfunctional, so it's good to see you add something to it by introducing their mind link. Lady Memory taking advantage of the technology crash is clever, and worrying how determined you've made her. She is rather blood thirsty isn't she?

I found the jumping between scenes on this post to be a bit off putting tbh, perhaps a dotted line between them as Raz does? I don't know, but it kind of threw me out of the story. And as that's the only complaint I've had so far it hardly even counts.

The scene with Harmonia and Querl telling Marya and Glorith that thy were in the team was sweet, teenagers can be so stroppy so it rang true. "It's the principle!" even though that's hat she wanted - perfect! Also well done was using the news broadcast to tie in Brainy's group with the savage goings on on Talok.

Harmonia with a mother box, scary!

Ah. Mon El's death was very unexpected. Hopefully Tasmia will avenge him properly.

Trust Harmonia to pragmatically deal with a situation and not understand the emotional reaction that engenders. Tasmias anger is understandable, though I also think it may mellow over time, depending of course on what she finds out about the inscrutable Professor Li.

Great start Raquel, I'm looking onward to what's coming next, and I'm sure you'll take us on a roller coaster ride as you carry on and I for one am eager to read more, more, more!

No worries, Harbi. At the parties I throw here in the Bits forum, there's never any such thing as "late for the party."



Thank you so much!! That means a lot to me.



Not quite. I feel like I've already done the Rokk-as-Trapper concept to best of my abilities in Every-Boot Legion Volume 1, and I wouldn't want to do an inferior copy. For the moment, just about every scene involving the founders will be very down-to-earth, in the same mould as the Imra solo sequence from this past story arc.

FTR, I did originally plan to show what happened at Imra & Garth and Rokk & Lydda's seemingly doomed get-together in this past story arc, but I decided it would disrupt the flow of the events leading up to the climax on Talok. There will be at least one sequence involving at least 1 or 2 of the founders in the next story arc, and the events from the get-together will be detailed.



Thanks. That feels to me like vindication of my decision to have them as the "stars" of the E-7.5 Legion. I knew going in that it wouldn't be easy to sell "Panel-Hog-Brainy" and the fandom-polarizing Harmonia as the prime movers behind the new Legion, but based on yours and the others' feedback, I'm now a lot more confident that I made the right decision.



Much appreciated. Such meta-fictional moments can border dangerously on writerly self-indulgence, so I'm glad to hear I managed to stay on the right side of that border.



Thanks. Yeah, like I said in my above replies to FC and Ibby, writing Lady Memory ended up really touching a personal chord with me, having grown up in South America, with its various nations' histories of civil and political unrest, as well as the enduring legacies of its nations' native tribes, particularly the Incas. I don't absolve Lady Memory of her more extreme actions, but on a very deep level, I feel like I can see what could motivate her to go to such extremes.



As always, Harbi, your constructive criticism is something I greatly value. I've tended to alternate in my stories between the dotted line you mentioned, and transitional "captions" in capital letters, like in this story. Perhaps next time I'll experiment with a combination of the two. I've also considered perhaps using the colour functions to make the dots and/or the captions stand out.



Awwww...thanks. I'm amazed at how Marya came alive to me almost instantly, and to a slightly lesser extent Glorith as well. That, to me, is an indication of whether or not another writers' creations have genuine potential.



I'm inclined to agree, but to elaborate overmuch would spoil what's ahead. Still, there's no harm in adding a second hint to the one I posted in my reply to FC:





Thank you. Tasmia is certainly determined to do just that.

On some level, I do feel, despite my distaste for Mon-El, a slight degree of guilt that he's sort-of become to me what Karate Kid is to Keith Giffen, a fictional construct to kill over and over. It's not out of laziness, I just find next-to-nothing interesting or sympathetic in what I feel is a very muddy and uncertain personality. IMHO, the only two things that he's really got going for him are his 1,000 year exile in the Phantom Zone and his inability to live up to his legend. And, ironically, the latter came about more by luck than judgement when he had to be reimagined as Legion continuity's stand-in for Superboy. I think the Postboot writers did manage to get some mileage out of that concept, even though it wasn't originally theirs (the scenes in the Postboot between M'onel and Triad were heartbreaking), but, like so much in the Postboot, there was never any real follow-through. A pity.



I do hope Tasmia mellows, but like I said to Ibby and FC, I find that a lot of character's actions are ultimately out of their chronicler's hands to some extent. We shall see.



Thanks again, Harbi. And it occurs to me that I should update my signature to reflect my tentative but fairly solid plans to have the opening installment of the 2nd story arc posted somewhere between New Year's Day and 31 January.

Happy New Year to all Bits participants, with extra-special thanks from me to Ibby, Cramer, Lardy, and Harbi for their insightful and extremely helpful and gratifying feedback on the 1st Earth-7.5/Retroboot Legion story-arc.

My Bits plans for 2017 boil down pretty much to seeing through the upcoming 2nd Retroboot installment from start to finish. This, and do excuse me if I come across as too pleased with myself, shall be my own "Great Darkness Saga," wholly appropriate in a symmetrical way given how Levitz spent his first few issues of LSH v.2 mostly setting the scene for the grand spectacle to come. And the parallels don't end there -- as the hints that I dropped in both the 1st story-arc itself (just where did Harmonia procure that Mother Box?) and in spoiler boxes in my replies to people's comments, the New Gods of the 7 Worlds of Wonder (who, FTR, are exclusive to E-7.5 bar the occasional incursions onto other Earths) will play a major role!!

And although I have already announced January 9th as the start date for story-arc #2, there may be a delay of 1 or 2 weeks, depending on whether I decide to do a more light-hearted, palate-cleansing vignette-fic, set on E-7.2, to get myself warmed up for the epic Legion tale ahead.

Stay tuned.

And, because I'm feeling so generous, here's who will be joining Brainy, Harmonia, Glorith, and Dragonwing to fill out the new Legion's initial roster:

...and one other who must remain a surprise in order not to spoil a key plot point.

2017 is going to be the year of the Retroboot for sure, with Thoth's own Retroboot fics -- if you haven't yet read them, I ask you to please do so, with my highest recommendation -- giving Bits followers double the pleasure.

LLL!!

A RECAP OF THE PREVIOUS RETROBOOT-CONTINUATION (LEGION OF EARTH-7.5) STORY-ARC:

While the time-lost Legionnaires stuck in 2017 have finally managed to gain the trust of the meta-heroes of that era and helped save the world, not all of them have yet accepted the possibility that they may never return to 3017. Wildfire is the most ambivalent, and Chameleon Girl the most all-embracing, with the other five (Dawnstar, Tellus, Tyroc, Timber Wolf, Gates) landing somewhere in the middle.

Meanwhile, in 3017, Harmonia, having adopted Dragonwing & Glorith as her protégés and made it a goal to help the latter reach her full potential as both a time-warrior and a sorceress, manipulates Brainiac 5 into forming a new Legion. Harmonia has confided, albeit cryptically, in the girls that a multiversal crisis is on the horizon and necessitates their actions. Somehow, Brainiac 5's visitation by his ice-blooded time-travelling 21st Century ancestor, L.E.G.I.O.N. leader Vril Dox, is tied into this, but Harmonia refuses to elaborate on this either.

On Shadow Lass's homeworld of Talok VIII, civil unrest results in a violent near-overthrow of the planet's ruling class by a more-vicious-than-ever Lady Memory and her army of both fellow Yakka-Mahor and converts to their cause. When Shadow Lass reluctantly comes to her homeworld's aid, her cousin Shadow Man is injured and her on-again-off-again lover, Mon-El, is killed by Lady Memory herself. In retaliation, Shadow Lass beats Lady Memory nearly to death, only for the new Legion to intervene and knock her unconscious...using vibes from a 21st-Century Mother Box which is somehow among the ageless Harmonia's trophies. After she awakens, Shadow Lass finds out from a recovering Shadow Man that, while she was unconscious, the new Legion negotiated a surrender from Lady Memory and her acolytes, in exchange for the former getting a fair trial, to take place off-world. Shadow Lass furiously vows to infiltrate the new Legion and destroy it from within, her vendetta against Harmonia taking top priority.

