2: Not What They Seem...

Page 1 Left: Diskette, Superboy, Rubbermaid, Chameleon Boy, Earth Child

It's an interestingly constructed panel, with some of the Legionnaires on Salem Zero inside the waiting room of the medical facility talking to Stal and Chenn about recent events, while other Legionnaires are inside the patient's room in the other side of the window, talking to Grandmother Sula, who has regained consciousness.

[BR: Before I move too far forward, who among the heroes present wants to be in which room talking to whom?]

[DK: Clark’s on the patient’s side: it’d be kind to make sure Sula knows he’s OK, and he has more questions about the entity — can't develop a conservation plan without local buy-in, after all.]

[JK: Diskette is, to her discomfort, outside. She has questions for GM Sula as well, but someone needs to deal with Chen and Stal.]

[MC: Vikrak is sticking with Superboy, trying not to be too obvious about her fangirling.]

Director Chen looks up from the tablet he's reviewing, "The remains you found at the base of the shaft were identified as several local residents, all contemporaries of Mrs. Sula. Autopsy, such as it was, indicated the fall having killed them. The recent exam for Mrs... Sula revealed a series of healed fractures that are consistent with her having survived such a fall."

President Stal adds, "Corporate records from our predecessor indicate that all of these women supposedly left on a 'protest pilgrimage' just after the first wave of protests. No one's heard of them since, but we did interview some of their peers and they do recall seeing them off. Which leaves me rather confused."

She is clasping her tablet in both hands with her arms lowered, working from memory and clearly angry, "I don't expect representatives of GBK Distributed to be forthcoming about what happened."

[BR: so let me know who's on this side, and give a response.]

[Ree's on this side, hence not on Clark's side.]

Ree says, "We can get the details from Sula and the others. And that'll show us where to look at GBK. I don't know the legal situation, but if we can be authorized to investigate, I'm pretty sure we'd be willing."

"I'm certainly curious," Diskette says. On the comms, she says "Team, make sure to check with Sula for the details of what -exactly- happened when the last administration dumped them down a hole. From her old injuries, she doesn't just know about it; she was -there-."

[BR: so the legal situation is interesting... LGN Consolidated, the Ranzz family company, would be willing to hire the Legion to look into it, but the Legion charter forbids them being 'employed' because they are supposed to be a service organization. They are also not (yet) officially deputized by the UP government or the Science Police. That said, there's nothing blocking them from approaching this as plucky teenage detectives - collecting information, shadowing people, and even some light breaking & entering to get access to key files - and trusting that it will all work out in a positive light. Which it will, due to genre conventions. It's my intent that one of the plots for this issue be them doing just that and cornering the 'monster' responsible for this, but it doesn't necessarily have to be with this batch of heroes - the joy of the Legion is you can mix and match, and since you'll have to jump off planet to deal with this after this scene you can swap out your PC....]

Chen nods to the Durlan, "I'd be grateful if you did look into it. I never trusted those GBK folk, but I never expected they'd move to murder."

Stal cuts in, "They have always had a sketchy reputation but this...?" she shakes her head, "In any event, obviously we," and in this she looks over at Chen again to include him in that pronoun, "have already ordered that subshaft filled to protect the entity. Delta shaft activities are ending, and once we have everything out Delta shaft will become regolith storage until it's filled till our new maximum depth.'

Chen nods, "We've already amended the contract to set a depth maximum on all future drilling." he smiles, "It's good to know the entities are there, but it's best we don't disturb them."

[BR: just clearing decks on that part so we can focus on the monster mystery]

Stal finishes with "If you need LGN Consolidated resources to follow up on this, well, we - and I have the personal assurances of the Ranzz family - are happy to assist."

[BR: Josh, Lisa, Beth, do you have more to add to this half of the scene? because I think the other half is nearly done and we could close this and move to a whole team together page.]

Inside the room, Sula is clasping a Legionnaires hand. "I'm so

sorry, I didn't know it was you, Superman…"

The old woman’s grip on his hand was surprisingly strong. “The monster they sent last time tried to kill us all. But you. You wouldn’t….”

