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

No dramas, with everyone using variations on the same characters it's bound to happen sooner or later

Glad you liked the character bits! I like playing up how weird the world would be when you're at the kind of heights Vi shrinks to

It's been established that this Kara does have a Red Lantern ring in her history at some point, but nobody knows whether it's something that has actually happened to her yet.

re: the Green Lantern tricks, I figure they can do pretty much anything their wearer can imagine - I know the phasing at least has definitely been something they've done in the comics on occasion

Some of your other questions are gonna be delved into over the next couple of instalments, but Mon-El visiting Zamaron is just one of those spur of the moment things I thought would be fun to throw in there and it makes sense given his interest in exploring; I might expand on it one day and tell the story of Mon-El's sexy adventures with Queen Di'Ana, who knows?

ZAMARON
Low Orbit
Emanating a crimson aura, Satan Girl hovered above the violet-hued homeworld of one of the oldest races in the universe. Her hands were balled into tight fists, her whole posture wracked with tension. “It’s a trap,” she muttered through clenched teeth, her Red Lantern ring carrying her voice to Universo and Mwindaji in the green bubble behind her. “There are no signs of violence, but I can’t see a single person anywhere on the planet.”

“Of course it’s a trap,” Universo agreed. A sinister smile curled his thin lips upward. “The Zamarons may have withdrawn from the rest of the universe, but I’m certain they still monitor it. No doubt they are fully aware of our mission by now. I cannot believe they would simply abandon their world however.”

“Then...what is our next action?” Mwindaji asked. “I have tracked the violet rings here and my power tells me there are many of them below, but they have obscured their precise locations somehow.”

“Our next action?” Universo used Mwindaji’s own words in response. “We only need one ring. Let us raze their world until we find it. Start with the Royal Palace, Satan Girl.”

Satan Girl shot off in a red blur, Universo and Mwindaji following. Hidden in a seam of Mwindaji’s outfit, Shrinking Violet hoped that Kara could be stopped before she killed someone...Mwindaji was beginning to wonder if he should be hoping for that himself.

Within seconds, the palace walls were smashed with explosive force that resonated throughout Zamaron’s tinted atmosphere. In the rubble, Satan Girl hefted a chunk of the building which weighed tons and hurled it across the continent. “Where are you?” the Kryptonian teenager raged. “Get out here and face me!”

“We’re right here, Kara.” Emerging unharmed from the ruins of the palace, Element Lad came with Light Lad and Shadow Lass by his side. Gas Girl floated behind them, a green mist in feminine form. Jan continued, his voice calm and controlled. “I kept us safe in a vault of inertron-laced lead, just as I’ve done for the rest of the Zamarons. But we’ve revealed ourselves now because this needs to stop.”

“You think changing to kryptonite will do you any good?” Satan Girl sneered, noticing Gas Girl. “My ring protects me! But who’s gonna protect you from me?” Her eyes flared and twin beams of heat vision came forth. Too late, Kara realised that Shadow Lass had been projecting a field of darkness behind the quartet of heroes. Tasmia allowed her power to dissipate and Kara saw that there were five more people present, each of the five glowing with their own violet auras. While wisps of darkness were still fading around them, Mon-El’s invulnerable form intercepted the heat vision at super-speed. Satan Girl was visibly taken aback. “I don’t understand - how..?”

“Universo’s got a Red Lantern ring-enhanced Kryptonian on his team,” Mon-El replied, “We thought we should even the score. Say hello to the newest Star Sapphires.” The muscular Daxamite was nearly naked, clothed only in slick violet boots and gauntlets with high-cut black briefs. Rather than the familiar gold clasps which normally held his cape in place, two metallic violet starburst shapes kept a deep purple cape in place around his neck.

“I’m just glad Sun Boy’s not here to see this,” Lightning Lad blushed. “Dirk would never let us live this down, we look like Venturan strippers.” Garth and Imra also wore individualised Star Sapphire costumes; Saturn Girl’s was almost an exact replica of the two-piece outfit she’d once worn as a Legionnaire, though it was violet rather than pink and the Star Sapphire starburst replaced the emblem of Saturn she’d once worn at her navel. Lightning Lad wore deep purple boots with skintight white leggings which left his outer legs exposed. A miniature violet starburst sat in place where his belt buckle would normally be. His chest was bare aside from two metallic violet lightning bolts over his shoulders.

“I trust that you will better be able to assist your transformed friend now,” Queen Di’Ana’s voice lilted as she took to the air. “I see the former Green Lantern approaches; it is time he was given a lesson in the great ferocity that comes with love.” She took her halberd in both hands and raced to meet Universo in the sky above.

“Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl; go help Queen Di’Ana. We can handle Kara.” This was Brainiac 5, the final member of the hastily deputised Star Sapphires. His own outfit was remarkably unchanged, though a violet starburst replaced his Legion belt buckle and his arms were now exposed.

“Uhh, Brainiac..?” Light Lad spoke uncertainly. “...I think things just got worse. Look.”

The others followed Light Lad’s concerned gaze. Behind Universo’s rapidly descending green sphere, the skies of Zamaron had just come alive with a sea of orange lights. Queen Di’Ana stalled her flight. “I appreciate that you had tried to spare my people unnecessary violence,” she declared, “But that is mad Larfleeze; he who calls himself the Orange God. This battle just became a war.” Using the violet energy to call upon every other Zamaron warrior worldwide, the Queen led a glittering sky of violet lights against their orange counterparts with one tiny green bubble in the centre of it all.

**********
Larfleeze soared through Zamaron’s skies with an army of thousands of robotic Orange Agents following loyally. Dragged unceremoniously behind the Orange Lantern, Zoe Saugin and six disgruntled Legionnaires kneeled in orange hardlight stockades. Wildfire was manacled and his helmet enclosed in an orange sphere with a giant glowing padlock attached, and Phantom Girl’s bonds were specially calibrated to prevent her from phasing through them. All of them had spent the long trip here from Xolnar trying to convince Larfleeze that they’d never had any interest in stealing his ring and that they weren’t working in unison with Universo’s group, but it was to no avail.

“If you’re going to kill us, why not just do it and get it over with?” Polar Boy complained. “If I hadn’t been able to put up an ice dome in time we would have been done for on Xolnar anyway when you decided to collapse a couple hundred tons of pluridium on us all! Why are you dragging this out now?”

“Better to have you watch the rest of your team fall first!” Larfleeze ranted. “Then you all will be mine forever once I absorb you into my ring and induct you into my Corps!”

“You can ssee what we’re flying into, right?” Fire Lad hissed urgently, countless violet twinkles coming to life miles below them. “How do you think you’re gonna fight uss pluss Universso and Ssatan Girl, pluss all of them?”

Larfleeze turned on Fire Lad savagely, “If you’re so eager to embrace your death, Larfleeze is happy to give it to you!”

“About that…” Color Kid asked thoughtfully. “Larfleeze, do you need the orange light to survive?”

Larfleeze sprayed spit everywhere as he screamed in response. “Larfleeze needs nothing! Larfleeze takes what he wants because he wants it!”

“Good,” Ulu sighed. “Because this construct is giving me a real crick in the neck, but I don’t want to actually kill you.” He changed the color of Larfleeze’s constructs from bright orange to a soft blue, and immediately they dissolved into nothingness. Zoe and the Legionnaires floundered for only an instant before they righted their descent using their own abilities or flight rings.

While Larfleeze was still reeling, a green aura intensified around Zoe until it almost seemed she herself was composed of the emerald energy. “By the way,” she said as her back arched and her arms stretched out to her sides, “Did I mention I’ve got the Green Lantern energy inside me now?” Her whole body erupted in a blaze of energy, slamming Larfleeze deep into the oncoming Zamaron horde.

“Why did you wait till we got here to pull that out of your hat, Color Kid?” Wildfire asked testily.

“Are you kidding?” Ulu raised an eyebrow. “He nearly killed us all casually back on Xolnar, I wanted to make sure we had someone to take the heat off of us before he got a chance to retaliate.”

“Can we table thiss disscusssion for later?” Fire Lad interrupted the men. He turned on an approaching Orange Agent and slagged its head with his fire breath, watching as the no longer ranting automaton spiralled downwards and took another of its own with it.

“Good idea,” Zoe agreed. “You guys take care of these roaches, I’m gonna make sure that idiot doesn’t make things any worse...and get my sprocking ring back!” She zoomed off before anyone could suggest otherwise, cannonballing straight through more of the Orange Agents that were making landfall all around them.

**********
Seeing that they were surrounded on all sides by violet and orange forces, Universo streamlined his own construct until he and Mwindaji were simply surrounded by emerald auras of light. “Mwindaji, I cannot protect you while I fight for our survival. Do you mind if--”

“Place me on the ground,” the Kirinyaga youth said. “I cannot fly, but I can defend myself there if I must.”

“Thank you, my friend.” Universo gestured, and the dark-skinned teen veered away in a sideways arc. The green glow protected him until he landed several miles away on one of the ubiquitous lilypad structures in the fog.

As soon as the emerald glow dissipated, a violet lariat constricted around Mwindaji’s throat. “You come to our world to take what is ours?” the Zamaron warrior asked as she pulled tighter on her weapon. “I sense great capacity for love within you, off-worlder. It is a shame that capacity must now be snuffed.”

Mwindaji stopped struggling, and instead leaped toward the slender woman. She was knocked to the ground and didn’t get back up again, her violet construct vanishing. Mwindaji gasped for air, consciously controlling his breathing until he was composed again. He eyed the woman suspiciously. I did not hit her with nearly enough force to do such damage--

Literally out of thin air, a petite white woman in a green tunic appeared over the Zamaron’s prone body. “I wasn’t about to let her kill you,” Shrinking Violet announced. “You might be hopelessly naive, but you don’t deserve to die for it. Mwindaji...we need to talk.”

**********
“Universo!”

Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad hovered before the airborne villain, the sounds of battle filling the skies around them. Universo turned on the Legionnaire he despised more than any other and scowled. “Hello, Saturn Girl.”

“Hey! I’m here too, jerkwit!” Lightning Lad reached out and Universo was bathed in electricity.

The assault didn’t penetrate Universo’s forcefield, and he turned on Garth with a golden monocle gleaming strangely beneath his green aura. “Yes,” the villain replied drolly. “Of course you are. It’s fascinating how these rings can enhance my natural aptitude for mesmerism, you know. Why don’t you kill your wife as a demonstration?”

“Nice try, Universo.” Encased in her violet aura, Saturn Girl clasped hands with her husband. “But we’re protected by the power of love, and not all of your will or your ability to inflict fear can conquer the love I share with my husband.” She continued telepathically; <Now let’s see exactly what grubby little scheme you’ve concocted this time around.>

**********
With the assault of the Orange Agents, the Legionnaires in what remained of Queen Di’Ana’s palace had become separated from one another. Brainiac 5 and Shadow Lass followed as Mon-El and Satan Girl crashed through the lilypad and into the faceted surface of the planet itself half a mile down. “Tasmia, are you still able to function effectively?” Brainiac asked his comrade.

Shadow Lass was sweating, her brow furrowed. The violet light permeated this planet; the closer she got to its surface the stronger the light was in this refractive fog and it was beginning to physically hurt her. Despite her great love for Mon-El, her vulnerability to light was why she couldn’t don one of the violet rings alongside him; the exposure might kill her. “Brainiac,” she grunted, “Don’t ever let anybody compliment your bedside manner. This isn’t ideal but yes, I can function effectively.”

“Good,” he snapped back curtly. “Remember how you worked with your alternate dimensional counterparts to sap the sunlight from Superboy Prime’s cells? I want you to do the same to Kara. Our dual rings give us an advantage over her red ring, we need to counteract her Kryptonian physiology now.”

“I’ll...I’ll try.” She wasn’t confident that she could conquer the Red Lantern ring’s power, but she had to make the effort. She bided her time till Mon-El threw Kara off into one of the enormous stalks holding the Zamaron’s buildings aloft and she could act without endangering her lover, then Shadow Lass shot a thin spear of darkness at Satan Girl. The spear hit Kara’s red aura and rolled across it like mist across water, but Tasmia persisted and soon her darkness penetrated the field.

“That...hurts!” Kara doubled over. She reinforced her field, forcing Shadow Lass to work harder as well. Mon-El wanted to hold Tasmia Mallor but he knew the light of the Star Sapphire would be a hindrance more than a help. Right now, the woman he loved would have to do this for herself.

Brainiac 5 approached Kara and crouched by the aching girl’s side. “Kara, please. None of us want to do this, we don’t want to hurt you. We all love you, Kara. I know you’re hurting, and I know my action caused that. Please let us help you. Please.” He tried to remain calm, but his voice broke in the end and even through her agony Kara could see how ragged he looked.

Through her creeping pain, Satan Girl laughed at the Coluan. “Unbelievable,” she grimaced. “Wearing one of the most powerful weapons in the universe and you’re still trying to talk me around. I thought you were meant to be the smart one, Brainy.” She stood up straight and swung her arms behind her, even though she knew this would leave her open to Shadow Lass. Focusing on her frustration and rage, she gripped the enormous stalk behind her and channelled explosive amounts of red energy through it. The towering column was shattered from its foundations and began an inexorable collapse.

While a weakened Satan Girl zoomed up and away from the calamity she’d caused, Brainiac 5 leaped into action. “Mon-El! I can use the ring’s power to arrest the tower’s fall temporarily but only you are fast enough to rescue anyone trapped above!”

“I’m on it, Brainy.” Mon-El streaked away, leaving a violet trail behind him.

Even weakened by Shadow Lass’s power, Satan Girl was powerful enough to smash through Zamarons and Orange Agents alike while she searched for Universo. She’d kept the truth from Brainiac 5, but Brainiac’s constant attempts to appeal to emotions beyond her rage were making Kara uncomfortable. When Universo had revealed to Kara Zor-El that she was destined to die a thousand years in the past and that the Legion themselves were well aware of this, she’d felt betrayed, hurt and consumed with anger. She didn’t know how the people she’d loved could blithely keep this from her while they played at being superheroes together. When Universo had offered her the red ring and the means to get revenge on the Legion, she’d bitterly taken the chance. But now...now she had questions.

If Brainiac 5 didn’t love Kara, how could he possibly wield the ring of the Star Sapphires? If the Legion weren’t her friends, why did they seem so pained to have to fight her? And if Universo had done all this solely to help her, why were they now launching terror attacks on worlds that had nothing to do with the Legion? Why was she helping Universo assault people she didn’t even know and who couldn’t possibly have done anything wrong to her? She needed his guidance to peer through this cloud in her mind.

When she found Universo, he was in the middle of a chaotic free-for-all with Larfleeze, Zoe Saugin and Queen Di’Ana. Saturn Girl hovered nearby behind a violet shield, her hands at her temples and her brow knit in furious concentration. Lightning Lad used a combination of his own power and that of the violet ring to protect his wife from any Orange Agents who ventured too close to the couple.Satan Girl considered her options; she was still too weak to take on all of them together, and as powerful as the rings made Universo he was being stretched to his limits himself. It seemed a tactful retreat might be in order. “Universo!” she cried over the din of the battle. “Drop your shield!”

Universo’s first instinct was to lambast Satan Girl for her foolishness, but he realised her plan almost immediately. He watched his enemies closely, waiting for his moment of opportunity. That moment came when Queen Di’Ana lassoed Larfleeze, and the Orange Lantern slammed into Zoe in an attempt to escape. Universo dropped the spiked green and gold dome which had surrounded him and faster than anyone present could hope to stop her, Satan Girl tackled him and disappeared into the throng.

“No!” Larfleeze screamed in protest. “Those rings are mine!” He emitted an omnidirectional burst of light which tore Queen Di’Ana’s lariat to nothingness and knocked any enemies and lackies alike within a 20 foot radius flying back.

While the Zamaron monarch and Zoe sped after Larfleeze, Garth Ranzz attended to his wife. “Are you okay, honey? At least now we’ve got a nano to breathe!” Already the Orange Agents were righting themselves from their master’s attacks, and Garth spared a thought to electrify the outer surface of the shield protecting himself and his wife.

“No Garth, we don’t.” Imra’s voice was calm, but heavy with portent. “Right at the end, I finally got through Universo’s reinforced defences...I know what he’s going to do. And if we don’t stop him then all of this,” she gestured at the war around them, “Will be nothing compared to the power he’ll wield. Garth...he’ll be like a god.”

The couple shared an urgent look, then without another word took off together to find their old enemy.

**********
Satan Girl and Universo darted through the airborne conflict, changing directions so quickly and so often that by the time they slammed down near Mwindaji and Shrinking Violet their pursuers weren’t anywhere in sight.

Vi knew she didn’t have a snowball’s chance on Tharr against Universo or Satan Girl, let alone both of them together. She decided to shrink down out of sight again but before her power took effect she along with every other Legionnaire on the planet heard Saturn Girl’s voice in her head. Vi’s eyes widened and she gripped Mwindaji’s arm. “Mwindaji, remember what I told you. Give it to me, please.”

“Don’t tell me you’re having trouble with this one,” Universo laughed lightly. “Satan Girl, dispose of this annoyance, would you?”

