COVID-19 RESOURCES
LIT CAMS (200 Free Tokens)ADULT TOYSVOD MOVIES

Last Daughter of Krypton: Legion IC

Green Lantern

"Dawnstar," he began in mock seriousness, "the word discretion is defined as not being so overtly obvious to the air and space traffic authorities. I --" and he faltered as he saw the Green Lantern that accompanied her.

Liz blinked, standing there just behind and beside Dawnstar, and suddenly felt very out of place, very awkward. Sudden unexpected silence. But she kept her emotions checked. Surely, if there were an explanation, this Brande would explain himself.

For a long moment, he simply stared at Liz.

But, he caught himself, regrouped, and started again.

"Of course," he said to Dawnstar, "I knew you would not fail."

He then turned to the Green Lantern. He took a deep breath.

"Welcome to Earth, Green Lantern," he said to her. "You are among friends here."

He moved closer to them both, but not too close.

"It's an honour to finally meet you, Mister Brande," she replied, gazing at him quietly. "Your reputation in the interstellar community is impeccable, and your credo of unity and justice is unimpeachable."

...and a sense of synaesthetic deja vu crawled upon the back of Elizabeth's neck. There was something familiar about all of this, she couldn't place it, she wanted desperately to place it.

She found herself, involuntarily, thinking about Bruce and his lessons in detective work, his endless exhaustive lessons in detective work. Bruce had been thorough.

Liz had a taste on her tongue she couldn't place, it tasted like a memory, like a mnemonic, and this time, this time, she frowned, ever so subtly, an even rarer expression than her smiles.

And for some reason she was remembering Bruce's lessons in body language.

He was telling her about bodychangers and formshifters and users of holotechnology and other masters of disguise, that even the best of them could give themselves away in a moment of stress with a tic or mannerism.

...and something about R.J. Brande's body language was setting off a mnemonic in her. A memory, like a signpost, like coming home. Like a familiar taste.

Strange.

Strange.

Like she'd seen his expression before on someone else's face.

"We have much, much to talk about," he continued. "But, first, please introduce yourself and tell me why you have come."

"I am Elizabeth Greystone," she explained, shaking off that feeling as best as she could. One should trust one's hunches and intuitions, but neither one would do her any good unless she could follow up on them. Right now, not so much. "I am assigned to Sector 2261 and its adjoining sectors. Currently, I am one of 1,000 active Lanterns, patrolling the 3,600 sectors of known space. Times, as they say, are tough all over."

She pursed her lips, taking a moment to pre-process her thoughts, and then continued: "But times, The Guardians have reason to believe, could well get tougher. It is presently not the policy of The Green Lantern Corps to interfere with the governing bodies of The Federation of United Planets. But neither can The Guardians ignore the predicted paradigm shift. Their assignment to me was to evaluate a potential Green Lantern for assignment to Sector 2814, and, specifically, to Earth. While this might be in contravention of established jurisdictional protocols, it has occurred to me that The U.P. utilises members of The Legion of Superheroes as de facto peacekeepers, lawgivers, and ambassadors. As such, if a Green Lantern were also to be made a member of The Legion, he would be granted diplomatic powers and law-enforcement jurisdiction in U.P. space. Essentially, he would be a liason between The LSH and The Corps and would bolster the ranks of both."

She almost smiled.

(Oh, she almost smiled, what was it about this man that made her almost smile?)

"This is all theoretical, of course," she gestured, half-dismissively. "I've still not met the Earther in question. But if anyone's qualified to evaluate the validity of my theory-- not to mention bringing it to fruition should it prove viable --it's R.J. Brande."
 
Last edited:
Wraith

"I believe in her house also. Kara and Bruce would often quibble about methods, but both believed in the same thing. I did too, once. Then I was thrust in a ten thousand year war, and what I believed in didn't matter anymore." I chuckled. "I even spared Zod's life once. He almost killed me, almost killed the woman I would one day marry, but I carried one thing from my father that I always followed, 'All life is sacred", and I stayed my hand."

I looked the young blond in the eye, and spoke in (badly accented. Kara sometimes just got the giggles when I listened in on her lessons with the kids and practiced) Kryptonian, "Thank you, Daughter of El."

"I have one I need to apologize to specifically, and I owe everyone here one too. I accept whatever punishment you deem necessary. I have fought so long I need to learn to be human again. Tell your friends that I'll be a good boy. Besides, I really don't want this little girl (I pointed at Caroline) to whallop me again."
 
Last edited:
Chasnicollette said:
"Dawnstar," he began in mock seriousness, "the word discretion is defined as not being so overtly obvious to the air and space traffic authorities. I --" and he faltered as he saw the Green Lantern that accompanied her.

Liz blinked, standing there just behind and beside Dawnstar, and suddenly felt very out of place, very awkward. Sudden unexpected silence. But she kept her emotions checked. Surely, if there were an explanation, this Brande would explain himself.

For a long moment, he simply stared at Liz.

But, he caught himself, regrouped, and started again.

"Of course," he said to Dawnstar, "I knew you would not fail."

He then turned to the Green Lantern. He took a deep breath.

"Welcome to Earth, Green Lantern," he said to her. "You are among friends here."

He moved closer to them both, but not too close.

"It's an honour to finally meet you, Mister Brande," she replied, gazing at him quietly. "Your reputation in the interstellar community is impeccable, and your credo of unity and justice is unimpeachable."

...and a sense of synaesthetic deja vu crawled upon the back of Elizabeth's neck. There was something familiar about all of this, she couldn't place it, she wanted desperately to place it.

She found herself, involuntarily, thinking about Bruce and his lessons in detective work, his endless exhaustive lessons in detective work. Bruce had been thorough.

Liz had a taste on her tongue she couldn't place, it tasted like a memory, like a mnemonic, and this time, this time, she frowned, ever so subtly, an even rarer expression than her smiles.

And for some reason she was remembering Bruce's lessons in body language.

He was telling her about bodychangers and formshifters and users of holotechnology and other masters of disguise, that even the best of them could give themselves away in a moment of stress with a tic or mannerism.

...and something about R.J. Brande's body language was setting off a mnemonic in her. A memory, like a signpost, like coming home. Like a familiar taste.

Strange.

Strange.

Like she'd seen his expression before on someone else's face.

"We have much, much to talk about," he continued. "But, first, please introduce yourself and tell me why you have come."

"I am Elizabeth Greystone," she explained, shaking off that feeling as best as she could. One should trust one's hunches and intuitions, but neither one would do her any good unless she could follow up on them. Right now, not so much. "I am assigned to Sector 2261 and its adjoining sectors. Currently, I am one of 1,000 active Lanterns, patrolling the 3,600 sectors of known space. Times, as they say, are tough all over."

She pursed her lips, taking a moment to pre-process her thoughts, and then continued: "But times, The Guardians have reason to believe, could well get tougher. It is presently not the policy of The Green Lantern Corps to interfere with the governing bodies of The Federation of United Planets. But neither can The Guardians ignore the predicted paradigm shift. Their assignment to me was to evaluate a potential Green Lantern for assignment to Sector 2814, and, specifically, to Earth. While this might be in contravention of established jurisdictional protocols, it has occurred to me that The U.P. utilises members of The Legion of Superheroes as de facto peacekeepers, lawgivers, and ambassadors. As such, if a Green Lantern were also to be made a member of The Legion, he would be granted diplomatic powers and law-enforcement jurisdiction in U.P. space. Essentially, he would be a liason between The LSH and The Corps and would bolster the ranks of both."

She almost smiled.

(Oh, she almost smiled, what was it about this man that made her almost smile?)