Her voice dies down, as she tries to compose herself.

“It’s OK, Mrs. Sula.” Clark whispers. “I’m fine, Rubbermaid is fine, and more importantly, you’re going to be OK, too. And we’ve talked to the…Chick. We know that you were just trying to keep them safe. We want to help. We’ll need _your_ help if we’re going to do a good job at it.”

He gently squeezes her hand. “Is it OK for us to ask you questions?"

Her eyes flick over to Rubbermaid “thank you for telling me who he was. It could have ended so… so much worse.”

"Of course," she says, "Of course. What do you need to know?"

“Tell me about the monster who tried to kill you. Had you and your colleagues really left for a protest pilgrimage? And if you did, how did you end up back at that shaft?

She chuckles with no mirth at the idea of a 'protest' pilgrimage, but lets Clark finish his questions. "The company owners had agreed to meet with us, to hear our concerns, and wanted to do so at the bottom of Delta Shaft, where the problems lay. We were foolish enough to agree, and everyone knew where we were. When we got there, they were so congenial 'let's walk the shaft and discuss'. So, we did, even even though something felt subtly wrong it all looked right. And then the world... shifted. A veil parted and I could see what I couldn't before. We were no longer in the shaft, but in the crevasse, and the GBK managers had led us there like lambs to the slaughter. Them and their monster, a floating sphere, filled with water, holding a bent over worm with a limb like a mace. The creature's limb was glowing, and I knew that was tied to the veil, to its masking of what was real and what we saw. We tried to run, but the veil wasn't completely parted. We ran straight into the shaft and fell. To my sister's deaths. I barely managed to survive, and that only because the great eye opened and blessed me."

"Once I healed enough, I was able to float back to the surface, bring in some new sisters to see the miracle, and learn that the monster had veiled friends and family, so they saw me and my dead sisters depart."

Vikrak gasps. "That's a Gil'Dishpan, the methane-breathers of Hykraius! They're mostly bad news wherever they're found."

[LP: Nothing to add except maybe a wince if Ree overhears Vikrak's casual dismissal of all Gil'Dishpan as "mostly bad news". (It's not that his people aren't also "mostly bad news"... it's just... yeah, okay, they are "mostly bad news".) ]

Clark nods. One more weird thing to assimilate.

“One more question, if it’s all right, and then we’ll let you rest. My friends say they’ve met other people whose powers look a lot like your gift. At least one of them was born here. Do you know whether they’re trying to help you? They seem to have fallen in with pirates, and I’m wondering whether they’re acting out of desperation."

"Tch!" Sula says, with disdain. "There was always a wildness in her. But no, she's not trying to help us... she fled her responsibilities. Dawan always needed someone to make decisions for her, and the worse those decisions were, the better. Bad boys, bad girls, didn't matter. I had hoped... I had hoped....But not to be. "

Page 1 Right: Robot Boy, Mr. Music, Metal Lass, Bubble Boy

Again, we have a strange panel design, where there are some Legionnaires watching a screen of security footage from a rare jewelry auction taking place on New Metropolis – wealthy people from around the galaxy (including the Ranzz's) were here to buy and sell exotic jewelry from their respective worlds.

That screen is showing 4 panels that are images from 4 different security cameras at the site of the auction... They show several people entering dressed as building staff, and then one of them raises his hands in a dramatic gesture while the others don face coverings. Seconds later the entire room has collapsed into a blinding, choking fit and the people wearing the masks are clearing out the auction items... The one who raised his arms is standing as if it pain, clutching his side, and his compatriots have to carry him out of the room.

"Identification: Siras Kqant, aka Leek Lad," Robot Boy says, " My facial recognition is 98% certain, Sorrowful Comment, it appears he has taken his rejection from the Legion poorly."

Robot Boy nods at Dolar, and then adds “Observation: Bubble Boys presence in this investigation would be logical, given Leek Lads peculiar power set. Can get him while I confer with Mr Music for permission to proceed?”

“Your logic is sound,” says Dolar. “I’m certain he’ll be happy to help.”

