A/N: Hi y'all! Sorry I didn't update yesterday - I was super busy and didn't have the time to. Anyway, just wanted to thank those of you who have been reading and reviewing - especially those who were reviewing. Special thanks to leathman, who never missed a chapter.

And here's the last chapter for all of you.

Epilogue: The Changing of the Guard

20 January 2999

The Legion of Superheroes was officially established by President Wazzo and R.J. Brande in a public ceremony that was broadcast throughout the United Planets. Most citizens in New Metropolis still remembered the intrepid trio who had saved Brande's life, and they watched with great interest as the teens stood in front of the Superman statue and vowed to do their best to follow in the footsteps of the man whose shadow they stood under.

Rokk Krinn was the first to be announced as an official member of the new team. The magnetic master had announced his resignation from the Magnetic Knights the day before (after a heart-to-heart with his teammates), and today he took the name Cosmic Boy, becoming the first Legionnaire. His confidence and charisma meant that he was the automatic choice to lead the new group of superheroes. He did not forget where he had come from, however – his hero costume followed the same purple and black color scheme of his Magnetic Knights uniform, except that the knight and horse logo of his old team had been replaced by three small metal hemispheres attached to the fabric on his chest.

Imra Ardeen had surprised many in the force when she tendered her resignation to Chief Norg the day after she met with Brande, but Imra herself had had no second thoughts whatsoever. She knew immediately that she wanted to commit herself one hundred percent to the Legion of Superheroes, and she accordingly named herself Saturn Girl, referencing her Titanian heritage. The basic design of her outfit was almost identical to Cosmic Boy's, substituting pink and white for his purple and black, and she had paired it with white boots and gloves. Her choice of a symbol was a golden Saturn emblazoned across the middle of her chest.

Garth Ranzz had a proud family watching from Winath as he took his oath. He had gone for the rather obvious codename Lightning Lad, and opted for a different uniform design than either of his two co-founders. His pants were black with a thick white strip running along the inner side of each leg, and his top was solid black except for the two golden lightning bolts extending from his shoulders and angling towards the center of his waist. The rims of his black gloves and boots were also edged with jagged lightning bolts.

Aside from the three founders, there were two other Legionnaires sworn in that day. Luornu Durgo and Tinya Wazzo both fulfilled their promise of joining the team. Luornu was Triplicate Girl, a slender, sassy heroine who dared to wear a tri-colored minidress and thigh-high heeled white boots to fight crime. She had further gotten into the part by dyeing three locks on the right side of her brown bobbed hair orange, purple, and white to match her dress. The newly christened Phantom Girl, on the other hand, wore a more staid black and silver-white one-piece pantsuit which hugged her form. She was the only one on the team to wear a cape, and her status as the President's daughter drew the attention of many in the United Planets.

The chatter began almost immediately after the ceremony closed, as people all over the United Planets reacted in various ways to what had just occurred. Lon Norg shook his head and promptly returned to running NMPD, sparing barely a thought for the team his son's friend had decided to found. Shvaughn Erin wondered what the teens could do that Sci-Pol couldn't, and fretted over the potential media lashing if they did a better job than the Science Police. Gigi Cusimano was looking forward to seeing how far the Legion would go, and discussed the team animatedly with her partner Gim Allon. Mayor Chu came to the conclusion that the Legion might be a great help in her plans to revitalize New Metropolis. Mekt Ranzz had to do a double take when he realized his brother was being celebrated as a hero on interplanetary television. Loretta Lane smiled secretly to herself and rejoiced at the continuation of her ancestor's legacy.

And throughout the United Planets, there were, as Brande predicted, many young people who thrilled to hear of the Legion of Superheroes, and who began to wonder if they too could take up the challenge to usher in a new Age of Heroes.

