JLU 2001 - Legion Worlds #6

Brande The 30th Century's Greatest Superheroes.....

Civil Disobedience

Legion Worlds #6- MARCH, Year Six by Tony Thornley

Three years later…

    "This is Thanagarian Personnel Transport <i>Thunderwing</i> requesting clearance to dock with Legion World. Are we clear to come aboard?"

    "This is Brainiac 5, Thunderwing, follow our escort in."

    "Escort?" the captain of the Thanagarian transport asked his helmsman. "What escort?"

    "Uhm, Cap," the helmsman said. "Port side." The captain looked at the sensor screen and saw a small blip approaching the ship quickly.

    "Seven hells, what is that?"

    Just as he voiced the question, a red and blue streak blew past the ship and slowed in front of it.

    The helmsman grinned. "Valor."

    The Daxamite Legionnaire flew towards the technology covered planetoid's surface, guiding the Thunderwing to one of their many docking ports. The avian-like ship settled softly onto its assigned airlock. Valor then flew to the ship's main viewport, saluted the ship's crew, and flew back out into the void to continue his assigned duty for the day.

    The captain hit the internal speakers and began broadcasting to his passengers.

    "We're docked Legionnaires," he said. "Welcome home."

    Conner Kent awoke with a gasp. It was the dream again. It had been bothering him for weeks. It was something about his past. Something... odd.

    It had to do with his last meeting with his friends in Young Justice. He only fleetingly remembered their faces now. He remembered an encounter with the Legion in his own time, a strange villain’s attack then… then he was here. The 31st Century. He had no idea how he got here, and his last weeks in the 21st century were a muddled mess.

    "Kon-El?" came a voice from his flight ring.

    He rolled over and grabbed the ring. "Yeah Brainy?" He wiped sleep from his eyes, and sat up in his bed.

    "Cosmic Boy is looking for you," said the Legion's deputy leader. "I also have some news."

    "Tell me your news while I'm getting dressed," he said, standing up. "I'll go find Cos afterwards."

    He walked over to his closet and pulled his slacks from a hanger. He'd redesigned his costume after waking up from an attack from the Fatal Five, black military style pants and a red and blue top bearing the shield that had become synonymous with the legacy of Kryptonian heroes. The shoulders of the costume were red, blending together with the top of the shield logo. His cape was long-gone, and replaced by a jacket, much like the one he wore in his early heroing days.

    "Well, my research of the history vids does reveal you make it back into your native time period," Brainiac 5 said through the flight ring. "There's no record of how we get you home though, only that you're there with the heroes during some of the bigger battles of the 21st."

    "Okay..." Conner replied, pulling his top on.

    "My scans of your body reveal something else though," Brainiac continued. "Your quantum signature has been altered since you first joined us. There's been something changed with your body, and Saturn Girl's link to your memories say the same things."

    "Like what kind of alterations?" he asked, fastening his Legion standard belt.

    "In your memories of encounters with the Legion in the twenty-first, Star Boy's skin color is white, but as long as I've known him he's been Negro," Brainiac said. "Colossal Boy isn't present at all during the Fatal Five fight last month, but he was fighting right along side you. Your Kryptonian physiology is also altering your human half. You're biologically becoming fully Kryptonian."

    "Hunh," Superboy said as his slipped the flight ring on his finger. "Your brain trust have any theories yet?"

    "Only one we've come up with is pretty absurd," Brainiac replied.

    "And that is?"

    "You're from a completely different timeline," he replied.

    Superboy grinned. "Stranger things have happened. Tell Cos that I'm on my way."

    "Will do."

    "Garth!" Cosmic Boy exclaimed, "how did it go?" Cos greeted his friend and fellow Legion founder with a hug. Lightning Lad returned the embrace and drew back.

    "It wasn't a great meeting, but it wasn't horrible," he said. "The Camutians are definitely behind the United Planets on a lot of issues. Luckily, they're not pulling out of funding the Legion just yet, despite pressure from the Science Police. They seem to think it's nice to have a super-human police force at their beck and call, even though they won't fight for the issues that would keep the team thriving."

    "Blast it," Cos replied. "Any word of Imra's mission?"

    "Not yet," he said. "But it sounds like the Khunds are putting a lot of pressure on the system to completely abandon both the UP and the Legion. If anyone could talk them out if it, it's Saturn Girl."