• And he will be there for me, even if he loves another,* she thinks. Bubble Boy is happy to lend a hand, or a force field.

[DK: I think Brian is trying to set up some Teen Romance stuff, so I obliged above.]

[BR: I am, I am indeed]

Metal Lass turns the corner into the hallway to find Bubble Boy, only to bounce right off of his force field as he's approaching the room...

Ooof — A gasp of air escapes the normally poised maven of metal-bending as she falls backward, eyes wide with surprise. [BR: Myles, you're up!]

"Dolar, I'm sorry!" Gorvo springs forward, retracting his force field skin tight as he offers a hand to steady Metal Lass.

"I'm sorry," he repeats. "I must have been daydreaming and let my force field get away from me. Are you okay?"

The blue-skinned Tallagian blushes a distinctly purple shade in embarrassment.

Thought bubble, outlined in Bubble Boy blue: **Gosh, she's going to think I'm such a clumsy oaf. Metal Lass is so poised, so in control...**

“I am unharmed, and glad to know that you are happy enough to daydream,” Dolar responds, giving a reassuring squeeze to Gorvo’s steadying hand as her posture shifts into a stance denoting fond feelings for one-as-kin. “I was coming to find you anyway — one of the candidates from the Legion’s last admissions event was involved in a robbery. We’d like your opinion on the tapes of the event."

"Gosh, I hope no one was hurt. I'll gladly take a look at the footage, but I doubt there's anything I could spot that you or Future Boy wouldn't. You have a keen eye and a sharp mind, Dolar."

Meanwhile, Mr. Music [BR: where is Mr. Music, anyway] gets a beep from the monitor room.

[Let's say he's in the kitchen with a mug of cocoa (or the equivalent) he just made.]

"Statement: Mr. Music, we have been alerted to a crime perpetrated by one of our hopeful recruits. Request for Opinion: do you think it wise for the Legion to intervene? Further Request: If so, would you do the honor of leading the mission."

It's a strange request and phraseology from Robot Boy, and while Mr. Music can't read the constructed boy's vocal emotions, he is becoming more aware of his linguistics. Something is bothering his teammate....

"Normally, yes, and I would," says Ode. "Is there..." He pauses, trying to figure out the optimal phrasing. "... additional data to take into account?"

(It will occur to him a second later that he didn't ask "What, exactly, happened?", but somehow... that didn't feel like the right question just yet.)

There's the slightest of pauses before "Statement: The only relevant information is what I will share with you and the other Legionnaires in the monitor room. Opinion: It would be best for you to view the video and draw conclusions."

Again, the strange sense that Adom is, not so much hiding something as talking around an issue.

Ode nods. "Let's do that," he says.

Page 2: Pretty Much Everyone

The next page has the Legion on Salem Zero reconvened in the living area of the borrowed spaceship, with a communication line to the Legion on New Metropolis who have just entered the monitor room from Robot Boy's summons. (This scene takes place before Robot Boy re-shares the video on Page 3). So we have Diskette, Chamaeleon Boy, Superboy, Rubbermaid and Earth Child on Salem Zero and Root Boy, Mr. Music, Bubble Boy and Metal Lass in New Metropolis to discuss the latest revelations about GKB Distributed's use of a super-powered Gil'Dishpan to murder people threatening their profit margin.

[BR: the answer should be investigate somehow, but now is a chanceto swap up who's on what team....]

"Bring us up to date?" asks Mr. Music.

"Of course," Diskette says.

"...so that's it. We fought gravity manipulators--well, more gravity manipulators, met an embryonic god, and we should really look up the previous management, and the illusion-throwing Gil'Dishpan who was a key to murdering the previous group of protestors. Probably want to move quickly before word about what happened gets out."

Page 3: Robot Boy, Mr. Music, Metal Lass, Bubble Boy Once the quartet of Legionnaires are in the monitor room, Robot Boy replays the images from the robbery...

