Chapter 2
"Terror Firma"
The gates went down first. Ten feet thick, made of solid wood, they had stood for a millennium. Panicked people ran before the destruction, many trapped into their falling homes. Others were swept up in the high winds that blew out of nowhere or by the water from the burst sewers. Eventually the in-town mansions of rich and powerful shuddered on their foundations and fell apart. The rubble spread outward, shooting toward those trying to escape. The kitchens would go up in giant gouts of flames, embers carried onto the roofs of the unscathed houses. One was carried over the Palace walls, dancing through the air. It flickered slightly, and alighted softly onto a curtain blowing through an open window. The whole room was quickly up in flames. Ancient timbers groaned, then snapped under the increased load of collapsed ceilings and walls. It didn't take long before a chain reaction took down a whole floor of rooms; forcing a fireball out the main door into the courtyard.
It looked even worse from the air than she had seen in her dream. The area around Orando's capital was destroyed; the actual city was only slightly better off. Only the Royal Palace was still standing; but even that was missing a wing.
"I demand that we go down there now." Princess Projectora was breaking from her ongoing argument with Saturn Girl.
"We will go down there, Jeckie," she tried to keep her voice calm and soothing. "I know you're worried about your planet; but first we have to try and figure out who did this. We can't just go down there with no plan."
"My people are down there, Imra!" she screamed at the team leader. "I have a duty to them as the heir to the throne of Orando; and moreover, my family is still in the palace! The wing that collapsed was the residential wing!"
Saturn Girl put up her hands. "Alright, Jeckie. You can go planetside, but you will take a team and you will maintain contact. I don't want anyone to get into a situation you can't get out of."
Princess Projectora touched down just outside the ruins of the residential wing and ran into the rubble. Cosmic Boy and Cham weren't far behind her.
"Wilhelm! Wilhelm!" she called desperately, running from pile to pile. "Little Brother! Mother, Father!"
There was a slight cough off on her left. Jeckie pulled loose debris off a man lying half out of the rubble.
"Seneschal!"
"Princess…" he coughed. "Where is the King?"
"I don't know! We just got here!" She pulled him up, and had to catch him when his leg collapsed under him. "Where did you see my family last?"
"The King was holding Full Court, all the Heads of the Houses were there…"
Jeckie passed the man over to Cham. "Make sure he gets to Triplicate Girl; I don't want him to lose that leg."
Cham nodded and ducked under the man's arm. "I'm going to fly you up, okay?" he told him.
"This way," she ordered Cos. "If all the Heads were, there, my mother and brother would be there to."
Karate Kid spun around as Chameleon Boy touched down into the beginnings of an emergency treatment area. "I've got a wounded here!" he called. Triplicate Girl came running over. Years of patching up her friends and teammates served her well now that she was the only trained medic on the team.
"Cham!" Saturn Girl called from where she was supervising the movement of equipment out from the ship. "I need you to be on a search team!"
"Jeckie's expecting me back!"
"I'll go," Karate Kid told him. "Don't worry about her."
"Yeah, you're doing it."
Dawnstar stirred up a small patch of pebbles thoughtfully. "The people who did this were here recently, I know that. Somehow, though, the trail is already almost cold."
Ultra Boy cracked his knuckles. "Well, where'd they go?"
Timber Wolf was sniffing around a few feet away. "That way. This scent… it's odd. It feels like the scent doesn't want me to find it."
"Get your head checked, puppy. Let's go smash the guys who did this."
Star Boy made more rubble float up off the trapped civilians. Phantom Girl was phasing through the larger piles, pulling people out of places where the ruins were unstable. Element Lad was leaving clouds of oxygen behind him as collapsed buildings vaporized when he touched them. Colossal Boy piled everything that was left once the people were evacuated off to the side.
Triplicate Girl had set up a treatment area nearby in a mostly-clear city square. She had roped Invisible Kid, Bouncing Boy, and Nemesis Kid into helping her bind up the less serious wounds.
Saturn Girl turned toward the remaining assembled Legionnaires, satisfied that everything was going reasonably well.
"So, what are we going to do?" Tyroc asked.
