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MARS
Husband Hill, Legion Academy student dorms
Tel Vole stared wistfully out the window which took up most of one wall in his quarters as Wildfire and Mon-El led two Legion cruisers through the Martian night beyond.

“Hey! Mars to Gravity Kid, you still with us?” The sound of snapping fingers brought Tel’s attention back to the visitor in his quarters, his fellow student Chemical Kid.

“Sorry Hadru,” the elder boy apologised. “I should be out there with them, you know? I mean Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl told me the Legion have made me their intern now that Laurel Kent’s graduated to full membership; when do I get to actually go on a mission with them?”

“Maybe after we finish writing up this presentation that’s due at the end of the week?” Chemical Kid hinted with all the subtlety of a punch to the face. “Intern means you’re still a student, you’ve gotta keep up with your studies too, right?”

“And I guess it’s just a happy coincidence that it helps your grades too, huh?” Gravity Kid rolled his eyes in amusement. “Okay, show me what we’ve got so far.” He cloned the holoscreen Hadru had been working on and looked over their notes. “Hey, how come you crossed out Sensor Girl’s name? We have to analyse a Legionnaire who joined the team under a new identity, and Mon-El and Element Lad are already taken...she’s the only one left!”

“...and Glorith and Kid Quantum already handed in their assignment on her this afternoon,” Hadru continued without missing a beat. “I mean technically there’s Lightning Lass too I guess, but look what I found while you were daydreaming about Ultra Boy’s shoulders or whatever...Tel, this is hilarious!”

“Ugh, you’re such a child sometimes Hadru.” Gravity Kid screwed up his face, but kept reading. “Wait a nano,” he raised an eyebrow after a moment. “It says here that Star Boy and Dream Girl called themselves…Sir Prize and Miss Terious?? Chemical Kid, I swear if this is some stupid prank--”

“It’s 100% true,” Hadru laughed. “Look at their stupid suits of armour, they look like someone made their own robots out of leftover packing tubes!”

Gravity Kid expanded the file’s attached image gallery and saw the primitive suits Thom Kallor and Nura Nal had once worn long ago. “They’re covered from head to toe,” he observed. “I mean in those outfits it wouldn’t even be obvious what powers you have if you were clever…”

“Isn’t it the best?” Chemical Kid sniggered. “The Legion have so many ridiculous skeletons in their closet, it’s amazing.”

“Yeah…” A broad smile filled Gravity Kid’s face as an idea began to come together in his mind. “Good find, Hadru…”

**********
TALOK III
The dungeons of Malias the Invisible Queen
Brainiac 5, Firecrest, Ron-Karr, Makkia Vei and a groggy Shadow Lass took in the sight of the woman named 89 standing in the middle of their cell with a range of reactions.

“You’re alive?” Even in his weredragon form, Firecrest was visibly shocked. “How are you alive??”

“How do we know...it’s really 89..?” Shadow Lass groaned, her whole body a bed of agony.

“I can vouch for her.” Makkia Vei had been surprised when 89 made her entrance, but had recovered her composure almost immediately. “I’ve spent enough time with the Oversight Watch that I’d be able to detect an imposter in our team straight away. Besides which, it doesn’t fit Invisible Queen’s modus operandi to--”

“You let us think you were dead for all this time?!” Ron-Karr exploded. “Where have you been, 89? How did you even survive that explosion? We all saw you die!!”

“Obviously I faked my death,” 89 answered coolly. “It wasn’t a weapon I was building when I goaded the Invisible Destroyers into attacking me, it was--”

“A dimensional shunt,” Brainiac 5 completed the sentence. “I recognised it as soon as I saw the footage of your team’s battle with the Invisible Destroyers, but I thought perhaps you’d planned on utilising it against the Destroyers themselves. That wasn’t the case at all though, was it?”

“It was a jury-rigged Phantom Zone Projector,” 89 explained. “I could see which way the battle was going, and it wasn’t going any way that would be good for the Watch. I used our ship’s exploding engine as a cover to escape to the Phantom Zone. My plan was to wait for those things to take my team captive and follow them back to wherever they came from, but I discovered something extremely interesting while I was in the Phantom Zone...all of this?” She gestured at the almost invisible structure enclosing them. “Completely visible. The Luqiti’s power of invisibility obviously has some physical basis because technology can’t penetrate it, but I suspect there’s also a considerable psionic element and its psionic range clearly doesn’t extend to another dimensional plane. I made my way planetside and while the Invisible Queen and her Destroyers were busy fighting all of you in space, I cannibalised parts of the Luqiti to make these.” She raised her hand to draw attention to the three pairs of goggles she’d been dangling the whole time she’d been standing before them. “The Phantom Zone Projector burned itself out bringing me back, I only had time to incorporate the tech into my own mask and make these three before I had to go back into hiding when you all came back here so I’m afraid some of you will need to go without.”

“Never mind that!” Ron-Karr snapped. “Even you’re not smart enough to just make a Phantom Zone Projector on the fly, 89! You planned this whole thing coming in, why didn’t you tell us?!”

“It was one of my backup plans,” she corrected him. “And in order for it to work, I needed your reactions to be genuine. If Malias or her cronies had any reason to doubt that I’d really died, they’d have found me somehow. You don’t understand the Luqiti’s potential, Ron. It’s a highly adaptive techno-organic lifeform...it’s been a long time since I’ve seen another live Luqiti specimen, but believe me when I tell you that invisibility is the least of its abilities.”

“We sshould go find the otherss,” Firecrest hissed. “Sshadow Lasss sstill needss help, and one of thosse Desstroyer thingss iss bound to come check on uss ssooner or later.”

“Agreed,” Brainiac 5 replied. He took the goggles from 89, donned a pair himself and gave the others to Firecrest and Ron-Karr. “Shadow Lass is in no position to fight anyway,” he explained his choices, “And no offence to you Makkia, but I’m sure you understand--”

“You don’t need to spare my feelings,” Makkia cut off her fellow Coluan. “You and 89 are our leaders, and Firecrest and Ron-Karr are our best chances against any opposition we encounter.” While she wasn’t entirely comfortable leaving herself so vulnerable, she really did mean what she’d said; Brainiac 5’s actions made perfect sense.

There was something else Makkia Vei had realised though, something she felt best to keep to herself for now but which definitely beared further consideration. 89 had skillfully avoided actually coming out and saying it, and Ron-Karr was too preoccupied with his overblown sense of betrayal to have seen it himself but if the Oversight Watch had continued fighting after 89’s apparent murder there was a fairly high likelihood that not all of the Watch would have survived long enough to be captured. Makkia had always known that each member of her team was expendable in the right circumstances, herself included; it was illuminating to see that in 89’s mind those circumstances might include simple expedience.

Equally fascinating was the expression Makkia had seen cross Brainiac 5’s face when he’d come to the same conclusion as she. In fact, Querl Dox’s reaction might be even more interesting because in a very rare moment for Makkia Vei she had no idea how to read it at all...

**********
A flash of emerald light filled his vision, and Xao Jin was suddenly free of the helmet which had been blocking his senses. “Zoe..?” he realised, shielding his eyes with his sleeve until they adjusted to the influx of brightness. “How did you free yourself?”

“They thought all my power was in my ring they confiscated,” Zoe Saugin explained as a green buzzsaw floated above Light Lad’s head and cut his helmet away from him next. “It never occurred to them that someone using a Green Lantern ring might actually possess the same power internally.”

“Grife, did anyone get the serial number of that cruiser that hit me..?” Light Lad rested against one of the barely visible walls with a pained grimace.

“Sorry,” Zoe apologised quickly. “My power’s already healed my injuries but I should have freed Mwindaji first so he could take care of the rest of you. I’ll do him next.” She turned to the oblivious tracker from Kirinyaga while he blindly probed the walls for flaws. Just as Neon had begun cutting into Mwindaji’s helmet, a door sliding into the far wall commanded their attention.

Fuelled by adrenalin, Light Lad reached out toward the noise. None of them saw the Invisible Destroyer who’d just entered, but they vaguely saw the indentation his massive form made in the ceiling when Darvan’s power propelled him into it. A series of claw marks pierced the ceiling in eerie silence and the Legionnaires realised he was dragging himself closer to them. “He’s strong but that doesn’t bother me!” Darvan exclaimed. “As soon as he figures out he can propel himself here however he was doing it in space--”

“Why did you just tell him that?!” Neon hollered, looking away from Mwindaji for a split second.

“Don’t concern yourselves,” Dragonmage placated them both calmly. He’d shifted back into the lotus position he’d been holding when Zoe freed him, and wisps of sorcerous energy converged around his hands as he wove deliberate and intricate gestures. Xao swiftly created the approximate outline of a dragonform, and with one dramatic double-handed push it became a hyper-realistic crimson beast which roared through the cell growing in size as it flew. Its jaws were five feet across when it chomped down on the charging Invisible Destroyer, and the dragon and its prey both crashed through the ceiling and shook the room as they impacted into another wall beyond.

Xao stood, and after taking a moment to centre himself once more he faced his awestruck comrades. “Once I got over my initial panic in that sensory deprivation helmet, something occurred to me...all I’ve been wanting since this misson began is some peace and quiet to focus my magic. Invisible Queen could barely have been of more assistance if she’d given me the ancient helm of Nabu himself.”

“Before you get too drunk with power, you wanna break Kid Computo out?” Neon asked Dragonmage with a teasing familiarity borne of their long friendship. “Mwindaji, get everyone fightin’ fit and then we’re gonna have us a jailbreak.”

“I don’t want to appear pessimistic,” Light Lad remarked, “But we still have a little problem, Neon...namely, none of us can see anything in this place. We may not be so lucky when we encounter the next one of these monsters.”

“Yeah, about that…” Zoe looked thoughtfully at the gouges which the Invisible Destroyer had made in the ceiling and which were already fading from view. “We can’t force the bad guys to become visible, but except for Invisible Queen herself their invisibility all comes from this weird tech. We can still see ourselves and we can still see our own powers, right?”

“I am not certain that I understand what it is you are implying,” Mwindaji admitted.

Zoe created a six foot tall spraycan which promptly splurged an unruly tangle of green silly string in the same direction from which the Invisible Destroyer had entered. In no time, the door to the cell was clearly defined in tacky emerald strands. “Well,” the former Green Lantern flashed a self-satisfied grin, “They do say actions speak louder than words, I guess.”

**********
Dev-Em stood rigid, one hand splayed out against a wall he could barely see.

“Anything, babe?” Power Boy sat against the opposite wall, a pile of crushed helmets by his side. Diamond Damsel, Nightwind and Mandalla awaited the Kryptonian’s response alongside Jed.

“Nothing,” Dev-Em scowled. “I don’t understand how this structure’s invisible but I can’t see anything through it...not with telescopic vision, x-ray vision, even microscopic vision doesn’t help. I can’t even sprocking hear anything outside this room, it’s frustrating as hell.”

“I’m sure it must be awful not having a zillion super senses to rely on,” Nightwind deadpanned. “Can’t relate.”

“You don’t have to be so bitchy about it, Nightwind!” Mandalla snapped. “If your leader hadn’t given us all up, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place!”

“Fair,” Berta replied. “But how exactly would we have found this place otherwise? Did it occur to you that maybe the smartest man in the galaxy might not actually have been outmanouvered by a bunch of armoured goons and their wannabe goddess leader? And now here we are with the three strongest people in either of our squads in one place, and you guys are too scared to make a move just because it might not be a cakewalk!”

“That’s not fair!” Power Boy protested. “We don’t know where the others are, and we’ve already lost 89! What if they kill someone else because we made a ruckus? We shouldn’t have even wrecked these stupid helmets!” He looked down anxiously at the remains of the technology which had fallen to Dev-Em and Diamond Damsel’s combined might.

“I know how megalomaniacs like Invisible Queen think,” Diamond Damsel joined the conversation, her tone unexpectedly grim. “Our friends are only alive as long as she considers them potentially useful, as are we. If she’s going to kill anyone, she’ll do it regardless of anything we do so I say we at least go out fighting. I’ve let evil people get what they wanted in the past because it was the easiest solution at the time, and those choices will haunt me forever. If we’re going to sit here and hope that someone else will come save the day, I might as well save some time and just lay down and die now.”

“They’re right.” Dev-Em turned to face the others, and lingered as he caught his lover’s gaze. “Jed, what happened to 89 wasn’t our fault...and I understand your fear, but if we let that fear stop us in our tracks then she died for nothing. You know if it were one of us who’d died and she was here she’d insist that the mission go on.”

Power Boy’s shoulders slumped for a moment, then he stood up beside Dev-Em. “Okay, fine. You talked me into it. But what do we do now? I mean we still need to actually find a way out of here.”

“That may be easier than you’d think.” Nightwind craned her neck upwards and pointed a finger. “I don’t know where the door is in this place, but I’ve been monitoring the airflow in the room and I think there’s an air vent right about there.”

“And if an air vent leads into our cell…” Mandalla pondered aloud.

“...It probably leads to other cells!” Power Boy finished her thought. “Berta, that’s brilliant!”

“You’re right,” Dev-Em floated upwards a few feet. “Now that I know what to listen for, I can hear the air entering the room.” His eyes blazed red and twin beams of intense heat sliced a perfect circle in what seemed to be mid-air until a chunk of the ceiling clattered to the ground. “We’d better hurry,” he said as he reached down to help Mandalla up. “They might not have noticed us ripping our helmets to shreds, but I’m sure they’ll notice that.” Nightwind conserved her power and allowed Dev-Em to lift her up next, and Power Boy lowered his density to the point where he could simply propel himself to the ceiling with a slight spring.

It was right at that moment they all heard the sound of a door opening and Dev-Em was slammed into the floor by an unseen force. “Go!” Diamond Damsel bellowed as she slammed both fists into the Invisible Destroyer holding Dev-Em down. “We’ll buy you some time!”

“We can’t just leave you here!” Nightwind’s voice rang back.

“Nightwind, I was never coming!” Diamond Damsel shouted back. “I weigh nearly half a ton, there’s no way that thing will support my weight! This thing can’t really hurt either of us, just go find the others!” She raised her fists for another blow, only to be taken off guard and hurled into a wall.

“She’s right,” Mandalla decided. “Don’t waste it Berta, go. Go!” The two women clambered through the vent, feeling their way forward as they crawled. Power Boy took one last desperate look at his lover. He felt horrible guilt leaving Dev-Em behind, but he knew that Dev and Diamond Damsel were best matched against these things...and if Mandalla and Nightwind came across another of the monsters, they would need Jed’s power on their side. Clenching his jaw, he followed his fellow Academy graduates without another look back.

As it turned out, navigating the tunnel-like vents was easier than Nightwind had anticipated. Though they were all still effectively blind, the air flowed more noticeably in this confined space and Berta felt confident enough to move freely. While Nightwind and Mandalla could crawl along in relative comfort Jed dwarfed the girls in height and breadth, and he’d initially found it almost impossible to keep up with them. He soon found though that by reducing his density even further, his body took on an almost spongey quality and he could push his way forward with far less resistance. It wasn’t an entirely pleasant sensation, but it was one he could tolerate for now.

Before too long, Nightwind stopped dead in her tracks. Mandalla tapped her calf from behind, and gave a questioning look when Berta turned back. In response, the yellow-skinned heroine cupped a hand to her ear and looked down. Mandalla pressed her ear to the vent she’d been crawling along for metres, but could hear nothing at first. Then she heard the faintest muffled footsteps from below; while the tech all around them hid sound as well as it did light there must be a grate nearby allowing ambient noise to penetrate.

“I’ve got this one,” Mandalla whispered. “I’ve been dying to do this since we began this sprocking mission.” She concentrated for a second and brought her unique power to bear. Unseen to either of her comrades, an enormous thoughtsphere filled the space below them where Mandalla had heard the footsteps. It was large enough to envelop anything within a twenty foot radius, but she was careful to make sure its outer perimeter spared Power Boy and Nightwind by a safe margin. The footsteps almost immediately fell still and Mandalla imagined that the Invisible Destroyer she’d ensnared must be standing beneath them right now, his mind utterly overwhelmed by a flood of sensory and cognitive distortions. “Jed!” she hissed at Power Boy behind her. “One of those monsters is practically right below us, I’ve got him trapped in a thoughtsphere! Go scout, but don’t get too close!”

Power Boy nodded, then his already pale skin lightened even further until he was almost translucent. Intangible and therefore no longer constrained by the boundary of the vent, he almost comically inflated back to his normal shape. Jed passed through the bottom of the vent, seeming to vanish into thin air for a moment before his head and shoulders popped back up again. “It’s not the bad guys!” he gushed. “You caught some of ours, Mandalla! Let ‘em go and I’ll shred this thing so you two can join us!”

Mandalla obeyed while Power Boy sunk back beneath them, then flinched as a deep purple fist tore through the vent behind her and haphazardly ripped a hole large enough for herself and Nightwind to descend. While Power Boy helped them down safely they saw Neon, Mwindaji, Light Lad, Dragonmage and Kid Computo coming out of their thoughtsphere-induced daze.

Dragonmage and Neon were the first to regain their senses, and Zoe immediately created two smaller spraycans in mimicry of her earlier stunt to coat the corridor in either direction in tacky green silly string. “What the sprock was that?” she asked. “I feel like I just ate rancid lotus fruit!”

“My bad,” Mandalla admitted. “Sorry, we thought you were one of our invisible friends. I’m impressed that you two recovered so quickly though, that was a pretty big thoughtsphere!”

“The mental discipline instilled in me by Madame Chu is an effective aid against psychic assault,” Dragonmage said helpfully before turning to Zoe with a proud smile. “...And only those who exemplify great willpower are chosen to be members of the legendary Green Lantern Corps.”

“Now that we’re all caught up on how awesome everybody is, let’s go back and help Dev and Diamond Damsel!” Power Boy blurted.

“We had to leave them behind with one of those invisible monsters,” Nightwind explained. “Now that we’re more prepared though, we should go back and get them and then find the rest of our friends and make that Invisible Queen squaj regret the day she ever heard of the Legion of Superheroes or the Oversight Watch.”

“A laudable goal,” a new yet familiar voice joined the discourse. Everyone looked up to see Brainiac 5 peering down between strands of emerald silly string from the ruptured air vent above, oversized goggles hiding his eyes. “Your friends however don’t need to be found, with the exception of Invisible Kid. Fortunately, I am confident in saying that where we find Invisible Queen, we’ll find Jacques Foccart.”

“Did...did I hear somebody say my brother’s name?” Danielle Foccart mumbled, only now recovering from Mandalla’s misplaced attack. “Invisible Queen better not have hurt him…”

“Don’t fret, Kid Computo; I’ll make sure every effort is devoted to his safe return.” Brainiac 5 turned to the others. “Mwindaji, could you please heal Shadow Lass’s wounds before we split our resources?”

“Split our resources?” Mwindaji parroted. “I am happy to help of course, but would we not be better served to present a united front against these foes?”

“I know you don’t think you’re looking for my brother without me,” an obstinate Kid Computo challenged her leader.

“That is exactly what is going to happen,” Brainiac 5 responded calmly. “Kid Computo, you have a far more important task to complete.”

“What’s more important than saving my brother’s life?” Danielle snapped. “You got some more Legionnaires you need me to plant bombs in, Brainy?”

“We don’t have time for this.” 89 pushed past Brainiac 5 and dropped to the floor, her reinforced bodysuit absorbing the impact of the fall.

“89?!” Power Boy’s jaw dropped.

“You’re alive!” Mandalla gasped.

“I am,” the enigmatic leader of the Oversight Watch answered curtly. “And I’ll tell you how, but right now we have other concerns. Kid Computo, the reason Brainiac 5 isn’t taking you to find Invisible Kid is that I need you to come with me.