[repeated from prior thread for convenience even if they are not on the page] images from 4 different security cameras at the site of the auction. They show several people entering dressed as building staff, and then one of them raises his hands in a dramatic gesture while the others don face coverings. Seconds later the entire room has collapsed into a blinding, choking fit and the people wearing the masks are clearing out the auction items. The one who raised his arms is standing as if in pain, clutching his side, and his compatriots have to carry him out of the room.]

Robot Boy speaks once it's played through again, "Observation: I would appreciate my soft kin teammates evaluation of this recording."

[BR: feel free to ask for rewinding, specifics, audio enhancement, video enhancement, etc. If this were Gumshoe here would be where your investigative asks start....]

"This was planned," says Ode. "Carefully. Maybe even rehearsed."

Bubby Boy nods "Yes, they didn't make much effort to hide their faces before the attack."

To Robot Boy, "Is there any footage from outside the auction room? Can we see how they arrived and set-up? Or footage from outside the auction house as they're leaving?"

“I assumed the masks were to prevent the thieves from suffering the effects of Leek Lad’s powers,” says Dolar. “And we know that Leek Lad can only produce the gas by injuring himself. But I agree their behavior suggests they were not particularly concerned about being identified.”

Robot Boy answers, "Regretful Statement: This is the whole of the security footage that the auction house sent to us. Observation: There might be video they neglected to send, or that someone else might provide."

[BR: the future isn't as surveillance heavy as the present, so there isn't omnipresent street coverage.]

Dolar shifts into a form denoting bitter irony, adding “We also learn that Siras Kqant is perhaps a bit too enamored with dramatic gestures."

Robot Boy adds "Uncomfortable Pause. Uncomfortable Observation: Or self-harm. Based on his try out he must have cut himself rather badly to produce that broad and rapid an effect."

"..." Ode doesn't actually manage a word there.

His thought balloon: "Dramatic gesture? Low self-esteem? Is he being pressured or manipulated? He... might be very eager to please."

Flashback panel of little Ode feeling like a sixth wheel, trying to find something, *anything* to do to help out at a family picnic that his sibs haven't already got covered. [Maybe trying to lift something obviously too heavy to carry and almost hurting himself? The sort of thing he hasn't thought about in years, since a lot of obvious issues got dealt with over the years of meditation with the space monks.]

[BR: that's very in keeping, and I like the idea of him spraining his ankle while trying to carry something which makes him laid up for all the games associated with the picnic, which go on without him.... it's a great parallel to what's happening with Future Boy.]

[LP: Works for me!]

“Can we enhance the video enough to see the faces of the other thieves?” Dolar asks. “And…” she pauses, shifting into a pose denoting an unverified suspicion, “the people attending the auction. Does anyone look unsurprised? Like they’re expecting the thieves to arrive?"

Robot Boy scrolls the video back - the limping out, the gas attack, the dramatic gesture, the masks on, the entry and position - and stops on a frame that offers a possibility of the thieves face. Select and enhance. Select and enhance. The face that comes into view is large. He has a projecting eyebrows with deep set eyes, a large nose, and a prominent, sharp chin.

He checks a second, and the same oversize features are there, but the skin tone, eyes, and hairline are different. Despite this similarity they clearly aren't from the same clutch. The others are never positioned quite right for the enhancement before their masks are on.

Robot Boy, "Apology: I cannot enhance any of the others, but my facial recognition software predicts from what anges we do have that the other unknown individuals do share those features."

The cameras aren't well positioned to view the crowd's faces, but scrolling back and forth over the image sets does not reveal anyone looking different than the rest of the sedate auction crowd followed by surprise and then collapse.

Possibly because he was more focused on the rogue applicant, a sudden thought occurs to Ode.

"How did he stab himself?" he asks. "Would you replay that bit?"

The mechanical Legionnaire spins the video back to that point and they watch Leek Lad raise his arms dramatically, shortly after one of the other thieves steps behind him. Then there’s the explosion of tear gas into the room, as Kqant doubles over.

The image spins back and replays, steps in, someone behind him, arms up, gas attack, collapse. Arms, shadowed, gas, collapse. The image zooms and enhances twice to see the point of a knife erupt from Leek Lads side - only his unique biology prevented a welter of blood.

