The Midvale Girls
The further adventures of the teenaged Alex and Kara Danvers
Metamorphosis
Chapter 3
Traveling a thousand years via the time bubble wasn't instantaneous like Alex and Kara had expected, not that they had any reason to expect that since neither of them had ever traveled through time before. They were left standing on the small silver platform surrounded by the silver sphere. There was nothing to see. The time bubble didn't have any visible controls or a display panel to watch or anything. It appeared to be entirely controlled by the small golf ball-sized device in Lyle's hand and even it didn't seem to have anything like a miniature display screen. Perhaps it had a neural interface only the boy could use. If he was from a thousand years in the future, the tech could seem like magic to them, as the old saying went.
"How long does it take to get there?" asked Alex after they had been standing there for at least a minute.
"It takes one minute per century, so about ten minutes to go from the 21st Century to the 31st Century," replied Lyle.
"Well, since we have a little time and we are definitely committed at this point, how about bringing us a little more up to speed? What is this Legion of Super-heroes you talked about? And what's your story?"
Lyle appeared to think for a moment, as though trying to decide where to begin. "Odd as this is going to sound, the Legion got its start as a Superboy fan club."
"Wait, Superboy? Who's Superboy?" asked Kara. She looked in Alex's direction since the other girl had been on Earth her entire life, but she just shook her head; she had no idea either.
"Obviously, he was Superman before he became an adult. Since the initial members of the club: Lightning Boy, Saturn Girl, and Cosmic Boy were all teenagers, they had more of an affinity to Superboy than Superman."
"I have never heard of him being referred to as Superboy," said Alex in follow up to Kara's earlier comment. "He first appeared as an adult Superman six years ago, in 2001, during the nine-eleven tragedy when he prevented the fifth passenger jet from crashing into the Capitol Building. I was only ten at the time, but it was one of those moments where you will always remember where you were, the way older people talk about where they were when Challenger blew up or really old people talk about the first moon landing or the JFK assassination. I was at school and all the TVs were doing coverage of the World Trade Center when they cut to the action over D.C. where Superman lowered the crippled jet right onto the National Mall. That's the first anyone heard of Superman. There was no Superboy."
Lyle shrugged. "He only went by Superboy very briefly and he was only active around the Smallville area and he never got covered by the press beyond that immediate area. Anyway, the original Legion trio traveled back in time to meet him and then he traveled up to the 31st Century with them and most of his adventures while he was Superboy took place up there."
"Superman has never told me, ah, us, anything about this," stated Kara.
"It's dangerous to know too much about your future," said Lyle. "Before Superboy traveled back home, he voluntarily had his memories of the 31st Century suppressed."
"Are you going to do that to us? You should have mentioned that up front," replied Alex, panic filling her voice. She didn't want anyone messing with her mind; what if they accidentally took away her memories of her father? That's all she had left of him. She looked at Kara and she looked equally alarmed.
"That shouldn't be necessary. Knowing about the 31st Century isn't the issue. I mean, if you tell people you traveled to the future and you don't have any proof, no one is going to believe you, so that's not a problem.
"Knowing about your personal future is the problem. When Superboy first travelled up to the 31st Century, time travel was a new technology and no one thought through all the ramifications. Superboy was allowed access to historical records which showed what he would do later as Superman. That knowledge could have changed all of history, if he tried to avoid some prior mistakes and thereby initiated new, different ones – hence the need to suppress his memories. In your case, we simply wouldn't allow you access to that kind of historical information."
Alex was at least somewhat mollified. She was less certain about Kara, based on her expression, but part of it could just be that the conversation about Superboy had reminded her about how the boy had referred to her as Supergirl. Knowing she was going to be a superhero had to be preying on her mind.
To give Kara time for her thoughts, Alex turned back to Lyle. "Sorry about getting things sidetracked. You were going to tell us about the Legion?"
