(This chapter has been updated. It now includes some information I forgot to add in on the first pass that will be important to later chapters. I also fixed up some grammar and dialogue. The first few chapters of this story didn't receive a proper editing session, so I'm doing that now. All current chapters will be updated before chapter 6, "Game Day," is posted.)
This chapter was a process, lemme tell you. I had to spend like an hour just trying to find a website that had this episode, I kept finding Man of Tomorrow and Legacy, which is the third one. I know I have the actual DVD somewhere in my house but oh my god I didn't want to do that.
Another thing I realized after uploading the last chapter, I forgot to add descriptions of the pre-existing characters, which is something I wanted to do, so I'm going to do that in this chapter. (This was added into the revised version of chapter one.)
But! I finally found it, and without further adieu, here is The Queen of Thieves Rewritten, chapter 2 Timber Wolf.
Enjoy!
C.J. (Kyla)
Robyn was sat at one of the control panels in the main hub of the battle cruiser. Her eyes scanned over the screen, keeping track of the status of all the defensive systems on the ship.
"There are ships in that thing!" Superman's voice came fuzzy through the communication board, where Saturn stood. Robyn glanced at the blonde girl over her shoulder. She was only a year older than Robyn, but you couldn't tell by looking at her. She was taller and carried herself with a kind of grace and dignity that Robyn could only hope of having someday. She often caught herself straightening her posture whenever Saturn would walk into the room. Robyn cringed at the memory of the two of them looking through several archived suit designs and trying out several different code names. Eventually Saturn had given up, somehow astounded that after an entire day of moving in and out of a spandex suit, Robyn had chosen comfort over fashion, and not picked a new name.
'It just seems stupid to me.' she'd said, much to the annoyance of the woman in pink. Eventually Saturn had managed to talk her into a new pair of jeans to replace her shorts and tights, yet somehow, after only a month, she had already managed to tear them in quite a few places.
"Yeah, a Morthax will eat anything." Lightnings voice crackled, bringing Robyn back to her senses. She looked away from her monitor and looked at the display screen showing Lightning and Superman flying towards a gross space blob with flailing appendages. Bounce's words, not hers. The thing was repulsive, it looked like a giant lump of bile with spiky spaghetti limbs.
"Anything I need to-" Superman started.
"Watch and learn, Superman. Watch and learn." Lightning's voice interrupted. He flew ahead of Superman and took aim at the Morthax. He shot it with an enormous blast of electricity. For a moment the Morthax started convulsing, and it looked like the mission might almost be over, but the attack was quickly sent flying back at the pair and hitting the side of the ship. An alarm started blaring and the words "Defensive Shields Internal Processor Damaged" started to echo through the room.
"Robyn!" Brainiac shouted from the other side of the hub.
"I know, I'm on it!" She stood up. "Someone watch my panel!" She ducked out of the room and ran down the hall to the maintenance shaft entrance. The ship shook a little as the Morthax hit the sides. She pulled open the door and made her way down the narrow tunnel. She had to crawl to be able to get through. Once inside she had a bit more room but she still had to duck so she didn't hit her head. She looked around for anything that could indicate the shields panel, but there were so many labels, some faded, some torn, some missing entirely, that she had to use her goggles to assist her.
"Enable word recognition." a screen popped up behind her goggles. "Shields." her goggles quickly scanned the room and found one matching panel at the back of the room. "Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me." Once she'd made her way down the hall, she opened the panel and looked inside. Several things had been knocked loose, but luckily nothing needed to be repaired, not right away at least. There was only enough room for one of her hands to fit in and she would still be able to see. When she had finally managed to get her gloved arm through, she got to work..
"Robyn!" Brainiac's voice cracked through on her ring. "What's going on down there?" She turned her head and raised the ring to her mouth.
"It's a little tight down here!" she shouted before turning off her ring. She looked back to the panel and continued working to repair the shields. After a few painful minutes she slid the final motherboard back into place and reconnected the remaining loose wires. The muffled alarm finally stopped blaring from the hallway. She had only a few moments of quiet celebration when the ship suddenly started shaking again. She hit her head god knows how many times on the roof of the maintenance shaft before she was able to re-activate her ring.
"What the hell is going on?" she shouted, trying to work towards the exit. "The shields should be up now!"