"This is all theoretical, of course," she gestured, half-dismissively. "I've still not met the Earther in question. But if anyone's qualified to evaluate the validity of my theory-- not to mention bringing it to fruition should it prove viable --it's R.J. Brande."
Click to expand...

Dawnstar walked over to the bar dispenser and keyed in an order for a Kono juice. "This sounds like it will not be easy. It is U.P. law and not Legion policy about the Lantern Corps. However, if anyone can get the U.P. to, what is the phrase? Unclamp yes, unclamp, it would be Mr. Brande." She gestured to the bar in an offer to serve.

"Now unless you have another task for me sir, I feel I should go face the noise that the S.P.'s will be wanting to give me. You know how to get me."
 
Green Lantern

Wyldfire said:
Dawnstar walked over to the bar dispenser and keyed in an order for a Kono juice. "This sounds like it will not be easy. It is U.P. law and not Legion policy about the Lantern Corps. However, if anyone can get the U.P. to, what is the phrase? Unclamp yes, unclamp, it would be Mr. Brande." She gestured to the bar in an offer to serve.

"Now unless you have another task for me sir, I feel I should go face the noise that the S.P.'s will be wanting to give me. You know how to get me."
Click to expand...

"No, thank you," Liz nodded easily, to the offer of bartending.

First of all, she was not exactly comfortable with the idea of anyone waiting on her.

Second of all: "I don't mind a good silverale now and then, but right now I'm on duty."

She scritched her cheek with her gloved fingers and nodded thoughtfully. "As to the topic of 'unclamping,' this is my thought precisely. With Brande's StarGate technology linking The United Planets by giving it affordable interstellar travel, and with Brande's brainchild Legion keeping the spaceways safe for member worlds, who better to bend the ear of President Chu or Vice-President Wazzo?"

Liz hesitated. And then detached the trans-suit, peeling it away from her skin with a soft velcro-esque tearing noises. Folding it carefully, she passed it back to Dawnstar.

Holding it out to her, she nodded a subtle nod that communicated cubic light-years of respect. "Thank you. For your assistance in this matter. For everything."
 
Wyldfire said:
Dawnstar walked over to the bar dispenser and keyed in an order for a Kono juice. "This sounds like it will not be easy. It is U.P. law and not Legion policy about the Lantern Corps. However, if anyone can get the U.P. to, what is the phrase? Unclamp yes, unclamp, it would be Mr. Brande." She gestured to the bar in an offer to serve.

"Now unless you have another task for me sir, I feel I should go face the noise that the S.P.'s will be wanting to give me. You know how to get me."
Click to expand...

"Nope," Brande said, shaking his head, "I don't have anything else for you. So, if you feel you should 'face the noise', then best of luck to you. Of course, everything has been taken care of already. The noise level should be rather low for you. If not, if it is loud, I trust you will let me know. I have ways of turning the volume down to a comfortable level."

Brande then turned to the Green Lantern.

Liz.

"What you ask is not unreasonable at all. There was a Green Lantern who was a member of the Justice League of America back in the 21st Century," he told her. "Hal Jordan enjoyed the priviledges of League membership, as well as his status in the Green Lantern Corps. But, I'm sure you already know this."

Brande was silent for a moment.

"I trust your judgement," he said to her. I always have. "Once you locate this individual, bring him before the Legion. If they approve his joining, then I will speak to the UP on his behalf.

"The future is not set," he said to her. "Although you may have read many things of forthcoming events in the Book of Oa, not all things are known. This mission that brought you to Earth is an important one, but I believe you are here for other reasons, as well. You are searching for something. Something, or some things lost to you. Tell me what they, or it, is, and I may be able to help."

Within the Martian Manhunter's memory were images from the beginning. Some things he preferred not to remember. Some things were a reminder of a past that he would never, ever forget. Like the day his wife and child were taken from him. But, others, were memories of friends, some long since past. Recently, a long, lost friend had returned to him. And now, standing before him, was another. An interesting coincidence that they both were of the same blood. Coincidence? Possibly. Fate? More than probably. All of this meant something, this coming together, but J'onn was unsure as to what.

J'onn felt that he needed to talk to someone. But, the someone he needed to speak to could speak no more. However, perhaps being near the one place that marked that someone's passing could allow him to find the answers on his own. He resolved that, after he had talked at length to Liz, and then to Wraith, he would take some time, tonight, to pay a visit to a dearly departed friend and fellow Detective.

J'onn absently paid attention to the computer, which reported a door at Legion HQ had been destroyed by the Daxamite, M'onel. I must remind myself to ask him about that name....
 
Last edited:
Nabu was the first Fate. The first Servant of Order. Nabu was wise. Powerful. Stubborn. Tommy Tennylson had often agrued with him. Not always the goal, but often the means. Nabu was not above cruelty and brutality. Not if it served the appropriate cause. Nabu often would lecture at length about allowing emotion to cloud judgment. Allowing it too hinder decisions. Nabu had been a man once, many years before even the League was formed. In his time he was a great sorcerer. A powerful being, beyond the scope of mortal ken. This however, was the limiting of his great power. He always saw emotion as a limitation, never grasping the great power that all emotion is capable of. Love.... Hate.... Greed.... Hope.... Nabu would deny these base emotions. Better to find the Logic, the Reason, The Order.

This was the fight that now raged in the mind of Jonah Tennylson. Jonah was listening to the same arguements. Or rather, he was hearing them, though they didn't phase him. Like Nabu, Jonah could be incredibly stubborn.

"Jonah, you immature fool! You would expose us! Show them the truth, the truth you have hidden, the truth you have kept from them for so long.... You are a fool. What if they see this as a betrayal? Hmph. You are not following Reason. Allow the Shadow Lord to find his own way. He is not our concern." The voice of Nabu rings in the mind of Jonah.

"He is family. I have lost much, I will not risk losing more. I will help him."

"You are following those weak emotions again Jonah."

"You know, Nabu, once, as a boy, my father told me a great story. The story of Khufu. A story about his great friend and adviser. A man whose loyalty was so great he would even face enemies that should have been impossible to defeat, all in the name of Khufu. Tell me, oh wise Nabu, what of your loyalty now? You would have me turn my back on Kyle? Would you have turned on Khufu? Kept silent with information that could have great impact? No I do not believe you would."

"Very well. If you insist, Child."

Under the helm Jonah leered. He knew he was being goaded by Nabu. Nabu wanted to distract him, make him forget the decision he had already made in his mind. Jonah smiled as he saw the Legion arriving.

"My father always said to never lose faith in family. They always surprise you.... today I see he was right." Fate moves swiftly to join Wraith. Whatever happened, he knew this is what his father would have wanted.
 
The Vatican

Looking around at the shattered ferrocrete and smoking plasteel The Knight stepped forward. Water vapor in the air vaporizing into steam as she crossed what was left of the landing pad.

The two escorts strode from the building, their own scowling faces concealed by combat shields. Gesturing they indicated she should follow them.

Shrugging she followed. It was typical after all. Don’t talk to the Knight. Peasants. Why was she always dealing with peasants?

***

The shower had done a world of good. So much better than a tub of hot water. Or a tub of water that had been hot sometime the previous day. And several occupants previously.

But at last she was clean. A month she’d been inside the armour this time. Not unusual, but annoying. Stepping out she dressed. The familiar Red and Black clothing measured and cut to fit her form.

Looking over at the technopriest she finally spoke up. “Check on the suit. I landed several meters off course. And it over rode a direct order to be silent. Have it analyzed and repaired.”