"Okay, so to join the Legion you have to demonstrate a superpower. As I mentioned, the three original members were Garth Ranzz, known as Lightning Boy, who can generate electricity, usually in the form of lightning bolts; Irma Ardeen, known as Saturn Girl, who has telepathic abilities; and Rokk Krinn, known as Cosmic Boy, who can generate and influence magnetic fields. Some of the members have natural superpower abilities and some, like me, used science to create theirs. In my case, I developed a chemical serum to gain my power of invisibility.
"The original trio used their special abilities to thwart an assassination attempt on trillionaire R.J. Brande. And that's when they began the transition from a simple fan-club to the Legion of Superheroes with Brande providing the initial financial backing. Over time, others have joined the Legion. Some, like me, are full-time members; others are only part-time members and are on-call when their unique skills are needed. I suspect since you will probably return to the 21st Century, the two of you will fall into this second category.
"The Legion is loosely affiliated with the Science Police, the military branch of the United Planets government. Mostly, we get involved when they run into problems that need our special abilities.
"As for myself, I was born on Earth, unlike many of our members who come from a number of different planets and some of whom are even from alien races, like Brainy. My father is a member of the Science Police. I've always had an interest in and a knack for xenochemistry. I was thirteen when I developed my invisibility serum and applied for membership with the Legion."
It looked like he was going to say more, but he abruptly glanced down at the small device in his hand. "Ah, we're here."
Alex and Kara were reaching down for their backpacks, which they had set by their feet, when the sphere flickered and vanished.
Alex was just starting to gaze around when Kara abruptly collapsed to her knees.
"I . . . I feel . . . strange . . . and . . . weak," Kara gasped out.
Alex herself felt perfectly fine as she dropped to her knees next to Kara. "What's happening to her?" she demanded of Lyle.
"That's part of the problem we're currently facing," explained Lyle as he moved to Kara's other side. "To neutralize our Kryptonian and Daxamite team members, the enemy turned the sun red during the first stage of their attack. I think it is just the abrupt removal of her abilities that caused this effect. Once she's adjusted, she should be okay, albeit with only normal human abilities. Let's get her into the clubhouse and then she can rest for a while."
Lyle draped Kara's left arm across his shoulders and once Alex realized what he was doing, she did the same thing with Kara's right arm. On a count of three, the two of them climbed to their feet, dragging Kara up with them. She hung almost limply, supporting very little of her own weight. Lyle reached down and grabbed Kara's backpack with his free hand, so Alex did the same with hers.
"We need to go this way," said Lyle, gesturing forward with his chin. "Fortunately, the clubhouse isn't far."
Alex finally had time to take a good look around. They appeared to be in the center of a sprawling park. A number of tall buildings were visible in the distance in pretty much every direction like the park was within some great city, but only one structure was nearby and in the direction Lyle had indicated. And it was completely unexpected and bizarre.
"That's the clubhouse?" asked Alex incredulously. Standing before them was a large structure that had to be a hundred feet in diameter and seven hundred feet tall. And it looked just like a 1950s idea of a spaceship, a cylindrical body with three long swooping tail fins. The truly odd part was that it was upside down and looked like it had slammed into the ground nose-first and had buried its nose to a depth of a hundred feet. Oh, and it was a bright neon-orange color.
"Yeah, it's modeled after the spaceship that originally brought Superboy to Earth. Well, the original clubhouse was. It was destroyed several years ago in an attack by Validus. The number of legion members had grown quite a bit by that time and they realized they needed a lot more space for labs and other things. Therefore, when it was rebuilt, it was scaled up to what you see now."
"And why is it bright orange?" asked Alex. "Back home, that color is reserved for emergency equipment."
"It's not orange. It is actually yellow. It just looks orange under the red sun."
Alex looked up. The sky was pale pink just like she had seen in photos from Mars. It reminded her a little of how the eastern part of the sky could look right before dawn, but the sun was high above and the entire sky was that color. And the sun itself was a brilliant red, just the way Kara had told her the Kryptonian sun had looked.