"Emergency crash landing!" She caught the tail end of Brainiac's sentence. "Get out of there, Robyn!" She started to crawl as fast as she could out of the small entry tunnel. Finally she squeezed her shoulders through the tunnel and was suddenly flung violently the rest of the way out and against the far wall. After about 30 seconds of that, she'd had more than enough and managed to activate the magnetic fields around her gloves and boots. The next time she hit a wall she stayed there, desperately hoping that it wouldn't fly off when the ship entered the atmosphere.
It took her probably a full minute to realize the ship had stopped shaking. Her boots and gloves suddenly ran out of power and , with the grace of a rhino, she dropped to the floor, landing harshly on her butt.
"Robyn?" She heard someone shout down the corridor. "Robyn!" she stood up as Brainiac ran around the corner. He was about a foot shorter shorter than her, and three years younger. His blonde hair was a bit messed up, probably from the landing, and she was sure she didn't look too great either. She would probably have a few bruises.
"Hey!" She exclaimed with a small smile. "I made it out, don't worry, you didn't lose your repair girl." Brainiac opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Lightning running around the corner.
"Good, you're ok." the older boy clapped a hand on her shoulder, starting to guide her down the hall. "Come on, let's get out of here."Robyn and Brainiac walked behind him.
"What exactly happened up there?" she asked as she turned on her solar chargers. It would be slow, but at least she would get some power back. "We received a distress signal from the planet Rawl." he explained. "Bounce was able to land the ship with minimal damage. If you hadn't managed to get the shields up it would have been a lot worse."
"And the Morthax?" they finally made it outside with the others.
"Superman took care of it." he said. Robyn nodded and could have sworn she heard Lightning mumble something under his breath. The three of them flew down to sit with the others. Everyone looked up at the ship with a hint of sadness. This would be one hell of a clean up.
"It could be worse." Superman shrugged.
"How? We're grounded!" Bounce complained.
"Well, we could have disintegrated on reentry." Brainiac explained. Superman, Bounce, and Robyn all looked at him with strange expressions.
"Well," Robyn sighed. "Aren't you just a little ray of sunshine."
"Hate to spoil your feel good moment," came Lightnings voice from atop the ship. "But this is a rescue mission, remember?" he took off, presumably in the direction of where ever they were headed. Everyone soon kicked themselves off the ground and followed after him with Saturn trailing behind.
Robyn wasn't sure how she felt about her flight ring yet, and, much like how Bounce prefered to use his power and bounce along with them instead of flying, she had been working on repairing her Glider for the last month. She was almost finished, but there were a few pieces that had taken her a full year each to complete and she wasn't sure yet whether it would be easier to update the equipment to something more modern that Brainiac could help her with or if she should stick to repairing what she already had and knew how to use.
"I'm picking up a lot of stuff moving around down there," Superman interrupted her train of thought. He was using his X-Ray vision to survey the surrounding area. "But nothing remotely human."
"Rawl is known for its abundance of wildlife." Brainiac explained. "Most you would classify as… unfriendly… Aside from Dr. Londo's research station, little else is here."
"What about you, Saturn?" Superman asked. "Sense anything?" Saturn raised her hands to her head, something she did often when using her powers. Robyn assumed it was something she'd done while learning about her powers to help her control them and it had simply become a habit.
"Everything," she sighed. "And nothing. There's just too much noise, but back at the ship I'm pretty sure something was watching us."
"Ok, now you're creepin' me out." Bounce's voice shook a little bit.
"Bingo!" Superman exclaimed. He was met with only confused looks from the rest of the group. "Oh, uh… that means I found it." he started to dive down towards the ground, everyone else following close behind. They all landed and began to walk slowly towards the front door.
"Seems pretty quiet." Lightning said. Suddenly three flood lights switched on and Robyn was the only person who didn't flinch due to the auto adjustment on her goggles. She chuckled at how funny it must have looked compared to the others. The door slid open with a loud hissing noise.
"Don't be deceived." said an unfamiliar voice. "These woods are more dangerous than you could possibly imagine." An older man walked through the door and into the bright light where everyone could see him. He was wearing a light mint green lab coat and a strange pair of yellow tinted glasses resting on the tip of his nose. His hair was a bright grey and cut very close to his head.
"Dr. Londo, I presume." Brainiac walked forward to shake the man's hand.
"Yes, yes." Dr. Londo replied quickly. He continuously glaced to either side and behind the group with wide, worried eyes. Robyn squinted and her goggles zoomed in on Dr. Londo. "Come inside, quickly. It may be safe for the Legion, but an old man like me doesn't stand a chance out here." Everyone followed him inside without another word. The door slammed shut behind them as Dr. Londo lead them through a few halls, finally turning into a large aircraft hangar.