Finally, on Winath, while Imra & Garth are making preparations for a get-together with Rokk & Lydda, Imra suddenly experiences a form of telepathic overload; it's not the first time, but it is worse than any time previous.

It is presently 2 weeks since the events described above.

Now read on...

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

THE 1ST POST OF THE 2ND RETROBOOT STORY-ARC

3017: THE NEWLY REBUILT WEBER'S WORLD, SITE OF THE NEW LEGION'S FIRST PUBLIC CONFERENCE, TO BE BROADCAST LIVE ON HOLOVID AND SCHEDULED FOR 12 MINUTES FROM NOW...

This should have been one of the greatest moments in the long, long life of the enigmatic elemental Harmonia Li. Instead, she found herself losing control of her present situation -- a rare occurrence indeed for a sentient who took pride in staying one step ahead of all others. She was being bowled over by visions of past, present, and future headed for a clash that would devastate the multiverse if she and the new Legion could not avert it in time. One image, that of an exotically beautiful young woman in the 21st Century...



...unnerved Harmonia to the point where she felt faint.

"Go get help, Ayla!!" barked Salu "Shriking Violet" Digby, who had just joined Harmonia's Legion only 2 days earlier.

"On it!!" Ayla "Lightning Lass" Ranzz shot back over her shoulder as she dashed towards the holovid studio's green room, where the rest of the Legion, minus the media-shy Brainiac 5, awaited.

Two days, thought Ayla to herself as her breath grew shorter with every bound, which have felt more like two DECADES!!

The violent rollercoaster on which she and her lover, Salu, now found themselves had actually begun not with their rejoining the Legion, but with horrible news from Ayla's twin brother, Garth. During what had been intended as a leisurely get-together with another married couple of ex-Legionnaires, Rokk Krinn and Lydda Jath, Ayla's sister-in-law, Imra Ardeen-Ranzz, had apparently suffered some kind of emotional meltdown in front of the others, and used her telepathy at its fullest potency in order to lash out at Rokk, leaving him comatose. In an unnerving bit of symmetry, Ayla & Salu's old friend and ex-teammate, Reep Daggle, had informed the loving couple -- just a few hours after Imra had been restrained, sedated, and forcibly transported to Medicus One -- that he'd only just become the sponsor of the new Legion, and that Harmonia was extending an invitation, through Reep, for them to join. Salu was reluctant, but Ayla insisted that they needed to Legion to help investigate Imra's actions, which would have, until then, been unthinkable for her, or for any native of Titan with reasonable self-discipline over their telepathic birthright.

Ayla was jolted back into the here and now immediately after she bolted into the green room to find Tasmia "Shadow Lass" Mallor, another prodigal Legionnaire, cackling in the most grating fashion along with the two youngest members of the new Legion, teenage girls Marya "Dragonwing" Pai and the ever-mysterious Glorith. Once she had the attention of her three teammates, Ayla did not mince words.

"Come on!! Harmonia's having some kind of episode, she looks like she's gonna pass out!!"

To Ayla's shock, Tasmia merely smirked, raised an eyebrow, and replied, in her most disdainful tone (which, for Tasmia, was saying a lot), "Oh?? Fancy that!! Did the poor old dear look in the mirror and find a grey hair?"

As Tasmia and the girls resumed laughing, even harder and louder than just a minute before, Ayla began to literally shoot sparks from her angry eyes.

"Now you listen up, witch," she screamed, pointing a finger directly at Tasmia, "and listen well -- this isn't the old Legion, and we're not gonna abide your Princess, Champion, whatever, attitude!! Tinya's still missing-in-action, so you don't have any yes-people in this new lineup to take your side!!"

"Is that so??" Tasmia hissed back, her lips curling into an unsettling cat-that-ate-the-canary grin before she tilted her head to face Marya & Glorith. "Tell her, girls."

"You lay one finger on this awesome lady," sneered Marya to Ayla, "and I'll fry you like a morsel of batter-dipped chicken."

"Ladies, please," Glorith begged, "this does none of us, nor those who need our help, any good whatsoever."

After a tense silence, Ayla's snarl softened into an expression of resignation, and she sighed, "Thank the Gods one of you has some sense in her."

But then Ayla noticed that Marya had begun to stare at her intensely. And although Ayla knew she should just let it slide, she allowed the sensitive soul beneath her feisty façade override her better judgment.

"WHAT??" was all that she asked of Marya, in the most threatening tone she could muster.

"I was just thinking," replied Marya, "I can actually see how you could have passed for Garth way back when...if anything, he's prettier than you!!"

And with that flagrant bit of rude taunting, Ayla found that she was unable to stop herself from lunging at the bratty teenager facing her, drawing first blood in a vicious fight between the two of them. Tasmia quickly found a safe distance from which to regard the clash with queenly amusement, while Glorith ran out in the same direction which Ayla had come from just a minute earlier.

"About freakin' time!!" spat Salu at Glorith as the young woman approached her and the fast-fading Harmonia. To which Glorith replied in a tone which managed to be soft yet with a barbed, subtly threatening underside, "Your partner is beating up on my friend."

"Ohh, peanuts!!" shrieked Salu. There was no need for further words, as she gently passed Harmonia's statuesque body over to Glorith before racing over to the green room.

"Speak to me, milady Harmonia." pleaded Glorith with her mentor, though her tone once again suggested there was some kind of personal agenda beneath the gentle succor on its surface, "What avails you so severely? Do please tell me."

"It is already too late, dearest," gasped Harmonia in response, "and we have failed," before she closed her eyes and finally lost all consciousness.

CONTINUED...

THE 2ND POST OF THE 2ND RETROBOOT (EARTH-7.5) STORY-ARC

2017: The very same young woman whom Harmonia had seen 1,000 years later as the bringer of doom to both the Multiverse and the time-space continuum itself was, at this moment, attracting little or no attention from the residents of the mostly Eastern-European neighborhood she was presently strutting through. This despite the fact that her stylish look and her sultry attitude had clearly been calculated by her to get in people's faces and provoke a reaction.



But the pragmatic, tradition-minded, practical-nearly-to-the-point-of-dourness members of this community merely shrugged off the young exhibitionist's antics. Whether it was fear, loathing, bitterness, or envy they felt towards her, they kept it to themselves. Because whatever else she was, her distinctive dark beauty marked her as one of them, and therefore she was to be at the very least tolerated.

If only they'd know how much more to her there was than met the eye.

The young woman's male companion attracted even less attention. While his bald head and solid, stocky build would intimidate any stranger who saw him from a distance, his face when seen up close betrayed a gentleness and sweetness which would disarm anyone into automatically thinking of him as a living teddy bear. To the neighborhood's residents, he looked like a well-mannered, hard-working peasant boy from the Old Country, and it was quite likely that they secretly hoped he could teach the young woman a thing or two about humility.

Eventually, the youthful couple found the walk-up apartment building where, for the past few weeks, they had been sharing a modest...very modest...unit. Each climbed the long flight of stairs in a distinctive way, her impatient swagger and seemingly inexhaustible energy contrasting with his awkward, self-conscious stumbling.