“Observation: He did not. One of his partners did. From behind.”

"Crashing comets!" Bubble Boy blurts out. "Leek Lad could be a victim as much as a thief. We have to track him down. What if these villains go for another heist?"

"Is there anything we could do at the auction house? Look for a trail or something the Science Police overlooked?"

"You can talk to the witnesses," says Ode. "They may not have audio recordings, but some of them should be able to tell you what everyone said." He turns to Robot Boy. "We can look for patterns, see if we can figure out where they'll strike next. Or talk to Siras Kqant's friends, family."

[Ode's not ruling out checking with his favorite journalist, but he wants to have as much information as he can get first. Also, given the delicate nature of this one, he'd really rather they solve this first and give the man an exclusive after.]

Page 4: Future Boy

"Come on... 'Legionnaire! You aren't so famous that I can't serve you your backside!" is the word balloon from off screen as we get a close up of Future Boy's face in a small front panel.

The next panel is of the interior of the Minotaur Game Club, which looks like a multi-level treehouse largely made out of metal, foam, and plastic, in a hexagonal shape. The main level, where Tok enters, has a variety of play spaces, some for mental games, others for more physical play, with loose dividers between them and some panels for pulling down or up play surfaces--but there are passages, elevators, slides, and in at least one case, a pole leading to other levels. Floating in the air in the middle of the complex is a display with scores and pictures of various club members, with the pictures at higher levels of the display as they go up.

The person doing the talking is someone who is obviously one of Tok's clutch, a boy with very much his features if a couple centimeters on him in height. Behind him another of his clutch, a girl, is pushing Tok forward.

"Go get him, Hero!" she says, "He's been insufferable lately!"

[BR: the general sense here is this is a day with his siblings at the local game club, which must have some sort of electronic records/scorecard for wins and losses with a picture of the people on the high score chart; I have no idea how ostentatious or classic you want this place to be, but I do need that. I've always seen Tok's family situation as being the mirror image of Ode's - Tok is accepted even though he was born different while Ode was born the same but always felt out of place - but I leave that to you to define here. I'll play off your lead. Your brother's taunt could be family trash talk or he could be a colossal ass if you prefer.]

[JK: let's go with family trash talk]

"Sure, why not," Tok says. "What's the game of the day?"

His brother, Kol, smiles a wicked smile, "Holdout, best 5 out of 9."

Of course, even without his mutation, Tok is still pretty much a genius.

Toks sister Lara groans, "Oh come on! It's not like that's something simple, like losing at checkers to a chicken...." She dissolves into laughter at this point.

"No, definitely not that simple," Tok says. "It's a good plan; I can't get enough data to read you...at least, not in one game. Of course," he keeps his eyes relaxed but firmly on Kol, gathering data and establishing rapport, "it's not like I'm starting with nothing. We've never played Holdout before, but we have played other games with random elements, and I can think about how you played those. And while you can try to play more randomly, at that point I don't have to outguess you--I just have to outplay you."

The next panel is Tok on one side of the screen with Lara behind him cheering him on, while Kol is on the other side with their other brother Den as his cheering section. Other sister Reba is seen in background, wandering around and looking at things.

[BR: so Tok has a base Intelligence of 17, with no special bonuses for Backgrounds. Kol has a 13 Int with a +3 bonus from his Hobby of Gamer so it's pretty even. Tok rolls a 7, inside the range for a Full Success. Kol rolls a 14, for a Partial Success. I'm gonna rule that Tok ends up taking it in the final round.]

Across the top of the page long panel are a series of text boxes showing the win count for player, designed to look like electronic scores. Kol 1:Tox 0; Kol 2:Tok 0, Kol 2:Tok 1; Kol 3:Tok 1; Kol 3:Tok 2; Kol 3:Tok 3; Kol 4:Tok 3; Kol 4:Tok 4; Kol 4; Tok 5

"Clark take it all!" Kol yells as his last gambit fails by centimeters in the final game. Den gives him a slap across the back of the head for blasphemy. Kol extends his hand to his brother in the mother-instilled good sportsmanship of the Kallot family

Tok reaches across and shakes Kol's hand. "It was a good plan. You'll get me eventually," he says cheerfully. "Though, probably not with Holdout. Hmm. Would anyone mind if I invited him in? Clark, I mean, once he's back from the mission. I think he's fit in fine."