    "Khunds?" Cosmic Boy asked. "Really?"

    "Yeah," Lightning Lad said. "Who would have thought that they'd have a thought for themselves?"

    "They don't," he declared. "There's something up there, and the Khunds are just the muscle."

    "I agree," Garth replied. “How about the continuing search for Roxxas?”

    “Nothing,” Cosmic Boy replied with a shake of his head. “Element Lad is going to hate me for it, but I’m suspending the search for the time being.”

    “Yeah, he’s not going to be happy. “ Garth paused for a moment and bit his bottom lip. "Rokk, I gotta ask. Why all the diplomatic missions?" He ran his hand through his hair and shifted uncomfortably. "I mean, I love the Legion and all, and would do anything to keep it together, but it seems like that's all Imra and I have been doing for months now. You know I love knocking heads every now and again. Release the tension from dealing with all of these knotheaded politicians."

    "I know," Cosmic Boy replied. "And I keep sending you on them because you're the public face of the Legion." Cos grinned reassuringly at his friend. "Look at it this way- there's four major celebrities in the Legion, you, me, Imra, and Superboy. We're the founders and he's a living legend. Superboy's still unfamiliar with the politics of our century though, so throwing him into a diplomatic situation would be like giving him a 'spanner and some scrap and asking him to make a ship."

    Lightning Lad sighed. "So you think we'd make more leeway with these worlds that are causing us problems if they saw a Legionnaire they'd seen on the holos since day one." He began sucking on the left corner of his bottom lip. "I guess you have a point." He turned slightly and saw Superboy approaching them.

    "Speak of the devil," he muttered with a grin. Rokk returned the smile.

    "Howdy fearless leader," Kon-El said. "How goes it?"

    Cosmic Boy grinned and extended his hand to the Legionnaire. "Very well, Superboy. Yourself?"

    "Still being bothered by those dreams," he said. "I don't know what the deal is."

    "Ought to get Imra to look at it for you," Lightning Lad suggested.

    "Maybe," Superboy replied thoughtfully. He turned back to Cosmic Boy. "Brainy said you needed me?"

    "Yeah, I did," Rokk replied. "There's an old derelict approaching Saturn. The UP asked us to check it out. I was wondering if you'd take Shrinking Violet, Chameleon, and Gear and check it out."

    "Hey, sure, no problem," Conner said. "It'd be kind of fun." He smirked and ran his hand through his short-cropped hair. "Any special orders?"

    "No," Rokk said, shaking his head. He then glanced at Garth, noticing a twinge of disappointment in his eyes. "Oh, and Garth's going to be coming along too. Will that be okay?"

    Superboy looked at Lightning Lad and smiled. "Spend some time with an old pro?" He clapped Garth on the back. "I'd kill for the opportunity!"

    Garth smiled at Superboy and offered his hand. Conner gladly shook it. Lightning Lad then glanced at Cosmic Boy. Cos gave him a wink. Garth grinned and snapped a short salute.

    "Thanks," he whispered.

    "Anytime."

    Ladies and gentlemen, please calm down! The telepathic voice of Imra Ardeen, the Legionnaire known as Saturn Girl, echoed in the minds of the assembled planetary congress of Sallak 5. The thin, orange aliens each covered their ears with one set of their arms, while they flailed their other limbs in distress. Many contorted their small round faces in pain. Her fellow Legionnaires, Sensor, Princess Projectra and Colossal Boy winced at the intensity of her thoughts. Projectra leaned over to Sensor, her fellow Orandian and bodyguard.

    "Now she's mad," she muttered to her serpentine comrade. Orando was a unique civilization- the planet was home to two native sentient species. Projectra's race was humanoid in nature and possessed a natural illusion-casting ability. Sensor's race was humanoid from the waist up, but serpentine from the waist down. Her race's natural abilities gave them the ability to see through such illusions through being able to sense the thoughts of other sentients, more empathic in nature than telepathic. It would have been natural for these two races to be enemies, but the two races had coexisted peacefully for centuries now.

    Saturn Girl continued her prepared speech. Please, the Legion is not here as a messenger from the UP. We are not here to threaten or coerce you into remaining loyal. Contrary to popular belief, we're not the United Planets' muscle.

    "Then why bring one of your 'muscle' members?!" cried out one of the delegates, pointing at Colossal Boy.

    Colossal Boy is a trusted Legionnaire, and is here to assist myself and my fellow Legionnaires.

