Chapter One
Lyric
"Pant, pant" I ran down the night time sidewalks toward one of the alleyways. The Science Police were chasing me again even though they had no right what-so-ever.
"Heyཀ Girl, you'd better stop running because sooner or later we're going to catch youཀ" The leader of the squad that was chasing me yelled. I kept running, no one was gonna stop me from running for my life. I turned a corner sharply and slammed into the brick wall that was blocking my escape route, I swirled around and probably half of the Science Police army was pointing their guns at me. I looked around, a few of the Police backed away. That was my chance, I took a running leap and soared onto some stairs above them, it wasn't really that high even for a human.
"Shoot, shoot herཀ" I heard one of them yell, all of the Police fired at the same time, there was no way I could avoid them allཀ I turned and targeted the least amount of shots, there was one area that only had two "bullets" and I jumped in front of that. They both hit me square in the gut and I flew backwards off the building and into what I thought was a green lake. I inhaled some of the water and everything went black . . .
"Is she going to be all right?" I heard a male voice ask. I shifted in my half coma and I heard multiple people gasp.
"I'm surprised she's recovered so quickly. It's amazingཀ" a female voice said.
"I wonder what that toxic waste did to her . . . her body already had a transformation obviously. I wonder about her mind, lungs, internal things you know." A different male voice said. One of my eyes opened and then––slowly––the other one and glanced around. There were about eight people staring at me, a robot life form, a fat guy in a blue body suit, a girl with long blonde hair and pink eyes, a man with black hair with a white streak in it––who I thought was rather attractive––and . . . fangs, a girl with three different colors in her hair––orange, white, and purple––another boy with bright orange hair and a scar shaped like a lightning bolt, another guy who had on a giant S on his blue body suit, a girl who reminded me of a ghost that I saw in one of my dreams, she actually looked exactly like her, and a rather small girl with kinda big black hair and a cute little dress on. The girl with the blonde hair approached me, I went tense and growled a warning, I didn't know if she was a friend or foe. I froze in place, I don't growlཀ And I certainly don't do it by instinct. What did they do to me? The man whom I thought was kinda cute stepped by her and put his arm out in front of her.
"I wouldn't bother her right now Saturn Girl, she's too scared." He said. The woman named Saturn Girl sighed and backed away to go stand by the Lightning dude. I sat up and shook my head slightly, attempting to shake away my massive headache.
"What-what happened to me?" I asked as I discovered a new pair of ears on top of my head, they were wolf ears. Everyone glanced at each other. The man with the big S on his suit spoke.
"You fell into a river of toxic waste . . . you inhaled some of the water and, you changed drastically. I stared at him. He's got to be insane. I leapt off of the examination table and stretched, throwing my long skinny arms over my head. The boy who stopped Saturn Girl approached me. I stared at him cautiously, he crouched low to the ground like a lower wolf would to an alpha, he crouched lower and sat on the ground staring up at me.
"We aren't your enemies, we just want to help." He said. I glared at him not exactly knowing what to say. The guy with the scar spoke.
"But if that's what you want to be," his hands lit with electricity, "Then we can arrange that." Saturn Girl stood in front of him with her back facing me.
"That's no way to treat our guest." She scolded, he dropped his hands and the blue flames flickered away––it's really lightning of course. The robot person took his chance to say something.
"I scanned you with Computo to find out your status, as in physical strength, your stamina, and other things. I'd like you to battle Superman in a chamber where Computo will record how strong you are and how long you can resist Superman, it'll also record how physically strong you are exactly and we'll know your limits." He said, I blinked. Who was Superman? The fat guy spoke next.
"That's Superman by the way." he said pointing at the scrawny kid in the blue suit. I started to laugh, he wanted me to fight him? Everyone looked at me confused, I guess they were wondering why I was laughing. Superman puffed his chest out.
"Well if you're so full of yourself then. . . then why don't we go fight right now?" he threatened, my face dropped to look evil.
"Why don't we?" I repeated.
"Uh, you're still healingཀ I'm not letting you enter that chamber until you're completely healed." Saturn Girl said stepping in.
"No, no. I want to record her limits when she's hurt and weak. Just see." the robot boy interrupted. I glared at everyone and then stared at the man who stopped Saturn Girl from coming towards me earlier.
