JLU 2001 - Legion Worlds #2

It was as if they were soaring through the throat of a never-ending rainbow. Once gathered together on a time platform, this mismatched assembly of young heroes found themselves in a transparent bubble of strange design. It was the lack of design, in fact, that made it seem so strange. There were no apparent mechanics, means of locomotion or devices to control their journey through time. There was simply ten of them, colored brightly in their telltale uniforms, most of them sharing only one common insignia that identified them as members of...

Saturn Girl The 30th Century's Greatest Superheroes.....

Out of Time

Legion Worlds #2- February, Year Four by Matthew J. Pierce

Jo Nah, the Legionnaire known as Ultra Boy, pressed his hands against a curved inner wall of the sphere that seemed to be their only means of returning home to the 30th Century. Beside him was the young woman who loved him, Tinya Wazzo, also known to her friends as Apparition.

“What is it, Jo?” Beneath a sea of black hair, Apparition looked out the same wall, pressing her hands against Ultra Boy's arm, a reminder for both of them that she was corporeal again. In the sphere's wake spread nothingness. A horizon of pure white when earlier there seemed a clash of color that culminated with images of history, the history they were leaving behind to finally join their teammates in the future.

“I have no idea, Tinya.” Ultra Boy squinted, a meaningless gesture since he knew it wouldn't change what he could see, Ultra Vision or no. “All of a sudden it was just... gone. Scenes of our history, from the 20th Century until now and then... nothing.”

“What do you think it means, Brainy?” Cosmic Boy, the team' s chairperson, turned away from the scene behind him and studied the color and brief images ahead of them. “Could it mean we're almost--”

“Quiet!” All inside the sphere centered their attention on the only non-humanoid in the group, the teleporter known as Gates. Certainly he wasn't well known for his patience or politeness but he also wasn't known for shouting at the team leader. Begrudgingly, he acknowledged Cosmic Boy's dirty looks and explained himself. “Clearly you can see Brainiac 5 is busy and you're all distracting him... errrhh, now you've got ME talking unnecessarily!”

Brainiac 5, the green-skinned Coluan representative of the team, was under noticeable strain. He tapped the side of his face repeatedly with one finger, trying to filter out the conversations in the tiny space around him. “As Gates has no doubt realized, I am attempting to discern the distance from our moment of departure in hopes of accurately calculating how much longer we must spend inside of this sphere before exiting this time tunnel. It is either that or we completely bypass our century, most likely after a time in which our fellow Legionnaires could benefit from my... our being there. The tachyonic formulas are complicated, especially without the assistance of an Omnicom.

Imra Ardeen of Titan, the telepath known as Saturn Girl, massaged a temple almost imitatingly. “He's doing the calculations in his head. Of course I'm only guessing... it's a mess in there; I can hardly make sense of it at all.”

“Not surprising,” Brainiac 5 sardonically replied. “As for your question, Cosmic Boy, no. I do not believe it has anything at all to do with our proximity to the 30th Century. As time is more relative inside the bubble than outside, I calculate we are still thirty seven minutes and forty three thirds of a second from reaching our destination.”

“Forty three thirds?” A resident of the 20th Century, Andrew Nolan was an ally of the Legion and, despite very serious injury, was returning home with them. “Do I want to know where forty two thirds will place us?”

“In a paradoxical quandary, Ferro, as we would have yet to be dispatched into the past by Shrinking Violet and the Emerald Eye. The danger of creating a time loop in which we are destined to forever return to the 20th Century over and over to face my progenitor and Mordru is not how I pre-planned my existence. Of course, I anticipated your asking so let me save you the effort of grunting your next question through your wounds. My intent is to return us precisely ten seconds after our departure. While that may alter any events already experienced by our teammates in the 30th Century, I can only assume they would thank us for it.”

“They must be miserable without us,” Gates added. His beak like mouth couldn't simulate a human smile but his bug-like body had a language all of its own and he was positively glowing with self-humor.

“If they are in fact alive. Honestly, I'm not sure they'd manage.” Silence filled the sphere as all of them considered whether or not Brainiac 5 was trying to be funny or if such a thing was true. It WAS Brainiac 5 after all.

Elsewhere, in the 30th Century.
Legion Reserve Headquarters, Pluto.

“What is it? What's going on?” Rond Vidar, member of the Time Institute and ally to the Legion of Super-Heroes, dashed out of his office into the corridor. He had only just finished a transmission intended for his time-lost teammates when sounds of a ruckus outside snatched his attention.

“Let me through, let me through!” The Legion's chief physician, Dr. Gym'll used all four of his arms to push his way into a crowd of Legionnaires. Short with purple skin and studded appendages on his forehead, the doctor went straight to work, examining his patient. “What happened here?”

None of the Legionnaires circling Dr. Gym'll were quick to answer. Nurses finally arrived behind the physician and immediately set to place a wounded Legionnaire on a hover-gurney. “For sprock's sakes, what happened?! I need to know how to treat him!”

Startled, the Legionnaires looked between themselves. A white haired member, the youngest in the crowd, held what looked like a cap in his hands. He rotated it as he tried to find the words.