Within a few minutes, the young woman had turned the key to their door and let them both in. For someone of modest enough means to settle for this sort of dwelling, she had somehow found the resources to decorate the place with a clutter of eye-catching objects. Some were vintage kitsch, some were currently fashionable, others appeared to come from another world altogether. As she headed to the kitchen, he gently pushed away some of her treasures to make room on the couch for his bulk.

Without a word, she returned, carrying a glass of water for him and a bottle of sparkling pink lemonade for herself. He nursed his drink, while she chugged hers until it was quickly gone. She then removed her glasses and set them down before she began approaching him with a look in her eyes that was even more enigmatic than any time since he had met her.



"Sonya," he said in a strained croak which proved he had not yet finished catching his breath after the long climb, "now is not the time. I am simply exhausted, and..."

"Wrong, Leo!!" she curtly cut him off, "This is, without the shadow of a doubt, the time."

"Please, no..."

"While I truly do treasure a man who is secure enough in himself to not try too hard to keep up with me, your indolence can still be quite frustrating." She punctuated this with a roll of the eyes and a hard huff.

"S-Sony..."

"Shush, Leo," she replied while playfully moving her finger across his baby-face. "you know I speak the truth..."

Suddenly, her eyes blazed with a heart-stopping intensity which alarmed him yet also paralyzed him. "...and the truth will always rise above illusion. You know something about illusion, don't you, Leo? Or should I say Ganglios? Perhaps you would even prefer...Tellus??"

He barely managed to gasp out his response, in which he invoked his personal diety from the faraway planet on which he had been born and raised. "Great Mother...Ocean...h-h-how did you..."

Her way of answering was to reach into her back pocket, and whip out a small square object which he at first mistook for her cellphone. Only after it was too late, and he found himself imprisoned within a crackling, pulsating stasis field, did he realize that, like Sonya, and like himself, the box had its share of secrets.

As the stasis field numbed every cell of Tellus's being and reduced him to a state of helpless, inside-looking-out ennui, he found he could no longer maintain the telepathic human-teddy-bear image with which he had been publicly cloaking himself for so long that it had almost become a second skin. That, at least, was a moot point. More alarmingly, he could not find even a fraction of the strength of will he required to send out a telepathic S.O.S. to his fellow Legionnaires.

Sonya, for her part, had just finished typing a sequence onto the box's keypad. With a boom so deafening that it caused Tellus pain even in his diminished state of sensory perception, a perfectly circular portal opened up in front of them. Then, thanks to Sonya's tapping of a couple more keys on the box, Tellus found himself lifted up by forces emanating from this endlessly versatile bit of tech, and thrown into the portal. Sonya, sashaying as confidently as ever, followed, just before the portal closed, leaving their neighbors to break down the apartment door, only to find neither of them present and no clue as to where the loud noise had come from, nor what it had done.

CONTINUED...

THE 3rd POST OF THE 2nd RETROBOOT EARTH-7.5 LEGION STORY-ARC

********

3017: THE SORCEROR'S WORLD, NOT LONG AFTER THE NEW LEGION'S HOLOVID CONFERENCE FIASCO...

Marya Pai knew that she and her new role model, Tasmia Mallor, were in over their heads. She wouldn't have had it any other way, and she suspected that Tasmia felt the same, only MORE strongly.

At that moment, the two warrior women found themselves fighting against a phantasmagoric assortment of monstrous, mindless elemental creatures, summoned by the Black Witch to keep Marya, Tasmia, and Glorith from breaching the sorceress's sanctum. Glorith, tasked with using all her raw, undisciplined, yet potentially formidable, magical power in order to shield the still-unconscious body of Harmonia Li.

The fire creatures found their heat extinguished by the icy shadow-forces which were Tasmia's to command, while the wind creatures dive-bombed Marya only to find themselves vaporized, thanks to the seemingly endless reserves of fire-energy within her, and which she unleashed upon all who crossed her like a sentient flame-thrower.

Suddenly, it became clear to both Tasmia and Marya that the Black Witch had sensed the two of them becoming overconfident, and had seized the moment to turn the tide in her favor, when the two Legionnaires found themselves unable to keep their balance as the ground below them quaked, and then erupted, with a tremendous geyser of hot lava seemingly heading for the stratosphere.

Marya was impervious to any kind of heat attack, and Tasmia's reflexes were sharp enough that she had constructed a shield of shadow-matter around herself to prevent harm from coming to her. But what neither of them had been prepared for was for the lava to coalesce, absorbing the surrounding mud and rocks in the process, into the form of another ex-Legionnaire whose moral integrity, like the Black Witch's, had become suspect in the recent past.

"What the hell is that??" gasped an atypically overwhelmed Marya.

"That, darling, is trouble..." replied Tasmia, "...but only with a small 't'."

Tasmia paused to get back on her feet and stand tall, proud, and defiant towards the latest obstruction conjured by the Black Witch, whom Tasmia now chose to address by raising her authoritative alto voice:

"Hear me, Mysa!! If you truly believe that I will hesitate to destroy Blok out of any sentimental delusions of past camaraderie, then you are the one who is deluded!! I have never had time for sentiment, least of all in times as desperate as the ones we now find ourselves in. So command your stooge to do his worst. This is WAR, you addled, hermetic fool, and by the end of this battle, my teammates and I shall dance upon your ashes!!! That, by all my glorious ancestors, I SWEAR!!!!"

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

3017: THE ONCE-LEGENDARY, NOW SEEMINGLY BARREN PLANET MALTUS, CURRENTLY SERVING AS A TEMPORARY BASE FOR THE NEW LEGION...

"Did you even TRY to stop them??" snapped Querl Dox at Salu Digby, the designated Field Commander of Querl & Harmonia's new Legion, whom he felt had failed utterly at dealing with her first crisis situation.

"I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer." replied Salu with a cool, even-tempered restraint which Querl would never have expected from her, given Saul's propensity in recent years to behave in a volatile and reckless manner.

Sensing -- accurately as it turned out -- that she had momentarily silenced the Coluan's rage at the disastrous outcome of the Legion's aborted media conference, and its even more heinous aftermath, Salu went for Querl's jugular by asking him, "Did YOU even try to keep Her Majesty, Queen Tasmia, from bulldozing her way into our team and destroying it before it could even get off the ground????"

Querl responded by spluttering and stammering without even managing to form coherent words, let alone string together an actual sentence. For inside his brilliant 10th Level mind, there raged a truly unspeakable bedlam, the likes of which any self-respecting Coluan would have found impossible to deal with in any sort of rational manner. That Querl had always found his emotions unusually palpable for one of his normally stoic race only added fuel to the fire within his head.

What he could not admit to Salu was that Tasmia may or may not have succeeded in becoming the new Legion's interloper, if only Querl had not been too intimidated by her force-of-nature manner to try and call her bluff.

The possibility that Tasmia may NOT have been bluffing when she claimed to know Querl's deepest, darkest shame -- that his callous curiosity had ultimately resulted in empowering Tharok to unleash the galaxy-wide tech-failure which had led to complete and utter devastation -- and threatened to publicly expose him, irreparably damaging Querl's, and his and Harmonia's new team's, credibility in the process.

HAD Tasmia, in fact, forced ex-Legionnaire Luornu Durgo-Taine, the one sentient who most assuredly WAS AWARE of Querl's secret, to reveal what she knew about Querl? He wouldn't have put it past Tasmia, who had, of late, shown troubling signs of selfish amorality gone beyond the point of no return. And that, Querl told himself, was what had made him cave in to Tasmia's demand to rejoin the Legion, and forced him to stand up to a chagrined Harmonia...the latter whom Querl had found himself, Gods help him, actually beginning to develop FEELINGS for!!!!