"I need you to spread out and see if the people who attacked the cities left behind any clues. Dawnstar and Timber Wolf already tracking them, and they should be fine with Ultra Boy to watch their backs. This level of destruction couldn't have been done by one person-"
"Yeah. You lose whole systems when that happens." Sun Boy muttered under his breath.
Shadow Lass slapped his arm. "Shut up."
Blok looked over at Dream Girl. She was still shaken up by her dream. He saw her vacant expression and tried to get Saturn Girl's attention.
"Saturn Girl…"
"Wildfire, I want you to go with Shrinking Violet." She hadn't heard him. "Cham will go with Shadow Lass, Sun Boy will go with Dream Girl, and I'll go with- Blok? Blok?"
She looked around in confusion. "Where did he go?"
Dream Girl ran ahead of Blok, yelling to him. "We need to get to Jeckie and Dawnstar!"
"Dream Girl, they are not even with the same team-"
"The people who did this, they're still around!"
Karate Kid was flying low over the ruins of the palace, hunting for the Princess. He spotted a figure stumbling through the rubble and touched down.
"Jeckie?"
The figure coughed and came into clear view. A young man, taller than him, blinked his eyes clear of the dust he had stirred up.
"Who…?"
"I am Karate Kid, of the Legion of Superheroes. We are here to help-"
"My sister! Do you know my sister?"
Karate Kid looked at his clothes. Through the dust, those would be of fine cloth. "Projectora?"
"Yes! Is she here?"
"I'm still looking for her-"
"You have to hurry!" the Prince's eyes were wide. "Those monsters are still here!"
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Lightning Lad yelled into the empty city.
The Workforce stood before him.
"Hey again!" Gas Girl greeted him.
"Saturn Girl!" Garth called.
"She's not here anymore." Phantom Girl phased through the closest wall. "Everyone who's not getting people out of the ruins or fixing them up is hunting Dream Girl. She's disappeared."
"Of all the times- just watch these guys, okay?" He ran off.
Tinya looked doubtfully at the small group before her. "So, you guys are-?"
"I'm Gas Girl! Duplicate Boy put me in charge this time! This is Kid Quake," she swung her arm around the boy next to her. "That's Sludge, and Atmos, and Inferno's over there." She pointed at a tall, lanky blonde girl staring hard at a pile of broken masonry.
The Legionnaire thought for a moment. "Did you bring anyone who isn't good at destroying stuff?"
"I don't destroy stuff, I dissipate-"
"You should have brought those other guys, the ones at the warehouse. Uh… Calorie Queen and Life Lass. They could help pull people out. We've got enough destruction here already."
Gas Girl's face fell. "Are you sure the people I brought-"
"Only if you wanted to tear down the rest of the planet."
Cosmic Boy joined Projectora in digging through the fallen pieces of roof in what had been the Throne Room. Every so often, they'd find a piece of sleeve or skirt and uncover a person. Most of the people were still alive, but badly hurt.
"We should take these people back to Trips!" Cos insisted again. "If we just leave them here they could die!"
"We don't have time, Cosmic Boy! There are too many people here that need our help."
"Jeckie, what good is saving people if we just let them bleed out behind us?" he shouted.
"Fine, you take them back!" Her wide, round red eyes flashed at him. "I am going to find my parents!"
Cosmic Boy looked at her in disgust and picked up one young girl, flying off.
Bits of gravel clattered behind them. They both turned as Karate Kid and the prince came running up.
"Wilhelm!" she exclaimed, jumping up to embrace him tightly.
"Jeckie!" he pushed her away and grabbed her shoulders. "You have to leave!"
"Wil, I can't-"
"They're going to come back! There's one who-"
The half-fallen wall behind them shuddered and started to crumble.
Colossal Boy reeled back and nearly dropped his handfuls of rocks and wood. "Hey! I almost stepped on you; idiot! Watch where you're go-" he peered down. "You're not a Legionnaire…"
Triplicate Girl heard the rumble before the shadow fell across the sectioned off treatment area. She spun around just in time to see the pile of debris that Colossal Boy had been making tumble toward her; the giant trying desperately to stop it all from crushing all of them.
"Just through here!" Dawnstar called. "I don't think we're far behind now!"