Kara looked uncertainly at Mwindaji and Vi. Mwindaji had the same internal conflict, Kara could see it in his eyes...and Violet? Violet didn’t look like someone who’d ever wanted to hurt her, she just looked terrified. The Kryptonian teen turned to the bald man who’d been directing them this whole time. “Universo...why are we doing all this..?”

A fiercely bright orange energy blast washed over Satan Girl, leaving her laid out on the ground with her costume in shreds. “Mine!!” Larfleeze raged. “Your ring will be mine, girl! All these rings will be mine!!” He was out of his mind with avarice and he grabbed Kara by the throat before she could mount a counterattack, holding her up in a choking grip while he built up a killing blast in his free hand.

“Vidar!” Mwindaji ran to Universo’s side. “That monster will surely kill her, you must help!”

“Let’s just see how this plays out,” Universo smiled smugly, stroking his goatee.

“Vidar!” Mwindaji protested.

Kara could feel her anger rising. She only needed a second, just a second to clear her head, but her vision was swimming and the pounding red waves were taking over again…

“Don’t you hurt her!!” Saturn Girl’s voice rang out.

The telepathic Legionnaire arrived with Zoe Saugin and Lightning Lad, the other Legionnaires in groups of two and three not far behind them. Further back, Queen Di’Ana and her forces held the Orange Agents at bay. Larfleeze was too far gone, Imra could feel it. She hated to use her power against another sentient being like this, but there was no time for alternatives if they were going to save Kara’s life. She reached out and froze the Orange God’s manic mind, his threat unfulfilled as his orange glow faded completely for the first time in more than a thousand years.

Larfleeze was not the only one too far gone. With a vile hacking noise, crimson blood cascaded from Satan Girl’s open mouth. At such close range, it burned Larfleeze’s face to the bone. The pain cut through Imra’s power, and Larfleeze released Satan Girl with an agonised wail. He staggered crookedly for a few steps then fell face first where he didn’t move again.

Saturn Girl clutched her husband’s hand, her eyes welling with tears. “Oh Kara...what have you done..?”

“She has guaranteed my victory,” Universo gloated. “As a dearly departed madman of our mutual acquaintance might say...those rings are mine.” Green and gold tendrils of energy snaked out to steal the rings from Larfleeze’s fingers.

“No!” Zoe dived at Larfleeze’s corpse, Mon-El and Wildfire close behind her. Before the heroes could close the range, Satan Girl charged them all. Even with the burst of extra power she’d gotten from this new rage, she wasn’t powerful enough to defeat the three of them but she was powerful enough to keep them at bay for the few seconds it took for those rings to make their way to Universo’s hand.

“Damn you Universo, you’re not winning this one!” Before the rings were in place on his fingers, Vi launched herself at him.

Without even sparing her a sideways glance, Universo manifested a giant golden hand to swat Violet aside. “I already have, woman.” With the combined might of the green, gold and orange rings on one hand Universo created a wall to keep the rest of the heroes at bay. His other hand formed a fist, his new indigo ring scanning the unconscious form of the Zamaron warrior Mwindaji and Vi had earlier encountered. “Curious, she does not bear a violet ring. Mwindaji, what do you know of this..?” His tone was at once friendly and sinister.

Mwindaji had crouched down by Violet’s side to make sure she was still alive. “She was right about you!” he accused the man he’d thought of as a hero. “How was I ever fooled by such a viper??”

Universo sighed magnanimously, walking casually toward Mwindaji. “In your defence, I can be quite charming when it’s called upon...but honestly, I’d say the main reason was your ridiculous naivete. Now what did you two do with her ring, Mwindaji?”

“I...the Legionnaire, Shrinking Violet, she wanted to keep the ring from us. She…” Mwindaji faltered, his eyes glancing from Universo to the army of heroes behind him fighting Satan Girl and bashing at Universo’s construct. Mwindaji knew if he could just stall Universo long enough, they’d eventually break through. They had to. He didn’t know what the man really had planned, but he knew now that it was nothing remotely good. “She hid it...she hid the ring.” He’d always been a terrible liar, but this lie was at least partially crouched in truth and he hoped that it would hold. Vi really had wanted to keep the fallen Zamaron’s ring from Universo. But to earn Mwindaji’s trust, she’d allowed him to hold it. Mwindaji had promised her that if she could convince him of Universo’s evil intentions he’d surrender the violet ring to her. Yet one more of my errors in judgement, he chastised himself silently.

“That’s funny,” Universo scanned Vi’s body. “She doesn’t have the ring either. Now where else could it be, I wonder..?” He turned idly to Mwindaji himself.

Hands behind his back, Mwindaji took the violet ring from where it had been secreted in his palm and he placed it on one finger. This was his only option now. He thrust his fist at Universo, the violet ring gleaming on his ring finger. “I believed in you!” Mwindaji railed. His hand was trembling as he willed the ring to come alive. “I have shamed myself...I have shamed my family and I have shamed the great hero Mwindaji whose name I usurp, but--” His words were cut short by a sharp gasp as a golden lance tore straight through his abdomen. Universo withdrew the spear of energy and Mwindaji staggered toward him, still desperately wishing as hard as he could for the violet ring to do something. “I will - I will--” Another golden lance pierced him, and this time Mwindaji fell.

“I am sorry, my friend.” Universo stepped forward and took the violet ring from the dying teenager’s feeble grip. “It has been a very long time since anybody helped me out of pure altruism, I would have liked to spare you from violence. But I couldn’t bear to spend another moment waiting for you to figure out that the violet ring only works in the presence of great love. That is...when it works alone.”

Dark blood bubbled from Mwindaji’s parted lips. He coughed painfully and stared with eyes wide open as the man named Vidar placed the violet ring next to its indigo cousin. Universo removed the ring of the Red Lanterns from where it had hung around his neck. Seeing that Phantom Girl had finally penetrated his shield where her comrades had failed, Universo gave her an indulgent chuckle. “You Legionnaires are certainly persistent,” Universo complimented her. “But I’m afraid it’s far too late for last minute heroics now, Ms Wazzo.”

He placed the red ring on his hand, and a pure white light exploded forth. It consumed Universo in its brilliance, consumed Mwindaji and Violet and Phantom Girl and the stirring Zamaron warrior whom Violet had earlier defeated. It consumed every Legionnaire rushing him now that he’d dropped his shield, and it consumed the corpse of Larfleeze.

When everyone’s vision cleared, Universo hadn’t moved an inch. He no longer wore green and gold armour; he was now clothed in a stark white bodysuit with an emblem on his chest reminiscent of a white light shining forth...and where a moment ago he’d worn seven different coloured rings, he now wore a solitary white ring.

Phantom Girl shaded her eyes with her hand. Even without an overt display of power, he was dazzling to gaze upon directly. “Universo..?” she asked timidly. “What did you do to yourself..?”

“Universo is an outdated name for what I am now, Tinya Wazzo.” He looked down upon her imperiously.

“Call me...the White Lantern.”

TO BE CONCLUDED!!!

EDITOR’S NOTES:
* Shadow Lass (along with her counterparts from the Reboot and Threeboot Legions) pooled their powers to sap the stored sunlight from Superboy Prime’s body and weaken him in Legion of Three Worlds.

* I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this previously, but I have taken a few minor liberties with the way the rings work; I figure 1000 years is more than enough time for the status quo to change a few times

A Prism of Chaos is right. There is so much good stuff here from the action to the little tide bits.

Zoe shows her full force! i love it!

The Legionnaires dawning the Violet Lanterns costumes was funny. i liked that Imra's was similar to her 70's outfit was cute.

I like your choices for Legionnaires who represent the most love within the Legion. It's so refreshing to see another side to Brainy.

I really liked how you showed doubt in Kara's mind, it was realistic and not just all of a sudden.
Vi and Mwindaji seemed like a good team. you know until you did the unthinkable.

Universo is so ruthless and he's now the White Lantern. i can't wait to see how this turns out and i hope they all make it out alive.

Glad you liked it Omni! It was fun coming up with the Star Sapphire costumes, I am half-tempted to draw them and post them here lol

Universo is quite ruthless, isn't he? You're probably right to worry about everyone making it out alive, I'm certainly not making any promises on that count...

Hey Raz, this is amazing! I'm thoroughly enjoying this arc - and am a bit scared of what your plans for Kara at the end of it. Can she be fully redeemed?

I'm not sure if I'd like to see pictures of the team in their Zamoran influenced costumes Garth's comment about Dirk not being there was cute. Still, it was nice to see the Legionnaires in the steadiest relationships taking up those rings - Querl in particular.

I love your respect for the Subs, making them competent and all - case in point Ulu disippatimg their bonds by altering their colour. It's really nice to see how you use them so effectively. Zoe being a living Lantern is a great twist too and a very interesting visual. And her determination to get her ring back was a bit scary - she strikes me as a woman who usually gets what she wants, by hook or crrook.

Salu talking to Gahiji only leads me to one conclusion - Vi and M'Windaji to the rescue! Splendid! Again and again your underdogs are the most resilient and inventive, It's something I look forward to with your stories.

Imra and Garth protected by the power of their love for each other -cheesy and perfect for the story, probably because it was the ever pragmatic Imra Ironass that delivered the line, I don't think anyone else could have said it.

Kara's doubts are written very well, as is Querl's pain at her behaviour. The end of that segment, with Saturn Girls warning, was well done too: perfectly times to amp up the tension!
It's going to be a tearjerker of a finale, isn't it?

I think I spotted a mistake Raz - In the last section where the team reach Vidar, et al, you mention Universo's indigo ring, and not his blue... am I being daft and getting confused that I didn't think was right?

I really didn't expect M'windaji to get hurt, hopefully he'll survive and join the academy - you have written him really well and I'd love to see more of him.

So Universo now has the powers of all the rings... eek! I don't think Ulu will be able to stop this one by turning him plaid! Looking forward to the end of this arc as it has been a real rollercoasterride, perhaps your best yet - even better than the Validii back n the day!

Glad you are liking it, Harbinger! I was starting to wonder if maybe this storyline has started to drag a bit, so it's good to see that y'all are still digging it - the Fatal Fives story with the Validii was one of my favourites to write so I will take the comparison as high praise!

I do love writing the underdogs of the Legion, resourceful use of power is always more interesting in my book than being a powerhouse (though it is fun to write characters just cutting loose with crazy power levels too). I am glad you liked Imra's line about love too...I think we are on the same page with that, it works coming from her because you know she's just being frank as opposed to melodramatic

re Universo's indigo ring; it was one of the rings he took from Larfleeze (who himself stole it from the Legionnaires he took captive last instalment). I probably could have worded that description more clearly, sorry!

...And without giving away any real spoilers, I think it's safe to say that the finale to all of this will indeed be a tearjerker and nobody is gonna be guaranteed seeing it through safely to the end!

ZAMARON
Brainiac 5 aka Querl Dox: 12th level intelligence, team leader
Color Kid aka Ulu Vakk: color manipulation
Dawnstar: translightspeed flight, interstellar-range tracking
Element Lad aka Jan Arrah: elemental transmutation
Fire Lad aka Staq Mavlen: fire-breathing
Gas Girl aka Tal Nahii: can transform into any gas
Light Lad aka Darvan Locke: anti-gravity control
Lightning Lad aka Garth Ranzz: reserve member, electricity generation and manipulation
Mon-El aka Lar Gand: Daxamite physiology
Phantom Girl aka Tinya Wazzo: intangibility
Polar Boy aka Brek Bannin: cold and ice generation
Saturn Girl aka Imra Ardeen Ranzz: reserve member, telepathy
Shadow Lass aka Tasmia Mallor: darkness generation
Shrinking Violet aka Salu Digby: shrinking
Wildfire aka Drake Burroughs: anti-energy being
Zoe Saugin: Legion of Superheroes ally, infused with Green Lantern energy

Salu Digby groaned as she lifted herself up on one elbow. The last thing she remembered was a golden construct slamming into her. Now she felt like one giant bruise, and she could hear something...was that a woman screaming?

Suddenly alert, Vi realised Mwindaji was lying at her side and reached out to shake him. She hissed his name then recoiled as though she’d been shocked. Two neat holes bored through his blood-soaked torso and his eyes stared lifelessly above. The teenage tracker was beyond helping anybody.

Vi turned now to the origin of the scream, and saw the Zamaron woman she’d earlier incapacitated. The warrior hovered in mid-air, fully conscious as an intense white light disintegrated her into a fine mist. The woman’s fellow Zamarons and the Legion of Superheroes gaped in horror, and a white-garbed Universo looked on with a blend of fascination and satisfaction at his grotesque handiwork. Shrinking Violet’s heart leaped to her throat...and then Queen Di’Ana of Zamaron called her people to war.

**********
Working together, Mon-El and Brainiac 5 had finally managed to use the combined might of their Star Sapphire rings to hold Satan Girl in place. Then Universo had taken the mantle of the White Lantern, and when he’d turned his new power against his unfortunate Zamaron assailant it had caused enough of a distraction for Satan Girl’s rage once more to reign supreme. With a guttural noise, Satan Girl shredded the violet field which had immobilised her. She grabbed Brainiac 5 and tore straight through the army of Zamaron warriors, taking him skyward.

“Damn it!” Mon-El poised to give chase when Saturn Girl placed a hand on the Daxamite’s shoulder.

“No, Mon.” Imra gave him a steely look he was all too familiar with; she had a plan. “The Star Sapphire ring will protect you from Universo’s hypnosis and you’re our heaviest hitter. We need you here. Garth and I will go after Kara.”

“Are you sure?” Mon-El questioned. “She’s unpredictable, Imra...are you sure you can penetrate whatever hold it is that damned ring has over her?”

“I’ve been thinking about this the wrong way,” Saturn Girl replied, watching the ferocious Zamarons all around her leap into battle against Universo. “What Supergirl really needs right now is some tough love.” Without another word, she fled after Satan Girl and Brainiac 5. Lightning Lad wasn’t entirely certain what his wife was plotting, but if there was one thing in his life that he trusted above all else, it was the sheer indomitability of Imra Ardeen Ranzz once she put her mind to something.

**********
Fire Lad and Polar Boy assaulted Universo together, hoping that their contrasting temperature powers along with the Zamaron onslaught would overwhelm his newfound might. Universo simply gave them a condescending smirk as he hovered several feet above. “The power of the White Lantern is the power of life itself,” he explained. “If one of the oldest races in the universe can’t stop me, what is a little fire and ice going to do?” He didn’t even gesture, simply allowing his brilliant white aura to dispel all of the individual attacks harmlessly.

“Maybe it’s just a distraction, Universo.” Color Kid stepped forward before the villain could launch a counter-attack against his friends. “And maybe you shouldn’t put so much faith in a white ring when you’re fighting someone who can change the color of anything he puts his mind to!” Ulu frowned in concentration, but to his surprise nothing happened.

“I assure you, I am beyond any of your parlour tricks,” Universo chuckled. “You however are not beyond mine. Earth-Man told me once how he took your sight from you, Color Kid. I think I’d prefer you that way.” Universo’s own eyes flared insanely bright, and Color Kid screamed in anguish.

Ulu collapsed to his knees, hands clutching at his face. “My eyes! What have you done to my eyes?!”

“Calm down,” Universo laughed cruelly. “They’re still there, you just won’t be able to use them anymore now that I’ve burned your retinas--”

Before he could finish, a coordinated barrage of energy beams from above drowned Universo out. Mon-El and Zoe Saugin joined a large number of Zamarons working in flawless unison with Queen Di’Ana and all of them slammed him into the ground with such force that it left a crater around the villain. “Give us some space!” Mon-El barked to the rest of his team, channeling as much power as he could through his violet ring to keep Universo pinned. “Element Lad, his ring--!”

“I don’t know what it’s made of,” Jan Arrah shook his head furiously, “But it’s not any elemental composition I recognise! My power’s useless against it, Mon-El!”

“Of course you’re useless,” Universo snarled. “You’re playing a game which is far far beyond you, Element Lad. In truth, you should just let me go on my way and I won’t bother any of you again.” He was forced to offer a conscious effort for the first time as he strained against the energy output of his combined assailants.

“Yeah, right!” Zoe mocked the bald villain. “And I suppose you’ve got a starport on Ventura you want to sell us too!”

“I mean what I say, Green Lantern.” Universo raised one hand to block their power, followed cautiously by his second. “Recent unpleasantness aside, all I want to do now is go to the Time Institute where I can use this power to fulfil the desire I have spent a lifetime pursuing.”

“The Time Institute?” Mon-El raised an eyebrow. “What could you possibly want from the Time Institute, Universo?”

“As I said, something I have desired for a very long time.” He stood almost fully erect against the violet and green energy now, an unhinged gleam in his eye. “I’m going to use the power of this ring to breach the Flashpoint barrier, to breach every one of time’s defences, and finally I will learn the origins of reality itself. For knowledge is the ultimate power, and there is no knowledge more ultimate.” A corona of white light exploded outward from Universo, sending Mon-El, Zoe and the nearest group of Zamarons flying.

Watching from a safer distance, Light Lad cradled Color Kid’s unconscious body while Gas Girl hovered around the Lupran hero’s head as a strong anesthetic mist. “Mon-El and that Green Lantern are two of our strongest fighters!” Gas Girl’s disembodied voice spoke in timid awe. “What do we do now, Light Lad..?”

