Here we go. To those of you who read The Game of Servival (yes, I really misspelled the title bc I used to suck at Spell Check back then), this is the original Shadowflames that the other one is based off of. Diana was originally my own LOSH member and I used her as a sketch to create Samantha Robinson, a theoretical online comic that's still in progress…one of these days though…
Anyhow, Diana Jones has all the powers that Sam had; controlling/conjuring fire and shadow solidification; but she does not turn into a giant fox anthro beast thing.
Also, the other story kind of sucked so this one will hopefully be its redemption…hopefully.
DISCLAIMER: DC owns all the characters except the obvious OC's I put in here
Please comment and be honest about your opinions. One thing I cannot stand is people lying to spare feelings. If you hate it let me know. Although if you honestly love it that would be good to know as well ;D
ENJOY!
Ch. 1: The Beginning
She ran. That's all her mind told her to do. She ran and ran, pushing tree limbs out of her way and stumbling over roots and loose stones beneath her bare feet.
Nine year old Diana Jones saw everything in her mind, replaying again and again as if her brain was on a never ending loop. She saw them, the man beating a four year old Kevin until he stopped moving, blood pooring from his head. The woman complaining about the mess on the rug she now would have to clean up. Diana saw herself, trying to reach out to protect him, to shield him and she saw the man turn and slap her to the ground, keeping her out of the way. Diana felt the needles push into her skin, heard the other man and woman discuss levels of chemical concentration. She saw the fire, the man falling as flames licked his body, the woman running out the back room. And then she saw herself turn and run, the oversized white cotton shirt she wore whipping around her knees as she moved, her mid back length brown hair flying behind her. And then she saw Kevin's face again, smiling up at her. The images wouldn't go away.
She finally fell forward after tripping on a particularly high tree root and lay face down as the rain beat down on her, cooling her skin till it shivered. She looked over at her left wrist, where a large black band sat, a digital clock face with multiple buttons and knobs attached to it. She wanted to get away, any where but here. She pushed herself up on her elbows and fiddled with a few knobs before the band grew hot and started vibrating. A bright white light swept over her and the next thing she knew she was floating in nothingness.
When she opened her large hazel eyes she saw that where ever she had landed, it was sunny. She sat up, clutching her head. It was clear that her teleportation watch had worked, now just to see where it had taken her to.
She was sitting in an alley way, from what she could see when she looked towards the entrance, she had landed in a city. Maybe it was because she had hit her head, or because she was exhausted beyond reason, but the people walking on the sunny sidewalk looked weird. All different colors, and not the normal ones. She saw tall thin green ones, short fat pink ones, small purple blobs, blue slug like creatures and yellow fuzzy puff balls bouncing along as if it was the most normal thing in the world. She blinked, hard, rubbed her eyes and stared again. Nope, the things were still there, along with hovering crafts she had mistaken for over sized birds. Where was she?
Diana looked down at her watch and had to triple check the date, June 11, 3004. Somehow, she had been blasted a full thousand years into the future, into the 31st century. This was kind of an unexpected turn of events. The stupid thing was supposed to take her to another location not another time.
It took Diana a full eight seconds to realize that she was in the future. It took eight minutes to realize that the watch had short circuited, she was stuck, and on the bright side of things she had managed to get away, very far away. And it took her eight years to find where she fit in.
A short teenage girl stood outside the Head Quarters to the Legion of Superheroes. She wore jeans, boots with thick souls, a black sleeveless muscle shirt under a red and black sports jacket with high collar zipped all the way up, and a black baseball cap flipped backwards on top of a pixie style hair cut. Her thick brown bangs, which were cut at an angle and usually parted on the left side, were spread across her forehead, stopping just short of her hazel eyes. Her arms were crossed and she was waiting for them to call her name. There were others standing around her, weird freaks of nature around her age waiting for the same thing she was. They were all talking excitedly together, sharing their powers and reasons for wanting to join the team. A few looked over at Diana but didn't approach her. No doubt she looked out of place in her jeans when everyone else wore spandex. She had been pleasantly shocked to discover jeans still existed this far into the future, especially seeing as how they didn't seem to be in season anymore. But deciding that it was probably best to stick to her usual style of clothing, she didn't care one way or the other. She had tried the spandex and it had just made her feel uncomfortable in many many ways.
She had thought about talking to a few of the nicer looking kids standing around her, but every time she tried, she froze up. She never had been good with initiating conversation. She was the prime example of social awkwardness.