"My repair facilities are at your disposal." He stopped walking once inside, and the group stopped behind him. "I only ask one thing in return."
"Of course!" Superman smiled. "We'll take you anywhere you need to go."
"Oh I can't leave Rawl." Dr. Londo whispered. "My work is here. That's why I called for help. What I need is for you to make it safe." he looked over his shoulder at the Legion.
"Safe from what?" Saturn asked, crossing her arms and holding them tightly around herself.
"The creature. Out there," Dr. Londo turned to face them. "This creature has destroyed everything dear to me. My research, my team… My son." he removed a small projector from his coat and handed it to Brainiac. An image flickered to life of a younger Dr. Londo and who must have been his son. "That's Brin. Remarkable young man. Takes after his father, don't you think?" a sad smile crept onto his face. "He had so much potential. But now…" he removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I want it caught. And I want it brought back to me." a heavy silence engulfed the seven of them as they realized what this creature meant to Dr. Londo.
"Don't worry." Superman walked up and placed a hand on Dr. Londo's shoulder. "We'll find your creature."
"And I'll make sure it will never hurt anyone again." a smirk tugged at Lightning's mouth.
"Thank you." The doctor smiled. "I have some machines that can help you get your ship into the hangar."
"Oh, that's no problem." Superman said. "We can handle that." Dr. Londo nodded.
"I leave this to you then." he walked passed the group and started to leave the room. "Oh, and please, do try to contain yourselves to this area. It's best that my work be left undisturbed." the door closed behind him.
"Ok, so who is staying to work on the ship and who's going to look for the... whatever it is?" Superman asked.
"I don't know about you guys," Bounce sat down on a crate near the edge of the docking bridge. "But I'm not exactly thrilled about going back out there anytime soon."
"I will stay as well." Brainiac raised his arm and a screen appeared in front of him. Robyn assumed it was a list of minimal repairs they would need to do to leave the planet.
"Well, I'm going out to look for that thing." Lightning started walking towards the door. "I think you should come too, Superman."
"Yeah." he nodded in agreement. "I have to go out anyway to get the ship back here."
"I guess I'll stay here with these two." Robyn crossed her arms. "I need to patch the shields again. That maintenance shaft, its ridiculous."
"Hey! I organized that!" Brainiac glared at her.
"When you were four?" Robyn put her hands on her hips and glared back at him. "I hit my head about eighteen times in there and I had to use one hand to work. It's so cramped and inconvenient."
"Well usually he goes down there himself and does his... weird, finger thing to get to what he needs." Bounce explained, standing to join the conversation. The others had started walking towards the door. Saturn had apparently decided to join them while Robyn was complaining about the maintenance shaft.
"Well if you're going to shout at me in the middle of a mission to go and fix something," Robyn turned to see what tools Dr. Londo had on hand. "Then we might want to move some things around."
"That is a reasonable point." he responded after a moment. Robyn looked over her shoulder at him, surprised he'd agreed with her so easily. He was stubborn when it came to the ship. "When we return to headquarters we'll move the maintenance controls to a bigger room on the ship."
"Thank you." The words felt foreign on her lips. She thought back to the last time she would have said it and actually meant it. Without dwelling too much, determined that she must have been six or seven. A few minutes passed and they had collected everything they could find and put it into a clumsy pile.
"We will definitely need to patch up the hull." Brainiac said, pulling a few tools from the pile.
"And I need to rework the shields in the maintenance shaft." Robyn said again, grabbing a few tools she knew weren't in her gloves. "I only did a temporary patch. It was only meant to last until after we'd finished with the Morthax when I could go do it properly."
"And we'll need to replace the atmospheric thrusters." Bounce chimed in. "The reentry fin on the top was definitely knocked loose too." The large door at the end of the hanger opened up and Superman flew in, carrying the ship.
"Show off." Robyn mumbled as he flew past. Brainiac took a quick look at the ship.
"Hm… This may prove to be more difficult than I thought.e have all the parts we need."
"We'll improvise." Bounce said as he picked up a few tools and slid under the ship. Brainiac glared at him.
"You can't just-"
"All we need is to get off the planet and back to headquarters." Robyn cut him off before he got too upset and picked up her own tools. "Like the maintenance controls, we'll just have to properly fix everything when we get back." She flew up to the still open door of the ship and stepped inside. She slowly made her way back down the maintenance tunnel and began repairing the shields.