Now Harmonia was gone, taken away from the holovid studio in the blink of an eye, thanks to Tasmia's impulsive and insubordinate command that Glorith use her frightening level of magical/chronal/cosmic powers -- whose range had not yet even been accurately measured -- to transport Tasmia, Marya, Glorith herself, and the unconscious Harmonia to the Sorceror's World, where a way to revive Harmonia could more easily be found. Or so Tasmia said; Gods only knew what her TRUE agenda was!!

"Well, Querl?" hissed Salu softly, yet forcefully enough to pierce Querl's lapse into solipsism. "What do you suggest we do now? After all, I'm just the Legion's Field Commander, and you're the alleged genius!!"

The Coluan's response horrified Salu, but only half as much as it horrified Querl himself:

"I...I...I don't know. I DON'T KNOW!!"

CONTINUED...

THE 4th POST OF THE 2nd RETROBOOT (EARTH-7.5) LEGION STORY-ARC

2017: A CROWDED, BUSTLING SIDEWALK IN A BIG CITY ON EARTH

It was a sign of the times that a four-foot talking insect dressed in a red cloak was actually LESS likely to draw unfriendly looks from passing strangers than a fully-human young man whose skin happened to be a darker shade of brown than most of the other pedestrians. And the aforementioned odd couple had learned this the hard way -- Gates (the insect) and Troy "Tyroc" Stewart (the human) were quite literally out of time, having travelled from 1,000 years in the future on a vaguely defined Legion mission, only to find themselves stranded there. The difference between the two was that Gates was far more likely to talk out loud about it.

"I'm tellin' ya, Troy, this awful 21st Century has changed all of us Legionnaires -- and, no offense to you, but none for the better...myself included. I mean, how in the Gods' names could there've once been a time when someone like me would get thrown out of a rally for a sensible socialist like Bernie Sanders because I'm TOO RADICAL?? And meanwhile, Tellus spends all his time with that creepy girlfriend of his who leads him around like a dog on a leash, Brin and Dawny decide to go gallivantin' off to SOUTH ASIA, for sprocks' sake... and Drake, that one-time firebrand, now spends all his time acting like a hurt puppy about Dawny drifting away from him -- all he ever does anymore is either watch escapist fluff on The Idiot Box, or listen to bubblegum music on the internet...Gods, the internet!! Talk about the opiate of the masses!!! Worst of all, Yera is now a full-fledged libertine who never answers us when we try to...uh...say, Troy, buddy, you're supposed to be the leader of this motley crew, but you never seem to SAY anything anymore!!"

Tyroc scowled at Gates before gruffly replying, "That's because you talk too much to let me get a sprockin' word in."

"Oh, excuse the sprockin' NASS outta me, Troy!! SOMEONE has to speak up about these things, if only so that we might find the tiniest hope of ever functioning as a team again!!"

"What do you mean, 'WE'...comrade??"

"That's it, then, you're giving up the fight?? FINE!! See if I care. I'll find me an anarchist collective that doesn't greet me with a face-full of bug spray -- I know they're out there somewhere. You go your way, and I'll go mine!!" And Gates immediately proved himself an insect of his word by using his teleportation powers to take himself as far away from Tyroc as he could.

Tyroc would have been lying if he'd said that he wasn't relieved that his ears would be getting a rest from Gates' incessant one-sided chatter. But that was only in the short run -- in the long run, Tyroc seemed destined to be the loneliest, most out-of-time Legionnaire of all.

In just a little over 1,000 years, he would be born into an inter-dimensional community of African-American isolationists. He would then, as a young adult, emerge into the Legion's dimension, and gradually discover, through his interaction with that diverse team of heroines & heroes, that he had been raised by people with a perspective as extreme and as skewed as that of the worst white racists. Then, just as he was finally coming to terms with it all, he'd find himself stuck in the 21st Century, a time of such virulent racism that he would begin to actually understand why his ancestors went to the extremes that they did.

Suddenly, as though the Gods had a cruel enough sense of humor to confirm his worst misgivings, a black teenager, dressed in dirty, tattered clothing, sideswiped Tyroc as he ran past the time-lost so-called hero. In the blink of an eye, Tyroc heard the sounds of screeching tires and a wailing siren coming from behind, and he wasn't sure which was worse -- if the police were chasing the teenager, or if they had just then randomly decided to "profile" Tyroc himself!!

A split-second later, the car sped by Tyroc, only to come to a stop a short distance ahead, in order to block a back alley which the teenager was clearly headed for. And when the cops piled out of the car, sticks in hand, and began whaling into the young man, Tyroc had finally had more than he could take of this awful reality.

Tyroc's first instinct was to use his sonic powers to concussively reduce the cops to mincemeat, but being a hero at heart if not in actual achievement, he pulled his punch, and his scream merely sent the cops flying away from their victim. Before the cops could regroup and resume hostilities, Tyroc had already flown to the side of the teenager.

Then, as if he wasn't already angry enough, he discovered that one of the three cops was black!! Before he could stop himself, Tyroc had already blurted out, "How can you sell out your own people like this, brother??"

The black cop's face twisted into a terrifying scowl, but it was his reply to Tyroc which was truly blood-curdling: "Put a bandage over your bleeding heart, 'brother!!' That kid's a worthless piece of garbage!! And YOU have five seconds to give me and my squad a good reason not to draw our guns and..."

A deafening noise interrupted this queasy racial standoff; at first Tyroc took it for some kind of bomb exploding nearby, but the sound was too clean for that, and there was no telltale smoke or fire as far as he could see. As it turned out, Tyroc was correct...but when he saw what the mysterious sound had unleashed upon him, the teenager, and the cops, he wished it had been a bomb after all.

Four of the most bizarre-looking women any of these men had ever seen came charging out of the alley. One looked like a drag-king impersonating the infamous 21st Century villain from Gotham City, the Joker; another, an attractive blonde, immediately showed what she was made of when she cleaved the cop-car in half with a few well-placed strokes from her bare hands; the third, who resembled the most extreme kind of female bodybuilder, let loose with a kick that sent one of the white cops flying all the way to the end of the alley, before proving herself an equal-opportunity hater by bounding over to the young black man, and stomping on his ribcage.

Tyroc didn't hold back this time, and he screamed at her the most pulverizing juggernaut of a scream he was capable of. Imagine his shock when she proved to be resilient enough to not only survive, but to show no outer signs of harm. Who, thought Tyroc, WERE these monstresses??

Before he could ponder this query any further, Tyroc got a shock to his system when he sensed the unmistakable feeling of a blade entering the upper right side of his back, so cleanly that it almost reached the bone!! But that was nothing compared to the burning pain which followed, as if Hell itself had been compressed into the blade!! As he felt himself about to go into convulsions, Tyroc spun himself around long enough to see who had gotten the drop on him -- the fourth woman, a severe-looking androgyne with the most frightening deadpan scowl anyone could ever be unfortunate enough to see first-hand. Before Tyroc blacked out from the pain caused by her infernal blade, he saw the other three regrouping around her, and express their satisfaction with themselves.

"I could have handled him myself, Bernadeth!!" bellowed the muscle-woman with the kicks and the stomps. "I had plenty of fight left in me, he barely wounded me!!"

"You would have killed him, Stompa, you stupid, reckless cow!!" was Bernadeth's cutting reply. "Our orders are to take the Legionnaires alive!!"

"Do we get to chase the talking bug next?? Huh, 'Deth, do we?? HEE, HEE, HEE!!" asked the Joker-lookalike. "And can I burn him alive?? I love the smell of burning bugs in the morning -- smells like VICTORY!! HEE, HEE, HEE!!"

"No, Mad Harriet. The communist vermin was assigned to Knockout's team, so let them deal with him. But I'll tell you what -- when we return to Apokolips, I'll ask my brother DeSaad to allow you to torch any random denizen of Armagetto you choose. How would you like that?"

