Legion of Super-Heroes - Candlelight and Battle Stations

[fajrdrako_fic]

Title: Candlelight and Battle Stations
Author: fajrdrako
Fandom: Legion of Super-Heroes (DC Comics)
Characters: Rond Vidar, Laurel Gand, members of the Legion of Super-Heroes
Genre: Gen
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Not mine, no claims. Property of DC Comics all the way.
Note: Spoilers for vol. 4. This is one of a series of Legion of Super-Heroes stories I wrote in 1994 for the apazines Interlac, APA-247 and APA-LSH. These stories were all based on DC Comics' Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 4, by Tom and Mary Bierbaum, Keith Giffen and Al Gordon. Contextual notes follow the story.


Candlelight and Battle Stations

Rond Vidar carefully measured a solution into his beaker. He wished sometimes that Jan were around, for the more delicate points of his chemical experiments. He hoped this time, with eternal optimism, to find the breakthrough he was looking for in the matter of an antidote to Khund mind-poison. Numbers flashed across his screen as he analyzed the results.

"Rond," said Laurel gently, behind him. He hadn't noticed her entering the room.

"Hmm?" he said. There was something wrong with the dioxide balance. The protein levels were way off, too. He frowned.

Something soft and wet touched his ear. Laurel's tongue. "Hey? Are you there, Rond? Anyone home?"

"What?" He looked at her, reluctantly at first. Then he noticed she had done something pretty to her hair, and was wearing a shimmering silver dress that she might have borrowed from Nura. She saw that she had his attention, and took his hand, and smiled. "Rond? Come with me?"

"Okay," he said promptly, and put everything in stasis until his return. It could wait. Laurel in a certain mood was not to be resisted, especially since she had spent so much time away from home recently.

She led him from his lab into their living room.

She had moved furniture, and changed the lights. Warm, dim candlelight revealed a table set for two, with crystal glasses for champagne. A double-stemmed vase held two roses. Soft music filled the air, mixing with the fragrance of the roses. It was a song they used to dance to... one of his favourites.

"Omigod!" he said suddenly. "I forgot what day it was!"

"I didn't," purred Laurel.

They kissed.

"Oh, my darling," he said. "How could I forget? The day we got together.... You are the most important thing in my life."

"It doesn't matter," said Laurel. "You're here now."

He smiled. "Ms Gand, may I have this dance?"

They danced, he in his rumpled lab clothes and she in a short dress that looked as if it had been made in Paris for a billionaire dancer en route to a coronation. He kissed her neck. She always smelled good to him. Was it the magic of their love, as she said? Or had it more to do with Daxamite physiology? He should return to his pheromone studies; he had a few ideas about analysis he had not tried yet.

"Rond," whispered Laurel, "You're wandering."

"Never far from you," he answered. She smiled, with the melting look he used to see in her eyes so often. She was the most beautiful woman he could imagine. His hand rested warmly on her hip.

He said, "Perhaps we should - "

The emergency visi-com flashed an alert. Brainy's picture came on the screen. He said, "Laurel - can you come? Now? We need your help." His voice was breathless, though calm. His face was bruised, with a smudge of blood across the forehead. He looked dirty and tired. The beacon automatically recorded his location.

Rond said, "You'd better go," and realized even as he spoke that she had already gone. Then she was suddenly back, wearing her battle-jacket and two-piece battle-suit, taking the time to kiss him on the mouth and touch his cheek before leaving.

* * *

The place was a planetoid in U.P. space, in the direction of the Khund Empire. Laurel already knew the situation: A Khundish renegade named Blojig had come to the place with a few million Khundish followers, abandoning the Empire for freedom and autonomy. The U.P., who were then at war with the Khunds and happy to welcome defectors, had soon learned that Blojig was defiant of their laws as well, and brutal to his populace. Attempts to extradite him had failed. Attempts to arrest him for mass murder and other various crimes against sentient life had resulted in the additional charge of killing Science Police Officers. Before the situation could escalate to the scale of a small war, the U.P. government had asked the Legion to help.

Laurel arrived at Blojig's planet and found Brainy alone in a thatched cottage he was using as ops HQ, his omnicom on his knee, with strange wires attached.

Brainy said, "Blojig has electronic dampers. We can't use mechanics. He has Ayla and Vi imprisoned, and we've lost track of Jo. Jacques is relaying information back, but it's unreliable, and they might track him through his transmitter if he isn't careful." He ran a hand through his hair, disordering it more. "Wildfire is trying to find Blojig himself, but he's disappeared. We think he has a shelter he's using as a command post, but we haven't found it."

Laurel nodded thoughtfully. "And Mysa?"