“Of course, Your ladyship.” Unspoken he added the comment, ‘You stupid cow. How in the hell is anything supposed to compensate for that trajectory at those speeds? Hell be happy you weren’t pounded to smithereens by the defense turrets. Or a vehicle in air traffic control. Stupid bitch, we’re gonna be fixing your mistakes for several weeks.’

Writing with a stylus he made notations on the computer data pad in his hands. So much like an archaic clipboard. But so not nearly the same.

Draping the cloak over her shoulder Knight Allana made sure she was properly attired for her meeting.

***

Three hours she’d stood at attention. The hem of the cloak billowing softly in the breeze of doors opening and closing. Three hours of not a single muscle moving as she waited.

Three…

Hours….

Outside the door a young priest looked up from the monitor where he had been typing and motioned to the Young Woman standing in the office, stripped of her armor and garbed in Acolytes robes. "The Monsignor will see you now Miss."

Motionless became motion. Soundlessness became sound. Boot heels snapping on marbled flooring. Moving to the door she watched two robed figures open it for her. Soundlessly. No communication passed between them, but they moved as one.

Stepping across the threshold she knelt. The crossbar of her blade touching her lips as she raised it to her forehead.

“By The Word, the Oath, and The Light. I heard the call and answered,” she said in the traditional tongue of Formal speech. Ancient Latin as some called it. But to her and her kind, it was the courtly speech.. Returning to her feet, she waited for permission to cross the room.

She’d seen the unexpected guest. But she said nothing. The fact that something was ‘special’ she could tell. But not much more than that. It was akin to someone standing in front of her with a full suite of jamming gear. Her eyes said they were there. But her suit said nothing.

But right now she knew they were there, and special, but… it was a blank.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
"I believe in her house also. Kara and Bruce would often quibble about methods, but both believed in the same thing. I did too, once. Then I was thrust in a ten thousand year war, and what I believed in didn't matter anymore." I chuckled. "I even spared Zod's life once. He almost killed me, almost killed the woman I would one day marry, but I carried one thing from my father that I always followed, 'All life is sacred", and I stayed my hand."

Even dying himself, even armed only with a mystic dagger from ancient Krypton and a broken crutch, Lar had killed more than a few Phantoms.

He, too, had learned the hard hard lesson of war far from home.

And quietly he nodded at this. And understanding passed between them.

Despite Wraith's having just admitted to letting live the man who had tortured M'onel for a thousand years of timeless time, Lar Gand understood exactly what Wraith was getting at.

And after a brief flutter of darkness across the deep blue that were his eyes, M'onel smiled faintly.

"Good man."

I looked the young blond in the eye, and spoke in (badly accented. Kara sometimes just got the giggles when I listened in on her lessons with the kids and practiced) Kryptonian, "Thank you, Daughter of El."

Caroline blinked, at first. Kryptonian wasn't part of her repertoire linguistically, and with all the different inflections and mnemonics in the math-heavy language, pronouncing things properly was sort of key. But there was enough of the language left in omnicom library files that she was able to get the gist of it...

At first, she thought maybe he was hoping for her firstborn in tribute, but then, then she managed to recalculate, figure out what he was getting at. <"You're, uh, welcome,"> she replied, through the autotranslator, though her accent wasn't all that much better, and switched back to InterLac: "Not sure really what you're thanking me for, but, you're welcome."

"I have one I need to apologize to specifically, and I owe everyone here one too. I accept whatever punishment you deem necessary. I have fought so long I need to learn to be human again. Tell your friends that I'll be a good boy. Besides, I really don't want this little girl (I pointed at Caroline) to whallop me again."

"If you're lucky," M'onel chuckled, "she might give someone else a turn. Though I'm not sure really that that's any kind of luck at all, considering Ultra Girl would be first in line."

Jaymie turned swiftly and returned to the door, beckoning the others inward. "He's, uh, presenting docile again. And he wants to apologise to Brainy."

"A modicum of civilisation from Piltdown Lad?" Brainiac harrumphed, and glanced at Cosmic Boy. "May wonders ne'er cease. Very well, Krinn, shall we?"

In the auditorium, M'onel offered to shake Fate's hand. "Thanks for soothing the savage beast, Mister Wizard. This is another one we owe you, I guess, us and the Athramite repair crews."
 
Last edited:
Liz Greystone, Green Lantern.

Brande then turned to the Green Lantern.

"What you ask is not unreasonable at all. There was a Green Lantern who was a member of the Justice League of America back in the 21st Century," he told her. "Hal Jordan enjoyed the priviledges of League membership, as well as his status in the Green Lantern Corps. But, I'm sure you already know this."

Yes, Liz knew this. Jordan had been a legend. And then a pariah. And then a legend again.

Jordan, following his redemption from that emerald twilight, remained the benchmark against which all other Lanterns were measured, no matter the colour.

And he had been a Leaguer as well as a Corpsman. Many other Earther Lanterns had also later been Leaguers. An excellent historical precedent.

(It impressed her all over again that Brande knew his world's history so well.)

Brande was silent for a moment.

"I trust your judgement," he said to her. "Once you locate this individual, bring him before the Legion. If they approve his joining, then I will speak to the UP on his behalf.

Excellent, she thought, with a modicum of triumph.

Let us hope that Rond Vidar is all he is cracked up to be.

"The future is not set," he said to her.

Her eyebrow climbed at this.

"Although you may have read many things of forthcoming events in the Book of Oa, not all things are known. This mission that brought you to Earth is an important one, but I believe you are here for other reasons, as well. You are searching for something. Something, or some things lost to you. Tell me what they, or it, is, and I may be able to help."

Liz had been about to acknowledge that, yes, The Book of Oa was no longer inviolate. Whole pages were torn out, panels were missing, ink bled and colours intermingled.

But The Book remained, and its warning, at least, was unignorable.

Liz had been about to agree with this, when all of a sudden Brande did again what he seemed to do with alarming frequency, what so few things did these days: he surprised her.

She hesitated.

And she remembered her mother, playing guitar and singing softly with the voice she treasured as her greatest superpower.

'If you could read my mind, love,
what a tale my thoughts would tell,
just like an old time movie
about a ghost in a wishing well.'

She pursed her lips.

Is he right?

Am I looking for something?

How can you know this?

How can you know such... things?

She measured herself, and steadied herself, and gazed at Brande with the ice blue of eyes not covered over by masking darkness. And she decided. To trust him.

"I have lived for a long time," she murmured. "Far longer than those of the human race are intended to live. And I have long ago reconciled myself to the truth that all things, even Lords of Time and Kings of Shadow and Hunters of Men, all of these things must pass away. All good things come to an end because all things end. Everything that has a beginning has an end."

A muscle in her cheek twitched. "My partner in The Corps, before The Great Darkness and The Battle for Sanctuary, he was a world. An actual world. And he spun in space for three billion years, serving The Corps faithfully for much of this. But Ranx The Sentient City, in the employ of Darkseid, placed a blink-bomb in the core of dear sweet Mogo, and he was no more. Many Lanterns were lost in the skies over Sanctuary, and with Mogo dead, his gravitational guidance subtracted, their Rings could not find new bearers."

Her shoulders rose, and her shoulders fell. "My friend was a planet, and he died. That was some time ago. I think I seek to see the roads that my mother walked as a teenager. The place in which she met my father. The city in which their friend, She of Whom The Legends Tell, rose to prominence."

There came a tightness around her eyes, but no tears from there escaped. "I have been lucky to keep as much as I have done, as long as I have lived. And perhaps it is greedy of me to want for more."

And there it was. The rarest of smiles, though this was a smile through a shroud of ghosts, a distant, distant smile.

"All things pass away. But if I received some assurance... some reminder... that some good things are forever..."

