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[evilbeej]

It's been about half an hour since time reverted to what the protected Legionnaires knew: half an hour of flailing, planning, laughing with relief, fretting, and confusion. Lori was still missing; the people who'd been on the Outpost were now on Legion World, MANO was on Legion World; Shvaughn Erin was /not/ on Legion World but Sin Ahi'imu *was*; the planetoid was still in motion and off the grid; none of the clocks or calendars in the entire place said the same thing.%r%rGlorith still had to be gone after.%r%rSo it's a bizarre group of volunteers that're gathered in the Transport Deck: among the Legionnaires, there's a science cop, a known villain, a head-busting Substitute, a neo-Kryptonian possessing satori in a handbasket, and some really confused totally random redshirts. So to speak.%r%r"We're heading into her home territory," says Cosmic Boy, back in uniform but still looking weirdly albino (unless Zoe addresses his 'disguise'); his hands are clasped behind his back. "This means that no matter how depowered she is, how badly her butt got kicked in the alternate timeline and in TwenCen, she can *still* school us. So be careful. Jenni?"%r%rThe speedster, looking remarkably sheepish (which is a definite step up from apologetic), clears her throat and keeps her hands in fists at her sides - *just*, no doubt, so she doesn't bite her nails. "She lives between here and Kem's tesseract," states the girl, leaning forward a little to glance down the line of gathered people. "Um, and she still has *some* power. I mean, we trounced her but she's *gotta* still have power, or she wouldn't've been able to get back to her place. And it's, um, it's time power."%r%r"Good to know. Questions before we go, anyone?" asks Cos, looking around. "And Kem, can you bring us all with no problem?"%r

Oh, Chameleon definitely has questions. Mostly colorful expletives and curses in his home language, but he'll save those for later. The time whammy that's happened to everyone around him seems to have affected him greatly. All he knows is, he's been wandering for days in a world he didn't make, and he's suddenly back here, with his teammates, and about to go after Glorith. The Durlan looks around, opens his mouth, and then decides to stow it. "I'm set. I think." He glances to Lyle and frowns.

Zoe nods, still keeping the Shard close to her chest. "She'll still have some power, it'll be in -her- realm... not a quick fix, but we can do this, I'm sure." She trots over to Cosmic Boy, "Uh, Cos, let's not send you into this out of uniform, huh?" A whorl of green sparklies and Cos is back to his usual hair color. "Much better."

"Do we have any plan more specific than 'storming the castle'?" That's Val Armorr's question, and it's not accompanied by the slightest hint of sarcasm or snide attitude. He genuinely wants to know. And probably won't be surprised if they don't, but it never hurts to ask. In the meantime, he adjusts the bracers on his wrist a bit, and double-checks the contents of his belt. Never hurts to be prepared.


It was a half an hour. If one knows what they want, there is a aprocking lot one can do in a half an hour. Cos gave the order, and after spending some time away...namely in the Twenty-First Century for a number of weeks, and not in the freaky warped timeline a majority of the Legion of Super Heroes were embroiled in, Lyle found a free half hour to do one thing.

Shower.

Not that the distant past was unclean, but there is something about cleaning up in one's own private rooms after a long, long trip that is calming to the self. Lyle Norg, Invisible Kid, makes a mental note to ask Val about such mental-spiritual things as he finally makes his way back to the Transport Deck. He's been briefed on the occasion, and what they're up against. "So," Lyle says, as he catches the last part about Glorith's powers. "Should we keep a guard neat Jenni and Jaz? Both, in their own ways, have powers that manipulate time in some way."

Shikari crouches on the command deck, her warskin fully deployed, all sharp angles and sleek black armor. She's been ready for this fight for a long time (longer than the half hour she's had to meditate since the timeline snapped back into place), and her question is simple and to the point. "How much are we allowed to hurt her for what she has done?" Her claws twitch. Snicker-snack, Glorith. Snicker-snack.

Mano blinks. This was *definitely* not where he expected to be! He starts to look around... then catches himself and deliberately puts his right hand over his eyes. "Listen -- you aren't going to shoot me for this -- are you?"

"She doesn't want us because we're able to manipulate time," Jazmin says plainly, following Lyle's train of thought. The Xanthan Legionnaire has shed her Legion jacket and is walking around in only her full-body union suit, looking as if she's ready to bust some heads. "She wants us because we're anomalies to her, something she can't predict as closely as the rest. Sure, she can control us, we've seen that. But she has her eyes open for us too. I'd be lying if I said that didn't scare me."

Like many of the others, M'Onel too has gathered on the Command Deck, standing quietly off by himself as he awaits the moment when they go after Glorith. Sure, it was nice to get back home, to find time restored to what it should be. But the quick realization that Glorith was still at large was all that the dark haired Daxamite cared about. And the sooner she could be dealt with, the better. Arms folded across his chest, Lar waits patiently for the last details to be taken care of, and for the Legion to spring into action.

Thom slowly looks around as he finds himself standing upon the transport deck instead of the deep dungeons of the Glorith's Palace. "Uhm...somebody is switching the set again. If someone does that to me one more time, I'll just blow up the planet, sprock it all." He turns slowly, seeing the other Legionaires standing with him. "Are we back? Is Jo alive now?" He scrunches his face. "I'm in to smack some Glorith."

"She seems to be inhabiting the body of Lori Morning. Extreme physical damage may...be problematic." That's Val responding to Shikari's question.

Chuck Taine ponders a moment and says, "We have to decoy her away from Jazmin and Jenni obviously. Create imposters... I can't do this. I mean it's Lori for God's sake. Are we going to make no attempt to reason with her? Save her? We kicked her butt twice. She's gotta know that this time she could lose it all, time, power her life..." A deep breath and then, "Sprock I'll volunteer. Not like I'd be missed in a fight." He says the last sentence softly.