"She's working on spells of sleep and containment for his guards, and for the monster in the tower."

"The what?"

"It's like a minotaur. We think he bred it or cloned it."

Laurel sat down. "Okay, shall I co-ordinate?"

"Have a look first. If we can do it from a distance, all the better."

"Okay..." She looked through the thatched wall, across the forest and the field and the moat, through the castle walls and into the courtyard. There were buildings, built around a central edifice. "The place is huge," she said, adjusting her focus. "Okay, I've got the place. Do we know where Vi and Ayla are?"

"Try dungeons. Look down."

"Okay. Here's Mysa.... hidden in one of the smaller rooms... a chapel of some sort. No one has noticed her. I can't see Jacques."

"No, you can't. He's invisible."

"Give me time.... I'm going lower. Oh, God."

"Jo?"

"No. A little girl. Imprisoned. Shivering. Amputated... Brainy, she's hardly older than Lauren. There's a man in the next cell... he has no fingers...." She lapsed into silence. Brainy, who had some idea what horrors the cells held, did not speak. He was watching his omnicom screen, tracing where Laurel was looking. She suddenly said, "I found Vi."

"Where?"

"Third level down. She's in an ordinary cell, but they have her in a box about three inches by three inches. She's lying on the bottom. She's.... breathing. Asleep? Drugged? I can't tell. He colour isn't bad. Ayla is two cells over. he's awake, and pacing. The room is full of static."

"Jo?"

"I'm looking. Wait, here's a room. Lead-shielded. Shielded with something else, too. There are energy connections.... some kind of force-field inside. The sign on the door says DO NOT DISTURB."

Brainy grunted. "Unimaginative megalomaniac." He put the omnicom in his pocket. "We'll have to go in."

"We?"

He grinned briefly. "Rescue operations."

"Both of us?"

"Yeah. You and me kid."

"Don't be silly. You'll be a sitting duck."

He frowned. "Don't patronize me."

"So don't be stupid. This is an operation that needs brawn."

"Really? The S.P. brawn couldn't do it. Whatever happened to Jo, he isn't in action right now. Lar and Kent aren't here. You might want to be a one-woman cavalry, but we'll do better together. Like it or not."

She knew when to stop arguing with him. "Okay. Let's go."

He threw some robes at her. "Put these one." He pulled a cloak over himself, with several capes, and a hood that covered his head. "We can pretend to be sellers of joygum. It's a Khundish narcotic."

"I know what it is. Brainy - "

"Yeah?"

She smiled. "You should have called me sooner."

They walked to the castle. Every once in a while Laurel would take a look and tell him what was happening. "I think Mysa has found something. She's concentrating awfully hard. Vi is still unconscious. Ayla is using colourful language."

There were no problems at the outer gates, where the Khund on duty waved them through with hardly a glance. For the inner gates, Laurel simply lifted Brainy over the walls.

They sat in the shadow of a crenelation. Brainy checked his omnicom map. "We should get Ayla and Vi, and go right to the centre of operations. Blojig must be in there, and possibly Jo, too."

"I'll get Mysa," said Laurel. She went quietly on foot into the room that appeared to be a chapel; the symbol of the Khundish mother goddess was on the wall. She sat down beside Mysa, who said, "I've got it, Laurel. I think I can through with a spell. But we'll have to be ready to leave with the others, which means getting Ayla, Vi and Jacques out of here."

A voice beside them said, "I'm with you now." Mysa said calmly, "Good. I will have to walk directly to the inner room, without stopping. You can collect Ayla and Vi as we go. Jo is in the inner room. Drake is..." She hesitated.

"On his way here," said Laurel, seeing him through three walls, a walking suit of guardsman's armour with nothing inside but pulsating energy.

They went together in the elevator to the third level of dungeons. Mysa was talking in a low undertone, in a language not even Brainy recognized. They walked around her like bodyguards. They knocked the guardsmen unconscious as they passed. Brainy recorded details of temperature, energy levels, and sources of power.

He said, "I don't know how he has done it, but the electronic dampers get stronger as we continue. My screen is starting to fade."
"That's ridiculous," said Jacques. "Nothing can block an omnicom."

"Blojig can."

Mysa's voice become slightly louder. "Ara godopota miapa; ara timghatry miala; sula sulu ciamanartz...."

Ayla shouted, "Laurel! Drake! Here!"

Her shout brought two guards running. Laurel handled one, Jacques the other, while Drake blasted the door to powder. Ayla ran to the room Vi was in. Mysa continued at a measured pace, faltering neither in voice nor motion. Laurel reached over and put her fist around the lock, and bent it to fragments.

The door swung open. Ayla picked up the cube with Vi inside. "You in there, Vi?" she asked.