"I like-ee, I LIKE-EE!! HEE, HEE, HEE, thanks, 'Deth, HEE, HEE, HEE!!"

"Capturing an insect and a darkie," sneered the obviously racist blonde at Bernadeth, "is this what we Female Furies have been reduced to??"

"Patience, Gillotina. Once we satisfy Our Lord Darkseid's request for a third Legionnaire prisoner, he shall assign us something far grander and worthier of us...perhaps even the search-and-destroy mission against his son Orion and his arm-candy, that treacherous turncoat bitch Artemiz!! The shame that she brought upon the Furies shall be eradicated at last!!!!"

The terrifying cacophony of four-part female laughter bounced off the walls of the back alley, spreading far and wide into what was ultimately just another big city night.

CONTINUED...

THE 5th POST OF THE 2nd RETROBOOT LEGION (EARTH-7.5) STORY-ARC

2017: THE PENTHOUSE UNIT OF A HIGH-RISE, HIGH-COST APARTMENT BUILDING, ALSO THE NEARLY-DESERTED HEADQUARTERS OF THE 21st CENTURY LEGIONNAIRES...

Def Leppard, "Bringin' on the Heartbreak"

Once he had been Wildfire, stalwart Legionnaire and passionate fighter for the greater good. Now he was, in his own mind at least, just Drake Burroughs, sad internet-browsing recluse and lonely boy made of pure energy, destined never to be able to consummate his on-again, off-again romance with his strikingly beautiful teammate, Dawnstar. That Dawny had abruptly flown across the Atlantic to join Brin "Timber Wolf" Londo's so-called archeological pursuits in South Asia felt to Drake like the final proof that she'd finally wised up to her & Drake's mutual predicament.

What hurt the most was that Drake was too smart and too self-possessed not to be aware that his pity-party was not helping anybody, least of all himself. But then, he'd allow his natural melancholy leanings to sink him ever-further into impotent ennui, and the vicious circle would be completed yet again.

It was into this morose environment that Drake's teammate Gates now teleported himself into. Much to Gates's chagrin, he discovered that Drake was so thoroughly immersed in his solipsism as to not be aware of Gates's abrupt entrance. This left the insectoid no recourse but to get Drake's attention, even though he knew his feisty teammate would be peeved.

"Drake? Hey, Drake! DRAKE!! Up & at 'em, buddy, we've got trouble outside!!"

Drake's reply was less fiery than surly: "Eh, go mainline a can of Raid, you pest. Can't you see I'm busy??"

"Okay, then, let me put this in terms you'll understand -- if you don't come outside with me right now, three madwomen are about to cause collateral damage to this property, damage which we'll get sued for!!"

"Oh, all right," grumbled Drake as he lifted himself out of his outsized chair and stepped away from the laptop. Then, once Gates had teleported them both to the outside of the building, Drake was jolted back into awareness of the world outside his navel (if he'd actually had a navel.)

He and Gates found themselves facing two decidedly unusual-looking women -- one, rather butchy, sporting body armor, aviatrix shades, and the most hi-tech pair of roller skates ever conceived; the other, quite glamorous with her long, impeccably styled vermillion hair, porcelain features, and peaches-and-cream complexion...albeit decidedly more cream than peaches, and by the time she had flashed her vampire fangs, it was too late for either of the heroes, Gates snatched by the speeding roller-derby champion in the literal blink of an eye, Drake picked up by crimson telekinetic beams being emitted from the vampire's eyes, and thrown a considerable distance from where he had just stood.

Just as Drake began getting back on his feet, he was thrown into the air once again, this time by a swift kick from an extremely shapely leg belonging to another sexy-but-deadly redhead. But this time, Drake managed to land on his feet, and when she lunged at him, he easily dodged her thrusting fist, which smashed clear through the asphalt, leaving an impressive crack...damage which, as Gates had noted a minute ago, the Legionnaires would have to pay the city to repair.

"Come back here, and fight like a man!!" taunted the spandex-clad, hard-bodied bombshell.

Drake's ego was, despite years of hard-won wisdom, still too overblown to resist her challenge, and he assumed a defiant, legs-far-apart, dukes-put-up stance directly in front of her.

"Okay, then, party-girl, you wanna dance? I'll show you some moves you never imagined!!"

"Go on, then, and I'll bring a set of BEATS you won't believe!!"

Despite his wounded pride, Drake had learned the hard way that if one of her punches or kicks ruptured his suit, the fight would end in a clean victory for her -- Pulchritudinous Pugilist 1, Drake ZERO. And so he found himself relying on his agility and his energy blasts...or so he thought, until the latter proved to do absolutely no visible harm to her. But this only spurred him on, reconnecting him once and for all with his long-dormant mojo. In his mind, helpless Drake faded away to be replaced by the one, the only...WILDFIRE!!

**********

It had felt like an eternity for Gates before he regained his bearings, even though it had actually been less than a minute since he'd been swiped off his hind legs by the refugee from "Rollerball" and taken on a high-speed ride. With everything around him appearing as a blur, Gates had no choice but to teleport blindly, and just hope he didn't end up in an even worse predicament than he already was.

A few seconds later, he found himself more-or-less in the same spot where he had been captured, but his relief was short-lived as a cloud of smoke erupted right in front of him, and quickly coalesced into the form of the sexy vampire. Their respective lines of sight connected, and Gates found to his displeasure that she couldn't just move objects around with her eyes, she could also mesmerize any sentient standing close enough to her and impose her will on the victim du jour, even a tenacious left-wing radical from a planet of four-foot talking insects.

"Good work, Bloody Mary." said the fast one as she zipped up next to the vamp. "I thought for sure he'd given us the slip."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Speed Queen. Now go tell Knockout to stop sparring with the living energy-cloud and head straight for the Boom Tube I am now activating." hissed Mary with pure contempt for her hapless teammate.

"But...but...if we capture him, too, the Darkseid will..."

"Darkseid will fry us all if we deviate from the plan -- we were tasked to capture the insect, and the insect only. So shut up and fetch Knockout already!!"

Reluctantly, and with her mind reeling with pithy retorts, Speed Queen did as she was told, racing over to Knockout, picking her up, and rocketing towards their escape route over Knockout's loud objections.

"Just when I had him on the ropes, you had to butt in!! I'll take off your head with one swipe for this, Speed Queen!! Don't think I won't..."

"Better that than Darkseid's Omega Beams -- now quit squirming, and SHUT UP!!"

Wildfire was no less frustrated than Knockout at her being snatched away in mid-fight. But now that he was feeling himself again, his more sensible and pragmatic side quickly took over. Whoever those women were, and whoever they were working for, he could possibly track down, much less battle, completely on his own.

And so it was that Wildfire launched himself into the sky, on a direct course to South Asia, no stopovers whatsoever. And being as fallible a sentient as anyone else, he took perverse pleasure in his certainty that Timber Wolf and Dawnstar would not be pleased when he crashed their party.

CONTINUED...

THE 6th POST OF THE 2nd RETROBOOT LEGION (EARTH-7.5) STORY-ARC

3017: THE HIGHEST OF ALL THE HIGH CASTLES FLOATING ABOVE THE SURFACE OF THE SORCERORS' WORLD...

Despite invoking the potential peak of her powers from her vantage point within the castle's main chamber, Mysa Nal, better known as the Black Witch, still struggled to focus on her scrying-pool, as it was currently showing her the battle on the planet's surface, with her friend-turned-slave, the super-strong and super-resilient Blok, single-handedly fighting the Legionnaires' double-team of Shadow Lass & Dragonwing. And although, at that moment, the probable outcome of said battle seemed likely to be one that would benefit her precarious situation, she also knew the tide could turn at any moment -- particularly if the upstart teenage sorceress Glorith, she whose untapped potential, if unleashed, could easily dwarf Mysa's powers, should leave her still-unconscious mentor Harmonia's side and join the fray.