Finally a boy slightly taller than her, with green eyes and orange skin came walking out of the building grinning widely. He walked over to a few others and gave them confident high fives. Then her name was called.
"Shadowflames." A large boy in blue spandex with yellow goggles on his head, holding a clip board called out. She walked forward, feeling incredibly put on the spot as she did so. She could feel the others' stares as she walked up to the large doors and into the marble building.
"So, you wanna be a member of the Legion." Stated a red haired boy with light blue eyes and a scar on his face. He was scrutinizing her carefully. She had no doubt that she, out of everyone else, looked the strangest. To the boy's left sat a green kid with blonde hair and eyes that seemed to shift from purple to pink. On the red head's right sat the large blue boy. What was she supposed to do?
"Yes, I do." She said as loudly as she could, which unfortunately wasn't loud enough for the boys sitting so high up. So she had to repeat herself, her voice cracking a little as she bit her bottom lip nervously, twisting her hands in front of her.
"It says here that your powers are wielding fire and solidifying shadow." Said the green boy in an official tone. She nodded.
"Well, let's see what you can do." Said the blue boy and he pressed a button. On either side of her, automatic doors opened and a flood of robotic dummies came floating out. She eyed them carefully, counting them as they surrounded her.
"Fifteen against one." She muttered to herself. "God, don't go easy on me boys." She leapt into the air and did a spectacular back flip out of the ring of robots. They all started coming at her but she raised her hand in a swooping upward motion. The shadow underneath the first robot lifted off the ground and engulfed the metallic thing in an air tight black buble. She started swinging the ball around, knocking the robots down all around her, piling them up a few at a time. When she dropped the the robot she had used as a battering ram on top of the pile it was crushed and smoking. All the three boys looked mildly impressed.
"That it?" she asked, still uneasy of having to perform for them.
"I don't think so." Said the blue boy pointing at the robots. She turned and rolled her eyes.
"Like I said, don't make this easy." She grumbled as the robots started to move again, clearly not down for the count just yet. She formed a shadow dome around the pile before one of them had a chance to get back up and then spread out another shadow at her feet. She knelt down, a hand holding a fist full of flames.
"Wait!" cried the red head. "What are you-"
She planted her palm on the shadow circle lying on the floor and the flames vanished. A second later there came a loud BOOM from the shadow dome and it shook a little. A few moments passed and then she let the dome fall away. There, lying on the floor in a perfect pile lay the remains of the robots, smoking slightly.
"Now, that's it." She said quietly, standing up and dusting her hands off before crossing her arms again. She looked up at the three boys who looked stunned.
She walked back out and another hour and half later, the boy in blue, Bouncing Boy, came back out to talk to all of them.
"It was a really close call this year." He began. "You all showed a great deal of promise and talent that the Legion can use. However we only have enough room to take on two of you this year. So the winners are Chameleon Boy and Shadowflames."
Diana looked over at the orange skinned kid who was maybe a year younger than her. He was punching the air shamelessly and it took her a few seconds to realize she was jumping up and down, cheering. The moment she noticed she stopped, blushing a deeper shade of red than her jacket and bit her bottom lip, hands shoved deep into pockets, a smile still on her heated face.
Bouncing Boy laughed and gestured for both of them to follow him back inside. There, they saw the entire Legion gathered around, ready to initiate them into the group of crime fighting heroes. Diana snapped on the belt, slid on the ring, and with Chameleon Boy recited the oath.
It took her a while to feel at ease with everyone, but once she did it was clear she was a ball of light in more ways than just her fire power. She gave each member a special nickname she alone called them, making sure it was okay with them before really putting into use. She was sarcastic but not mean, in fact it was her funniest attribute. She was a total kid at times, getting over excited about the smallest things which made her a great person for Triplicate Girl and Shrinking Violet to hang with. But Diana also had a strong, independent maturity about her that the others didn't see unless she was talking about something deadly serious. She proved to be just as smart if not more so than half the members, except of course Brainiac 5. It took him a while to get used to her bursts of enthusiasm, but he quickly became one of her best friends and it was rare to not see the two of them pouring over old history files together during their down time.
Diana explained enough of her past to the others that, thanks to a malfunctioning invention of hers, she had landed here from the 21st century, and had no desire whatsoever to get back.
Over time Diana, Shadowflames, lived with the Legion. She fought crime along side them, hung out with them, fought with a few of them, helped some get over troubles and internal conflicts. She was finally starting to feel like she had found a home when, two years later, everything changed for the worst.