When she'd patched them up during the fight with the Morthax, it was only supposed to get them through that fight. She was honestly shocked they hadn't landed on Rawl in a giant pile of ash. If they were going to get off the planed in one piece she would have to replace the wiring and main panel (which had melted because it was the wrong metal).
"Damnit." She crawled back to the hangar with Bounce and Brainiac. "Hey, Brainy," she called. "The metal I used to patch the shields is toast, what metal did you use originally?"
"It's the same as the interior walls," he responded without looking from his own repairs. "Just take what you need for now." she nodded and turned to walk back into the ship.
"Hey, Robyn wait, before you go!" Bounce called. She looked around and found him under the ship working on the atmospheric thrusters.
"What's up?" she landed next to him.
"Come down here a sec." She sighed and slid under the ship with him. "I'm not losing my mind, this doesn't fit, right?" Robyn looked at the gear lock he was talking about, her goggles automatically brightening her view. In the past, she'd stolen from the headquarters and even this ship several times, so she knew the thruster was supposed to be here, but Bounce was right. "I can't tell if the metal was warped during the landing, or if both ends are just missing a chunk."
"Maybe it got knocked loose and you don't have it lined up correctly?"
"I'm measured it eight times, I think it's lined up correctly."
"You're sure?" she turned to him. He nodded, nearly bumping his head on one of the several pipes above them. "Ok… watch your head." she activated an energy field around her right glove and held the thruster in place before activating a green blade on her left glove which stuck out just passed her closed fist. She slowly cut through the jagged edges of the gear lock until the thruster could slot easily in place. With a zap the blade disappeared and she activated the energy field around her left glove, using it to hold the thruster in place. "Ok, weld it now." after a few minutes the thruster was sitting back in its rightful position.
"Thanks, I've been trying to piece this back together for twenty minutes," he sighed.
"Why didn't you get Brainiac to help you?"
"Cause he's pissing me off right now," he answered.
"Amen to that," she crawled out from under the ship, wiped the grease from her face, and flew back up inside the ship. Before making her way back through the maintenance shaft, Robyn remembered to carve a square from the wall ane bring it with her. She sat cross legged on the floor so she would have enough room to sit up straight, and started the slow process of rewiring the shields control board. She had to yank out the scrap metal she'd used for the patch and replace all the internal wires before welding the metal from the hallway into place over top of all of it.
After yet another adventure out of the maintenance shaft, she made her way outside and heard what she assumed was the tail end of an argument.
"You can't substitute a plasma conduit for an injector port, Bounce!" Brainiac yelled without turning away from his work. "It's not in the schematic."
"Brainy, it's called improvising, you should try it sometime."
"A twelfth level intellect has no need for improvisation." Robyn finally reached the door.
"Fine! If you're so smart fix it yourself!" Bounce stood up and started walking to the hangar door.
"Where are you going?" Brainiac finally turned to look at him at the sound of the door opening..
"Any place you're not!"
"Dr. Londo asked us to confine ourselves to the hanger!" Brainiac tried to remind him. "He insisted!"
"So I'm improvising!" the door closed harshly behind Bounce, as if emphasizing his point. Brainiac turned to Robyn.
"Was it something I said?" he asked, scratching the back of his head. Robyn shrugged and flew up to the top of the ship to fix some of the wings that had gotten knocked out of place.
"For the record, most of what you do in combat is improvisation." she said as she powered up her gloves. He didn't respond, but she smirked when she heard him stop working for a minute. The energy fields around her glovese flickered to life yet again as she pushed against the fin. She tried to reach a hand down to weld it in place, but grunted when instead it pushed back against her and slid out of place.
"Hey, Brainy?" She called. "I can't hold this and weld at the same time, care to lend a hand?" he flew up to her without a word and welded the fin back into place while she held it steady. Before turning off the energy fields, she gave the fin a strong shake, to make sure it'd stay in place. When it didn't give way she let her gloves power down with a satisfied sigh.
"I'm not worried." Brainiac muttered to himself as he started to fly away. "There's no reason to worry."
"What?" Robyn watched him float down, almost without thinking, towards the door. "Hey wait!" She flew after.
"And even if there were, Bounce can take care of himself." She landed next to him as the door slid open.
"Brainy, what are you- Hey!"