She gestured dismissively, and her smile withdrew to an even safer distance.

"Foolish sentiment, perhaps. Distraction from matters of far greater importance. Matters of galactic life and death."
 
Last edited:
A muscle in her cheek twitched. "My partner in The Corps, before The Great Darkness and The Battle for Sanctuary, he was a world. An actual world. And he spun in space for three billion years, serving The Corps faithfully for much of this. But Ranx The Sentient City, in the employ of Darkseid, placed a blink-bomb in the core of dear sweet Mogo, and he was no more. Many Lanterns were lost in the skies over Sanctuary, and with Mogo dead, his gravitational guidance subtracted, their Rings could not find new bearers."

J'onn knew of this. He remembered when Mogo passed into the netherworld of life beyond. He had felt it, and he knew.

Her shoulders rose, and her shoulders fell. "My friend was a planet, and he died. That was some time ago. I think I seek to see the roads that my mother walked as a teenager. The place in which she met my father. The city in which their friend, She of Whom The Legends Tell, rose to prominence."

Brande nodded his head. He understood.

There came a tightness around her eyes, but no tears from there escaped. "I have been lucky to keep as much as I have done, as long as I have lived. And perhaps it is greedy of me to want for more."

And there it was. The rarest of smiles, though this was a smile through a shroud of ghosts, a distant, distant smile.

Brande returned her smile.

"All things pass away. But if I received some assurance... some reminder... that some good things are forever..."

She gestured dismissively, and her smile withdrew to an even safer distance.

"Foolish sentiment, perhaps. Distraction from matters of far greater importance. Matters of galactic life and death."

"No," he answered her, "it is not a foolish sentiment at all. The past is what brings us to where we are now. The past is as much a part of you as is your future. The past is what and how you have become who you are."

He had already decided, while she was speaking, that he would help her. He would show her everything she wished for. And, he decided within an instant, too, that he would show her the truth of who he was.

"Liz," he said quietly, using her familiar name, as he indicated a plush, hideously expensive hide-covered chair, "you had better sit down."

And then, R. J. Brande changed.

He shape-shifted slowly, transforming into the familiar dark blue and crimson uniformed figure of the Martian Manhunter.

He smiled at her, a rare expression for him. He then looked at her with his red, red eyes and lowered his head in apology. "I'm sorry I left," he told her. "I'm sorry you've been.....alone."
 
Legion Hall

"I believe we shall Brainy. Lets go in and talk to the man without the spooky parts. He makes Shadow Lass look positively shiny when he turns that on." said Cosmic Boy.

The team walked in, spreading out enough that the entire group could not be engaged in one shot. Some members looking a bit on edge, others calm.

Saturn Girl especially was looking tense. This close to him, especially since she was very relaxed with her telepathy, she could "taste" the edge of the shield of madness that swirled around him.

It was very disturbing. Unconsciously, she moved closer to Lightning Lad, and just as unconsciously, he moved to her.

"OK, we are all here. I'm willing to give this another shot, but any more unprovoked attacks will not be tolerated, which means Ultra Girl and M'onel get to see which of them can knock you higher into orbit. We clear?" Said Cosmic Boy.

"Crystal. I reacted without thought, which keeps you alive in Hell, but doesn't make you many friends."

*Hell? Is this old timer completely mental?* Imra sent to Rokk.

*Not sure. Fate says he is the real thing, Jaymie is acting strange, and nobody knows what happened to him. He just disappeared in the middle of the 22nd century.* He thought back.

Wraith walked over to Brainiac 5, who moved his hand to his belts controls, but otherwise did not move. "I owe you a apology. From the reactions of these people around you, the only thing you share with the creature of my time is a name. Your not a monster.." (Garth leaned over to Imra and whispered "He's monstrously uptight though."), which got a stifled giggle. "and are obviously a organic being." Brainiac 5 gave him a strange look, and Wraith smiled. "You have oreo crumbs all down your shirt. Try them with milk next time. J'onn was a purist, but I liked them that way.

"I'll answer any questions you have, but I really have quite a few of my own. You say your based on the original Justice League?? Does watchtower still exist?" He shook his head. "No, it can't. There were files on everyone. You would have known who I was."

He sat down again, then looked up at Valkyrie M3 "Tell me about your world. Please."
 
"I believe we shall Brainy. Lets go in and talk to the man without the spooky parts. He makes Shadow Lass look positively shiny when he turns that on." said Cosmic Boy.

"Post tenebras lux," Brainy opined, though the ostensible optimism of this was lost in his sarcasm.

The team walked in, spreading out enough that the entire group could not be engaged in one shot. Some members looking a bit on edge, others calm.

Saturn Girl especially was looking tense. This close to him, especially since she was very relaxed with her telepathy, she could "taste" the edge of the shield of madness that swirled around him.

It was very disturbing. Unconsciously, she moved closer to Lightning Lad, and just as unconsciously, he moved to her.

Garth was still a little bit shaken by the peck that Imra had placed upon his cheek. And a little bit stirred by the image she had figuratively planted in his brain, of Imra wearing that... outfit... in blue...

But he felt her move closer to him and instinctively he was there at her side.

His cyborg hand, warm and living machinery, found her Titanian hand, and he held her gently there beside her. Strong and supportive and for once, relatively silent.

"OK, we are all here. I'm willing to give this another shot, but any more unprovoked attacks will not be tolerated, which means Ultra Girl and M'onel get to see which of them can knock you higher into orbit. We clear?" Said Cosmic Boy.

"Crystal. I reacted without thought, which keeps you alive in Hell, but doesn't make you many friends."

Wraith walked over to Brainiac 5, who moved his hand to his belts controls, but otherwise did not move. "I owe you a apology. From the reactions of these people around you, the only thing you share with the creature of my time is a name. Your not a monster.." (Garth leaned over to Imra and whispered "He's monstrously uptight though.", which got a stifled giggle. ...relative silence only went so far, after all.) "and are obviously a organic being." Brainiac 5 gave him a strange look, and Wraith smiled. "You have oreo crumbs all down your shirt. Try them with milk next time. J'onn was a purist, but I liked them that way.

Brainiac lowered his arched eyebrow and dusted down his front. Picked a fine time to develop deductive reasoning skills. But, still, not bad detective work for a human skull with an orangutan jawbone attached.

"I'll answer any questions you have, but I really have quite a few of my own. You say your based on the original Justice League?? Does watchtower still exist?" He shook his head. "No, it can't. There were files on everyone. You would have known who I was."

He sat down again, then looked up at Valkyrie M3 "Tell me about your world. Please."

Jaymie hesitated.

And then she cleared her throat, and closed her eyes.

And told a story.

"Once upon a time, our world was your world.

Organic life, muddling about on the face of a blue-green globe in a fairly quiet spiral arm of The Milky Way Galaxy.

We were a species destined for something great. But sometimes you have to wait for greatness.

Other species came to visit us, back in our dawning days. And they found our unlimited potential and they mucked with it, and they damaged it, and instead of being a race born gods, like The Martians or The Kryptonians or The Daxamites, we were... merely human.

But there was a fraction of us with unrealised godhood still contained within. A tiny tiny minuscule fraction of humanity still possessed a 'metagene,' a mystery in helical form, and sometimes sometimes a fraction of that fraction would awaken their metagene and become amazing.

We were again visited. Some, like the artificers of Krypton, simply influenced our culture.

But The Dominators... The Dominators stole from us.

In the latter days of The Twentieth Century, The Dominators abducted large numbers of metagene-positive humans and performed experiments on them, awakening their metagene and turning them superhuman, metahuman, post-human.

