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#5

"The Turning Tide"

by David Marshall

Avalon, Mordru's Castle

"Where are we?" Light Lass asked. She rubbed her eyes to clear the cobwebs and lifted herself off a cold, dirt floor. She was in a dark room along with the other female Legionnaires and the girl called Shikari. The amenities were few. A single torch on the wall provided the sparse light that illuminated their dank cell. The smell of stale urine told her all she needed to know about the hole in the ground near the back wall. Good thing she didn't plan on staying long. It could get lonely without the boys to keep her company.

"We are in one of Mordru's dungeons," said Saturn Girl telepathically. "My apologies for nudging your brains to awaken you."

"So do I blame you or Mordru for this massive headache?" Triplicate Girl asked.

"Any ideas on getting out of here?" Projectra asked.

Triplicate Girl ran her right hand over the large, rough-hewn door that held them captive. "I doubt it can stand up to our powers."

Leave it to Luornu to stay positive. Her faith in the Legion was nearly as unwavering as Cosmic Boy's. Light Lass wished there wasn't such a wall between them on a personal level.

"I'm sure Mordru has taken our powers into account," Phantom Girl answered.

"How could he?" asked Triplicate Girl. "He's never fought us before."

"Remember what he told Cosmic Boy?" Saturn Girl replied. "He bragged he's defeated us many times."

"He's nuts," said Light Lass.

"Look past the illusion of madness," Projectra warned. "Somewhere in his boast lies the truth, at least from his perspective."

"Maybe he fought magic duplicates of us," said Light Lass. She didn't care what the crazy wizard meant. The important thing was breaking free and finding the others.

"What about Shikari?" Phantom Girl asked. She pointed to the stranger in the corner. She was still unconscious.

"She is a wild card," said Saturn Girl. "For all we know she was sent by Mordru."

"If so, she's a hell of a distraction," Shadow Lass replied. "Landed her in the dungeon with us. Some reward, huh?"

Shadow Lass's sarcasm and wit weren't dulled by captivity.

"You fought and yet you defend her?" Saturn Girl asked.

"Exactly why I'm defending her," Shadow Lass explained. "Far be it from me to sound like Karate Kid, but she was an honorable foe not a madwoman. If she says she's a Legionnaire from another reality, I'm not inclined to dispute her claim."

As entertaining as it was to watch Shadow Lass and Saturn Girl spar, Light Lass had more important things on her mind. "Can we get back to escaping?"

"And they say you're just a flirt," Triplicate Girl laughed.

Light Lass unleashed her anti-gravity powers against the door's hinge bolts. If she could render a galaxy-class star cruiser light enough to be blown off course by a batting eyelash, what chance did a few rusty, old hinges stand? She waited for the hinges to give up their mass to her, but they held firm. "This is impossible! Neither the door nor the hardware have mass!"

"Let me have a crack at it," said Shadow Lass.

Light Lass stepped aside. Her own power was getting them nowhere. "Gladly."

Shadow Lass was a terrific hand-to-hand combatant but the power that earned her a place in the Legion was her dark fields. She released the mysterious energy from her hands and it hung in the air like thick, rolling smoke. She molded it to her will like clay beneath a potter's skillful hands. The construct took the shape of a battering ram and slammed into the door. The blow was powerful enough to knock a hole in the hull of a Khundian Battlewagon, but the door held as if struck by an insect. "What the sprock?"

Phantom Girl slipped her arm into the phantom dimension and reached for the door. "Perhaps I can phase through it and .... Ayyeii!" She stumbled backwards and fell.

"Tinya!" Saturn Girl screamed.

Everyone rushed to their fallen teammate. She pushed herself up and cradled her arm. "Nothing bruised but my ego and my backside. Ladies, I do believe we're trapped."

 

The Time Stream

"Get up and stop feeling sorry for yourself!" the Time Trapper ordered. There was no time to coddle the Boy of Steel from Earth Prime. The Time Trapper was fully aware of the young man's ultimate destiny. This period in his life would be labeled his moment of madness by historical scholars. His greatest battle was internal and the Trapper hoped to take advantage of his weakness.

In a single blur of motion, Superboy pushed himself up and raced toward the Time Trapper with both fists stretched out front. A charging Kryptonian with pre-Crisis level strength was not a threat to take lightly.

The Time Trapper unleashed a torrent of chronal energy at the young Kryptonian, but it merely slowed his advance. It felt like eons since the Time Trapper last witnessed such a raw display of physical power.

"I don't know who you are," Superboy Prime hissed. "But you've picked the wrong fight! I killed Superman!" This Boy of Steel spoke with more venom than the original ever mustered.

