The Legion of Justice
On Our Own
On Our Own Chapter 1
Legion of Justice Roll Call:
Rexford
(Timepiece) Tyler
Theresa
(Star Lass) Knight
Sandy,
the Golden Boy
Chemique
(Miqui)
Rexford Tyler was on monitor duty in Knight
Base, new home of the Legion of Justice, when an emergency call from Star Lass
came in.
"Scramble the Ready Team, Rex, we need
help here! Stat 1!"
Star Lass, Chemique and Sandy had been
exploring a large cavern that was connected to Knight Base by a tunnel. They
must have encountered something underground! The monitor switched and displayed
video from a camera built into the space helmet Star Lass was wearing - she,
Sandy and Chemique were engaged in a battle with a golden gleaming humanoid
figure.
Rex gave verbal orders to Gernsbeck - it
would take too long to get his voice-activated prosthetics to carry out the
needed actions. "Gernsbeck, calculate, boom tube, Ready Room to Theresa's
location, 10 seconds from my mark, notify the Ready Team to go in 10 seconds,
MARK." The Ready Team had better be in the Ready Room!
Rex had started integrating Gernsbeck into Knight
Base's mainframe computer. Knight Base technology was perhaps a hundred years
in advance of the tech generally available in the Utopian States of America
back on Earth, the result of Amgov's centuries-long program of suppressing
scientific research and technological advances as being dangerous to the
general welfare.
Even though Gernsbeck estimated that the big
computer was still only 20% operational after 50 years without maintenance, now
that he was part of that computer his own capabilities were hundreds of times
greater than they had been. As an example, it used to take Gernsbeck 10 to 12
hours to perform the calculations needed to safely activate a boom tube; now he
could perform such calculations 'on-the-fly' - as fast as you could give him the
entrance and exit coordinates and the desired entrance time, the calculations
were done.
Canary, Hourboy, and Kid Terrific were back
on Earth, making contact with relatives and friends of the renegade
Legionnaires and offering them asylum on other planets. Horus was worse than
useless underground. That left TeleTeen, Greenfire and WildCat.
Rex responded to Star Lass "Ready Team
will be there in just a few seconds, Terry! Hold on!"
In the Ready Room, there was a very loud
'Boom' as the tube of energy appeared.
"Can't he fix that noise?"
Greenfire complained, as he always did, then flew forward, using his green
power to pull an energy bubble containing his teammates behind him. The tube
vanished, and in a rocky chamber far below Knight Base, there was an identical
'Boom' and the tube disgorged the 3 heroes into the middle of a fight.
****
In their earliest exploration of Knight Base,
the Legionnaires had found a corridor on the lowest level that lead down and
away from the main base. The corridor was about a half a mile long and it ended
in an airlock, probably 200 feet below the surface. Further exploration had
been put off until now. Star Lass, Chemique and Sandy had been assigned the
task of exploring whatever was behind that airlock. Star Lass and Chemique wore
space suits, and Sandy wore a helmet so he could communicate, though he could
survive unprotected in a vacuum.
Each hero bore a backpack and each carried a
powerful flashlight. They passed smoothly through the operational airlock and
found themselves in a huge airless cavern. Someone had used an energy beam
(maybe from a Cosmic Rod) to carve out a smooth road in the rough cavern floor,
and this road ended at another airlock in the far wall of the cavern, perhaps a
half mile away. Two heavy doors slid apart or together to open or close this
side of the lock; at the moment it was closed. Their efforts to open the door
failed.
"I could just blast the darned
door" Star Lass suggested doubtfully. All the Legionnaires did their best
not to damage the Base during their explorations. "Or maybe we shouldn't
go in right now, but come back with a bigger team?" Star Lass mused.
"Whatever's back there, it must be isolated like this for a reason."