Kem-El closes up his Omnicom wristband, glancing upwards at Cos. "We should be good. I had Terri run some tests, and I think I've isolated the harmonic frequency we need to 'storm the castle', as Karate Kid put it. Looks to match the frequency from the Crucible explosion." He looks around. "We've already stopped her once, and that was with half the force we're going in with now. I think we can take her down another notch and get Lori back." He looks back at Cos. "Just give the word."

Zoe speaks in that quiet tone that most people worry about when they here -her- using it, "Oh, we're going to try to rescue Lori, Chuck. Don't you worry about that. I've got an idea and, I hope, the means." She looks about, "Then we kick her butt from one end of subspace to the other."


Jazmin clears her throat. "Actually, if it's impostors...it's not impossible. I could just cause a temporal echo...a delay in visual perception. Basically, she'd be seeing us in a number of places at once. But she's not stupid, and she wouldn't fall for something like that anyway."


"But we're fighting on her home ground. That gives her an advantage that may well swing the balance more towards 'even'." Leave it to Val to also offer up the tactical realities of the situation. "Not that it's stopped us before." He adds with a faint grin.

Chuck Taine looks at Zoe with as close to a smile as he's shown the past week. Then he says, "Well then I have one more thing to suggest. You said Jenni and Jazmin had powers that affect time. You left someone out, I think." His smile doesn't grow any bigger but there's that bright light in his eyes he gets when he feels useful.


"I can only think of one thing," Lyle says. One thing right now, in any case. He was trapped in a pleasant-but-not-home era because of Glorith, or Lori, or whatever she is calling herself this week. "If we have to disguise Jazmin and Jenni, why not switch their appearances somehow?" He's thinking, but it's been a lot to take in in a very short timeframe, cleansing shower or not. A lot of this battle, he thinks, is going to involve staying invisible and trying to not die, and do some thinking in the meantime. "Chuck?" he says, looking across to the blue-clad Legionnaire. "What did you have in mind?"


"Thanks, Zoe," grins Cos lopsidedly, reaching up to run his hands through his hair automatically. Then he nods to Val. "Yeah, she aged Lori's body, so we don't want to actually damage her *too* much until we can get them seperated. Then, all bets are off. Just -- no killing. I shouldn't have to say that, but I'm saying it anyway." He holds a hand up, shaking his head. "We'll deal with her attacks as they come, just like anything else. Our primary goal is prying Lori free of Glorith, which *should* kick the latter straight outside time. Zoe -- unless she's given it to Kem-El -- still has the widget. Jenni, I want you and Dirk keeping track of everyone and going to fish them out if Glorith smacks 'em. NO ONE HIT MANO. Mano, you're fine. Jazmin, I want you and Kem-El backing Zoe up. Val and Thom, I want you working with Mano in *completely wrecking her pocket Earth*. Lar -- mm. I may need you to grab her attention at some point when she's weaker. Leena, back Lar up. Chuck -- okay. Work with Zoe and Jazmin. Everyone else, smack her around!"

Exhale. Eyebrows up, serious expression. "For the duration of this mission, you are *all on this team*. That means that if ANY ONE of you sees someone else going under, help them. Everyone watch everyone's back. Mano, Kem-El, Sin, Night Girl, - I'm afraid I'll need these back when we get back from the pocket universe, but we need to be able to keep track of you in there." He digs in one of his belt pockets, then comes up with -- *with Flight Rings*. And he hands them solemnly to the people he addressed. "*Please*, keep planning on the way -- but time *is* of the essence here. Now -- Let's go, Legionnaires!"

Chuck Taine points to... Thom. He says, "A classic relativity... massive gravitational field will warp space time, slowing time. Micro black holes, which Thom has created in the mast could create some temporal static or throw off Glorith's aim. It might neutralize some of the home advantage, especially if it's an effect Jaz and Jenni are prepared to counter and she isn't. You'd have to work out the actual math for what Thom has to do. I'm not up on temporal physics."

Thom scrunches up his face, looking over in the direction of Mano. "Uh...Cos? Mano is bad guy, remember? You know that whole killing people thing?" He comments before lifting a finger. "Question. Pocket earth...how badly do you want it wrecked. Great big wasteland or...boom?" He looks over towards Chuck. "Micro black holes...I suppose I could create a few of them. Of course everyone would be effected by them."

"Smack her around. Got it." Chameleon grins wryly at Cos's suggestion of how best to apply his powers to the situation at hand. Of course, he doesn't mind being utilized however he's needed, but it may be time for a little craftiness as well. Strolling over to Invisible Kid, Reep nudges his friend and then whispers something quietly. Everyone else has their jobs to do, so it may be time for Cham to do what he does best.


Cosmic Boy points out, "The Time Trapper's a bad guy too. He saved all our lives. Work with me here, okay?"
Val grins, cracking his knuckles, "Oh good. Demolition work."

Mano had dropped his Hand from before his eyes, at what was probably a stray remark from Thom about the 'scenery changes' they'd all been through recently. He turns to face the Legionnaire, horror evident in his normally-cultured baritone. "Don't even *joke* about blowing up worlds! if Arete had any mercy, She would have let me die along with Angtu for that..." His hands clench into fists as he tries to calm down.
Then he hears Cosmic Boy's offer of the legendary flight ring. "I -- I am not worthy of such a gift, even if you only mean for me to borrow it temporarily. Mano's gaze falls toward the floor as he hears the rest of the plan. "I... what exactly do you mean by this destruction?" he asks reluctantly.