Until just a minute ago, the only thing Mysa had feared more than Glorith coming into her own at the worst possible time was the complete takeover of Mysa herself, by the near-omnipotent mage imprisoned within her -- Mordru!!

And yet, the sudden fading of Mordru's sonorous baritone from inside her head, which had persisted every second of every hour for years, did not bring the slightest bit of relief to Mysa, for his voice had been almost immediately replaced by a female one that Mysa was completely unable to recognize, and, even more alarmingly, this new voice echoed through her head with twenty million times the intensity of Mordru's. If, thought Mysa, the voice was summoning her from an outside source, how much more torturous would it be should this mystery woman manage to gain full possession of her??

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

And, in a remote corner of the castle, a tomb which had been, until then, deliberately placed between two thick walls, began to shudder...

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

Below, upon the surface of the Sorcerors' World, one of Mysa's fears was already coming true -- Glorith had been watching the nearby battle from behind the concealment spell cloaking herself and Harmonia, but she had just come to the conclusion that the combatants were too evenly matched, and that if the battle were prolonged, then Harmonia would soon be beyond help. And so Glorith surrounded her mentor's body with the most powerful talismans available, and, hoping that would be enough to keep Harmonia safe, she dropped the concealment spell and began stealthily creeping up ever closer to the fray, hiding anywhere she could, as best she could, until the timing and the proximity were exactly right for her to strike at Blok.

Glorith's sort-of-friend Dragonmage was, by then, discovering that none of the dragon-powers she had stolen in the not-too-distant past -- neither agility, nor flight, nor even the greenish-white heat of the most blazing flames she was capable of summoning -- were likely to save her from Blok's pile-driving fists, much less his previously undocumented command over dirt, stone, lava, and, worst of all, this planet's very own tectonic plates. It seemed obvious to her that Mysa had somehow awakened the full elemental potential within Blok's enigmatic Dryad race, turning him into a monolithic living boulder that destroyed everything in his path.

Shadow Lass, for her part, was still unimpressed with either Blok's power upgrade or the unleashing of the pent-up aggression which had always threatened to explode from within him. Blok still had eyes, and a mouth, through which the dark, viscously manifesting forces at Shadow Lass's command could slither their way into his seemingly impenetrable body. She laughed heartily as his panicked bellowing confirmed that she had, indeed, found a way to cause Blok harm.

But it was to remain unknown, for the moment at least, whether Shadow Lass would truly break the Legion's anti-killing code once and for all, as she nearly had two-and-a-half weeks earlier when she beat Lady Memory to within an inch of her life, stopping only through Harmonia's show of force via the ancient artefact known as a Mother Box.

This time, Glorith would be the disruptor of Tasmia's display of unchecked fury towards her antagonist. The teenage sorceress jumped out from behind a nearby pile of earthly debris left by Blok's rampage, and cast her mightiest spell to date!!

Within mere seconds, the magical hold through which Mysa had come to dominate her unfortunate one-time friend was irreparably broken, bright-red ribbons of spectral energy exiting Blok's body and heading upwards, straight back to their sentient source within the castle.

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

The impact on Mysa of her own spells being turned against her proved the final, decisive blow which caused the Black Witch to lose control of everything within and without her that she had, until then, kept a firm grip on. She convulsed on top of the floor of her chamber as it crumbled beneath her, as the castle walls cracked and shattered, and as the scrying pool turned into a mini-squall, sending candles, tapestries, and the most potent talismans known until then to the practitioners of magic in the early 31st Century, scattering every which way.

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

And, in that same remote corner of the castle as before, the tomb burst open, in an explosion of mystical energy which reduced the walls surrounding the tomb to rubble.

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

Down below, the Legionnaires' reactions to the destruction of Mysa's floating castle changed instantly from wide-eyed awe to screaming panic as the enormous chunks of debris headed straight downward towards them. With Blok still recovering, it fell to Glorith to protect them all, and she succeeded in summoning a mystical force-dome that would protect all things within a wide radius of her and her companions, including the body of Harmonia...which, unknown to all, even Glorith, had only just begun to stir!!

Through Glorith's dome, the Legionnaires witnessed the pitiable sight of a broken, bruised, disheveled Mysa crawling from the wreckage of her sanctum. Pity was replaced by out-and-out horror when they saw ectoplasmic tendrils emerge from Mysa's pores, and, after whirling around in the air for a few seconds, coalesced into an imposing form which was hazy and not-quite-fully-defined, but appeared for all the world to be Mordru himself!! And then his glowing red eyes met with Glorith's line of sight!!

THEN, just before the malicious mage -- who had, in his long life, been time-tossed back-and-forth across millennia in mighty magical battles, and who had seemingly and sincerely sought redemption before reverting to his true nature -- could possess Glorith's body, his ghostly form began to unravel before the very eyes of the paralyzed-with-fear Legionnaires!!

They managed to look away for a split second to confirm that this was not the doing of Mysa, whom they could tell was just as bewildered as they were. But if not her, then...Harmonia?? Glorith took a quick look over her shoulder to confirm that her mentor continued to lay still.

Without warning, a second sentient being burst through the castle's rubble...



...and THAT was when Harmonia finally awoke, with a scream which could have shattered glass!! None of the other Legionnaires recognized the woman standing triumphant before them, swirls of mystical energy dancing around her exotically sexy figure along with tiny flying creatures of both the hellish and the halcyon varieties. But when Harmonia turned her head to face her worst nightmare come back to life, SHE knew exactly who it was, and she screamed again, and again, and again!!



"Yes, I love you and am pleased to see you, too, Harmonia..." declared the newly empowered sorceress before her terrified and unwitting audience. "...my dear, DEAR half-sister!!"

CONTINUED...

THE 7th POST IN THE 2nd RETROBOOT LEGION (EARTH-7.5) STORY-ARC

2017: THE PLANET APOKOLIPS, INSIDE THE HIGHEST TOWER IN THE WORLD, THE ONE PLACE WHERE VISIONS OF TRUTH, DIRECTLY FROM THE SOURCE, MIGHT BE VIEWED...

"Observe, DeSaad," growled Darkseid, the imposing, stone-faced, grey skinned overlord of all who were unfortunate enough to call Apokolips their home, "observe, and rejoice. Observe, and be grateful to bear witness to the end of all that is. Rejoice in the magnificence of the Anti-Life Equation made flesh and blood at last!!"

"I AM!!"

"As tomorrow, so today."

"As today, so tomorrow."

"I AM!!"



"Why, Sire," replied Darkseid's chief advisor and head scientist, DeSaad, with typically arch unctuousness, "I do believe you are...SMILING!!"

"Indeed, DeSaad, indeed. For it would be churlish of me to deny myself the rare indulgence of pure pleasure, to exult in the ultimate irony that the devastator of all life in the universe, all past, present, and future existence, was fathered not by me, but by my nemesis of centuries untold...the supposed All-Father, the so-called Lord of the Greater Good, the leader of New Genesis, that revolting planetary bastion of virtue -- IZAYA, THE HIGHFATHER!!"

3017: AN ANOMALY ON THE SURFACE OF THE SORCERORS' WORLD, WHERE TIME STANDS STILL...IF ONLY FOR THE MOMENT...

"Was I dreaming??" asked Dragonwing as she found herself on the edge of hysteria. "Tell me I dreamed that whole thing, and I'm awake now, and everything's all right!!"

"I fear not, Marya." Shadow Lass replied with surprising softness and vulnerability. "Look directly in front of you, and despair."