“You fight to the death if you must,” a still dazed Queen Di’Ana announced as Mon-El and Zoe shook themselves off and went after Universo again. “Make no mistake, Legionnaires; if Universo succeeds in his mad scheme, everything we know is forfeit. The birth of our universe is a sacred mystery, to even try to lift that veil could mean disaster for all that exists!” She lifted her head to the skies now and using the violet light which was every Zamaron’s birthright she communicated telepathically with each one of her people while she spoke aloud to the Legionnaires. “I will lead Zamaron in casting a shield around this world to prevent Universo’s escape, but you must find a way to stop him.”

“But Queen Di’Ana,” Light Lad protested, “Your Highness...you and the other Zamarons are so much more powerful than most of us Legionnaires! Surely it would make more sense for you to help us fight Universo directly?”

“You speak truth, Legionnaire.” Despite the circumstances, Darvan felt his heart pound with desire when the Zamaron queen addressed him directly. “But we may expend ourselves fighting the White Lantern only to lose to his greater power. With my plan, your own brave struggle will buy Zamaron the time we need to pool our energies for what comes next if the Legion of Superheroes should fall.”

“For what comes next,” Shadow Lass repeated the monarch’s words with a hint of cattiness. “And what might that be, Your Highness?”

“The destruction of this world,” Queen Di’Ana answered with sad resolve, “This world and all of us who stand upon her.”

The Queen of the Zamarons flew straight up to lead her people, leaving several stunned Legionnaires in her wake.

**********
On the other side of the world, Satan Girl slammed Brainiac 5 through one of Zamaron’s ubiquitous lotus-shaped residences. The building and the pad upon which it was positioned both crumbled, and the duo’s impact into the planet’s surface was so thunderous that three more buildings fell around them.

“Kara, I’m begging you...you must fight this!” Brainiac pleaded. He was confident that the Star Sapphire ring paired with his forcefield belt would keep him safe this time, but he was running out of ways to try and reach her. Hot tears stung Kara’s face as she pounded again and again at the violet field surrounding him. At this point she didn’t even know why she was so enraged but it was consuming her and she just wanted it to stop.

<Good,> a voice rang clearly in her mind. <Wanting something to stop is the first step to making it stop. Let’s see if we can help you with the rest.> Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad descended from above, and Imra spoke aloud to Brainiac 5. “Brainy, this may be uncomfortable for you. Do you--”

“Do what you must,” the Coluan answered, the calm in his voice at odds with the imploring need in his gaze. “I trust you implicitly, Saturn Girl.”

Satan Girl spun on the telepath, but before she could launch an assault Lightning Lad ran millions of volts of electricity through her. “Stay there, Kara.” The output of raw energy turned the ground at her feet to glass, but it only stunned the mad Kryptonian. Still, it brought Imra the time she needed.

Brainiac 5 grimaced as Saturn Girl made contact. A quirk of Querl Dox’s 12th level intellect was his eidetic memory, and Imra now rifled through that extraordinary facility for any and all evidence of his love for Kara Zor-El. The undertaking was immensely challenging for both Brainiac and Saturn Girl; for Imra, it was like physically cramming every copy of every edition of the Encyclopedia Galactica which had ever been published into her brain at the same time and simultaneously having to pluck out specific words from specific pages to create the story she wanted to write. She considered temporarily shutting down her psionic rapport with her husband so that she could devote all of her considerable power to this task, but it occurred to Imra that without Garth acting as a subtle anchor she might find herself trapped in Brainiac 5’s labyrinth of memories forever. That thought alone gave her all the motivation she needed to focus.

Meanwhile, Querl was forced to relive all of the happy moments he’d shared with Kara as well as the heartache and the confused regret he’d felt every time she’d left the Legion to return to her own time. His heart soared when he recalled the very first time he’d laid eyes on Kara at that fateful Legion tryout. Pride and fear jostled for equal place as he watched her wade into Darkseid and the Fatal Five, and every other villain she’d battled to save the friends and the life here that she adored. His heart fragmented and he felt his world ripped from him anew whenever the anniversary of her death came around once more...and despite every rational part of the galaxy’s most advanced mind telling him that their love could in no way succeed, he felt the all too familiar pained sweetness of choosing emotion over logic every time Kara was back in his life.

Imra gathered all of that into one roiling knot of psychic energy and with a brutality normally foreign to her she forced all of it into Kara’s mind. The Kryptonian screeched, the three of them collapsed, and Garth Ranzz wondered with mounting anxiety what he’d just witnessed.

Saturn Girl was the first to stir. Her groans alerted Lightning Lad, and he crouched to help her stand. “Are you okay..? What the sprock was that you just did??”

Still leaning on her husband for support, Imra offered the rousing Brainiac 5 a hand as well. “Like I said…” Imra’s voice was weak. “Tough love...I’ll explain later, Garth...right now I feel like I’ve gone three rounds with Validus…”

“...You and I both…” Brainiac attempted to stand on his own, but wavered unsteadily on his feet.

“Easy there, pal.” Garth centred himself between Imra and Brainy so they could both lean on him. He looked down at Kara’s shuddering form. “Whatever you did...I hope it worked. You two don’t look like you’re anywhere close to being able to defend yourselves if she still wants to kill us all.”

Kara’s back hunched as she put all her weight on her forearms to get up off the ground. She moved with painstaking purpose, gradually climbing to a standing position. The air was hot with tension as her lowered head finally rolled back into an upright position and for the first time Garth, Imra and Brainiac could clearly see her face.

The teenage girl’s bloodshot blue eyes were filled with tears and her lip quivered. “Brainy...you guys...I tried to...Oh Rao, I would have…” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

“Kara...Kara, it’s not your fault.” Brainiac 5 approached, his voice breaking as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “We can talk about this, we’ll fix it. We’ll fix it all. It’s not your fault Kara, it was--”

Her head snapped up once more, her expression dominated by anger rather than despair. It wasn’t the bloodlust of Satan Girl this time though.This time it was Supergirl who was fighting mad.

“Universo.”

She spat his name bitterly, and was miles away before the others even realised she’d left.

**********
In another place, it was dawn.

The air was balmy and filled with the scents of life. A young man found himself in waist high grasses which swayed in the gentle breeze. He was little more than a boy, though in truth he didn’t really know any more than that. He scanned the horizon, where hazy mountains rose far away. Somewhere, the faint cry of birds could be heard as they woke from their slumber and ushered in the rising sun. A nearer rustling sound captured his attention, and the youth saw a plains lion perched majestically on a small boulder scant meits away.

The lion turned to face him and the youth was acutely aware that he was naked, but he was unafraid. For was the creature not also naked? A sense of peace came over him. It didn’t matter that he was naked. It didn’t matter that that he knew not who he was or how he had come to be here. All that mattered was that he surely belonged nowhere else.

And yet…

“And yet, you feel that you have unfinished business,” the lion spoke.

The young man met the beast with a quizzical expression. Was it right that this animal could speak? That it could read his thoughts as an open book? Should he know the answer to these questions?

“I am the personification of life, but life and death are bordering nations,” the lion continued. “My influence is limited in this place, but I do have some influence.”

“I do not understand.” The teenage boy approached the beast, gazing up at it from below. “Where is this place? Who are you? Who am I?”

The lion could not smile, but the boy nonetheless felt a smile in its voice. “These are the Endless Plains of the Savangati,” the beast explained. “These are the lands upon which your people roam once they have left life’s domain. Here you would embark on a new life, your human troubles no longer a concern. You have earned this respite, but I am afraid it is not yours to enjoy. Not yet.”

“Savangati…” The boy rolled the word on his tongue, trying it out. It sounded familiar to him somehow, a place he knew without ever having visited. But the beast had not answered all of his questions. “And me? Who am I? Who are you?”

“As I said, I am the personification of life,” the lion responded warmly. “My name is the name given to every creature which breathes. I have an infinite registry of names, whereas you have but the one which you chose for yourself. You lost that name when you came to the Savangati, but it is within my power to give it back.”

“I...do not belong here, do I?” the boy queried, looking around.

“Everybody belongs here sooner or later,” the lion chuckled warmly. “But it is not where you must be right now, Mwindaji.”

The name meant something to the youth, but before he could think on it further the blazing sun cleared the horizon and bathed everything in a sheer white light. The lion’s form was silhouetted against the backdrop of light until the light claimed the beast with many names, and the last thought that crossed Mwindaji’s mind before he too was consumed by that brilliance was how peculiar it was that the sun and the odd talking lion should be the exact same shade of white...

**********
Shadow Lass moaned weakly and flung herself backwards. She’d wrapped Universo in a shroud of darkness, but he’d easily torn it asunder and the intensity of his light had finally proven too much for her to withstand. Phantom Girl ran to her best friend’s side and checked her pulse.

Shrinking Violet hovered by Phantom Girl’s cheek, inches tall. “How is she?”

“She’ll live,” Tinya released a long exhalation. “Or she’ll have no worse chance than the rest of us anyway,” she added glumly. Universo had already taken down most of the Legion, including Mon-El. They’d kept him too occupied to concentrate on killing any of them at least, but the more Legionnaires he defeated the more their chances of surviving this battle at all decreased. “I just wish there were some way we could do something about that ring,” Phantom Girl frowned. “And I’m worried about Brainy, Garth and Imra; for all we know, Supergirl’s already…” She found herself unable to voice her fear.

“If Supergirl had killed them, she’d be back here already,” Vi said pragmatically. “Saturn Girl seemed like she had a plan, let’s see how that pans out. About that ring though...I think you’re right. And I just had a crazy idea that might help.”

“Really?” Phantom Girl perked up. “What is it?”

“I’m not telling you,” Vi responded. “Because any sane person would try to stop me.” She darted off toward Universo before Phantom Girl could reply, shrinking as she flew till she was soon unable to be seen at all.

Good luck, Phantom Girl bit her lip. And be careful, Vi. Tinya Wazzo surveyed the scene of battle. She’d tried herself to sneak up on Universo earlier, but the White Lantern ring prevented even her intangible form from closing. Gas Girl had managed to engulf the villain, but she lay unmoving next to Element Lad, Polar Boy and Fire Lad now for her efforts. Dawnstar was mercifully unconscious among the tattered remnants of Wildfire’s containment suit, her wings shattered. Phantom Girl, Shrinking Violet, Light Lad and Zoe Saugin were the only four heroes still standing, and Zoe was only upright thanks to Light Lad’s support.

“You must know you have no chance now, Legionnaires.” Universo stared down at them all from his airborne position of superiority. “I’ve had fun exploring the more visceral aspects of what can be done with this power, but none of you need to die. Tell your Zamaron friends to let me leave and you can all lick your wounds in peace.” He spared a glance upwards at the violet field encompassing the planet.

“I’m not a Legionnaire,” an exhausted Zoe said angrily. “But even if you weren’t planning on doing something that will jeopardise this whole universe, I’ll die before I stop trying to see you brought to justice for what you’ve already done...to my friends, to Supergirl, to this world and sprock knows how many others.”

Universo laughed. “I remember that misguided altruism well from my days in the Green Lantern Corps, girl. Just as I remember the slavish devotion to every lie the Guardians ever told. Believe me, there is no risk in viewing the creation of all time and space, but in knowing the hand of the Creator firsthand there is unprecedented power. That is the true reason the Guardians always dissuaded us from chasing this knowledge. They just couldn’t bear the thought of someone holding more power than -- eh?” He held his right hand before him, the White Lantern ring on his finger quivering oddly. “What is this then?”

A high frequency vibration came from the ring, but only for an instant before Shrinking Violet emerged and collapsed in a heap on the ground below Universo, growing to her full height as she fell. “I tried to wreck it...from the inside…” a weakened Vi mumbled. “...Too...tough, I...failed...”

“You were foolish to believe any other outcome might exist,” Universo spoke coldly. “All you’ve succeeded in is hastening your own demise, woman.” Phantom Girl and Light Lad moved to stop him, but Zoe was faster. She tackled him as his ring flared bright, and the power which was meant to destroy Shrinking Violet instead struck the last living Green Lantern. The emerald energy inside her protected Zoe Saugin from disintegration, but it wasn’t enough to save her from the White Lantern’s power entirely. Her aura faded to an almost non-existent shimmer and she fell gasping to the ground at Vi’s side.

Still in massive amounts of pain herself, Vi crawled across to the teenage girl. “Hang in there…” Violet gripped the shaking girl’s hand. “We’ll get through this, Lantern...you saved my life, we’ll save yours…”

Zoe was deathly pale and breathing in short sharp gasps. “It’s okay,” she whispered, a lone tear streaming down her cheek. “I just wanted to help...I always wanted to…” She trailed away to silence, and her agonised breathing stopped. Wide green eyes stared at Violet with a pleading expression which quickly faded along with her life.

“She was just a teenager!” Vi looked up at Universo in anger. “She and Mwindaji both! What kind of monster kills teenagers?!” Light Lad and Phantom Girl stood in a protective stance over their teammate.

Any trace of humour faded from Universo. “Woman, I had my own son murdered in pursuit of this power. Why do you think I would spare a thought for any of your lives? I tried to give you a chance but I see now that the only way I’ll ever be free of your nuisance is to slay you all. Honestly, you heroes are like damn cockroaches.” He blazed bright with power, building up a charge which would kill everyone on the battlefield.

“Phantom Girl, get out of here!” Vi commanded. “Phase to Bgtzl, he may not be able to follow you there!”

Tinya Wazzo stood defiant in the face of Universo’s power. “I’m not doing that. Not any more than you’d go subatomic to save yourself. We’re Legionnaires, we stand or fall together.”

Light Lad stretched two trembling arms out toward Universo. “I’m trying as hard as I can to repel him, you guys. It...it’s not working. This is really it, isn’t it..?” Thoughts of his sister came to Darvan’s mind, and of Ayla and Kent.

“Don’t worry,” Universo decreed. By now they couldn’t make out any of the man’s features, he was just an intensely glowing white silhouette. “I can afford to be charitable now, I promise I’ll make this painless.”

Sonic booms filled the atmosphere like thunder, and with an almost world-splitting smash the three Legionnaires suddenly found themselves surrounded by a field of debris as they plummeted toward Zamaron’s surface. It had all happened so quickly that they’d had no time to save themselves, and the heroes assumed Universo had come up with some new way to torture them all until they found themselves in the grip of a gentle violet field. While the dust settled around them and the crashing sounds continued far off to the west, they saw that their saviour was Lightning Lad. “Garth?!” Phantom Girl exclaimed. “How did you -- what just happened?!”

Lightning Lad watched the trail of destruction extend across the violet world. “Supergirl happened.”

He lowered the trio to the ground, and they realised now that Supergirl must have careened straight through the structure they’d been standing on and taken Universo with her. With the speed she’d been travelling, she had hit like a meteor strike. Her devastating wake was visible for miles. Of greater concern to the heroes, everybody else who’d already been taken down by Universo was now trapped somewhere beneath all of this. “Stay here and help our friends,” Lightning Lad ordered. “Imra and Brainy followed Supergirl, I’m going to join them. I’ve got a feeling these rings are going to be the only thing that’ll let us stand up to Universo now.”

“Your ring will not help you,” a baritone voice spoke. His identity obscured by the dust raised in Supergirl’s assault, the Legionnaires saw a masculine form approach. “Vidar is not worthy of the power of the White Lantern, but there is only one way it can be removed from him.

Legionnaires...take me to Universo.”

**********
Supergirl was dimly aware of Saturn Girl and Brainiac 5 descending in her wake, but the majority of her focus was on the bald man before her. Her fists were a blur as she landed punch after punch on Universo. The power of the White Lantern ring lent him a more than respectable measure of invulnerability, but he couldn’t come anywhere near matching the Kryptonian’s speed.

A dim crimson glow engulfed Supergirl; she could feel her rage rising like bile, but for the first time since she’d taken this Rao-cursed red ring it was under control. “You’ve gone too far, Universo!” Hot tears stung Kara’s eyes. “You made me hurt my friends! You made me kill a man! You’re lucky I don’t kill you!”

“Luck has nothing to do with it, you melodramatic child!” The white power blazed forth from him, and Kara was flung backwards. While she collected herself, Brainiac 5 and Saturn Girl approached warily. Universo wiped his lip with the back of his hand, mildly surprised to find that Kara had drawn blood. “I planned every aspect of this quest, and every aspect I planned has come to perfect fruition. Do you really think I’d let you murder me now when I’m so close to my goal? I’ve been subtly reinforcing my hypnotic control every time I’ve been near you, Supergirl...or should I call you Satan Girl? After all, anger is a notoriously poor defence against manipulation.” He smiled wickedly at this, and Kara felt her world spinning.

“Kara, you can fight this!” Brainiac erected a violet shield between Supergirl and Universo while Saturn Girl placed a supportive hand on Kara’s shoulder.

The maid of might gripped Brainiac’s arm, turmoil written across her face as she struggled against Universo’s power. “Brainy...Brainy, I can’t…”

“You can!” Saturn Girl interrupted her forcefully. “Kara, I’m fighting for you as hard as I can but you need to make this choice for yourself! Remember your love for us and find your strength in that!”

Universo shattered Brainiac’s forcefield, the White Lantern ring having already regenerated his injuries. “This whole affair has become rather droll, I must say.” He caught Kara’s gaze as he stepped closer. “Satan Girl, hurry up and kill these two interlopers so we can depart.”