The accusations from the Legionnaires concerning his status, Mano shrugs off. He's far too used to being distrusted, feared, hated... hunted, by now.
Chuck Taine walks over to Thom and says, "Maybe they would affect everyone if you just made /one/ but if you made a couple and placed us at the center, their effects could cancel out." Chuck pulls out his omnicom and starts cscribbling on its holo screen. "This was an old way of creating a true zero-g field, before we could do it with artificial gravity. Several masses orbiting around a point could shield it from outside gravity." A couple of points begin orbiting the stick figures Chuck sketches in. The figures might even seem to have a familiar style. Chuck is beusily pondering just how good Thom's control is over masses that... massive.
Listening in quietly, Lar takes the instructions very much as he has taken most such things on this unexpected and unwelcome jaunt into alternate realities; stoically. Arms folded across his chest, the young Daxamite merely dips his head when told that he should look for an opportune moment when Glorith is slightly weakened and try to seize the initiative. Nothing to fancy, but then more often then not simple plans work the best. And it is something he is well suited to afterall. Though the fact that they have to try and find a way to neutralize this powerhouse without harming her -- or more specifically the girl that still resides somewhere beneath -- adds a more complicated dimension to be certain.
"There's no one *there*, Mano, except for Glorith," says Cosmic Boy gently. "I would never ask you to do anything that goes against *my* morals; remember that. The destruction is a distraction, a visible undoing of her work."
"She has killed Legionnaires," Shikari says, her warskin slipping from her face. "She will let Morning-Lori go and she will hurt." She pointedly avoids saying 'die', even though that is what she wishes she could say. She is a Legionnaire, and Cosmic Legion is right. Legionnaires do not kill, not even when their enemies have taken other Legionnaires' lives. But Shikari will gladly sprock that time-witch's nass up.
Thom looks towards Cos and frowns gently. He simply nods, mumbling lowly to himself. Of course, everyone with super-hearing can hear the low cursing. He looks up to Chuck. "Well...maybe. I don't want to push it too much that I lose control. At least they wouldn't be the large one by..." He looks to Val, "Steeple."

"Back up Zoe. Got it, and acknowledged," Jazmin says with a nod. She's been doing a lot of that lately, working with Zoe that is. And strangely, up until this point, she hasn't really had to do that in awhile. "let's get the show on the road then. Kem, you got the door, right?"

"Smack her around," Lyle muses, in a quiet voice. Oh, that's going to work really well. He'll have to work on it his own way, and he's still theorizing over the comms as the Legion and their allies prepare to move out. Mano is here...and if Cos says Mano is with them, so be it. He pointedly avoids looking at the Angtuan: reminding him of the broken arm might not be the best of things. "Shikari could always try and 'find' Lori inside Glorith." It would be easier to do so if they had a telepath, but...

As he activates his flight ring, floating in the air and ready to go, Lyle casts a sidelong glance to Thom. "You handled the black hole outside Steeple very well," he says. McCauley was using the Hole to power a huge gravi-cannon to wipe out Mars, back then. "Don't knock yourself down."

Zoe holds up the Shard a bit, its light back to normal from the last time she tapped that thing, "I've still got it, Cos. Let's do this." She looks to Jazmin, "Just remember how we freed Jenni. Something similar could work here." With a lot more power behind it, of course.
Lyle Norg whispers as an aside to Cham, "She did. One of many, I think." He can't help but flash the Durlan a grin. "Nice thinking."
"Damn. Good. Point. Kari, help Zoe and Jazmin find Lori. Kem-El, open the door, will you?" says Cos finally.


Chuck Taine turns his omnicom to Thom then adds a star emblem to the chest of one of the figures on his holoscribble, then pointedly gives it a wicked grin and a thumbs up gesture. He then sketches a large screw next to a Glorith figure.

A sideways grin is returned to Invisible Kid, and Chameleon gives a slight nod. And then disappears to the naked eye. In reality, he's become a common Earth Housefly, and has landed on Lyle's shoulder. "Best not to give away the surprise until the big reveal. It's just anti-climatic otherwise." He waits to follow the others into action.


Mano finally looks up, at Cosmic Boy. "Untrue -- you meant to send others in besides me to attack that place." A long pause, then he continues. "And it's either that world, or see many other worlds fall before her... isn't it?" Mano knows the answer is yes, but he asks anyway.
"I do give you one piece of information -- my using such levels of power could kill me." Mano gives a small shrug. "Whether you count that as a benefit or detriment, I'm not sure. Your authorities will enjoy knowing that, I am sure."

Oh... sprock.

Kem-El stares at the Flight Ring for a moment, then at Cos. o O (Sprock me...) O o Taking a deep breath, he reaches out hesitantly to take it. "This is a lot you're trusting me with," he says quietly. "I'll do my best to make sure the trust isn't for nothing."

He turns around, tapping the wristband, then cracks his knuckles. "Let's do this."

In front of the group, the rift to Bastion opens, although it's slightly off-frequency from the normal transit to Bastion. Kem-El glances back. "Looks stable."

"Mano, calm down, will you?" The first hint of irritation creeps into Cosmic Boy's voice. "I need you to wear the Flight Ring so that the rest of the team can keep in contact with you, and so that if Glorith kicks you into the timestream, we can find you. And we will *all be there*. Wreck stuff visibly, as the frontline team did in the alternate Earth. The demolition equates roughly to a flashbang. We all have transuits, no one will die. If you feel the need to question my orders every step of the way, you're welcome to stay here until we get back, or just leave and get back to what you were doing before time threw up." He raises his voice and addresses the whole group. "NO ONE DIES TODAY. Now come on!"
The Braalian practically dives through the portal.


"Weren't you supposed to say "let's go?"" Val says with a grin, his tone laced with amusement. And then he lifts off the ground and flies through the portal after Cos, eyes open for convenient things to break as soon as he's through.


Zoe lifts off using her flight ring and just smiles, "He's cute when he's being authoritative, isn't he?" Without another word she zips through the portal.


There is little value in continued conversation at this point. More then anything they need to know what's going on on the other side of the portal that Kem-El has opened for them. And the only way they're going to find that out is to actually go through it. Abandonning his place readily, Lar steps immediately towards the portal, walking through it without a moment's hesitation.

Leena Lynai chuckles softly as she follows Zoe through the portal, "That's -one- word for it."