You and I are going to remove every trace of the Invisible Queen’s presence from this world.”

**********
In an enormous open room looking out over the capital city of the world that Malias had claimed for her own, the Invisible Queen reclined in her throne on a raised platform. One of her Invisible Destroyers stood guard close by, very much visible in order to dissuade Jacques Foccart from any unwise ideas.

For his part, the Terran Legionnaire known as Invisible Kid had been quietly examining his surroundings as best he could without drawing attention to the act. Without his flight ring, he couldn’t escape to the city which stretched out a hundred stories below them or communicate with his friends. The Invisible Queen’s throne room was, as far as Jacques could tell, devoid of anything for him to use for cover or offensive purposes. “You have said that you desire for me to become your consort,” Jacques confronted Malias. “...Why? I am not Talokkian, and you and I have never had any meaningful interaction before today. Surely it cannot be simply that our powers are compatible.”

“Actually, that’s exactly what it is.” Malias smiled wickedly. “There is a facet to my power that has remained unknown to me until recent events; hidden from view, one might say. For most of my existence, I have not encountered another being with the innate power to make themselves invisible. That changed when my cultists introduced to me the power of the Luqiti orb, the same orb which allowed me to transform them into my Invisible Destroyers. In bonding the Luqiti to myself, I found that both our abilities were magnified exponentially. This nascent lifeform has given me the power to project my invisibility across a planetary scale and its symbiosis with me has empowered it to make my followers into armoured behemoths, to create weapons and tools and defences capable of battling even a legendary Kryptonian. Imagine then how much more powerful you and I shall both grow when you agree to become my king.”

“I do not care for power,” Invisible Kid scowled. “I would give up even the meager power I possess now in an instant if I thought that it would end your evil.”

“But you do care about your sister,” Malias returned. “And you care about your allies. And if you want to keep caring about them I think it would be best if you give me what I want, Jacques Foccart. I know you heroic types; right now you must think I am a monster with inhuman tastes. After some time however, you will come around. You people always do.”

Jacques glared at her. He hated the idea of helping this woman enhance the considerable power she already possessed; still, she might very well be unwittingly granting him the power to oppose her more effectively if she was telling the truth. Regardless, Jacques had to believe that no matter how powerful Malias became, somebody must be able to stop her reign of terror. Perhaps the Legionnaires who had journeyed here had failed, but she hadn’t yet faced Blok or Sun Boy or Colossal Boy. “I want your word,” Invisible Kid demanded. “You must give me your word that the Legion of Superheroes and the Oversight Watch will not be harmed if I participate in this madness, and that you will not harm the people of this world or any other world more than you already have.”

“Your friends will remain my captives but I assure you they will be well looked after,” Malias conceded. “And so long as nobody else is foolish enough to fight me, they too will be free to live their lives unmolested under my rule.”

“Then...then Dieu aide moi, I will do as you ask. I shall become your consort, Invisible Queen.” Jacques slumped his shoulders in defeat, then flinched as he felt unseen devices clamp down around his ankles, his wrists and his neck. “Quoi..?!”

“Do not fear, my king.” Malias stood from her throne and approached the struggling Invisible Kid. “I realise this is not the most romantic ceremony, but surely you can’t blame your queen for wanting to ensure your loyalty? This will only hurt for a moment, I assure you.” She kissed his lips gently, with breath that smelled arcane and stale.

She then turned her back on him and walked back to her throne, and the room was filled with the sounds of Jacques Foccart’s agonised screams...

NEXT: LONG LIVE THE KING!!

Uh oh, Tel's idea is scary... He might go the way of Sir Prize and Miss Terious, or he might go the way of Mentalla...

Jed lowering his density and becoming "spongy" is something I thought of too! And I like your idea of Nightwind following airflow, or Zoe and Xao being bale to recover from mental attacks faster than others.

Gosh, what's happened to Jacques? Stands to reason that he would be transformed like the cultists were.

I do like how you strike a balance between our heroes being powerful enough to escape their helmets and their cells, yet still at a disadvantage versus these scary invisible opponents!

We won't have to wait too long to see if Tel's idea is inspired or gonna get him a nice statue in the Legion's Hall of Creepy Dead Guys, and we will have to wait even less long to see what's happened to Jacques!

Happy new year y'all!

MARS
Legion of Superherheroes Headquarters, Dream Girl and Star Boy’s quarters
Thom Kallor yawned and stretched one arm up and above the naked body of Nura Nal, whom he’d been spooning when he’d woken up. Her mane of platinum blonde hair felt warm against his own furry chest, and though some of it got in his mouth it was an inconvenience that Thom had long ago learned to live with. He propped himself up on one elbow and watched the reflection of his lover’s sleeping face in the mirror beside their bed. Thom’s lips curled up in a dumb smile as he wondered not for the first time how a boy from backwater Xanthu had found himself lucky enough to be sharing a life with a woman whose beauty, intelligence and heroism were praised throughout the United Planets.

Nura stirred, and at first Thom thought he might have accidentally disturbed her slumber; a moment later though he recognised the strangely anxious expression which crossed her flawless features, and Thom looked around the room for his costume. It looked like she was having a precognitive dream, and if that were the case they might not have much time to jump into action. Nura’s eyes fluttered open, and she rolled around to face Star Boy. “Hey lover,” she mumbled sleepily, kissing him gently on the lips.

“Hey, you.” He kissed her back a little harder before pulling back. “Everything okay? It looked like you might have been having a vision just now.”

“Oh, that!” Nura blinked at the memory. “Everything’s fine, but we’d better get some clothes on. Gravity Kid’s going to be here soon.” She groped him playfully, as much to show that there really was no need for concern as it was an act of simple flirtation. Then she climbed on top of him and across the other side, taking maybe a little longer mid-way to pause for another kiss than was strictly necessary.

Thom laid back, allowing his head to sink into subtly scented pillows as he released a long frustrated exhalation. “You know,” he grumbled teasingly as he sat up and watched Nura choose an outfit from her walk-in wardrobe, “Some people might say it’s cruel to molest your boyfriend like that when you know you haven’t got time to take it any further. What does Gravity Kid want, anyway?”

“Some people don’t know that they’re going to have the whole rest of the day to themselves till most of the other Legionnaires get back from Talokkian space,” Nura mumbled back, keeping her face as still as possible while her autobeautician applied her make-up. “And I don’t know what Gravity Kid wants; believe it or not, even Naltorians don’t know everything that’s going to happen in the future. Where would the fun be in that?”

Thom rolled his eyes and grabbed a pair of underwear out of the bedside drawer. He wondered if he’d ever know when Nura was just messing with him and when she genuinely hadn’t seen the future. Part of him kind of hoped that it would remain a mystery honestly; there was a playful side to her which came out when she was teasing someone about her foresight, and as annoying as it could occasionally be, that playfulness was also one of the things he loved most about her.

Their door alert sounded, and Thom quickly pulled on a pair of shorts and ran to the door with a singlet in hand. He was pulling the singlet over his head when he gave the command for the door to open, and so when Gravity Kid was revealed on the other side Thom was still almost half-naked.

“Oh, um...hi Star Boy.” Gravity Kid cleared his throat. “I’m not um...interrupting anything, am I? I can come back later…”

Thom was completely ignorant of the awkwardness in Tel Vole’s voice, but it hadn’t escaped Nura’s attention at all. “It’s fine, Gravity Kid,” she chuckled from the mirror before she gave her outfit and make-up a final examination and walked over to join the two men. “Do you need our help with something?”

“Actually…” the teenager took a deep breath. “I was kind of hoping I could ask you both for a favor…”

*********
TALOK III
The Palace of Malias the Invisible Queen

ROLL CALL
Legion of Superheroes
Brainiac 5 aka Querl Dox: team leader, 12th level intelligence
Firecrest aka Staq Mavlen: weredragon
Mwindaji: tracker infused with White Lantern energy
Nightwind aka Berta Skye Haris: wind control
Shadow Lass aka Tasmia Mallor: darkness generation

Oversight Watch
Power Boy aka Jedediah Rikane: density manipulation
Ron-Karr: ability to become 2-dimensional

The seven heroes making their way through a labyrinth of invisible corridors were an odd sight; Mwindaji had restored everybody’s health before the Legion and Oversight Watch had separated into two co-mingled squads but many of their costumes still bore the signs of the violence they’d suffered at the hands of the Invisible Destroyers. Neon’s power had been able to replicate the goggles 89 had created, and these were worn now by Brainiac 5, Firecrest, Mwindaji and Nightwind allowing them to view their surroundings through the soft glow of emerald lenses. The three pairs of goggles which 89 herself had created were worn by Shadow Lass, Power Boy and Ron-Karr; it was thought that Shadow Lass might be adversely affected by wearing a hardlight construct for any period of time with her photosensitivity, and neither Ron-Karr nor Power Boy wanted to take the risk that Neon’s creations might not automatically adapt to their respective powers without Zoe herself present.

“I still can’t believe 89 did that to us,” Ron-Karr fumed. “There was no reason for her to lie to us like that, doesn’t she care what she put us through?”

“Has he been like this since he found out 89 faked her death?” Nightwind asked Shadow Lass quietly.

“The entire time,” Tasmia moaned.

“Oh come on,” Power Boy joined the conversation, “You guys aren’t being fair. How would you feel if you found out your leader was carrying out some secret plan without telling any of you? I’m with Ron, it’s a huge violation of trust. In this line of work we only survive a lot of the time by relying on one another. How are we meant to do that now? We’re always gonna be second-guessing her!”

Nightwind turned to face her friend. “Jed, you’re not wrong but...you guys have to table this. You know how tough Invisible Queen’s goons are, even now that we can see them coming we need to be on top of our game. You can yell at 89 later all you like, but right now we need to focus on rescuing Invisible Kid.”

“Yeah...yeah, you’re right.” Power Boy’s shoulders slumped slightly. “How are we going with that anyway; can you sense him yet, Mwindaji?”

“Not as well as I would wish,” the tracker from Kirinyagi admitted. “Neon’s device is helpful in bypassing Invisible Queen’s power, but even with her aid it is all that I can do to maintain a vague awareness of my teammate’s trail. I mean no disrespect, but I will better be able to find Invisible Kid if I am not further distracted.”

“Right.” Power Boy took the hint. “Sorry.”

“Brainy..?” While the others spoke amongst themselves, the dragonlike Firecrest uttered his leader’s name. “Before we sseparated, Kid Computo ssaid ssomething about how you made her plant bombss in people..? What wass that all about..?”

Brainiac 5’s cheeks blushed a darker shade of green and he looked down at the floor momentarily before finding the nerve to face Staq directly. “89 is not the only team leader who has erred in judgement it seems, Firecrest. I have...made mistakes; mistakes upon which recent circumstances have seen fit to give me new perspective. I promise that I will give all of you a full explanation when this is over, but for now Nightwind is correct. We must focus on the task at hand, and I must hope that Jacques does not pay the price for my hubris.”

“Brainiac?” Mwindaji’s baritone voice interrupted the pair. “I believe that Invisible Kid’s trail ends here.” He gestured at a large featureless wall before them.

While the goggles 89 and Neon had made provided a functioning awareness of their surroundings, they couldn’t reveal fine detail. It felt for all the world like they’d been navigating through some primitive virtual reality environment and they couldn’t really even tell if there was a door inset here or not. To Brainiac 5, it didn’t matter. “Power Boy?” the Coluan asked, “Would you do something about this barrier please?”

“Thought you’d never ask.” Jed took a few steps back, each footfall heavier than the last as his skin grew a deep purple. He charged the wall shoulder first, and rammed his way straight through it leaving a hole easily large enough for everyone else to follow.

On the other side, the heroes saw a massive open throne room. The Invisible Queen sat in her throne completely unsurprised by Jed’s dramatic entrance, and three Invisible Destroyers stood in a defensive pattern around her. Talok III’s capital city was spread out far below them, but the heroes were all so busy watching another scene in mounting horror that they paid no attention to the landscape.

At the Invisible Queen’s feet, Jacques Foccart’s trembling form was held rigid in some weird apparatus formed out of the biotech which had infested all of their surroundings. He was screaming himself hoarse as dozens of thick needles penetrated his body from head to toe, and blood poured down his cheeks in dark streams from eyes hidden behind spiked plates. The torture was so terrible that he was completely unaware anybody else was present at all.

“You monster!” Shadow Lass stepped forward, her hands balled into fists.

“Tasmia, stop.” Brainiac 5 placed a hand on Shadow Lass’s forearm, and when she turned on him with raw fury he continued calmly before he lost the opportunity. “I am as sickened as you by this grotesque display, but we need to keep our wits about us.” He glared at Malias while she leaned back in her throne revelling in their discomfort. “You were expecting our arrival,” Brainiac 5 stated simply.

Malias laughed cruelly. “Of course I was. I’ve been aware of your little jaunt through my home ever since you broke free...it amused me to allow you to think otherwise, just as it amused me to allow one of my Invisible Destroyers to play with some of you. I’m afraid however that I’ll have to ask the rest of my loyal subjects to return you naughty escapees back to your cells now. Don’t fret; I’ve promised my Invisible King that I won’t harm any of you so there’ll be no lasting scars.”

She gave a lazy handwave in the heroes’ general direction, and the Invisible Destroyers flew into action. “Mwindaji, Ron-Karr, assist Invisible Kid!” Brainiac commanded. “Once Jacques is safe, you can help Nightwind, Firecrest and Power Boy battle the Invisible Destroyers!”

“You’re not my boss!” Ron-Karr protested. “Why the sprock should I pull your guy’s nass outta the fire while you sit back with a ringside seat?”

“I’m not going to be sitting anywhere,” Brainiac 5 replied while everyone else around him scattered. “I’m going to be working alongside Shadow Lass to bring some very overdue justice to this would-be monarch.”

“Try to keep up with me Brainy,” Shadow Lass teased darkly as she ran toward the throne. She slid fearlessly across the floor while immediately overhead Firecrest bathed one of the Invisible Destroyers in flames.

Malias didn’t even give Shadow Lass or Brainiac 5 the respect of standing to meet them. “It’s absolutely adorable that you think you two pose a threat to me at all,” she smirked wickedly, “But did you really think I’d leave myself completely defenceless?” Before their astonished eyes, two energy weapons emerged from the throne’s sides and fired upon the Invisible Queen’s would-be captors. Shadow Lass rolled to one side effortlessly, but Brainiac 5 wasn’t quite so lucky. Accustomed to relying almost solely on his forcefield belt in combat, he wasn’t fast enough to avoid being tagged by the weapon and he cried out in pain as he stumbled to the floor.

While Malias laughed at the chaos, more of the weapons began to form from the walls and ceiling all around them. Brainiac 5 cursed himself for his arrogance; he’d assumed that if Invisible Queen had this level of control of the technology she’d co-opted she would have used it by now. It had never even occurred to him that she’d been simply toying with them all the whole time...and that realisation brought with it a new one. When Malias had confirmed that all of the remaining Invisible Destroyers were in this throne room with them, Brainac had considered the rest of the heroes who’d gone off with 89 to be safe from harm. Now he knew he’d just sent them into a deathtrap with no way to even warn them…

**********
ELSEWHERE

ROLL CALL
Legion of Superheroes
Dragonmage aka Xao Jin: dragon magic
Kid Computo aka Danielle Foccart: cyberempathy
Light Lad aka Darvan Locke: anti-gravity control
Neon aka Zoe Saugin: infused with Green Lantern energy

Oversight Watch
89: team leader, hyper-skilled combatant and espionage agent
Makkia Vei: psychological manipulation
Mandalla aka Tari Wahlmunn: thoughtsphere projection

“For what it’s worth,” Makkia Vei addressed Danielle Foccart as the seven heroes made their way through Invisible Queen’s dungeons, “I appreciate how difficult it must be for you to leave your brother’s safety in the hands of your teammates while you fulfil this mission with us, Kid Computo.”

They all wore the same enormous goggles that Neon had given the other squad, and these obscured their features. When Kid Computo replied to the Coluan woman however, the annoyance in her tone couldn’t be disguised. “You don’t have to butter me up, Makkia. I’m already here. Brainy better hope whatever he’s playing at hasn’t gotten Jacques hurt though.”

Leading the group, 89 suddenly held a hand up and stood perfectly motionless. The audio equipment built into her cowl gave her more enhanced hearing capabilities than anybody else here, and she flattened against a wall instinctively before realising it was likely a pointless gesture given that the Invisible Destroyers could probably see through this structure as easily as their mistress. She flashed Mandalla a quick hand gesture, and Mandalla held one finger to her temple. “She’s casting a thoughtsphere ahead of us,” Makkia explained helpfully to the Legionnaires in the group.

“We’ve been on the receiving end of one of those things,” Neon replied. “Not my favourite experience in the world.”

89 rounded a corner cautiously with her firearm drawn, then relaxed her posture and told Mandalla to release the thoughtsphere as she rushed forward.

The others followed her, finding Diamond Damsel and Dev-Em in a wide-eyed dumb silence just ahead. “Neon, give us some cover,” 89 barked. “They’ll be fine in a nano but till then we’re sitting elvabird.”

“I’ll do it,” Zoe grumbled, “But I don’t love being ordered around by Princess Black Ops Ninja Chief, just FYI.”

“I can help here,” Dragonmage offered. “Conserve your energy, Zoe. You’ve done a lot for us already and you don’t have your ring back yet.”

“Thanks Xao, you’re a pal.” Zoe patted him on the shoulder and walked over toward Diamond Damsel and Dev-Em while Dragonmage wove a squadron of horned dog-sized dragons which flew around them all and effectively created a solid perimeter. “So this is what it looks like from the outside, huh?” Zoe waved a hand in front of Dev-Em’s unblinking gaze with no reaction whatsoever.

Light Lad joined her. Using his own power to levitate, he took a closer look at the much taller Diamond Damsel’s angular features. “There’s no danger of permanent damage, is there Mandalla?”

“You think Bouncing Boy and Duplicate Damsel would have let me in to the Legion Academy in the first place if there was?” she responded sarcastically. “Relax, they should be coming around any time now.”

True to Mandalla’s word, the Kryptonian rogue and the diamond giantess soon blinked a few times and moaned in confusion. “Mandalla..?” Dev-Em was the first to realise what had happened, having experienced her power often enough in training sessions. “Why’d you..?”

“Sorry, Dev.” Mandalla shrugged. “Figures that the only two times I get to do anything on this caper, I take out our own guys.”

“I’ll take responsibility this time,” 89 stepped forward to stand in front of Dev-Em. “We couldn’t take the risk that you might be an enemy, I’m sure you understand.”

“89? Aren’t you...meant to be dead..?” Diamond Damsel muttered, leaning on Light Lad for support while he used his power to avoid being crushed.

“I’ve heard that a lot today,” 89 replied dryly. “I’ll explain later, but right now we need to keep going. Are you two going to be able to move?”

Dev-Em pouted. He wasn’t remotely happy about it, but aside from 89 herself he’d been working in espionage for longer than anyone else in the Oversight Watch. He knew that sometimes you just had to swallow your personal concerns for the sake of the mission. “I’m fine,” he shook his head a final time and stood up straight. “What’s our objective? And where are Jed and the others?”

“They’ve gone to rescue Invisible Kid,” 89 explained. “We need to get Kid Computo here to the nerve centre of the Luqiti that Malias is exploiting.”

“What the hell’s a Luqiti?” Diamond Damsel asked. Finally recovered from Mandalla’s assault herself, she thanked Darvan for his help and stood on her own once more.