"Brainy. . . I really don't think that this is such a good idea. I mean, what if she's like me? She could hurt Supsཀ" he said. Everyone looked at each other as if they were having a conversation inside of their minds that I couldn't hear. I felt awkward and uncomfortable. The girl who reminded me of a ghost was the one who broke the silence.
"Well. . . if she does transform then we'll be able to tell how in control she is. That's reasonable enough right. Timber Wolf, you should stop trying to defend her. Just let Brainy do his procedure and she can rest." the man who helped me winced, I guess he was Timber Wolf.
"Well unlike you Phantom Girl I'm not heartlessཀ" he snapped. He stalked away after that and the door slammed shut behind him. I glared at Phantom Girl, now I really didn't like her. Saturn Girl approached me and held out her hand.
"Common, I guess we'd better let Brainy record you or whatever he's doing." she sighed glancing at the robot creature, "But if she gets wounded Brainiac 5 I'm going to wound you myself." she said, her facial features gave enough of a warning to me. I hurried along after them and stopped whenever we reached a door.
"This is the chamber I was telling you about," Brainiac 5 said, "You're only going to be in there for a few minuets. The walls will change to a setting that you're probably not familiar with, it's a barren planet. There will be a small window where I will observe you and maybe some of the other Legionnaires will too but I want you to focus on the fight with Superman. Is that clear enough to you?" he explain. I nodded.
"Clear as mud." I replied. He smiled and opened the door, Superman entered first and I went in after him slowly. I wasn't exactly ready for what they were going to do next.
The walls around me shifted and to my surprise shifted to my planet Zille, my home. I stared in shock and before I knew it I had just been punched in the chest. I flew backwards and slammed against what would look to be a rock, I gasped for air, this felt real enough to me. When I got up I staggered, I saw multiple Superman's coming for me again fist in the air. I ducked and his hand collided with the rock. I ran a few feet then tripped over a tiny pebble that shouldn't throw anyone off balance even a little bitཀ My face slamming into the cold stone ground was all too familiar with me, I had fallen so many times on this planet as I played with my older brother before he left me all alone. My eyes filled with tears as I thought about my brother and I couldn't concentrate on the fight, if Superman was going to kill me then let him.
I remember. . . I was young, very young. My brother yelled my name and told me to come outside with him, he wanted to show me something. I ran outside as fast as my tiny legs could carry me and I ran into his big outstretched arms. When I was in his grasp me picked me up and held me at his hip, he pointed to a beautiful, vibrant, green butterfly that was flying overhead. I stared at it in wonder, no other living creature has ever been around here before. I touched my brothers cheek.
"Bwother, what's dat?" I asked, I couldn't talk very well yet. He smiled, his face soft and said.
"That, Lyric, is a butterfly. Very rare around here in this specific color. They're usually brown and grey, never green. I wonder what turned it this color?" he explained. I stared at it and my brother spoke again, "Maybe it's your presence, you have such a good personality in you and your such a pretty little sister. No wonder it turned such a pretty color." he said. I smiled, my chubby cheeks getting even more round.
"You're pwetty too Karr!" I said. He laughed at me, the laugh echoed and it probably reached the other side of the planet.
My flashback ended and I felt a sudden wave of emotion jolt through me. Superman had stopped in mid air and was staring at me, I looked down and saw a giant puddle of tears. Everyone came rushing over to me with worried looks on their faces.
"Are you okay?" Saturn Girl asked.
"What's wrong?" the girl with three of her selves asked. I just sat there, shaking like the last leaf on the tree in the wind, which was very strong. Before I actually was aware of what was going on around me, I snapped out of my own world and looked around. It was nighttime, and all of the Legionnaires were sleeping on one thing or the other. Timber Wolf was sleeping on the ground, Saturn Girl was sleeping sitting up by the window, Lightning Lad was sleeping curled into a ball about three feet away from Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl wasn't in the room, Brainiac 5 wasn't here either, the fat guy was flying the spacecraft so he wasn't there, Superman was sleeping on the opposite side of the room facing me, and the girl with three selves was sitting next to Superman half asleep. I sat up, bad idea, my head started spinning and I almost toppled over. I ran into a pile of metal things and they all scattered everywhere making a lot of noise. I froze hoping I didn't wake anyone, I glanced over to Superman and the girl, she only stirred a bit but then fell back asleep. I let out a sigh of relief and crept over to the door, it opened and I decided to do a little exploring with my curious nature. I kept to the shadows just in case someone happened to be walking by. I snuck past a door looking like a shadow myself, not making a noise. Keep going, nothing to be scared of, I told myself as the area around me got darker and darker. I jumped at a noise, letting my enhanced senses do the work I kept very still listening and watching. I shrugged after I told myself that it was probably me who made the noise. I kept walking until I reached a big open area with wires everywhere. Strange, never seen a room like this before.