Her muscles tensed in her bare arms, Jazmin flies through the portal after the others, keeping close to Zoe and Chuck, waiting for her time to act. And once through to the other side, she extends her temporal senses as much as possible, trying to feel for a chrono-signature similar to their own, even if it is obscured by something tainted and unwhole.

Founder Legion doesn't have to ask twice. Shikari launches out of her crouch and through the portal faster than you can say "Battle-crazed Kwai".

Chuck Taine morphs into his round form and bounces through the portal after Shikari. "Here goes!"



"Note to self: Restock Silverale in my room." Later on, Lyle is going to remember he actually said that out loud. He glances to the oh-so-Fly Durlan on his shoulder. "We can finally pick up our conversation," he offers. "After this," he adds, as he goes through the portal. Lyle starts to fade, patches of his body suddenly disappearing from view. Cham, on his shoulder and very small, is also affected by Lyle's personal Invisibility field. Once more, literally, into the breach...


Kem-El smirks. "Figures he'd be first one through. And they said I was impatient." And he steps through the rift as well.

"You're right on that," Thom mumbles, looking to Lyle, locking oneself in their quarters for a week getting smashed on Silverale does sound like a viable plan. He sighs and moves to follow through the portal. "Or betting Cos with the very big stick that is up his..." BLOOP! He is through the portal.

Mano winces, then carefully takes the Ring from Cosmic Boy -- with his left hand. He transfers it to his right hand just long enough to use that to put it on his left index finger. "Yes, sir." he replies softly to Krinn's snapping at him.
It's not that Mano doesn't trust Cosmic Boy... he is just too aware that while that man may try to stand up for him, there's far more people who will oppose that.
And Mano heads into the portal.

It's a brilliantly brief trip through spacetime; the old adage about folding a blanket to bring two pieces of edge together really *is* apropos. Bright lights, loud rushing noises like a waterfall or a windstorm in a forest, half-remembered sensations against skin, faint traces of sweet and comforting scents--

Then everything is jarred loose sideways, wrenched *wrong*--

They are *not* in the Bastion tesseract. That much is patently clear, unless Kem-El's sense of interior decorating is REALLY REALLY GOTH.

Everything's dim and colourless: the dirt, which nothing grows in, is an ashy brown and the sky matches it, only vaguely lighter. There's no sun, no moon, not even any stars - just sluggishly shifting cloud cover, the dreary mess of pollutants and dust. The ground crunches underfoot, unpleasantly. Here and there, crooked and disturbing pieces of rock jut out from the ground at non-Euclidean angles (don't ask), and in the near distance, there's a tall building that's shaped vaguely like a cancerous skeleton (again, don't ask). Upon closer inspection, the rock-spike-things prove to be constructed out of bones and brownish cement. Ghastly, eerie phosphorescent lights flicker through cracks in the building -- since it's the only one around, it's pretty likely it's Glorith's house.

Leena Lynai quips upon landing, "Welcome, Legionnaires, to the place where ALLLLLLL of Elvira's leftover set props came to roost." Never mind that only a few of them will even get the reference.


Chuck Taine looks around and says "We'd be doing the universe a favor blasting this place to quarks. Bloody Frell. Why do the evil magic types go in for the necrotic look all the time?"
Kinetix blinks to Leena, "Isn't Elvira some two-bit hustler from Gamma-Majoris 3?" She looks around the place, "You know, if I had little respect for Glorith before its now -totally- shot. The woman is vile, evil and now I -know- that she simply has no -sense- of style!" Zoe looks over to Thom and Mano, "You guys could only be an improvement around here."

The trip is mercifully brief, even if it is rather jarring at the conclusion of it and when Lar steps out into their final destination he almost he lets his gaze wander over their nearby surroundings, shaking his head slowly. "Lovely," he mutters softly. His attention quickly shifts from the immediate surroundings to the rest of Glorith's domain, stretching out with his rather formidable senses to gather as much information as he can gather in a short amount of time, the majority of his attention devoted to the rather unpleasant looking structure up ahead. Taking to the air, a small frown continues to play over his features.

All but silent, and invisible due to his close proximity to the field Lyle's generating, the ChamFly whistles. "All my Durlan senses are telling me...that building up there may be the place." The voice is dripping with sarcasm. "I don't know what you had planned Lyle, but I think we should hold back and be the Garfargian Sneakfish in the Boogle Hole on this one, if you know what I mean."

"Huh," Lyle says, as he exits the portal while invisible, waits a moment for his stomach to go back to where it's supposed to be in his body, and takes a good look at their surroundings. "It's nice. Homey, in that 'coffin' kind of way. It might be Neo-Post-Apocalyptic Mess in decor style, which is very popular with the kids these days." His eyes turn towards the skeletal fortress. "Looks like a giant gray skull," he says, out loud. "And if she's not there, I'll be disappointed because it means we have to look." Cham, even if they can't see it, gets a smirk. "Curse those uncanny Durlan senses. And I agree with you."


"Bad childhood and an echo of what the good guys are expecting. Or maybe not. Maybe they're sprockin' nuts and they're reveling in their own fecal design sense," Jazmin says, taking up a hovering position behind Chuck. She sneers at the cancerous skeleton thing, having half a mind to put it to its final rest. Thankfully, she's not that keen on selling out her teammates and their arrival -- not that there's too much of a mystery to that effect. "No offense to Kem, but a two-bit hustler wouldn't go after a high-profile super, either. My guess is this is her once-week-a-month home makeover."


"I've trained in some inhospitable places in the past. But I don't know if I've ever seen one this -ugly-..." Val glances around, frowning, and then, just for good measure and to 'warm up', he unleashes a roundhouse kick at one of the bone-rock-spike things, shattering it and sending the pieces flying outward, away from the rest of the Legion. "I guess it's time to start redecorating..."


Mano looks around wide-eyed (well, with wide eyespots). "Arete... if it wasn't so quiet, I'd almost think I was home."

