Disclaimer: I do not own Legion of Superheroes or any of its characters or properties
Two weeks later and 30 years back
"-ama..? Tama, wake up!"
The Legion leader startled awake, staring a bit wide eyed back at the small Durlan girl who had roused her. The bigger girl pushed herself up into a sitting position slowly as she momentarily failed to recognize her surroundings. That was when she remembered that she wasn't at Legion HQ any more, or at least not the one she was familiar with. She and three of her teammates were in a small sheltered area of a park, a little under a mile away from the Legion Headquarters of 3008 A.C., the new time period they'd traveled to. Tama had been so exhausted after the time bubble trip to the past that she'd passed out and let Clark take first watch. Whether he was Atom Boy or his civilian alias, the younger Legionnaire was always tirelessly vigilant, and when she saw the dark bags under his green eyes that morning Tama wondered if he'd stayed at his post all night putting that twelfth level intelligence of his to work.
"Don't tell me you were all waiting on me," Tama said as she stood up slowly and stretched, her abnormally flexible joints popping in protest. Apollo smiled from where he was leaning on a tree, rubbing the scar on his eye absently as if it were bothering him.
"What else is there to wait for? We've all learned to accept that our Fearless Leader sleeps like the dead, T," he teased, and Tama playfully punched his shoulder. In the back of her head she noticed that he seemed more than a little preoccupied, and it wasn't hard for her to assume that he'd probably spent the night fitfully, no doubt worrying about how Gwen was doing back home without him to help her through her nightmares.
"Sorry to have woken you up," Ren said with a worried look as Tama came to check on her next. "It just looked like you were having a bad dream."
The older girl smiled and shook her head, ruffling the shapeshifter's long brown hair and messing it up. The younger girl made a noise of surprise and annoyance about it before Tama laughed and hugged her. "Don't worry about it, Renny, I'm grateful! I don't remember much, but I think that's what it was, too."
Ren huffed and smiled a little up at Tama, undoing her long braid so that she could comb her fingers through the brown locks and dark green highlights. It took her several moments before she managed to fix it back in its style, readjusting the mirwan blossom behind her ear. "Now that you're awake, does that mean we can finally meet the past Legion?" the little girl finally asked, her patience obviously running thin.
"Now would be the time," Tama agreed absently, turning to their resident genius for confirmation. Clark looked up when he felt her eyes on him, stopping work on whatever it was he was tinkering to run a hand through his black and blonde streaked hair with a sigh.
"It wouldn't be a wise decision to go storming in there, I mean the best we could say is 'Surprise! We're your children from the future and we need your help!'." the pale green skinned boy said with a frown, patting his hair back down to partially hide the symbol of Brainiac on his forehead behind his bangs again.
"Well, we could say that," Apollo countered with a wry grin, and Clark paused to glare at him.
"The best way to gain our future parents' assistance with minimal distortion of the timeline," the boy continued while ignoring Apollo's contribution, "would be to go in disguise and gain their trust. Once we've done that, we could bring them with us to our own time period and tell them the truth."
"Do you really think that would work?" Ren asked timidly, and Tama couldn't blame her for being nervous when she was about to meet a teenage version of her beloved father.
"It's the best plan we can execute on such short notice. I took the liberty of generating our disguises while the rest of you slept." Clark replied calmly. He reached into one of the pouches on his belt and retrieved four small circular chips, passing one out to each of the assembled Legionnaires.
Tama sighed as she stared down at her chip with a small frown, shaking her head before she pulled one of her long white gloves down to her wrist to place the chip on her bare skin. The transformation was quick and painless as the chip sank in, amounting to nothing more than a tingling sensation as the biological illusion set in. After a long deep breath, Tama opened her eyes and looked down, relieved that her disguise wasn't too bad. Her short black bob with the white, orange and purple streaks in it was replaced by ginger curls, and her purple eyes had become a vivid green with a constellation of freckles like Apollo's across the bridge of her nose. She was relieved to see that no alterations had been made to her body type to make her look thinner; she was still the curvy, big boned girl she liked being, and the green and silver jumpsuit she wore complimented this well.
Satisfied with Clark's work, Tama looked up to see how the others had fared. Ren's long hair was free to flow over her shoulders in a platinum blonde waterfall, her eyes stormy grey now as she looked down at her silvery dress and cloak with interest. Her natural orange skin tone was paled to a dull cream, but the antennae that aided her powers remained. Apollo had gotten a digital haircut, and he seemed so preoccupied with hating it that he didn't even notice his new suit was black and dark pink. He kept tugging at the short dark brown locks with obvious irritation in his newly colored brown eye; nothing had been done about the scar over his other eye, which came as a surprise to Tama. The last to disguise himself was Clark, and his transformation was the most drastic by far. His green skin had faded to a dull tan, the Coluan symbol on his forehead nothing but a faint outline now beneath the bangs of the dirty blonde hair he'd tied back in a ponytail. Clark's usual purple and green-black suit had been replaced by one that was varying shades of blue to match his new eye color.