"Could be a radioactive waste
dump." Chemique pointed out. "The big reactor produces some dangerous
stuff, and they didn't have me around." Her powers let her speed up
nuclear decay, and she could cause materials with a normal half-life of hundreds
of years to decay into safe, non-radioactive elements in only minutes.
"Maybe this is where they did weapons
research" Sandy added. "Or, where they kept dangerous
prisoners." He paused, waiting for Star Lass. Legion protocol was that the
oldest team member was generally the leader on a mission. But this wasn't an
official mission and he was impatient, so when Theresa didn't respond quickly,
he stepped forward. "We have to explore it sooner or later. Might as well
be now."
He pushed his body hard against the door,
searching for any crack, however narrow, that he could squeeze through. His
body exuded microscopically fine tendrils that snaked into every smallest
opening. To the girls he seemed to be sinking into the wall. Then he pushed
back, and looked normal again, though he had a finger pressed against the wall.
"Vacuum on both sides, and lots of
cracks in the material, like stress fractures, that go right through. There
must have been an earthquake or something like that. The two sliding doors are
vacuum welded together." His body seemed to shrivel, and his voice got weird.
"I'm going in, hold on." Suddenly it looked as if his entire body was
sucked into his arm, and then the arm was sucked into the wall, and then he was
gone. His helmet fell to the floor.
"That is so gross!" Star Lass
turned her head away in disgust. Chemique just laughed. Two golden threads
pushed out of the wall, and thickened, and turned into Sandy's arm and head. He
put on the helmet, then spoke to his teammates.
"Miqui, can you reverse the vacuum
welding process on the doors? Terry, pry em' apart when she's done, I'll help
from this side." And he vanished again, seemingly drawn into the wall.
Chemique held her hands in front of her and
concentrated. Wisps of her power floated over the door, found the cracks where
they two halves came together, and broke the nuclear bonds that formed due to
long exposure to vacuum. "Done!"
Star Lass concentrated; a glittery wedge
appeared and forced its way between the two doors. A crack appeared, and
widened a little bit. And then a thin golden disk slid partway through the
crack from the other side, and began expanding into a cylinder. Working
together, the Legionnaires forced apart sliding doors that hadn't been opened
for 50 years. They repeated the process with the other airlock door, then
entered a small, empty room. Most of the far wall was glass, and it was covered
with frost.
Sandy opened the regular door set in one end
of that glass wall and they looked into a room that had not been visited for a
half century. At least, that's what they thought…
Their lights showed a small room, with
armored walls, almost filled with scientific instruments, computers, and
equipment, surrounding a table. On that table lay a golden metallic-skinned
humanoid, clearly female, on her back, her arms and legs restrained. She was
connected to the machines around her with cables and wires and tubes, and half
her skull had been removed, showing a silvery brain underneath.
"By Aurion, she's beautiful" Sandy
breathed. She did look very like a beautiful female of Sandy's race.
"Somebody was torturing her!" He shrieked and leaped forward to
rescue this beautiful woman. As he entered the next room, something sensed him
and turned on the power. Overhead lights came on and indicator lights on
various pieces of equipment came on. Before he could reach her, though, Star
Lass caught him in a glittering bubble. His fists immediately morphed into
giant golden mallets and he started hammering on the inside wall of the bubble.
"Sandy, she's been lying like that, in a
vacuum, for years. This could be dangerous!" Star Lass spoke firmly.
"Another few seconds of waiting won't hurt her. Besides, I think she's a
robot."
"She's not gold like you, Sandy."
Chemique's power allowed her to sense chemical composition. "Theresa's
right, she is a robot, composed of some ultra-exotic alloys."
"She was totally without power a second
ago" Theresa said. "As soon as the lights came on, there was a big
surge of power through some of those cables." She was worried. "I
sure hope she's friendly!"
The robot sat up on the table and pointed at
Star Lass. A powerful blast of energy blasted from her finger and splattered on
Theresa's force field, knocking her backwards.
"You lose!"