She shot through the still-standing frame of the city gates and pulled up in confusion. The clear, flat space that surrounded the city was free of any obstacles to her line of sight was empty. Ultra Boy and Timber Wolf shot past her.
"Dawny, you said we weren't far behind!"
"We shouldn't be!" she exclaimed, frustrated. "The trail end he-"
Something hit her back and she fell to the ground, pinned. The boys stared over her, seeing even more people coming.
The strangers rushed toward them and the boys ran toward them. They engaged in a roar.
On the ground, Dawnstar spotted two figures disappear in a flash of light.
Dream Girl stopped running, gasping for breath. Blok paused next to her.
"Dream Girl?"
"Too late…"
"Dream Girl?"
"Why am I always too late when it really matters?" she wailed.
"I hear destruction!" Atmos bellowed. "Lead me to it!"
"You aren't supposed to be going anywhere!" Tinya exclaimed as he pushed past her. She turned and yelled at his receding back. "Hey!"
She turned just to see the rest of the Workforce dashing off in all directions.
Star Boy flew up under the falling pile of debris and spread his arms wide. The various wood and stone fragments wobbled in the air and slowly began rising.
Bouncing Boy turned on the man responsible for the near-catastrophe. "Just what do you think you're doing? We all could have been killed!"
The man's eyes were cold as he replied. "That was the idea."
A giant fist of rock blasted up from the ground and sent Bouncy flying.
The man kneeled with his hands flat on the ground. The whole city trembled and what little of the buildings remained started to fall apart. A girl appeared behind him, her arms raised high above her head. The air around her started to swirl, and soon she was standing in the middle of a miniature cyclone.
Invisible Kid looked around desperately. It was only him, Trips, Bouncy, and Nemesis Kid.
Nemesis Kid.
"Hart!" he yelled over the roaring of the winds, waving his arms. The other boy looked over and struggled toward him, barely avoiding a giant crack that came snaking through the street.
"We need to get over there, Lyle."
"I know! I know!" he said, grabbing Hart's arm. They both experienced a moment of disorientation as the light bent around them. Lyle started running as soon as the world looked straight again. Nemesis Kid stumbled a bit, then managed to keep up with him. They reached the pair just as the girl released her cyclone.
A massive male alien in protective padding burst through the wall. Karate Kid pushed Jeckie and Wilhelm out of the way and used the alien's momentum to send him tumbling to the ground. Fire spewed from the space where the wall used to be.
Princess Projectora pushed past her brother and confronted the alien before he could get up. "Stay down," she snarled at him. "Stay down and surrender, or I shall be the one to make you submit."
He started to his feet and she held out a hand. He screamed and covered his eyes. "You witch! What did you do? Where did you get this light?"
"Gron?" a voice called. A blonde girl in fire colors clambered over some debris. "What's going on?" She spied Projectora and Karate Kid could see the anger rising in her eyes. He landed a flying kick on her back and she fell forward.
"Thanks Val." Jeckie said calmly.
The other girl scrambled to her feet and directed a gout of fire in his direction. He rolled out of the way and had to dive to the side when a burst of flame hit the ground next to his head.
Saturn Girl was still searching the ruins when she felt a tentative telepathetic probe. She reached out and grabbed it with her mind. Someone let out a strangled sound nearby. Wildfire landed on top of a large pile of shattered roofing and looked down at the two people there. One of them looked up. "Phren…" he tugged on the other's sleeve.
Phren looked up. "What are just sitting there for? Move!"
He got up with more speed than Wildfire would have credited him for. The impact of his body sent them both flying to the ground.
"Drake!" Sun Boy yelled.
They struggled with each other for a moment; then the strange young man got a hand under Wildfire's helmet, sticking it straight into the anti-matter energy that made up the Legionnaire's body.
"What are you-"
His opponent dissolved into water and flowed into his containment suit. Drake could feel himself cooling down at an alarming rate.
"Get out of my body!" he roared, and slapped his hands onto the front of the suit, turning his energy back on himself.
Somehow, everyone managed to duck behind some sort of barrier before Wildfire's containment suit exploded, completely releasing his form.
Karate Kid had his hands full trying to keep the fire girl from incinerating him or anyone else. All the ducking, tumbling, and general avoiding only tired him out enough that his reflexes were starting to slow down. His last tumble had left his hair singed.