Tama let out a low whistle, smiling at her comrade gratefully as she took in their new looks. "Very impressive work, Clark," she said appreciatively, and the boy spared her a small smile back.
"Thank you. There were a few details that I couldn't afford to try and alter with such limited time, but I tried to make them as inconspicuous as possible. Ren's antennae should blend with the rest of her appearance now, and I'm afraid Apollo will have to attempt to explain away his scar when asked.." Clark trailed off, glancing at Apollo hesitantly and clearing his throat. "Anyway, that only leaves the issue of our powers."
Tama bit her lip, running a hand through her new ginger hair as she glanced at her comrades. There it was, the kicker; each of the Legionnaires on her team had inherited their powers in some way from their parents, which would make it that much harder for them to use those powers in front of the past Legionnaires without suspicion arising.
"I think Ren and Apollo can get by with just using certain aspects of their powers. Apollo, you can use your empathic abilities and telekinetic blasts if need be. And um, if it's not too much trouble, could you..?" Tama trailed off uncertainly, but Apollo spared her the trouble by rolling his eyes and finishing the sentence.
"Physically shield us all from my mom? Fine, but you owe me later for all the headaches it'll give me." he said with an irritated sigh, and Tama smiled a little.
"Jupiter Burgers and shakes?" she asked.
"As many as you can buy me." he answered affirmatively.
Tama nodded with a smile, turning to Ren next. "Ren, your dad was teaching you how to just morph certain parts of your body before he left, wasn't he?" At the girl's tentative nod, she kept going. "Do you think you could use this next week or so to practice that? The Legion might get suspicious if they know you're a shapeshifter, but I think that if we set limits on that power, it'll keep them from realizing you're from Durla."
Ren bit her lip before her young face set in a determined scowl and she nodded, clearly set on doing as Tama told her. The leading Legionnaire breathed a sigh of relief before she turned to Clark grimly, pulling him aside so that the others could practice and rest up while they worked out a plan. Their powers weren't as multifaceted as Apollo's or Ren's, they were near genetic copies from one parent or the other, and Tama could tell that they both knew using their true powers would mean instant suspicion.
"We're going to have to cheat on this, aren't we?" Tama said with a long sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose. She didn't have to open her eyes to know that Clark was nodding and she breathed deeply again. "Okay. So what rules of the Legion Code are we going to be breaking today?"
"The rules about not accepting members whose powers are solely technological.. and the rule about not accepting members with no powers." Clark replied immediately, pulling a pair of green gloves with a sliver of silver crystal aligned against each knuckle out of one of the pouches around his waist and handing them to Tama, momentarily ignoring the confusion on her face.
"Okay, Clarky, I'll bite. What is it you're planning?" she asked suspiciously, pulling the gloves on and biting her lip as she felt them hum with power. The boy across from her glared at the nickname that X had originally given him, then proceeded to ignore that, too.
"I made those power gloves specifically for you, Tama. They're wired so that they will respond to your exact biochemistry to create energy charges and utilize limited amounts of telekinetic power in response to your thoughts and emotions in a fight. They way I calibrated them, they'll be so in sync with your body's functions that ideally, my father and the rest of the Legion will believe these powers are your own and not the work of the gloves." Clark explained seriously, and the levels of both caution and recklessness in his approach made Tama even more nervous than she already was.
"What about you? Are you really going to waltz in there and claim that you don't have any powers?" she asked anxiously, wishing desperately that she could have a fraction of the twelfth level intellect he had to help her keep up.
"I'm afraid I'll have to. I didn't have time to make any kind of replica to those gloves, and if I just use my regular powers then the Legion will surely know I'm half Imskan.. I'm afraid I'll just have to improvise." Clark said with a shrug, rubbing the back of his neck as he glanced in the direction Legion HQ would be in.
"And what makes you so sure they won't just reject you at the door?" Tama asked anxiously, trying her best to have faith in her friend's plan, but Clark gave her another passive shrug in response.
"They let Karate Kid in after he proved himself to them. I suppose I'll just have to do the same." he replied, and Tama nodded before she turned to rejoin their other two teammates. Apollo was grimacing a bit, no doubt beginning to extend his telepathic powers over the four of them. A moment later his expression cleared and he nodded to her, signaling that they'd be safe from his mother's telepathic probes.
"Is it time?" Ren asked excitedly, bouncing up to Tama and taking her hand.
"It's time," she confirmed, cradling the flight ring she'd taken off in her palm, "Hand your rings over to Clark for safekeeping, guys. If we're lucky, we'll be getting new ones before the day's over."
The younger boy looked on seriously as he took the three flight rings, removing his own before placing the four in a pocket of a pouch on his waist. "Time to go then," he said confidently, and without another word the four heroes walked out of the park. It wasn't very long before golden majesty of the past headquarters rose up in the distance, and Apollo let out a low whistle as they approached.
"It looks like we came at the perfect time," he noted as he pointed to the huge mass of people already lined up in front of the building. Clark nodded, blowing a long lock of hair out of his eyes before he squinted at the line.
"Legion auditions." he muttered.