"She is," said Laurel, "But she isn't responding."

Brainy took the cube, and put it in his pocket. "The cube will protect her," he said. "She'll be okay, Ayla."

They followed Mysa, who was getting ahead of them.

Massive metal doors barred their way. "We tried to get through that before," said Ayla. "That was when they got me. Vi went through the keyhole - I don't know what happened, but they got her on the other side."

The doors swung open as Mysa approached. "She's good," said Jacques' voice, beside them.

"That's why she's with us," said Brainy, with faint impatience.

They faced the door that said DO NOT DISTURB. Mysa's litany stopped. She leaned forward, pursed her lips, and blew on the door. It opened inwards as smoothly as if she had oiled it.

Inside, in a large room, Jo sat against one wall, apparently unconscious, shackles on his wrists fastening him to the corner. A huge, hairy, bull-like beast loomed over him, looking over its shoulder at the newcomers.

Blojig, at a desk, stood and shouted "Get them!"

The bull creature lurched towards them. Laurel grabbed it by the horns, and somersaulted over it. Brainy followed Mysa to Blojig's desk. Mysa said, "Ara kodella smike. Ara kodella smike. It is done."

Blojig reached for a button on the desk. Jacques hand invisibly grabbed his wrist, and stopped it. Mysa said, "There is a hole in time here. He is meddling with time."

The Minotaur roared. It charged for Brainy, but Laurel deflected it, and was examining Jo. "I can't break his shackles," she said. "There's a force field around them."

"Negative force," said Mysa. Blojig tried to stop her, but she dashed past him and the turning bull, and knelt by Jo, muttering spells.

"Time," said Brainy. "You brought the Minotaur from the past, didn't you? From the age of monsters. How did you get past the barriers in time?"

"People - things - came back incomplete."

"But they came and went. How? Where is your apparatus?"

"Here," said Jacques's voice. A wall slid aside. Inside was a light so bright, they were all blinded for a moment. The Minotaur, swishing his tail, lunged for Laurel, who took him by the horns, and said, "Oh, stop it."

Mysa walked over to the creature and began petting its head, crooning. The spell worked. He stopped pawing the ground, and lowered his head. Snorts became purrs of contentment.

The source of the light was a crystalline sphere about six inches across, glittering with white light.

Vi popped her head out of Brainy's pocket. "You got him!" she said, staring at Blojig.

"Not at all," said Blojig. His finger touched the button.
Brainy shouted, "NO!" and threw himself towards the crystalline bomb. It hit him first.

Laurel moved fast, covering the crystal with her body, keeping herself between it and the others. The light seemed to go right through her. These shockwaves were more than physical, but her powers.... She was able to hold the thing, keep the damage to a minimum until it was over. The crystal was nothing but inert powder.

Brainy lay as if dead.

Laurel bent over him. Cuts.... bone damage. Her x-ray vision examined the interior organs. There was some damage, but nothing that could not be healed. He began to breathe again on his own. Laurel began to breathe again as well.

Blojig laughed. Jo stood, shading his eyes, the shackles falling away. Vi cursed. Ayla turned on Blojig and felled him with a stroke of lightning, knocking him unconscious in a second.

The Minotaur shuddered, whimpering.

Jacques, visible again, was touching controls at Blojig's desk. "Physics are normal again. He destroyed the time/matter interference. We can turn Blojig over to the Science Police, and set these people free. You okay, Jo?"

"Fresh as a daisy. Is Brainy all right?"

"He's unconscious," said Laurel. "Bleeding.... blood pressure normal. Cuts.... Four broken bones.... possible concussion." She took a deep breath. "We have to get him back to Talus for care."

"Take him," said Mysa. "Take him in the shuttle. We can get a ride from the Science Police, or you can pick us up later. We have some clean-up work to do here."

"Like getting those people out of the prisons," said Ayla. "Vi, does the vid-phone work now?"

"Sure. No problem."

Jo looked thoughtfully at Blojig. "He was going to bring back the Khundish legions of the past to fight for him," he said. "He was crazy. All he could bring back were broken things."

"A machine that can retrieve broken earrings would be worth something," said Vi. She glanced at Mysa and the monster. "Who's your new friend?"

Laurel heard them talk, but her attention was on Brainy. He was not permanently damaged, but he needed medical attention. He was so foolish, so brave, so vulnerable, and so unaware of it. He thought he could take on the world, so he did. Always.
He stirred. She realized she was holding his hand hard enough to hurt him, and loosened her grip.

Laurel gathered Brainy in her arms. The Minotaur watched her nervously as she walked out with him.

