Disclaimer: I do not own Legion of Superheroes or any of its characters or properties

Author's note: Fun fact, all of the kids' assumed first names for the Legion auditions are nods to the canon Legion of Superheroes comics in some way, as a matter of fact so are some of the kids' normal code names like Atom Boy and Gwen's code name Phase (because I have no life and read Losh character pages on Wikipedia all the time). Apollo's was especially fun because Graym is the name of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl's son in the Silver Age comics

"Thank you, Invisible Girl, that'll be all." Cosmic Boy said politely to a young girl as she walked out of the Headquarters, momentarily flickering out of visibility a few times since her power was invisibility so long as nobody was looking. She didn't seem too happy with the results of her audition, shoving past Apollo where he stood at the head of the line and continuing on.

"Next!" a voice called from inside, and with a deep breath the future Legionnaire walked in without looking back.

Apollo had never seen much of the audition room as a kid since he'd always had a sure spot in the Legion, but he had to admit it was impressive. It was a bit messed up, with a puddle of purple slime off to the side a scorch marks on some of the back walls, but Apollo had to stop and collect his thoughts when he saw the panel of Legionnaires looking at him expectantly from above. There was Cosmic Boy in the center with Superman X and Brainiac 5 to his right, there was his mother Saturn Girl sitting there with a polite smile and a rather irritated looking Lightning Lad next to her. There was Ren's father Chameleon Boy saying something that was apparently pretty funny to Shrinking Violet, and was that Triplicate Girl next to them? To the left of them was Timber Wolf and Phantom Girl, but Apollo tried not to look at her for too long. She had Gwen's eyes. He noticed that a few Legionnaires were conspicuously missing, but he figured they must have been on missions of their own.

He was so busy studying them all that it took Apollo several minutes to realize that Cosmic Boy was talking to him. "Um.. what?" he asked nervously, and a few Legionnaires snickered or sighed as Cosmic Boy repeated himself.

"I thanked you for auditioning and asked you what your name was," the unofficial leader of the Legion said patiently, and Apollo nodded, trying to swallow as he felt how dry his throat was.

"Ah, 'm Graym Krios, but I'm going to be going by Empath if I get in." Apollo said as he straightened his shoulders and tried to channel his father's confidence. He smiled up at the panel, but by accident he caught Phantom Girl's eye and looked away quickly as he kept talking. "'m pretty sure the name says it all, but I can sense other peoples' emotions and project what causes them."

Apollo bit his lip as he saw Saturn Girl tilt her head curiously, clearly curious about his powers. "Those are Titanian abilities.. are you from there, Graym?"

The blonde-turned-brunette swallowed hard, trying not to seem as nervous as he was. He'd heard once that every good lie has a grain of truth to it, so that's what he decided to do. "My mother was from Titan." he said simply, and leaving no more room for discussion, he began to demonstrate his powers. Apollo's eyes flashed dark red as he dove into each of the Legionnaires' minds, trying to find something that made each of them happy or sad or scared. He raised his arms above his head, mentally projecting the best things he could find as corporeal illusions.

His father's mind was the easiest to access, probably because working with Saturn Girl meant less mental safeguards if Apollo had to guess. The young telepath smirked as he stopped at a certain memory of a night spent on Quavermass 12 and projected what he saw. Lightning Lad jumped in his seat with a surprised yelp before he glared down at his disguised future son, clearly not appreciating the illusion even though many of the other Legionnaires like Chameleon Boy and Cosmic Boy seemed to be. Apollo gave the Winathian man a sheepish smile and switched tactics. Chameleon Boy was another easy mind to infiltrate, and the next image he created was one of Durla, manipulating the room around him until it looked like a portion of the planet was contained within the room. The shape shifting boy above him leaned forward in delight, awed by the trick.

"That's amazing, it looks just like home! You really got that from my head?" Cham asked, and with a cocky smile Apollo nodded and moved on to his final act; infiltrating the mind of his future mother. Pink eyes widened in shock as Apollo pushed to access her thoughts, being gentle at first before slowly putting on pressure. She fought him, though whether it was to challenge him or keep him out of her thoughts he didn't know, and Apollo started to feel a stronger headache coming on as he felt his hold slipping. He made one last ditch effort to get in, fighting full on until with a startled noise from the female telepath Apollo found himself immersed in Saturn Girl's mind.

Apollo felt the girl's initial shock fading, and he quickly searched for the most recent strong memory he could find before she kicked him out of her mind. Without even stopping to see what it was, the boy raised a hand and projected it, surprised to see the translucent face of Lightning Lad appearing.

"Oh thank sprock, you're awake.. I was starting to worry that healing trance would be your last," Lightning Lad in the memory was saying, and the relief and tenderness on his face seemed to surprise not just Apollo, but most of the Legionnaires there. "How are you feeling?"

Saturn Girl's answer from the memory couldn't be heard, but after a moment the projected Lightning Lad nodded, his shoulders relaxing as the tension leaked out of him. "Good to hear, I'll let the staff know you're up and see about getting you something to eat." Apollo smiled at the nurse-like attitude that took over Lightning Lad, remembering that his father had acted the same way when he'd nursed him back to health after the accident where he'd gotten the scar over his eye.

For a second, the memory seemed to have ended, but Lightning Lad turned back to look at the spot where an imaginary Saturn Girl must have been, hesitating for a minute before he spoke. "... It's good to have you back, Imra. I.. I missed you."