    "That's the nicest way to describe a bodyguard I've ever heard," Colossal Boy muttered to Projectra and Sensor. Saturn Girl grinned as she continued.

    The United Planets needs your support, as does the Legion, she continued. Sensor suddenly perked up.

    "What's wrong?" Projectra asked.

    I feel it too, Sensor, Saturn Girl broadcast to her teammates. There's some serious hatred towards us in the room right now.

    "Violent hatred," Sensor muttered. She moved forward several inches, her eyes narrowing as she scanned the Sallakans.

    I know what you're thinking Sensor, Imra said. Don't do it.

    "Legionnaires," she whispered. "GET DOWN!"

    One of Sallakans stood, raising a blaster pistol. Colossal Boy instinctively returned to his normal size. He was a member of a race of giants once from Earth, and possessed the power to shrink to the size of most of the humanoid races in the UP. Although he called himself Micro Lad, the team had insisted on calling him Colossal Boy.

    Sensor, Projectra and Saturn Girl dropped as the Sallakan opened fire on the Legionnaires. The giant Legionnaire blocked the blast with his armored gauntlets, but was knocked backwards by the force of the bolt. Saturn Girl pressed her hands to her temples, feeling for the mind of the Sallakan assassin. Projectra stood, starting towards the assassin.

    Princess, no! Imra called. I've got him. Projectra looked at Imra, then back at the alien. It collapsed to the ground. The aliens gathered around the fallen comrade, wondering at what prompted the attack.

    Saturn Girl stood, wiping a drop of blood from her nose. Projectra looked over the podium.

    "Got 'im," the Princess said, glancing at Imra with a grin.

    Good, Imra said, turning to where Sensor was seeing to Colossal Boy. Is he okay?

    Sensor looked back at Imra, panic in her eyes. "Imra, we need a medic!" she said. "NOW!" Saturn Girl ran to Colossal Boy's side and gasped. The arm that had been struck was enveloped by an energy field. At the core of the field, his arm was being disintegrated.

    And the field was spreading.

    "We're in Gates," Lightning Lad said. "You can shut down the portal."

    "Aye, aye, Lightning," the Insectoid Legionnaire teleporter replied. "Give me a ring when you want back in."

    "That we will," Superboy said. "Thanks Gates."

    Shrinking Violet, Chameleon and Gear followed the two more experienced Legionnaires further into the ship. They looked at the duo expectantly. Lightning Lad stopped, looked at Conner and placed his hands on his hips.

    "Well, what are we doing, Superboy?" he asked. "Let's hear some leadership." Superboy's jaw dropped slightly. He natural assumption had been that the most experienced of the quintet would be taking point. He had never felt that he was leadership material anyway.

    "Well, uhm..." He knew hesitation wasn't good, but then doing something stupid wasn't either. "Gear, Vi and Cham, check out the engine core. Garth and I will check out the bridge. Report with anything unusual."

    "Will do," Chameleon said, snapping Superboy a half-mocking, half-serious salute. The trio split from their teammates and headed into the bowels of the ship while Superboy and Lightning Lad headed upwards.

    "Good move," Garth said. "You were only surprised for a split second." Superboy sighed, somewhat relieved he didn't screw up too bad.

    "Give a man a little more warning next time," he said. "About gave me a blasted heart attack." Garth patted Conner on the shoulder.

    "Need to get out of that mindset," he said. "You never know when you'll be forced to step up. It's always a shock for me." He shuddered slightly at the thought of one such experience months ago. Cos had been knocked unconscious by a member of the Science Police, who had taken it upon themselves to "break up a riot" which was really little more than the Legionnaires speaking to a group of youth. Garth was forced to rally the team to not only stop the riot the Science Police caused, but also prevent them from causing any further damage.

    Although this experience didn't win him points with the SP, he was more fully respected by his fellow Legionnaires. In fact, the SP seemed to resent him more than any other Legionnaire. It forced him to be better though, and he thought fondly on the experience as a result.

    "I think this is it," Superboy said, stopping in front of a door. Lightning Lad nodded and pointed to a plaque inscribed in Interlac.

    "You're right," he said. "How are your Interlac studies going?" Superboy sighed as he thought about his vain attempts to learn the universal language of the thirty-first century. Although he'd been able to learn the spoken language, the written form was not coming. Unfortunately, it would have rendered Superboy illiterate, had it not been for Brainiac 5, who had created a computer that translated written word to English for him.