Val reached out a hand behind him and it hit a wall. There was a wall on his other side too. The fire girl had maneuvered him into a corner. She raised her hands again. A giant fireball roared toward him.
Another gush of flame deflected the first one. A different blonde girl in fire-colors now stood on the remains of the wall that had pulverized. Jeckie was distracted for a moment by the newcomer and Gron surged up out of her hold, punching her in the gut.
"Jeckie!" Val yelled.
The new girl directed her stream of fire closer to the first pyrotechnic. Gron shook his head, dispelling the last of the illusion.
"Uhgh… Kynda!"
Princess Projectora threw another conjuration into his face, this one of a giant cobra. It struck at Gron and he swung wildly at it.
The fire was just creeping closer and closer to her.
Even though Timber Wolf had knocked her attacker off, Dawnstar still couldn't move. The girl had projected some sort of statis field around her. The edge of it had clipped Ultra Boy and he was moving slower than usual. He couldn't switch out of his invulnerability mode for fear of getting seriously injured. Brin had his hands full just keeping the group off her.
Gradually, Dawnstar realized she was able to move her fingers. She strained to move her wings and broke out of the statis field all at once. She surged up off the ground and hurled herself into the air, ignoring Jo's angry shouting after her. No one could catch her. She could fly faster than any Kryptonian ever could.
And that would mean victory for her.
Dawnstar circled around in a wide arc, observing.
She sped down, searching for the trail she knew would lead into the ruined city; and knowing she would find Tyroc nearby.
He was crouched behind a giant broken rock, shielding himself from Drake's energies.
"Troy!" she hissed in his ear.
"Dawny, what-?"
"Listen to me! I have a plan."
Nemesis Kid managed to get the man tearing the ground apart into a headlock. Lyle tackled the lady making the cyclone. She struggled with him, and Lyle fought to hold on inside the new winds she had conjured up.
The man was having a much harder time of it.
"Who are you?" Hart demanded. "What do you want?"
"I am… Elysion." The man managed to say. "We are Terror Firma, and we want one thing-"
The lady broke out of Lyle's hold and blew him down the street.
Elysion struggled out of the headlock and managed to get the Legionnaire's arm twisted around behind him.
"-Revenge."
He leaned down on Hart's arm and there was a snap. Nemesis Kid screamed in pain.
:I'll take Tyroc and go back to the gates. He can vibrate the molecules around there enough that we won't ever have to worry about these people again.:
Phren thought the mind-voice sounded like a high mountain wind swooping down into a pine forest.
:Good idea, Dawnstar.:
He knew that voice. That was the Legionnaire who had captured his mind probe.
:I'm tired of dealing with these people. I want them gone and I want them gone for good.:
The accompanying images he saw with his mind made Phren absolutely certain as to the degree of permanency 'good' was.
There was a giant whoosh as Dawnstar took off, dragging Tyroc behind her.
Phren grabbed his partner's arm. "We have to get out of here, now! The gate patrol is in trouble!"
:Thank you for helping, Saturn Girl.: Dawnstar called with her mind. :Now get to Princess Projectora!:
Blok had one large, stone hand on Dream Girl's back. She had her head in her hands. She cleared her throat and he thought that she was about to talk about 'being too late' again. Instead she lifted her head and sniffed a few times.
"Blok…" she said wonderingly. "There's time again."
She grabbed his hand and they ran off into the ruins once more.
Ultra Boy had managed to get the statis field full in his face this time. Timber Wolf was jumping all around him, trying to fend off the crowd.
There was a blinding flash, and he staggered back into Jo; covering his eyes with his arms. Someone called to the attackers.
"Get through here, quickly! One of -" The rest of his words were drowned out by a sonic boom. Dawnstar and Tyroc descended from the sky.
"Too late!" he screamed again. "Go now!"
Tyroc swooped down and took a deep breath.
Dawnstar managed to call out to Jo and Brin about where to go next before Tyroc let out with an ear-splitting wail. The air vibrated at a high frequency, and little flashes of heat lightning crept closer and closer to the escaping enemies scrambling for the small portal Phren had put up.