The red pounded inside Kara’s skull, inside her veins. She became aware in her desperation that she was clutching Brainiac too hard, that she was hurting him, and that realisation made some vindictive part of her happy. “No!” She pushed Brainiac 5 aside forcefully enough that he and Saturn Girl landed in a heap together and then Supergirl stood between her friends and the villain who’d brought her to this. “No more, Universo! You won’t use me ever again!” Shaking with emotion, she turned to face Querl Dox. “Brainy...Brainy, I love you. I love you and I’m so sorry.”

Brainiac 5 realised what she was doing too late to stop her. He bellowed in horror as Supergirl ripped the red ring from her finger and with every ounce of strength in her body threw it across the sky. A wail of pure agony ripped forth from the Kryptonian teen as she fell convulsing to the ground. Brainiac 5 rushed to her side, but his 12th level intellect knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that it was hopeless. Seconds later, Kara Zor-El drew her last breath and lay still in his arms.

“You’re a monster!” Saturn Girl clenched her fists and struck at Universo with a stabbing bolt of psionic energy. “You’ll pay for this, Universo! I swear I’ll see you rot on Takron-Galtos for the rest of your natural life!”

To the exhausted woman’s credit, her assault staggered the White Lantern. He fell back a step and grabbed at his forehead. “No, woman. You will not.” He glowered menacingly, and Saturn Girl screamed as she became ash on the breeze.

Universo calmly approached Brainiac 5. “What about you, Coluan? You’re the smartest of all of them, surely you at least must know when you’ve been defeated.”

“The smartest.” A grim laugh shook the Legion’s leader and he lowered Kara gently to the ground. “Everybody says that, but nobody ever really thinks about what it means. Nobody ever really thinks about how much I hold my intellect back so that I can retain my humanity.” Moving faster than Universo expected, Brainiac reached out and grabbed the villain’s ring-bearing hand. “Compared to me, nobody ever really thinks.”

“What are you--?” Universo stumbled, taken aback at his foe’s grip.

“Tell me, Vidar...you have plotted against us many times, you know more about us than perhaps any other villain we have faced; I have to assume that you know I can interface directly with technology when necessary.” Brainiac 5 stood up, meeting Universo’s appalled stare. “This ring is an unspeakably powerful technology, but it is technology nonetheless. I had considered physically exerting my dominance over your ring the second I saw its power, and had discarded that tactic almost immediately. The White Lantern ring is too powerful for even my 12th level intellect to cause its destruction, not without the very considerable risk of lobotomising one or both of us in the struggle.”

“You can’t do this!” Universo’s voice rose an octave. “Fall, damn you!” Try as he might though, the ring would not obey his command.

Brainiac continued, eerily calm. “You killed one of my dearest friends when you killed your son, Universo. I don’t have many really close friends, and today you have killed one more, along with the woman I love. There is a high probability that at least some of the remaining Legion of Superheroes lie dead on the other side of this world, and throughout my life the Legion of Superheroes have been that which influences me most to be human. Tell me Universo, how much do you think I value my humanity right now if losing it will remove your presence from this universe forever?”

“I’ll fight you, damn it! You can’t possibly have the stronger will!” The villain was beginning to panic. He couldn’t lose now, not when he’d come so far.

“The stronger will? Possibly not,” Brainiac conceded. “But the stronger intellect? There is no doubt. I know machines, Universo. I know how to create them and I know how to destroy them.”

“I believe there has been enough destruction here for one day.” Both men turned at this new voice to see Lightning Lad approach. His violet ring was carrying the man who’d spoken, and both of them landed near Universo and Brainiac 5. Universo’s eyes grew wide with disbelief as he recognised Mwindaji instantly.

“You….it can’t be!” Universo sputtered. “I killed you! I saw you die!”

“Brainy?” Lightning Lad looked around, starting to realise something was very wrong. “Where’s Imra? And Kara...why isn’t Supergirl moving?”

“I am sorry to say that they have both fallen victim to the power this man wields,” Mwindaji answered Garth’s query with sad resignation. “As have many others today. As I had myself. But you said it yourself, Vidar. The power of the White Lantern is the power of life...and you have twisted and corrupted that power to bring a darkness to the universe which never should have existed. I have been given a second chance to repair your mistakes.”

“A second chance..?” Universo’s heart dropped. Dried blood was crusty on Mwindaji’s costume. There was no doubt that he had died...and there was only one power which could have reversed that. He tried to yank his hand away from Brainiac 5’s grip more urgently, but Brainiac saw the fear on the bald villain’s face and held him with both hands. “No,” Universo pleaded, “Mwindaji, please...I allowed myself to be carried away, but you have to believe that my end goal was always noble! I want to know why life was created! Don’t we deserve that knowledge?!”

“Perhaps we do, that question is not for a simple tracker from Kirinyaga.” Mwindaji reached for the white ring, and somehow Brainiac 5 knew instinctively that it was right to allow him to do so. Brainiac released his hold on Universo and Mwindaji’s hand closed over the ring. “But I promise you this,” Mwindaji continued, “It is knowledge you will never gain.”

Mwindaji removed the ring from Universo’s finger and a blinding pulse of white light exploded outwards in all directions. When everybody could see again, Mwindaji stood before them in an all-white version of his bodysuit while Universo cowered in his more traditional green and purple outfit. Lightning Lad felt a touch on his shoulder and turned to find his wife, tears welling in her eyes. “Imra!” He embraced her and the two shared a wordless reunion.

“I have restored the lives of those whom this man’s schemes had taken,” Mwindaji explained. “Universo did not lie when he said that the power of the White Lantern is the power of life itself. It is only fitting that it should be used to restore life.”

“Do you know how hard I worked for that ring?” Universo ranted. The initial shock of his defeat had faded and now he wanted vengeance. “I won’t stand for this, I’ll kill you with my bare hands if I have to!”

He rushed Mwindaji, but before he could take more than a step forward he was enclosed in a soundproof cube thanks to the violet ring Brainiac 5 wore. “Shut up,” the Coluan said abruptly while Universo pounded helplessly against the translucent walls. Brainiac rushed to Supergirl’s side and peered up at Mwindaji with a mix of righteous anger and despair in his expression. “Why is Kara still dead?” he demanded. “Are we expected to believe that you could resurrect Saturn Girl from utter discorporation but you can’t heal Kara?”

“Brainy…” Saturn Girl moved toward her old friend.

“No!” Brainiac 5 cried out, jabbing a finger in Mwindaji’s direction. “If he hadn’t helped Universo find those rings, none of this would have happened! It’s his fault as much as it is Universo’s that Kara is dead, it’s his responsibility to help her!”

“You are right, of course.” Mwindaji walked up to Brainiac 5 and Supergirl and went down on one knee. “It is just...I truly am sorry, but I am not Universo; I must work with the Entity who empowers me through this ring, and the Entity knows that Supergirl is not meant to be here. She is not of this era.”

“So she has to die?” Brainiac 5 glared defiantly. “I don’t accept that! I’ll take that damn ring and do it myself--!”

“You misunderstand,” Mwindaji raised his hands passively. “I can help her...the White Lantern can restore Supergirl to life, but she is not meant to be here. She will have to return to her own time if she is to be returned to life. The Entity’s power is not absolute, this will tax the White Lantern ring to its limits. But I can do it. I can restore her to life, but it will be a life without the Legion of Superheroes in it.”

“I…” Brainiac 5 brushed her cold cheek, a tear rolling down his own green skin. “She...she killed a man; Larfleeze. She tried to hurt us because of what Universo did to her. How can she deal with that without us there to support her?”

“Larfleeze too has been brought back to the land of the living. At any rate, Supergirl has been through significant trauma,” Mwindaji explained. “She may not even remember any of this. But she will live, Querl Dox.”

“Then...then we don’t really have a choice at all, do we?” Brainiac hugged the maid of might close to his chest. Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl looked on silently, their hands clasped as they wrestled with their own grief and hope. “Do it, Mwindaji. Save her.”

There was another flash of white light, and Brainiac 5 whispered a pained goodbye to Kara Zor-El as she disappeared from his arms.

“As for this,” Mwindaji removed the white ring and held it in his palm. “I believe that it has caused more than enough trouble.” He made a fist, and Mwindaji easily crumpled the drained White Lantern ring into a formless wad of soft metal. While still white, it seemed to have lost its brilliance and everyone present felt that it had also lost the last of its power.

“Your costume didn’t change back,” Saturn Girl noticed. “But Universo’s changed when you took the power from him. What does that mean?”

Mwindaji held his arms out in front of himself, looking himself over. “The White Lantern ring is no more,” he said. “But I feel that the Entity has left me with some remnant of its power. Back home on Kirinyaga, I always wanted to believe that I was destined for something more than the life of a tracker. Perhaps...perhaps I now have the power to find that destiny?”

“Maybe the Legion of Superheroes can help you with that,” Saturn Girl replied. “We’ll need to do tests anyway, to find out how you’ve been changed. Will you come back to Mars with us, Mwindaji?”

“I would be honoured,” Mwindaji bowed his head respectfully. “After everything I helped Universo do...I cherish the opportunity I have been given to make amends for those choices.”

“I’m gonna call everyone else in then,” Lightning Lad said. He placed a hand on Brainiac 5’s shoulder, the Coluan still kneeling quietly where he’d cradled Supergirl as she left them all.

“Come on buddy...it’s time to go home.”

**********

Skimmed through quickly, raz. Quite an epic! Good job involving so many Lantern Corps and writing them well.

Zoe's death was well done, her last line "I always wanted to help" was so her... I'm not even upset she died 😝 (and she's well again, so...)

The last stand of Vi, Tinya and Darvan was excellent

Also loved your good use of the various uninsured Legionnaires and their powers - Tasmia hurting Kara, Ulu making several of the ring bearers' powers useless (and your good explanations for why he didn't do it more often) come to mind. and of course the joint effort of Brainy and Imra to free Kara.

Loved your pics and reasoning for Legionnaires as Star Sapphires

great writing for Mwindaji and interesting use for him

another excellent story

I'm in love with this last segment and i hate it all at the same time. so great job Raz!!

I loved the action and without seeing every battle and all the Legionnaires on the injured or dead list we got this hopelessness and that the Legion was really going to have a change after this battle. But then you went and saved everyone! Don't get me wrong i'm glad Imra and Zoe are ok but their deaths were so good that i was ok with them. So now what does this mean for them? Will they feel or experience anything after being brought back from the dead?

Vi, PG and Light Lad's last stand was really well done as well. Fighting until the end!
Imra's tough love was also well done with Kara and the description of how hard Brainy's mind is to sift through was well done.

Mwindaji as a white lantern and on the team... hmmmm this could be really good. I wonder what his powers are now though if he doesn't have the ring and the full power of it and just how long will it last? Also enjoyed his trip to the after life or limbo i guess.

You broke my heart when Brainy and Kara had to say goodbye especially since it wasn't that long ago that they were finally having their happiness. but nothing last forever. i like the explanation though and that it was the universe saying she had to go back. But where and when and does this mean she's actually dead because Crisis?

When you get this many questions you have to know i loved every minuet of it. Thank you again for another enjoyable segment and can't wait for more!

Raz, Raz, Raz, what have you done?

Y'see, I only had planned to spend five minutes skimming through this (again!) so I could refresh my memory to post a response, and instead, 45 minutes later I want to go back and re-read it to make sure I've got everything right in my mind before posting anything else - there's so much delicious characterisation, shocking storyline and splendid surprises that you probably needed a weeks rest after writing this to recover!

(Oh, and to come back on something mentioned earlier - knew about the indigo ring, I was confused why you hadn't mentioned the blue one stolen from Mysa - sorry that wasn't clear. Right, I'll get back to the review...)

Here are my thoughts as I read you story:

Nice opening segment with Vi waking up to the horrors around her, and poor Gahiji's lifeless body.

Mon El deferring to Imra - yup, if there's one person he would stop doing whatever he was doing for and not even ak what she planned to d instead for it's good old Saturn Girl. Garth thinking about how he has total faith in her was cute too.

Blinding Ulu again was cruel Raz! Light Lad and gas Girl looking after him was sweet though.

Di'Ana using the Legion as cannon fodder? Surely not! Tasmia's cattiness is a treat. Ah, okay, so if the Legion don't stop Bad Daddy Vidar then the Zamoran Queen will destroy the planet and hopefully stop him by doing that. Ah, okay, fair enough.

Very nice scene with Imra rifling through Querl's memories - great that she wanted to stay tethered to Garth in case she got lost in Brainy's mind. Watch out Universo - Kara's coming to get you!

M'Windaji meeting Aslan... I mean, the Personification of Life, was really sweet. I'm glad you decided to bring him back. Hopefully he'll not feel too guilty for having fallen under Vidars influence and leading him to the rings.,and will join your team soon too.

The next section was superb: Tinya's concern for Tasmia, Vi's desperate plan and Zoe's determination and sacrifice were all nice little slices of the story showing their character. Super Girl's last second save and Garth catching the falling woundedwere also well written. And M'Windaji makes his move...

Super Girl I expected to die, but Saturn Girl as well? Oh. My. Gawd!

I really, really like Badass Brainy! Really do, I may borrow that idea for my own fic. Him taking control over the White Lantern and stopping Vidar in his tracks was a really good idea.

M'Windaji taking charge of the ring was nice, and restoring Imra of course had to be done. His reasoning for Kara leaving were sound too. I somehow think that sadly we won't see her again, which is fair enough, though I had really enjoyed your take on her and her relationship with Querl.

I'm glad that the ring was destroyed and really looking forward to seeing what you do with Gahiji.

Total tear jerker ending - as you threatened above - and you delivered it.

Raz, I was planning on getting onto review Omni's story as well this evening but I ran out of time reading yours. It was a very fitting end to an excellent arc. Well done you!

I'm looking forward to more, more, more!

As usual, thanks for the feedback everyone...it is very motivational

I had this kind of exit in mind for Supergirl waaaay back when I first brought her back onto the team (in fact, having her become Satan Girl again at some point was a large part of why I wanted to use her in the first place), but after she's been such a stalwart member of my Legion for so long it was very difficult following through when it came time to actually write it! Seems like it succeeded in pulling on some heartstrings though, and that was the goal

Once I had the plot outlined for the last couple of chapters of this story I realised that a lot of the active team didn't really have a major role in the resolution so I went back through it and tried to give as many of them some little moments of heroism or character focus to make up for it...I'm glad you guys liked it!

Hopefully the next couple of stories will answer some of your questions about where various Legionnaires and non-Legionnaires go from here, and I don't think it's spoiling anything to say Mwindaji and Zoe specifically are gonna get a little more spotlight as we find out where they're both at power-wise and in their own heads.

I'm glad you liked badass Brainy, Harbi! Events in the comics like his creation of Omega and the way he set the Time Trapper and the Infinite Man against each other have made me see Brainy more than anyone else on the team maybe as someone you REALLY don't want to push too far (oh, and good work on the Aslan reference, hahaha)

The next installment of my little series is gonna be called Death of the Witch and is going to decisively tie up one particular loose end, just in case anyone thought I was done with torturing these characters just yet

MARS
Husband Hill, Legion of Superheroes Headquarters

ROLL CALL
Legion Academy:
Gravity Kid aka Tel Vole: gravity manipulation
Lullabye Lad aka Waiane Wentim: Zwennite physiology, narcoleptic induction

Legion of Superheroes:
Brainiac 5 aka Querl Dox: 12th level intelligence, team leader
Lightning Lad aka Garth Ranzz: reserve member, electricity generation and manipulation
Saturn Girl aka Imra Ardeen Ranzz: reserve member, telepathy

Mwindaji: Legion ally, tracker infused with White Lantern energy
Zoe Saugin: Legion ally, infused with Green Lantern energy

Inside what remained of Brainiac 5's multi-lab after Supergirl's recent rampage, a handful of heroes watched the youth named Mwindaji standing before the insensate body of Tel Vole.

As Gravity Kid, Tel had suffered as much as any Legionnaire when he'd stood against the brainwashed Supergirl. His seared red flesh was a testament to what his heroism had cost him. Supergirl's heat vision had seriously hurt him, would in fact have killed him had he not been shielded by the invulnerable body of his fellow student Laurel Kent. Mwindaji gently placed his outstretched palms on Gravity Kid's exposed chest, and a soft white light emanated forth from the tracker's dark skin. Before the astonished gaze of everyone watching, Gravity Kid's injuries healed in a matter of seconds.

Tel moaned and sat up in his bed, confused at the sight of this white-clad stranger standing over him with everyone else watching wide-eyed. "...What's going on..?" he asked. "Where's my costume? What happened with Satan Girl...I mean Supergirl...whatever?"

"I'm so glad you're okay!" Lullabye Lad rushed to his boyfriend's side and hugged him. "Don't worry Tel, that's all dealt with...Mwindaji, thank you so much! That was amazing!" Gravity Kid placed an arm around Lullabye Lad's shoulder in return, but he was still utterly confused.