“It’s a lifeform I have only seen very very rarely,” 89 told her. “A biotechnological species with cloaking and shapeshifting capabilities so advanced as to be akin to magic. This...all of this around us is formed from its substance; but it’s also essentially an appendage. At the centre of this structure there’s an orb which contains the creature’s essence, and we need to get Kid Computo there so she can wrest control of the creature from Malias for our own ends.”

“Got it,” Dev-Em nodded. “Okay then, like you said...let’s keep moving. Diamond Damsel and I messed up one of these invisible creeps already, but we don’t need to hang around in one place long enough for more of them to join the party.”

Neon snapped her fingers. “Oh, hey! Before I forget!” She concentrated briefly, then handed Dev-Em and Diamond Damsel a pair of the same hardlight goggles the rest of them wore. “I copied these from the ones in 89’s mask, they let us see this place...well, more or less see it.”

“Clever girl.” Dev-Em winked at the redheaded teen and slipped them over his head. Zoe was glad the green tinge of the glasses hid the extent of her furious blushing, and gladder still when 89 called the Kryptonian’s attention away from her.

“The orb we’re looking for is three levels down,” 89 instructed, reading the map on her cowl's internal display. “Dev-Em, give us a shortcut. Light Lad, lower us so Neon doesn’t have to waste any more of her own power. Everyone else, be ready for anything.”

As soon as 89 and Makkia turned to watch Dev-Em tunnel through the levels below them, an approximation of Zoe’s voice sounded inside the skulls of four very surprised Legionnaires. <Guys, sorry for the intrusion - I incorporated radiotelepathy into your goggles, the Oversight Watch don’t know. Are we really okay with following 89’s lead? I don’t know this Oversight Watch, but the fems at least aren’t doing a lot to fill me with trust.>

<89’s abrasive,> Light Lad agreed, <But she’s also more experienced than the rest of us.>

<I don’t care about that,> Kid Computo offered. <If I honestly thought I’d be better off helping my brother, Superboy himself wouldn’t hold me back. But as annoying as 89 and Brainy both are at the moment, I also think they’re right. We can free the whole planet this way, not just my brother.>

<Invisible Kid has the best help he could ask for,> Dragonmage attempted to buoy Danielle’s spirits. <Brainiac 5 and Shadow Lass alone have been Legionnaires for far longer than any of us.>

<Ugh, the self-deprecation,> Zoe poked her tongue out. <You guys were the first Legionnaires I ever met - sprock, you were there when I got my Green Lantern ring! You’re as good as any of those guys!>

Diamond Damsel laughed out loud, drawing an odd glance from the Watch members. “It just occurred to me,” she spoke out loud to allay any suspicion, “If Elastic Lad, Comet Queen and Tyroc were here we’d have the same roster as our first Legion mission. We’ve been through a lot since then, as a team and as individual people. I say whatever happens next, we trust ourselves to make the right decision. Deal?” She placed her hand out before the other Legionnaires, palm facing the floor.

“That’s what I’m sayin’!” Zoe slapped her hand down on top of Diamond Damsel’s, then immediately winced in discomfort at how hard it was.

“You’re both right,” Dragonmage concurred as his own hand joined the stack. “I wonder what Tyroc would think of us if he were still here?”

“I think he’d say we are Legionnaires as much as any of the others,” Light Lad joined in. “Because we earned it. All of us.” The four of them looked across at Kid Computo expectantly.

“Damn straight we did,” Danielle said with steel in her voice, slapping her hand roughly atop the others. “Now let’s go, Legion!” The five of them cheered and raised their arms with newfound vigour.

89, Mandalla and Makkia Vei stood at the lip of the hole Dev-Em had just finished making while its architect floated in its centre. “If you’re done..? 89 asked coldly.

Almost instantly, the structure around them came to life with tendrils, pincers and both projectile and energy weapons. Xao’s dragonforms protected them all from the first round of attacks, but most of his mystical defences were destroyed in the process. “Zoe, I know what I said earlier about conserving your power reserves--” the young sorceror began to apologise.

“Say no more!” Neon interrupted her friend, creating a serpentine form of her own out of emerald light to encase all of them but Dev-Em. “Lead on, Action Lad!”

Dev-Em gave her a mock salute, then used his heat vision to sear them a way forward through the swiftly regenerating structure and the increasingly dangerous weapons.

Following 89’s instructions, the motley crew soon found themselves in a dead end corridor. “I don’t understand!” 89 bellowed. “It should be right here, I mapped this whole area when I originally found it!”

“...and Malias has done the bare minimum to prevent us from getting here.” Makkia Vei started to piece it all together aloud.

“What do you mean?” Mandalla challenged her. “These plasma guns are bare minimum??”

“Think about it,” Makkia continued. “For most of the way here we’ve had no opposition. When Dev-Em and Diamond Damsel defeated one of her Invisible Destroyers, she could have sent more but she didn’t. Now that she has given us opposition it’s impersonal...and it’s nothing that we’re not capable of defending ourselves against, for a while anyway. There’s no way someone who’s egotistical enough to want to extend her rule beyond this planet is going to dispense with enemies as high profile as the Legion of Superheroes unless she’s there to watch it herself; she had no intention of really preventing us from getting here, she just wants to make sure we’ll be exhausted enough at some point that she can take us back into custody when she stops having her fun with us. And if us being here is no threat to her…”

“...then she must have utilised the shapeshifting properties of the Luqiiti to rearrange this whole structure and move the orb,” 89 realised. “Damn it. She knows we’ll never find it while we’re fighting off this nonsense. We’ll need to retreat. We can come back for the others later--”

“No.” Kid Computo said boldly. “The only reason I abandoned my brother is to complete this mission, 89. We’re going through with it. Jacques and everyone else in both our teams and everyone else on this sprocking planet are counting on us.”

“I’m no more a fan of running away than anybody else,” Diamond Damsel placed a hand gently on Kid Computo’s shoulder. “But how are we going to find this thing, Danielle? Even Mwindaji couldn’t track anything through this stuff.”

“This thing’s all an extension of technology essentially, right? So I think it’s time I earn my name.”

“I thought you couldn’t sense the Luqiti?” a confused Light Lad asked. “The way 89 explained it--”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s an appendage.” Danielle shook her head. “But even still, I can kinda sense it; I just haven’t been able to control it. But I bet Tellus or Saturn Girl could use telepathy on someone if they saw their arm, so I don’t see why I should be any different just because it’s not something I’m used to. The only thing is...Neon, I think I’m gonna have to get out of this thing.”

“You just said you can’t control that tech!” Mandalla protested. “You’ll get taken out in a nano!”

“No she won’t,” Diamond Damsel declared. “We’ll protect her. All of us.” Light Lad and Dragonmage stepped forward in solidarity.

“Thanks, guys.” Danielle gave them a genuine smile. “Okay, are we all ready to do something really stupid?”

“Mandalla and Makkia Vei’s skillsets don’t really lend themselves to physical combat of this nature,” the ever-pragmatic 89 declared as she readied a vibro-blade in one hand and a firearm in the other. “Neon, I’ll need you to keep them safe.”

“I can do you better than that,” Zoe gave a cheeky smirk. “How would you like to be the brawn instead of the brains for once, ladies?” Zoe re-focused her energies and both women were encased in chunky translucent green armor.

Mandalla held her outstretched hands out, noticing small but sharp spikes on each knuckle. “Nice,” she nodded appreciatively. “I could get used to this!”

“I don’t know how much juice I’ve got left so don’t get too carried away,” Neon warned her. “But it should help us even the odds a little anyway. Okay everyone, I’m gonna drop the external field…now.”

The Legionnaires and Oversight Watch members were instantly harassed by the Luqiti’s many-pronged assault, but none of them made it an easy fight. While 89 hacked and blasted away at exotic armaments, Diamond Damsel and Dev-Em ripped them to shreds or reduced them to ash with wide bursts of heat vision. Mandalla and Makkia Vei took full advantage of their new physical capabilities, tearing and punching savagely at anything they could get their hands on. While Dragonmage and Light Lad used their own powers to attack in unexpected ways, Neon concentrated on shielding them and everybody else from what damage she could. In the middle of them all, protected from a dozen different attacks at any given moment, Kid Computo took a knee and probed as intensely as she could to make any kind of connection with this weird lifeform. Danielle heard Dragonmage cry out, followed by Makkia Vei as Neon’s power finally weakened enough for an attack to get through. She blocked all of it from her mind though, blocked out everything but her need to make contact. Mandalla and Light Lad were next to fall, and when Danielle risked a glance at the others she saw Neon in a losing battle with a long constricting tendril. Then, suddenly, she made a breakthrough. She couldn’t open contact with the Luqiti from here, but she knew now where it was hiding. “Dev-Em!” she barked. “I’m projecting a new map on to 89’s retinal display, get us there now!”

The Kryptonian youth grabbed the two women before Danielle had even finished her command, and with dizzying speed they were on the other side of the complex. “Just...wow, give me a sec to catch my breath,” Kid Computo gasped.

“You can catch your breath when you’ve got control of this thing,” 89 said without sympathy. “Dev-Em, the wall?”

Dev-Em obliged, incinerating a massive portion of the wall in front of them just as Neon’s goggles blinked out of existence. A transparent orb stood revealed on a podium in the centre of an empty room. “Ball’s in your court,” he remarked to Danielle Foccart. “Time to teach this thing who’s boss, kid.”

“Actually,” Danielle retorted, “I think I’m gonna teach it something else altogether.”

**********
Berta Skye Haris was at least somewhat relieved that in the cavernous space of the Invisible Queen’s throne room, her offensive capabilities were a lot more useful. She knew that it was only going to buy them a little time, but it still felt good to slam these Invisible Destroyers into one another. At the same time she was forced to use her command of air currents to try and stay one step ahead of the room’s automated weaponry though, and something had to give.

“This is all highly amusing,” Malias gave a throaty chuckle from her throne while Brainiac 5 and Shadow Lass writhed in Luqiti coils suspended upside-down from the ceiling before her. She used her rapport with the unique lifeform to summon Shadow Lass closer, and wrapped a lock of Tasmia Mallor’s hair around one bony finger. “I promised my Invisible King that I wouldn’t hurt his Legion friends, Shadow Champion. I think when we’re done here though, I’ll take you for a visit to Talok VIII so you can watch as I do to your world what I’ve done to this one. Would you like that?”

“Ancestors give me strength, I’ll die before I stop fighting you,” Shadow Lass vowed through gritted teeth.

“You won’t get away with this,” Brainiac 5 added. “I guarantee you, there are twice as many Legionnaires on their way here right now Malias.”

The Invisible Queen gave a sharp laugh. “Aren’t you supposed to be your group’s genius?” she mocked him. “I wouldn’t have expected you to deal in such banal cliches, Brainiac 5.” As she said this, the hardlight goggles that Neon had created for her allies flickered and vanished, and Malias threw her head back and laughed long and loud. “Now that must be a good omen.”

Wearing the goggles that 89 had given them, Power Boy and Ron-Karr were unaffected by the loss but Mwindaji, Nightwind and Firecrest fell almost immediately now that they were effectively blind once more.

“This has all been delightfully entertaining,” Malias flashed a wicked grin at the shell-shocked Power Boy and Ron-Karr, “But you boys have to admit that both of your teams combined were no match for the Invisible Queen and her loyal subjects. There’s no shame in it, but it’s over now, it -- eh?” She seemed confused for a moment, then screamed in inarticulate outrage as the Luqiti armaments all withdrew back into the building around them and her two remaining Invisible Destroyers became very much visible. “I’ll kill her!” Malias raged. “I’ll flay that witch’s skin from her bones!!”

“I’m gonna guess Kid Computo did her thing,” Power Boy cracked his knuckles. “Which means now we can do ours.” He launched himself at one of the remaining Destroyers, knocking him over and weighing him down with so much additional mass that the floor cracked beneath them both while Jed punched him over and over. At the same time, Ron-Karr laid into the remaining behemoth with a series of vicious cuts, each deeper than the last.

“Face it, Invisible Queen.” Free now from her bonds, Shadow Lass landed a solid punch on the villainess’s jaw, sending her sprawling over the arm of her throne to land in a graceless heap on the floor. “You and your little coup are both done.”

“No!” Malias protested. “You may have stalled my plans today Shadow Champion, but mark my words I’ll destroy you all and rule as is my birthright…and you’ll never see me coming.” Shadow Lass and Brainiac 5 both lunged for her, but she’d already faded from sight.

“Blast that woman!” Tasmia Mallor cursed. “After all of that, she just gets away to do it all again??”

“No.” The voice was disembodied, but instantly recognisable. There was the sound of a fist connecting with a cheek, and Jacques Foccart appeared by the throne covered in his own dried blood and holding an unconscious Invisible Queen by her collar.

“Jacques,” Brainiac 5’s jaw dropped. “Your eyes…”

“Oui,” Invisible Kid replied darkly. “Mwindaji did what he could to heal me, but the damage it seems was already done. Malias may not have come away from this with everything she wanted...but in the end, she created her Invisible King.” His voice betrayed all the emotion that his eyes could not; because like the woman whose sensory perceptions he now shared, Jacques Foccart’s eyes were two stark white orbs which hurt his friends to gaze directly upon.

**********
EPILOGUE
By the time Ultra Boy arrived with two cruisers full of Legion reinforcements, the excitement was well and truly over. Malias and her Invisible Destroyers had been handed over to the Science Police, everybody’s confiscated equipment had been returned, the Oversight Watch had made themselves scarce, and the newly cognizant Luqiti had taken the freedom granted by Kid Computo to find its own path out there in the cosmos somewhere. All that was left now was for the Legion to go home.

Brainiac 5, having finally finished debriefing the planetary authorities, approached Invisible Kid. Infectious Lass had come as part of Ultra Boy’s reinforcements, and Drura stood with her arm linked with that of Jacques Foccart as she gazed at the man she loved in obvious concern. “I swear,” Brainiac vowed, “I will do everything in my power to reverse whatever Malias has done to you, Jacques. I can make at least this right before I leave.”

“It is not your wrong to have to make right,” Invisible Kid replied stoically. “But I appreciate the effort, mon ami.”

“What do you mean, before you leave?” Infectious Lass asked. “Where are you going?”

“I...am perhaps not so clever as I might think at times,” Brainiac 5’s admitted. “Definitely not when it comes to emotional intelligence. And I have a tendency to overcompensate for this by bringing my other proven advancements to the fore.”

“If you’re trying to eat humble pie,” Wildfire grumbled, arms folded across his chest. “You’ve got a weird way of doing it, Brainy.”

“Drake, hush.” Phantom Girl flashed her teammate an annoyed glance. “Let Brainy speak.”

“Thank you, Phantom Girl.” By this time, Querl Dox had drawn the attention of the rest of the gathered Legionnaires, and they all stopped their individual conversations to listen to what their leader had to say. “I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anybody here that I have not dealt very well with losing Kara. I think...no, I know that I chose to deal with those feelings of grief by exerting increasingly greater control over the rest of this team. The Legion of Superheroes has always been the closest thing I have known to a family, and in my state of mind I thought I was protecting you all by eliminating risk wherever I could. Firecrest, I...I placed a device in your costume that I could trigger remotely to incapacitate you in the event that you lost control of your new form. I placed a device within Quislet’s ship which could be remotely triggered to destroy it at will. I believed that I could mitigate his natural lack of impulse control if necessary.”

“Wait a nano.” Having resumed his normal form, Staq Mavlen advanced on Brainiac 5 and poked an angry finger at his chest. “You did what?? Brainiac, what the sprock?!”

Cosmic Boy, having also come along on Ultra Boy’s rescue mission, stepped forward and stood between the two men. “Firecrest, this isn’t the time or place for this confrontation...but Brainy, this is a gross breach of trust. Did anybody else know about any of this?”

Brainiac 5 looked Cosmic Boy dead in the eye. “It doesn’t matter. Any responsibility, any blame lies solely on my shoulders. There’s more, Cosmic Boy. I...this is not an easy thing for me to admit, but I...deliberately chose a team for this mission that I knew were not ideally suited for the task.” With sad eyes, Brainiac looked across at both Phantom Girl and Kid Computo. “I knew that some of you had lost confidence in my leadership. I rationalised that if I could lead a combination of lower-powered and less experienced Legionnaires to liberate this world and capture Invisible Queen, it would greatly improve my chances at retaining leadership of the Legion of Superheroes. I had additional schemes ready to be launched, but none of that matters now because I saw my actions reflected today in the disregard 89 had for her own team, and I realised with crystalline certainty; I don’t want to be that person. And each and every one of you deserve far more from your leader than just to be seen as strategic assets, so effective immediately I am announcing my resignation from the Legion of Superheroes.”

“Brainy.” Phantom Girl placed a hand on his forearm. “Nobody’s gonna pretend like you did good...and some of us might be mad at you, but we still love you. We’ll help you get over this, you don’t need to leave the Legion altogether.”

“Phantom Girl...Tinya.” Brainiac placed his hand over hers and looked at her with wet eyes. “Thank you, but...I realise now that I do need to leave. I have never known any kind of support network outside of this team. Even...even Rond was inextricably linked to the Legion in my mind and he’s gone too. I’ve consistently relegated any other person in my life to a purely professional relationship, and it’s meant...it has meant that all I know how to do is be Brainiac 5. I need to learn how Querl Dox can have healthy relationships and healthy coping mechanisms, and to do that I think I need to be just Querl Dox for a while.”

Brainiac 5 released Tinya and removed his flight ring as he approached Ultra Boy. “I’ll come back to Mars with you all so I can help Invisible Kid, but from this moment on you’re the acting leader of the Legion of Superheroes, Ultra Boy.” Brainy smiled wryly as he patted Jo on the shoulder and handed his ring over. “I wish you the best of luck. I wish all of you the best of luck.”

Then Querl Dox walked on to one of the waiting Legion cruisers, leaving two dozen stunned superheroes in his wake.

Huh, should have known that Gravity Kid would be sensible enough to talk to some Legionnaires! Or, well, he's showing more sense than I imagined.

Nice spotlight on the Nura-Thom relationship. Frisky, just how I'd expect it!

and a great resolution to the Invisible Queen conflict.

Poor Jacques.... never occurred to me that Malias would want him BLIND.

Nice confession by Brainy. Smart enough to be humble and to acknowledge his shortcomings. It will be interesting to see a Legion without Brainy for a bit.

Some powerful humility from Brainiac 5! I wonder how long it will last.

Poor Jacques, all that suffering and he just endures it - or the aftereffect - with grace. I'll be curious to see where you take this.

The tension between the two teams was credible - Ron Karr worried about hierarchy while Jacques urgently needed help, the teams' mistrust of each other. 89 speaks less pompously/formally than Brainy, but they're equally devious and think they know best. Good to see her walk into the trap, in the sense that it illustrates that she doesn't know everything.

The eventual failure of the goggles that Neon made was an interesting point - not just for heightening the tension of the battle, but bringing to mind the question of how long super-powers' effects last.

Nice scene between Nura and Thom, with that little detail of her hair in his mouth. Real-life romance!

Nicely finished off Raz. The escalation of the sentient Luqiti was a good bit of peril. Better yet, it affected the each of the split teams. Earlier in the story I had been wondering if the Brainy subplot was going to continue. But enough has been found out for it to reach a natural conclusion. Nice to see that Brainy took it upon himself to decide to leave. It's a decision he made in the Baxter volume, without the level of humility he showed here. It's going to be interesting to see how this period of finding himself changes him. It's hard to imagine a Legion without him, so the team dynamic is going to be interesting too.

With Brainy resigning...could there be a... Leadership contest getting closer?!

The only thing that threw me a little was that Zoe could create goggles that could replicate detailed technology. I'm not much of a GLC reader, so I'm more used to giant green boxing gloves and the occasional Kyle Rayner giant robot than intricate technological reproduction. So that could well have been me.