For a few moments, Kem-El just stares at the decor, then glances at the others. "Obviously, Glorith's taste in interior decorators has declined since the last time I was here. I may be somewhat eccentric on occasion, but this takes the cake." He shrugs. "Announcing our arrival would be a waste of time at this point." He looks at Zoe and Jaz. "Just tell me what you need, Zoe."


Still grinning from the wild ride.. Sin is almost bouncing in place, looking at the structure up ahead. "Dunno much about fashion, m'self, really - or any sort of style.. but that place is just *ugly*. Bet it'll look lots prettier in about half a jillion pieces."


Shikari looks around. As she takes in the scenery, her mind flashes back to the dark, clammy feel of the Rosette. But she knows this isn't the Rosette, because unlike the Progenitor's cold power, Glorith simply feels ostentatious. The Progenitor added because he was bored. Glortih seems to add simply because she wants people to notice her additions. And in that moment, any residual fear Shikari might have had fades. "Petty," she says. Whatever power Glorith has, there is no way someone walking such an unstable path could win against the Legion - in Shikari's opinion. "Come out, Glorith-witch."


"Nass," comes out of Thom's mouth as he steps through the portal. He looks around slowly. "Uhm...Glorith likes living here? The woman is a few stars short of constellation." He comments lowly, looking around. He looks in the direction of the light. "So...do I huff and a puff now?"


Mano looks around. "All right -- where do you need me to start?

Chuck Taine shakes his head. "I think this is all a sad, sad cry for help and attention and to distract people from her ever widening zootie." Everyone /knows/ when you start talkking trash about the baddie they pop up all nassed off and they make mistakes... like whupping Chuck ahead of the guys who can /do/ something.

Val Armorr glances around, his eyes narrowing, and a faint grin flickers across his face, "Lots of aggravated fault lines here....this is going to be amusing. I'd suggest staying off the ground, everyone. It might get shaky, otherwise...." He gestures, "Mano...Thom...follow me." He starts off in a different direction, lifting into the air and flying at a good clip.

Thom nods his head towards Val, following after his fellow Legionaire. "Fault lines?" He speaks up, looking around him, trying to focus on finding them by the feel of gravity. "I could just start causing earthquakes, imbalancing the fault line." He looks towards Mano. "That or we could just go for the core itself?"
Sun Boy, who's spent this entire issue in the background looking pretty (it is what he's good at) finally speaks up, as he leans down to examine one of the bone spikes, running a gloved finger over it carefully. "I'd say..." He says, "From our experience on the other Earth, that it's a simple case of Glorith hating beauty. It's a lot easier to feel beautiful when everything around you is hideous and ruined."

He looks up at the other Legionnaires and grins. "Guess that means I'm in trouble."
There's one thing Glorith isn't doing predictably today.

She's not starting off with the monologuing; she's too injured, too afraid. Already - there's a *large* group, here. Already, people have... vanished. Tenzil, Brin, Lydda -- silent now. If anyone notices they're silent, and looks, well. Ain't there.


Mano looks at the flight ring. "How do you use this?" he asks, starting to follow on foot. "And I wouldn't recommend going for the core -- not if you want anyone here to survive."

Val Armorr's flight takes him a few hundred meters away, "Just put it on your finger and...think about flying..." He replies to Mano, pausing beside an obvious 'crease' in the landscape, and grinning like a kid in the proverbial candy store, "All right....Mano....dig this fault a little deeper... By thirteen meters, give or take a few centimeters. Once he's done, Thom......lessen the gravitic pressure on my side by 200 percent....increase it on the other by 350." He chuckles, "I just have to try this...."

Rather glad that *someone* decided to ask that - mostly so she didn't have to - Sin follows after Mano, still studying the structure up ahead. "Y'know, that thing really can't be all *that* stable. I mean, look at it - you lay a charge.." her steps slowing, she tilts her head to get another perspective, then tilts it a little further. "Seriously. Just about anywhere. Fall down, go boom."
"Shikari -- is Glorith in Castle Greyskull over there?" asks Cos, glancing at the Kwai; he pauses, looking around. Frowns. Checks his flight ring for locations. "It's started. Jenni, go for it. Kem, help her back out of here, she needs to get into the timestreaam. Dirk, I take it back -- shedding a little light on this place would be much appreciated. It's *gloomy* here."

XS blinks, looking up with a vaguely guilty expression and lowering her hand from up by her mouth, where it'd been hovering. "GotIt!" she calls, then practically bowls Kem-El over before he can open a portal again.


Chuck Taine nods to Sin. "That's basic evil doer architecture. Design it to topple over unless you're alive and conscious to keep it propped up. It's your last change to kill a couple of good guys or maybe cover your escape."


Leena Lynai looks over her shoulder at Cos, "Should I call her out? Guaranteed, I can get her attention."

Cos spreads his arms wide, shrugging. "Be my guest, Lee--"

He's not there anymore.

Half a beat later, Tinya and Jo disappear from over *there*.


Zoe looks around for a moment, people having gone quiet, "Nass." She nods to Chuck, "The 'Load Bearing Villain' model, yeah." Zoe reaches out a hand and just starts randomly transmuting the terrain: a nice, flat walkway leading up to the 'castle', a few fountains, at least one 'billboard' of local materials reading 'Glorith Is A Stinker!'...

Shikari's head snaps up, pink light sparking across her armored face in a quick arc. She tenses, and if anyone notices, her claws lengthen. "She is up ahead, Cosmic Legion -" she starts, but then he's gone, and she leaps into the air, wings buzzing furiously.


"It's PROBABLY stronger than Dura-lon plating, so save your bombs," Dirk comments, before he obliges Cosmic Boy and begins to glow, shedding a radiance out over the group. Now-" He grimaces. "...Great!"

"That... is IT! I've *HAD IT* with this prehistoric skank!"


Leena Lynai frowns darkly. She's had just about enough. Her expression, if she could control the weather, would be liable to bring down a hurricane. She takes a deep breath and a single step forward, and then calls out, "GLORITH!"