"Little help here?!" Bounce exclaimed. He was pinned to the floor by several small floating robots who had tied him up in some sort of glowing blue rope.
"Hold still!" Brainiac shouted as he extended his fingers, attaching one to each of the robots in the corridor and zapping them until they short circuited and shut off. Brainiac and Robyn ran over to Bounce, each extending a hand to help lift him up.
"Nice save there." he said as he rose to his feet.
"Thank you," Brainiac said. "I improvised." just then a loud, animalistic cry rang through the hall, echoing disturbingly around them.
"Uh… What. the hell. Was that?" Robyn asked slowly . They all started to fly, or bounce, down the halls to the source of the noise. They came to a stop in front of a creepy, dimly lit room filled with cages, each with a different kind of appendage poking through the bars, and a table with straps attached to it in the center. "Wow," Robyn looked around. "This looks totally safe and legal."
"Don't leave the hanger, huh?" Bounce sounded irritated. "I can see why."
"I assume we'll be snooping?" Brainiac grinned.
"Oh yeah." the three of them walked cautiously into the room, making sure not to get too close to the arms reaching out from the cages. Robyns goggles automatically started scanning all the creatures in the room.
"I can't match any of these to any species I've ever heard of." She said.
"A few of these look like some images of extinct animals I've seen in history files." Brainiac said, inching closer to one of the cages. "This one kind of looks like a pig." Robyn made her way over to the table. There were several long, deep scratches and dents in its surface.
"Whatever broke out of here," she turned to the others. "I think the doc has a good reason to be scared." Bounce took a look at the scratches in the table.
Brainiac was stood in front of the computer, most likely trying to find whatever experiments Dr. Londo was doing in this room..
"There's no files on this computer." he announced. "None at all. I find it hard to believe that a scientist wouldn't have any of his research on his computer." he turned to the others. "This has been wiped, and recently."
"We should go find the others." Bounce said. Robyn and Brainiac nodded, quickly following him out of the room.
After sneaking through several halls and dodging a few robots like the ones before, they'd finally made it outside. They all crouched behind a large square transmitter near the edge of the forest. Bounce raised his hand to talk into his ring.
"Stop!" Brainiac whispered violently. "Londo will no doubt be monitoring communicator trafic. Perhaps if I think hard enough, Saturn might notice my brain waves."
"You just look constipated." Robyn said.
"Or I can just do this." Bouncing boy stood up and started waving his hands. "Hey guys! Down here!" that's when Robyn and Brainiac noticed the other three members of their group. It looked like Lightning was carrying Saturn, and Superman was carrying something large in an electronic net. They flew down to meet them. "Looks like they caught it." Lightning landed first, holding Saturn in his arms. "Uh-oh, healing trance…" Bounce walked up to Lightning. "Is she ok?"
"She better be." Lightning looked down at her.
"Whoa nice scratch." Bounce chuckled. Lightnings shirt had been torn across his chest and his skin had been scratched a bit. Not too deep, but he'd want to get it disinfected for sure. "Hope you don't turn into one of those things."
"Dr. Londo is conducting outlawed experiments on the indigenous life forms here." Brainiac explained to the others. "This creature is undoubtedly connected."
"What do you think it is?" asked Superman.
"Not 'what'," Saturn groaned suddenly. "Who. And you can put me down now." she glared at Lightning.
"How 'bout a little gratitude?" Lightning set her on her feet. "We just saved you from this thing." She ran her hands through her hair.
"It wasn't going to hurt me." she put her hands on her hips and glared at the redhead. "If you hadn't charged in fists-a-zapping I would have told you that." she waved her hands for dramatic effect. "I don't think Dr. Londo's been completely honest with us."
"No shit." Robyn crossed her arms as Saturn walked closer to the creature in the net.
"Uh… you're not gonna let it loose, are you?" Bounce took a step back.
"We have nothing to worry about." she said before adding a quiet hopefully under her breath. She deactivated the net and the creature reached up, nearly growing three times in size. It was large, grey, and hairy with long sharp claws and pointed teeth. It stretched, letting out a growl that seemed more like a sigh of relief than anger.
"I'd feel more comfortable if we did this on the ship." Brainiac suggested.
"But I doubt he would." Saturn made eye contact with the creature and raised her hands to either side of its head. "And for what I'm about to do, we need him as calm as possible." her eyes lit up. Lightning decided to charge up as well at this point.