On Our Own Chapter 02
Legion of Justice Roll Call:
Rexford
(Timepiece) Tyler
Theresa
(Star Lass) Knight
Sandy,
the Golden Boy
Chemique
(Miqui)
"Now they send children against me? Do
humans have no shame?" the golden woman gestured, and the various cables,
tubes and wires disintegrated. She stood, and was magnificent. Over 7 feet
tall, superbly proportioned (though Star Lass wondered why a robot needed
boobs?), she was apparently wearing an exotic outfit of gold trimmed with burnt
amber and she moved with a grace no human could achieve. "Fall to your
knees before me, children, and I may let you live to join my army of conquest!"
Sandy was still stunned. Though this was
clearly not a woman of his species, her resemblance to one of the Great
Goddesses in the Auron religion's pantheon was uncanny. "Oh, most Great
One! Are you in truth Aranel Anaurime, Goddess of the Sun?"
"Not just children, but idiots! I am Futura,
and I am far superior to any mere Sun Goddess! Enough talk, now kneel or be
destroyed!"
"Blasphemer! There is none greater than
Anaurime!" With that battle cry, Sandy attacked.
His legs morphed into tightly coiled springs
which then released, driving him forward with incredible speed. In the air he
changed form, becoming a massive cannonball and hardening his skin. Futura
swept her arm through the air and casually batted him away. He hit the glass
wall and it shattered, then hit the armored wall so hard it cracked. As the
ball fell to the floor it slowly changed back to Sandy's natural form. He was
stunned but not hurt, and he started to straggle to his feet.
Meanwhile, Star Lass and Futura were engaged
in a unique duel. It appeared to be similar to a sword fight with shields,
though they used energy constructs instead of material tools. Each wielded an
energy shield with her left hands and fired powerful blasts of energy with her
right. Star Lass was laboring, Futura was not.
"You are powerful, young heroine. Still,
you cannot match the speed of Futura!"
She gestured at floor beneath Star Lass, and
nothing happened. Then her energy shield faded, and Theresa blasted her with
everything she had. The gleaming android was thrown backwards and she smashed
into some of the machinery, where she was surrounded by sparks, flame and
smoke. Her force field glowed back into existence and she levitated from the
wreckage.
"Ah, the artificial one! Very good indeed,
changing the circuits in my weapons from superconductor to insulator. You
should have used your power on my brain, but it's too late now. Your power is
now blocked and will not affect me again."
She aimed another blast, and the ceiling
collapsed around Star Lass. A wave or her hand, and the rubble solidified. She
turned back to Chemique.
"We are much alike, 'artificial' beings
of great power. You should join with me and we will rule the feeble 'natural'
beings!"
"NO! I'm NOT LIKE YOU!" The tomb of
stone around Star Lass collapsed in a pile of dust as Chemique relaxed the
molecular bonds in the pile, and a massive power blast smashed into Futura's
shield as Star Lass was freed.
While the three combatants were concentrating
on each other, Sandy had returned to the fray. He ran up to Futura and, shaping
his hands into massive hammers, began smashing away at her shield. Theresa used
the momentary distraction to call for help.
Chemique pointed her finger at one of the
sparking machines. "Sandy, break!" She swept her arm around, drawing
an imaginary line between the machine and Futura's shield. Or maybe not so
imaginary, as a bolt of lightning flashed from the damaged machinery along the
path of superconducting air molecules Chemique had just created.
"Go!" she yelled as the bolt hit; it had disrupted the path as it
blasted, so no more current would flow to possibly injure the Boy of Gold. He
hit Futura again, and she staggered, and then there was a tremendous BOOM! and
three more Legionnaires joined the battle.
"My captivity and torture had left me
weakened, otherwise I would easily dispose of you children" Futura said
disdainfully. "Rest assured, I will not be so lenient on our next
encounter! You will find me a powerful, dangerous and relentless enemy!"