And the earth -rattles-.

"The Legion is here to KICK YOUR SORRY ASS, Glorith!" Leena continues, volume on her voice still amped, ringing off of every surface. "We're going to come in and get you, take our friends, and put a stop to this ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!"

Kem-El taps the wristband, opening the rift again... and hoping what Cos is planning works. Before Jenni can completely bowl him over, he shifts into a gaseous form, wincing as Jenni blurs by, and pulls himself back together again and resumes his normal form. "Grife... Cos, I swear--" And he stops. Cos just vanished. Looking around, he sees others have disappeared as well. "Sprock," he mutters. "Okay--" And before he can say anything more, Leena brings down the house with her voice.

For a moment, he blinks, then grins at his 'Auntie'. "You've got to teach me that little trick sometime."
"Sprock." Chameleon, still in fly form, can't help but let out the expletives. Cos is *gone*, and that's not good. And so is Jo. So that leaves him calling the shots. But he still believes his plan is a good one, and doesn't want to make himself visible yet. Good thing he can still use his flight ring (where DOES he store that when he changes?). ((Legionnaires! Stick with the plan that Cos laid down. Keep it together and we'll get everyone back!)) A moment's pause. ((Val, commence the big booms.)) He hopes that sounded at least a little inspirational. ((Leena-...nevermind, Leena. I think you got her attention.)) He hopes that the hole presents itself for these two aces soon.

Mano takes flight... well, tries to, anyway. It's more that he gliding along a bit above the ground, taking long steps. "Fault line, dig down 17 meters... got it." Once he reaches the site, he removes his right glove -- revealing the Hand."How much of this line do you want expanded?" he asks Val.

Star Boy moves to follow after Mano to the particular break in the earth before them. He points a hand towards Mano as he tries to fly, making sure he doesn't impact into the ground painfully. He waits patiently for Mano to do this part.
Chuck Taine bounces into the air and comes down smashing a rock formation. It's a start. He bounces out of the cloud of dust and slams into another kicking up a rucus. Cos is gone. Not good. Then again they did all the planning in advance. He tries making a little quake of his own well away from Val's group. Distract, distract. He's good at that.
It is rather, well, unexpected, to simply watch as teammates are there one moment and then simply gone in a blink of an eye. His survey of the nearby surroundings comes to an abrupt end and Lar blinks in surprise for a moment before his expression abruptly hardens. "I suggest we hurry it along, before she finds a way to simply make more of us disappear," he says tightly, already beginning to circle towards the sole structure, waiting for the other Legionnaires to do their thing and force Glorith out from whatever hole she's hiding in.
Val Armorr shakes his head, "13 meters deep please, Mano....and...." He gestures a finger along the fault line, "A 24 meter length. Officer, if you could place charges of equal size on either side of the depression he makes, and detonate them on my signal?"

"M'Onel has the right idea," Sun Boy mutters as he strides forward, headed for Glorith's palace before he uses his flight ring to lift into the air slightly. "But he uses too many words. Hey, Glorith! Knock knock! We're here to hold you accountable!"


Sin is too jazzed up over being able to *fly* to immediately notice that anyone's vanished. "Y'know," she remarks, to no-one in particular, if they gave us cool stuff like *this*, we might not be so prone to mischief." By "we" she means "I", of course. Then she's shutting up, and allowing the Legionanaires to do their thing. It's time to call Glorith out.. destroy her home, then pillage what.. no. No. Behave like heroes. Right.
Triad disappears. Violet disappears. And as the word 'all' rings out, echoing across the terrain, Brainiac 5 disappears--

--and yeah, okay, even if there's anyone here who hasn't seen Glorith before, it's DEAD OBVIOUS that the woman who manifests in a curling cloud of flashing octarine smoke is...Glorith, yeah.

Tall and imposing, hovering above and in front of the Legionnaires, glaring down her nose at them and white garments billowing around her in wind that simply isn't there, Glorith stretches out a hand in front of her and points at Leena, eyes wide and mouth set grimly. "YOU BEGIN TO TIRE ME, LEGION!" she bellows, curling her hand back; the clouds overhead start to emit huge thunderous booms and brilliant flashes of lightning. A nimbus of purple energy surrounds Leena.


"Tire on this, you stupid piece of nass," Jazmin bellows out. Reaching forth with both hands open and clenched in a half-grab, Kid Quantum coalesces a bolt of quantum energy between her fingers, radiating against her palms. The energy crackles and sizzles against her skin, and a smile washes across her face. Pushing the ball of energy at full speed toward Glorith, Jazmin waits for the right moment to cue the thing to explode outward, releasing its chaotic, temporal energies in a way that might cause the woman's conflicting time signatures to ripple apart for a moment, a very brief moment.


Zoe simply frowns as Glorith appears, raising a large block of... whatever the local terrain is made out of and sends it hurtling towards the villainess. Starting forward on her flight ring she looks to Jazmin, "Just like we did with Jenni. Follow my lead." Zoe tries to focus on those traces of Glorith's power that bind her and Lori together.

Mano ahems. "Oh... my mistake. *Thirteen* meters deep, twenty-four long." He gets to work on one end of the faultline, carving it out. Then Mano hears the bellow -- and looks up from his task to see that Glorith's here...
...and that far too many Legionnaires are *not* here, now.
A quiet whisper into his ring, and Chameleon does his best to convey the semblance of a plan he's had to come up with in a hurry. ((Attack in groups of two, from different directions. Shikari, Chuck. Lar, Val. Dirk, strobes and heat. Keep her off balance. We need her confused enough to give Lori a chance to surface. Thom, Mano, Sin. I need you blowing stuff up around her as much as possible. We're going to try and give Lori a reason to want to resist.)) A breath and then Cham's muttering to Lyle. "Closest safe distance?"