A right hook slammed into the Time Trapper's jaw. Physical confrontation hurt far worse than he remembered.

"On the contrary," the Time Trapper goaded. "I found exactly what I wanted."

"Why have you invaded my solitude?" Superboy demanded as he grabbed the Time Trapper's robe and pulled him face-to-face.

"I invade nothing, child," the Time Trapper replied. "I am the living embodiment of all that you see here - the Omega of all things and as old as all time itself. In mortal tongues, I'm known as the Time Trapper. This is my domain!"

Superboy struck the Time Trapper once more. "Not anymore!"

The Time Trapper had seen enough. There was no time for such games. Mordru gained in strength with each wasted nanosecond. A time-space maelstrom engulfed the Boy of Steel and ripped at his invulnerable form. If not for his Kryptonian powers, it would have torn him asunder.

"I can protect myself from the likes of you. However, I do not wish to fight you," the Time Trapper explained.

The vortex ceased and deposited the Boy of Steel on his rear end. "What do you want with me?"

"I wish to thank you," the Time Trapper replied.

"For what?" Superboy asked.

"Setting me free," the Time Trapper explained. "An ancient Lord of Chaos named Mordru imprisoned me within a mystical gem. We have battled for eons. I represent entropy, the natural order of all things. In the end entropy claims all. Mordru seeks an eternal kingdom, a reality free of my influence."

"So I freed you," Superboy scoffed. "Big deal."

"It is a very big deal," the Time Trapper explained. "Without my influence the universe cannot die."

"Sounds to me like you're the bad guy," Superboy huffed as he crossed his arms.

"Hardly," the Time Trapper answered. "As difficult as it is for your mortal mind to comprehend, every universe must die. In that moment of death, all matter, all time, and all space that ever was collapses in on itself to birth a new universe - a new multiverse even!"

Superboy's ears perked up. "Tell me more."

"While I was trapped, Mordru created a new reality free of my influence. It was the second reality in our eons of battle to be thus denied," the Time Trapper explained. "In the first, I took care to plant agents, or perhaps some would say puppets, before my defeat. A Green Lantern in the former universe named Rond Vidar gathered bits and pieces of Old Earth legends and erased Mordru's victory. He put the universe back on track, albeit with a few changes. Still time would resolve to the same logical end as before. The thirtieth century would prove nothing more than a speed bump on the universe's road to annihilation."

"Or so I thought," the Time Trapper continued. "In this new reality, Mordru teamed with a renegade agent of mine named Glorith. Their manipulations nearly destroyed everything prematurely. My agents and I wiped this reality from existence in order to preserve the time line."

"Our battles have gone back and forth more times than the human mind can imagine," said the Time Trapper. "Most recently Mordru enchanted the weapon of the Persuader, a member of a group called the Fatal Five that opposes my agents in all realities. His Atomic Axe sliced through the fabric of reality itself and opened the door for a hundred Fatal Fives to battle my agents. My agents prevailed but the interference caused need for even more manipulation. I set events in motion to restore things in their proper order, but weakened by my own manipulations, Mordru imprisoned me before I could effect the changes. Without meaning to, I handed him a blank slate. A new universe was born free of my influence and I could only watch from my prison. Until recently. A crack appeared in the enchanted gem, allowing me to influence the new reality for the first time. That crack appeared when you struck your first blow at the barrier between the worlds."

"I wondered how I played into all this," said Superboy.

"Rather than escape, I gathered my strength and reached out to the dreamers. They gathered the legends from Earth's Heroic Age and inspired my agents through a sequential art medium. As I suspected the adults wouldn't listen, but the youth rallied around these tales and rebelled against the status quo. Little did they know this status quo was Mordru's influence preparing the new universe for conquest. These tales of Earth's Great Heroic Age seemed harmless and escaped Mordru's notice."

"Earth's Great Heroic Age," Superboy snapped. "What did they know of heroism? If they would have listened to me I would have..."

The young man's rage was everything the Time Trapper hoped it would be. "You are the Superboy who left this plane during the Great Crisis, the one that hails from Earth Prime. Are you not?"

"You know me?" Superboy asked. The recognition changed his countenance. He seemed pleased.

"Indeed I do," the Time Trapper replied. "Time - all time - is an open book to me. I need your help."

Superboy's furrowed his brow. "What's in it for me?"

The Time Trapper never expected such a question from a Boy of Steel - even the one from Earth Prime. "Because I can give you what it is you truly want."

"You can restore Earth Prime?" Superboy asked.

The Time Trapper shook his head. "No."

"Not interested," Superboy replied.