"In case things get a little hairy." he said with a grin.
"Ow… really?" Robyn turned to him, a hand over her heart in mock hurt. "That actually hurt me, Spark Plug, that actually hurt me physically." Robyns comment combined with Saturns glare got Lightning to power down with some disappointed grumbling.
Without any further distractions, Saturn closed her eyes and looked into the creatures mind. After a few seconds, it stood on its back legs and howled.
"You aren't a monster!" Saturn yelled up at it. "You have control!" the creature seemed to struggle against itself for a moment before it slowly started to shrink into something closer resembling a man.
"Interesting." Brainiac took a tentative step forward. "He must have been in some kind of super agitated state." he then began poking the creatures back.
"Oh, dude I wouldn't-"
"Do you mind?" the man cut Robyn off with a deep, gruff voice.
"See?" She gently nudged Brainy's arm.
"Have you… got a name?" Superman asked.
"His name is Brin." echoed a familiar voice. "Brin Londo." Robyn looked up to see Dr. Londo. But it was a different man than before. The man they'd met when they first landed had been scared, and sad. This man stood tall, proud, and smiling down at them from his hoverboard as they were surrounded by his many creations. "Welcome home, son." Brin began to growl quietly (Robyn was sure she did too) and the rest of the Legion readied themselves for a fight. "Well done, Legion. I could have never brought him back on my own."
"You used us to do your dirty work." Superman accused in his 'I'm-gonna-fuck-you-up' voice. "That distress call was a fake."
"There is nothing more distressing than to lose a child." Londo grinned. Brins growls grew louder and more strained.
"Brin, don't let him get to you." Saturn put a hand on his shoulder. "You're in control, remember."
"You better think about your next move, Doctor." Superman took a step towards the front of the group.
"How 'bout, back off!" Lightning yelled from the back of the group.
"No more experiments!" Brin shouted up to Londo. "I'm through. You'll never lay another finger on me again."
"Then you leave me no choice." Londo didn't even flinch. As if causing his child pain was not only easy for him, but enjoyable. "Take them all!" the robots and various creatures started to close in on the group. Everyone scattered, taking advantage of the momentary confusion it caused. Robyn quickly activated her equipments battle mode, careful of the power she had left as it was night time now, and started shooting at some of the robots flying above her. A creature started to charge towards her, but she didn't notice until she had barely enough time to jump out of the way. She spun around after dodging and shot a taser chord at it, shocking it until it fell unconscious. She didn't have even a second to enjoy her mini victory. She used her flight ring to avoid the barrage of lasers now aimed at her, managing to take out all but one before they landed a hit on her. A scream bubbled up in her throat as she fell to the ground, but she managed to choke it down.
"Damnit!" she looked down at the wound at her side.
The world slowly faded around her, and she was suddenly only aware of the familiar chills traveling through her body. The wound slowly started to stitch itself up at the edges.
Damnit! No!" her eyes widened. "No no no no no no stop! Stop!" she closed her eyes and focused on anything but the wound in her side, the squeals of the creatures, the sound of snapping metal and torn wires, the feel of the tree against her back, the feel of twigs tangled in her hair. She glanced down at the wound
only to make sure that it had stopped. Then she reached up to the back of her head. Her heart was pounding in her ears and her hands were shaking. Only when her hand was yanked from the back of her head did she notice Brainiac and a broken robot next to her.
"Robyn!" he yelled over the noise.
"I'm fine!" she yelled back instinctively, trying not to lose her focus. "I'm fine…" she whispered to herself.
"Come on, he's getting away!" Lightning yelled. Robyn braced herself against the tree, using the branches to pull herself to her feet. She attempted to follow, but found herself tripping with how badly she was shaking. She was stopped by Brainiac putting his arm around her waist and helping her stay balanced as they flew off towards the facility. She'd have said she could do it on her own, but she was honestly grateful. She had other things to worry about right now.
Dr. Londo had run into his main lab, where he'd tortured Brin, and released all of his creatures. They huddled around him, slowly inching closer.
"Go!" he shouted, voice trembling slightly. "Attack!" the creatures only closed in on him more. "No! Stop! I'm your master!" Just then Brin turned the corner and roared loudly into the room. Terrified, all the creatures ran from the room and out through the halls.
"I'd have let him get eaten." Lightning crossed his arms. Superman flew into the room and lifted Londo up by the front of his shirt.
"Alright, doc." his voice was low. "Start talking."