Brainiac 5 examined Gravity Kid's bio-readings on a holographic panel floating over the foot of the bed. "Supergirl acted under the influence of Universo," he explained dispassionately. "She has since been freed of his command and returned permanently to her own time." He paused long enough that the silence was awkward before continuing. "I'll require follow up analysis to confirm that you have indeed been permanently healed, but given what we have witnessed so far I have no reason to suspect otherwise. Gravity Kid, as of right now you are in perfect physical health." He said all of this without once looking at the dazed teenager, but he turned now to face the person who'd healed him. "Congratulations Mwindaji, we can now say with some certainty that you have indeed retained at least some of the power of the White Lantern."

"I am simply grateful to have the chance to make amends for my poor decisions," Mwindaji deflected Brainiac's comment. "You have said that you have other friends who require healing also? I am happy to help them if my assistance will be welcomed."

"Your assistance is more than welcome. In fact,” he addressed both Mwindaji and Zoe, “I’d like to put you both forward for membership in the Legion of Superheroes. Green Lantern, you’ve assisted the Legion selflessly more than once; and Mwindaji, your actions on Zamaron certainly made up for your role in helping Universo initially. What do you say?”

The duo were stunned, Mwindaji the first to recover. “Tales of the Legion of Superheroes have reached even Kirinyaga,” he said reverently. “I would consider it a great honour, Brainiac 5! Thank you!”

“I - I still need to find Sodam Yat though,” Zoe stammered.

“The Legion are more than capable of helping with that,” Brainiac 5 countered instantly. “Between Dawnstar and Mwindaji, I’m certain we’ll have more success than you would alone.”

“Then...then yeah, for sure!” Zoe beamed. “I’d love to be a Legionnaire!”

“Excellent.” Brainiac 5 turned from the group and walked away. “Once the rest of the team is physically capable, I will call a meeting for a formal vote. I anticipate that there will be very little resistance to the idea however.”

Zoe turned to Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad. “I can’t believe this is happening!” she gushed. “After everything that’s gone down, joining the Legion of Superheroes was the last thing I ever expected to be doing! Do you really think the rest of the Legion will go for it?”

“It’s probably a little premature to be saying welcome to the team,” Lightning Lad winked, “But let’s just say I like your chances. Don’t you agree, Imra?”

“Hmm?” Saturn Girl had been lost in thought and was startled to hear her name. “Oh...oh yes, I’m sure you’ll both be great additions to the team. Would you all excuse me for a moment? There’s something I need to do.”

She kissed Garth on the cheek and walked off with purpose after Brainiac 5.

**********
XEROX
The Sorceror's World

ROLL CALL
Blok: magically enhanced strength, invulnerability, speed, flight, stamina, wisdom and courage
Night Girl aka Lydda Jath Krinn: photosensitive super-strength

Lydda Jath examined her reflection in a large puddle which had been left by the raging storm earlier. She was glad her husband wasn’t here to see her like this; Xerox’s mystical healers had prevented Satan Girl’s corrosive assault from causing Lydda serious permanent injury, but the remaining cosmetic damage wasn’t at all attractive. Her normally flawless alabaster skin had become a landscape of angry and painful red welts. Lydda knew the technology of the United Planets would restore her appearance once she was back on Mars, but for now she felt depressingly hideous.

“Enough,” she chided herself, stamping out the maudlin woman staring glumly at her from below. “You’re not the only one hurting here, Lydda...and definitely not the one we should be most concerned about.”

She marched past a tiny gaggle of twig-winged sprites and toward the Black Witch’s foreboding castle, allowing the chill breeze to soothe her burns as much as possible. A stone stairway inside the castle’s walls spiralled down to a damp lower level, the dim light here far more to Night Girl’s comfort, and Lydda soon found herself at the entrance to an empty circular room. The Black Witch kneeled in the centre of the drying mud floor, her head bowed so that it almost touched the floor. Mysa rocked anxiously back and forth, muttering strange incantations while her hair draped in the dirt. Harlak the Khund stood silently against the rounded brick wall, his military posture betraying little of the softness that Lydda could see in his gaze. Night Girl’s teammate Blok stood by Harlak’s side, the lightning bolt shaped gash in Blok’s chest brighter than any of the torches Night Girl had passed on her way here. Lydda shaded her eyes with her arm.

“I’ve just been in touch with Ultra Boy,” Night Girl advised Blok in a hushed tone. “He and Phantom Girl are on their way to collect us in a cruiser. The Legion defeated Universo, and it looks like we may even have recruited some new members out of this mess. Supergirl though...Kara had to return to her own time. She’s left the team; from the way Ultra Boy sounded I don’t think the loss has really hit everyone yet.”

“Supergirl has always been among the best of us,” Blok’s gravelly voice filled the room. “She will certainly be missed...Night Girl, what of the blue ring that Universo stole from Mysa’s castle?”

“The ring is gone,” the voice of the Black Witch rasped. Her head swivelled to face the others, and all of them were struck with how haggard she seemed. “I can sense it as surely as I can sense anything on this miserable world. And with the ring gone….all hope is gone.”

“Mistress--” Harlak began to speak.

“Leave me,” Mysa interrupted abruptly. “For what comes next...I do not want you here, Harlak.”

His lip curled downwards in a frown, and the Khund teenager almost protested before remembering his place.”As you wish, Mistress.” He bowed respectfully, then left the Black Witch alone with her former teammates.

Night Girl felt that she was intruding; she barely knew Mysa really, but she could see how upset the sorceress was and she knew that Blok shared a special closeness with her. Lydda had decided to excuse herself when the burning embers of the Black Witch’s eyes caught Night Girl’s own gaze. “Stay,” Mysa Nal spoke in a tone which was more of a command than a request. Without standing, Mysa continued to speak. “Fate has a sense of humor it seems...or perhaps merely a sense of the efficacious. Between a hero with whom I hold a strong bond and one with whom I share the most superficial connection, one of you must surely be able to help.”

“What is it you require, Mysa?” Blok asked. “Since the other Legionnaires left the planet you have been in deep meditation in this room; please know that we will both do whatever we must to help.”

Still on her knees, Mysa Nal’s gaze met Blok’s. “Even if you need to slay me, Blok?”

“What??” Night Girl was visibly shaken. “You must know we’re not going to do that, Mysa. Why would you even want us to?”

“Still you do not comprehend, Lydda Jath Krinn? After the way I hurt the Legion this day, you still do not understand what it is you face?” Mysa spoke quietly, but with an intensity that left Lydda unnerved.

“Explain it to us,” Blok challenged the Black Witch. “I know that you contain the essence of Mordru the Merciless, and that of an entire universe’s magical remnants. But you are still you, Mysa. Superficial changes aside, you are the purest being I have ever met.”

“I am anything but pure, Blok.” The white-skinned sorceress allowed her posture to sag, her head bowed in defeat. “Perhaps you are right however...perhaps I need to explain.” She stood and walked past the two Legionnaires. “Come with me then. I will tell you both everything, and then the decision can be yours.” She led them out of the room, down a subterranean corridor that neither Blok nor Night Girl remembered having been there earlier. As she walked, the Black Witch spoke, and the stones lining the walls on either side of the trio seemed to warp and fragment into animated pieces. Soon, the castle around them was illustrating the Black Witch’s words in mosaic form.

“I told you of the importance of the blue ring of hope in establishing Xerox,” the Black Witch said. “But I did not tell you why.” The dull stone of the walls reproduced the shape of the Blue Lantern ring, if not its vibrant hue. “When Mordru took it upon himself to recreate the Sorceror’s World, even his peerless might was not equal to the task. He needed an artifact to help complete the job, and he found that artifact in the last existing Blue Lantern ring.” The stone walls reflected Mordru palming the ancient ring, and the Black Witch continued her tale. “The blue ring gave Mordru the reservoir of power he needed for a planetary reconstruction. However...true hope can only be borne of selfless desire. Mordru’s primary motivation in recreating the Sorceror’s World was unquestionably selfish, but the ring would not have worked at all if he had not also intended for this world to legitimately function as a safe haven and place of learning for those who would devote themselves to the mystic arts. So it was that Xerox was born, and in Mordru the Merciless was revealed some nascent glimmer of humanity.” The three heroes continued deeper into the castle’s bowels, the mosaic freezing on the image of Mordru overseeing a menagerie of magical creatures while ghostly songstrands teased everyone's ears.

Night Girl frowned. “Mysa...I don’t want to seem dense, but...I don’t get it. So Mordru was never completely corrupted, is that meant to be a revelation? He was an evil man, but he was still a man. As power-hungry as he was, there must have been some good influence in his life that left its mark on him too. I don’t really understand how this relates to you now?”

“Mordru is a part of me now,” the Black Witch said wearily. “As much a part of me as Mysa Nal ever has been...and while that ring was here, I could find some comfort in the hope that his evil could be tempered. Now the ring is gone, all hope is gone...and all that is left is to end me before I succumb to these constant dark urges festering away inside.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Lydda scoffed. Mysa turned on her with frightening speed, the expression on her bloodless face positively demonic.

“I believe what Night Girl means,” Blok stepped between the women diplomatically, “Is that the Blue Lantern ring was doubtless a powerful symbol, but it was just a symbol. Mordru may have required the ring to create this world, but the ring’s presence does not seem to be necessary for Xerox’s survival. Am I mistaken, Mysa?”

“It is not this world’s survival I am concerned with!” Mysa exploded. “Not directly! Every day I spent hours meditating with that ring, hours strengthening my hope that I could survive Mordru’s evil! Don’t you understand, Blok? He’s won! Even in a vile place beyond death itself, he’s defeated me again!” Hot tears stung her eyes which she quickly wiped away with her black sleeves, turning away from the Legionnaires.

“...Mysa…” Blok held her chin between his enormous finger and thumb and gently turned her to look up at him. “I do not need some ancient trinket to see the good in you. Nobody who knows you ever could. You said that some remnant of good survived even in that monster; how could the good in you be extinguished when you’re a better person than he ever was?”

Mysa’s expression wavered for a fraction of a second before the hardness returned to her features. She stepped away from Blok and Night Girl, moving toward a dimly lit room that hadn’t been there a moment ago. “If neither of you are strong enough to do what must be done, I will ask you now to leave,” she spoke coldly. “I pray to the Lords of Order that I can find the strength within myself.” She entered the room, and while Night Girl had never seen this place before it was somewhere that Blok remembered only too well. Bookcases lined the walls filled with ancient grimoires, cauldrons full of foul-smelling potions bubbled and a stone altar rose in the centre of the room. It was in this room that Blok had been infused with a portion of the power of Shazam and he saw the misshapen chunk of the Rock of Eternity levitating now by the very altar where he’d been reborn.

Blok reached out and grabbed the Black Witch by the shoulder, surprising her with the roughness of his grip. “Mysa, wait!” he exclaimed before she could protest. “I think I may have a solution to satisfy all of us!”

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

ROLL CALL
Brainiac 5 aka Querl Dox: 12th level intelligence, team leader
Saturn Girl aka Imra Ardeen Ranzz: reserve member, telepathy

When Saturn Girl caught up to Brainiac 5, he was analysing the readings of the strange bald woman the Legion had taken from the Heavensent’s Mercury base. She floated peacefully in her sens-tank, blissfully unaware of any of the devastation which had befallen her surroundings recently.

Mindful of his personal space, Imra duplicated the holo-screen Brainiac 5 was currently poring over and made her own assessment. “She’s recovering quickly,” Imra observed. “By my estimate she should be able to come out of that tank in the next day or so. Let me know if you need my help when she awakens.”

“I will,” Brainiac answered simply. “Thank you.” He left the unnamed woman to float on and hurried over to another part of the multi-lab.

Undeterred, Saturn Girl clasped her hands behind her back and followed her old friend. “I must say, Brainy...you’ve been very quick to accept Mwindaji as an ally.”

“Why shouldn’t I be?” the Coluan retorted. “He almost died in opposition to Universo once he realised the extent of his deception, and when he had the full power of the White Lantern he did nothing but good with it. He wants to help now, and his healing ability is shared by nobody else in the Legion; no mean feat these days.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” Imra smiled passively. “I think he’s got a good heart and he’s shown his bravery. He’s inexperienced, but certainly no more so than Blok or Tellus were when they joined the team. I just thought…” She stopped mid-sentence and re-evaluated her approach. “With what happened to Kara, I thought you might be--”

“--unable to see past my emotional reaction to judge Mwindaji’s potential without prejudice?” Brainiac 5 turned from the multi-lab’s ubiquitous hardlight screens and interjected bluntly. “What would that accomplish, Saturn Girl?”

“Brainy.” Gently, Imra placed a hand on his forearm. “You’re allowed to feel, you know. You’ve immersed yourself in work since the second you left Zamaron, and you don’t need to do that. Not a single one of your friends will judge you if you want to take some time away from your responsibilities while you process what happened with Kara.”

“I told Universo that the Legion of Superheroes has been that which most influences me to be human,” Querl Dox answered flatly, “And that was the truth, Imra. You tell me I don’t need to immerse myself in my work with the Legion. I ask you, what else do I have?” With that, he pulled back from her touch and paced across the floor to gauge repair estimates from Satan Girl’s rampage through the building.

Imra didn’t push the point, but she allowed herself a silent sigh of frustration. Brainy, Brainy, Brainy...for someone so intelligent, you can be so very dumb sometimes…

**********
XEROX
The Sorceror's World

ROLL CALL
Blok: magically enhanced strength, invulnerability, speed, flight, stamina, wisdom and courage
Night Girl aka Lydda Jath Krinn: photosensitive super-strength

The Black Witch circled the Rock of Eternity like a caged animal, glaring at it as though willing some weakness to manifest in its surface. “It’s too dangerous,” she snapped. “What if Mordru escapes? What if he takes your form, Blok?”

“He will not,” Blok replied calmly. “Perhaps it is only a portion of the wisdom of Solomon that I possess, but it is enough to let me know this plan can work, Mysa.”

“Let me see if I’ve got this straight,” Night Girl added her voice to the conversation. “You think you can trap Mordru in the Rock of Eternity and he’ll be powerless there, Blok? How? I know you’ve had a significant power increase, but you’re not a sorceror...are you?”

“No,” Blok concurred. “However, my bond with the Rock of Eternity is such that with proximity I can force someone to be entrapped within it. I did precisely that when we faced the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man. You know this to be true, Mysa.”

“He’ll escape,” Mysa countered anxiously. “He always escapes. This burden must be mine to bear, and mine alone.”

“No.” Blok’s gold-flecked hands closed softly over Mysa’s shoulders, stopping her nervous pacing. “It does not have to be your burden alone. You may not be a Legionnaire anymore, but we are still and will always be friends. Let me help you, Mysa. Please.”

“These Seven Deadly Enemies,” Night Girl peered up at the floating rock, one finger on her chin. “They’re in that rock right now, aren’t they? From what Chuck told me, as long as nobody actually touches this thing they can’t escape?”

“Mordru is--”

“Mysa, Mordru’s claustrophobic!” an exasperated Night Girl interrupted her. “How could this be any more perfect? The only other alternative you’ve given us is your death and you’re crazy if you think we’ll ever agree to that! I don’t see the problem here, I mean you’ll still have the power to guard the Rock, right? Just without that maniac in your head!”

A silence filled the air between the three, a wordless tension that Blok was the first to decipher. “...You will not have the power, will you? Is that what this is really about, Mysa? I offer you a way to be free of Mordru, but you would have to give up his power as well.”

“Not just his power,” Mysa admitted weakly. “All my power. The power of Mordru, the power of that other Legion’s dead universe, my own power….all of these things are inextricably linked now, and Mordru’s essence intertwines all of it. To remove every trace of Mordru from me would mean to remove every trace of magic. I will not be the Black Witch, I will not be the White Witch...I will merely be Mysa Nal once more, a futureblind Naltorian girl with nothing to give to the world.”

“Mysa…” Blok creaked as he went down on one knee, the better to face her. “You will always have something to give to the world. Do you really think the greatest contribution you ever made to the Legion was a spell? Any spell? Your greatest contribution was the companionship and the compassion you gifted us. It is that same compassion that keeps Mordru in check now, and it is that same compassion that drives you to exist in isolation here, terrified of the hurt you might one day unleash upon the people you love. But Mysa, even here you have Harlak. The nature of who you are will not allow you to forsake loving relationships altogether, no matter how you try. Perhaps it is time to stop denying yourself that truth and time to find a new way to pursue it.”

The Black Witch thought over Blok’s words, her internal struggle written across her face. After long moments, she looked up at the Rock of Eternity and then back into Blok’s golden eyes. “I miss you, Blok of Dryad.” Her eyes welled with tears and she cradled his face in frail white hands. “Help me find my way.”

He bowed his head and closed his eyes, focusing on the task he’d taken on. The power inside Mysa Nal dwarfed anything he’d felt from the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man, there was a universe of horror and wonder inside her flesh and bone. So intensely was Blok focused on channelling that power into the Rock of Eternity that he never even realised the work was done until he heard Night Girl’s startled gasp. He opened his eyes, and before him stood a demure red-haired woman he’d never laid eyes on before.

“Hello,” Mysa half-laughed, half-cried. Tears streaming down her face, she hugged the stone man fiercely. “You saved me, Blok...you saved me!”

“As you have saved me more than once,” the gentle giant smiled. “I am pleased that I could finally return the favour.”