A hero saved them. We don't know his name, we don't even know what species he was, but he was... Messianic. We call him simply... 'Valor.'

He rescued the peoples stolen by The Dominators and, as he was unable at first to locate their homeworld, he simply settled the various groups on worlds compatible with their physiology, settling worlds with colonies of post-humans. One world was Braal, the world of the magnet-people. One world was Carggg, the world of the tri-splitters. Another was Winath, to whom nearly all children are born twins. And others and others and on and on. Last to be settled were the telepaths, on the Saturnian moon of Titan.

And after that, Valor disappeared, still seemingly searching for the cradleworld of The Dominators' victims.

They say he'll come back someday.

I hope he does.

In the absence of these stolen peoples, Earth continued on, relatively normally. Until the dawning days of The Twenty-First Century.

Until... Her.

Dark threats came against mankind, many of which born of mankind itself.

And always She would stand against these threats, Her and Her inner circle of compatriots, many of whom having legendary power of their own.

Around Her was shaped The League.

And while The League and its inheritors were not always enough to save us from trouble... plagues and famines and worldwide wars... the sinking of The British Isles... the New York City Meteor Shower of 2656...

...they always made sure we lived on to surpass our mistakes. Perhaps even to redeem ourselves.

And here we are.

We have reached the stars, and made colonies of our own.

We have found our lost children, scattered across the worlds, grown into species of their own.

And we have found countless other species, many of whom are friends, some of whom are threats.

And we are United.

But we almost weren't.

It was only a few years ago now that The Federation of United Planets formed, joined by The StarGate Network. And in its fledgling hours it almost crumbled. But an attempt was made on the life of a visionary.

And he was rescued. From certain death.

By a Braalian. A Titanian. And a Winathian. United.

And this man, this visionary, this Brande... he remembered The League.

In the memory of this League, he called his rescuers to meet with him, and with President Chu.

First there were Three.

And the call went out to a dozen dozen worlds, finding those with the determination and the heart and the strength to be a symbol of the Unity that almost wasn't.

First there were Three, and now we are Legion."

As Jaymie finished, she took a deep breath, and trembled a little, and blushed pink.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd said so many words in a row without spiraling off into jargon and pop-culture and...

...she felt embarrassed and elated all all all at once.

"Uh," she mumbled, "any other questions?"

And M'onel watched her quietly, and looked away, and his face was inscrutable.

And he kept his thoughts to himself. Even from Saturn Girl.
 
Last edited:
The Wearing of The Green.

Brande nodded his head. He understood.

Brande returned her smile.

"No," he answered her, "it is not a foolish sentiment at all. The past is what brings us to where we are now. The past is as much a part of you as is your future. The past is what and how you have become who you are."

Truly, this Brande was a dedicated historian. This had been suggested in his numerous biographies, but she'd never realised, 'till moments ago, just how deep that sense of history ran. And this, this contemplation of the past, the steps on the road leading to the beyond... this was truly the speech of a man who believed in historical figures as much as he believed in his own family, his own friends...

"Liz," he said quietly, using her familiar name...

...and she stopped. And she stared at him.

Stared at him with ancient ice-blue eyes...

...as he indicated a plush, hideously expensive hide-covered chair, "you had better sit down."

She didn't sit. There was that feeling again on the back of her neck, that taste upon her tongue, that memory that wouldn't quite form.

He'd said her name, though he spoke it as though he'd been saying it her whole life. Not "Elizabeth." "Liz."

And while this wasn't entirely outside of the realm of possibility, a friendly old man adopting a nickname for her out of the blue, this wasn't unheard-of...

...this wasn't that. This was something else something more something--

And then, R. J. Brande changed.

Defensive instincts kicked in; her Ring flashed, it glowed and gleamed and bathed them both in pale verdant light, globules of molten Ring-light dancing around the mouth of her Ring's stylised lantern-shape...

...she had no idea what he was becoming and perhaps she would have realised it sooner if her Ring's light wasn't already painting him emerald...

He shape-shifted slowly, transforming into the familiar dark blue and crimson uniformed figure of the Martian Manhunter.

Her Ring's light winked out and she took a step back. Two steps.

Her leg bumped the chair that Brande had offered but she paid it no heed.

He smiled at her, a rare expression for him. He then looked at her with his red, red eyes and lowered his head in apology. "I'm sorry I left," he told her. "I'm sorry you've been.....alone."

She shook her head.

"J'onzz," she breathed.

Her ice-blue eyes were wide, but suddenly, suddenly, they didn't look nearly so old. She looked young again.

She remembered standing on the sands of Mars once when she was four, in a bubble of force projected by her favourite uncle, able to breathe the air within that bubble. And beside her stood a great green giant.

And he had given her a cookie.

And, startled, she had dropped that cookie in the sand.

He had picked it up for her, and dusted it off, and handed it back to her.

And mystified, amazed, she had eaten it.

An Oreo cookie that had tasted of The Sands of Mars.

This was her memory. This was what her brain had been trying to remember.

She should never have forgotten it; that green giant had made quite an impression on her.

"J'onn," she murmured, and a tear ran down her face and a grin split her face like a rift and she lunged at him lunged for him and she hugged him she rarely smiled and she never hugged but here she was her arms around his neck and her face pressed into her shoulder and tears rolling down her face she hugged him.

"Apology accepted," she mumbled, her Ring thrumming with the intensity of her emotion, her wildstorm subconscious, "you bendigedig bastard."
 
Wraith

"You are your grandmothers child. Well said." I smiled at the young woman. None of these kids were over twenty I bet. Well, maybe the big guy their leader called M'onel.

"My turn I guess. I was born in June of 1988, which is so far back it's just a meaningless date now. I met the original members of the Justice League in high school. We were kids, not much younger than you guys. We fought together out of necessity when Zod escaped the Phantom Zone, and kept in touch. Some of us never lost touch. I think J'onn came up with the idea of forming a group, to handle things that were too big for any one of us to handle. Even Supergirl sometimes needed a hand.

Over the years the League grew. We still had our lives. Myself and Rose were raising a family, and eventually members retired. It almost killed me to see Bruce standing at the command center of the Watchtower, watching teams go out to handle problems he would have, but his human body couldn't handle it anymore. Time passed."

I looked over the kids. So damn young. Well, I was too when i started busting heads and saving lives.

"I'm immortal. I don't have to eat, I haven't slept a day since I was fourteen, and I don't age. When my wife died, I went back to a place that probably none of you knows exists. I went to the place that gives me my power. It's a different plane of existence called Shadow. Thats where I have been for ten thousand years. And yes I can do math. Time runs different there."

Cosmic Boy was listening enthralled. First Jaymie tells a tale of his history better than he ever could have, and now this man, this ancient ancient being was telling his own tale.

"Excuse me Wraith, but I think R.J. should be hearing this too. He is the one who started the Legion, I think he should be in here to hear this. He wanted you to go to his residence, but grife, this is something he should hear." Said a excited Cosmic Boy.

He keyed his ring to com Brande. "Mr. Brande, this is Cosmic boy. Could you please come to Auditorium three. I think it's necessary you be here for this."
 
Last edited:
The Martian Manhunter

"J'onn," she murmured, and a tear ran down her face and a grin split her face like a rift and she lunged at him lunged for him and she hugged him she rarely smiled and she never hugged but here she was her arms around his neck and her face pressed into her shoulder and tears rolling down her face she hugged him.

"Apology accepted," she mumbled, her Ring thrumming with the intensity of her emotion, her wildstorm subconscious, "you bendigedig bastard."

The Martian Manhunter returned the embrace, holding her tightly, but not too tightly lest his great strength crushed her.