"Very well." Londo smiled, his confidence suddenly back. "What would you like to talk about first? My creations, I suppose. Perfect specimens, marvels of nature, but not nearly human enough." Robyn felt herself begin to shake in rage. How was it that a parent could do such horrible things to their child when she'd… known some who had given everything for theirs? He looked at Brin. "No, I needed a better subject for my crowning achievement."
"So you used your own son?" Saturn glared at him.
"To see him transformed into the most formidable creature ever created for battle." Londo suddenly grew angry. "He should be thanking me! But no… he ran away before the process was complete-!" Superman slammed him against the wall.
"Change him back!" he shouted.
"He can't, Superman." Brin finally spoke. "My DNA's been altered too much… This is as close to human as I'll ever get."
"But for how long?" Londo taunted. "A day? A week? You'll never be able to control yourself, Brin."
"Yes he will." Saturn said more to Brin than Londo. "And the Legion will be there to help."
"What about him?" Bounce pointed over his shoulder at Londo.
"This sector is outside any jurisdiction." Londo said, smile growing into a wicked, crooked grin. "Not even intergalactic law can touch me. And why would they? My work is a gift! I create life!"
"What you create is suffering!" Brin stopped his father's rambling. "And the forest out there is filled with it! Children expect their parents to protect them! The only thing I've ever been to you is a science experiment! Your own son!" that was the last straw for Brin. He began tearing into Londo's lab, ripping wires from the walls, throwing monitors across the room, and tearing the doors off the cages.
It took several minutes for Brin to calm down. He stood in front of the door, breathing heavily, and looked over his shoulder.
"Never. Again." and without another word, they left. They climbed aboard the ship, welcoming Brin, and pulled out of the hanger.
"I still don't see how we're leaving the planet without functioning atmospheric thrusters." Brainiac said to Bounce.
"Improvise." was all the other offered as an explanation. The real reason, Robyn was surprised Brainy hadn't noticed, was Superman carrying the ship up into orbit. After they left the atmosphere, Brainiac took Robyn and Saturn back to the makeshift hospital room they had on the ship. He saw to Saturn's wound first, because it was bigger. She had been hit in the back by a rather large lazer, while Robyn had only been grazed. Her wound was not painful, she'd had much worse, but she was growing rather exhausted trying so hard not thinking about it. Brainy sanitized, cauterized, stitched up Saturn's wound and put a bandage on it. Then he turned to Robyn's.
"Your would isn't as traumatic." he said as he began to sanitize the area. "Though you seem to be struggling far more than Saturn."
"Not all wounds are external." Even after the words had left her mouth, she still almost hadn't realized she'd said them. Much to her gratification, he didn't pry. After he'd finished she allowed herself to relax. The pain had died down enough for her own body not to recognize it as an immediate threat.
"Are you coming?" Brainiac asked her, extending a hand to help her off the cot. She ignored it and slid off on her own.
"Might as well." she said. "Not a lot else to do on this ship." he nodded and they walked in silence to the conference room, where they had holograms of other members of the Legion placed around the room.
"Well? What do ya think?" Bounce asked as he stepped away from Brin. Brin stretched his hand a bit.
"Uh… a little tight?" he said.
"You'll get used to it." Superman said. "Eventually."
"We can find you something else to wear." Saturn offered.
"Yeah, I opted out of the suit personally." Robyn raised her hand.
"It's not the uniform." he said quietly. "What if he's right? What if I can't control this monster inside of me?"
"Don't worry." Lightning put a hand on his shoulder. "We've got your back. Just watch the claws." he rubbed the bandages across his chest.
"It's a deal." Brin chuckled.
"Are you ready?" Superman smiled as he opened a black box with the belt and the ring. Brin clasped the belt around his waist and slid the ring onto his right hand. He raised his right hand and began to say the same pledge that Robyn and Superman had to say, though Robyn will admit she kind of only half meant it and had obviously dropped the last part.
"To the Legion of Superheroes I make this solemn pledge: To use my powers for good, to fight for justice, and protect the innocent. To aid my fellow Legionnaires in times of peril, and to keep their secrets safe. I choose a new name to honor the heroes of the past. I am Timber Wolf."
Whoo! Two chapters in two days! Please do not expect this from me for the whole story, I get busy quick these days, but I'm going to do my best! I promise!
Anyway, please tell me what you thought of this chapter, I love hearing your thoughts and I hope you enjoyed!
C.J.