**********
Soon, Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl arrived to bring Blok and Night Girl home. Given the circumstances it was agreed by all that the Rock of Eternity would be far more secure with the Legion of Superheroes, and Harlak’s magic transported it safely aboard their vessel. “I still can’t believe you’re...well, you!” Phantom Girl gushed. “Oh, it’s so good to have you back Mysa!” She gave the young woman a spontaneous hug which Mysa happily returned.

“Are you coming back, Mysa?” Night Girl asked. “You know you’re more than welcome. I’m sure Dream Girl would love to see you again!”

“I...did not leave things on a good note with my sister,” Mysa admitted. “And I will rectify that...but for now, I think I need to travel, find out exactly who I am without the sorcery which has defined me for so long.” She looked out over the rolling hills and meadows of the Sorceror’s World, any trace of the earlier storm completely forgotten now.

Harlak came back from the Legion cruiser, Blok by his side. “Mistress,” the Khund began before correcting himself, “I am sorry; Mysa...if you would care for the companionship, I would be honored to accompany you. I have studied on Xerox and Zerox before it long enough; your own transformation has inspired me to seek my destiny elsewhere in this great wide universe.”

“An adventure then?” Mysa giggled. “Very well, an adventure it is!” She hugged Blok once more and kissed him on the cheek. “Blok, I will never be able to thank you enough...I owe you more than my life, I owe you my soul. And I have no doubt our paths will cross again my friend, sooner rather than later.”

“As Night Girl said, you are always more than welcome in our home. Be well, Mysa.” The stone man returned her embrace with paradoxical softness and watched as she walked away with Harlak toward a Khundish cruiser which had become overgrown with vines months ago.

“Jo just called from the ship,” Phantom Girl advised Blok and Night Girl. “He’s ready to leave whenever we are. Hey, Harlak!” she called out good-naturedly after the departing pair. “You look after her, you hear me? She’s got some friends in high places!”

“Yes,” Mysa Nal beamed. “...I really do.”

**********


EDITOR'S NOTE: These events refer pretty heavily to when Blok became infused with the power of Shazam so if anyone would like a refresher, that story ishere

Wow! What a nice touching elegant solution to Mysa's plight. Good job introducing the conflict - trap Mordru but lose her powers. Great job making that scene so gripping even without any physical action too, and having Lydda be our non magical rep helped us understand things more easily.

And poor Brainy... of course he is torn.

Stoked to see Zoe and Mwindaji earning their way on the team too! I love how you made Zoe giddy despite totally having such great action scenes earlier.

The Black Witch is Dead! Long Live Mysa!
I really liked that solution and that Bolk came up with it. the rock of Eternity is like "The" magical prison!. I do wish there had been away to seperate Mordru and U247 and Mysa to have it all work out,. but at this point it makes sense.

I liked that even Lydda who admits she doesn't know Mysa well that they weren't going to kill her and that Lydda was the entry person for the non magical. Mysa's struggle was well done and has been so throughout your run. but with her traveling i wonder if this means she'll be finding herself in some trouble sooner or later.
The Rock at LSH headquarters...hmmm i could see a good story coming form that.

Imra trying to console Brainy and let him know that he needs a break was nice. Its easy to forget that the two of them are actually rather close as it seems Brainy isn't close to anyone sometimes. I hope this set back doesn't send him down a darker path though. I wonder what it was that Imra felt from Brainy.

I like that Zoe and Mwindaji have been put up for membership and i'm sure they will make it. But i wonder how long Mwindaji's new white lantern powers will last and does Imra not trust him? is that what she felt...

good installment and can't wait for more!

Thanks y'all! IB, it never actually occurred to me about there being no physical action in that whole sequence of events till you mentioned it....glad you liked it!

I don't think it's spoiling too much to say Zoe and Mwindaji are a shoo-in for membership and you'll get to see how Zoe and Mwindaji go with their very first Legion mission sooner rather than later...Mysa's story isn't finished just yet, but after keeping her miserable and on the verge of a psychotic break for the whole duration of my series I think she has earned a bit of a break lol

That scene with Imra being all lost in her thoughts was more about her picking up on Brainy's state of mind than anything with Mwindaji; I went back and reread it and can see how I should have made that clearer - sorry Omni!

The Rock of Eternity and Mordru and living incarnations of the seven deadly sins right under the Legion's noses does sound kinda like future plot seeding, doesn't it? I mean I'm sure it'll never come up again though, it's not like me to set up stories forever in advance...

EDITOR'S NOTE: this installment features some home-made villains who haven't appeared for a while....if you'd like a refresher on who they are and what they can do, I'll write some notes at the end of the post

Also I am on holiday for a month from tomorrow so I probably won't be around much till August!

**********
MARS, HUSBAND HILL
Legion of Superheroes Headquarters
The main lobby of the Legion of Superheroes’ headquarters was one of the few areas of the building still intact after a brainwashed Supergirl’s assault on her friends. It was in this expansive room that the ancient alien Larfleeze stood now, enthusiastically shaking the hand of a mildly overwhelmed Mwindaji while Zoe Saugin and Shrinking Violet looked on.

“Larfleeze is so thankful!” the former Orange Lantern rambled. “When you resurrected Larfleeze, you remade me as I was before I became the Orange God! For the first time in billions of years, Larfleeze is free of Ophidian the Tempter! Free!!”

“He’s been saying that over and over since he turned up at our front door ten minutes ago,” Vi remarked to Zoe in a low voice. “Do you have any idea what he’s talking about?”

“...Maybe?” Zoe replied uncertainly. “...Ophidian is the entity that the orange energy came from...Sodam Yat told us Larfleeze was the Orange Lantern for so long that Ophidian’s energy became a part of him and he didn’t really even need the ring in the end. I guess when Supergirl killed him and Mwindaji brought him back to life he lost his link to Ophidian and it was sort of a cosmic reset button? He seems like a completely different person now though, I had no idea Ophidian had such a direct influence on him!”

“That’s strange,” Vi noted. “He lost the power he’d been infused with, but you and Mwindaji kept yours? What’s so different?”

“Huh, that is weird!” Zoe pulled a face. “I don’t know to be honest...it would probably help if we could remember anything at all about what happened while we were dead. Then again, maybe it’s for the best we don’t remember anything...it’s creepy!” She shuddered overly dramatically.

Their conversation was interrupted by a breep which sounded from Zoe and Mwindaji’s brand new flight rings simultaneously, and Mwindaji gave an audible sigh of relief to finally be free of Larfleeze’s overbearing display of gratitude. Brainiac 5’s tiny holographic face floated before them. “Green Lantern, Mwindaji; please meet me in the hangar at your earliest convenience. I’ve prepared a team to accompany us on our search for Sodam Yat.”

“I’ll escort our guest out,” Violet diplomatically interposed herself between Larfleeze and Mwindaji. “You two better scoot, Brainy’s a stickler for punctuality. Do you remember where the hangar is?”

“I would be a poor tracker indeed if I could not locate the largest room in the building,” Mwindaji joked in his thickly accented Interlac. “Come, Green Lantern; let us hope for glory on our first mission as Legionnaires!”

“I’ll settle for closure,” Zoe replied, unusually subdued. Glowing green, she levitated and it reminded Mwindaji that he too now possessed the power of flight thanks to the ring on his finger. Zoe knew that she should be more excited about heading into action with the Legion of Superheroes, but she was more concerned about what trouble they might find along with their Daxamite quarry…

**********
Standing on an overlooking balcony, Diamond Damsel watched her two newest teammates fly away. She’d heard about Larfleeze from the others and thought it might be prudent to keep an eye on things in case he got out of hand, but it seemed that his threat level may have been exaggerated. Just as she decided to head off, she heard a familiar voice say her name meekly.

“Infectious Lass?” The imposing diamond woman turned to see Drura Sehpt fidgeting with her lavender hair. “What can I do for you?”

“Actually...it’s more about what you have done for me.” Infectious Lass forced herself to meet Diamond Damsel’s gaze. “When Supergirl attacked the base...you saved my life.”

“I just did what any Legionnaire would do,” Diamond Damsel shrugged.

“That’s kind of the point,” Drura continued. “I’ve been uneasy around you because of who you used to be without really seeing you for who you are now, and it’s not fair. I just...I wanted to apologise. Light Lad told me Mwindaji couldn’t heal you..are you…”

“Turns out he can only heal flesh and blood,” Diamond Damsel cut her off, matter of fact. “And Supergirl burned a hole right through my heart. I don’t need a heart in this form but if I change back to Iris Jacobs, I’ll be dead before Mwindaji can do a thing. He seems to think he’s not powerful enough to go around resurrecting people like I’m told he did on Zamaron, and I think this is one of those cases where I’m happy to take someone at their word.”

“Diamond Damsel, I’m so sorry!” Infectious Lass blurted. “You only just got your human form back, you must be devastated!”

“Infectious Lass, it’s fine.” The larger woman gave a wry chuckle. “Honestly. I’ve lived a thousand years like this, at this point it’s my default form. To tell you the truth, I don’t know if I ever really got used to being human again...this would have ruined me before the Legion, but I’m a different person now. I’m at peace with who I am. Believe me, nobody's more surprised than I am. I guess hanging around Blok must be wearing off on me.”

“Well...I appreciate what you did,” Drura blushed shyly. “Anyway…I have to go back to my homeworld in a few minutes so I wanted to make sure I caught you before I left. I want things to be different between us, you know?”

“I’d like that,” Diamond Damsel smiled. “And thanks for making the effort.”

Infectious Lass returned the smile (albeit somewhat awkwardly) and excused herself, and Diamond Damsel thought over what Drura had said as she watched the Somahturian woman walk away. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had given her appreciation which she hadn’t instinctively felt obliged to deflect.

It felt nice.

**********
“Laurel, come onnn!” Nightwind’s head lolled back in frustration.

Berta Skye Haris was draped over a sofa in one of the many vacant guest rooms which had been hastily converted into accommodations for the Legion and their students after Satan Girl had demolished most of the team’s quarters. Holding one of the slick black straps attached to her costume, she slapped it lazily against the side of the chair. “When I told you I’d keep you company while you’re doing inventory in Brainiac 5’s multi-lab, I thought we’d actually, you know, be in Brainiac 5’s multi-lab. What’s taking you so long getting dressed? You spend half your life wearing nothing but a poncho for sprock’s sake!”

“I just want to make sure everything’s perfect,” Laurel Kent’s voice called out from her temporary bedroom. “Okay, I think I’m done. Tell me what you think!”

“Finally!” Nightwind groaned. She adjusted her posture so she was sitting straight up and continued talking. “So how long have Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl got you doing this boring menial work for? I mean you came closer to beating Satan Girl than any of the actual Legion, I don’t see why--oh!” The yellow-skinned heroine stopped mid-sentence once she laid eyes upon her friend. “You’ve got a new costume! Grife, Laurel! Your hair!”

Laurel Kent brushed her asymmetrical fringe out of her eye. Her short black hair now had two vibrant streaks of red and blue, and tiny holographic representations of the crest of the House of El displayed at her earlobes like translucent golden jewellery. She still wore her trademark red poncho, though Berta noticed that the golden crest was a little more stylised and a lot larger. Beneath her poncho she wore a blue armless leotard, with fingerless gloves the same color. The gloves had a ragged edge, and were held in place by golden wristbands. Golden bands circled her calves, and the thick soles of her feet were also a bright yellow. “Do you hate it?” Laurel grimaced. “You hate it, don’t you?”

“Are you kidding?” Nightwind leaped to her feet, grinning. “Girl, you look amazing! What brought this on?”

“You’re always nagging me to get a real costume, and a codename...I guess you finally wore down my defences,” Laurel teased.

“A new costume and a codename!” Nightwind gave her friend a good-natured shove. “Get out! So what did you finally settle on?”

Laurel puffed out her chest proudly and stood with her hands on her hips.

“You can call me Supergirl!”

**********
Along with the Legion’s monitor room, the multi-lab was the first part of the building to have been repaired after Satan Girl’s assault. With its usual primary occupant currently leading a team out of the solar system, Elastic Lad had full unsupervised access to its advanced facilities and he was having the time of his life. Whistling merrily to himself, his left arm was adjusting controls some twenty-five feet away. His right arm held a small device with two distinct arcs of energy passing back and forth between shifting prongs which jutted out from it, and upon his head he wore an oversized helmet that cycled through lenses of various shades and sizes in sync with the shifting of the prongs. He’d projected a life-size hologram of Fire Lad, and he was carefully lining that hologram up so that it was superimposed over the nameless Mercurian woman in the Legion’s care when the real Fire Lad entered the lab alongside Color Kid.

“Hey!” Fire Lad rapped on Elastic Lad’s helmet. “What are you doing to Arqiia? Where’ss Brainiac 5?”

“Staq, relax.” Color Kid gently pushed his friend aside. “What are you doing though, Elastic Lad?”

Far from being annoyed by the intrusion, Elastic Lad welcomed the company enthusiastically. “Hi Fire Lad! Hi Color Kid!” Without releasing the instrument in his hand, he coiled his right arm around his helmet and removed the helmet from his head. “Are we calling our mystery girl Arqiia now? I guess she does need a name, and until she wakes up she can’t really give us one herself; Arqiia is a swell name! Did you come up with that yourself, Fire Lad? Brainiac 5 is on a mission, but he gave me permission to conduct some comparative spectrogene analysis while he’s gone! It’s actually super interesting, did you want--”

“Sspectrowhat now?” Fire Lad raised a flaming eyebrow. “I ssupposse sso long ass you’re not hurting her…”

“Oh gosh no!” Elastic Lad’s little finger gave a cartoonish waggle. “It’s totally safe, I pinkie promise! It’s just that on my world if two people have so many common physical characteristics, chances are they’re from the same geneline...and you two look so much alike, I had a hunch that you’d have more than just looks in common!”

“But how could they possibly be related?” Color Kid queried. “She was created in a lab on Mercury, Staq’s not even from this solar system.”
“That’s a great question,” Elastic Lad beamed. “And I don’t know the answer to be honest, but that’s what’s so great about science!” He waved the scanning device in front of Color Kid’s face with a gleeful flourish. “We can find out!”

Before Elastic Lad could continue, the building shuddered with the force of a colossal impact. “Jeepers!” He elongated his neck toward the nearest security monitor. “What was that??” Another crashing noise filled the room, joined by the shriek of high-pitched alarms. Diamond Damsel careened through a wall and bounced across the floor, coming to rest against a console.

“Ssprock!” Fire Lad exclaimed as he and Color Kid ran to her side.

“Are you hurt, DD?” Color Kid asked, offering the much larger woman a hand.

“If she isn’t yet, she’s about to be,” a booming voice filled the room. “But don’t feel too left out, you three are going to be joining her.” The quartet of heroes peered up to see the seven story tall form of Red Giant looming over them, his giant hands tearing a larger hole through the same wall he’d just thrown Diamond Damsel through. Behind him, the gleaming form of Celestine floated imperiously alongside Void’s eerie silhouette.

**********
Gas Girl threw her head back and laughed. Her shift on monitor duty had ended fifteen minutes ago, but her replacement had kept her too distracted to leave the room. “Stop it!” she slapped Matter-Eater’s arm playfully. “That did not happen!”

“On my honor as a Legionnaire I swear it did,” Tenzil Kem gave the Lallorian heroine a mock salute. “And then Brainy--” A tremendous boom rocked the monitor room; neither of them registered the screaming alarms which followed over the din of the monitor room collapsing in on itself.

“Matter-Eater Lad!!” Gas Girl’s power had saved her the second she realised what was happening. Her vaporous form dispersed throughout the pile of debris in a panic, trying to fill as much of the room as she could to find her teammate beneath what must be tons of junk. Though she didn’t actually have lungs in this form, Gas Girl nonetheless released an audible sigh of relief when she found Tenzil pinned but alive in a dark hollow. She transformed into neon to light up the claustrophobic space, carefully keeping a safe distance so he didn’t risk breathing her in. “Oh my gawf, how are you not dead?? I’m sorry, that was horrible! I just meant--”

“It’s okay, Tal - I’m as surprised as you.” Tenzil shifted his weight warily to test his range of movement. “Grife, Brainy’s gonna pitch a fit. We only just got this room up and running again!”

“Don’t worry,” she began shifting into a darker more pungent mist. “I’ll become a corrosive and get you out of here.”

“Forget about that, you’ve got other places you need to be.” Tenzil winced as he pulled one arm free from the wreckage and pointed at a flickering security hologram barely visible behind a collapsed wall panel.

“Are you crazy?” Gas Girl blurted. “All it’ll take is for whoever did this to come back for another round and you could be squashed flat as a puddlecake!”

“Tal, trust me - I can eat my way out of here in no time. You need to go help them.”

Hearing the uncommonly serious tone of his voice, Gas Girl finally turned her attention to the object of Matter-Eater Lad’s attention. On a barely functioning security feed she could see Diamond Damsel, Elastic Lad, Fire Lad and Color Kid squaring off against the Heavensent. As much as Gas Girl hated to leave Tenzil here alone, she knew she had no choice; Celestine alone had given some of the most powerful Legionnaires a decent fight. “I’m going,” she said hurriedly, “But if this part of the building takes any more damage I’m coming right back here to check on you!” Without waiting for his response, she carried herself out through gaps in the wreckage to the corridor outside.

“Gas Girl!” Nightwind and Laurel Kent came flying down the corridor, having been en route to the multi-lab when the building had been attacked. “What the sprock is going on?” Laurel asked.