“We-we were on a routine pick up. Some Carggite was robbing a food supply shelter and we were just wrapping things up when...” Vapor escaped the boy’s lips and his frost colored eyebrows lowered over his ice-blue eyes.

“Polar Boy.” Despite the urgency, Dr. Gym'll spoke calmly and looked up at the young Legionnaire with earnest and understanding. “I know how this looks but we still have time to save him. I need to know exactly what happened and when. I need to know how bad it is and the only way I can find out is by you telling me.”

“It was almost a couple hours ago, Doc.” Joining Polar Boy was Sun Boy, also young by Legion standards but clearly older than his shaken teammate. “A Blight ship appeared overhead. We had no warning. I guess they wanted us because a group of them attacked right away.” Red-haired Dirk Morgna looked at their fallen teammate. “He told us to run. To get back to the ship. Said he'd buy us time until we could fly him out of there.” The orderlies were already carrying off the gurney, rushing down the hall as quickly as the hover-gurney would allow.

“But we stayed,” Polar Boy added, realizing now that time was short. “They hit him with some sort of grenade looking thing. It... stuck to his chest and grew outward like a... like a plant. He screamed... oh grife, his screaming...” Tears welled up in Brek Bannin's eyes. He could say no more.

“His chest. Fine, we'll start there. If any more of you are hurt, I suggest you follow me. I'll get to you when I can.” Dr. Gym'll waddled off but no one followed. Whatever their scratches or abrasions, none of them seemed to matter.

Rond Vidar adjusted his glasses, sympathetic glances paid to each of the Legionnaires left stranded in the now silent hallway. “I wouldn't worry, kids. One thing I learned by watching them all, Livewire is a fighter.”

In the Time Stream.
Circa November, 2523.

The time bubble shook violently as if suddenly cast onto an ocean of typhoon wracked waves. Two Legionnaires saw to the injured Ferro since each jolt to the bubble seemed to only worsen his condition. He struggled to remain quiet as best as he could, worrisome that his cries might disturb Brainiac 5 and his computations even though, unbeknown to everyone, the Coluan had long since finished them.

What still remained was for Brainiac 5 to broach the issue that most concerned him now. They had so many personality quirks and emotions for him to consider, and it was really quite bothersome to someone like him. Surrendering to his intellect, he decided to just come out with it. The worst that could happen would be Ultra Boy deciding he could not accept the news, destroying the bubble in a fit of emotional despair mid journey and scattering them all throughout time. That of course, being a potential acceptable alternative except that no time was safe from the rapidly approaching truth.

“I have determined the reason why you can no longer see the past behind us,” Brainiac 5 announced as a matter-of-factly.

“You're not going to tell us it's because it isn't there,” Cosmic Boy interrupted.

“Yes he is,” Saturn Girl replied and it wasn't clear if she knew that because she once again tried to read Brainiac 5's mind or if it was because they were the Legion of Super-Heroes and this was the sort of thing that happened to them.

“To be less crude in description, our past is no longer as it was. As Rond Vidar would tell you, time is not so fluid that singular events in the past can change or forcibly alter the future endlessly. However, there remains the possibility that a massive anomaly can have disastrous effects on the moments that follow. Like dropping a stone into a pond, the ripples near the stone's impact are small but expand outward, becoming larger. The farther away from the impact, the less pronounced the ripple but then that is relative to the size of the stone.”

As many of the Legionnaires tried to wrap their understanding around what Brainiac 5 was telling them, some were not so patient. Gates for instance. “Oh grife, just what are you trying to say, Brainy?!”

“Exactly what I have said already. Our past no longer exists. Some event or chain of events in our past has drastically altered the time stream. We are witnessing, and now experiencing through these shock waves, the ripples created from a very large stone, if you will.”

“How large?” Cosmic Boy went over everything Brainiac 5 said and was immediately worried for their teammates in the 30th Century. When they arrived, there was almost no telling what they'd arrive to.

“Very. Large. Our past is being re-written and I've calculated that the point of origin for these changes is quite close to our year of departure in the 20th Century.”

“That's it then. This is my fault,” Ferro protested. “I've somehow doomed you all, coming with you. Time is trying to-”

“Don't be foolish. You are hardly so entrenched in time, Andrew Nolan. Quite inconsequential, in fact.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Tell them the rest of it, Brainy.”

“I'd tell you to stay out of my head for the last time, Saturn Girl, but apparently I already have.” Brainiac 5 looked at his telepathic teammate with notable ire but continued on. “We will not survive this, Legionnaires.”

30th Century.
Legion Reserve Headquarters, Pluto.

Rond knew there was little he could do to help the Legionnaire dying below him in the operating theater. Behind a transparent force field, he watched Dr. Gym'll and his crew attempt to dislodge the glob of muck now implanted in Garth Ranzz's chest. It had rooted itself into him, burrowing beneath the skin and clamping around his organs, for what purpose no one knew. Vomit like mud and grime dried around Garth's lips and on a floating tray behind Dr. Gym'll, his prosthetic arm laid smashed and broken open by the tree-like limb now protruding from his right shoulder.