"I've watched with interest since you freed me," said the Time Trapper. "I can offer you a place of refuge among other heroes like yourself. Heroes lacking tangible inspiration. You will be the greatest of them all."

Superboy nodded and smiled. "Of course I would. I'm listening."

The Time Trapper allowed himself the luxury of a smile. Superboy Prime's vanity stood in stark contrast to the humbleness of the original when the Legion's founders heaped such praise on him when they invited him to join their "Super Hero Club". Perhaps the Superboy from Earth Prime would yield long term benefits far beyond Mordru's downfall.

 

Avalon, Mordru's Castle

"How did you escape?" Micro Lad asked.

The female Legionnaires stood among the fallen guards assigned to the prison that held their male counterparts.

"We had help," Projectra replied.

"Help?" asked a confused Cosmic Boy. "Someone on the inside?"

"Not quite!" answered a voice seemingly from thin air. It belonged to Atom Girl who grew to her full height so she could be seen. "Mordru booby-trapped the doors with his magic to prevent anyone from passing outside. I waited until the guards brought us food and snuck out on the plates when the girls returned them through the slot in the door. The magic wards were down to allow the plates to pass back and forth."

Micro Lad was impressed. He wondered if the Legion's most diminutive member felt as strange at her present height as he did when he shrunk to six feet.

"Apparently Imsk remains a secret to Mordru," said Cosmic Boy.

"However, I doubt our escape will," said Brainiac Five. "We should move."

The Legionnaires stepped out of the dungeon and into an elaborate maze that wound through the interior of the massive castle. Micro Lad had to hand it to Mordru. It was an effective deterrent against escape attempts. A prisoner could starve to death before he found his way out. Literally.

"Which way?" Triplicate Girl asked.

"I don't know," Cosmic Boy replied. "We could wander down here for days."

"Then it is good you awakened me," said Shikari. "I will lead the way."

"You've been here before, little lady?" Lightning Lad asked.

Shikari shook her head. "No, Founder Legion. I am a tracker. I find paths."

"Is it wise to trust her?" Brainiac Five asked. "She could lead us into a trap."

"Of course we trust her," Shadow Lass hissed. "She's a Legionnaire! Lead the way, Shikari."

Shikari nodded in appreciation and made her way to the front of the group. "Thank you, Dark Legion. I will not fail you. Follow me."

The Legionnaires turned to Cosmic Boy. He nodded. "We follow her."

The Legion fell in behind Shikari and stuck close. They walked for hours before Ultra Boy finally spoke up. "I don't like this. We've passed the same spot at least twenty times."

"I hate to say it but Ultra Boy's right," said Cosmic Boy. "We're going in circles."

Shikari shook her head. "No, our path remains true."

"She's right," said Projectra. "These walls change to make you believe you are lost. It is an illusion designed to drive you mad."

"It's working," said Phantom Girl.

"No need for madness," said Shikari. "We have reached the end."

The Legion reached another massive door larger than those that imprisoned them before.

"Now what?" Triplicate Girl asked. "I thought this was supposed to be the end."

"It is the end," said Cosmic Boy. "I want everyone with offensive firepower to hit that door with everything they have. Now!"

The Legionnaires unleashed their combined might upon the door. Magnetism, anti-gravity, increased gravity, dark energy, transmutation, electricity, ultra vision, and any other power the Legion could muster were focused on the door. Chameleon Boy morphed into a rhinoceros and slammed against it. Karate Kid struck at it with all his might.

Sweat poured down the Legionnaires' faces. They continued their assault but the door held firm.

"Keep it up, Legionnaires!" shouted Cosmic Boy. "We get through or we die trying!"

 

Legion World

"I don't understand," said the youngest of the many Jan Arrah dopplegangers. He wrinkled his face in confusion.

"You claim you're Garth Ranzz?" asked a much older Element Lad. He was dressed in a nomad's tunic and carried a staff. "How is that possible?"

The questions followed Live Wire out of the void. Such was the curse of wearing another man's skin. He eyed the dopplegangers carefully. In his experience Trommites were a peaceful people but how would the truth affect them? He lowered his head in shame. "I killed you."

"What?" asked a long-haired Jan clad in a green and black uniform.

"Impossible," said a younger Jan wearing a pink uniform bearing the name Mystery Lad.

"It's true," Garth explained. "Some of our members were lost in what Brainy calls a rift in dimensional space and thrown into another universe. We're still unsure how long we were really there. Jan was thrown outside time. He... This is difficult to say."

"You can tell us," said a kinky-haired version of Jan who wore a symbol representing the fifth letter of the Interlac alphabet on the chest of his magenta uniform . "None of us were there. We can't judge you. You're still with the Legion so obviously your teammates accept you."