"Looks like you're lost." I heard a voice say, I looked around in confusion until my keen new eyes spotted something in the shadows. "You didn't think that I'd fall asleep with all of my comrades perhaps in danger did you? I'm not going to trust you that easily." he said, I recognized the voice. It was Timber Wolf. I glared at him.
"Nice to know that I have a stalker." I retorted. He stepped out of the shadows, his face wasn't very pleasant either. When he got closer to me I noticed that he was probably a foot taller than me and I felt intimidated by his presence.
"What were you doing wandering around the ship by yourself?" he asked. With my jaw set I turned on my heel and kept going in the direction I was earlier, not answering at all. He didn't like that. Timber Wolf grabbed my arm and spun me around to look at him. "If you don't answer," he snarled, "Then I'm going to make you." I yanked my arm out of his grasp.
"I was only exploring. Don't tell me that you don't have a sense of curiosity because, I do." I replied rubbing my arm, if anything he had a good pair of claws on those hands of his. He stared at me, I could see all of the suspicion in his eyes. I shrugged. "If you don't believe me then I guess you won't ever believe the truth." I said walking past him back to the room I was originally in. I heard him sigh but I was already a good twenty feet in front of him, I wanted to get away. He was a threat and I wanted to be as far away from him as possible. As I hurried back into the room Saturn Girl, Superman, and Lightning Lad were awake. Saturn Girl sighed in relief as she saw me and then glared at Timber Wolf when he entered after me.
"What did you do to her?" she asked, Timber Wolf ignored her but instead she touched his forehead and scowled. "You know that she's too weak to fight you, don't threaten her." she said, I believe she meant it as a warning. He made a noise and sat down by a window, gazing out at the stars.
"He didn't hurt me." I said in his defense, don't know why though. She looked at me out of the corner of her eyes.
"I can read your mind so it's useless to lie to me." she said. Superman touched my shoulder to get my attention.
"I was wondering, since you're a lot better, if you would fight with me again." he asked. I laughed.
"Wasn't really a fight to begin with." I said, he glared at me obviously taking it the wrong way. Saturn Girl stepped into the conversation.
"No matter how good her outer appearance looks she's still changing on the inside, Brainy did some research on what happens if a person doesn't die while inhaling that toxic stuff then the change takes at least two days to complete and sometimes the person can go insane. She has to wait another day." she explained.
"That's comforting." I muttered under my breath, she turned to look at me.
"Sorry. I know that may not sound too comforting but trust me, you're not one of the people that goes insane." she said with a giant grin on her face. My lip twitched, I was holding back a smile too.
Later that morning we landed on a planet called Earth, I've never seen anything so green besides that one butterfly that I saw so many years ago. I felt the strange plant called grass, it was so softཀ I put my face to it and smiled. Everyone was looking at me like I was an alien, and I was, I had never set foot on this beautiful green and blue planet. It was breathtakingཀ Lightning Lad walked up to me.
"I think it's time you know everyone's name, and we know yours." he said. The girl with three colors spoke.
"I'm Triplicate Girl." she greeted with a sweet smile.
"I'm Bouncing Boy" the fat guy said, no wonder he was fat. . . he could turn into a ball. "And you already know Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Superman, Phantom Girl, Brainiac 5, and Timber Wolf." he finished. I nodded.
"Now your name?" Triplicate Girl reminded me. I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
"I'm Lyric, Lyric Niory." I said greeting all of them. Bouncing Boy held out his hand to help me up, I grabbed it and he pulled me up with ease.