Invisible Kid's blindness reminded me of Color Kid's blindness as a result of Earth Man. It made me wonder if his powers would change as a result. It could be that Jacques might be about to go through some changes too.

Looking forward to the next instalments.

Raz, these last two installments have been really good.

89 is alive!!!! I like that device. But I wonder if being shunted to the Phantom Zone let anything out....

I was so worried for Jacques. I honestly wasn't sure if he was going to survive and that scene where he gets infected wow and then when the Legionnaires and the Oversight Watch found him. the detail was crazy good. the image of Jacques imprisoned body with the dried blood is burned in my mind.
So does this change his power's to be like Invisible Queen's or does it just give him a similar look? It be interesting if there was an odd bond between him the Luqiti. Maybe even between him, the Luqiti, and Kid Computo. I hope we see the Luquiti again.

I'm glad Tel's working towards his goals and seems to be seeking advice instead of following through with a plan that could get him in some deep trouble.
I had to agree Nura and Thom's moment was so them and playfully dirty. their dynamic as a couple is probably one of the more fun ones to play with and watch,. Thom makes some good points about how a relationship works and that loving the person and all of them faults included.

Shadow Lass is fierce as ever.

I agree with how the Oversight Watch feels about 89 and her deception. But Nightwind's right. Not the time and place.

I knew it seemed to easy for the teams to sneak around. Invisible Queen's taunting of Brainy was well done. I half expected that Brainy had another plan going on. But his speech at the end to the team about his own short comings and not dealing with his grief makes sense. He has seemed a bit irrational. But its so great that he's come around and realized the error of his ways before there was any more damage done.

I like that as a lantern Zoe isn't too OP and that she had limitations on herself and that the goggles only showed a vague definition of Luqiti's surface. IThe trick she used to find the others was cool too allowing her power to mix with the Luqiti.
I liked the moment Zoe, Dragonmage, Kid Computo and Diamond Damsel had. But I was kind of with 89 when she asked if they were done. lol.

Jed and Dev-em are cute together. Jed gets the best boyfriends in every reality. lol. But Zoe's sure taken with Dev-em too. But a superman-esq type whose a bit of a mystery is easy to fall for,.

I like the difference your showing with the cadets from the academy who ended up in the Legion and those who didn't. Their bit of infighting and attitudes with each other are understandable. Although Mandalla is super harsh when it comes to the team. She mentioned seeing the Legion in a new light I wonder if the Oversight Watch knows something we don't...

The little call back moments like when Zoe says " so that's what it looks like from the other side was really fun and i felt bad for her that she kept taking out her teammates by mistake. But 89 made a good point that its about being safe.

I'm glad Brainy realizes he needs to take some time away and that he admitted to all his wrongs. But I don't know what the Legion's going to be like without him.
Can't wait to find out!

Thanks y'all! To be honest I wasn't super happy with the way I finished that story off and there were some things I think I could have done better, so I'm glad it was still enjoyable

Next instalment is gonna be a little breather for everyone but we'll also find out who the new team leader is so if anyone wants to throw in some last-minute votes now's the time to do it! There are some surprising characters in the running and they're all only 1 or 2 points apart so you still have the potential to make me regret ever throwing this open to everyone hahaha

If anybody wants to throw in their two cents, let me know your top 3 choices - 3 points will go to #1, 2 points to #2 and 1 point to #3 and then the highest and second highest scoring characters will be the Legion's new leader and deputy.



I think I see Zoe as having an advantage over 21st century GLs partially because of the technological standard generally being higher, but also I think she's creative enough that she could envision being able to copy something she doesn't understand moreso than say Hal or Guy could (I think that's also how Kyle does giant robots as well...he wouldn't know how to build one himself but with his art background he's more capable of imagining something he can't rationally understand). A lot of the stuff the GL rings do is very handwavey anyway so while Zoe might not be able to conceive of how the ring could see something invisible, I think if she knows that someone else has already done it then it's less of a leap for her to just get the green energy to copy whatever that thing is. It makes her extremely versatile, but I'm also comfortable saying that it's not something she'd be able to remember how to do on her own next time without having the same tech at hand to copy again.

Once the new leader is announced they are definitely gonna get a baptism of fire because I have got some crazy stuff coming up....I have got a feeling there might be one or words in particular in my next instalment that will get some excitement happening!

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story features the Heroes of Lallor; if you'd like a quick refresher on them, check out their writeups here

MARS
Legion of Superheroes Headquarters, multilab

ROLL CALL
Brainiac 5 aka Querl Dox: inactive Legionnaire, 12th level intelligence
Infectious Lass aka Drura Sehpt: disease transmission and immunity
Invisible Kid aka Jacques Foccart: invisibility
Kid Computo aka Danielle Foccart: cyberempathy
Ultra Boy aka Jo Nah: acting leader; ultra-energy which can be directed into any one of strength, speed, flight, invulnerability, flash vision, penetra-vision at a time

Jacques Foccart opened his eyes gingerly, squinting at even the dim lighting here in the Legion
of Superheroes’ multilab.

“How are you feeling?” his sister asked. She was little more than a blurry humanoid shape clothed in red and white, but Invisible Kid knew Kid Computo’s voice as well as his own. To her side stood a white-skinned figure in a garish green outfit whom Jacques recognised as his girlfriend Infectious Lass, and as his eyes accustomed to the light he saw now that Brainiac 5 and Ultra Boy were behind the girls.

“I...have felt better,” Jacques admitted dryly as he propped himself up in his bed. “Brainiac 5, have you successfully removed all trace of the Invisible Queen’s changes from my system?”

“I have,” Brainiac replied simply. “It was a more difficult task than I’d anticipated; the combination of her power and the biotechnological nature of the Luqiti stymied traditional medical procedures and even Mwindaji’s healing ability. With your sister’s help I was able to exorcise every nanogram of foreign matter and regrow your eyes however.”

“Then it seems I am in your debt, ma souer.” Jacques reached out and squeezed Danielle’s arm affectionately.

“I’ll remember that next time I need a favour,” she winked, throwing a mock punch at his bicep.

“I’m just glad you’re going to be okay,” Infectious Lass hugged him. “I was worried there for a nano, Jacques Foccart! Brainiac, if you weren’t leaving us you’d definitely get my nomination for another leadership term after today.”

“Thank you for the vote of confidence, Infectious Lass.” Brainiac 5 didn’t look up, going over Invisible Kid’s biometrics one final time. “I must say however, I’m not certain that a lot of your teammates would concur with your assessment.”

“Are you really leaving, Brainy?” Ultra Boy asked. “I mean Tinya already talked me into voting for Blok, which is a sentence I never thought I'd say out loud...but you don’t have to leave the team just because you made a mistake.”

“My mind is made up,” Brainiac 5 replied. “I do think that this is the best path forward for myself and for the Legion, Ultra Boy. Jacques, your health will be fine after another day of rest. I’d suggest having a follow-up test in a few days to make sure your powers have been unaffected by this experience, but Dream Girl or Elastic Lad can help there. My work here is done.”

“Thank you again, mon ami.” Jacques smiled wearily before laying his head back upon his pillows and closing his eyes.

“It was the least that I could do,” Brainiac gave a reserved smile. “Until our paths cross again, my friends.” He slipped his omnicom into his pocket and walked away without further ado.

“I guess all’s well that ends well,” Danielle clicked her tongue as she watched Brainiac 5 depart, “I mean I get that there was no lasting damage done, but it’s strange he gets to just walk away after everything he did.”

“Don’t be too harsh on him, Kid C.” Ultra Boy clapped a hand on Danielle’s shoulder. “Brainy’s always been kinda nuts, but he’s also been a part of the Legion for as long as I can remember and he’s saved our collective nasses way more than enough to earn another chance every now and then. It’s gonna be weird not having him around here blowin’ stuff up every other day...but anyway!” Jo turned back to face Jacques. “You heard Brainy; we’ll let you get some rest, pal. Don’t forget to vote when you feel up to it; and don’t feel obliged to vote for me. I know I’m the acting leader till we pick a new one, but acting leader is just fine with me.” Danielle and Drura said their goodbyes to Jacques and accompanied Jo out of the room.

As he drifted back into slumber, Jacques was soothed by the sound of their laughing voices receding. He privately thanked his God for gifting him with health, family and friends; and he was certain that this nameless chill hiding in his skull would be gone by the time he woke up again...

**********
LALLOR
Lalloran airspace, on board the Heroes of Lallor’s omnisaucer

ROLL CALL
Amp aka Ming Sul: amplification of any power or characteristic
Brittle aka Bo Marcu: ability to segregate into smaller independent bodies upon physical impact
Duplicate Boy II aka Stev Cohn: ability to duplicate any superhuman power in his immediate vicinity
Evolvo Lad aka Sev Tcheru: hyperevolution/deevolution
Key Kid aka Miqui Ver: ability to bypass any man-made lock
Life Lass aka Somi Gan: matter animation
Rain Girl aka Jes Teev: rain generation

The youngest of the Heroes of Lallor’s new recruits, Key Kid’s face was pressed up against the window of the team’s saucer-shaped vessel. “I can’t believe how fast we’re moving!” the teenage boy gushed. “We only left home ten mins ago and we’re already on the other side of the country!”

“You’re such a bumpkus, Kid.” Rain Girl rolled her eyes. “Is there anything that doesn’t make your eyes pop out of your head?”

“Leave him alone, Jes!” Amp scolded her teammate. “We’ve spent most of our lives living in a bunker, it’s not Miqui’s fault you’re too jaded to ever be impressed by anything!”

“Amp, Rain Girl; both of you quit it!” Duplicate Boy commanded in an authoritative tone. “This is our first official mission with the Heroes of Lallor, don’t make Evolvo Lad and Life Lass regret bringing us along before we even get there!”

At the saucer’s central console, Evolvo Lad and Life Lass exchanged a knowing smile. “It’s perfectly alright,” Evolvo Lad spoke up, remarkably unassuming in his base form. “You should have seen some of the fights that Beast Boy and Duplicate Boy -- the first Duplicate Boy, I’m sorry -- started back in the day.”

Evolvo Lad and Life Lass had both resisted these new members being forced upon the team by Lallorgov, but Sev had to admit that they’d done nothing since since their rough first impression to warrant further suspicion. Rain Girl and Brittle were a little, well, brittle but the other three were perfectly pleasant. Amp and Duplicate Boy in particular had applied themselves admirably to every test they’d been given, and Key Kid seemed just happy to be included a lot of the time. There were still unanswered questions around their sudden appearance, their powers, and the truth behind whomever had really kept the five mutants sequestered away in a bunker their whole lives, but the quintet were themselves a very long way toward earning Evolvo Lad and Life Lass’s full trust.

“I’m just glad you two have finally deigned to let us come out in public with you,” Brittle sniped. “I was beginning to think we’d just exchanged one prison for another.”

Life Lass opened her mouth but quickly closed it again and gave the chalk-skinned man a sympathetic look instead. Intellectually she knew that it was neither Evolvo Lad’s fault nor hers that Brittle and the others had lived such an unfortunate life till recently, but the kindly heroine still felt a pang of guilt every time one of them brought it up.

“We appreciate your patience, truly.” Evolvo Lad turned away from the console for a moment, satisfied that the autonav he’d designed would do its job in his absence. “And I hope you all know that the only reason we’ve taken this long to embrace you as an active part of the team is that we wanted to be certain we’re not subjecting you to any dangers you’re not ready to handle. Life Lass and I have known each other since we were children, working alongside one another is second nature. But that was also true with Beast Boy and the first Duplicate Boy, and we lost both of them. We want to do everything we can to avoid losing anybody else, and with Gas Girl in the Legion--”

“You don’t have to explain yourself,” Duplicate Boy interrupted. “The rest of us realised long ago that you and Life Lass didn’t really have anything to do with what happened to us, Brittle just likes being a troublemaker. Do you have any further information on the UFO we were asked to investigate, Evolvo Lad?”

“I’m afraid I don’t,” Sev admitted. “All we know is that something huge disabled the planetary defence net and then came down somewhere around...here.” He ran his hand slowly over a trackball in the console and the ship slowed to a stop almost instantly; inertial dampeners made the transition flawless. “This part of the coast suffered a lot of damage during the wars; radiation levels have subsided to levels which are tolerable in the short term, but it’s still been uninhabited for all of our lifetimes. I’ll take on my hyperevolved form so I can interface directly with the shuttle’s psibernetics and see if that provides any insight.” He focused his concentration, and a moment later completed his change into a thin hairless man with an enlarged cranium, dark veins clearly visible beneath almost translucent pale skin.

“Check out those weird plants!” Key Kid pointed out the window, having seen his leader’s transformations often enough now during training sessions that they no longer awed him. “It’s like rainbow-colored seaweed!”

Rain Girl was prepared to mock him again, but when she peered out the window she had to admit he had good reason to be impressed. They were hovering above a barren clifftop which climbed more than a hundred feet over the crashing waves below, and crawling slowly up the side of that cliff like some spectacular web was a mass of wet multi-hued vegetation. As clouds passed overhead and the light shifted subtly, the seaweed’s colors changed dramatically.

“Wow!” Amp had joined Rain Girl and Key Kid in looking outside. “That’s so pretty!”

The three were so distracted that they didn’t see Evolvo Lad stagger backwards clutching his head, but the whole team felt the saucer lurch. “Sev!” Life Lass called Evolvo Lad’s real name while she used her power to corral both him and herself with the handrail that snaked around the console. “What happened?”

“Yeah, what’s the big idea?” Four smaller Brittles asked in unison, picking themselves up off the floor where they’d shattered.

“Fear!” Evolvo Lad exclaimed. “Some entity….entities are approaching, and they’re enormous!” He’d already recovered enough to assert control over the vessel again, and he swiftly moved it straight up. It wasn’t soon enough to stop a tentacle some ten feet thick and many times longer from attaching itself to the hull though and the ship rattled once more. The tentacle slapped down against the window Key Kid had been peering out of and the young redhead yelped in shock.

“Copy Evolvo Lad’s power and devolve yourself!” Amp yelled at Duplicate Boy. “I’ll amp your strength so you can go fight that monster!”

“Oh no, don’t hurt the poor thing!” Life Lass activated a wide holographic viewscreen so they could all see the enormous squid-like creature trying to pull them into its beaked maw. “It probably just thinks we’re a smaller animal!”

“It thinks we’re its next meal!” Rain Girl hollered.

“Life Lass is right,” Duplicate Boy joined in. “We wouldn’t be very heroic beating up on a dumb animal...Amp’s right too though, Evolvo Lad’s power will help here.” Duplicate Boy allowed his own power to reach out and mimic that of his team leader, and in no time two hyperevolved men stood side by side. While Evolvo Lad maintained his control of the saucer to resist the creature’s pull, Duplicate Boy gripped the animal’s primitive mind and sent it back into the ocean and far away from them all.

“He was acting from fear,” Duplicate Boy noted curiously. “The creature would not normally come so near to shore, and he assaulted us more in panicked desperation than anything else.”

“He has good reason,” Evolvo Lad added in the same preternatural calm Duplicate Boy’s evolved form displayed. “Interface with the saucer’s psibernetics and see for yourself, Duplicate Boy. Everybody else, to the skimmerdisks.”

Brittle reconstituted himself, then along with everyone else except Evolvo Lad and Duplicate Boy stood within one of seven clearly delineated rings marked out on the shuttle’s floor. There was a discreet hiss of escaping air, and the populated rings abruptly dropped through the floor of the shuttle with a door swiftly irising shut behind them. Each of the Heroes of Lallor wore magnetised shoes to keep from falling to their doom, along with gloves which allowed them to control their airborne disk’s flight path and speed through a combination of specific movements.

“So what are we meant to be looking at anyway?” Brittle asked the others as they formed a rough perimeter around the omnisaucer.

“Over there!” Life Lass was the first to notice. “Look!” She pointed, and the others all saw something breaking the surface of the choppy water over a hundred feet out at sea. It was clearly something quite large, and at first they thought it might be some kind of submersible vessel. But then as it emerged further from the briny deep, they saw it appeared to be some kind of enormous circuitry-laden head...then they saw that the head was attached to a neck, and the neck to shoulders.

“What is that?” Key Kid’s jaw dropped. “Some kind of robot..?”

“It...it can’t be!” Amp struggled. “Look at the size of that thing!”

The artificial giant continued its path out of the water, and they all soon understood that it must be walking forward. By the time it had emerged to its waist, it was already towering almost four hundred feet into the sky. It bore no face or any other features which might lead them to believe it was anything other than a structure, but it was covered in the signs of battle; scorch marks and punctures which now poured out surreal waterfalls of sea water. One of its arms looked to have been sheared from its torso just above the elbow, but the other was almost entirely intact and that arm now slowly creaked up toward them.

“What’s it doing?” Rain Girl cocked her head. “Do you think--”

“Evasive manuevers please!” Evolvo Lad’s voice sounded over their uniform comms. “The construct is channeling power to weapon systems.” As large as it was, it moved at a glacial pace. By the time its arm was fully extended in front of it and a port in the palm snapped open to reveal the burning glow of a pulse laser charging, the omnisaucer and the skimmerdisks alike had cleared the fire path. A keening whine built for a second, then an intensely bright burst of light shot across the atmosphere like an errant comet.

“We must disable that weapon,” Evolvo Lad instructed. “Though it poses no threat to us, its range is quite daunting; collateral damage is an extremely high probability.”

“Maybe I can short-circuit it,” Rain Girl suggested, moving into position above the arm.

“That thing just came up from the ocean floor,” Brittle snorted. “Rain’s not gonna hurt it, Jes.”

“Can’t you just do your thing?” Amp asked Life Lass, wiggling her hand at the enormous humanoid construct for emphasis.

Life Lass blushed. “Oh no, I -- I couldn’t possibly control something that big!”

“Not unless your power was amplified, huh?” Amp smirked.

“If you guys are gonna try something, you’d better do it quick!” Key Kid called out. “He’s on the move again and he walks quicker than he shoots!”

“By all means,” Evolvo Lad joined the conversation, “Please do make the attempt. I believe we will need to resolve this particular conundrum from the inside however. There are no life signs registering on the omnisaucer’s instrumentation, therefore this oddity has no crew for us to deal with.

“How the sprock are we gonna get inside that thing?” Brittle protested. “It’s not like there’s a door!”

“Certainly there is no entrance suitable for most of us to utilise,” Duplicate Boy agreed, “But Evolvo Lad and I have conferred on the matter and we believe that these particular areas of exterior damage will be most likely adjacent to the structure’s central control circuitry.” As he spoke, the omnisaucer projected a spotlight onto an area roughly equivalent to the thing’s chest.

“So how does that help...ahhh, nass.” Brittle realised what his teammate was inferring, and steered his skimmerdisk to the area. This close, the scale of the thing was disorienting. It was also almost out of the water entirely. “You girls better keep this thing from rattling around too much!” Brittle bellowed at Amp and Life Lass. “And you two bargain basement Brainiacs better not be getting me killed in there!” Brittle knew that one of his hyperevolved teammates would return his skimmerdisk to the saucer, so he left it floating in mid-air to hurl himself at a spot just above the jagged and charred metal. As he smacked into the giant, Brittle exploded into dozens upon dozens of tiny duplicates of himself acting in perfect unison. With linked arms they all slid down the surface of the construct, and those who didn’t land inside the hole in its chest helped their other selves climb in after them. It wasn’t the most graceful display of power, but nonetheless he was soon on the other side of a thick osmium plate. Cables and wiring stretched every which way, sparks exploding randomly in the lightless recess which were like fireworks to the army of miniature Brittles. Several of him saw a glimmer of light behind a twisted panel, and together the tiny men made their way toward there.