"Accept me?" Garth asked. "You have no idea. They look at me like I'm some kind of monster. Necessity was all that bought me a ticket off our own Legion World."

"You have a Legion World too?" asked Mystery Lad.

Garth nodded. "It's our headquarters. It orbits Earth."

"So what happened to your Element Lad?" the nomad Jan asked.

"Our Jan lived billions of years outside space and time. The isolation left him mentally unstable but his power increased exponentially. To amuse himself, he used his powers to fashion planets and jumpstart the chemical process of life on them. These worlds evolved and grew into thriving civilizations but when they failed to amuse him, Jan deleted them. He was revered as a God and his acolytes executed his will in a xenophobic cleansing frenzy. He even killed another Legionnaire, Monstress. She crumbled to dust before my eyes! Jan found a door into our universe and wanted to enslave it as well. The only way to stop him was to kill him, but in the process, he and I somehow merged."

"There's always a way other than taking a life," Mystery Lad replied.

"He's right," the Jan in green agreed. "How could I destroy whole populations after what happened to Trom?"

A goggled Element Lad dressed in all-white costume wasn't buying it either. "My Legion defended America from the Nazis. If what you're saying is true, are you insinuating I have the capacity to be worse than Hitler?"

"Just because our Jan lost it doesn't mean you would. I would give anything if it weren't true," Garth insisted. "There would be no blood on my hands. It's like we lost two Legionnaires when I killed him - Jan and myself. I wish they hadn't found me."

"Who are we to judge?" the Nomad asked. "Some called me a madman because I moved back to the solitude of Trom to guard the tsarin crystals of my people. I showed no mercy to the profiteers who came to fill their pockets. Perhaps you believe me incapable of such action as well? We may all share a name but we are not the same person. Who among us can fathom the loneliness of eons?"

"Thank you," said Garth. "But you don't understand. I'm not sure he's dead."

The other Jans looked perplexed.

"Imra says my thoughts are my own and there's no trace of Jan in my mind, but I know better. He's in here," said Garth. He pointed to his heart.

"I wish I could transform your burden into hydrogen," said the Nomad. "But as long as we're stuck here, I will listen when you need an ear. You have my word."

His smile was the first ounce of compassion anyone showed Garth since his rescue from Kwai space.

 

Mordru's Castle

Ultra Boy was the last Legionnaire to drop his attack. It was no use. The magical door would not budge. "What now, leader man?"

Cosmic Boy shook his head helplessly. What more could they do but to try again?

Before anyone could reply, something crashed through the door. Whatever it was, it knocked the door off its hinges and was hurled into the darkness of the castle's labyrinths.

"What the sprock was that?" Light Lass yelled.

"Listen!" said Saturn Girl. "A battle rages. Perhaps the United Planets have mounted a counter strike!"

Ultra Boy hated hearing someone else's voice in his head but Saturn Girl was right. There was a battle going on and whoever or whatever was hurled through the door wasn't on the winning side of it.

The Legionnaires rushed into the castle and followed the bedlam of the battle. They passed several toppled walls that looked as if someone had been knocked through them. Finally they found the battle. It raged inside the castle's Great Hall.

The wall the separated the Great Hall from the castle corridors was partially collapsed.

The noise of battle was deafening. Whoever fought Mordru's troops was giving them all they wanted and more. The Wizard himself was nowhere to be seen but Ultra Boy guessed it wasn't the wizard's minions who knocked some poor sap through the wall hard enough to break down the dungeon door.

"Okay people, let's turn the tide of this battle," said Cosmic Boy.

Star Boy focused his power on the already damaged wall and brought it down in a heap. With a full view of the battlefield, it was easy to spot Mordru. He barked orders to his troops from behind a shield of humanity. The Legionnaires flew and climbed over the rubble to join their allies. However, it wasn't the United Planets forces who engaged Mordru in battle.

"Sun Boy!" yelled Micro Lad.

"And Terror Firma," Ultra Boy grunted.

"In the flesh!" Sun Boy called back. "I hope you don't mind that I brought some company!"

It was Sun Boy alright and as always he seemed to enjoy himself in battle. A solar blast heated the armor of the unfortunate saps in his path making them glow bright red. "Gets a little hard to breathe when the armor's that hot, huh?"

The soldiers slumped to the floor but were quickly replaced by more.

Sun Boy was once a Legionnaire and the team's deputy leader. He left the team to lead Terror Firma. They were another group of super-powered underagers who were duped by a despot named Praetor Lemnos into battling the Legion. Like the Legion, they realized the universe cried out for change. They grew up on the Exile worlds, rugged outposts beyond the UP's borders where the dregs of society were dumped to fend for themselves. Lemnos promised change and to give them a voice, but didn't tell them he intended to lead the universe into all-out war. Their former leader Elysion was in on the plot. He destroyed Legion Plaza and killed Dream Girl. Why would anyone leave the Legion for such misfits? Even misfits who could hold their own against Mordru?