"Now, lets test how strong you are, there's a thing that Lightning Lad uses that'll fall on you and you're going to have to catch it unless you want to be crushed." Phantom Girl instructed, I could tell she was trying to be friendly but I still didn't like her all that much. Saturn Girl accompanied me.
"Okay, if you start to feel too weak then just tell us. We'll put the weights back up so you don't have to carry them anymore." Saturn Girl was a little too protective of me, did she not realize that I was left to fend for myself when I was eight years old? I could protect myself. There was a large room that I was shoved into, Lightning Lad was standing in front of a device and I was standing in the middle of a circular. . . thing. I looked up to see these giant black things that looked pretty heavy to me.
"Okay, you ready?" Lightning Lad asked, I shook my head but he didn't notice. His finger touched something and before I knew it something heavy, big, and black was falling towards me. I put my hands up so I could catch it, I stumbled a little but surprisingly it wasn't that heavy to me. Lightning Lad smirked and touched the button thing or whatever it was again and another weight thing fell on me. My legs were beginning to shake but I didn't give in. Lightning Lad pushed the button again and another weight fell on top of me. I gritted my teeth, this was hurting.
"You think you could hold one more?" he asked. I didn't move a muscle, didn't want to wound myself. He shrugged and pressed the button again, the heaviest weight fell on me and I felt my legs starting to buckle.
"Lightning Ladཀ Get them off of herཀ" Saturn Girl screamed, the heavy burden came off of my shoulders and I collapsed on the ground panting. I heard multiple pairs of feet coming towards me.
"Lyricཀ" I heard three female voices yell in concern, I blinked a couple of times.
"I'm okay, just shaken." I confirmed sitting up. Phantom Girl propped me up with her hands by holding onto my shoulders, she was going it again, trying to make friends with me. Triplicate Girl and Saturn Girl both helped me up and Saturn Girl kept pestering me with questions like "Are you sure you're okay?" or "Do you feel like you need to rest?" or "Are you sure you didn't press yourself too much?" and all I really wanted was to curl in a dark corner and sleep in my misery. I missed my planet and it's emptiness, I missed my time alone but I realized that I had a new family now and I don't think that I could get away from them that easily. Before I knew it everyone came rushing up to me.
"Guess how much you lifted on your very hands." Brainiac 5 challenged. I thought for a second, it was pretty heavy.
"A thousand pounds?" I asked, he shook his head. "Ten thousand pounds?" I guessed again.
"Much more." he said. I stared at him.
"A ton?" I asked again, he couldn't hold it back any longer.
"You lifted three tonsཀ" he exclaimed, my mouth dropped open revealing canine like fangs. Triplicate Girl clapped excitedly and Saturn Girl smiled to herself while Superman looked enraged. Lightning Lad and Bouncing Boy both patted my on my shoulder but I was frozen in place, my mouth wide open like a gaping fish and my eyes wide with shock.
"That's as much as Sups could carry, I'm surprised. I thought he was supposed to be the strongest." Lightning Lad pointed out. This made Superman very angry, he turned red in the face and almost leapt onto Lightning Lad but he held himself back.
"I'm still not made of steel Superman." I said trying to ease the tension that you could literally feel in the room. He glared at me and I stared back, his gaze softened.
"Nope, I'm the only one made of steel that can pick up that much." Superman said.
"But she's immune to kryptoniteཀ" Lightning Lad said. I turned to look at him with a fake smile on my face.
"Well Sparky, we can't all be as smart as you now can we?" I insulted. His taunting gaze turned into a hating one and his hands lit with the blue energy.
"What did you just call me?" he asked. I smirked.
"Sparky, what? You don't like to be called that?" I teased. He roared and threw a ball of lightning at me, I didn't move, if it hit me then he'd feel guilty. I closed my eyes just as the energy was about to hit me. When it hit a wave of electric energy coursed through my body, I yelped and fell to the floor.
"Lightning Ladཀ How could you do that?" Phantom Girl asked, Saturn Girl ran over to me and knelt down beside me. She touched my shoulder and before I could react my senses took control and my hand swung around and scratched her arm, she leapt backwards but my claws still got her. I stared at my hands as if they were a foreign object.
"I-I'm sorryཀ" I apologized as I ran out of sight, I needed some alone time, some time to think.