“It’s the Heavensent!” Gas Girl explained quickly. “I don’t know if they’ve come for that woman from Mercury but they’re in the multi-lab right now! We have to go!”

“The Heavensent?” Nightwind turned toward the monitor room entrance. “We need to get every Legionnaire available here, we’re not gonna be able to stop them on our own!” She saw the destruction which filled the room and stopped in her tracks. “...Oh!”

“Nightwind, we are every Legionnaire.” Gas Girl’s cloudy form circled the yellow-skinned young woman. “Matter-Eater Lad’s trapped in the monitor room; aside from the four Legionnaires already in the multi-lab though, everyone else is on a mission or off-planet on personal leave! I just came off monitor duty, trust me; there’s not a single other one of our teammates who’s in a position to help us right now!”

“Even Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad are halfway to Xanthu on some dumb school excursion I wasn’t allowed to go on,” Laurel joined in. “I guess this is a job for Supergirl, huh?” She balled her hands into fists and sped off at high speed.

Gas Girl gave Nightwind a quizzical look. “...Supergirl?”

Nightwind rolled her eyes. “...Don’t ask. Come on, I’ll give you a boost.” She picked up Gas Girl on a gust of wind and followed her friend.

When the three young women reached the multi-lab, the room was a shambles. While Elastic Lad struggled to remain free of Void’s deadly perimeter, Diamond Damsel and Celestine were busy trading punches. Outside the building, Color Kid and Fire Lad used their flight rings to evade Red Giant’s angry swats. As the trio of Legionnaires were weighing up where best they could offer assistance, yet another hole was ripped through the wall and White Dwarf stepped in with a huge sheet of ripped plasteel in his grip. “Celestine!” the diminutive powerhouse bellowed. “I see her!” With both hands, he hurled the plasteel across the room and shattered the tube containing Arqiia’s prone form.

“You’ve got a real problem with manners, you know that?” Nightwind stretched her arms toward the three-foot tall man. The straps hanging off Nightwind’s arms whipped around and in front of her as though straining to attack White Dwarf, and a fierce gale swept over the villain. “Get out of our house, you little jerk!”

“I don’t think so,” he smirked from behind his pale blue mask. The reflective white star across his chest gleamed in the light as he effortlessly began to walk toward her. “Do you have any idea how much mass I’m imbued with right now, girl?”

“Fine, let’s play it your way.” Nightwind frowned. “Laurel, you up for a Missile Launch?”

Laurel grinned eagerly. “Are you kidding me? I’ve been wanting to do this ever since I got out of that Manhunter’s stupid stasis field!” She hid her head behind crossed arms and waited for Nightwind to employ the maneuver the two of them had invented when they’d been students together at the Legion Academy back on Earth. Nightwind’s power picked Laurel up and with as much force as she could muster in the enclosed space, she hurled the indestructible girl at White Dwarf. The combination of Laurel’s invulnerable form with Berta’s high speed winds was generally enough to take down many foes that individually they’d have no chance against.

To the girls’ credit the impact did unbalance him for a moment but it clearly didn’t hurt him. Also unharmed, Laurel bounced off and landed unceremoniously on her backside. “Grife, how tough are you?” she complained.

“Tougher than anything you’ve got, girl.” He ignored Laurel and kept on marching toward Nightwind.

“Yeah...probably.” Laurel stroked her chin wickedly. “Hey, Diamond Damsel! I’ll trade you!” She used White Dwarf’s super-dense form as a launchpad and charged straight at the golden villainess Celestine.

“You’re crazy, kid.” Diamond Damsel shook her head as Celestine effortlessly hurled Laurel into a wall. “She’s a thousand times more powerful than Star-Midget here. Just try not to get yourself killed while I take care of this guy.” Running toward White Dwarf, Diamond Damsel gave the much shorter man a mighty punt. He flew through the air a whole four feet and crashed back to the ground with a thud.

Trusting that Diamond Damsel could handle White Dwarf alone, Nightwind allowed her power to dissipate and ran over to the stirring Arqiia to check on her welfare. It occurred to Berta that she hadn’t seen Gas Girl since joining the fight and she had a sinking feeling that she’d accidentally swept her up in her winds when she’d attacked White Dwarf. She was certain that Gas Girl could reconstitute herself with time, but it was still embarrassing. Beat yourself up later, Berta. She crouched down on one knee beside the Mercurian woman. “Hey...are you hurt? Umm, can you understand me?” The gaunt leathery-skinned woman raised her head and looked at Nightwind with confusion which quickly turned to aggression. Arqiia’s naked scalp burst into flame, and her jaw dropped open to blast a stream of fire straight at Berta.

With unexpected speed, Elastic Lad’s arm looped around Nightwind’s torso and yanked her out of range of the incendiary attack. “Gee whiz, I thought something like that might happen!” the rubber-limbed boy admitted.

“What??” Nightwind screamed, still shaken. “How??”

“I’ll tell you all about it in just a lickety-split!” he answered cheerily. “I think Fire Lad might be able to lend a helping hand here though, can you let Arqiia know we’re on her side please Nightwind? Oh, her name’s Arqiia now! Fire Lad called her that; don’t you think it’s a pretty name?” He circled around another of the Mercurian woman’s fiery exhalations easily while releasing Nightwind on the other side of her.

“Elastic Lad--” Nightwind began.

“Oh, and watch out for Void! He’s a tricky one!” With that, Jams-Ols 5 left his frustrated teammate with an angry fire-breathing woman on one side and an unstoppable human singularity on the other as he made his way outside the building.

“And people say Grava’s annoying,” Berta muttered under her breath. “What did he--”

“Who are you people?” Arqiia shouted, her Interlac bearing the same strange accent as the Heavensent themselves. She sucked in a deep breath of air and exhaled more flame at Nightwind. Now that she was prepared for the attack, Berta easily blew out the plume of fire.

“My name’s Nightwind!” Berta answered the woman’s question hurriedly. “I’m a member of a group called the Legion of Superheroes, we’re not going to hurt you. We actually saved you from these guys!” Hoping it wouldn’t prove to be a mistake, she turned her back on Arqiia and used her power to fling the remnants of Arqiia’s sens-tank at Void. He consumed it as he consumed anything else he touched and he kept walking straight toward her.

“Where is this place?” Arqiia questioned abruptly. “Why do I not remember anything of my life before today? What do I...what do I feel?” She backed away from Void and Nightwind as she spoke, stepping over the threshold of an open doorway which had lights flashing around its interior.

“Hey, careful!” Nightwind cautioned her, simultaneously throwing anything which wasn’t bolted down at Void. “That’s a storage tesseract, if the lights are flashing like that the dimensional framing might not be stable.”

“I do not know what your words mean,” Arqiia snapped. “I do not know anything! What manner of creature am I? What are all of you?”

“You’re a flawed creation.” This was a new voice; Tachyon had suddenly appeared in the room. “And we Heavensent are the ones who created you. We’re the ones who are going to kill you.”

“You won’t--” Nightwind shifted her attention from Void and Arqiia to the newcomer, but before she could get another word out, she was unconscious with a smug Tachyon standing over her.

“I searched the rest of the building,” Tachyon reported to White Dwarf and Celestine. “The annoying one who eats things was the only other Legionnaire here, I took him out on my way back. Let’s finish this and get out of here.”

“Good idea, creep!” Diamond Damsel raised both hands over her head before dropping to one knee and piledriving White Dwarf straight down through two floors. She got back up to her feet and glared menacingly at Tachyon. “Try your super-speed punches on someone made of diamond, jerk.”

“I’ve got a better idea,” Tachyon retorted. “I think...I…” His eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out, a pale mist forming around his head while a perplexed Diamond Damsel looked on.

The mist took on feminine proportions and Diamond Damsel heard Gas Girl’s voice speak up. “With the rest of his team here, I knew Tachyon would have to make an appearance sooner or later; he’s way too quick for any of us to take on in a fair fight so I’ve just been waiting around for him as a cloud of oxygen. Let him outrace anaesthetic gas he’s already breathed in.”

A tremendous clatter filled the room, and a large part of the ceiling caved in as Void walked through a support column. Diamond Damsel and Gas Girl lost sight of Celestine and Laurel on the other side of the rubble, and Void himself kept on approaching.

“That was good work,” Diamond Damsel complimented her teammate. “But we’re a long way from being out of the woods yet.”

**********
Outside, Color Kid and Fire Lad had fallen into a routine of disorienting Red Giant with flashes of fire and psychedelics but they both knew it was only a matter of time until the enormous juggernaut hit one of them with his maddened blind swiping. He’d already smashed another hole in the building. “I don’t want to sserioussly burn him,” Fire Lad confided as he ducked a grabbing fist. “But I don’t ssee we have another option, Ulu. We have to get back in there to help Arqiia and the otherss!”

“Don’t lose hope, fellows!” Elastic Lad joined the conversation from below, his serpentine form slithering around and between Red Giant’s legs. “There’s always more than one way to fix a problem!”

“Hey! What are you doing down there?” Red Giant boomed. Still seeing stars thanks to Color Kid, he struggled to focus on Elastic Lad entwining his legs.

“Helping uss find another way to fixx our problem,” Fire Lad smirked. He darted straight up until he was only a few feet beneath Red Giant’s face and exhaled a massive burst of flame. The fire came short of actually scorching Red Giant, but the sudden expulsion of heat and light was enough to make him instinctively pull away. Simultaneously, Elastic Lad constricted his form as tightly as he could manage and their gigantic foe lost his balance and fell backwards. When Red Giant hit the deck, he didn’t get back up again.

“That’s one ridiculously overpowered bad guy down,” Color Kid joked. “Let’s go find out if we’re on a roll.” He looked toward Fire Lad, but Staq Mavlen was already halfway back to the multi-lab.

**********
Laurel Kent extricated herself from the wall Celestine had just hurled her through. “You know,” the young heroine grumbled, “This is a new costume. Like, I literally just finished putting it together this morning. If you ruin it, I’ll be really angry.”

“What does it take to end you?!” Celestine railed. She stretched both hands toward the teenager and blasted her with what would be a lethal dose of hard radiation for just about anybody else.

“Not that, but nice try Goldie.” Laurel walked straight into the blast, not even bothering to shield her eyes. She needed to keep Celestine angry enough that she wouldn’t realise that her enemy’s sole power was invulnerability. Laurel thought she had a way she might be able to fight back, but until Color Kid came back it was only an idea. In the meantime if Celestine just decided to drop the building on her, she’d be screwed until somebody dug her out.

Celestine switched her attack to blistering heat. “How are you still standing?” she raged. “I have all the power of a star, but none of it fazes you at all!”

Laurel saw Color Kid and Elastic Lad following Fire Lad back into the room and she knew this was her opportunity. “What did I tell you?” she sniped as her poncho went up in flames. “Now you’ve gone and made me mad! Hey, Color Kid!” she yelled across the room. “Give this batwitch a blueshift, would you?”

“Laurel, what--?” Ulu queried.

“Turn her flames blue!” the would-be Supergirl hollered back. “Trust me, it’ll be worth it!”

Color Kid shrugged, but did as he was asked. Consumed by her own fury and her arrogance, Celestine didn’t bother to stop him. Her flaming corona and the inferno she was directing at Laurel switched from blazing white gold to electric blue, and Laurel felt a surge of power course through her veins. It was like nothing she’d ever experienced, and she wondered if this sensation was what her famous ancestor had lived with every day of his life. She charged Celestine through a console with a whoop of sheer joy. Color Kid and Elastic Lad both wore baffled expressions.

“Uh..how..?” Ulu trailed off.

“I did a little research,” Laurel landed punch after punch on Celestine, each one a blur of motion. “My Kryptonian power’s fuelled by sunlight, right? And if red sunlight cancels Kryptonian powers, I figured maybe there’s some kind of sun that increases them and whattayaknow, a blue sun is like a super-ultra-charge! I knew it wouldn’t give me the extra power that Superman got, but I’m happy with what I got--”

Celestine finally collected her wits and sent her foe flying across the room with a gravitic pulse. Laurel smashed through the rubble that had separated the group from Diamond Damsel and the others, and crashed through several walls.

“Ouch!” Elastic Lad cringed. “I’m super glad she’s invulnerable! Even so, I bet that was really unpleasant!”

“The most unpleasant thing here is your refusal to submit to your obvious betters!” Celestine snapped. She threw an arm wide toward Elastic Lad and Color Kid, and an almost invisible wall of gravitic force flung them both to the other side of the room. Color Kid was knocked out cold instantly, and even Elastic Lad was dazed by the impact. She turned back to the others and moved through the air toward Arqiia. “We don’t have to kill you, Legionnaires. We are here only to end this failed experiment and then we will leave you to your pitiful existence.”

“No!” Fire Lad interposed himself between Celestine and the others. Gas Girl began to voice caution, but he shouted over her. “You’ll have to kill uss before we let you hurt Arqiia! Why do I feel thiss connection to her anyway? What have you people done?!”

The golden woman hovered imperiously, gazing down on Fire Lad’s bony frame with a bemused expression. “You must know that I can end you whenever I wish, little man.”

“I don’t care!” Fire Lad advanced on her angrily while Diamond Damsel and Gas Girl watched Celestine and Void tensely. “Why doess sshe look like me? Why do I feel like we know one another?!”

Still standing inside the tesseract she’d backed into earlier, Arqiia watched the proceedings warily. The one called Nightwind may have been telling the truth; half these people seemed to want her dead and the other half wanted to protect her. What really concerned her was that she seemed most drawn to the ones who wanted her dead. She felt in her gut an instinctive need to obey them, to serve them...but then there was the one who looked like her, the one whose head was aflame. She felt what he’d described, as though they were two parts of the same being. Cautiously she began to edge her way out of the storage tesseract, but the encroaching Void kept her from actually passing through its doorway.

Celestine looked Fire Lad up and down with disdain. “You do share many similarities with our creation,” she admitted finally. “More reason to destroy the Mercurian. I assure you however that any resemblance is purely coincidental, Legionnaire. Until recently, we Heavensent had not even existed in your era and we certainly were unaware of such a miserable creature as yourself. The Mercurian’s physical characteristics stem from a micro-organism we discovered in deep space, one which transforms any living entity who ingests it into a host capable of surviving the unforgiving climate of a planet such as Mercury. This creature you insist on naming Arqiia was intended as the first of many, a world of subjects to worship us as the gods we have become.”

“Itss...hosst..?” Fire Lad was shaken. “Did you...did you find thiss micro-organissm insside ssome kind of rock? An assteroid or a meteorite..?”

“We liberated it from the ore in which it had gestated,” Celestine decreed, “And we put it to a higher task. It has failed us regrettably. Any supplicant worthy of our attention would have escaped this building by now and found us once more. And thus, it must die.”

“No!” Fire Lad exhaled a massive fireball, but Celestine flew through it completely unfazed toward Arqiia.

“I’ve known people like you,” Diamond Damsel grabbed hold of Celestine’s ankle as she sped past. “So used to getting exactly whatever it is you want that the prospect of not getting your own way doesn’t even occur to you.” Celestine began to pivot in mid-air, but Diamond Damsel slammed her into the floor first. “So this should be a good exercise in character building.” Still holding on to the golden woman’s ankle, she swung her around her head and flung her straight at Void. Celestine couldn’t avert her path in time, and a second later she was swallowed within his colorless outline.

“Celestine!!” Tachyon had recovered just in time to see the most powerful member of his team dispatched. “This isn’t over, Legionnaires!” He blinked out of existence, moving so fast that he was simply no longer there.

“Diamond Damsel, did you just kill her..?” Gas Girl asked wide-eyed.

“She’s nearly as tough as Mon-El,” Diamond Damsel replied. “If anyone can survive whatever that Void thing is, it’d be that pretentious cow. Speaking of which, what are we going to do about Void?”

The ever-silent Void was advancing more quickly on Arqiia now, forcing her back into a corner of the tesseract. “Stop!” she shouted defiantly.

“Leave her alone!” Fire Lad bellowed simultaneously. The two fire-breathers unleashed their powers at the same time, catching Void in the middle of the conflagration.

The villain was totally unhurt by the inferno, but Brainiac 5’s already damaged multi-lab was not so lucky. There was an explosion of fireworks which knocked Fire Lad back and scattered Gas Girl’s form. As the partially functional fire suppression systems did their best to contain the collateral damage, Laurel Kent re-entered the room and a rejuvenated Elastic Lad helped Fire Lad to his feet. Where the storage tesseract had been a moment ago, there was a small charred space full of sparking circuitry which was quickly being filled with fire retardant foam. Arqiia and Void were nowhere to be seen.

“What the sprock did I miss?” Laurel cried out. “Where are the rest of the Heavensent? Where’s the Mercurian fem?”

“Her name iss Arqiia!” an emotional Fire Lad barked.

Elastic Lad’s neck craned so that he could closer examine the damage the explosion had caused. “You know, I’d say the storage tesseract boundary framing mechanism was damaged to the point of catastrophic failure. I’m sure Arqiia is safe,” he added quickly. “After all, the space still exists but we’ve lost the ability to access it. Void was crossing the threshold of the tesseract when it broke down though, so if we’re lucky he may be temporarily spatially displaced.”