What bothered Rond more than the dire events below, however, was a creeping sense of deja vu. A staggering sense of recall was among the talents that got him hired for the Time Institute in the first place and so it distressed him to know he could not recall where he had seen events like this, or at least heard of them occurring. It was a tactic new to the Blight, different than their abductions or senseless executions and yet what was happening to Livewire felt so familiar.

The doors to the infirmary observation deck opened with a brief hum and Rond saw a quartet of Legionnaires enter. Ahead of them was the recently elected chairperson of the Legionnaires still in the 30th Century, Invisible Kid. Rond regarded him with a nod and then leaned his head to see who had come with him. As expected, Polar Boy and Sun Boy had come and Rond expected there was nothing Invisible Kid could have done to keep them away. The fourth person with them was an unknown to Rond. A tanned, slender woman with wings.

“How's Dr. Gym'll coming along, Rond?” Invisible Kid promptly asked.

“Hard to tell, Lyle. They've been down there for hours but it seems like every time they separate Garth from a piece of that thing, it spawns a new branch. It seems bent on assimilating him but it's not in much of a hurry.”

Lyle Norg nodded, fatigue and worry in his eyes. Livewire was a founder and his injury would have disastrous effects on the morale of the Legion's members, new and old alike. “Unfortunately, by the time it’s done doing whatever, it'll likely kill him. I've sent word out through what's left of the network, asking for any help or theories.”

Rond considered this and then had an idea. “M'Onel is on Daxam now, maybe if he gets word in time--”

“Mon-El,” Lyle corrected. He never took his eyes off the procedure down below. He said it so quickly, one could almost miss it.

“Sorry, what?” Rond's heart jumped in his chest. Like before, there was something familiar in all of this, even moreso in the way Invisible Kid pronounced M'Onel's name.

“Never mind. What was your idea?”

“I'll get to that. I said, 'M'Onel.'”

“Right, but I corrected you. It's Mon-El.” Lyle looked back to Rond, his confusion very clear. Why would Rond, of all people, get Mon-El's name wrong? The Daxamite was a long-standing member of the Legion, after all.

“Since when? Wait. Don't answer that.” Since when indeed. Things were seeming more and more troubling to Rond and such feelings of trepidation were not without various theories and scholarly discussion. “I'm sorry, but I don't think we met.” Rond stepped past Invisible Kid and reached out for the winged female who appeared very startled by the amount of attention suddenly fixed on her.

“Wha--,” she started, pressing a hand against her nearly exposed chest.

“Lyle, it's Dawnie.” Now Invisible Kid was visibly disturbed. His eyebrows narrowed as he considered the scientist for a moment, going over possible reasons for Rond's confusion. When Rond looked at him with a blank look, he knew something was terribly wrong. Was this really Rond Vidar? “Dawnstar. Rond, she's been with us for--”

“I never met her.”

“Sure you have! We all--”

“Lyle. I am telling you. I have no idea who she is. I don't know why you are calling M'Onel, Mon-El and what's happening to Garth down there seems so familiar that it actually frightens me.”

Invisible Kid opened his mouth and then shut it promptly, not sure what to say to something like that. Whatever could frighten a member of the Time Institute suggested very serious problems for all of them, as if the Blight invasion weren't enough.

“I'll be in my lab.” Rond hastily walked past them and out of the room. Even as the doors hushed closed, the four Legionnaires looked to each other with wild bewilderment.

In the Time Stream.
Circa August, 2812.

The rocking of the time bubble had stopped except for the occasional vibration that passed through it and each of its passengers in oddly timed intervals. Brainiac 5 was, of course, counting them and using them to determine their location in the time steam but it was really nothing more than a means to occupy himself and hopefully distract more distressed thoughts. Nothing had changed from his earlier assessment. Ripples of change in the past were overcoming their exact spot in time and it would be a short while before the Time Stream righted itself, dealing out each of their fates silently and impartially.

Saturn Girl was telepathically soothing them all without their knowledge, particularly Ferro who had his injuries, both physical and emotional, to contend with. Ultra Boy placed an arm around Apparition and whispered endearing platitudes to her. Cosmic Boy discussed with Gates the possibility of teleporting as many of them out of the bubble, into 2812 as possible. Of course, Brainiac had already thought of that and its futility but Cosmic Boy would never quit until it was too late. Which would be about now. Brainiac 5 spent a sparse number of moments double-checking the math in his head and then turned to the others.

“Legionnaires,” he called out. He ignored the glances that followed. Some faces would carry frustration, some anger and others the most potent emotion of all. Hope. Brainiac 5, as logical and cold as he was, could not bear to be the person responsible for taking hope, of all things, away from those who had it still. Instead, he would have the final word, per usual. “It has been a honor to think of you as teammates. As friends. Goodbye.”

A final shiver of time passed through the transparent bubble, the white-hot entropy of change finally overcoming it and all of those inside. There were no shouts or cries, no explosions or eruptions of brilliance. There was only white and nothingness as change marshaled on toward the future.

To be continued...

Next Issue: Dark Genesis!