Lyle chuckled to himself as he closed the news screen of the new Legionnaires waving to the crowd who had witnessed their inauguration. In his mind, Imra, Rokk, and Garth had worked so well together that it was almost inevitable something like this would have happened. The Legion even appeared to be a team he wouldn't mind joining, but Lyle had something more important to do first.

Earthgov Intelligence had its roots in the Great Crisis, an apocalyptic cataclysm that overwhelmed Earth in the mid-23rd century and lasted for some 50 years. The Crisis was so catastrophic that it utterly annihilated at least a third of the Earth's population and destroyed civilization as it was known. When the dust finally settled, the shattered remnants of Earth's various governments reformed as a single administration united in their quest to rebuild and restore the planet. The very first department the new regime created was an intelligence unit, a group of the brightest minds from all nationalities (which no longer existed) assigned to research information to aid in the reconstruction of civilization. The unit's duties later extended to include espionage to protect the fledgling post-Crisis society from extraterrestrials who sought to tear down the new Earth.

Over time, Earth not only rebuilt, but embarked on a period of exploration and expansion that saw many planets colonized by humans and non-Terrans alike. The huge leaps in technological advancement after Earth recovered to its pre-Crisis state spawned thousands of new inventions which all served to create a futuristic and modern society that was as far removed from pre-Crisis Earth as the 21st century was from the Middle Ages. As Earth underwent its overhaul, its new leaders arranged themselves into a more organized, official planetwide government called Earthgov, and the intelligence unit that was their most valuable asset in the early post-Crisis years was formally inaugurated as Earthgov Intelligence. By the 27th century, EI had established itself as a highly efficient and well-run agency, with a large network of trained spies, analysts, and technicians who all worked to gather vital intel on a variety of situations, from historical research to criminal enterprises to interplanetary negotiations.

Lyle Norg had first come to the agency's attention when he devised an AI program that used a complex set of algorithms to identify and predict patterns in criminal behavior and activity with unprecedented accuracy – at age eleven. After approaching him, EI updated their intelligence system with his invention and then recruited him for their organization. With his unparalleled intellect and inherent stealth skills, Lyle thrived as an intelligence agent, and his unique position as the son of Chief Norg of the Science Police also made him an unofficial liaison between the two organizations in New Metropolis. EI had also purchased several of his later inventions for use in their network.

Recently, however, Lyle had begun to suspect that Earthgov Intelligence had fallen prey to corruption – ever since Christina Fleming beat Frank Berkowitz for the mayoral position. His superiors' orders had started to become more questionable soon after the election two years ago, and Lyle had started running his own private investigation, falling back on his skills of hacking and eavesdropping in an effort to find evidence of duplicity in the agency. He hadn't had much luck – EI's security was even tighter than President Wazzo's. Thus, he'd had to find another way, and he did.

Lyle's true motive for creating his invisibility serum was to enable him to advance his investigation into the inner workings of EI; in fact, he had deliberately worked to create a formula that would not only allow him to turn invisible at will, but that would totally shield him from all types of detection as well. Now that his new powers gave him the ability to spy better than ever before, Lyle was determined to get to the bottom of the matter – especially after the way EI handled the recent serial murder case, which had only solidified his assumption that something was wrong within the administration. EI knew by around the third murder that there was a serial killer in New Metropolis, but Lyle's handler in the agency had given him strict orders not to reveal anything to the Science Police.

Needless to say, he had kept the serum a secret from his handler.

Let Imra and the rest fight crime out in the open like the heroes of old, Lyle thought decisively. I'm going to find out what Earthgov is hiding.

To be continued…

A/A:

1. Yep, cliffie. Sort of. Here's how it's going to work in my Diamond Earth Legion stories: they'll all each have their own plot, but on the sidelines or in the background there will be a bigger story arc developing. If you read carefully you might be able to predict where it's going.

2. Thank you, again, to all of you for reading, favoriting, subscribing, and/or reviewing - though I didn't seem to have many doing any of those for this story, the few who did still made me happy, and I was glad to share this fic with you.