"I AM!!"

"As tomorrow, so today."

"As today, so tomorrow."

"I AM!!"



"No, no, NO!!" cried Marya, burying her head in her hands so as not to bear witness to the final seconds of all sentient life that had ever been.

"How is it, then, that we live??" mumbled a fully-recovered but still-not-completely-aware Blok.

"It is thanks to...them." whispered Mysa to the gentle giant she hoped would forgive her abuse and become her friend again, so that she could die with at least a modicum of inner peace.

Blok looked toward where Mysa was pointing, and gasped at the sight of Glorith and Harmonia merged into one glowing, sparkling sentient being, one of power so immense as to defy the call of death itself...at least temporarily. The question on the minds of everyone in this small group of survivors was...just how much longer would this delay last??

2017: THE PLANET NEW GENESIS, INSIDE THE FLOATING COLISEUM WHERE VISIONS OF THE TRUTH, DIRECTLY FROM THE SOURCE, MIGHT BE VIEWED...

"Father!! Father, I beg you, find the strength within to keep going." sobbed Scott "Mister Miracle" Free, the normally happy-go-lucky, optimal-thinking escape-artist and royalty-by-blood of New Genesis, he who had survived a horrific upbringing on his adoptive world of Apokolips with his essential decency and positive attitude intact. At present, Scott was squeezing the wrist of his beloved progenitor, Izaya the Highfather, who appeared to have been fatally felled upon witnessing the sight of the one thing he had hoped would never come to be.

"I AM!!"

"As tomorrow, so today."

"As today, so tomorrow."

"I AM!!"



"I fear he is lost to us...just as all is lost to all who have ever been." moaned Scott's adoptive brother Orion, he who was sired by Darkseid before being exchanged for Scott, so that Orion could be raised on New Genesis, in the hopes of extinguishing the seeds of evil within him before they could take hold. Although Orion had recently managed, as he had many times over the years, to temporarily tame his bestial birthright, he no longer used his Mother Box to reshape his face into a less monstrous one than his natural face, though the fact that he had also grown out his hair would seem to indicate that traces of shame remained within him.

Suddenly, Izaya's eyes opened!! Scott and Orion gasped in unison before combining their not inconsiderable individual strengths in an effort to get Izaya back on his feet.

"Do not waste your energy," wheezed Izaya with what little breath he still had in him, "you shall need it in order to embark on a quest to the planet Earth...in the near-impossible hope of preventing the universe's descent into irreversible entropy."

"Who shall we seek, Father??" asked Scott, struggling to choke back his tears after seeing his hopes of Izaya's survival cruelly dashed.

"Your...sisters."

And with those words, Izaya breathed his last and closed his eyes for the final time, expiring before he could elaborate on what he had managed to impart to Scott and Orion, and clinging to his conviction that both his sons, one biological and one adopted, would manage to use that tiny bit of information in order to save the universe by restoring existence itself.

CONTINUED...

There you have it, Bits readers old & new, the opening installments of my epic new Legion of E-7.5 arc.

I shall now take one week off from writing, so that you may catch up and post your comments (every one of which I will be happy to reply to), and so that I may finally finish reading the first arc of Thoth Lad's own excellent take on where the Retroboot might have gone, as well as every installment to date of Harbinger's fourth volume of Legion Worlds, the very first Bits Retroboot-continuation series, and the one that started it all.

Happy reading, one and all!!

Like squared how you've upgraded some of the powers - Tasmia's hard shadows (although it's appeared occasionally, I don't recall it from the original version) and Blok's earth-moving powers from Mysa. Also liked the sparks shooting from Ayla's eyes, which we don't see often enough, and the reminder that shadows can be cold!

What a lot of long-simmering resentments break out in that battle! The insults are flying - and they all feel real, not something out of the blue that you just threw into the story.

Didn't anyone think that messing with the Sorcerers' World and Mysa might release Mordru? Heat of the battle, I guess. Lucky for them he didn't last long. One thing I'm not clear on (will reread) is why Dragonwing switched her alliance to Shadow Lass. Glorith is a real wild card, in terms of allegiance and power.

I always figured that Highfather (and Darkseid) should have had more children. And daughters too! And a step-sister for Harmonia. I'm suspecting that they're Highfather's daughter(s), maybe not. This should be fun, regardless.

Have to wonder if Izaya is really dying. We know from GDS that he did die, but it's sad all the same.

The pictures are a good addition. It probably helps that I don't know who these women are, so there are no preconceived notions.

Good to see the Furies, in a perverse way. They haven't been used as much as some other New Gods characters.

Not too much to say on the 21st century Legionnaires, except that there are a lot of enticing mysteries there. And I would wish that Gates would shut up, too. :; You'd think he'd be disabused of his communist idealism by now.

And I return the sentiment, Cramer -- I thank you squared for the kind words!!



That means a lot to me, that you said that, because I had developed a concern since posting those chapters that I might have been unconsciously "Marvel-izing" or "Avenger-izing" the Legionnaires (you can take the fangirl out of the Marvel Universe, but can't take the...et cetera.) I was running purely on instinct there, and I'm glad to hear my instincts were sound.



LOL Exactly. I wanted to resolve the whole Mysa-keeping-Mordru-in-check subplot as quickly and cleanly as I could. Mordru as the main antagonist tends to be way over-powered for my taste as a reader, even in the mostly excellent Mordru intro story by Jim Shooter & Curt Swan. Now, I realize the accusations could be made of Sonya. So how will she be defeated (IF she's defeated?) I already know what's going to happen to her, so I look forward to finding out from you and other Legion Worlders if it works for you or not.



Yes, I can see in hindsight that I should have spent at least a paragraph or two on that. IIRC, I had originally intended to at some point in the first few chapters, but then it got caught up in the cosmic slipstream.

In a nutshell (and I do hope to elaborate on this at some point before the end of the story-arc), Marya is -- even by the standards of an average teenager -- shallow, immature, disloyal, and easily swayed. Tasmia is much more direct than Harmonia, with none of the cryptic tangents, which appealed to Marya; combine that with some petty grudges against Harmonia that Marya had already been nursing, and I think it all falls into place.



More than anyone (with the possible exception of Harmonia) realizes.



I'm glad I'm not the only one who considered it logical for Highfather to develop a roving eye once he'd had enough years to recover, at least partly, from Avia's death. Once all the various New Gods' pecadilloes are revealed, New Genesis is going to look like nothing less than a cosmic Petyon Place!!



Glad you said that, as I was still unsure whether or not to reveal who they are. Now I'll be sure to keep mum. Thanks, Cramer.

(But if anyone else wants to play "spot the cult-celebrity" with me, they are free to do so by PM.)



I love the Furies, and I'm glad to hear you're enjoying their antics as well.

And, for those keeping track:

Bernadeth, Gillotina, Stompa, and Mad Harriet were all created by Jack Kirby and first appeared in the early 1970s Fourth World Saga.

Artemiz (who has not appeared on panel yet, but she will be...oh, yes, she will) was created by John Ostrander, and first appeared in JO's original Suicide Squad run.

Knockout was created by Karl Kesel, THE Kirby-Fan-Turned-Pro, and first appeared in KK's original Superboy run.

Speed Queen and Bloody Mary were co-created by KK with his then-wife, the AWESOME Barbara Kesel (nee Randall), and first appeared in Hawk & Dove.



Poor, poor Gates, he just can't win. I do give him points for being principled, even when it hasn't been in his best interests.

Hey FL, I'm posting these thoughts as I red so my views may change as I get further into this.

I've read your story through a couple of times now - there's so much happening that it deserves that if I'm to give honest feedback.