On Our Own Interlude 1
Mekanique sat in her control room and
contemplated her plans. "The moment before I kill him, I'll have to thank
Savage for the many lessons I learned while in his service. Most ironically,
always have an emergency escape plan, always have a safe house…" She was
in one of her 'safe houses', a shielded structure in a 'remote' part of Limbo.
She had taken all memories of the construction of this particular safe house
with her when she left her own body. Savage and Futura had destroyed several
others, and they were satisfied that they had found them all.
The safe house was not as well equipped as
her Limbo Fortress, but it had the basics. For example, she had been able to
construct an enlarger ray, and return her current body to its normal size. And
with the equipment now available to her, she continued to improve its
capabilities. By the time she got her own body back, this one would be very
nearly its equal, a perfect gift to her beloved Hank Heywood when he finally
decided to join her.
The Futura drone she had planted in Knight
Base shimmered into existence. She directed it to lie on the workbench, then
switched it off and started to disassemble it. She thought for a while about
putting her own mind into this body, but she wanted her own body back, not some
cheap imitation. It had served its purpose, alerting the Legion to the identity
of a new enemy, and planting the vital information that would insure they acted
correctly to suit her purposes.
****
Amgov had not planned for Tommy Tamare, TeleTeen,
to be a super hero. A lot of aptitude tests he had to take during his first few
years of schooling showed a strong inclination towards the engineering
disciplines, and the 'public' school system had arranged his curriculum
accordingly. By the time he reached 10, he was well on his way to becoming a
spaceship designer and his future career in the Utopian States Space Navy was
virtually assured. The emergence of his telekinetic powers had not really
altered his career track - if he survived the Legion, he would end up working
for the USSN after he retired from full-time heroics. All his Legion Academy
electives were chosen for him with a career as a Naval Architect as the
ultimate goal.
In his fast-tracked curriculum, he had
already come as close to designing actual Space Navy vessels as was possible
for a civilian. The most advanced sims in his graduate-level courses gave him
(simulated) access to the same tools that actual USSN officers, senior naval
designers, used as well as access to all their other resources - real reference
works and simulated raw materials, completed assemblies, stocks of proven
components and bleeding edge prototypes. The only difference was that his
designs were only implemented in simulation, while their designs might be sent
to automated shipbuilders for prototyping and implementation once simulation
testing was completed.
What he didn't know was that some of the more
minor modifications he had suggested for existing ship models had been
successfully prototyped and tested, and were now being added to those models
whenever they came in for refit. Amgov didn't believe in wasting resources!
The hanger deck and ship maintenance
facilities on Knight Base were like a playground to Tommy. Light years from any
star system, the Wanderers had been totally dependent on the reliability of
their own spacecraft, and their ability to repair their vessels whenever they
were damaged. The automated facilities at Knight Base had to be able to handle
virtually any kind of repair or maintenance that a ship might require - and not
just one kind of ship. Over the years, the Wanderers had collected a small
fleet of ships, built in the spaceyards of over a dozen different races. And
the Base mainframe, now synonymous with Gernsbeck, had volumes of information
about each ship and type of ship. About the only thing the Knight Base shops
couldn't do was create a totally new hull - at least, not a military grade
hull.
After the Legion relocation (escape from
Amgov, in starker terms), Canary had assigned Tommy the tasks of reactivating Knight
Base's automated spaceship maintenance machinery, and then getting as many
ships as possible back into reliable operational conditions. The work was
interesting and fulfilling, but not very exciting. Canary wanted these ships
restored 'by the book' to like-new conditions, but with no customization…
In his spare time, Tommy started a project
that was much more exciting. In the centuries-old tradition of mechanically
included teenagers, he had always wanted to turn a clunker of his own into a
Hot Rod. And now he finally had the chance.
Tommy found his clunker in the scrap heap - a
battered 30-foot wedge-shaped hull, with systems that had been cannibalized
many times before it was finally scrapped. He would have to strip it down to
bare hull and build anew. When he was finished, this thing might look exactly
like a long-obsolete H'lven StarBlazer but inside, well… it would be unique.