Five of them working together were able to bend the panel back just enough to duck beneath, and when the entire horde had congregated on the shiny metal floor on the other side they reformed back into one normal-sized Brittle covered in mismatched seams. Brittle wasn’t really sure what he’d expected to see here, but it certainly wasn’t what seemed for all intents and purposes to be the internal corridor of a spacecraft. He followed track lighting around a corner, then flinched at the sight that met him there. Whatever damage this thing had sustained had collapsed a section of the ceiling, and beneath it poked out two very still legs in dirty metallic boots. “Uh...hello?” Brittle volunteered. The lack of an answer emboldened him and he stepped closer. “Hey, can you hear me under there? My name’s Brittle, I’m one of the Heroes of Lallor.” Whomever was under there was probably dead; they were probably long dead. Still, he knew Duplicate Boy wouldn’t let him hear the end of it if he didn’t make sure. Sighing, he stamped his foot on the floor and allowed an inch high variant of himself to bounce out. The miniature Brittle ran into the mess of metal and wiring, climbing and crawling until he came out on top of a protruding screw where he could clearly see the face of the unfortunate crew member. If his chalk-white features were capable of blanching any whiter, they would have now.

“Evolvo Lad?” Brittle called via his comms. “There’s something you need to know…”

**********
Outside, Life Lass bit her lip in silent concentration. Even with Amp’s assistance, it wasn’t easy exerting control over something this large; she’d seen buildings that were smaller! Still, the creature didn’t move and it didn’t fire. She floated directly before its eyeless face, staring it down as though the two were in an intense standoff.

“Can you make it go back into the ocean? Or back into space? Or disassemble itself?” Amp asked. Her own power wasn’t nearly so taxing to use, though it made all the difference to her teammate’s.

“Sorry, Ming...it’s all I can do to keep it standing still.” Life Lass’s trembling voice betrayed the difficulty of her task.

“Hey, don’t apologise!” Amp encouraged her. “You’re doing the bearosaur’s share of the work, and you’re doing great!” Life Lass spared her a brief smile of gratitude before turning back to the behemoth.

“How are you two doing here?” Duplicate Boy appeared beside them on a skimmerdisk of his own, no longer in the hyperevolved form he’d borrowed from his team leader.

“Just swell,” Amp gave what she hoped was a reassuring grin. “If we’ve got a plan to end this soon though, that might be a good idea, just sayin’…”

“As it turns out, we do. First things first though, do you think it’ll help if I copy your power and we give Life Lass’s abilities a double whammy?”

They heard a weak murmur come from Life Lass and she shook her head violently. “Duplicate Boy, that’s very kind but...I can barely cope with the additional power that Ming’s provided...I don’t think I’m strong enough to double it again…”

“Thanks for your honesty,” Duplicate Boy replied. “Don’t you girls worry, this will be all over and done with in no time.” He zipped away from them on his almost silent disk, waved Key Kid over and then conferred with the younger boy and Rain Girl briefly before all three of them darted away behind the behemoth.

“Now what on Lallor are those three up to..?” Amp wondered aloud.

**********
“What the sprock do you mean it’s a Khund vessel?!” Rain Girl screeched from where they hovered at the base of the creature’s back.

“I didn’t say anything to the other girls because they’ve got enough on their plate,” Duplicate Boy explained, “But yeah...Brittle’s been doing some exploring and he’s found six Khunds so far; all of them dead. Evolvo Lad doesn’t think it’s a deliberate attack, his theory is the...well, I guess it’s still a ship, right? He thinks the ship got into combat in space and it’s just working now off whatever it thinks its last lot of orders were.”

“Since when do the Khunds use robot giants like this??” Rain Girl threw her hands up. “And who were they fighting that could rip this thing’s arm off?!”

“Look, we can investigate later but right now we need to stop this thing,” Duplicate Boy asserted himself. “The good news is we think Brittle’s discovered some kind of engine room; but whatever this thing’s built with is interfering with Evolvo Lad’s telepathy and it’d take too long to talk Brittle through shutting everything down...but you remember how you wanted to short out the hand’s weapon thing before?”

“Yeah?” Rain Girl shrugged. “I’m not gonna be able to do it from here!”

Key Kid snappped his fingers as comprehension dawned. “No, but...the - the engine room or whatever won’t be as protected, right? Especially if it’s taken damage already!”

“Exactly.” Duplicate Boy rustled his hair. “So...think you can get us in here, Kid?”

“Never had to get into a giant before...” he considered the problem. “Still..a door’s a door, right?” He passed over the thing on his skimmerdisk, unconsciously poking his tongue out and squinting as he focused on the task. “There!” he pointed with glee at a spot between what would be its shoulder blades if it were alive. Key Kid moved closer to exterior plating of the colossus, laid hands upon its surface and a moment later a hidden door slid away, revealing an interior ramp lit by flickering strobes. He moved enthusiastically toward the entrance, only to feel a strong hand on his shoulder.

“Good work, Kid.” Duplicate Boy stepped in front of him. “But let me go first, huh? These Khunds might not all be dead.”

The three of them made their way cautiously through the thing’s interior, all of them hyperconscious of their surroundings and jumping every time a relay failed or something else collapsed several levels away. While he’d still been in possession of Evolvo Lad’s power Duplicate Boy had mapped their path through the vessel using the omnisaucer’s scanners, and it didn’t take long for the anxious trio to join Brittle inside a round room lit by pulsating lights and pockmarked with signs of obvious weapons discharge. Several Khunds lay dead around the room, many of them draped over specialty consoles.

“Glad you three could make it,” Brittle greeted them. “It was starting to get creepy in here.”

“No doubt,” Duplicate Boy agreed. “Rain Girl, do you think you can do this on your own?”

“The one good thing to come out of this incessant training Evolvo Lad’s insisted on is my powers are a lot stronger than they used to be,” the heroine smirked. “You all might want to leave the room though, it’s gonna get very wet in here very quickly.”

They left her to it, and Rain Girl took position in the centre of the room. Jes Teev closed her eyes and used the meditative techniques Evolvo Lad had taught her to visualise the rain as a part of her, an extension of her that filled the world as it filled her mind. When Rain Girl had first left the bunker where she’d spent her whole life, she was capable only of directing rain in a highly defined area of a few feet. Now though...now she opened her vivid green eyes again, and the entire room was lost in a thunderous overpowering monsoon of water. She couldn’t hear the alarms or see the damage she was causing so she kept up the onslaught until her insulated costume was knee deep in icy churning waters. Rain Girl exhaled slowly, and the rainfall petered away to a complete stop in time with her breath.

“Wow,” Key Kid gaped as he re-entered the room. Brittle let out a low whistle. “Grife, you really trashed this place huh?” Indeed, the room looked as though someone had taken a tank through it three or four times. The emergency lighting had remained intact till now, but that too suddenly switched off and left the quartet in the dark.

Duplicate Boy switched on the powerful light they all wore in their belt buckles for search and rescue, then all four of them heard what was unmistakably a spluttering cough. Their eyes grew wide with fear, but Duplicate Boy held his finger to his lips and left them to follow the noise. On the far side of the room, a yellow-skinned Khund struggled to pull himself up on his one functioning arm. He slipped back into the water, and forgetting that this was his enemy Duplicate Boy rushed forward to help him. The Lalloran hero was taken aback by the lightness of the man, but when he pulled him fully from the water he understood why; the man had been ripped in two, and Duplicate Boy suspected it was only the glut of cybernetics which composed most of his torso that had kept him alive this long. “We’re going to get you medical help,” Duplicate Boy advised. “Just try to relax--”

“Medical help?” The Khund spat at him, and Duplicate Boy felt hot blood and oil trickle down his cheek. “It’s not bad enough I’m dying, you want...want to insult…” His eyes rolled back in his head, but with a fierce effort he clutched on to consciousness. “No...Demon Mother willing, I….not long for this world, boy...but have to warn...warn you…”

“Warn us? Warn us of what?” The others had joined Duplicate Boy now, and Key Kid’s horrified features were illuminated by the light in his own belt.

“...Arn…” the Khund rumbled weakly. “...Karth Arn and...” Then the man jolted and fell limp one last time in Duplicate Boy’s arms.

**********
The first official mission of the all new Heroes of Lallor was notable for one other thing; it taught the quintet of new recruits just how strongly bureacracy was prized by Lallorgov. The Heroes spent hours filing reports, giving statements and helping their world’s more conventional authorities secure the Khundish vessel; for political reasons Evolvo Lad knew that they’d have to hand everything over to the Science Police for further investigation, but he hoped that he’d be able to get access to the ship’s datacore at some point. Lallor was in uncomfortably close proximity to the Khund Empire, and if the Khunds had enemies capable of doing this then he wanted to know all there was to know about them.

All of this meant however that it was almost midnight by the time Sev Tcheru finally made it back to his quarters. He was exhausted, too exhausted to even run the massage program he’d been looking forward to. He dragged his shirt over his head, intending to collapse into bed and sleep immediately, when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.

Sev turned to see his mirror steaming up of its own volition, and in the steam the following words appeared; Beast Boy’s memorial garden 1 hour. “Tal..?” he whispered the real name of his old teammate Gas Girl almost inaudibly. There was no response though, and the steam evaporated in its own time.

An hour later, everybody else in Homebase was sound asleep. Sev Tcheru and Somi Gan however were not included in that grouping. In their civilian clothes, hoods drawn over their heads against the chill Lalloran night, they weren’t immediately recognisable as the famous Heroes of Lallor Evolvo Lad and Life Lass.

In a park in the centre of town which was long empty by this time of night, the two entered separately and found themselves converging at the statue of their deceased former teammate Beast Boy. Native flowers were planted around its base along with wildflowers from Vorn, the planet where he’d given his life to save that of a child. “Sev..?” Life Lass asked timidly. “You were the one who sent that message? I thought for a min it might be--”

“Hi, you guys...down here!” Gas Girl’s voice sounded from before them, and they looked down to see her wispy form curling through the garden bed.

“Gas Girl, what’s this all about?” Evolvo Lad got straight to the point. “Why the subterfuge, do you need our help?”

“Me?” She sounded surprised. “No, I’m here to help you! I know you two can’t act openly against those weird new mutants you got saddled with, so some of the Legionnaires agreed to help me look into them!”

“Oh Tal, that’s a lovely thought!” Life Lass beamed, “But now that we’ve actually spent time with them I don’t think it’s necessary! We had an awful introduction, but they’ve really endeared themselves--”

“Cham said you might react like this,” Gas Girl interrupted her old friend again. “So we did some research already. You know that Lallorgov jerk who put me in exile? You guys, there’s no record that he ever existed before a year ago.”

Evolvo Lad and Life Lass shared a shocked glance. “What about the others?” Evolvo Lad’s eyes narrowed. “Our new teammates?”

“We don’t know,” Gas Girl admitted. “Their story checks out so far, but come on Sev...you know this doesn’t sound right. Chameleon Boy, Shrinking Violet and Phantom Girl came to Lallor with me, they’re looking into all of them right now. I’m going to come back to Homebase with you guys and keep an eye on them from there; if they check out, they don’t ever need to know this happened. But if they’ve been planted here to hurt you or to hurt Lallor, what’s it gonna hurt to have friends nearby?”

“Oh Tal,” Life Lass lamented. “I don’t know how I feel about this...it all seems so cynical.”

“No...I think she’s right, Life Lass.” Evolvo Lad stroked his chin. “I know it’s not normally how we work but...Gas Girl’s right. If our new teammates are on the level, we need to know that or we’ll always wonder. Thank you, Gas Girl.”

“Hey, as if I’m gonna leave you guys in the cold!” she joked. “Speaking of which, the temperature doesn’t bother me but you guys must be freezing! Why don’t you head back home, I’ll update the others and then I’ll make contact next time there’s something to make contact about.”

“I am exhausted,” Evolvo Lad yawned. “Come on Somi, let’s go.”

Gas Girl had followed them here so she was confident they hadn’t been followed; once they’d left the park, she floated high enough overhead that she was confident she wouldn’t be spotted by anyone then turned back into her normal Lalloran form and brought her flight ring to her lips. “Chameleon Boy? Phantom Girl? Shrinking Violet? I’ve made contact with Evolvo Lad and Life Lass.”

“Hi Gas Girl,” Phantom Girl’s voice came back after a moment. “The others have gone to bed, how did it -- oh sprock, can you please hold for a nano? I’ve got a call coming through from Jo and he knows I’m on mission, he wouldn’t call unless it was important.” Phantom Girl switched the line and greeted her lover warmly. “Hey, my Ultra Boy...everything okay on Mars?”

“Everything’s fine, babe!” He certainly didn’t sound like he had anything important to discuss. “In fact, everything’s great for some of us!”

“What..? Jo, have you and Brin been in to that nasty batch of Silverale again? Why do you sound so odd?”

“You wound me.” Tinya rolled her eyes. He was drunk; she was going to kill Timber Wolf next time she saw him. “I know you’re doing secret Espionage Squad business and that’s great and all--”

“Jo, I don’t have time for this,” she cut him off. “I’ve got work--”

“--but I just wanted to be the first to say...congratulations on your official promotion to leader of the Legion of Superheroes, Phantom Girl!”

For one of the first times in her life, Tinya Wazzo found herself utterly speechless.

**********
WHO GOT THE MOST VOTES?

Thanks for voting, everyone! It wouldn’t have been fun if there hadn’t had so much participation and I was pleasantly surprised that so many people were into it!

Some notes on the below: so the way I assigned votes was 3 points for the top choice, 2 points for the next and 1 point for the last. I had already decided that Brainiac 5 wasn’t going to be in the running but I didn’t wanna spoil him leaving the team beforehand so I left his name on the available roster - I got one vote for him, so I divided his points up between the voter’s other two choices (which is why Kid Computo and Phantom Girl have weird totals). Without further ado:

Phantom Girl - 6.5
Nightwind - 5
Blok - 3
Neon - 3
Sun Boy - 3
Kid Computo - 2.5
Chlorophyll Kid - 2
Shadow Lass - 2
Matter-Eater Lad - 1

Whoa! Karth Arn! Looking forward to more from Lallor.

Glad you gave Duplicate Boy 2 a range limit. The first one was just impossible to write!

Not surprised that the other Legionnaires do not agree on Brainiac 5.

Yay Tinya! Finally, we will get to see Tinya as leader!

So Nightwind is Deputy, right? yay! Berta gets to shine. pretty interesting that I had Berta as co-leader in my stories too. But you definitely have given her the foundation to be a leader.

Hi IB, thanks for your comment! You're not wrong about the first Duplicate Boy...his stupidity was really a bit over the top back in the 80s, but I can see why Levitz did it; I love mimic powers but they need to have really defined limits or else they get out of control way too quick!

When I said there was gonna be a couple words that would get people excited, Karth Arn's name was one of them but the other one is even better....I decided at the last minute not to spoil it all in one go but y'all should find out very soon

Nightwind certainly is deputy! I'm actually glad I got a last minute vote which took her to second place...otherwise it was gonna be a tie between her, Blok, Neon and Sun Boy! I didn't want to have all four of them share it because it feels too close to what Harbi's doing, but then I would have felt bad about having to just randomly pick one name from the four of them too hahaha

We are gonna have a smaller mission next to give the team a chance to breathe, because after that: TRYOUTS! And after THAT, Tinya is getting her baptism of fire with an epic 5 part story that will revisit some bad guys we haven't seen for a loooong time

EDIT: Forgot to say, I added writeups for the new Heroes of Lallor here as well if anyone wants a refresher (though I think it pretty much covers their current situation in the story itself)

yay tryouts! and i think we will see a mysterious gravity powered surprise hero...

you are certainly better at planning than I am, I am horrible at estimating how many parts my stories will take!

I’m happy Nightwind got last minute votes too. her interactions with Dawnstar, Jed, Mandalla, and Laurel among others are a good foundation. Block, Neon and Sun Boy would have been good too though

just realized I forgot to comment on the Lallor heroes . love how the team works well, your new Dupe Boy being smarter, Amp and Key Kid are becoming fast faves for their personalities. Rain girl and Brittle would be treated by many as joke characters but, like wth Ronn-Karr, you show how effective they can be. Like how Amp’s power has a built in limitation re how much the recipient can take!

Thanks! I keep a document on google drive with plot ideas in bullet point (some of them are as basic as "academy spotlight") so that way I can have a couple of pages worth of keywords to jog my memory, then I try to have like maybe the next 4 or 5 instalments a bit more roughly fleshed out...just like some key points that I wanna have happen, and I find that character-driven subplots seem to write themselves a lot so it's easier to flesh out the next 2 or 3 episodes worth of stuff.

Then the only things I really sit down and write proper story breakdowns for are the big epic storylines so I can try and make sure as many characters as possible get to do something and that there's room for all the major plot points I wanna accomplish (eg: the big Universo/Satan Girl story had heaps of work put into it, whereas the story where Cham's team went to Vavalla and teamed up with Lamprey was pretty much just "do a story with Lamprey and Turtle" until I actually sat down to post it)

MARS
Husband Hill, Legion of Superheroes Headquarters

In the medilab that not so long ago was primarily the province of Brainiac 5, Phantom Girl stood casually with her hands on her hips while Invisible Kid faded into view before her. “So give it to us straight, Nura - is he broken?” Tinya turned with a cheeky smile to the Naltorian super-scientist Dream Girl who stood obviously bored at a hardlight touchscreen beside the other two Legionnaires.

“Oui,” Jacques Foccart added. “Has my power been affected by my experience on Talok III?”

“He’s fine,” Nura sighed. “You’re fine, Jacques - just like I said you’d be. His power works just like it always has, his eyesight is as good as it ever was, and if you’re waiting for my approval I think he’s 100% ready for active duty again. Can I leave now? I’ve got a spa appointment in a standard hour and I’d like to put my face on before I go.”

Looking at the stunning beauty’s flawless make-up, Phantom Girl fought the urge to bite back with sarcasm. You’re team leader now, she reminded herself. Rise above it, Tinya. “We really need an inventory done of the medilab sooner rather than later,” she tried to be as diplomatic as possible. “I don’t want to be a pain, but I had to leave an Espionage Squad mission to come back here when I found out I was voted leader - we’re all making sacrifices, Nura.”

“You know,” Dream Girl replied breezily, “You don’t need to be a genius to take inventory; Kid Computo or even Sun Boy could do it. Anyway, it’s a moot point. As soon as Elastic Lad found out there was an opportunity available to ogle Brainiac 5’s research for hours, he couldn’t wait to volunteer. He should be here in a few minutes.”

“Thanks for taking care of that for me,” Phantom Girl smiled more warmly this time. “I do appreciate it, I--”

“Hey!” Drake Burroughs’ very distinctive and very cranky voice filled the space around them. “I got a bone to pick with you, leader lady!” The anti-energy being called Wildfire stomped up toward the trio. “What’s the big idea sending Dawnstar to take your place when you came back from Lallor? She’s not even part of the Espionage Squad!”

“Calm down, Drake.” Unconsciously, Phantom Girl straightened her posture and took on a more authoritative tone. “Dawny came to me. I wasn’t going to send Jacques until I knew he was cleared for active duty again, and I for one think it’s commendable that she’s trying something different.”

Wildfire was taken aback, but only for a moment. “Ah, nuts!” He punched a hole in the nearest wall, turned around and stormed straight back out the way he’d come in.

“Mon dieu!” Jacques exclaimed. “Even for Wildfire, that was rude!”