He touched a forefinger under her chin, and he lifted her face to meet his, his red eyes looking deep into her blue ones. Some had said, when the Martian Manhunter looked at you, he looked into you, through you. But, right now, the only thing J'onn J'onzz could see was Liz.

"It was the end of the Battle of Sanctuary," he told her, "when Darksied and his forces had been beaten back to Apokolyps, that I told Var-Sen of my plan to go into hiding. I was the reason the agents of evil had come to Earth in the first, I was the one whom they struck against, and I sought to draw them out and away from Earth. I know you know this part of the story, but the remainder is that I knew that should there be any more of them, they would come for me again."

J'onn wiped her tear away with his finger and then lightly touched the tip of her nose. He continued, "I knew there would always be enemies, as long as I was visible in the spectrum of the universe, the enemies, old ones from my past and new ones yet to be made, would come for me. They would seek to harm those I cared for, these people of this small world, and the others that I had fought for over the centuries.

"It was this reason that I chose to seclude my identity. I created R. J. Brande to fulfill my mission as a Manhunter, and by designing and creating technologies based on my years of knowledge, I was able to help join worlds in a common purpose. And, so, the Legion of Superheroes was created."

J'onn held her at arm's length for a moment, a small smile forming. "And now," he told her, once again looking deep into her blue eyes, "I am complete."

He keyed his ring to com Brande. "Mr. Brande, this is Cosmic boy. Could you please come to Auditorium three. I think it's necessary you be here for this."

J'onn looked from Liz to the transceiver terminal on the living area wall.

"Apparently," he said to her, "I am needed. You must come with me, Liz. I want you to meet some very special people. And," he added, his eyes twinkling, "I have another surprise for you."

"And," he added, "the Legion does not know my true identity. For now, it must be kept secret from them. There are too many things happening right now, too many old souls surfacing, and I fear it would overwhelm their places in this time. There is one, however, that should learn, as I feel he already suspects. You may tell this one my secret. You will know who this one is soon enough."

J'onn gestured towards a transparent wall door that enclosed a personal teleportation alcove, designed with the StarGate technology.
 
Fate looks at his fellows. Fate thinks back to the first time he met these people. He was lost, in a place he could hardly comprehend. Then they helped him. They made him a member of their team. Fate takes a deep, shuddering breath.

"There are many legends.... legends that go back beyond any one in this room was born. I know that many of you.... well.... to put it bluntly, find me to be creepy. To be unsettling. And honestly, I suppose I am. However, this Mantle, that I have donned, it dates back to the earliest days of humanity. The Lords of Order, many many thousand years ago chose a champion, a great sorcerer named Nabu. Nabu became the first Fate. Nabu has since then, been a guide, a mentor. The spirit of Nabu inhabits this Helm, and it is through his powerful magic that I am able to even have this discussion. My name, is Jonah Merick Tennylson. Brother of Alice Marcy Tennylson. Son of Tommy and Mary. I swear to those gathered here, that I vouch for Wraith. My father served with Wraith in the original league. As did my Uncle Merick. Doctor Fate and Rift, heroes, and both had the utmost respect for this man. So, now my secret is out. The truth no longer obscured. I am truly sorry for the ruse. I felt it was the best choice. Now I see the folly in that choice." Fate looks down at his Legion Ring. Carefully he removes it and puts it into the still out stretched hand of M'onel. "I understand if I am no longer welcome. But I ask that you heed my words about Wraith."
 
"And who but my Lady Greensleeves?"

The Martian Manhunter returned the embrace, holding her tightly, but not too tightly lest his great strength crushed her.

He touched a forefinger under her chin, and he lifted her face to meet his, his red eyes looking deep into her blue ones. Some had said, when the Martian Manhunter looked at you, he looked into you, through you.

Yeah. Liz remembered those eyes.

And she remembered that voice.

His gaze wasn't the only thing that went right through her. But he was talking, and she was listening.

"It was the end of the Battle of Sanctuary," he told her, "when Darksied and his forces had been beaten back to Apokolyps, that I told Var-Sen of my plan to go into hiding. I was the reason the agents of evil had come to Earth in the first, I was the one whom they struck against, and I sought to draw them out and away from Earth. I know you know this part of the story, but the remainder is that I knew that should there be any more of them, they would come for me again."

Liz, too, knew this story a thousand times over. Countless heroes she'd known over the years had wrestled with the notion of hiding themselves away, of resigning from heroics because their prominence endangered more lives than it saved.

Her grandfather had hidden himself from Time for similar reasons.

She wanted to be mad at J'onn.

She wanted to blame him. But she couldn't. She couldn't blame him.

J'onn wiped her tear away with his finger and then lightly touched the tip of her nose. He continued, "I knew there would always be enemies, as long as I was visible in the spectrum of the universe, the enemies, old ones from my past and new ones yet to be made, would come for me. They would seek to harm those I cared for, these people of this small world, and the others that I had fought for over the centuries.

She found his turn of phrase infinitely intriguing. 'Visible in the spectrum of The Universe.' As a Lantern especially, that resonated with her... and she knew that Martians shared an emotional colour spectrum with The Guardians, in which Green was courage and Green was Will. And her tear, rarer still than her smile, was cast away, and she digested what he spoke to her.

"It was this reason that I chose to seclude my identity. I created R. J. Brande to fulfill my mission as a Manhunter, and by designing and creating technologies based on my years of knowledge, I was able to help join worlds in a common purpose. And, so, the Legion of Superheroes was created."

Of course. The StarGates. The same technology that brought J'onn to Earth in the first place...

Of course. Curse these old eyes for not seeing it sooner.

J'onn held her at arm's length for a moment, a small smile forming. "And now," he told her, once again looking deep into her blue eyes, "I am complete."

And at this, gazing up at him, gods he was tall, the portent and omen that his words contained, or seemed to contain, this completion...

...was he talking about her?

She remembered him as being lonely. After The League had fallen the last time, there had been a melancholy about him, as though he had remembered friends fallen by the wayside. As though he had remembered his status as the last Martian of his kind.

No, no, he couldn't be talking about her.

He was talking about his Legion, that with their youth and vigour they had given him new life new purpose, these were his family now.

Of course.

Of course.

That had to be it.

(But still her cheeks burned red as his eyes, rarer still were her blushes and yet her cheeks were afire.)

He keyed his ring to com Brande. "Mr. Brande, this is Cosmic boy. Could you please come to Auditorium three. I think it's necessary you be here for this."

J'onn looked from Liz to the transceiver terminal on the living area wall.

And Liz laughed a little bit, a tiny little sound. The spell of that last word was broken by the very people to whom she'd attributed J'onn's completeness.

Irony.

Blue is Hope.

Yellow is Fear.

Red is Rage.

What colour is Irony?

"Apparently," he said to her, "I am needed. You must come with me, Liz. I want you to meet some very special people. And," he added, his eyes twinkling, "I have another surprise for you."

Her eyebrow arched. She'd met some of his Legion before, though mostly only in passing.

The boy made of iron, and the girl who ran like the wind, and the lad who conjured the elements from one to the other...

McCauley had tried to power his moonbase off of an ancient decrepit Yellow Ring, and she had been sent to retrieve it.

Things had been amicable. Mostly.

The boy made of iron had a terrific left hook.

Others, like this Dawnstar, she had seen only on link-news broadcasts on the border between The United Planets and The Affiliated Planets.

She was aware of his Legion. Though not... acquainted.

But this talk of other surprises? Not much could surprise her anymore.

Yes, J'onn had, but two such surprises in a single 24-hour cycle? Liz was dubious.

What colour is Doubt? (Perhaps this is also a kind of Fear?)