Terror Firma was formidable but Ultra Boy couldn't let them know that. "Hey Dirk! How's life with the wannabes?"

A tornado seemingly leaped from the hands of one of Sun Boy's teammates- a girl dressed in black leather. The twister showed no mercy as it tore through Mordru's troops and scattered them in every direction. The girl was hot in a bad-girl way and looked tough enough to handle a couple dozen soldiers even without powers. "I'm not sure what you think we "want to be", Legionnaire, but it certainly isn't one of you!"

"Don't let Ultra Boy get to you, Zepha," said Sun Boy. "His ultra-mouth sometimes flaps faster than his not-so ultra brain can think. You should be honored that he managed a complex sentence. And they say evolution is dead!"

Ultra Boy laughed. It was good to fight alongside Dirk again. Micro Lad tried hard, but didn't possess Sun Boy's razor sharp wit in battle. Even Shadow Lass and Karate Kid's verbal sparring failed to live up to Dirk's high standards. Perhaps it would help them if most of it wasn't directed toward one another.

"We need to get to Mordru," Cosmic Boy yelled over the fray.

"That sounds like my cue," said Micro Lad. He shot up to his full height. It was unusual to see him at such stature indoors but Mordru's castle was massive enough to accommodate a battle between entire armies of giants.

The wizard met Micro Lad's challenge and matched the young man's towering stature. "A battle of the giants? Is that how you want it boy? Make me beg for mercy if you can!"

"Your funeral," Micro Lad replied. "I won't hold anything back."

Mordru laughed as the pair locked hands and grappled for leverage. "Ah, the ignorance of youth!"

One of the towering Sorcerer's own foot soldiers was trampled as he fled to make room for the giants. His lord showed no more concern than if he had just swatted a fly. The combatants on both sides cleared away lest they meet the same fate.

"Phren! Join Saturn Girl and see if the two of you can shut down the troop's minds!" Sun Boy ordered. "Kynda, and the rest of you give him some cover! I'm joining Cosmic Boy and Brainiac Five!"

"Hey Dirk! Aren't you missing one?" Ultra Boy asked. "Big guy I fought before. He and I can bust some heads."

"Mordru sent him flying through the wall seconds before you guys busted in," said Sun Boy.

That news didn't sound promising.

Micro Lad was no match for Mordru. Whether by magic of true physical prowess, the sorcerer was much stronger than the Legion's own giant. Micro Lad strained against his foe's incredible strength and it was obvious he was in pain.

Mordru forced Micro Lad to his knees. "I hoped you would prove more formidable than these other ants. I will waste no more time with you."

Micro Lad screamed in agony.

"Feel that pain, boy? That is the blood vessels in your brain expanding! Soon your head will explode!" Mordru taunted. "I've forgotten just how enjoyable it is to dirty my hands in battle! Your eyes beg for mercy even when your lips are too proud! But rest assured little giant, you will die this day!"

"Rokk, he's killing him!" said Saturn Girl. "I've taken control of Gim's autonomous brain functions but he can't take that abuse for long!"

"Someone get in there and help Gim now!" Cosmic Boy ordered.

Before Ultra Boy could move a muscle a red and blue blasted through the roof and slammed into Mordru's chest. It forced him to release his grip on Micro Lad and the sorcerer was hurled through the far castle wall. Along the way, Mordru's giant form toppled the pillars that supported the Great Hall. The castle began crumbling.

The battle was quickly forgotten. With their lord manhandled so easily and the castle falling apart around them, Mordru's troops scattered in confusion. The Legion and Terror Firma evacuated as many as possible before the Great Hall collapsed. Between Light Lass's gravity nullification powers and Phren of Terror Firma's telekinesis, everyone made it out alive.

Almost everyone.

"Where's the big guy?" Ultra Boy asked. "The one Mordru slapped into the dungeon with us?"

Phren dropped his head. "We can only hope the dungeon was spared in the collapse."

"And Mordru?" Triplicate Girl asked.

Almost on cue, the wizard came flying over the treetops and landed hard on his back."Who or what can do that to Mordru?" Cosmic Boy asked.

Then they saw him. He was just like he appeared in the comic books - long, majestic cape flapping in the breeze, the familiar red and blue uniform, and the unmistakable pentagon emblazoned with the symbol of the House of El.

"That would be me," the figure said. "I'm Superboy!"