Like the creation of millions of Hot Rods
earlier in history, it became a communal project, with all of the other
Legionnaires contributing opinions, expertise, cash, and even elbow grease,
according to their own interests. When they were finished, they had a small,
very fast, very agile ship, not capable of hyperspace, which required a minimum
crew complement of 2, and could support up to 6 for several weeks. It had some
weapons, but was stronger on shields and stealth; the Hot Rod was not designed
to be a warship but a big boy's toy. Tommy had a riot flying it around Knight
Base, but eventually the thrill wore off, and the Hot Rod officially became
Ship's Pinnace for the largest Legion cruiser.
On Our Own Chapter 03
"OK here's the summary of the things we
learned from Futura that need to be addressed right away." The Legion of
Justice meeting had been going on for almost 3 hours and everyone was getting
twitchy. Canary wanted to wrap things up.
"We have no idea how the Wanderers
captured this Futura robot, but we agree that she had been lying in that room
for 50 years, plus or minus 10. Kajz" (the chief scientist of the
Wanderers) "was trying to download her memories when the Wanderers
disappeared. Our fight with Mekanique yesterday trashed a lot Kajz's equipment,
so there are holes in what we learned from the brain dump."
She waited a second, but there were no
comments from the group.
"The memories that we have recovered
show that Futura is from a parallel universe where she was a slave to Joh
Frederson, a dictator who ruled the Earth. She and Frederson were somehow
bounced from their own universe, and now they want to remake our universe so
it's just like the one they got kicked out of. They plan to destroy the Justice
Society of America with a super-powered army, back in the late 20th or early
21st century and take over the world. Finally, Joh Frederson seems to be a
parallel universe duplicate of General Urbane. Did I miss anything?"
"Frederson and Urbane are both using
aliases. Their real name seems to be Vandal Savage" Kid Terrific spoke up.
"He seems to be immortal and an extremely dangerous person in either
universe!"
"OK, so what do we do? None of us likes
Amgov" (slang shorthand for the government of the Utopian States of
America) "but what these two want is much worse!" Canary said.
"Uh, Gina, like, just what _can_ we do?
How are we going to stop 2 villains, who can travel in time, from doing
something over 200 years ago? We don't have time travel except Rand, and he
can't go that far back." This was from Chemique.
"If we're going to stop Futura and
Frederson, we are going to have to learn! Or not do anything, and wait for our
world to be erased. I personally vote against the 'wait for oblivion'
plan." Greenfire interrupted with biting sarcasm. Miqui flushed.
"Damnit, Drake, why are you such a freepin
jerk?" Canary's voice lashed at him like a whip, and anger flashed in her
eyes. "We're in a tight spot, and we need to work together. In
harmony!"
"Uh, Gina, have you considered the
possibility that this is a trap or a hoax?" TeleTeen wanted to know.
'Good for you, Tommy!' she thought
approvingly. 'I've been hoping someone would see that.'
Aloud, she answered "Given that a
parallel universe duplicate of Urbane is involved, what do you think? So we'll
be cautions. But I don't see how it can be dangerous for our science team to
figure out time travel. So that's job 1 from now until we've got it."
'Or our universe dissolves around us' she
added silently to herself. 'I wonder if we'll know it when it happens?"
On Our Own Chapter 04
'Leadership by Walking Around'
"Cathy, one of the things that bothers
me most about this "Futura/Savage Wiping Out the Justice Society"
thingy is the timing." Canary asked her friend. "We know that the
Justice Society of America retired in 1953 when Amgov created the Legion of
Justice. So why do Futura and Vandal Savage want to destroy them some 35 to 50
years after they retired?"