“It was,” Tinya agreed, “But honestly I’ve got a million more important things to worry about at the moment. I still need to make contact with Teall and find out when Quislet’s gonna be back, we’ve got tryouts next week, and there’s all the exciting administrative work that apparently comes with running this madhouse. Right now though, I’m running late for a meeting with Element Lad and Matter-Eater Lad. Dream Girl, thanks so much for your help today - I won’t pretend it’s gonna be the last time I’ll be calling on you. We’ve really learned to rely on Brainy a lot, it might take a little time to learn how to do things again without a 12th level intellect on speed dial at all times. Jacques, I’ll get you put back on the active roster again tomorrow. For now, just enjoy the time off.”

“Merci, ma’amselle.” Invisible Kid bowed his head slightly. “I believe I will take the opportunity to go visit the rest of my family on Earth.” He turned and followed Wildfire’s path out of the room.

“Phantom Girl, before you go.” Dream Girl gripped the Bgltzr heroine’s arm just before she turned intangible. “I just wanted to say...you’re going to do the Legion proud. No matter what happens or how the team changes, no matter how hard it gets...just remember that.”

“I...thanks, Nura.” Tinya Wazzo watched confounded as Dream Girl turned and left the medilab herself. From anybody else, Phantom Girl might consider those words of encouragement.

Hearing them from Dream Girl, Tinya Wazzo couldn’t help but feel a sense of foreboding…

**********
MARSOPOLIS
Museum of Interstellar Artifacts

“Marella Tao here at the prestigious MIA,” a reporter with sun-bronzed skin and bright red hair cut in a stylish assymetrical fashion announced to the holorecorder before her. “We’re here at the steps of the Museum of Interstellar Artifacts to watch the historic moment when months of negotiation come to fruition and priceless ancient artifacts are handed back to the Dalman people. For background on this story, please activate the archivalinks scrolling across your feed now.”

While the galaxy-famous journalist continued her report, a growing crowd gathered before the massive building to see the real attraction; Legionnaires Element Lad and Matter-Eater Lad, and two of the mysterious Post-Atomic Knights of Dalma standing on a temporary stage erected in at the top of the steps slightly behind a handful of diplomats and museum representatives.

“Thank you once more for your aid in recovering our cultural artifacts,” one of the chrome-armoured Post-Atomic Knights spoke in a hushed voice to Element Lad beside him. “I must admit, I didn’t believe that any good would come of your offer of assistance but I doubt that we would have come this far so quickly without your help, Jan Arrah.”

“I’m glad I could speed things up a little,” Element Lad accepted the compliment gracefully. “To be completely honest with you, it’s gratifying to be able to accomplish something using my Legion of Superheroes influence without the unfortunate need for violence which often accompanies our duties. We all really have Matter-Eatter Lad to thank though; as a member of the Bismollian Senate, his political connections were indispensable.”

“Hey, don’t mention it!” Tenzil Kem shrugged. “If you don’t use your political career for nepotism, can you really call yourself a politician?”

Jan cleared his throat awkwardly while the Post-Atomic Knights simply stared in a confused silence, and a moment later the mood was broken by Phantom Girl’s arrival. Tinya patted a hand on both Jan and Tenzil’s shoulders, easing her way between them. “Hi boys! I hope I didn’t miss anything, I didn’t want to make a grand entrance so I came up through the lower levels of the museum. After all, this isn’t the Legion’s day!” Turning her attention to the Post-Atomic Knights, she gave them a conspiratorial wink. “I hear you guys gave some of my team a fight a while ago,” she winked.

The second Dalman warrior who’d been silent till now laughed out loud. “Your team gave as good as they received, Phantom Girl. I am pleased that our group’s rambunctiousness has not been an impediment to our ability to work together!”

Element Lad bristled inwardly. What the Post-Atomic Knights called rambunctiousness had threatened innocent lives. Still, he supposed it had all worked out in the end; once today was over and those ancient knives were on their way back to Dalma, they could all get back to their lives.

Before too much longer, the presentations began. Everybody on stage was introduced, and as was to be expected the crowd cheered loudest for the Legionnaires. In truth Phantom Girl, Element Lad and Matter-Eater Lad all would have been happier if their presence here hadn’t been advertised so that they could focus more on keeping everyone safe, but none of them were blind to the fact that the publicity the museum got from having three Legionnaires in attendance was in large part responsible for the efficiency with which this handover had been organised.

Finally, the speeches were done and with great care a display case was brought out by a museum official which held six knives of various sizes. Each of them had symbols engraved into the bone handles, symbols which meant nothing to citizens of the United Planets but had long ago been holy commands for the Dalmans. As the museum’s Chief Administrator Wilem Makenzie held the case out for the Post-Atomic Knights to take into their possession, members of the crowd suddenly gasped and turned their gaze skyward. More and more sentients followed, the Legionnaires and the Post-Atomic Knights among them. Descending from above in a majestic pose was a Dalman with pale golden fur marked with brighter patches of gold. Unlike the Post-Atomic Knights his head was uncovered, and his canine features were plain for all to see. His eyes blazed with an inner fire, and he wore a golden metallic harness which met in the centre of his bare chest at a circular plate bearing a sun icon. Gleaming armoured plates covered his shoulders, complimented by golden bracers, a belt and knee-high metal banded boots. His legs were covered in white tights, and from his shoulder plates hung a great white cape which whipped in the breeze about him. The only thing he wore which didn’t match his white and golden color scheme was a green beaded choker worn about his thick neck.

“Dogstar..?” one of the Post-Atomic Knights queried.

“Is this an enemy of yours?” Element Lad asked.

“No! Quite the contrary!” the other Post-Atomic Knight barked quickly. “He’s our world’s greatest hero….he’s our equivalent of your...M’onel I believe his name is?”

“Mon-El,” Tinya corrected him. “Still, let’s stay on our guard. Something else else about this doesn’t feel right. Jan, can you--”

“Nonsense,” the first Post-Atomic Knight interjected. “Dogstar must have come to ensure our safe journey home! We should be honoured!” He walked to the front of the stage to meet Dogstar who by now was only a few inches higher than that himself. Both reporters and spectators were going crazy with excitement, and in all the chaos the Legionnaires surreptitiously glanced at the gathered Science Police and Museum security in presence; they were on edge just as the Legion were.

“Welcome!” The Post-Atomic Knight bowed eagerly at his hero. “We’re privileged that you’ve come to help with such important work, Dogstar!”

Dogstar merely gave a low gutteral growl in response, and the Post-Atomic Knights finally began to wonder if something really was amiss. They wondered too late though; with ferocious speed, the radiant Dalman plowed into the Knight who’d approached him and drove him through the stage.

The crowd screamed and began to panic, and Tinya knew she had to respond quickly before people got trampled. She didn’t bother giving orders to Matter-Eater Lad or Element Lad, trusting both of them to react with the years of experience she knew they possessed. Instead she turned intangible and floated out above the steps, away from where her teammates were no doubt about to join battle with someone she’d just heard described as a Dalman Mon-El. “Sentients, please listen to me!” she called out over her flight ring’s loudspeaker function. “The Legion of Superheroes and the Post-Atomic Knights will resolve this situation safely and swiftly; help us help you by looking out for one another, moving with caution and obeying the Science Police representatives now making themselves clear.” A red-skinned Science Police officer gave Tinya a quick nod of gratitude before turning to direct the crowd. Realising she wouldn’t be able to do much more here than any of the regular people on the ground, she turned back toward the scene of the battle.

“I thought you said Krypto here’s on your side!” Matter-Eater Lad yelled, grabbing one of the diplomats and throwing them both on the ground just in time to avoid golden eyebeams from Dogstar which burned straight through the museum’s exterior wall.

“He is!” The uninjured Post-Atomic Knight protested. “I mean...he’s meant to be! I don’t know why he’s behaving this way, he’s our world’s greatest hero!” He created a wide shield from his armour’s versatile gauntlet and covered three of the museum staff from more of the deadly eyebeams as the museum’s security agents ushered them away.

“We can find the truth out later,” Element Lad announced sternly. “Right now, let’s just stop anybody else from getting hurt!” He gestured at the golden alien and a band of thick metal appeared around his eyes. Dogstar gripped at it with both hands while simultaneously using his heat vision and the makeshift blindfold shattered.

Those precious seconds however had given the non-combatants on the stage time to flee, and given Matter-Eater Lad time to help the injured Knight to his feet. “Come on buddy,” Tenzil was glad his flight ring offset some of the weight of the Dalman’s armour, “I think you better sit this one out.”

“No, wait…” the Knight mumbled helplessly. “Dogstar…”

“Yeah, I know,” Matter-Eater Lad patronised him as he led him away from the violence. “He’s your world’s greatest hero; well I hate to break it to you pal, but he’s either a clone or a robot or from Earth-3 or something cuz your world’s greatest hero isn’t acting very heroic.”

“That’s what..that’s what I have to tell you…Dogstar...something about him...different...” the Knight in the crumpled suit continued before collapsing completely.

*********
“Any one of our team strong enough to take this guy on in a fair fight is off-world,” Phantom Girl advised as she rejoined Element Lad and the other Knight. “So let’s try not to get ourselves killed till we at least know why he’s doing this, huh?”

The Post-Atomic Knight formed a hardlight morningstar from his armour’s gauntlet and smashed it over Dogstar’s head, succeeding only in capturing his fellow Dalman’s attention. Moving in a blur, Dogstar bit down on the gauntlet and ripped it away from the Knight’s arm with a savage growl. He spat it at Element Lad before Jan could take any action, then turned back on the stunned Knight. “...Kill...heroes....bring...knives…” Dogstar rumbled menacingly.

His eyes flared brightly, but before he could flash-fry the disarmed Knight he was distracted by a high-pitched whistle. “You mean these knives?” Phantom Girl teased in a sing-song voice. She was floating a few feet above the men, the Dalman artifacts under one arm. Dogstar gave a vicious bark and charged Tinya, flying straight through her intangible form and through the upper floors of the museum.

“If he wants the knives, maybe we should just take them out of the equation.” Element Lad winced as he spoke; it felt like Dogstar may have broken one of his ribs with the Knight’s mangled gauntlet. “I can turn transmute them into--”

“No!” the Post-Atomic Knight protested. “You don’t understand their importance to our people! Jan Arrah, you could start a war!”

“Well, we need to do something!” Jan snapped back. “We - get down!” They all heard a tremendous sonic boom and Jan threw himself over the Post-Atomic Knight before turning the air around them into an intertron dome. The dome was only half-composed by the time Dogstar slammed into the steps of the museum, but it was enough to protect them from what would otherwise have been certain death. While Phantom Girl floated above them all perfectly unharmed, the Post-Atomic Knight and Element Lad pulled themselves coughing and sore from the mounds of rubble that half the street had now become.

Dogstar stood defiantly before Jan and the Knight, an eerily glowing silhouette in the clouds of dust formed in the destructive impact. The powerful Dalman warrior looked up at Phantom Girl, snarling words with great effort at her. “...Give...knives...or friends...die…”

“Just distract him for a nano, Phantom Girl…” a clearly concussed Element Lad muttered in a voice barely above a whisper, the left side of his scalp matted in blood. “He’s too fast...I just need him t’stand still long enough...make inertron box round him…” Focus was difficult, but Jan knew this might be their only chance; he couldn’t afford to fail.

Dogstar turned and looked down on the wounded Legionnaire. “Super...hearing…” he crowed in a hoarse barking chuckle. In a flash of movement, the Post-Atomic Knight was smacked aside and Dogstar straddled Element Lad, his bared teeth at Jan’s throat.

“Guys!” Matter-Eater Lad finally returned from having sequestered the others in a more secure area of the museum. “The choker! It’s not part of his costume, take out the collar!”

Element Lad’s eyes widened. He concentrated as intently as he’d ever concentrated but to his horror, nothing happened. “My power...my power doesn’t affect it!” He felt the pressure of Dogstar’s fangs on his throat and Jan was certain that this must be the last thing he’d ever feel; he hoped it didn’t hurt too much before he saw his people again.

“Stop!!” Phantom Girl shrieked, and everyone still conscious turned their attention to her. “You want these damn things, take them!” Her voice was trembling and she looked as though she were on the verge of tears. “Just don’t...don’t kill anybody, please!” She descended, holding the knives out in shaking hands toward the rabid Dogstar.

The golden Dalman threw Jan aside and approached Phantom Girl with a predator’s stance. He moved to take the knives from her outstretched arms and at the last possible second, the rattled girl dropped the case. Dogstar of course moved fast enough to catch them before they hit the ground, but as he leaned down in front of her she gripped the choker around his neck and phased it along with her. “Yoink!”

Taking advantage of Dogstar’s momentary confusion, a now grinning Phantom Girl hurled the choker at Matter-Eater Lad. “Tenzil, catch!” The choker rematerialised as soon as it left Tinya’s hand and Matter-Eater Lad couldn’t risk the opportunity to show off. He flew straight into its flight path and caught it in his open mouth; two seconds later, it was nothing more than a mouthful of sickly green morsels on their way to his stomach.

Dogstar simply watched the whole thing happen completely baffled. “Where...where am I?” he asked, his speech instantly more civilised than it had been. “You’re...you’re Phantom Girl, are you not? And Matter-Eater Lad...of the Legion of Superheroes?” He looked around at the chaos he’d caused, but still had no idea what had happened until he saw the case of knives in his arms and it all came rushing back to him. “Oh no…” He gave Tinya a sorrowful stare. “I…I did this, didn’t I?”

“Welcome back.” Phantom Girl rematerialised and placed a comforting hand on Dogstar’s arm. “It’s okay, I think we have some idea what happened here today. Do you think you know who might be responsible for sending you after these artifacts?”

Tenzil shook his head in violent disgust, poking his tongue out. “Tastes like magic if that helps...man, that’s gonna take a whole bottle of bleach.”

“I know exactly who was responsible,” Dogstar replied darkly. “And I know exactly what he wanted. These knives are more than just an artifact to our people, they hold dangerous mystical power. My old enemy Dr Cerberus thought he’d ruin my reputation and gain the knives’ power at the same time by using his dark magic to send me after them. Of course I’ll do everything in my power to make amends for the damage I’ve caused here today, and then I swear he’ll be brought to justice.”

“The Legion might be able to help you with that,” Tinya smiled warmly. “And of course we’ll tell everyone what really happened here today. Let’s just be glad nobody was more seriously hurt.” As she spoke, Element Lad and the Post-Atomic Knight were helping one another stand up and reporters were gathering around the barricade formed by the Science Police and jostling for prime footage.

“That was a good job earlier,” Tenzil joined the two of them. “Even I nearly brought into the whole hysterical fem thing you had going on, PG!”

Tinya nudged Matter-Eater Lad in the ribs playfully. “I might not be Cham but I’ve been around him long enough to have picked up some acting tips here and there - I wouldn’t be much of a team leader if I was really gonna fall apart at the seams the first time an emergency came up though, would I?”

Phantom Girl and Matter-Eater Lad gave a hearty laugh, and even Dogstar gave an appreciative snigger before they set themselves to the task of healing the day’s damages.

**********

Notes from Raz: Honestly, I didn’t intend to set out writing such a thinly veiled jab at how Phantom Girl’s very brief leadership term in the last Legion series turned out, but here we are hahaha

Also, if anyone wants to refamiliarise themselves with who these Dalman folk are and why Element Lad’s been helping them - this is Dogstar’s first appearance, but the Post-Atomic Knights first met Jan and a couple other Legionnaires here

...Tryouts next! FOUR new Legionnaires, y’all!! EXCITEMENT!!!

FOUR NEW LEGIONNAIRES! goodness!

A disguised Gravity Kid?
Crystal Kid?

another great bit, love Tinya’s acting. I expect we will see more of Dogstar and Dr Cerberus.

Glad the Dalma Knights got to do something

Sympathized with Jan re the knights putting people in danger in their earlier encounter

Nura was amazing as usual, being all silly and bored in front of everyone, then showing her softer and more mature side

Was that a jab at Dirk? even Sun Boy could do it?

glad Jacques is ok, or is he?

Funny that he used “Tres bien” to remark on Wildfire’s tantrum. it means very good, and i’ve never heard it used that way during my time in France

anyhow, more cool stuff raz!

I have been hanging out to introduce them for ages hahaha...there were a few times I had to push the introduction out and it killed me


A bored Nura is a catty Nura and Dirk makes himself an easy target hahaha


OMG you're totally right, how embarassment! Man, Brainy's gone 5 minutes and the translators already start falling apart Thanks for the heads up, I will go edit it!

Hey Raz, so sorry I've not had enough time t post my thoughts for you in a-g-e-s.

Got some thoughts going back quite a while that are way overdue:

Liked your take on Crystal Kid, rather than treat him as the perennial loser (writing that I fell into, sadly) you showed how impressive he could be if written properly. erta reaching out to Dawnstar after that mission was also well done, it's great when we see that the team aren't all acting like spoiled brats.

Stress monkey Brainy is always fun and scary in equal measure - Tinya and Imra make the perfect couple to challenge him too.

Fundamentals arc was really good. His followers and all just add to the potential damage even one madman can cause. His back story of being a Job like religious man who held onto his faith was actually quite touching, just a pity he got it mixed up with the xenophobia. Tranquility is perhaps my fave original character you have, she's a beautiful enigma.

Always appreciate your Oversight Watch, their dubious morals are a good foil to the team - cliffhanger of the month award goes to... “89 is dead, and if the Invisible Queen has her way a lot of other sentients might be next.”

The Talok mission was well done - it delivered everything we would want from a story - mystery (lots of mystery!), action, the team split up and trying to work alongside another team who don't quite share the same worldview, character growth (From Zoe getting more confident in her powers to Jacques being maimed), Brainy actually being smart, surprises and shocks - good stuff Raz, and also great to see the Invisible Queen again (so to speak).

Introducing your updated Heroes of Lallor was appreciated - their no such bad eggs after all. The humanoid Khund ship from Legion 300 was nice. And Brittle, while being very creepy, is definitely my favourite. So, Karth Arn is coming, why am I feeling really worried about this? You really are the master of setting up storylines, you weave things in really well.

Phantom Girl as leader! Yay!

And other favourites, the Post-Atomic Knights reappear as Jan keeps his word and got the UP to returns their stolen property. Dogstar is a fun character, and I'd love to see more of him, though I wonder if the control collar is part of another plot or part of Alex Arcane or Karth Arn;s stories...

Looking forward to more, more and much more!

Thanks Harbi! I honestly never really got why Crystal Kid got the short end of the stick, I think his power's really cool and distinctive - other than Kole from the Teen Titans, I can't think of anyone else who does crystal formations! Tranquility seems to be more popular than I thought she would be, I might have to bring her back soon

I love that Khund ship, if they tooled around in those things all the time that would be some good comics!

You're probably right to be worried about Karth Arn, though I think I might have succeeded in coming up with an angle on him that will be unexpected (also, funny that you mention the setting up of stories because y'all are gonna see that he has been tied to some stuff from waaaaay back).

He and Alek Arcane are gonna take centre stage pretty soon actually, I am looking forward to writing them both!

Hi Raz,

Enjoying the latest installments. commenting as I read. so maybe a little all over the place.


Even though I'm happy Jaqcues was able to get his eyes back I was kind of hoping for a some permanent change. Maybe even have him connected to the Luqiti. But who knows something could still happen.

As much as I know Brainy's screwed up. I agree with Jo does he really have to go? What will he do now? even though there wasn't a huge amount of fanfare when he left that moment of him putting his omnicom in his pocket and simply walking away pulled at my heart strings for sure.

Jo's line about Blok made me laugh but blok is highly underestimated i think.

Back to Lallor! the Heroes of Lallor are turning out to be a fun team to explore. I find it funny that in every reality Amp is always throwing herself in wholeheartedly. But I guess when your name is Amp, you get excited and involved.