* * *

Back in her own living room, Laurel lay Brainy on the sofa and watched him breathe. The damage to his body had been repaired in the medilab. She should perhaps have left him there, but she didn't want to. With everyone gone, it seemed a cold, empty place. A place where Brainy was meant to be the master, not the patient.

So she took him to her own home. The candles, the music, the perfume returned when she entered, as she had programmed them to do. Rond was no doubt back working in his lab. Lauren would be asleep in the nursery. She thought how alone Brainy was in the world, and the thought made her sad.

She sat beside him. Cleaned and patched, the scrapes on his green skin were hardly noticeable. He would wake up soon, probably hungry. Well... maybe it was about time she and Rond invited him to join them for dinner.

The damnable thing was, Brainy was the most courageous person she had ever met. What seemed ultimate self-absorption was, in fact, the opposite: focussed on the mysteries of the universe and the idealistic goals in his mind, he thought so little of himself that his personal priorities were lost. Did he regret that he had lost her in the process?

Probably not. He had the life he wanted, as she had hers. They were friends now. They were better as friends than as lovers, actually. The easy-going relationship they enjoyed now was never imaginable in the heat of their passion. Now they could work together, help each other without the clash of two strong personalities getting in the way.

She knew she didn't believe it.

She was humming one of Lauren's lullabies. She stopped, slightly embarrassed to be doing it, and smoothed the hair back from his forehead. He needed to get it cut again. He never remembered. Did none of his friends think to remind him? It
wasn't her place to do so.

But she was one of his friends.... She remembered that today was not just her anniversary with Rond. When she and Brainy had been - together - there were times to remember, special times that were branded in her mind as a golden age of happiness. She remembered the joy and the optimism. She remembered how Brainy used to laugh. He didn't laugh much, now.

His fingers curled naturally around her hand. She smiled, remembering times he had smiled in the past. There was a lot to be said for... being more than friends.

Things were better now. But....

Who was she trying to fool?

Why not admit to regrets?

Because that would hurt them both, and Rond too, and time cannot be reversed: not by Glorith, not by Time Bubbles, not even by mechanisms devised by a crazy old despot like Blojig.

She realized Brainy's eyes were open. He was watching her. She looked straight at him, so he would see there were no undertones to her feelings or her thoughts. He did not look away. Neither did she. She did not know how much time went by, while they sat, saying nothing, thinking their own thoughts, in a room gently perfumed, and candlelit.

In the doorway, Rond said, "Laurel! You're back. And Brainy - is he - "

"I'm all right," said Brainy. He sat up, with a hand on his head. "I got a little too close to the wrong side of a charging bull." Somewhere in the past few seconds, the hand that had been holding hers had stopped doing so.

"He tried to stop a hyper-physical bomb with his hands," said Laurel dryly. "He's lucky there's anything left besides ashes."

"I take it the mission was successful?" asked Rond.

"Of course." Moving carefully, Brainy left the warm comfort of the sofa and went to the door. "Thank you for the help. I'm sorry to be leaving so soon," he said smoothly, "but I have some work to attend to."

"Good night," said Laurel.

"Good night," said Rond.

Brainy paused in the doorway. "Happy anniversary," he said, and closed the door behind him.

------------



Notes:

Laurel Gand was the replacement for Supergirl in vol. 4 of the Legion. The original Supergirl had something of a romance with Brainiac 5; Laurel Gand had instead left him for his friend and colleague, Rond Vidar, another scientist.

Ayla Ranzz/Lightning Lass: A Legionnaire with the power to cast lightning. From Winath.
Brainiac 5: The cleverest member of the Legion; a scientist from Colu. His skin was green and his hair yellow.
Jacques: Invisible Kid II, a Legionnaire from Earth.
Jo Nah/Ultra Boy: A Legionnaire from the planet Rimbor. His powers were essentially the same as Superboy's, but he could only use one power at a time.
The Khunds: Evil aliens.
Laurel Gand: Very tall blonde woman with the powers of Supergirl, from the planet Daxam. A member of the Legion in vol. 4.
Lauren: The young daughter of Laurel Gand and Rond Vidar.
Mysa Nal/The White Witch: A Legionnaire who was a spell-caster, with pale hair and antennae. She was the sister of Nural Nal of Naltor (Dream Girl) and at this point a former wife of the evil magician Mordru.
Rond Vidar: A scientist who was living with Laurel Gand at this time.
U.P.: United Planets. The government under which the Legion operated.
Vi: Ayla's partner, a Legionnaire who could shrink to small size. Originally known as Shrinking Violet, her name was Salu Digby. From Imsk.
Wildfire/Drake Burroughs: A Legionnaire from Earth whose body is noncorporeal energy; he wears a containment suit.