The time bubble had delivered them only two hundred feet from the clubhouse, so it didn't take them long to cover the intervening distance even with the burden of Kara and the backpacks. As they got close, a door slid open right at ground level. Alex happened to be looking right at the spot and hadn't seen a single sign of an edge or a seam before the door melted away and allowed them to see into the first chamber beyond. More futuristic tech, she assumed.
Just after they stepped across the threshold a boy and a girl came racing forward. With only a quick glance it was apparent neither of them was human.
The boy looked about fourteen and was thin, almost scrawny. But what set him apart were his bright green skin, yellow hair, and the three glowing orbs imbedded in his forehead. He was wearing a lavender outfit with black highlights. The lavender matched the color of his eyes.
The girl looked older, perhaps the same sixteen as Alex. She had dark brown hair like Alex's, but cut in a short bob. Her skin was pale, almost an albino white. However her eyes were her most alien feature, they were purple on the outer half and orange in the inner half. The irises covered the entire surface except for the central pupil, which was a vertical slit like a cat's. Her outfit, or perhaps superhero costume was a better term, was a form-fitting purple that left her midriff exposed. An orange cape hung from her shoulders and just kissed the floor. The purple and orange of her costume perfectly matched the purple and orange of her eyes.
Taking in the three people she had now met from the future as a group, Alex decided they sure liked bright, gaudy costumes here. She glanced down at her own more mundane attire of jeans, tee shirt, and leather jacket. Okay, the tee shirt was a concert tee from Justin Timberlake's Future Sex Tour, so it was a little racy. She had wanted to go to the concert when Timberlake had been performing in National City six months earlier, but her Mom wouldn't let her even though several of her classmates, including Josie, had been allowed to go. She had paid Josie to get the tee and wore it as much as possible as a small protest against her mother.
"What happened? Were you attacked?" asked the green-skinned boy, breaking Alex's reverie.
"No. This is Supergirl. I think she is just having a bad reaction to the red sun," replied Lyle.
Kara moaned out, "I'll be okay, I just need a moment." It definitely looked like she would need more than a moment.
"I think I can help," said the green-skinned boy. He got a look of concentration on his face. A moment later, the doorway to the outside sealed back up. Then structures near the ceiling of the compartment morphed into a new shape and then began to spew forth a brilliant yellow light.
Instantly, Kara began to feel better. Not quite like her old self, but definitely a lot better. She got her feet under her and then lifted her arms from where they had been still draped over Alex and Lyle.
"I've configured the lights to better match the sun's original wavelength," said the boy. "It's not enough to restore your full strength, but it should make it more comfortable for you while you're in the clubhouse."
"Thanks . . . ah?"
"This is Querl Dox, but we all call him Brainy," said Lyle by way of introduction. Then he turned to the new girl. "And this is Luornu Durgo from Cargg. Her superhero moniker is Triplicate Girl."
"Triplicate Girl?" asked Alex.
Luornu took a step back. Then, in a manner that was impossible to describe accurately, she stepped apart into three separate identical girls who could have been triplets. "Everyone from Cargg can split themselves into three identical bodies due to Cargg having three suns. But our three bodies share one mind which allows us to communicate instantly over any distance."
Alex for a moment wished she had that ability; then one of her could be at school while the other two parts of her could be playing hooky.
"Are you okay, Supergirl?" asked Brainy in Kara's direction.
"Yeah, I'm fine now. But please call me Kara. No one has ever called me Supergirl until Lyle showed up looking for Alex's help. And I really haven't done anything to earn the Supergirl title."
"Okay, Kara it is," replied Brainy. Then he turned in Alex's direction and stuck out his hand. "You must be Alex Danvers. I'm so glad to meet you and that you agreed to help us. I'm sure you're wondering what we need from you."
Alex took the offered hand. She was a million times more curious than his simple words implied.