Brittle is by far my favorite creation. even with the chip on his shoulder. I liked that Life Lass didn't argue and chose to be more sympathetic.
I'm looking forward to discovering who had them all these years and what Lallorgov is up to.

Glad Duplicate Boy isn't a nass head. He's really trying.
Evolvo Lad's reasoning was good and makes sense after losing two members.
Love Key Kid's reactions.
There ship makes me think of those old 60's movies. I don't know why. But the mental interfacing and the trackballs. great description! Love the drop disc as well.

The giant ship makes me think of the Celestials from Marvel.
Love Brittle and his body exploding as he hit the ship. Great image. and then his journey inside when he stamped out the one inch version of himself. funny.
Go Life Lass and Amp. I didn't really think she would keep it from moving.
I'm glad Life Lass spoke up and said no to the double wammy of amped power.
Smart move not telling Amp and Life Lass. Let them concentrate.
Key Kid's concentration trick is cute and funny. His power is so useful.
a Khudian vessel that big must have been fighting something even bigger.
Go Rain Girl!
This team maybe small but its formidable!
Who is Karth Arn?

We all hate red tape. But hours..almost midnight? Dang Lallor. I'm surprised that the Lallorgov wouldn't want Evolvo Lad working with them as he might be able to figure out much of it by himself in his evolved state. unless that's the point and they are in on whatever happened to the Khunds.

YES! Espionage Squad is here! I like their plan. I know they will find something. But hopefully it doesn't implicate their new teammates in some dastardly plan.
Life Lass is so nice and sweet. Its nice to see someone can retain that after all these years in the hero game.

Oh course Dreamer has a spa appointment and want to put her face on. lol.
Im kind of surprised they didn't turn around to find Elastic Lad had been there the whole time. getting a jump start.
I hate how co-dependent Wildfire is. I agree with Tinya that its great that Dawnstar is trying something new. I always felt like the Espionage Squad would have a fairly rotating membership based on what the mission would dictate. Some like Dawnstar who only come in for a mission while you have the staples like Cham and Vi.

Oooo...Tinya's got a lot going on and Dream Girl was that just a vote of confidence or a vision? I hope it wasn't a vision.
“If you don’t use your political career for nepotism, can you really call yourself a politician?” Loved this line!

Element Lad's thoughts about the events are interesting and it show cases just how much Jan values life. Now if he left the team for a less violent world. I could understand.
I'm enjoying how your showcasing the lout the Legionnaires carry and how it can be useful. It's an application I honestly never thought of. But makes so much sense.

Dogstar is cool and on par with M'Onel? wow powerful. I half expected the Atomic Knight to say Superman. But sounds like Malice from X-men crossed over. I'm thinking your writing of the X-men is seeping into the Legion. lol.

Love that Tinya is confident in her team and that the team works well. Even M.E. Lad who got everyone out in time!.

“He’s your world’s greatest hero; well I hate to break it to you pal, but he’s either a clone or a robot or from Earth-3 or something cuz your world’s greatest hero isn’t acting very heroic.” another great line that made me laugh.

Wow JAn was almost a gonner! Great job Tinya! quick thinking with the chocker!
Tenzil another great line. “Tastes like magic if that helps...man, that’s gonna take a whole bottle of bleach.” love it. ;D
I hope he doesn't become possessed too.

Great mission. had me worried for a moment there for sure.

Can't wait for more!

Hey Omni, thanks for taking the time to comment! Glad you like the Heroes of Lallor, their story is definitely not over

I wish I had thought of having Elastic Lad already hard at work in the multilab now because you're right, that does sound exactly like something he would do hahaha

Your comment about Malice is also very interesting, because it's not something I did deliberately but I have been looking at the classic Marauders stories a lot lately so I think it may well have bled over

Oh, and I'm glad you mentioned Karth Arn because I did actually mean to write up a bio for him and forgot about it; the short version is that he's an android who factored in with Timber Wolf's origin story in the original Legion, but I also used him ages ago when he gathered his own version of the Fatal Five around himself. I'll write up something longer and post it asap

Things are about to kick into super high gear, I'll be very interested in seeing what y'all have to think of upcoming developments!

MARS
Husband Hill, Legion of Superheroes Headquarters
The Lupran woman named Chroma Queen stood defiantly before a dozen of the galaxy’s most famous champions; she was clearly unhappy with their judgement of her attempt to join the Legion of Superheroes’ ranks. “What do you mean my power isn’t quite what you’re looking for?” she demanded. “You let Color Kid in, and I can do anything he can do!”

“That’s...kind of the point,” Phantom Girl tried to let her down gently. “While the Legion no longer have any official ruling against the duplication of powers, we don’t feel that being able to change the color of an object is such an asset that we’d want to have two team members who can do exactly that rather than keeping that slot available for another unique powerset. No offence, Ulu.”

“It’s okay, I get it,” Color Kid agreed. “Chroma Queen, it’s not my power that got me into the Legion - it’s the way I showed them that I can use it. Maybe you could try the Legion of Substitute Heroes, my time there was invaluable--”

“This is ludicrous!” Chroma Queen raged. “I perfected his abilities! I can manifest colors that are beyond your field of vision!”

“If we can’t see it, why do we care?” Shadow Lass asked bluntly. “You have your answer, Chroma Queen. Can we move on to the next applicant please?”

“You’ll pay for this!” the white-skinned woman shook her fist as menacingly as someone in a rainbow-streaked bodysuit could manage. “You haven’t heard the last of Chroma Queen!” She turned on her heel and stormed out.

“That went well, don’t you think?” Dream Girl asked, having spent the last half of Chroma Queen’s tantrum filing her nails.

“Gee whiz, do you really think so Dream Girl?” Elastic Lad piped up earnestly. “She seemed awfully mad to me!”

Phantom Girl turned to Shadow Lass beside her and released a long exhalation of suffering. “Shady, do you think it’d be an abuse of my leadership powers if I take over Element Lad’s mission helping Dogstar chase down Dr Cerberus and made Jan sit through the rest of these tryouts in my place? He’s only just left Mars, I could get him back here in no time.”

“Chin up!” Sitting on Tinya’s other side, Matter-Eater Lad nudged Phantom Girl’s shoulder. “Only six more hours to go...ooh, Accordian Lad’s next! That sounds promising!”

The room filled with pained groans.

**********
The Martian day was quite pleasant outside if a little on the cool side, and Chlorophyll Kid and Comet Queen were on their way back from the Hanging Gardens where they’d taken Ivy for a stroll before the forecast cloud cover came in this afternoon. “Parse me to the C-span!” Comet Queen gushed as they saw the brightly colored crowd of thousands milling about for blocks around their home. “Glom all these sentients, Chlory! There must be like a tetrasquillion here!”

“Is that even a real number, Grava?” Ral Benem chuckled. “I swear you make up half your phrases on the fly.”

“I do everything on the fly, starshine! Like a comet!” She gave him a wink and a peck on the cheek, then screeched with glee as she saw a familiar face among the crowd. “Crystal Kid!” She literally flew straight at her old classmate, almost knocking him off his feet as she half-charged, half-hugged him. “Starshine, are you trying out? Oh, this is nova-bright gleaming! I’m so excited! You’ll be a Legionnaire in no time!” Before Bobb Kohan could get a word in edgewise, she was clapping her hands and flying circles around him leaving sparkling dust that dissipated on the breeze.

“Hi Crystal Kid,” Chlorophyll Kid greeted him a little more sedately. He held Ivy up. “Say hi, Ivy!” The little girl gurgled appreciatively.

“Hi there,” Bobb returned the greeting before turning almost immediately to the baby in Ral’s arms. “So this is the famous Ivy, huh? Grava’s shown us all a thousand holos...it’s nice to actually meet you, young lady!” He made a small rounded crystal in the palm of his hand and held it out to her; she was immediately entranced and grabbed at it clumsily as she eyed the way it caught the light.

“I can’t believe there are so many people here!” Comet Queen gushed. “Oh, let’s meet some of them Chlory!” Landing, she approached the first girl standing beside Crystal Kid. “What’s your designation, starshine?”

The young girl was a Terran with Asiatic features, her shiny black hair styled in a fashionable short bob. She wore a sleeveless midriff top and flared pants, with armbands and boots which were all one of two different shades of blue. “Comet Queen!” She grasped Grava’s hand and shook it excitedly before realising her error. “Oh, I’m so sorry - I am Bina Nawoti. My superhero name is Otaki. I’m so pleased to make your acquaintance!”

“What’s your power, starshine?” Comet Queen fed off the young woman’s own enthusiasm.

“I’m Terran but I’ve studied extensively on Titan,” Otaki explained. “I have developed a mindsense - I can track people mentally and glean certain details from anyone within close range. For example, I can sense that you and Chloropyll Kid have a great deal of affection for one another...if you don’t mind me saying so.”

Comet Queen squealed excitedly. “Blazing supernovas, I love it! What about Ivy? Can you tell what’s going on in our little nebula sprout’s cranium, starshine?”

“Oh, children are a simple matter to read!” Otaki took to the challenge. “They haven’t had any reason to build up walls yet, they -- oh.

...Oh.”


**********
Inside their headquarters, most of the Legionnaires who’d volunteered to judge the tryouts were glad for the mess their last applicant Kid Proto had left as it gave them a few minutes to relax while they waited for cleaning droids to prepare the room for their next would-be recruit.

“Just to clarify,” Supergirl deadpanned while a portable sonic shower blasted protoplasmic slime from her frame, “Is it because I’m invulnerable or because I’m new that I get stuck helping the gross ones show off their powers?”

“I don’t know why you’re complaining,” Dream Girl teased. “Primordial ooze suits you, dear.”

“Really? I’m not the sprockin’ dinosaur here,” Laurel Kent muttered just loud enough to be heard as she marched back to her seat.

“Okay everybody, focus!” Phantom Girl quickly took charge. “Let’s call in our next applicant...uh, Mr E?”

At the sound of his name, an athletic young man entered confidently wearing form-fitting star-patterned armour with chrome piping aound the edges. He was fully covered from the waist down, with a chestplate and rounded helmet which left his abs and biceps exposed. Starry gauntlets completed the outfit, almost covering his gloved hands entirely.

“Interesting name,” Phantom Girl announced. “I suppose it’s keeping with the theme, it doesn’t say much here about you at all other than Dream Girl and Star Boy have both vouched for you?”

“That’s right,” Thom confirmed.

“We thought it’d keep things interesting,” Nura added breezily.

“Okay, well...it’s certainly not unprecedented,” Tinya admitted. “Ready to show us what you can do, Mr E? Your choice, combat droids or Legionnaires first?”

“Droids if you please,” he replied, his voice clearly distorted artificially.

Two droids floated out toward him, and as one of them fired a stun beam he leaped into the air with a lightness that was more than human. He then landed on the droid hard, crushing it to a deformed heap of metal. The so-called Mr E lifted the droid in front of him with an ease that would imply superhuman strength to match his agility, and when its partner reached for him with extending tentacles the two robotic assailants became hopelessly entangled. If any of the Legionnaires saw the faint blue power signature which manifested whenever Mr E took an action, none of them showed any sign of it. While the second droid worked to free itself from its partner, Mr E leaped once more and landed behind it. He placed both hands upon it, and this time there was a definite flash of bright blue which flared from both of his hands. The droid squawked helplessly, then imploded into a misshapen chunky ball that Mr E dropped to the ground with a heavy thunk.

“Very well done,” Phantom Girl complimented the mystery man. “Ready to try your luck against some living opponents?”

“Watch me!” the enigmatic applicant boasted.

“Okay, let’s see…” Tinya made a show of looking over her assembled teammates. “Shady, Stone Boy; would you two do the honors?”

“Happy to,” Shadow Lass gathered her cape about her and descended to the testing area while Dag Wentim took on his stone form and did the same.

Once they were given the all-clear, Stone Boy charged the masked warrior. Mr E once again leaped high into the air, but this time his opponent changed course easily. “That’s not going to work against someone with a flight ring I’m afraid,” Stone Boy remarked as his fingers closed around Mr E’s ankle. To Stone Boy’s surprise, some force prevented him from tightening his grip and a moment later he plummeted to the ground where he hit hard enough to cause an indentation in the reinforced flooring.

“Effective,” Shadow Lass complimented Mr E. “Let’s see how well you fare without being able to see your target, shall we?” As she spoke, a cloud of impenetrable darkness issued forth from thin air. She was hidden deep within it by the time she finished her question, and Mr E wasn’t far from being consumed by the inky blackness himself.

Before their sparring could continue however, an alarm sounded. A hologram of Kid Computo’s head appeared larger than life before them all as she addressed them from the monitor room. “Phantom Girl, all hell’s broken loose outside. There are all sorts of plants sprouting everywhere at an insane rate and attacking people; it could be one of the applicants, but--”

“Say no more,” Tinya interrupted. Phantom Girl knew very well what the but was, but she saw no reason to reveal that information to a non-Legionnaire. “Mr E, I’m sorry to have to do this but we’ll need to postpone the rest of your tryout. Tenzil, Color Kid; could you two take Mr E and the other applicants in the waiting area to a more secure room? Everybody else, meet me outside as soon as you can.” She flew off before anyone could respond, phasing through each wall she came across until she was in the open air. The scene outside was utter chaos. Massive tree trunks broke through the ground and reached for the skies while vines of varying thickness and textures ensnared the panicked crowd. As if that weren’t bad enough, several of the would-be Legionnaires had decided to use their own powers to combat the plants and she could see small fires erupting, fireworks of energy, clusters of ice and explosions everywhere she looked. The Science Police were doing everything they could to contain this mess, but it was only a matter of time till people started dying. Tinya tried to open a comms channel to Chlorophyll Kid; nothing. She met the same failure with Comet Queen, and found that she couldn’t reach Kid Computo either. She was reminded uncomfortably of the communications problems the Legionnaires had faced on Mardru when they first encountered Ivy, but with so many different meta-powered people here from so many different worlds any one of them might also be interfering with comms signals deliberately or by accident. Element Lad had taken Tellus to Dalma with him, and Saturn Girl was on a family outing along with Garth and Ayla so she had no telepaths available to facilitate communications either.

Phantom Girl heard a high-pitched squeal slightly below her, and saw an Imskian girl in a two-toned green outfit swallowed whole by some kind of carnivorous vegetation. The girl couldn’t be more than an inch high, and if she grew to full size she’d most likely bust straight through the plant’s thin outer layer but she was probably too terrified to think straight. Thinking quickly, Phantom Girl reached through the plant and allowed enough of her palm to become physical within its interior to make contact with the girl; she then simply phased her through the plant in an intangible state. Phantom Girl flew back through the outer wall of the Legion’s headquarters before she turned solid and released the shaking teenager gently to the floor inside. Tinya couldn’t tell exactly how old the girl was as she was so small, but she guessed she was quite young from her proportions. “What’s your name, sweetie?”

“Ch-Charm,” the girl stammered nervously.

“Okay Charm, why don’t you grow to full size for me?” Tinya asked soothingly. The girl obeyed, and Tinya saw now that she couldn’t be more than 14. Her black hair was styled in a pixie cut, with one wide dark green streak. “Thank you. I know this is scary, but the Legion will keep you safe, okay? I need you to be brave for me and go catch that turbolift downstairs as far as it’ll take you. Kid Computo, Matter-Eater Lad and Color Kid are in the building and as soon as you get into that lift they’ll know you’re here and come find you. Can you do that?”

“O-okay, Phantom Girl.” The round-faced girl gave her an optimistic smile. “My power’s luck...I think you finding me was pretty lucky, huh?”

“I think it was,” Tinya beamed right back at her. “And hopefully some of it will rub off on me.” Phantom Girl turned to leave the building again, but had a sudden flash of inspiration. She’d spoken to Kid Computo just fine earlier, it was only once she’d left the building that the comms stopped working. She raised her flight ring to her lips. “Phantom Girl to Kid Computo; Danielle, can you hear me?”

“Phantom Girl!” Kid Computo sounded incredibly relieved. “I’ve been trying to reach you, there’s a dead zone outside the building! I can’t even call for reinforcements! I’ve been trying to tap into the SP surveillance equipment outside as well but I’m only getting static!”

“I don’t want to assume it’s malicious,” Phantom Girl replied. “But still, keep trying. Oh hey, also I’ve just sent a young Imskian girl named Charm down in turbolift 3. Can you please make sure someone keeps an eye on her? She’s a little shaken up. Also, if Glorith or Variable Lad are on site see if they can come up with any way to bypass this comms blackout. I’m heading back out there, we need to find Ivy.”

“Understood,” Danielle answered. “Good luck, fearless leader!”

Phantom Girl thought back to the frightened green-garbed girl she’d just rescued. “Thanks. Hopefully I’ll have more than enough now.” Then she floated back out through the wall.

**********
Crystal Kid was overwhelmed.

That Asian girl had been talking to Comet Queen, when suddenly Ivy had wailed like a banshee and all hell had broken loose. Two colossal tree trunks had appeared out of nowhere, shooting out of the ground so fast that they’d knocked both Chlorophyll Kid and Comet Queen out; and in mere seconds, Ivy and the girl who’d called herself Otaki had disappeared behind a wall of vegetation while everyone else in the area was just doing the best they could to stay clear of it. It grew with rapid fury everywhere Crystal Kid looked; for every vine that he turned into unmoving crystal, a new one took its place.

“What in the name of Daddy Nature is going on here?” a high-pitched male voice sounded. A seven foot tall insectoid suddenly appeared by Crystal Kid’s side. Encased within a glossy black and fuschia exoskeleton, he had six limbs (two of them he walked upon like feet) which each ended in three-pronged appendages. Parts of his exoskeleton flared outwards dramatically into colorful horned shapes, and he had two gigantic multi-faceted eyes set in a flared fuschia face shield. Twin antennae sprung forth brightly from what would be considered a human man’s forehead, each one of them bouncing lightly every time he moved.

“Hi, I’m Crystal Kid,” Bobb introduced himself. “Uhh, it might be best to get some distance from here; I’m not sure what’s happening, but I need to keep Comet Queen and Chlorophyll Kid safe till the other Legionnaires arrive.” The odd alien’s arrival had shocked Bobb out of his stupor, and he raised a protective dome of crystal around the fallen Legionnaires which the plants couldn’t penetrate.

“Nonsense, darling.” Two of the alien’s left limbs gave a dismissive swish. “I’ve tolerated a lot worse than some overactive vegetation since I left Mantodea. Oh, how rude of me - please call me Strut.” Almost casually, he leaped to avoid a bark-covered trunk shooting up out of the ground and then clung to its side as it grew to enormous size. “Wasn’t there a larval human around here somewhere, darling? I remember her precious little chuckle!” He cocked his head from one side to the other, his antennae bobbing about independently of one another.

“Yeah, she’s not who I’m worried about. Hey, look out!” Even as Bobb had noticed it, the Mantodean called Strut easily avoided a group of clutching creepers. Some more of the same wrapped around Bobb’s ankle, and he froze them in crystal form before they could get too strong a hold. “I’m friends with Comet Queen,” Bobb explained, “and from what she told me, I’m sure this is all that umm...larval human’s doing. She has enormously powerful chlorokinetic abilities but she’s too young to control them.”

“Oh, how awful for the poor dear!” Strut exclaimed. He was perched now nearly twelve feet up the tree trunk he’d earlier evaded, and from his vantage point he could see through a gap in the wall of vegetation that surrounded Ivy and Otaki. Strut’s antennae danced wildly for a moment, then he looked down at Crystal Kid. “I must say, that makes a lot more sense out of this messy business but I think there’s more to this than just a spirited little girl throwing a tantrum.”