"And," he added, "the Legion does not know my true identity. For now, it must be kept secret from them. There are too many things happening right now, too many old souls surfacing, and I fear it would overwhelm their places in this time. There is one, however, that should learn, as I feel he already suspects. You may tell this one my secret. You will know who this one is soon enough."

"I am familiar with the concept of Secret Identity," Liz chuckled softly, as her eyes were cloaked over with black once more, sealing up her mother's signature ice-blue oculars with the shadows of her father. "I shall exercise due discretion with that which now I know."

J'onn gestured towards a transparent wall door that enclosed a personal teleportation alcove, designed with the StarGate technology.

Liz nodded easily. She could circle this world in the blink of an eye with her Ring. But someone might detect her...

And it was better to keep her profile low for now.

Like that fantastic, fascinating Dawnstar.

On top of this, there was something wholly delightful and completing about the thought of sharing a trip through The Erdel Gate with this Manhunter of Legend.

Her first crush.

Love is Violet.

And often has a sharper edge even than the Black of Death.

One must be wary of such things. Enticing as infatuation might seem.

The door whisked aside.

And her green bootsoles pressed firmly to the deckplates of the transport alcove.

"What is it your young heroes always say?" she beckoned to him with the index finger of her Ring hand, something dancing in the darkness of her eyes: "'Let's Go.'"
 
Last edited:
Garth's reddish eyebrow climbed at Wraith's story. Huh.

He glanced at Imra to glimpse her reaction, and found on her face a mirror of Cos'.

Jaymie covered her mouth with her hand. Yes, he'd told her almost as much as that before...

But to hear it now with the ring of Truth in it. With her last vestiges of doubt peeling away. He really really really was the husband of her ancestress, he was her ancestor, this was insane, what was she going to tell her mom and dad, 'how was work today,' 'oh, met a ten-millenium king of an alternate plane of existence who was a Greystone long before we were crawling, you know how it is,' 'that's nice dear,' holy sprock I'm sprocked he's a godling and he's totally going to think I'm not worthy.

Cos summoned R.J. and M'onel glanced away from Fate at Wraith for a moment. And thought, with some resignation: The passage of Time in alternate dimensions does tend to be a double-edged sword. Still... 10,000 years...

For some reason, which wasn't immediately apparent, the idea of 10,000 years made M'onel's neck hurt.

Brainiac Five, on the other hand, took this monologue with a pinch of pain of a different sort, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Grife," he mumbled. "21st-Century Earth. Obvious, now. He knew Brainiac One. Minds, no query he wanted me reduced to a two-dimensional smear of protoplasm on the conference room floor..."

And then Fate spoke. In his way, equally revelatory and riveting to Wraith.

Perhaps more so, because most of them hadn't heard Fate ever say that much in a row before that wasn't archaic esoteric spellcraft.

More so because most of them had gotten used to Fate being a complete enigma and keeping himself to himself 24 out of 7. They knew barely more about Fate's real self than they did about who Tharok really was, and that was saying something...

But they'd already gotten used to that. Mostly.

Not many people talked with him.

Jan, a bit. And Val, Karate Kid Val not Valkyrie Val.

(Valkyrie Val was way too intimidated to hold much conversation there.)

"There are many legends.... legends that go back beyond any one in this room was born. I know that many of you.... well.... to put it bluntly, find me to be creepy. To be unsettling. And honestly, I suppose I am. However, this Mantle, that I have donned, it dates back to the earliest days of humanity. The Lords of Order, many many thousand years ago chose a champion, a great sorcerer named Nabu. Nabu became the first Fate. Nabu has since then, been a guide, a mentor. The spirit of Nabu inhabits this Helm, and it is through his powerful magic that I am able to even have this discussion. My name, is Jonah Merick Tennylson. Brother of Alice Marcy Tennylson. Son of Tommy and Mary. I swear to those gathered here, that I vouch for Wraith. My father served with Wraith in the original league. As did my Uncle Merick. Doctor Fate and Rift, heroes, and both had the utmost respect for this man. So, now my secret is out. The truth no longer obscured. I am truly sorry for the ruse. I felt it was the best choice. Now I see the folly in that choice." Fate looks down at his Legion Ring. Carefully he removes it and puts it into the still out stretched hand of M'onel. "I understand if I am no longer welcome. But I ask that you heed my words about Wraith."

"He's vouching. He vouches. Does that make him a voucher?"

Garth had his chin cradled in his organic hand (the cyborg hand was still entwined with Imra's, it liked it there), and his eyes were half-lidded.

"You know," he suggested mildly, "this is way too much information for me to process before breakfast and a flagon of caff. Can I just wait for The Earth Spins and it's delicious sound-bitey link-news?"

Jaymie's reaction was not entirely dissimilar.

"Okay, so," she pointed at Wraith, then at Fate, "not one but two statues from the lobby just came to life and, oh, I think I gotta make for the atmo shipping lanes again, I need some air... no query he gave me such a funny nassed-out look when I showed him his room and the sonic shower..."

Her hand clawed through her choppy blue hair and her red red eyes scrunched nearly closed. "Sprocking grife."

M'onel took Fate's proffered Flight Ring between two of his fingers and he gazed at it quietly.

You give this. This speech, this Ring, to a man even more out of his element than you are.

I'm not even on my home planet and if my calcs are on the credits, my timelostness precedes even yours.

And I have a bigger secret.

Yeah. Even bigger than yours, not to play 'Can We Top This,' or anything.

His blue eyes lifted from the Flight Ring to Fate himself.

"I hate to quibble over details," he smirked faintly, oh-so-faintly, "but according to our last election, the results were almost almost unanimous. Almost. A few votes here and there, one vote for Brainy, it's anyone's guess where that came from--"

(Brainy rolled his eyes at this. "Oh, ho-ho-ho.")

"--anyway," Lar continued. "Turns out Cosmic Boy's our leader at the moment, as per usual."

He placed Fate's Ring back into his hand and closed his fingers back around it, firmly.

"Hence, I'm not qualified to accept your resignation," he winked. "So do us both a favour, hang on to that, think it over. Because there's no actual legislation yet in place to arrest illegal time-immigrants and because your strength of character, I think, has proven itself, well, time and again.

"We know who you really are, Jonah," he murmured. "We may not ever have known your real name or your correct birthdate or even your default lingua-form, but if you'll forgive my curds and whey, here, seeing you in action has revealed your true self to us. So hang onto that Ring. Unless you really really want to give it to the guy who can process that sort of paperwork."
 
Last edited:
Auditorium 3

"Your father always said Nabu was his guide and his mentor. He also said he was a pain in the ass when his panties were in a wad. We wondered what happened to you Jonah, but your dad said you were where you were supposed to be. All of us, your father, Alice, even Launchpad knew you were out there somewhere making all of us proud. It's not my call to say yeah or nay on that ring, but I'd keep it if I was you. Hindsight is not the only 20-20 vision when it comes to fate." Wraith said in his long dead language.

Cosmic Boy looked at M'onel, then at Garth. "Put your ring back on Fate. You earned that ring on the merit of your actions. We haven't been able to understand a thing you have talked about since you joined the Legion, and you have probably told us more about you than Brainy here will ever reveal, and you never chopped off Chameleon's body parts. So revealing your deep dark secret, well, it's not that dark really. It helps actually. You can back up what we are hearing here. This is an actual member of the 21st Century League."


He walked over to a console and punched in some commands.

"Caf and food are on their way here. You can catch your morning tube later Garth, after Mr. Brande hears all this."
 