An hour passed, two hours, three hours. I stayed hidden in the room they had so kindly given me. No one had dared to come check on me . . . yet.
"You go in Lightning Lad, you're the one who made her instincts act up." I heard Timber Wolf command.
"No way, she'll eat me alive," Lightning Lad replied. "She likes you better." he argued.
"No, I hurt her too. She likes me just as much as you." Timber Wolf said in a cool, collected voice. That's not true, I like you better Timber Wolf, I though to myself.
"Open door." I said to the walls, the door slid open to reveal the two boys almost going at each other. They both stared into the dark room, Lightning Lad turned red. "I could hear you two bickering, Timber Wolf isn't the only one with dog hearing." I told them. Timber Wolf looked away, probably trying not to smile. I crawled out from underneath the table that I was hiding beneath and stood up to full height, I still was a foot smaller than Timber Wolf but only and inch smaller than Lightning Lad. Timber Wolf nudged Lightning Lad with his elbow, Sparky cleared his throat.
"I'm sorry I hurt you . . . you made me mad though." he apologized. I smiled.
"It was my own fault that I got hurt so you don't have to apologize." I reminded him. He smiled at me. I turned with my hands on my hips to Timber Wolf.
"Ahem?" I said, waiting patiently. He fidgeted.
"I'm sorry." he muttered. I put my hand to my ear, motioning that I couldn't hear him even though I could perfectly well. He inhaled.
"I'm sorry." he said probably loud enough for the next three rooms in both directions to hear him. I smiled.
"Much better." I said as I walked past the two boys. I noticed something was out of place.
"What's wrong?" Lightning Lad asked, I held up one finger to my mouth and he shut his. I listened intently to every noise I could hear, straining all of my senses I couldn't figure out what was wrong. All of the sudden an explosion boomed right by my head, the collision threw me into Timber Wolf and we both toppled backwards, he landed on top of me but jumped up just as quick as we had fallen. I leapt up after him ready for anything that life decided to throw at me. Brainy was on the outside of the Legion HQ with a stunned expression on his face.
"Brainy?" Lightning Lad asked, Brainy just smiled.
"Sorry, I was trying to fix something on this side of the HQ but I accidentally did it wrong and it shot something. I didn't mean to hurt anyone." he explained, I waved.
"No one's hurtཀ" I confirmed, Brainy stared at me.
"You are." he said pointing at a scratch on my arm, it was oozing blood but nothing too serious, I didn't even notice it. Timber Wolf and Lightning Lad examined it.
"It's just a reopened wound. It's not even really bleeding." Lightning Lad observed. My fake smile came back.
"Thank you Caption Obvious." I retorted. He stood up straight with his chest puffing out. He needed some ego deflation or something. I noticed that Timber Wolf was being very quiet. I looked at him, his face was a mix of so many emotions I couldn't tell which one he really was or if he was all of them.
"Timbs?" I asked putting a hand on his shoulder, he shook his head and all of the emotions vanished and his face returned to normal. "You okay?" I asked. He nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine." he said. I backed off.
"Oh, okay." I whispered. "We should go find the others." I said, mostly to myself but the two boys walked off in the opposite direction that I wanted to go. I looked at the hallway that I wanted to go and looked at the two boys who had just turned a corner. I sighed and followed them.
"Hey, wait upཀ" I called as I jogged after them.
When we got to the center of the HQ Superman and Phantom Girl were playing some sort of game that I'd never laid eyes on before––of course, I'd never laid eyes on Earth either. Saturn Girl was talking to Triplicate Girl who was laughing very hard at something. I looked around, more people seemed to have entered the Head Quarters. Bouncing Boy walked up to me.
"Glad to see that you're feeling better," he said warmly, "As you see there's some other Legionnaires here today. Word got out that we were housing a possible Super-hero so they all came to see you." he explained, I felt overwhelmed. A boy in a purple suit walked up to me and held out his hand for me to shake.
"Hi, I'm Cosmic Boy. You must be Lyric, Saturn Girl was talking about you when we got here but she said you were sleeping and that you probably shouldn't be disturbed so I didn't come wake you," he took a breath, "That, the little one with the green dress is Shrinking Violet. the big guy standing over there talking to Lightning Lad is Colossal Boy. Sun Boy is the guy with bright yellow hair––he's kinda hard to miss actually. The girl with the white hair is Dream Girl." at the mention of her name Dream Girl walked over and held out her hand.