“What do you mean?” Crystal Kid asked while he turned a bunch of prehensile vines to crystal, allowing a group of terrified youths to flee.

“You see these adorable little feelers?” One of Strut’s six hands pointed at his antennae while the other five hands worked on scuttling around the large trunk to avoid a flowering of large pungent blooms. “They’re not just ornamental, darling; I can sense far more electrochemical stimuli than most sentients I’ve encountered since leaving my homeworld even know exist! I can see that poor sweet baby in there crying her little heart out and I can sense that she’s terrified. But the older mammal girl in there with her is just as terrified. They seem to be feeding off of and enhancing one another’s fear, it’s a horrid cycle!”

“That’s not promising news.” This was another voice, and Strut and Crystal Kid both watched as Phantom Girl descended through wooden branches to join them. “We still need to stop Ivy though; Crystal Kid, do you know where Chlorophyll Kid is? He has a device that Brainy and Dream Girl made in case anything like this ever happened.”

“Phantom Girl!” Crystal Kid shouted her name in welcome. “Oh, uhh this is Strut...the plants took Grava and Chlorophyll Kid out before anyone else; they’re inside that dome, I didn’t know how else to protect them.”

“You did the right thing,” Tinya smiled encouragingly. “Don’t worry, you two; this should be over soon.” She phased through the crystal and checked both Chlorophyll Kid and Comet Queen’s pulse. They were breathing normally and there were no other signs of serious damage; Crystal Kid had probably done the best thing he could under the circumstances. While she searched Chlorophyll Kid’s pockets for the PRAM device, it occurred to Tinya that it was strange Ivy would assault these two specifically. She’d have expected them to be the last to fall, especially Chlor. She supposed it was just bad luck; like that odd alien Strut had said, it seemed like Ivy was just lashing out from fear. Tinya finally found the PRAM and phased back through the dome again. She made her way through the dense vegetation hiding Ivy and Otaki, and was shocked when she emerged on their side of the barrier. Ivy was laying on the floor thrashing and screaming, and Otaki was on her knees with her shoulders slumped and her knuckles dragging on the ground. Phantom Girl had no idea who this stranger was, but it was clear she wasn’t the aggressor here. Her face was blanched with terror, and Tinya could almost swear that she was ageing right before her eyes. That was impossible of course, Ivy’s only power was over plants…wasn’t it?

She placed the PRAM around Ivy as Brainiac 5 had instructed her, and Phantom Girl’s heart fell when she saw that seven of the connections were broken. The web of circuity hung incomplete, and she didn’t dare activate it for fear of what might happen. She pocketed the PRAM and flew back outside where she encountered Crystal Kid and Strut working together to free a young costumed boy from clutching thorny vines. She had to admit, Crystal Kid and Strut were both proving to be useful in far less than ideal circumstances; she hoped she wouldn’t regret what she was about to say. “I need to get this to Dream Girl to repair. I can’t ask you to stay, you’re not Legionnaires. But Ivy and that girl in there don’t have anybody to protect them, and neither do Chlorophyll Kid or Comet Queen. Our comms are down so I can’t call anyone else.”

“Oh pikkletock, darling.” Strut waved her away with one hand. “Go be fabulous.”

“Grava’s my friend and Ivy’s just a baby,” Bobb spoke with an uncommonly assertive edge to his voice. “I’m not leaving them here on their own, and I’m not leaving Chlorophyll Kid or that other girl either. Go do what you need to do, Phantom Girl; we’ll keep them safe.”

**********
Somewhere else in the absurd forest, Laurel Kent found herself becoming hopelessly ensnared in thorny vines. She’d descended into the animated greenery to help a couple of would-be applicants she’d noticed getting themselves into trouble, but had herself been snared before she had a chance to extricate them. “Tell me about yourselves,” she asked the boy and girl she’d tried to rescue. She tried not to wince too openly as the thorns began to cut into both of the others. “Maybe we can come up with something to get us all out of here working together.”

“My name’s Kid Static!” the boy answered in a panicky tone. “I -- oww -- I have a field around me that muddles all transmissions! Ow! But nothing that’ll help us get out of here! We’re gonna die!” He wore a grey bodysuit which covered him from head to toe so Laurel couldn’t see his face, but she could very well hear the fear in his voice. It also occurred to her that it was probably his fault that nobody’s flight rings were working.

“And I’m Endurance Girl!” the blonde girl struggling beside him added. “I never get tired, I don’t need food or water to live...other than that though, I’m just a normal person! Can’t you just burn these things off with heat vision, Supergirl?!” Her own suit was more armoured than Kid Static’s, but Laurel didn’t know how much longer it’d hold up against these plants.

“I’m not that kinda Supergirl, sorry.” Laurel quickly hatched a plan which sounded like a longshot even to her, but she didn’t see that they had many options right now. “Okay, I’m gonna leave you guys alone for a couple of seconds but I promise I’ll be back; and hopefully with reinforcements so don’t be scared, okay? We’re getting outta this.” She didn’t give the kids a chance to respond, instead flying straight up into the clear blue sky above. The vines yanked at her when she reached their full extension, but she heard a couple of satisfying snaps. They couldn’t possibly do any damage to her invulnerable body no matter how tightly they constricted, and she was gambling that her flight ring could overpower the tensile strength of these plants. Laurel gritted her teeth and screamed as she pushed herself to her limits. She felt one of the creeping tendrils curl around her throat and decided right then and there that she refused to end her Legion career choked out by a sprocking murderous plant. Laurel focused all of her will into one final desperate push, and to her surprise she snapped the remaining vines away and shot straight up like a rocket before coming to a complete stop about a hundred feet up. “What..?” She was surrounded in a blue nimbus of energy and felt kind of...bouncy? Oddly weightless?

“I hope you don’t mind the assistance,” a heavily modulated voice sounded. She looked back behind her to see the Legion applicant called Mr E carrying a now unencumbered Kid Static and Endurance Girl in similar blue forcefields to the one which surrounded Laurel. “I was passing by and thought you could use the help.”

“Not that I’m ungrateful,” Supergirl watched the blue aura dissipate from around her and she descended to his level, “But aren’t you meant to be hidden away somewhere with the other applicants from earlier? If something happened to them, we should let Phantom Girl know.”

“They’re fine,” Mr E replied. “I just thought I could be of more use out here. If you can get these two to safety; somewhere far enough that Kid Static here can’t affect Legion comms anymore--”

“Hey, I do appreciate the help,” Laurel cut him off. “But I’m the Legionnaire here, if anyone’s gonna be giving orders--”

“It’s not an order,” he said curtly. “It just makes sense!” He sighed and pressed hidden buttons on either side of his neck to retract his helmet. Supergirl’s face was crossed with confusion when she saw that the secretive Mr E was in fact the Legion Academy student Gravity Kid. Before she could question him though, he took the advantage of surprise to continue. “Laurel, it’s me. I know I can be a competitive batjerk sometimes, but that’s not what this is about. My powers are just better suited to deal with this kind of thing than yours are. I know you’re invulnerable, but that’s not gonna help free the hundreds of people fighting down there.”

She hated to admit it, but he was right. “Fine,” she pouted. “But you better tell me what this Mr E nass is all about when this is all over and done with.” She grabbed Kid Static and Endurance Girl under each arm. “Hold tight, guys. I’ll get you out of here.” They clutched on to her for dear life and she shot across the Martian sky.

Gravity Kid considered replacing his disguise, but he wondered how much more time he’d waste having the same conversation with every other Legionnaire he happened across. At this stage it didn’t matter if he impressed the Legion or not, he just wanted to help the crowd of innocents down below.

He descended and found a group of ten costumed teens standing on a floating chunk of earth. The dark-skinned girl kneeling at the front of the group was obviously the one responsible for levitating the makeshift platform; her fingers were splayed out across its surface and sweat poured down her face. She’d escaped the grip of the angry vegetation, but she was clearly pushing her power to its limits just to get this far. At this rate she’d never reach a safe distance before the plants caught up to them. “We’re too heavy!” she complained. “If a couple of you jump, I can make the rock smaller...I might be able to get the rest of us out of here!”

“You!” a blonde girl in a voluminous purple cloak with a ridiculously ornate collar and jewelled tiara pointed at a skinny boy on the edge of the group. “Language Lad! Your power of omnitranslation is replicated by the most basic technology the Legion of Superheroes have available to them, you are the weak link! Whom else among us? Vocus? Illustrator!”

“Hey, hey, whoa there…” Gravity Kid caught the group’s attention. “Time out. Grife...nobody’s jumping, okay? You, rock floater kid. What’s your name?”

“Nightstone,” she answered without looking up at him. It was taking more of her focus every second they stayed here and she stared wilfully at the rock now, her shoulders trembling.

Gravity Kid was momentarily taken aback. He remembered when he and the other Academy students had encountered the ghost of a geomancer on Earth, and that poor girl had been tied mystically to Nightwind. Could this Nightstone be similarly related? He shook his head, it ws a mystery which could wait until everyone was safe. “Okay, Nightstone...I’m Gravity Kid. I’m going to give your power a boost but I’ll be honest with you; that’s a lot of mass for even my power to affect. So once you feel the added support you’re gonna need to fly everyone-- everyone--” Tel emphasised the word again and glared at the regal looking girl, “--to a safe distance as quick as you can. Are we good?”

Nightstone nodded, too strained to speak.

“Good. Good luck, everyone.” They were enveloped in Tel’s trademark blue glow, and the rock zipped out across the sky at high speed. An ear-splitting trill suddenly sounded, followed by the sound of something exploding. Gravity Kid actually lost control of his power for a moment from the shock, but recovered swiftly and turned around to discover the source of the racket. Twin wooden javelins hurled straight at him, the plants obviously having discovered a more efficient ranged attack. Even as Gravity Kid turned his attention to the weird assault, he saw something even more strange.

A small canary wearing a peculiar crown with revolving tines intercepted the missiles; its wings and tail feathers were tipped black, as was its beak. It opened that beak now, and another superhumanly shrill sound came forth and shattered the javelins into so much kindling. Satisfied with its work, it executed a sharp turn and flew back by Tel. “You okay, kid?” the bird asked in an unexpectedly gruff voice.

Tel was visibly shocked. “You speak!! I mean...I’m sorry, that sounds so xenophobic - it’s just, you look so much like an Earth bird. I mean, you’re not an Earth bird, are you?! Grife, I should just shut up.”

“Ah, don’t sweat it.” The bird flew directly overhead and dipped back down toward the chaos. “Not the worst reception I’ve had from one o’ you oversized monkeys. I saw you help those kids out, and if I ain’t wrong my sensitive liddle ears just heard someone say where all this mess started from. Let’s go make ourselves useful, huh?”

“Huh? Oh, sure!” Tel followed the tiny bird’s lead. “I’m Gravity Kid anyway...thanks for the save, what can I call you?”

“King Canary, at ya service.” He raised one wing toward his head in a quick flash, and surreally Tel realised that he’d just been given a salute from a canary. Moments later the unlikely duo found themselves at the side of Crystal Kid and Strut, both of whom were in danger of becoming overwhelmed not just by the plants, but by costumed would-be Legionnaires who’d taken it upon themselves to start fighting them for some reason.

“Crystal Kid?” Gravity Kid recognised the Substitute Hero instantly. “What’s going on here? You haven’t seen Chlorophyll Kid or Comet Queen around with a little baby, have you?”

“Ivy?” Crystal Kid erected a crystal shield just in time to stop himself getting beaned by a younger boy with a moopsball bat. “She’s somewhere in that mess!” He pointed a finger at the wall of vegetation hiding Ivy and Otaki.

“So why are you wasting time fighting out here?” Gravity Kid gestured, and the sports-themed youth who’d assaulted Crystal Kid went flying. “We need to get in there and calm her down! You know this is her fault, right?”

“I’m afraid we may have brought this upon ourselves,” Strut joined the conversation, effortlessly leaping away from a large blood-colored flower which opened its petals and shot some kind of toxin toward him. He landed in the midst of a gang of identical boys in puffy satin sleeves and billowing violet capes before continuing. “We thought other Legion applicants might be interested in actually helping the poor thing, but apparently these hooligans think the best way to deal with this situation is to beat an infant child and some other terrified mammal girl to death so now we have the tedious task of stopping them from hurting anybody and staying alive.” As he finished speaking, he ran straight through the majority of the now clearly illusionary duplicates toward the only real one.

“Impossible!” Strut’s target complained. “Nobody can penetrate the awe-inspiring mirages of Mirage Master!”

“Oh, you poor darling.” Strut landed a blow on the boy’s chin and knocked him out straight away. “Visual illusions aren’t much chop against someone whose primary sense is non-visual.”

Of the other applicants who’d responded to Crystal Kid and Strut’s request for help with violence, all but one of them finally realised they were in over their heads and scattered. The remaining young man circled Strut and Crystal Kid with a flight belt, assembling some kind of rifle as he did so. “You’re all way too soft!” he barked. “It doesn’t matter how young that kid is, you can’t protect her over everyone else here! Once I take her out with this electro-grenade, Weapons Lad is gonna be the next Legionnaire for sure!”

Weapons Lad took aim but before he could fire, King Canary disintegrated his gun back into its component pieces with a sonic cry. Another sonic blast shattered his flight belt, and Ivy’s would-be assailant crashed into the writhing plants with an utter lack of dignity.

“I ain’t lettin’ no baby get hurt!” King Canary protested. “Whatta we do now though? I can hear the Legion all over this place, they’re all busy savin’ other sentients from these crazy plants!”

“I’ve got a plan!” Gravity Kid snapped his fingers. “I think. You, uhh...insect guy...just how fast are you? If we give you a second to get in there and get Ivy out, can you do it?”

“Dear boy, I didn’t name myself Strut because I thought Insect Guy was a superior name,” the brightly-colored hero replied snarkily, “But if you can give me that second I’ll most certainly put it to excellent use!”

Gravity Kid ignored the sarcasm. “Okay, Crystal Kid; turn as much of that mess surrounding Ivy to crystal as you can manage, then King Canary can shatter it. I’ll stop it from raining down on Ivy and give Strut an opening. Strut, as soon as you’re clear I’ll fly you guys high enough to try and cut off her power effect till the Legion can do something about her.”

“It’s as good a plan as any,” Bobb Kohan shrugged while he crystallised another vine reaching for him. “Let’s do this quick though. I’m getting tired, and tired leads to sloppy.”

“Ready when you are,” King Canary retorted.

Crystal Kid played his part and turned a huge section of the plant matter surrounding Ivy and Otaki into crystal. King Canary pitched his cry at a frequency which exploded the gleaming material into countless shards, and Gravity Kid surrounded those shards in a gravity field which held them all together before increasing their weight so that they fell straight to the ground in a twinkling pile. Strut leaped across the pile of crystal, but as he closed on Ivy and Otaki he realised something. Otaki definitely looked visibly more aged than she had when he’d gazed upon her earlier; and both she and Ivy were still mortally terrified. There was something else though, something his senses couldn’t account for but he nonetheless somehow felt. There was something unmistakably evil at work here, and the insectoid fighter realised it wasn’t going to be vanquished until whatever bond joined Otaki and Ivy was broken. Acting purely on instinct, he chopped at the base of Otaki’s neck firmly and she crumpled. Strut moved to collect Ivy with one of his other limbs, then almost screeched when Phantom Girl suddenly emerged from the ground at his feet.

“I’m such an idiot!” Tinya berated herself. “I was so intent on getting that device to Dream Girl that it didn’t occur to me it replicates my power! I should be able to stop all this right now!” She solidified only briefly enough to grab Ivy before turning intangible again with the already calmer girl. As soon as Phantom Girl and Ivy Arcane were fully intangible, every plant in the area simply stopped dead.

“Tinya! Babe! We rushed back home as soon as we heard what was happening! Is everybody alright?” Everyone looked up to see Ultra Boy descending with Mon-El at his side and Neon close behind them carrying Cosmic Boy, Diamond Damsel and Polar Boy in a green sphere.

“We’ll need to clean up and assess damage still,” Phantom Girl noted as she bounced Ivy gently in her arms. “And we still need to find out exactly what happened here today, but we can safely say that tryouts are over.”

Strut and King Canary’s exotic anatomies rendered them difficult to read, but disappointment was evident on the faces of both Gravity Kid and Crystal Kid. “I guess...that’s okay,” Bobb’s shoulders slumped and he turned away. “...I’m sure you don’t need us hanging around making nuisances of ourselves.”

“Are you kidding?” Tinya laughed. “Once that kid with the static powers was far enough out of range, Kid Computo saw everything you four did; you were the real heroes today, and I think once Danielle shows the rest of the Legion what she showed me they’ll agree…

...I’d say we’ve found our new recruits!”

**********
ELSEWHERE
The necromancer named Alek Arcane stepped away from his bone altar. For some time now, he’d felt the presence of a powerful psionic talent around his granddaughter Ivy. His instincts had told him that this psi was too powerful for him to risk drawing too much attention to himself, and so he’d had to maintain only the most tenuous link with Ivy. His patience had borne fruit though and tonight he’d been rewarded when a new psi had made contact with Ivy Arcane. She’d created a link that Alek Arcane could exploit to better find out exactly where his granddaughter was, and to strengthen his connection with Ivy enough to use the child’s power against those who would protect her.

Alek Arcane wasn’t entirely certain if he’d succeeded in slaying the child’s Green-appointed guardian, but it didn’t matter. If he wasn’t dead, he would be soon. Because Alek Arcane knew where Ivy was now.

“A planet named after a God of War,” he smiled sadistically. “How appropriate….because war is exactly what I’m bringing.”

He turned away from his altar, felt it consumed in sickly green flames; and Alek Arcane walked through tepid swampwater toward his prize, a skeletal army of the dead shambling behind him.

**********

Nice seeing our four newbies in action so soon!They were definitely effective.

It's pretty funny that you and I both had Gravity (Kid) joining

And I think the way to Gravity (Kid) and Crystal Kid's memberships was paved nicely by the Chroma Queen altercation at the beginning of this segment! No more no-duplication rule.

Nightstone - another potential future member?

Man, there are always those applicants who don;'t get the whole Legion code...

Thanks IB, we will be seeing just how effective they can be against some major league bad guys pretty soon!

Nightstone may very well get a chance again to show what she's capable of at some stage as well

Also Omni (and anyone else interested) - I added a more detailed bio for Karth Arn and updated Crystal Kid in my Who's Who thread, check out the index here to find them. I haven't gotten around to adding Gravity Kid yet, but I'll do him next

We're gonna jump into a multi-part story next called Enemy of my Enemy and I think it'll be a good baptism of fire for our newbies and Phantom Girl both!

It's been a while since I posted an updated roster, I have been waiting for the new guys to join so it'll actually be stable for like 5 minutes. So without further ado:

BLOK
CHAMELEON BOY
CHLOROPHYLL KID
COLOR KID
COLOSSAL BOY
COMET QUEEN
COSMIC BOY
CRYSTAL KID
DAWNSTAR
DIAMOND DAMSEL
DRAGONMAGE
DREAM GIRL
ELASTIC LAD
ELEMENT LAD
FIRECREST
GAS GIRL
GRAVITY KID
INFECTIOUS LASS
INVISIBLE KID II
KID COMPUTO
KING CANARY
LIGHT LAD
LIGHTNING LASS
MATTER-EATER LAD
MON-EL
MWINDAJI
NEON
NIGHT GIRL
NIGHTWIND (deputy leader)
PHANTOM GIRL (leader)
POLAR BOY
QUISLET
SHADOW LASS
SHRINKING VIOLET
STAR BOY
STONE BOY
STRUT
SUN BOY
SUPERGIRL II
TELLUS
TIMBER WOLF
ULTRA BOY
WILDFIRE