Chasnicollette said:


"What is it your young heroes always say?" she beckoned to him with the index finger of her Ring hand, something dancing in the darkness of her eyes: "'Let's Go.'"
Click to expand...


J'onn nodded, and then he returned himself to the form of R. J. Brande. He quickly gave destination instructions to the computer, then he looked at Liz out of the corner of his eye, and gave a wry smile as he said, "Energize."

"Commencing transport," the computer responded.

And they were instantaneously teleported to an indentical alcove near the auditorium.

Brande ushered Liz out, and directed to a set of sliding doors that parted on their entry.

"Here we are," Brande said, all smiles as he addressed Cosmic Boy. "What news have we? And what news have I? Look, look," he said, opening his arms to indicate the Green Lantern standing near him. "We've made a friend from far, far away! And, I do think, one of you in here knows her already?"

Brande looked at Wraith and winked. And, ever-so-slightly, just for the very, very briefest of instances, Brande's eyes flashed red.
 
Green around the gills.

He made an old, old joke. A beautifully old pop-culture reference.

White light took them across the face of The Earth.

From Rhode Island to Kansas in a blink, just a blink, not even a heartbeat...

And they walked the Halls of Legion. J'onn directed her to the doors and in she strode, and there he was beside her, Brande, not J'onn, call him Brande there's a Titanian present, and he was pleased as Punch as grinning as Puck as well he should be.

Brande was talking.

But she had no ears to hear.

Dad.

Her darkened eyes were wide, and she walked towards Kyle Alec Greystone as though in a dream.

White light had taken her once before.

Dominator technology, not technology from Earth adapted by a Martian.

She had been in black streets wearing red and she had been taken by white light. She had been taken by white light and she had been saved by Green Light. And in that Green Light? She had looked good in that Light.

She hadn't come back to Earth for a long time after that. When eventually she had come home...

...her father had long been gone.

Dad?

Her face went as pale as her uniform gloves.

She walked towards him, past Lightning Lad's arched brow. Past Brainiac's dubiousness. Past Jaymie's awestruck legend-fangirlishness. Past M'onel's pondering blues.

She walked towards the man called Wraith.

He hadn't aged a day. Except in his eyes. She knew the age of eyes, from herself, from her grandfather.

But she stopped before she reached him. And she raised the left hand, the hand with the Ring of Power...

And she said simply: "Scan."

Light, just light, harmless light, emanated from the gem of the Ring in a strobe, it swirled across the skin and the leather he wore and the lavender eyes and the blond hair...

...there was a hiss of harmless Green static, sparks of lightning, harmless, just visual effects, as the emerald glow enthroned him.

The Ring paused, and the light closed away.

*Genome sequenced. Mutation detected. Transdimensional telemagical bio-infusion detected. Identity confirmed.*

She hesitated. And she held her fist up before her eyes and stared at her Ring like for the first time in all the centuries they'd known each other, this was the first time it had lied to her. This was the first time she had believed it capable of lying.

She lowered her hand.

And she reached her trembling fingers for Wraith's face.

And again she was crying, curse her vulnerable heart, and a void-black tear rolled down her cheek, like the ink in her eyes had overflowed.

She reached her fingers for his face but she did not touch him and her heart was in her throat.

"Dad?"
 
Last edited:
Brande smiled, and the Martian Manhunter within him suppressed a tear as he watched Liz's reaction to seeing her father.

"Surprise," he gently and quietly whispered.
 
Wraith

It was all so confusing. Jonah had moved forward in time. Of course Tommy had to have known, and of course he couldn't say a damn word to anyone. And the kid felt guilty about it. These kids, this Legion, was so different. I didn't have Bruce with his brooding stare and Diana with her warriors gaze. J'onn with the weight of his wisdom hanging around him like a shroud, nor Kara, the purest of us all.

I didn't have Rose, my anchor. My heart.

But looking at them I could tell that they believed! Their leader, even though he was almost overwhelmed with the information locked inside my skull, was still in charge first. The green kid, Braniac 5, was giving me a look that said "I understand now", and my kin, Valkyrie, was looking at me with wonder and worry (a look Rose patented, but I'll let her borrow it.)

Were we ever so young??? I chuckled to myself. I remember a pow-wow in Bruce's summer home in Smallville, with Alfred hovering over us, the resident adult to keep us kids in line. We decided the fate of the world at that table, and we were younger than these kids.

I was broken from my thoughts when the man known as Brande walked in with a young female Green Lantern. She looked human, and was wearing some sort of holographic mask, hid her features in shadow.

Something was tickling the back of my brain about her.

"Here we are," Brande said, all smiles as he addressed Cosmic Boy. "What news have we? And what news have I? Look, look," he said, opening his arms to indicate the Green Lantern standing near him. "We've made a friend from far, far away! And, I do think, one of you in here knows her already?"

And for a second, the merest fraction of time, very very familiar eyes flashed from his face.

But the Lantern drew my attention away from that flash. She was standing completely still, as if she was in shock. What skin I could see was white as a sheet.

The back of my mind was screaming at me.

She slowly walked to me, then extended her ring and said a single word.

Scan.

My eyes widened. That voice. It was triggering something that my brain was screaming to get out.

Emerald light flashed over me. Hal had done something similar to me once when we had fought Darkseid out in space. He thought I was dead and used his ring to check on me. Scared the hell out of Rose though.

*Genome sequenced. Mutation detected. Transdimensional telemagical bio-infusion detected. Identity confirmed.* The ring said in it's strange voice.

The girl looked at the ring almost in disbelief. Then looked back at me. It was almost there, almost in my minds reach what was bugging me.

Her hand reached out, and a single tear rolled out from the mask, and she spoke a single word.

"Dad?"


What was trying to get out broke free in a flood of memories. Her first solo flight. Running with Bruce and Dick in Gotham, scaring the hell out of the criminal element there. (I was pretty sure Bruce knew I was watching when she first went with him, but he let it slide.) Christmas with Bekka and Min and the rest of our clan, the children laughing with glee as she tried to keep the chaos contained.

Scouring the streets of Gotham in vain with Bruce and Diana trying to find her. Them pulling me off Joker before I killed him when he taunted me, acting like he knew where she was.

Holding Rose as she cried at the empty grave, mourning our youngest daughter.

"Elizabeth?? It can't be." I stepped forward and enfolded her in my arms. Scent and feeling blasting loose memories.

"My lost little girl. Oh God Elizabeth!"

I was holding her to me and crying into her sable hair so like her aunts.

I just kept murmuring "My baby." over and over again, never letting her go.
 
Last edited:
Brande looked at Cosmic Boy and shrugged.

"It's a long story," he said.

Happiness permeated the room. Inside, J'onn was smiling. Two that were very close to him had returned.

But, why, why did he feel this joyful time would be short-lived?
 
Auditorium 3

"I can only imagine Mr. Brande. When this all calms down, you are going to have to tell me that story." Cosmic Boy replied back.

Why did he have the feeling he was only getting a fraction of what was going on in here.

He also couldn't help but smile at the two figures, the man out of time and the Lantern, entwined in each others arms.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
Male warlock seeking female demon
Replies
2
Views
156
Urfavoriteblackvixen
U
A
The Reunion (re-opened)
Replies
4
Views
202
attyman80
A
Lady_Jade666
Newest Ideas
Replies
0
Views
42
Lady_Jade666
Lady_Jade666
36b7
When first I strayed - closed for NormalMarriedWhiteGuy
2
Replies
25
Views
570
NormalMarriedWhiteGuy
N
Alice2015
"The Forgotten": A post-apocalyptic tale
5 6 7
Replies
171
Views
3K
The_Weeping_Angel
The_Weeping_Angel
Back
Top