"Yes, I'm Dream Girl. You're Lyric, am I correct?" She said, I shook her hand.
"Yes, I'm Lyric." I replied, she smiled and ran her fingers through her long white hair.
"I hope that you'll be joining the Legion, you'd be a wonderful addition to us." she said walking away to join Colossal Boy and Superman in the conversation that they were having. She seemed too full of herself for my taste. I stood there for a second and Cosmic Boy looked rather awkward in the silence.
"I'm going to go talk to Saturn Girl okay." he said as he slipped out of my presence. My wolf tail that I had eventually figured out I had was drooping, there was no life in me what-so-ever right now. I felt rejected, again. Sun Boy kept looking my direction but I never met his curious gaze, I didn't want to get into a conversation but he didn't get the memo and sheepishly walked over to me.
"Hi." he said, I ignored him.
"That's rude Lyric, you're supposed to say something back if people greet you, not act like you didn't hear them." Saturn Girl said from across the room. I glared at her.
"Get out of my head Saturn Girl." I warned. She shrugged and continued talking to Shrinking Violet and Cosmic Boy.
"Saturn Girl, that's not like you to just wander into people's minds and have a tour of their thoughts." Lightning Lad pointed out. She stopped talking and looked at me.
"I can hear her thoughts wether I like it or not, he mind is unguarded, probably because she had no one to protect it from being all alone on the planet." Saturn Girl explained, I felt all exposed now, it might be safer if I just didn't think at all.
"Are you thinking about joining the Legion maybe? You know auditions are coming up soon but a whole bunch of other kids are going to be trying out so you might have some competition. I heard you lifted as much as Superman did though, that's amazing . . . " I listened to him go on and on not saying a word. Timber Wolf called Sun Boy over and said that Cosmic Boy and the others were leaving, I looked at him and mouthed a thanks, he nodded and came to sit next to me.
"So are you going to try to join?" he asked after a minuet of silence. I shrugged.
"I don't know, maybe I just want to go back home." I whispered. He turned red.
"I'm sorry, I didn't-I mean I . . . " he sighed, "Just forget I said anything." he put his head on top of his hands and sat there. The awkward silence was a little too long for me.
"Um, Timber Wolf. If you don't mind me asking, why are you like this. I overheard someone talking about it and well . . . I'm curious." Out of the corner of my eyes I looked at his face, it was hard and cold as if he was frozen in a grimace. "I'm sorry, don't tell me." I whispered. He shook his head.
"You asked so I'm going to tell you, but I'm going to say it in a sentence and no more than that. My father only saw me as an experiment all my life and one day he tied me to an experimental table and . . . changed me into what I am today." he said, I wanted to slap myself. How could I be so nosy as to pry? He looked at me. "And what about you? I know how you got your powers but what about your personality, your life?" he asked. The least I could do was answer his question but I really didn't want to.
"When I was born my parents left my brother and me and then they were killed. When I was eight my brother left me alone on the planet and I took care of myself until I was thirteen then I transported myself to another planet with life on it, but not Earth. The Science Police had the habit if accusing me of doing wrong things so they chased after me and I fell into that vat of toxic waste when I was fifteen and now here I am still at age fifteen." I explained. When I looked at him he seemed to have zoned out. I was beginning to like him, he didn't find it necessary to fill in the silence with noise like I did. He also had a feisty temper like me when I'm mad. An alarm went off and I jumped in surprise, my heart beating a thousand beats per second. It took me a minuet to calm down, Timber Wolf laughed.
"It's just the alarm to tell us that we have a new mission." he said informing me. I nodded.
"Okay, thanks for telling me." I said still a little jumpy. I followed everyone into a big room with a giant screen on it. A man was on the screen, he was a robot that looked a little like Brainy when he transformed into a fighting type of robot.
"Legion of Super-Heroes, you must report immediately to the planet Colu. We are being attacked by a force that was created by Brainiac 1.0." he said. Everyone seemed to be sharing the same thought, this was something that we would all rather miss . . .