"Begin," Lar repeats quietly, a slow nod accompanying his words, the slight frown washed from his features, replaced by a look of steely resolve. "Yes, I think you'll find that we've just begun to deal with you," he agrees. And even as she begins to gather her power to bring it to bear, the dark haired Daxamite is streaking forward. Already airborn, he becomes little more then a blur as he races forward, reaching top speed in a heartbeat, driving towards the source of so much of their trouble and soorw in recent days. Arms outstretched. Fists clenched.

Chuck Taine smacks into another bone/rock spur demolishing it. He'd rather hoped all these impacts would keep his mind from working over time. No dice there. He can't help but think of Glorith and how all this was to prevent her terrible childhood from ever occuring. Nice idea except of course the memories would always be with her. He has too much experience with nassy memories. Not being popular, not being in the loop, not being terribly interesting. Man, the ghosts in your mind are the worst of all. They drive you to distraction. Even after he built a bloody planet, a girl walks out on him and all the ghosts are back. He looks to where Lu, all of her disappeared, like another ghost. Then he's launching himself at Glorith, teeth clenched in fury.


Cos is gone, as is Lu, and Tinya. There's some chain of command with the Legion, and Cham is in that chain, and more than one noggin around on this is always a good thing. "Someone help Leena," Lyle says, through the comms. "But keep at her, see if you can get her to use up her energy on trying to hit us. If she's powering herself by chronal energy, there's a chance if she runs out of reserves things will go further back to normal." Lyle's thinking fast; he's not going head-to-head with Glorith, and he trusts the Legion to keep to the rules. He's moving, unseen with Cham, to one side. His goal is to get him and Chameleon into position for when they're needed.


Where Leena Lynai once appeared in her early twenties, as soon as Glorith's glow hits her, she begins to grow... younger? Soon, it's like she's a fresh-faced 16-year-old again. "You're gonna have to do a lot better than THAT, you Reject from the House of Mystery!"

Streaking into the air, Leena Lynai aims a double-fisted blow to Glorith's forehead, "Your time on the top is DONE!"


". . . squaj," Shikari says, simply. "You are all show. Your path is cold and empty, and it ends today."
Her claws extend to their full six-inch length, and she slices off a piece of jutting rock (which is more like a really large boulder) to throw at the time-witch. As she does so, she yells to Zoe, "There is another path!" What she means isn't exactly clear. She grunts as she tosses the heavy rock. "Glorith and Morning-Lori are not alone. There is another life-path!" She carves out another rock and lifts it, preparing to heave it also.


"I won't be anyone's plaything ever again," Dirk growls as he raises both hands over his head, and then throws them forward as he hurls light down onto Glorith.

"You're finished! Through! IT'S OVER, WITCH!"

"Come on, Come on...." Star Boy mutters before looking upon Glorith as she appears. "She's taking too many of us away." He says to himself as Cos disappear. He pauses before talking into his ring, waiting for them to set up their end of them of the digging. "Want a distraction? What Chuck mentioned?" He sends to Lyle. One little one right in front of her. Maybe it will act like a flashbang for the temporally-gifted.

Blowing things up.. that's a task Sin can do, particularly if the idea is to distract and disrupt Glorith. Still dangerously intoxicated by the notion of flight, Sin dives for Glorith.. the small bomb in her hand meant to detonate seconds after she pulls the pin. It's loud and flashy - it won't do a great deal of actual *damage*, but that's not the point, at the moment. The point is to get Glorith's attention, when the world lights up at her feet. Hello!


Zoe blinks towards Shikari, "Another... ?" She narrows her eyes in concentration, "Nass... she's right! It almost feels like... sprock, that feels a lot like the Trapper!" She's not sure who's using who or if Glorith's tapped the Trapper or what... but this isn't good! The red-headed Alephan takes a deep breath to prepare to tap the Shard again.

Kem-El's eyes narrow. Last time, inertron alone didn't work. Tarnium, in this setting, probably won't be a good idea. That said, he goes with the next best thing, all things considered: tromium crystal.

So Glorith likely won't be too surprised by the air around her starting to transmute into something else. After all, that trick's been done before. This time, however, the inertron that's slowly transmuting out of the air isn't a skin-tight layer like it was in the alternate universe.

The tromium crystal that's also beginning to transmute out of the air making direct contact with Glorith, however, /is/ skin-tight. Since Glorith's brand of sorcery deals with time, and tromium tends to resist such things... well, we'll let Glorith puzzle that one out and see just how irked she gets.
A LOT of things happen at once -- there's a HUGE explosion from *that* direction, thanks to the Bomb Squad; Glorith SCREAMS and is cut off VERY abruptly; Mano disappears; the time-witch is very suddenly *on* the ground, kneeling in the filthy dust of the planet, spitting out a tooth and a lot of blood, coughing, and coughing up blood. And gasping. She flings her hand out again, this time looking absolutely terrified; fingers are outstretched in Shikari's direction and a bolt of purple light is hurled her way; there's another explosion.

And then --

There's a bleeding, panicked-expressioned, frozen-in-crystal Glorith half-kneeling and half clutching her stomach.

And there's a Lori -- and another life path -- in there, too.

Something else blows up, from Sin's general direction.

Sun Boy lands on the ground and begins to advance on the prone (?) Glorith, his hands curled up to hold the twin pulses of burning light contained therein. "You're lucky the Legion doesn't kill," He says with a snarl, before he looks up to Chameleon. "What now?"

He looks toward Glorith again. "Not so tough when the universe isn't on your side, are you?"


Shikari's about to heave another rock in Glorith's direction when the blast of light connects. The rock slips out of her hands, and Shikari is buried underneath the boulder. Luckily, she has her warskin to protect her, but the rock weighs a lot more than a certain rotund Legionnaire, and the combined force of the rock and Glorith's blast keep her down for what feels like an eternity.