“Okay, well I guess Dawnstar or the new guy can track Arqiia down once they get back,” Laurel said. “...Wait. Remind me again, why are we calling her Arqiia?”

Fire Lad stared forlornly at the blackened space where the Mercurian woman had been standing a moment ago. “It’ss a Sshwarian word,” he said flatly. “There’ss no direct Interlac equivalent, but the nearesst match would be ssoulmate.” His shoulders slumped and he walked out of the multi-lab. “I...I’d better make ssure Matter-Eater Lad iss okay.”

As he left the others behind, Staq Mavlen lost himself in his thoughts. For years he’d ignored the physical changes he’d been undergoing, lying to himself that they were a normal side-effect of his powers. Now though...now it seemed he was infested with some kind of microscopic parasite, and the only person who could possibly relate might now be somewhere on the other side of the universe if she was even still alive.

Alarms still sounding all around him, he disappeared into the depths of the Legion of Superheroes’ home and yearned for the days when the worst thing he had to worry about was getting this team to notice he even existed.

**********

So who are the Heavensent? Back when Earth-Man had absorbed the powers of the Infinite Man, he recruited a bunch of metahumans from throughout history. Five of these people had been working on a space station in the year 2434 when they were all cosmically empowered and began to see themselves as godlike. They are:

Celestine: golden skinned woman with a flaming corona for hair; aside from Daxamite level strength, invulnerability and flight she has full life support and the power to emit any type of energy emanated by stars
Red Giant: guy with growth powers
White Dwarf: guy who increases his density by shrinking, compacting his mass for durability and strength
Tachyon: claims that he "transcends speed" - he can move fast enough to to travel through short periods of time
Void:a silent featureless silhouette of a man who is basically a walking black hole

So I've just caught up with this, and it's pretty awesome!

I'm loving how you've used Mwindaji (a character that, in the comics, never really got a chance to do anything), and your original characters, the Heavensent! Nice to see a powerful group, and the Legion on the ropes against such powerful villains!

I need to go over it again before I can reply in detail, but this has been a great story.

Love Diamond Damsel. Loved the homeworld of Leeta 89 (and Leeta herself). Great use of Nightwind. Just, so many great things!

Blok with the wisdom of Solomon and elements of a Shazam? What delicious madness is this? Such fun and original ideas!

Wow. Great fight scene, clever moves from Elastic Lad, Nightwind, Gas Girl hiding in wait for Tachyon, DD throwing Celestine into Void, Laurel figuring out the effect of blue sunlight..

Big reveal for Fire Lad, yikes! Poor Arqia, I'm worried for her.

Another good installment Raz and I have to say I do love how you leave us wanting more with each of your setups.

I'm looking forward to Zoe, Brainy, and Mwindaji's mission to find Sodam Yat. I Like that Mwindaji was able to free Larfleeze of the orange lantern's power. I'm not hugely familiar with the Green Lantern Mytho's, so i was wondering if you created Ophidian? I really like the explanation and it makes me think of Lord of the Rings and Gholem. The ring poisoned him and prolonged his life and that's what Ophidian did to Larfleeze, and makes sense since he'd be free as Mwindaji is the essence of life and he can reset it. I bet with more control he could reset someone to any point and not just the beginning of their aliment.

Poor Diamond Damsel but i like that she's not upset by unable to transform. It makes sense after all that time that she would be more comfortable. Dura is super sweet and its nice that they are working towards a better relationship.

I have to agree with IB that Laurel's use of blue sunlight was really inventive and i think we may just have found a new pairing that could really work. Color Kid and Supergirl, I'd love to see how many different colors of sunlight affect Laurel...I wonder what a Black Sun would do?? He battle with Celestine was fun and i liked her quipping about the uniform and Celeistine being surprised at how hard it was to take Laurel down.
I like the homage but I won't lie I kind of wish Laurel had chosen another name. maybe it's just the loss of Kara too soon. I wonder how Brainy will react once he learns this.

Nightwind's boredom was really well done and funny and she did well in battle and trying to be a voice of reason for Arqiia.

A battle of the Heavensent against some of their less powerful memebers and lacking in number and they still turned it out. Well done.
Gas girl did really well and bidding her time before attacking.

Poor Staq! his final thoughts were really sad. He thought he found a soul mate and he's infected with a parasite. Can it be taken out and if not what does that mean for him? Will Arqiia be found? I hope so.

Enjoy your vacation and can't wait for your return and to see where all these plots go,

So, more detailed commentary;

I like the starting grouping of Bouncing Boy, Duplicate Damsel, Nightwind and Dragonmage. Two classic characters we don't see enough of, and two newer characters just coming into their own. This is a formula you repeat a time or two, a few classics and few of the young blood, to good effect.

<<On the Sorceror's World, the Black Witch stood unmoving against the roiling storm. Rain soaked her clothes and her skin, and she didn't know if she herself was crying or if this world was crying for her.
This storm dwarfed her, unabated.>>

Wow, that’s some powerful stuff! Great evocative writing!

On Apiaton, the descriptions of Terrus, his ill-fitting suit, his shambling gait as he moves, his gloves hanging loosely, etc. all are hints, which I failed to catch the first time, that there's something not right under that scarecrow costume!

And the use of Dawnstar's powers to 'shut Terrus up' is priceless. Love it!

I've noticed that you fall into the trap that pretty much all of us do, using sentients, when you likely mean sapients. (Dogs, birds, etc. are sentient. But when referring to people with languages and culture and stuff, a better term might be sapient or sophont or something futuristic and technobabble like 'N-grade intelligents' or whatever.)

Did I mention before that vampires on Kathoon is mad genius? Probably. It bears mentioning again, 'cause true things are true.

Meanwhile, in the Talokk system, Mon-El is overconfident, and Shadow Lass is ridiculously competent! Go Shady! I love the Fantastic er, Forgotten Four. Particularly Invisible Queen, who sounds like she has a really cool visual, ironically, for a woman one generally won't see...

<<“Their Brainiac dumb but nice!” Bizarro Colossal Boy beamed. “Me hate him!”>>

Ha! I'm not generally a fan of the silly, but this made me laugh out loud!

A lot of really good character bits. I love your characterization. With the long form of the fanfic, compared to the relatively limited real estate of a comic book page, you get to explore all sorts of relationships and interactions that would be left on the cutting room floor if this was a comic (or cartoon, or movie). Tinya and Lu sitting around and chatting about being the two longest serving non-Founders, and 'Long live the Legion crones!' was a cute example of this.

Also a lot of great alien vistas, such as Moonlit Bay or Crystal Falls, or future set-pieces, like the Galactic Core nightclub. I love these little details, they really bring the exoticism of the setting to life, and also remind how *big* the backdrop behind the Legion is, compared to a story that might not leave the hero's city-of-residence. These cops 'beat' is hundreds of worlds, not just the mean streets of Gotham!

More later!

I'm so far behind on replying I feel like a slacker Raz, sorry.

I'll comment as I'm reading so here goes...

M'Windaji as a healer is a great idea, and fixing up Tel was a good way to introduce this. Brainy's cool assessment of Super Girl's situation is ominous. please don't have Querl go mad, you write him so well I'd miss him from your stories. Nice that he recommends Zoe and Gahiji for membership - okay, maybe he isn't going bonkers... yet. Nice that Zoe remembered she needs to find Soddam Yat. Ooh, Imra's worried about Brainy, maybe he is going bonkers...

"Her normally flawless alabaster skin..." If I didn't hate Lydda before I do now Oh, red welts, I take that back

The image of Mysa kneeling on the floor was very poignant. Blok describing her as the purest being he had ever met was so sweet, especially as he knows everything she's been through. Mysa's fears are scary, Mordru's evil taking her over is a bit of a worry, actually its terrifying as the Black Witch has a universes magical potential to throw around. Blok's optimism is always glorious though.

Very touching scene between Imra and Querl which showed how close they are. You write Saturn Girl really well, with a nice mix of her tough exterior and her softer side.

Blok's idea is perfect, and it's a smart use of the rock of eternity as Mordru is claustrophobic. Ah, Lydda just said that. Go blok, give mysa some home truths! Nicely written how he emphasises her compassionate nature. That was a sweet way to end the rather tense stand off, and Blok's compassionate nature matches Mysa's. I hadn't realised but of course he had never seen her in her human form before. I demand the Adventures of Mysa and Harlack fanfic! You know it'll be a winner!

I don't know anything much about Lafreez but his gratitude did seem overbearing. Funny that M'Windaji was grateful to go on a mission to get away, I know a few people who have the same effect on me...

That was a sweet scene between Iris and Drura, and bummer about the hole through the heart - though your DD is becoming more well-adjusted, it seems Blok's compassion for damsels in Distress has helped two of the extended cast lately. And I wonder, why Drura is going home?

I saw a picture, fan drawn, of Laurel with her eyes sparkling somewhere on the web that I think was wearing something very like your description - was it one of your pictures? Oh, I don't think her new ID will go down well, especially with a certain Coluan. bad taste Laurel, bad taste. But then if I were Superman's descendant and totally invulnerable I'd be cocky too so its totally believable.

Staq's concern for the mysterious woman from Mercury was great, as is your characterisation of Elastic Lad - I usually get bored with the goody two shoes characters but he's very endearing. I love your baddies, the Heavensent are great fun and evil in equal measure. M_E Lad telling tall stories to Gas Girl is funny in itself, he's such a fun character and you obviously like him.

That's a fairly power-lite team to take on the Heavensent you've given yourself Raz, you like a challenge!

Nightwind and Laurel's Missile Strike manoeuvre was great - a 31st century Fastball special! Elastic Lad saving Berta was also a nice touch. And Laurel against Celestine? Is she mad?

“And people say Grava’s annoying,” Ha! made me smile, very cute.

Gas Girl taking out Tachyn was smart. Poor Arqiia's confusion is as scary as the Heavensent.

Elastic Lad and Staq taking down Red Giant was great, once again your love of the under dogs shines through.

Laurel get Ulu to turn the energy blue was smart, and her bravery at tackling Celestine was impressive.

Ouch, so Staq's abilities and connection to Aquiia is due to micro-organisms? that's a dunt to his ego I bet. so much for soul mates then.

Throwing Celestine into Void was the perfect way to stop her, your DD shines again.

So, after they track down Soddam the team will need to find Arqiia. Those trackers do earn they stipend don't they? Hopefully Void (and Celestine) wont be with her.

Poor Staq, you write him really well Raz, he's another character I've never really looked twice at that I'm having to re-evaluate.

This was a great read Raz and I'm looking forward to more, more, more!

Hi all! I am still on holiday another few days but I have some time to kill and I wanted to say thanks again for your feedback. It's kind of cool that you're reading from so far back Set, reminds me of some stories I haven't thought of in a while! I am pretty motivated by characterisation and I agree it's a benefit of fanfic that you get to explore that more than you can in a comic a lot of the time

Speaking of characterisation, now that Mysa's off the hook for a while it looks like it might be Brainy and Fire Lad's turn at being tortured....and Laurel's ongoing complete disregard for good taste should see some interesting reactions from the Legion soon as well

Harbinger, that Laurel fanart you mentioned wasn't mine that I recall but it sounds cool! I kinda based her look on a cross between her classic poncho and an alternate Superwoman costume she wore in a Superman comic...the colored streaks in her hair I added just because I thought that seemed like something a sassy teenage girl would be into. She is gonna have some interesting developments soon too actually!

Next up though: Whatever Happened To Sodam Yat?

Oops also I forgot to say earlier; Ophidian is one of DC's emotional entities (like Parallax)....there's one for every ring colour

Ur, I had a bunch of stuff that just got eated when my internet burped...

Anywho, as I remember it;

I love what you've done with Cadmu. Amazing detail on the space-elevator, subliminal information-dumps, etc. as well as the cloner culture!

The Workforce is cool. Seeing another Carggite and another Imskian at work is always a thrill, since they tend to get overlooked compared to Titanians and Braalians, it seems.

You made me like Mwindaji. Paul Levitz sure didn't manage that feat!

Wow, a conceptual virus. That's a Morrison-worthy bit of strange, and I like it! Very cool, and you kept it (relatively) down to earth and accessible, without getting all twelth-dimensional strange!

Satan Girl as a villain is great. She's super-tough, a real heavy-hitter, and the team has very real reasons not to be cutting loose on her. The fight is powerful both physically and emotionally!

A quibble. While I love the scene of Brainy wrestling with Universo for control of the ring, I kind of want to see how Brainy’s intellect is making the difference here. Perhaps he’s given the ring 17,000 commands, in the time it takes Universo to give it one command, to kill him, and the ring is cycling through random creations, white butterflies with opalescent wings, brick-by-brick reconstruction of some ancient building, reproducing a symphony popular on Colu (where the sounds are galactic background noises, stellar events and mathematical fractals), etc. and Universo’s command to kill Brainy will queue up in 4.7 hours…

Brainy might also benefit slightly from being able to touch the rings of compassion, hope and love (thanks to Kara, for that last part), while Universo can only truly connect with the rings of rage, avarice, will and fear.

I like the mention of Polar Boy nearly suffering hypothermia, in a relatively normal earth environment, being adapted to life on Tharr. Great detail, and something that too many DC writers never seem to think about, even if the art clearly established that he wore furry insulated looking clothing on earth.

Dragonwing's cloak-dragon is animated? Super-cool, and makes sense that 31st century clothing would include stuff like that as a matter of course (since we practically have it today).

I feel like Staq/Fire Lad is going to go all dragon-y.

Nice resolution to the hanging plot thread about Quislet and Teall, which we knew was someday going to rear it's head and become a problem...

Fearstorm is an interesting development of the Firestorm concept. I wonder if they were to continue they'd develop some sort of 'mental transmutation' power to alter other people's memories or even make them into mind-controlled slaves...

And that's all I recall for now.

Amazing amounts of characters, and tons of serious threats. I am beyond impressed with how well you juggle classic Legionnaires, Academy students hit the big-time, Original Characters and side-characters (like the Workforce, Judgment League, etc.).

Celestine and her Heavensent, as well as other time-displaced figures like Starbear and Black Arrow, are very cool, and I look forward to seeing more of them someday.

I also like how you make use not just of the heavy hitters, but have Shadow Kid and Diamond Damsel up in space fighting Dominator warships, alongside Mon-El and Supergirl, and holding their own. That's cool. Even without powers, some characters are getting impressive showings, like Chameleon Boy wandering in to Kid Computo reviewing surveillance data and spotting something she'd missed, not because he's got some power, but because he's got the experience. Very cool.

Ha, it was on my second read-through that I got that (Coluan master manipulator) Makkia Vei's name was a play on Machiavelli! Fun!

The walls blows out in the daycare, and Thom saves the day by making everyone too heavy to get blown out of the building. That's a super-creative use of his power, and I'm jealous, because I was planning on something similar and you got there first.

Fun to see not only Sizzle again, but also Turtle, and a much more fun sounding Turtle than the brief glimpse we got in the Shooterboot. I like him!

I love, love, love how Luornu manipulated the recruits into attempting to solve her mystery involving the Legion team that lost their memories to Mandalla, by pretending it was a training exercise. That's just super-clever and sneaky and did I mention that I love it? 'Cause I sort of do.



Glorious! You really make Dawnstar a treat! I love the detail of her training her fingers against the hull, and then being a half mile away before the missile hit. Grace and power and confidence. Awesome!

And Superboy appears home, when 'randomly' tossed into the timestream. What are the odds that someone randomly teleported through time and space would appear in his home time period, from the sounds of Ma Kent’s words, maybe only hours after he left? 100%, obviously! It would be interesting if that happened because Kal still had a chronal signature tied to that time and place, and the ‘random’ teleportation kind of took the path of least resistance and sent him to a time period he already was chronally tied to… (And Brainy and the others got tugged along for the ride. Instead of each Legionnaire being sent to a separate invidual time and place, they ‘clumped,’ because time doesn’t like being perforated that many individual times, and people shoved into the timestream all at once tend to gather into pockets, like drops of water merging on their way down the windshield.) Just my attempt at a No-Prize! Don't mind me!

And, with Tyroc, another Legionnaire ends up very conveniently in an era to which he has a pre-existing connection, chronologically speaking, almost as if they retain some sort of tether to their true time periods, and if unstuck in the timestream, drift towards their true homes. Yes, I am vindicated! Maybe.

I like the conversation between Kid Computo and Luornu regarding her choice of code-name. It deals with an elephant in the room elegantly. Very cool.

The argument about not changing what happened on Trom, and that the Legion had Time Bubbles for years and that Jan and Kal and Kara and Blok had never tried to use them to save their respective worlds was interesting. Kind of a hanging the lampshade moment. What follows is rough for Violet, 'though, although, from a storyteller perspective, it does open up the Alchemist character for development.

I am getting you to write all my Badass Brainy moments from now on because that description is awesome

The ex-Judgement Leaguers will pop up every now and then, and I've got a fun idea to revisit Turtle and Lamprey as well which I'll throw in as soon as I get a chance.

re: Dawnstar, it's funny because she's never really been one of my favourite characters but I love writing her. I kinda think she has suffered from unimaginative writing like a lot of speedsters in comics...she should really be one of the most capable Legionnaires but it seems like all she's used for most of the time is looking pretty in space and having a crisis over why her tracking power isn't working this issue

I should have a new post up this week some time I think, thanks everyone for following!