"Wow! What a great question!" Kid
Terrific was stunned. "I've been so involved in the scientific process
that I haven't given any thought to history. Hold on a second." She typed
a few keystrokes on her wrist keyboard and a dime-sized memory module popped
out of her belt. She slipped it under her hair on the back of her head, and
closed her eyes for a couple seconds.
"As you know, history is something of a
specialty of mine." Both girls smiled. Cathy had thousands of specialties.
She thought for a few seconds and her eyes widened. "'Curiouser and
curiouser cried Alice'" she cried. "History tells us that by 2000,
many of the Justice Society had either left Earth, including Superman,
PowerGirl, the Spectre and Dr. Fate, or passed away, like Batman, Hourman,
Green Lantern, and the Flash. And most of the others would have been too old to
be much of a challenge to Futura. So why would they bother with the Justice
Society? Why not focus on the Legion of Justice of that time instead?"
"Hm, let's see." She searched her modular
memories. "In 1988, the Legion of Justice included: Arrowette, Batwing,
Mass Lass, Coral, Insect Queen, Faust, Kite Boy, Liandly, Miss Terrific, Yellow
Peri, and Cat Girl."
"Tell you what, Cathy. Gina interrupted.
"You said 'history tells us…'. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say
'General Urbane tells us'?" Gina asked slowly.
"Chaos! He's had almost 300 years to
rewrite history, hasn't he?!" She looked at her friend, a determined
expression on her face. "So maybe history ISN'T a specialty of mine. But
it is sure going to be soon!"
"I'm glad you said that. I'm assigning
you to learn more about the real history of that time. When Rex and Theresa
figure out how to get us back there, I want some idea what we might run
into!"
****
An hour later, Canary and Greenfire were
working out in the training room. It was punishment for Greenfire, who was
taking a beating from Canary, and stress relief for the Legion's leader, who
could go all out against an opponent she couldn't really damage. Maybe it would
teach him a little humility.
Still, she needed a break occasionally.
During a rest period, Drake spoke up a little whiningly "Gina, haven't you
had enough? I'm a little tired of getting the energy beat out of me. I'm sorry,
already! What more do you want? If I was 'real' I'd be in a hospital, or dead
by now."
"That's what you always say, Drake. 'I'm
sorry, I'm sorry, I won't do it again' and then you always do. I'm trying a new
leadership tactic - leadership through fear and intimidation, since nothing
else works with you." She sneered at him. "You know, I shouldn't be
able to touch you in a fight. You should be far and away our most powerful
member. Instead, you can't even defend yourself from a girl, and I'm not even
using my sonic powers!"
Without warning she kicked him viciously in
the faceplate. The kick would have shattered the plate on his old containment
suit, but they had built a new one using the advanced technology and materials
they found at Knight Base - one that didn't record everything that happened
around him! His head snapped backwards, and he fell to the ground.
"Damn it, you just broke my neck!"
he swore at her.
"You don't even have a neck" she
mocked him, kicking him again.
"Well, maybe you can't break me, but it
still hurts like hell! And I have had ENOUGH!" There was a blinding flash
of green energy, like a green nuke had just gone off in the room! Everything in
the room was instantly vaporized, and only the ultra-strong armor walls
protected the base from major damage.
Canary picked herself off the floor, shaken
but triumphant. He sonic shield had barely protected her, but she'd finally got
some positive results. She helped him up and offered him a high five.
"Now THAT'S what I'm talkin
about!!" she yelled.
Burroughs was stunned. For a second, he'd
been sure he'd killed his teammate. His relief at seeing her alive was mingled
with dread at his upcoming punishment. He certainly never expected her to be
pleased!
"Drake, I need you and Hawk Lad to go to
Feitheria. They've been sealed off from Utopia for centuries and they hate and
fear outsiders, but I need to know if their highly advanced science and
technology includes any knowledge about time travel."
"Why me?"
"Well, you _are_ a scientist, though the
way you act, it's often hard for the rest of us to remember that. Mostly,
though, because they probably won't be able to kill you. You and Horus leave in
an hour."
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