Den steps out from behind his taller brother to stare at Tok. “Look, brother, I know you don’t take that seriously but I do. So please don’t joke.”

Meanwhile behind Tok, Lara is standing slack jawed. “You did it. You crazy Hyrade Ghost you actually did it.”

Kol looks confused “Did what. I’m lost…”

Lara elbows Tok. “Go on, tell him what you built.”

Tok smiles, and leans back. "Yeah, I did. We did, really; I just did the invention and even that wouldn't have been enough without help. I invented a time machine, and we went back and invited Superboy -- Clark at my age -- to visit the future, and he was inducted into the League last week.

"While he's visiting us here, here, he can practice his powers without having to hide it the way he did in the 20th century. And he can be himself--all of himself--around people who aren't his family. IF people don't get weird about it."

There’s a beat of silence before both of Tok’s brothers both yell “Are You Kidding Me!?” at the same time. Kol with excitement and Den with anger.

“Like, Superman?!? Clark Kent Superman!?! My brother is hanging with Superman!”

“You had to do it? You had to literally insert yourself into the life of… there’s a religion built around him! And what if this breaks the timeline?!”

Before Tok can respond Lana steps in between he and Den, “what if it’s critical? Superman never said exactly how he knew we were dying. What if this was necessary?”

Kol’s excitement level ratchets “My brother saved the whole Clarking world?!?”

Tok has seen these three go at it before. This was how they hashed things out. Behind him, just pitched for him to hear, Reba says “Tok? I think you need to see this…”

Tok crouches around and swings to be closer to Reba. "Thanks", he says, sotto voce. "I know it's better to let them hash things out on their own, but it's much easier with a distraction. What is it?"

Reba gestures over to the area of first-person action games while walking in that direction, “remember when your powers first manifested, and you spent the day getting the high score on every one of these? You'd have one or two poor runs getting the pattern down and then got an unassailable high score and moved on...”

She crouches down to point inside the bay of one. “Someone spent some hard time getting close…”

In the top 5 scores chart there’s TOK in first by a wide margin and then HOVE in spaces 2-5, all entered in the space of a couple of days.

"It's like that on every game in this section, and not anywhere else," Reba goes on. "I checked the dates. HOVE spent three days here, open to close, apparently doing nothing but playing running action simulators."

"It felt... important. So, I pulled his holo image." she holds her hand over the touch screen so Tok can't do the same yet. Reba loves her revelations. I also checked the dates. It's right before the Legion fought that giant in the park." she taps the screen. "Does this kid look familiar?"

The image of a slightly surly kid, hair artfully messy, floats in the air in front of the display. Tok last saw him in the holo records OPHELIA displayed - the one whose hands changed into giant claws and tried to eviscerate Chameleon Boy.

"...before we fought the giant? You mean the Mans Wyla, the Negative Man, right? He turned out to be a friend, in the end. But I know this guy. Talon Lad. He was there too, when Wyla woke up--and definitely not a friend.

"If he was doing this before the Negative Man, before Wyla zapped all of them to his base on the moon...I remember this guy; he was some kind of hacker. No, an elite gamer; he thought that Dr. Wyla's lab computer's console was "just like a game console." And....then he lost his cool when he couldn't manage to hack it and destroyed the console. Given that, given -this-...

"I guess I have to assume he's specifically setting himself up as my personal nemesis.

"Or, maybe he just really likes video games."

Reba nudges him with a gentle tease, "Let's assume the latter; you aren't the center of the universe, brother."

"Still, he's just a kid. He's younger than us, from the looks of it." She gnaws her lip and stares off into space, like she's seeing something no one else sees, as she's always done when she's gnawing on a problem. "But someone must have set him up with a membership or an infinite play account for him to do this. There has to be a record…."

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