The transparent Lightning Lad faded away and Apollo lowered his arms, looking around at the panel. Most of them seemed to be somewhere between satisfied with the display and surprised by the last projection, with the exception of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad. Saturn Girl was blushing slightly with her eyes trained on the table in front of her, her fingers rubbing her temples at the slight headache Apollo's intrusion must have caused. Lightning Lad, on the other hand, was completely mortified. The man had sunk so low in his chair that only the top of his head was visible, but his forehead and the tops of his ears were an obvious bright red. A few of the other Legionnaires were staring at him, but after a moment of awkward silence, Cosmic Boy finally cleared his throat.

"I think that'll be all, Empath, thank you. We'll be getting back to you." he said with a nod, and with a small salute Apollo turned to head out the door. He heard someone yell "Next!" from behind him and grinned at Ren as she raced past him. The older boy gave her a high five as she passed, wishing the kid the best of luck.

The auditions went a lot more quickly for Ren and Tama, who introduced themselves as Ji Mirwan and Una Argo respectively. "Ji", or Shifter as she decided for her code name, was in and out of the audition area in 15 minutes, and it took "Kinesis Lass" even less time. She waltzed out of auditions looking confident as could be, but as soon as the doors shut behind her, her face fell.

"How'd you do, T?" Apollo came up and asked Tama as she rejoined the group, but she just looked up at him with troubled eyes.

"I'm fine, I just.. I don't think my mom is." the older girl said uncertainly. Apollo bit his lip, remembering how something had seemed off about the past Triplicate Girl.

"Her costume looked a lot like it does now.." he ventured hesitantly. "But am I wrong, or wasn't the third color on her uniform supposed to be white?"

Tama nodded silently, clearly disturbed as he could see the conflict behind her eyes without bothering to sense her emotional state. He ventured to ask the dreaded question, deciding he had to try even if he knew she'd shut down on him.

"You.. you don't think she lost one of her bodies, do you..? ... Like Liam?"

The look on their leader's darkened and just as Apollo had expected, she hid her face and turned away. The disguised redhead sat down heavily on a spot on the curbside where a bunch of other finished applicants were sitting, her expression unreadable.

"You ought to go tell Clark he's up next." Tama said impassively, and she refused to say any more.

"The newest members of the Legion of Superheroes are..." Cosmic Boy was intoning over the microphone a few hours later. It had felt like an eternity of waiting for the four time travelers to sit and do nothing while the other applicants were called in, but the moment of truth was finally here. Tama wrapped her arms comfortingly around Ren to keep her from having a nervous breakdown, and Clark had his arms crossed and the same inscrutable look on his face that he'd been wearing since he'd stalked out of the auditions room as the handful of names were read out.

"Shadow Lass, Shifter, Chemical Kid, Empath and Kinesis Lass."

The four children of the Legion turned to look at one another knowingly as the noise level of the crowd picked up and many a disappointed face passed by them. With Legion auditions behind them, the kids were that much closer to getting the aid they needed from the heroes of the past, and maybe even closer to learning the fate of their parents in the future. But there was one small problem that needed resolved, and Tama glanced expectantly at Clark for his input.

"So I didn't get in. I did tell them in a straightforward manner that I had no powers. It was only logical for them to dismiss me." the short boy said with concealed disappointment in his voice, his twelfth level intellect clearly hard at work, "I'll see if I can't find another way to infiltrate the Legion, or if I can't then I could make myself useful by coordinating the effort from the outside."

The half Coluan boy quickly shooed the three away to be sworn in on the platform in front of headquarters, and he was just turning to leave with the rest of the rejected would-be Legionnaires when a small hand landed on his shoulder. Clark turned, but he stopped and stared with wide eyes back into a pair of purple eyes that he'd known all his young life.

"Um, can I help you, Miss Violet?" Clark asked his future mother uncertainly, and the pale Imskan girl snorted at the title.

"Please, that's Shrinking Violet to you, and I think you can." The Legionnaire said. With her at this age, the two size shifters were almost the same height, but Salu had about an inch on Clark thanks to her high heels. "You said during your audition that there were flaws in the Legion's strategies, that you could help us improve. I want to take you up on that, see if you can't do us some good."

The boy's head tilted as he watched her, his eyes curious though his face gave nothing away. "I did say I didn't have any powers, Miss Violet." He reminded her.

"I know, we're not inducting you into the Legion or anything right now. Just think of this as something like a field test." Shrinking Violet said with a mischievous smile. Clark stared at her for a moment, mentally weighing his options before he nodded slowly.

"I'm in." He said with a nonchalant shrug. Violet grinned, motioning for him to follow her into Headquarters. "It's Vril, right?" she asked curiously, and with a little smile he nodded. "Yes, and you're Salu."

On the steps, Clark's comrades were being sworn into the Legion for their second time. One step closer to the past Legion, and one step closer to their goal.

"To the Legion of Superheroes, I make this solemn pledge: to use my powers for good, to fight for justice, and to protect the innocent. To aid my fellow Legionnaires in times of peril, and to keep their secrets safe. I am-"

"Shifter!"

"Empath!"

"Kinesis Lass!"

Clark looked at his friends' proud faces as he walked past, turning away and smiling to himself as he mumbled his assumed code name under his breath.

"Virus."