Just as the last one fell through and the portal's light started to fade, Dawnstar grabbed Tyroc again and they followed the boys' trail to the treatment area.
Elysion looked up from where Nemesis Kid had collapsed by his feet. Phren was waving his arms wildly from across the square.
"Elysion! Zelpha! Some of the Legio-" he spotted Ultra Boy and Timber Wolf flying in over a ruined boardinghouse.
"They're here, they're here!"
Elysion turned and saw the tiny sonic boom outside the city. He ran at a mad dash toward the portal, Zelpha not far behind.
Dawnstar landed in the square to see Trips helping Hart to his feet and the rest of the Legionnaires on clean-up duty talking urgently with Brin and Jo. She called to them.
"You all need to get to Princess Projectora, now! The teleporter is taking everyone there!"
She took off again before Triplicate Girl could protest that she had patients to see too.
Jo managed to catch up to her.
"What are you trying to do, run us into the ground?"
"I'm trying to round up these terrorists!" she told him. "Terrorists are all the same; confront them head-on, with more power, and they run. I managed to get them scared of Tyroc, and now they're all converging on Princess Projectora. If the Legion can get to her, we'll be able to overpower them."
The two fire-wielders were now directing their flames straight at one another. The heat was getting unbearable, penetrating even the flight ring's environmental shielding. Jeckie was losing her concentration. She stepped to the side.
Karate Kid had pulled himself out of the corner and watched as Jeckie's foot caught a protruding piece of rubble and fell backwards. The giant snake that had been coiling itself around Gron disappeared. He started toward the Princess.
Val wasn't going to be able to get to her before the alien reached her.
Suddenly, Gron drove his hand into the fallen debris of the palace roof and pulled out a man.
"Father!" Jeckie yelled.
A smile spread across the enemy's face as he realized who he held.
Blok cannoned into the alien who held the King. Dream Girl ducked under the flying fists and caught him as he fell. Projectora ran over to her, sweeping the King up in an enthusiastic hug.
"Father, Father are you all right?"
Nura saw his small smile even through his dirty, matted short beard.
"I thought you weren't going to come home until you finished learning about the rest of the galaxy," he told his daughter fondly.
Jeckie pulled back and smiled widely at him. "This was a special occasion."
Nura could see the rest of the Legion beginning to climb over the piles scattered around the area. Dawnstar and Jo pulled up overhead and started to land.
Element Lad saw the two fire-girls still fighting and reached out a hand. The flames sputtered and died, failing to burn in carbon dioxide.
A small point of light appeared off to the side.
Terror Firma faced the assembled Legion.
Neither side moved.
"Elysion," Kynda hissed from her position. "What do we do? The Legion-"
"-has backup!" trumpeted Gas Girl, scrambling over the rubble. "Great job, Inferno! You found them." The second fire girl just looked at her. The Workforce appeared behind her.
"Oh no." Lightning Lad and Dream Girl whispered simultaneously.
All of them but Inferno ran straight toward Terror Firma. A full half the Legion turned to try and stop them.
"Those idiots are going to get themselves killed!" Cosmic Boy yelled.
Elysion saw his chance. While the Legion was distracted, he dashed forward. He ducked Ultra Boy's swing and Star Boy's attempt making him three times his weight. Blok loomed in front of him. This was something he could work with.
Blok could feel his body twisting and contorting out of all recognition. His own stone-like nature usually resisted physical change, weathering, fracturing, chipping. This was different. His body wanted to change under Elysion's influence.
Wildfire's disembodied energies managed to descend on the two of them. Elysion screamed and the weirdly protruding parts on Blok started to dissolve.
"Retreat, retreat!" he yelled. Terror Firma slowly disengaged from the Legion. Phren set up a hurried gate, and the destroyers of Orando's capital left for places unknown.
The Workforce was nowhere to be seen.
"Figures. The wanna-bes leave just when the going gets tough." Nemesis Kid had managed to get to the fight despite a dislocated shoulder. "I said they couldn't handle the job."
Saturn Girl counted the downed Legionnaires once they got everyone moved to the medical bay on the ship. There were too many. Entirely too many.
Thus ended the relief mission-turned-terse confrontation-turned-rout.