Starting from your recap on 9th Jan onwards:

Harmonia losing the plot? It must be serious that woman is seriously controlling of her emotions and reactions - was she ever seen showing any real remorse for Titan?

I love Ayla and Vi (despite what I did in my fanfic) and am really glad you are including them, they'll provide a voice of reason I imagine. One thing that I always admired about the way their relationship was handled was that no-one blinked an eye at it, it was just seen as perfectly normal, which in pop culture is a rarity as lesbians as rarely given that much dignity. With this in mind your description of them being in an alt-lifestyle relationship rang a bit wrong to me, or at least we haven't seen anything going on between them that would make it anything other than a decent loving relationship.

Nicely done adding in Ayla's thoughts on what happened on Winath and Imra's condition. You dropped it in so well that it almost appears as an after thought though I imagine it's going to be a big part of the plot later. I hope so anyway,'ve a soft spot for old iron-butt.

I loved the catty comments between Marya and Ayla. Salu thinking Glorith was there to help, ha! It's never dull being a Legionnair I guess.

I like that you've reintroduced the sinister undercurrent to Glorith that Levitz had in the comic; she certainly is a mystery, and I wouldn't be surprised if people get babyfied if not Glooped!

Harmonia's announcement that they were already too late was a great cliffhanger - I love a good clifffhanger!

My laptop is quirky so I'll post my next review separately.

Loved your description of the neighbourhoods reaction - or lack of - towards the mysterious woman. I'm originally from a small village where there was the same dour attitude so I could relate to it immediately. Although behind closed doors tongues would be wagging

Maybe I'm reading too much into it - and not for the first time - but you say the couple (Sonya and Tellus) had rented the apartment doe a couple of weeks and then Sonya comments about he can't keep up with her, which kind of implies they'd been having sex - ew! The idea of Tellus getting jiggy isn't one I'd like to linger on, so moving quickly on...

(what can I say, I maybe very liberal but I can still be a prude)

And Tellus is gone! The teams telepath, who could unite them quite literally with a thought is gone. Very tactical first strike!

Next post in next reply

Hi, Harbi, and thanks, I always look forward to reading your comments on my fanfics!!



The destruction of Titan will most definitely be addressed before the story-arc's end. I've got extensive secret origins outlined for both Harmonia and Sonya.



Good point very well taken. As a matter of fact, I think you are so right about this, that as soon as I've posted this reply, I'm going to go back and edit out "alt-lifestyle." Thank you.



I share your affection for the "shameless hussy." As with Jeckie and Tinya, Imra's return will take a while, but I'm already confident their fans will be quite pleased once they've re-emerged.



Awww...thanks. I almost toned down Marya's insult to Ayla's femininity, because even though I am acutely aware of Marya's fallibilities, I felt and still feel it was just such a horrible thing to emerge from the lips of a character I've come to really like, flaws & all. But I also feel that Ayla's gender-fluidity had to be addressed somehow, and we haven't heard the last about it, not by a long shot; in fact, a considerable portion of the upcoming 9th installment of this story-arc will focus on previously untold parts of Ayla's backstory.

RE: Salu's misreading of Glorith, "never a dull moment" may be the understatement of 2017, even though we're only three weeks into the new year. LOL



Babyfications & Gloopings are definitely on the horizon, and I even have already marked specific characters for them.



Many thanks. I really do make an effort with the cliffhangers, so such positive feedback about them is much appreciated.

I'm unsure why they are suddenly on Zerox fighting Mysa. While it's a great scene I must have missed the link somewhere as I thought they were on Weber's world. It kind of threw me out of the story as I had to go back and check.

Marya and Tasmia make a good pair to fight together, their abilities compliment each other while their fierce natures mean whomever is on the receiving end will have a tough time.

"That, darling, is trouble..." replied Tasmia, "...but only with a small 't'." - Ha! my favourite line so far!

Poor Blok, turned into an elemental under an apparently mad Mysa's control.

Tasmia isn't one for holding back her opinions is she?

Nice to see Salu argue with Querl, he needs reality checks from time to time.

His motivation - self preservation - at allowing Tasmia onto the team is true to character, the man's ego is truly monumental!

Ah, so it was Shady who initiated the move to Zerox, got it.

So what will they do now? Another good cliffhanger.

Thank you, Harbi, especially for sharing a bit of your own experiences. My mother's family comes almost entirely from Eastern-European stock, so I had quite a few true stories to draw from. And I'd also like to take this opportunity to recommend the underrated 2015 sci-fi movie "Jupiter Ascending", directed by The Wachowskis and starring Mila Kunis (herself born in the Ukraine) as a space-princess who was raised on Earth, in a community very much like the one described in that chapter of my story. Only two years since it's release, "J.A." has already become a cult-fave in the making.



LOL No worries. And while, out of respect for your sensitivity, I won't spend too much time commenting on it, I do feel I should say that: 1) Tellus had to grow up sometime, and 2) Sonya's the try-anything-once type.



Thank you. Sometimes I think I might have been a success if I'd joined the military, but in the end, I stood by my natural anti-authoritarianism and my low threshold for the sexism, machismo, and homophobia which have always been part & parcel of the military.

Your candor is, as always, highly appreciated. Once again, I fell back on my tendency to leave out important expository data for the sake of keeping the story moving as fast as possible.



My sentiments exactly.



Thankies.



That's one of the things I most love about her.



Thank you, and what I find really scary about Coluans, which I'm not sure of ATM but I may have already alluded to in that chapter, is that Querl would be considered soft & sentimental by their standards. Coluans make Star Trek's Vulcans look like a New Age therapeutic support group!!

At this point, I must, regrettably, step away from the computer to take care of a couple household chores, but I will return as soon as I can to read the rest of your chapter-by-chapter reviews.

On a serious note, you opened the next post by saying Tyroc would draw more looks than Gates in the 21st century as he was black - as opposed to a 4 foot tall talking bug. Without wanting to sound political, of course I've followed the news where it can appear that racial profiling has resulted in many deaths of black people recently and we've all seen the rise of populist, verging on tribal, rhetoric and politics, but seriously, would a black guy be stared at that much? Jeez, that is very alarming!

Gates politics are always welcome reading, if only to laugh at.

Nice moment of introspection from Tyroc about the Marzallian isolationist attitude.

The moment with the police was interesting, but the Furies were great - what a bunch of psychopaths! I don't really know too much about them so am enjoying your writing them, it's an interesting introduction.

I'm going to slip into 'teacher mode' here - sorry in advance. The exclamation point (!) is only ever needed once at the end f a sentence as it denotes the strength of what had gone before. To add a second denotes the first is to be emphasised and as it isn't actually a sound this second '!' doesn't have any real meaning. It's something I mark pupils down for. The writer F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, "An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke." I do appreciate it's artistic license, I know, but it jumps out at me each time and I think 'one point off' every time. Okay, that's a personal view so ignore if you want, just had to say it.

And now Tyroc is gone too, leaving a team without a leader!

Wildfires predicament and feelings were well written, he's a softy underneath that armour and burning anti-energy.

Loved his banter with Gates too.

The fight was interesting, you mentioned how sexy the vampire was a couple of time which was a bit odd to me. Your descriptive skills are awesome and you excel at capturing the essence of subjects really well, but as descriptions go 'sexy' isn't the greatest as it's an entirely subjective point of view.

Those Furies don't really get on do they? The banter between them is pretty harsh, but I guess that's probably standard for Darkseid's minions. That said they follow orders and definitely get the job done. They are quite scary!

So now the tem have lost their mode of instantaneous transport. This is definitely a well considered plan, as ultimately the three that have been taking so far are possibly the most dangerous.

I wonder what Drake will find in Asia? It has been teased before that Dawny and Brin are close so will they have taken that a step further? I'm looking forward to finding out.