    "They're coming, I guess," he said and the door to the bridge whooshed open. "Why can't Brainy just write something to beam the info right into my brain?" The duo walked into the small bridge of the ship together.

    "Didn't you Earthers used to say something like 'nothing easy is worth it'?" Garth teased.

    "Sounds like something Superman would say," Conner replied. He stopped, placed his hands on his hips and looked around. "Well, Garth, what are we looking for?"

    Garth frowned slightly as he looked around the room. "Know what? I don't know." He walked over to what appeared to be the main console and sat down in the station's seat. "How about this? I'll look for any sort of ship's log, or journal or cargo manifest. You ring the others, then look for a black box of some sort."

    "Sounds good to me."

    Shrinking Violet brushed aside some loose wires as she walked deeper into the core of the ship's computer assembly. She frowned and began playing with the green patch of hair she had dyed at the front of her dark locks.

    "Gear, what am I looking for again?" she asked.

    "The central control log," the techno-organic Legionnaire replied. "This ship is Rotullian if I'm recognizing the schematic correctly and their engineering centers always keep a control log of activity." Gear looked at a display of the innards of the console that Violet was walking through. A small heat signature indicated his shrunken teammate. "You should be right on top of it."

    "So we find this control log, what's it going to tell us?" Chameleon asked as he walked around the large engine room.

    "Energy usage, operations of certain systems, sometimes they keep cargo manifests or even a ship's log here," Gear explained. He looked away from the screen and pointed to the console. His finger disassembled itself and extended a probe into a data port. "Vi, I'm extending a probe into the system to try to help you out."

    "Affirmative," the shrunken girl replied.

    "Hey team, how's it going?" Kon-El's voice asked from their flight rings.

    "Just the usual techno-mumbo-jumbo," Chameleon replied, looking up into the ship's nearly dormant energy core. "How about you?"

    "Found the bridge," he said. "Lightning Lad and I are searching for any info on how the ship got to the point we're at."

    "Ten-four good buddy," Cham said, repeating a phrase Superboy had taught him. "Let us know if you need us."

    "Will do, Superboy out."

    "Gear, are you sure this is where your log thing is supposed to be?" Shrinking Violet asked. Inside the console she walked a little deeper into the small crevice she'd discovered.

    "Yes, I am," he replied. "There should be a plasma hard drive. Like I said you're right..." Gear paused as he looked at his screen, "...where it should be. Oh nuts."

    "Oh nuts?" Chameleon asked. "That's not good Gear." Chameleon turned towards his teammate, but as his did so, the energy core suddenly flared to life.

    "Oh no," Gear muttered. "Violet, get out of there, NOW!" Chameleon turned towards the engine core again and backed away slowly.

    "Uhm, I didn't touch anything," said the Durlan. "It wasn't me."

    "No, it wasn't!" Gear snapped. "We need to get out of here. Violet?!" Chameleon didn't like the sound of the tension in his voice. It was a very bad tension. Scary tension.

    "Just coming up!" she replied.

    "Well, come up running!" Gear exclaimed as his finger probe retracted from the console and restored the digit to its normal shape. He turned and began running. A little surprised, Chameleon broke into a run after him. He turned to see Violet returning to her normal size, and flying behind them. Gear turned down a corridor and stopped.

    "Reep, Vi, grab a hold of me," he commanded. "NOW!"

    Just as the two Legionnaires did so, the engine room exploded, igniting the oxygen all around them.

    "Hey, Garth," Superboy said. "I just got a massive energy spike from the engine room. Isn't that where the others were?" Lightning Lad turned to Superboy and looked at the panel he was reading.

    "I think so," he said, "trying to raise them on their..." He stopped his thought as he heard a strange sound outside the bridge. "Superboy, what's that?"

    Conner perked up his ears slightly. It sounded somewhat familiar. His eyes widened as he realized what it was.

    "Garth, down!" he screamed, jumping from his seat, tackling Lightning Lad and extending his telekinetic field around him.

    The bridge exploded into flames.

To be continued...

Next Issue: In Legion Worlds #7: A Legionnaire dies as the Legion learns the truth about the Rotullian derelict and the Sallakan attack! The question is- Who?! Plus, we meet Karate Kid, Apparition and Ultra Boy!