Well, given that Val was already moving towards Glorith, thanks to Cham's orders, it's a simple enough matter to shift direction, leaping into the air, and atop the boulder that's suddenly pinned down Shikari. He doesn't weigh too much in comparison, so she's not likely to notice the added weight, anyway. What she probably -does- notice is when the boulder cracks in half, right down the middle, after a hearty 'KIAI!" from Val and a fist to -just- the right spot. And then he leaps off just in time for the rock to fall apart to both sides. Hey, if nothing else now she has -two- pieces of ammunition, right?

There's a really bizarre transformation taking place *right in front of everyone*. The purple energy that'd been surrounding Shikari and Leena, it abruptly vanishes even as the earth's shaking all around; the woman encased in crystal suddenly blurs, as though viewed through crystal /underwater/, and then through a cracked Fresnel lens.

The purple light shines out from inside the crystal, briefly, then quiets; everything seems hushed and still---

Zoe concentrates, bearing down, as she taps the power of the Shard again, "Jazmine. Let's do it." Zoe's used to manipulating complex patterns, second nature to her actually, and so she tries to impose a little finesse this time. Like a tailor using a seam-ripper, Zoe tries to cut both alien patterns clear of Lori's body. Glorith's is one she's come to know pretty well, the Trapper's well... she's felt it before. The important thing to her? Freeing her friend. "Better brace up Glorith. Time to sing."

And with Zoe's signal, it's Jazmin's turn to pour on the loving. Whereas Zoe is ripping and tugging at the alien signals, Jazmin is trying to hold the 3rd signal in place, suspended animation spheres and time displacement spheres, anything that will do the job. She's just lobbing one after after at Glorith. "Don't worry about it, baby. Mama's got a whole bag of tricks ready for your ass."

It's a much younger Shikari that heaves herself out of the rubble Kiai Legion left behind - she looks like she's only just hit puberty, now - but she's still strong enough to pick up the two large chucks of rock and toss them, one after the other, at Glorith.

Chuck Taine sails over the kneeling Glorith and morphs back to normal. He lets the flight ring take over as he slims down and turns in midair to regard the sorceress. Too easy. This is too easy and the vanished people are still vanished. He eyes her warily, ready to dodge. Maybe it's better to be a smaller target right now. Armored hide doesn't matter against temporal effects. As the ripple effect begins though he goes round by reflex and starts weaving around, using the flight ring. Distract.

Leena Lynai's uniform, while not ILL-fitting... well, let's just say the somewhat gangly 15-year-old Leena doesn't quite fill out the crop top and hot-pants as well. She's still got all that Kryptonian power at her disposal, though, and she turns the hidden dial at her neck that lets her focus her sonic-scream into a beam of force, and then lets rip with a high note as she focuses on Glorith.

"That's it. It's time to rock," Star Boy grumbles out, watching Sin as she tosses bombs in Glorith's direction. He brings his hands out flat, feeling along the fault line by feeling the path of gravity. He takes a deep breath as he concentrates and then slips his power, making one side increasingly heavy while the other got lighter. He pulls up with the light hand, while the other hand, he shoves down to the ground, pushing and trying to keep them separated.

And that's when Rond Vidar appears, near to where Glorith is encased in crystal. He blinks a few times, glances around at the Legionnaires and himself, and appears to be really confused about how he found himself to be here. "Wh-..The Legion?" If there were any doubt about the differences between the Rond of Glorith's created world, and that of the Legion's home, they're gone as soon as he speaks. "H-how?" He spots Glorith, and blinks a few more times. "Lori? Is that you? What's happened to you?" The care and concern in his voice is evident. "You must be trapped. Fight it Lori. Fight it!" Rond's cheerleading efforts should give Lori some added strength, what with her formerly strong feelings for the man.

Rond reaches out a hand to the Glorith-analog. "Find your way out to me, Lori. You can do it."


Sun Boy is just left watching. "...Unbelievable," He says to himself.


Sin is in her element - even if her efforts feel minor compared to those of the others. She's lobbing handfuls of small "poppper" bombs at the ground around Glorith, tossing them like confetti - only confetting that has a bit of a spark and *bang* to it. With her other hand she tosses more of the bigger bombs, pulling the pins out with her teeth and spitting them into the air before she sets the bombs loose to do their thing. Dancing in the flame and ashes - she'll be covered in soot before this is done. And still smiling.


Looking around, Kem-El finds that there are other problems to deal with. Namely, keeping the dimensional pocket from collapsing in on itself, as it seems to be growing more and more unstable. Kneeling down, he touches the ground and closes his eyes, taking a deep breath, and begins to push at the ground... which begins to transmute into tromium crystal, slowly radiating outward from his kneeling position. (( I think, )) he notes into the flight ring comm, (( if we wind up breaking any more of this apart, we're going to destablize the entire dimensional pocket. I'll try to slow it down as best as I can. Dirk, some solar energy would be nice, if you don't mind. I'm gonna need all the juice I can get my hands on. ))

Another deep breath, and then he really starts to push, pouring his solar reserves into forcing the ground to transmute.

With their powers combined, the Legionnaires are WRECKING THE PLANET! Explosions *everywhere*, the ground shaking like a wet puppy, the bone spikes crumble into the rifts opening all over the ground--

The Fresnel lens of the viewing public is suddenly gone, Glorith shoved into bright focus, still encased in crystal and pretty white clothes marred by blood and ash.

Behind her is an older, lovelier, calmer version of her -- wearing tattered purple robes, with grey-bandaged mummy hands; that woman is carefully cradling an injured Lori, whose eyes flutter shut still looking at Rond. "Legionnaires," she says, her voice clear and calm, a stillness in the chaos that the pocket planet has become. "You must remove her from time, or she'll still be able to regain her stolen power and strike at your hearts again."


Slowly, the ground stops shaking; it gets quieter all around.

Leena Lynai shouts to Jazmin, "That sounds like it's all you, Kid Quantum! Lock her up!"

Sun Boy obliges Kem-El by shining a beam of white light down on the Neo-Kryptonian. He might have a sunburn if he's not careful, but there are more important things to deal with, yes?